MindMash

### First released

Original series: September 26, 2002-May 28, 2009Revival series: May 24, 2021-present

### Seasons

9* 7 (original series)
* 2 (reboot)

### Episodes

257* 252 (original series)
* 5 (reboot)

### Genre

Reality
Review
Criticism
Variety
Comedy

### Network

The WB (2002-2006)
MyNetworkTV (2006-2009)
JBS (2021)
Game JBS (2023-2024)

### Distributor

Warner Bros. Television (2002-2006)
20th Television (2006-2009)
NCCPA (2021-2024)
Thirstopia (2024)

### Created by

Arlen Vista (original)
Tom Petersen (reboot)

### Directed by

Wayne Moss (original)
Tom Petersen (reboot)

### Composer

Fletcher Beasley (original)
NFRT (reboot)

### Executive producer

Beth Hubbard (2002-2006)
Michael Hubbard (2002-2006)
John Cherry (2002-2005)
Jaysen Thomkins (2005-2009; 2021- )
Fernando Szew (2006-2009)
Michael Jacobs (2006-2009)
Ethan Laney (2021- )
Tom Petersen (2021- )

### Production company

Gotham Entertainment (seasons 1-4; 2002-2006)
Kambooteron Productions (seasons 2-4; 2003-2006)
MarVista Entertainment (seasons 5-7; 2006-2009)
Tadpole Kids (seasons 1-3; 2002-2005)
S2N-Nintendo (seasons 4-7; 2005-2009)
Paranoia Square Enterprises (season 8, episodes 1-5; 2021)
Burns & Burns Nashville (season 8, episodes 1-5; 2021)
TW&B Productions (season 8, episode 6- ; 2023- )
KQED (season 8- ; 2021- )
Geipa’s Big Tailbone (season 8; 2021-2024)
GBT-DC (season 9; 2024)

### Language

English

***MindMash*** is an American unscripted reality show created by Arlen Vista and produced by Gotham Entertainment and Tadpole Kids. The network originally aired on The WB from 2002 to 2006, but when The WB and UPN merged into The CW in 2006, instead of moving to The CW with the others, it moved to MyNetworkTV to give it something original to air.

## Overview

The series revolves around someone taking a random fact, and then changing it. Then, he or she will have a pep talk with some people, and then they will do research on their theory and draw it out. Then, it will be sent to a focus group, who will criticize it. If it works out well, it’s Level 3. If not, it’s Level 1. Level 2 means that it’s a half-hearted experience.

## Strategy

This strategy was used from 2002-2021 but will change in 2023.

* **Phase 1** – Someone (a mind-mashing candidate) comes up with a fact and then changes it.
* **Phase 2** – The candidate has a pep talk about it.
* **Phase 3** – The candidate does research on their theory.
* **Phase 4/Session 1** – The candidate draws a rough draft of their theory.
* **Phase 5** – The rough draft is sent to a focus group and criticized. If it’s good the first time around, we skip to Phase 9.
	+ **Phase 6** – The candidate does more research.
	+ **Phase 7/Session 2** – The candidate re-draws their picture.
	+ **Phase 8** – It’s sent to another focus group.
* **Phase 9** – It’s rated using a level scale. If it works out well, it’s Level 3. If not, it’s Level 1. Level 2 means that it’s a half-hearted experience.

## Production

### Development

The idea for a reality series was thought up by Arlen Vista in 2000, and the production began in April 2001. Most of the filming for the series took place in Toronto and was usually unscripted, using the players’ ideas as the dialogue, with some minor bloopers left in. The series was filmed at Wallace Avenue Studios by Corus Entertainment, with the drawing segments being filmed by whoever was drawing the picture on their own individual camera. Depending on the speed, it would usually take up to 1-3 days to finish an episode, as after it was filmed, it was sent to Tadpole Entertainment in Nashville, Tennessee for post-production of the episodes. Many of the cast members (or players) were based in Vancouver, similar to how *Saturday Night Live* features Los Angeles-based members, despite being filmed in New York City.

It took 3 months each to finish seasons 1, 4, and 6, 6 months each to finish season 3, 5, and 7, 8 months to finish season 2, and season 8 took 17 months to finish! The original series was produced from April 1, 2001 to December 31, 2007.

