Maniac Mansion (TV series)

Maniac Mansion is a sitcom which aired concurrently on YTV in Canada and The Family Channel in the United States for three seasons from September 14, 1990, to April 4, 1993.

Maniac Mansion
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Short Eugene Levy David Flaherty John Hemphill
Based on	Maniac Mansion by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick
Developed by	Cliff Ruby Elana Lesser Bob Carrau
Starring	Joe Flaherty Deborah Theaker Kathleen Robertson Avi Phillips George Buza
Opening theme	"Maniac Mansion" - sung by Jane Siberry, composed by Lou Natale
Country of origin	Canada United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	66
Production
Executive producers	Peter Sussman Eugene Levy Barry Jossen
Producer	Jamie Paul Rock
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Lucasfilm Ltd. Television Atlantis Films
Original release
Network	YTV (Canada) The Family Channel (U.S.)
Release	September 14, 1990 (1990-09-14) – April 4, 1993 (1993-04-04)

The series is loosely based on the 1987 video game of the same name by Lucasfilm Games. While Lucasfilm served as co-producers on the series, the show thematically has little in common with its source material.

Overview

Maniac Mansion centers around the lives of the Edisons, an American family living in a large mansion in the upscale suburban neighborhood of Cedar Springs. The Edisons consist of patriarch Fred (Joe Flaherty), an eccentric scientist and inventor, his level-headed wife Casey (Deborah Theaker), and their children, teenage genius Tina (Kathleen Robertson), prepubescent Ike (Avi Phillips) and precocious toddler Turner (George Buza). Also living in the Edison mansion are Casey's brother Harry Orca (John Hemphill) and his wife Idella Muckle-Orca (Mary Charlotte-Wilcox).

While Maniac Mansion primarily derives its storylines from typical sitcom fare such as family life and parent-child relationships, the series incorporated several prominent elements of science fiction. Fred Edison is a scientist who works out of his basement laboratory which is partially powered by a mysterious extraterrestrial meteorite, and many episodes revolve around Fred's outlandish and occasionally disastrous experiments and inventions. As it is revealed in the series premiere, a mishap with one of these inventions caused genetic mutations in two of the main characters, Turner Edison and Harry Orca: for the complete run of the series, toddler Turner is a fully-grown man with the mind of a child and Harry Orca is a normal-sized housefly with a human head (similar to the 1958 version of The Fly).

Sharing many writers and performers with the 1976–1984 Canadian sketch comedy series Second City Television, Maniac Mansion has a very similar style of humor, featuring much of the dry wit and cultural satire common of SCTV, ranging from pop culture references to film and television parodies. A particular staple of Maniac Mansion's comedy was the series' pervasive tendency of breaking the fourth wall, with characters – usually Harry – addressing the audience to comment on the particular episode. Meta-referential humor was also a regular element of the show: a few episodes are presented as "behind the scenes" documentaries, depicting the Edisons as an actual family starring in a sitcom based on their lives.

Cast and characters

Main

• Joe Flaherty as Dr. Fred Edison, a devoted father and absent-minded scientist.
• Deborah Theaker as Casey Edison, Fred's loving wife.
• Kathleen Robertson as Tina Edison, a popular but brilliant teenage girl who assists Fred in his laboratory.
• Avi Phillips as Ike Edison, an average and slightly rebellious pre-teen.
• George Buza as Turner Edison, a toddler rapidly aged into a huge balding adult body following a scientific accident.
• John Hemphill as Harry Orca, a.k.a. Harry the Fly, Casey's brother who was transformed into a half-man, half-housefly mutant by the same accident which changed Turner.
• Mary Charlotte Wilcox as Idella Muckle-Orca, Harry's neurotic wife.

Recurring

• Colin Fox as Dr. Edward Edison, a respected scientist and Fred's father.
• Mark Wilson, Wendy Hopkins and Patrick Gillen as Richard, Allasyn and Keifer Pratt, the Edisons' snooty yuppie neighbors.

