The Venture Bros.

Infobox television
show_name = The Venture Bros.


caption = Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture.
format = Action-comedy
picture_format = 4:3 SDTV Seasons 1 and 2 16:9 HDTV Seasons 3+
runtime = 22 minutes
creator = Jackson Publick
voices =
James Urbaniak
Patrick Warburton
Michael Sinterniklaas
Christopher McCulloch
Doc Hammer
composer = J. G. Thirlwell
country = United States
language = English
network = Adult Swim
first_aired = February 16, 2003
last_aired = present
num_seasons = 3
num_episodes = 40
list_episodes = List of The Venture Bros. episodes
website = http://www.adultswim.com/shows/venturebros
imdb_id = 0417373
tv_com_id = the-venture-brothers/show/17591/

"The Venture Bros." (alternatively "The Venture Brothers") is an American animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey teenage boys, Hank and Dean Venture, their emotionally insecure super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, and the family bodyguard, secret agent Brock Samson.

Season three began on June 1, 2008. In May 2007, James Urbaniak, who provides the voice for Dr. Thaddeus Venture (and other characters), denied rumors that he was leaving the show due to his moving to Los Angeles. [ [http://urbaniak.livejournal.com/2007/05/10/ James Urbaniak's LiveJournal] ] At March's Toronto Anime Con, Mike Sinterniklaas, the voice of Dean Venture, stated that he had finished recording on Season Three. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer are already working on Season Four. [ [http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/20194.html Jackson Publick's LiveJournal] ]

Origins

Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym of Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated series "The Tick". Ben Edlund, creator of "The Tick", has co-written two episodes of "The Venture Bros." and written one full episode, "¡Viva los Muertos!". Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived FOX live-action TV series, provides the voice of Brock Samson.

McCulloch created "The Venture Bros." storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television program "Sheep in the Big City" and the live-action version of "The Tick", McCulloch set to turning "The Venture Bros." into an animated series. "The Venture Bros." was originally conceived as a comic-book story for an issue of "Monkeysuit". McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comics story and proposed that Comedy Central air "The Venture Bros." as an animated series, but the network rejected it. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone "The Venture Bros." down" and was unaware of the existence of the network's Adult Swim sub-unit. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16, 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.cite web|url=http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/11320.html|title=It's That Time Again...|accessmonthday=June 21 |accessyear=2006|author=Jackson Publick|authorlink=Christopher McCulloch|date=2005-12-20|publisher=Livejournal.com]

Characters

The characters of "The Venture Bros." are largely either re-imaginings of the characters from "Jonny Quest", comic book superheroes and supervillains; or of other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the titular fraternal twin brothers of the show; both boys have identifiable characteristics, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being the more timid and bookish of the two.

Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) currently runs Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist", and certainly has the knowledge to back up these claims, but his actual competence and credentials in the field are questionable. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively-muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He is an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a licence to kill. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal and rather emotional robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures.

Throughout the series, the Venture family has had various recurring antagonists. Many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a group that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The organization is run by the mysterious leader known as the “Sovereign”, who is revealed to be none other than David Bowie in episode 26. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), the masculine-voiced Doctor Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains. Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and bears a grudge against Venture who he blames for the loss of his jaw in college, citing "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!" It was revealed in the season three premiere that the Monarch was responsible for the explosion, an attempt on the life of Dr. Venture. Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a ruthless killer, villain insurance agent, and high-ranking Guild member; also, he is a former lover of Dr. Girlfriend (before she left him to become The Monarch's companion). He seems at least as intent upon persecuting The Monarch, as he is in pursuing the Guild's villainous agenda.

The Ventures also have acquaintances that are used to help progress stories and add to the atmosphere of the show. The expert necromancer Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his apathetic, teenage goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer) rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The albino computer scientist Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) is a former college friend of Dr. Venture's, and usually appears in the company of hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture, a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture, have also appeared occasionally.

Episodes

The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix on June 23 2006 and on television on June 25 2006; the season finished on October 15, 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show; but, primarily because the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style (albeit digitally), causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with the time constraints of producing a first-season DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary for several episodes.