In 2008, Jaysen Thomkins decided to focus on NBC’s *The Clyde Erwin Show* shorts and *Thompson Early Children School* shorts that aired on CBS.

### Season 8 development

On November 21, 2018, for Thanksgiving, the creator went on a family trip to his paternal grandmother’s house in Long Island, New York, and they left back to Jacksonville, North Carolina on November 25 of that year. And then, 3 months later, on February 28, 2019, they went back to Long Island to celebrate her birthday, on March 1, 2019, which was the date he filmed himself eating a pumpernickel bagel, and he was also introduced to *Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings,* as a result of his interest in CINAR shows slowly regaining. He also showed Kylee (his cousin) a few WNET-related videos, of their idents, uploaded via YouTube by TellyFarnsworth’s account, wondering if he was familiar with any of them.

Later, back in NC, a new WNET logo was uploaded by Jayden Sosa through his YT channel, Jay Productions. The creator found interest in this, and later went on to study more public TV logos based in New England, one of which included WGBH Boston, and he stumbled across a video titled “WNET Neon Sign | INS” as an *It’s Not Scary* episode. He slowly gained interest in the series, watching every episode, and would even imitate some of them.

In August of 2020, when “Ear Booker Productions | INS” was released, he imitated it with his *Guilty or Innocent* and *Nightmare Fuel Review,* in which he compared the climactic filter scene from *Finding Nemo* to Garfield almost drowning in *Garfield’s Halloween Adventure.* In this time period, he watched Netflix, and while saying this, stumbled across *Chicken Little* (which he had watched in July of 2020) and *The Secret Life of Pets 2.* While saying, “That’s not to mention both Garfield (while looking at Chicken Little) and Nemo (while looking at Max) are both orange,” he thought about a video from The Frustrated Gamer, (as a result of his interest in *Baldi’s Basics)* where he played a mod where Baldi turned into a chicken, and took his question, “what would happen if Baldi turned into a chicken” into consideration and re-arranged it into “what if Garfield was a chicken and Nemo was a dog?”

As a result, in December of 2020, after a 4722 day-(12 year 11 month, and 4 days)-hiatus the series was renewed for an eighth season and it was recorded in Jacksonville Commons, Jacksonville, NC, and features a refreshed update to the first 7 seasons. The reboot is currently in production and was on hold due to the people working on schoolwork. Because it is supposed to be a reality show like the first 7 seasons, the dialogue for the first 5 episodes was completely unscripted, although later episodes had a little bit of script.

Most of the reboot episodes were recorded in Jacksonville, North Carolina (or more generally the Jacksonville Metropolitan area), although some were recorded in different places, such as P806#258 to P809#261, which were recorded in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, P835#287, which was recorded in Virginia and P901#289, which was recorded in Raleigh, North Carolina, the original drafts of P908#296-P912#300 (P908#296 was recorded in Olive Branch, Mississippi, P909#297 was recorded in Byhalia and Red Banks, Mississippi and P910#298 was recorded in Chadbourn, North Carolina).

In April 2022, season 8 was split into 2 parts: a main version (with 20 episodes) and web-exclusive *MindMash Express,* which has 16 episodes. This was done to save for more breathers.

The segments with Mind-Mashing Coordinator, Mind-Mashing Candidate and Kid Nastee (all voiced by Petersen) would be heavily scripted.

Season 8 was the first season to use animation, animated in-house by JEWA’s animation division, Wet Cement Productions, although season 9 will have it outsourced, which may result in the production for the series moving from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California.

## Episodes

*Main article: List of MindMash episodes*

## Broadcast

In 2001, it was announced that The WB would be airing *MindMash* on September 26, 2002, and new episodes would be airing every Thursday. When The WB merged with UPN into The CW, the show moved to MyNetworkTV instead of joining the other shows on The CW, to give MyNetworkTV something original to air. It aired in reruns until 2010, when the series was pulled off the air. On January 1, 2011, it aired on Comedy Central as part of their “9 Story Meets Nintendo” block until December 29, 2012, when it was pulled off the air in favor of *Itchy Tummy Piglet* and a few other shows. The eighth season aired on JBS in 2021 with a TV-G rating.

Home media release

After The WB and UPN merged into The CW, the first 4 seasons were released on DVD by Warner Home Video in July of 2006. In August of 2010, another DVD was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with 3 additional seasons.