Guest stars

• José Ferrer as himself (2-08, "The Celebrity Visitor")
• Teri Austin as herself, (2-10, "Lenny...One Amour Time"; 2-11, "Lenny...One Amour Time: Part 2")
• Dave Thomas as "Hudgie DeRubertis" (2-13, "Buried by the Mob")
• Martin Short as "Eddie O'Donnell" (2-14, "Down and Out in Cedar Springs")
• David Cronenberg as himself (2-19, "Idella's Breakdown")
• Andrea Martin as "Dr. Fontana Blue" (2-19, "Idella's Breakdown")
• Jayne Eastwood as various characters
• Dewey Robertson as "The Atomizer" (3-10, "Wrestling with the Truth")
• Eugene Levy as "Doc Ellis" (3-17, "Freddy had a Little Lamb")
• Jan Rubeš as "Uncle Joe" (3-20, "It Ain't Over 'Til Uncle Joe Sings")

Development and production

In a special printed in the Summer 1990 issue of The Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, the initial conception of an episode television series based on Maniac Mansion is credited to Lucasfilm animators Cliff Ruby and Elana Lasser, who pitched the idea to George Lucas. Convinced on the project's potential, Lucasfilm contacted the Toronto-based production company Atlantis Films to begin work on the series.

Atlantis enlisted comedian and former Second City Television writer/performer Eugene Levy to creatively spearhead the development the series. Originally pitched as a more overtly horror/science fiction-themed comedy in the vein of The Addams Family or The Munsters, Levy ultimately rejected this approach, recruiting a number of The Second City alumni and re-working Maniac Mansion from the ground up into the more lighthearted and slightly surreal series it eventually became.

Shot entirely in Toronto, Maniac Mansion premiered on September 14, 1990 on The Family Channel in the United States, and September 17 on YTV in Canada. The series lasted for three seasons and sixty-six episodes before its cancellation in 1993. The series continued to air in syndication on The Family Channel until 1994, on YTV until 1997, and later on Canadian channel Showcase until 2002.

Connection with SCTV

A large portion of Maniac Mansion's cast and crew were made up of alumni from the Toronto comedy troupe The Second City and the 1976-1984 television offshoot Second City Television. In a 1992 article visiting the set of the series, Entertainment Weekly remarked that Maniac Mansion was like an SCTV convention: "The place is packed with veterans of the ... series: There are former SCTV actors, writers, directors, key grips—even Mansion's makeup artist is an old SCTVer".

Series creator Eugene Levy was an original cast member and writer on Second City Television, and developed Maniac Mansion alongside fellow Second City writers Michael Short, Paul Flaherty, David Flaherty and director Jamie Paul Rock. Additional writing was often contributed by Second City member Paul Wildman, as were cast members Joe Flaherty, John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox. The series' theme song was co-written by Mary Margaret O'Hara, Catherine O'Hara's sister.

Additionally, nearly all of the main cast with the exception of teenaged actors Kathleen Robertson and Avi Phillips were veterans of The Second City. Joe Flaherty was one of the founders of Toronto's Second City and was an original series cast member, while John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox were supporting players and writers in its later seasons. Deborah Theaker, while having had no involvement with Second City Television, was a former member of The Second City stage show, and George Buza had appeared as an extra in one episode of the series.

Naturally, there are numerous SCTV references throughout the series. Levy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin all made one-off appearances on the show, as did minor players Juul Haalmeyer, Tony Rosato and Robin Duke. A few jokes are reused and in a couple of episodes, the characters of "Count Floyd" and "Happy Marsden" can be seen playing on television sets.

Episodes

This Maniac Mansion episode list was compiled from United States Copyright Office database.