According to a recent interview with the creators, the show has been officially renewed for both a third and fourth season. As Adult Swim's website earlier stated that 26 new episodes were on the way, this breaks down into two seasons with 13 episodes each (which conforms to the runs of the first two seasons). The third season began on June 1, 2008, and will begin airing on Teletoon in Canada in January 2009. The third and fourth seasons will be in high-definition. [cite web|url=http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/19205.html|title=HAPPY THANKSGIVING!|accessdate=2008-02-29|author=Jackson Publick|authorlink=Christopher McCulloch|date=2007-11-22|publisher=Livejournal.com]

A 15 minute rough cut of "The Doctor Is Sin" aired on April 1, 2008 as part of Adult Swim's April Fools theme of airing sneak peeks of new seasons of current shows and pilots of new shows.

Running jokes

Most episodes open with a scene prior to the opening title sequence. Additionally, almost every episode features both a smash cut into the end credits, and a short scene following the credits that itself often smash cuts into the final production logo, and usually wraps up the episode humorously or reveals something significant about the characters (usually both). This gives each episode a cold open, and two "cold closes."

Nearly every episode contains the infamous Wilhelm Scream. This has become a joke among many various shows and movies by the sound technicians.

Each episode is "PRESENTED IN GLORIOUS EXTRA COLOR", as jokingly stated during the episode's end credits - a reference to Hanna-Barbera programs in their golden age being presented in Technicolor. The only normal-run episode that this is missing from is episode 2, "Careers in Science".

Since the first season, two credits change every episode, one for Soul-bot's "voicing" the character H.E.L.P.eR., and another for animation director Kimson Albert. Starting with season 2, each end credit sequence holds a different additional, fake duty for "AstroBase Go!". [Season 2 DVD commentary]

Themes, homages, and references

One of the themes of "The Venture Bros." is its multifarious use of allusion in its dialogue, character design and other facets. The series openly pays homage to a variety of sources, including adventure serials, pulp magazines, and many other elements of pop culture; musical references, television shows, movies, toys, fads, and comic books have all been used for fodder.

Jonny Quest

The series' predominant homage is to "Jonny Quest", as it is the basis for many of the main characters. Dr. Venture is loosely modeled on Benton Quest, Brock likewise on Race Bannon, and the Venture boys correspond to Jonny and Hadji. The comparisons, however, are taken to the level of an extreme parody by making the characters the "next generation" after an age of scientific heroism - and the next generation doesn't always fare well.

Thus Dr. Venture is a pill-popping, barely-competent scientist who treats his children and those around him with overt disdain and contempt; Brock is a hyper-macho man with a (frequently used) license to kill; and the boys are nincompoops stuck in an out-of-date mindset. One newspaper critic remarked, "if filmmakers Woody Allen and Sam Peckinpah had collaborated on "Jonny Quest", it would have come out a lot like this."cite journal | last = Gilbertson | first = Jon M. | title = Cartoon Network's Adult Swim shows hooking ratings | date=2004-11-22 | journal = The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20041122/ai_n11003026 | format = Dead link|date=July 2008 – ^{[http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3AGilbertson+intitle%3ACartoon+Network%27s+Adult+Swim+shows+hooking+ratings&as_publication=The+Milwaukee+Journal+Sentinel&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]} ]

The writers have presented Dr. Venture being an adult analogue for Jonny Quest. Flashbacks and references to merchandise show Rusty as a Jonny Quest-like child adventurer. This was expanded upon in season two with brief appearances from Hector, who served as an analogue for Hadji, and former boxing champion Swifty as another analogue for Race Bannon.