Season 1 (1990–91)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
1	1	"The 10th Anniversary Special"	John Bell	John Hemphill & David Flaherty & Eugene Levy	September 14, 1990 (1990-09-14)
2	2	"Flystruck (a.k.a. The Trouble with Harry)"	Bruce Pittman	Eugene Levy, John Hemphill	September 21, 1990 (1990-09-21)
3	3	"Trapped Like Rats"	John Bell	Story by : John Hemphill, Don Lake Teleplay by : Eugene Levy & Michael Short	September 28, 1990 (1990-09-28)
4	4	"Love Thy Neighbour"	Bruce Pittman	Michael Short & Eugene Levy	October 4, 1990 (1990-10-04)
5	5	"Fred's a-Courtin'"	John Bell	John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy	October 12, 1990 (1990-10-12)
6	6	"The Sandman Cometh"	Bruce Pittman	John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy	October 19, 1990 (1990-10-19)
7	7	"Good on Ya"	John Bell	John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy	October 26, 1990 (1990-10-26)
8	8	"Bring Me Harry Orca"	Bruce Pittman	Michael Short, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy	November 2, 1990 (1990-11-02)
9	9	"Dad's Bummed Out"	John Bell	Story by : Paul Flaherty, Michael Short, John Hemphill Teleplay by : Paul Flaherty, Michael Short	November 11, 1990 (1990-11-11)
10	10	"Webs, the Really Tangled Kind"	Bruce Pittman	Lyons N. Wells, Michael Short	November 16, 1990 (1990-11-16)
11	11	"National Security Risk"	John Bell	Jamie Tatham, Chuck Tatham, Michael Short	November 25, 1990 (1990-11-25)
12	12	"A Little Old Time Jazz"	Bruce Pittman	John Hemphill, David Flaherty	December 2, 1990 (1990-12-02)
13	13	"Hawaii Blues"	John Bell	Story by : Jaime Tatham, Chuck Tatham Teleplay by : Lyons N. Wells & Michael Short	December 9, 1990 (1990-12-09)
14	14	"Good Cheer on Ya"	Bruce Pittman	John Hemphill, David Flaherty	December 16, 1990 (1990-12-16)
15	15	"Brainiac Mansion"	Stephen Surjik	Lyons N. Wells, Michael Short	December 30, 1990 (1990-12-30)
16	16	"Little Big Fly"	Bruce Pittman	Story by : Michael Short, Peter Wildman Teleplay by : Lyons N. Wells, John Hemphill, David Flaherty	January 6, 1991 (1991-01-06)
17	17	"Money Dearest"	Stephen Surjik	Story by : Michael Short, Joe Flaherty Teleplay by : Michael Short, David Flaherty	January 13, 1991 (1991-01-13)
18	18	"Turner: The Boss"	Bruce Pittman	Michael Short, David Flaherty	January 20, 1991 (1991-01-20)
19	19	"The Case of the Broken Record"	John Bell	Lyons N. Wells, Tom Nursall, Michael Short	February 3, 1991 (1991-02-03)
20	20	"The Live Show"	Bruce Pittman	John Hemphill, David Flaherty	February 17, 1991 (1991-02-17)
21	21	"Tina's Excellent Adventure"	Joe Flaherty	Joe Flaherty, Deborah Theaker	February 24, 1991 (1991-02-24)
22	22	"The Cliffhanger"	Bruce Pittman	Lyons N. Wells & Michael Short	March 17, 1991 (1991-03-17)

Season 2 (1991–92)

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
23	1	"Luck Be a Lady This Season"	Joe Flaherty	David Flaherty, John Hemphill, Michael Short	September 4, 1991 (1991-09-04)
24	2	"The New Look"	John Bell	David Flaherty, Michael Short, John Hemphill	September 11, 1991 (1991-09-11)
25	3	"Late Night Harry"	Stan Harris	Michael Short	September 18, 1991 (1991-09-18)
26	4	"Turner, the Rebellious Years"	John Bell	Michael Short, Lyons N. Wells	September 25, 1991 (1991-09-25)
27	5	"Man and Machine"	Stan Harris	Tom Nursall, David Flaherty	October 2, 1991 (1991-10-02)
28	6	"Driving Ms. Idella"	John Bell	Deborah Divine, Mary Charlotte Wilcox	October 9, 1991 (1991-10-09)
29	7	"Ugly Like Me"	Dug Rotstein	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	October 16, 1991 (1991-10-16)
30	8	"The Celebrity Visitor"	Perry Rosemond	Michael Short	October 23, 1991 (1991-10-23)
31	9	"The Attack of Killer Keifer"	Perry Rosemond	Tom Nursall, John Hemphill	October 30, 1991 (1991-10-30)
32	10	"Lenny... One Amour Time: Part 1"	John Bell	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	November 6, 1991 (1991-11-06)
33	11	"Lenny... One Amour Time: Part 2"	John Bell	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	November 13, 1991 (1991-11-13)
34	12	"A Hateful of Brain"	John Bell	Michael Short	November 20, 1991 (1991-11-20)
35	13	"Buried by the Mob"	Perry Rosemond	Dave Thomas	November 27, 1991 (1991-11-27)
36	14	"Down and Out in Cedar Springs"	Perry Rosemond	Joe Flaherty	December 18, 1991 (1991-12-18)
37	15	"Misery Loves Company"	John Bell	Michael Short	February 12, 1992 (1992-02-12)
38	16	"Ike's Got it Bad...Real Bad"	John Bell	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	February 19, 1992 (1992-02-19)
39	17	"Turnerator Too"	John Bell	Michael Short	February 26, 1992 (1992-02-26)
40	18	"Baby Heat"	Perry Rosemond	Deborah Divine	March 4, 1992 (1992-03-04)
41	19	"Streetcar Named Idella"	John Hemphill	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	March 18, 1992 (1992-03-18)
42	20	"Turner's Imaginary Friend"	Perry Rosemond	Alan Templeton, Mary Crawford	March 25, 1992 (1992-03-25)
43	21	"Idella's Breakdown"	Dug Rotstein	Michael Short	April 1, 1992 (1992-04-01)
44	22	"Sophisticated Lady"	Joe Flaherty	Joe Flaherty	April 8, 1992 (1992-04-08)

Season 3 (1992–93)

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
45	1	"The Long Hot Mansion"	Joe Flaherty	Michael Short, David Flaherty	September 7, 1992 (1992-09-07)
46	2	"Raging Lenny"	Perry Rosemond	David Flaherty & John Hemphill	September 14, 1992 (1992-09-14)
47	3	"College Days"	John Paizs	Michael Short	September 21, 1992 (1992-09-21)
48	4	"The Prince's Broad"	Perry Rosemond	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	September 28, 1992 (1992-09-28)
49	5	"Ike's Black Eye"	John Paizs	Alan Templeton, Mary Crawford	October 5, 1992 (1992-10-05)
50	6	"Science is Only Skin Deep"	Perry Rosemond	Norm Hiscock, Frank van Keeken	October 19, 1992 (1992-10-19)
51	7	"Ike's New Buddy"	Eugene Levy	Deborah Divine, Nancy Dolman	October 26, 1992 (1992-10-26)
52	8	"As the Worm Turns"	Perry Rosemond	Tom Nursall	November 2, 1992 (1992-11-02)
53	9	"Cape Scary"	Joe Flaherty	David Flaherty, Joe Flaherty	November 9, 1992 (1992-11-09)
54	10	"Wrestling with the Truth"	Perry Rosemond	Norm Hiscock, Frank van Keeken	November 16, 1992 (1992-11-16)
55	11	"The Science Fair"	Stacey Stewart Curtis	Rob Gfroerer, Paul Greenberg, Nick McKinney, Vito Viscomi	November 23, 1992 (1992-11-23)
56	12	"Love, Turner Style"	Dug Rotstein	Michael Short, Dave Flaherty	November 30, 1992 (1992-11-30)
57	13	"Atoms Gone Wild"	John Hemphill	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	January 25, 1993 (1993-01-25)
58	14	"Walter Under the Bridge"	Perry Rosemond	Deborah Divine	February 1, 1993 (1993-02-01)
59	15	"Tina and the Teardrops"	Joe Flaherty	Michael Short	February 8, 1993 (1993-02-08)
60	16	"Ike for President"	Perry Rosemond	Mary Charlotte Wilcox	February 15, 1993 (1993-02-15)
61	17	"Freddie Had a Little Lamb"	Perry Rosemond	Michael Short	February 22, 1993 (1993-02-22)
62	18	"Idella's New Career"	Eugene Levy	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	March 7, 1993 (1993-03-07)
63	19	"Love Letters"	Perry Rosemond	Deborah Theaker	March 14, 1993 (1993-03-14)
64	20	"It Ain't Over 'Til Uncle Joe Sings"	Joe Flaherty	Joe Flaherty	March 21, 1993 (1993-03-21)
65	21	"Uncle Harry Ain't Feeling So Good"	John Hemphill	David Flaherty, John Hemphill	March 28, 1993 (1993-03-28)
66	22	"The Way We Was"	Eugene Levy	David Flaherty, Michael Short	April 4, 1993 (1993-04-04)

Home video

In 1992, Family Channel Video released a VHS tape entitled "Maniac Mansion: The Love Collection", featuring two first-season episodes of the series, "Flystruck" (#102) and "Fred's A-Courtin'" (#105). This was the only official video release of the series; as of 2018, there are no known plans for Maniac Mansion to be released on DVD.

In 1991, a Japanese company HRS Funai released another VHS tape "マニアック・マンション (Maniac Mansion)", sold in Japan. It contains four first-season episodes, "The 10th Anniversary Special" (#101), "Webs, The Really Tangled Kind" (#110), "Good Cheer On Ya" (#114) and "The Cliffhanger" (#122), each episodes having Japanese subtitles.

Reception

Critical response

Maniac Mansion received generally positive reviews from professional critics during its initial run. In a press release for the series, Time called it "the looniest, sweetest family comedy of the year", listing it as one of the best shows of 1990. Entertainment Weekly called it "100-proof hilarious", while in a 1990 article on the series, The Los Angeles Times described the show as "a stylized, sharp-edged comedy that's a bit like David Lynch on helium".

However, response from the gaming community, and in particular fans of the original Maniac Mansion and graphic adventure games, has been mixed. In a 2011 retrospective review, PC Gamer magazine offered a predominantly negative opinion, noting the series "has roughly as much to do with the original game as a chipmunk's arsehole resembles Sweden" and calling the two episodes they had seen "comedy vacuums" and "at best generic and at worst, awful", though admitting they couldn't conclusively judge the entire series on so few episodes. The International House of Mojo, a website devoted to LucasArts video games, also lamented the dissimilarity to the game, but believed the series "deserves the courtesy of a second look", calling it "surprisingly sweet-natured" and noting the science fiction elements and "off-beat brand of humor" gave an otherwise typical sitcom a unique personality.

Awards and nominations

Maniac Mansion was nominated for and won several television awards during the series' run:

CableACE Awards

Year	Award	Result
1993	Direction of Photography and/or Lighting Direction in a Comedy or Dramatic Series – Raymond Brounstein (director of photography)	Won
	Original Song – Michael Short, Louis Natale, Ryan Lord (For the song "Baby Rap" in episode "Baby Heat")	Nominated

Gemini Awards

Year	Award	Result
1992	Best Picture Editing in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series – Stephan Fanfara	Won
	Best Comedy Program or Series – Eugene Levy, Seaton McLean, Jamie Paul Rock, Peter Sussman, Michael Short	Nominated
	Best Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (Individual or Ensemble) – George Buza	Nominated
	Best Sound in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series – Allen Ormerod, Tom Mather, David Evans (For episode "Dads Bummed Out")	Nominated
	Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Eugene Levy, Michael Short, David Flaherty	Nominated
1993	Best Comedy Program or Series – Jamie Paul Rock, Michael Short, Eugene Levy, Peter Sussman, Barry Jossen	Nominated
	Best Guest Performance in a Series by an Actor or Actress – Martin Short	Nominated
1994	Best Comedy Program or Series – Peter Sussman, Jamie Paul Rock, Eugene Levy, Seaton McLean, Michael Short	Nominated
	Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Michael Short	Nominated

Young Artist Award

Year	Award	Result
1991	Best Young Actor Co-starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Avi Phillips	Nominated
	Best Young Actress Co-starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Kathleen Robertson	Nominated
1992	Best Young Actor Co-starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Avi Phillips	Nominated
	Best Young Actress Co-starring in an Off-Primetime Series – Kathleen Robertson	Nominated
1993	Best Young Actor Starring in a Cable Series – Avi Phillips	Nominated

Differences from the game

Further information: Maniac Mansion

While ostensibly an adaptation of the 1987 computer game, Maniac Mansion shares several superficial similarities with its source material, though is vastly different in terms of plot, tone and characterization.

The premise of the game, a homage to horror and science fiction B movies, follows a group of teenagers who venture into a dilapidated mansion to rescue their kidnapped friend. The mansion is inhabited by the homicidal Edison family, consisting of Dr. Fred, a deranged scientist who is possessed by an evil meteorite, his wife Edna, a sex-starved sadomasochistic nurse, their son Weird Ed, a paranoid paramilitary survivalist, and their pets Green Tentacle and Purple Tentacle, a pair of sentient, ambulatory tentacles.

Whereas the television series was produced for family television, the tone of the game was decidedly more adult, featuring much risqué black comedy and surreal violence amid LucasArts's traditional style of offbeat humor and slapstick which was entirely omitted from the television adaptation. The game's original characters are also completely absent from the series with the exception of Dr. Fred Edison, whose character was drastically changed from an insane antagonist with a balding, elderly appearance in the game to a clumsy but good-natured family man in his forties in the television show.

The most overt thematic connection the series had to the game was the setting of a mansion housing an extraterrestrial meteor. The meteor itself is seldom referenced in the show, although it is prominently featured in the opening credits of the first season via an expository newspaper clipping, revealing it to have been discovered underneath the mansion by Fred's grandfather Louis Edison. Throughout the series, Fred can be seen conducting various experiments either harnessing the meteor's supernatural powers, or experimenting on the meteor itself.

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the designers of the original Maniac Mansion, have never made any public comment on their opinion of the television series, but in Day of the Tentacle, LucasArts' 1993 sequel to Maniac Mansion, the television show serves as a minor plot point in which the game's protagonist Bernard Bernoulli must help collect the royalties that Dr. Fred was promised from a vaguely explained in-universe television series based on a video game based on the events of the first game.

See also

• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, a later program with a similar premise, also starring George Buza

External links

• Maniac Mansion at IMDb
• Archive of Mansion Site: A fansite for Maniac Mansion