Characters and devices from "Jonny Quest" appear in person in six episodes. "Ice Station – Impossible!" and "The Invisible Hand of Fate" feature cameo appearances from Race Bannon. In "Twenty Years to Midnight", a drug-addicted adult Jonny Quest lives in the same bathysphere that Jonny's father, Benton Quest, once used to communicate with sea life. A character called Radjni (another parody, of Jonny Quest's friend Hadji) later appears in the season three episode "The Doctor Is Sin" as an employee of Jonas Venture Jr., who is trying to take care of the drug-addicted Johnny. Also in "Fallen Arches", Dr. Venture has built a "Walking Eye" machine, reminiscent of the spider-like robotic spy built by Dr. Zin from the "Jonny Quest" episode "The Robot Spy". In the third episode of Season 3, "The Invisible Hand of Fate", Race Bannon can be seen working as a torturer for the OSI. In the fifth episode of Season 3, "The Buddy System", Johnny, apparently now sober, was working at Rusty Venture's Day Camp for Boy Adventurers. He is still extremely high strung, breaking down emotionally as he talks about his father. Later, Dr. Zin himself would show up as a special guest at a show for the children, scaring Jonny out of his mind. Sergeant Hatred appears in the same episode (as a replacement arch villain for The Monarch) and gushes with admiration for Dr. Zin, referring directly to an incident that occurred in Episode 5 of the original Jonny Quest series ("Riddle of the Gold"). The Sergeant states that Dr. Z had his No. 2, Kaseem, eaten by a cheetah, which reference Dr. Z relishes, quoting the Dr. Zin character directly. In actuality, Kaseem in the Jonny Quest episode was killed by what appears to be a cheetah enraged that Kaseem had previously killed its master, though Dr. Zin looks on from a monitor approvingly, decrying Kaseem's "last blunder."

Music

Musicians and songs are commonly referenced and quoted in "The Venture Bros." Many characters often quote songs, sometimes to a great length. Monarch henchmen numbers 21 and 24 are usually discussing music related topics. For example, after the Monarch calls at the beginning of the episode "Hate Floats", they begin to sing the movement "Mars" from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" orchestral suite. This same movement was featured prominently in the trailer for the movie "The Man Who Fell to Earth" starring the frequently referenced David Bowie. David Bowie is the most referenced musician in the series as of 2006, to the point of appearing as a major character (voice impersonated by James Urbaniak), with Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi as his henchmen in "Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I and Part II).

There have been numerous references to the band Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. Brock mentions that "Zep sold out" on "In Through the Out Door". He later implies that he hates the album due to its connection to his memories of a former love interest, Molotov Cocktease. When Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill, instead of answering the questions on its written portion, he draws Icarus from the Swan Song Records logo. Brock eventually gets a tattoo of this logo. While listening to music mimicking "The Battle of Evermore", H.E.L.P.e.R. proceeds to call Zeppelin "jock rock" and an argument ensues between it and Brock. In the episode "¡Viva los Muertos!", music resembling Led Zeppelin's song "Black Dog" can be heard while Brock attempts to throw knives into a target.

Technology

The "advanced technology" in the Venture Compound is a hodgepodge of unrealistic jet age retro-future technology and current technology. For example, Hank and Dean own hoverbikes, and the learning aids built into their beds still run on punch cards.

Dr. Venture's airplane, the X-1, is named after the Bell X-1, which was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound, and is illustrated to look like an XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic high-altitude bomber. In the original pilot episode it is alluded to be nuclear powered. At the end of the Christmas special Dr. Venture says that the X-1 runs on plutonium. The same X-"n" naming convention extends to the Ventures' hydrofoil research ship, the X-2. The X-X-1, invented by Jonas Venture, Jr. is a jet as absurdly advanced by modern standards as the X-1 was by jet age standards.

Fictional technology is commonplace in the show. The characters have used or mentioned functioning teleporters, robots, shrink rays, time machines, and other similar machines that are science fiction clichés. Various vehicles, especially those of minor villains, tend to resemble airplanes, rocketships, cars, and other conveyances from other popular science fiction and children's TV shows and films.

Theme

Publick and Hammer have stated that one of the primary themes of "The Venture Bros." is failure.

"Yeah failure, that's what "Venture Bros." is all about. Beautiful sublime failure." —Doc Hammercite web|url=http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=281|title=Quickcast Commentary:The Venture Bros.|accessdate=2006-06-21|author=Jackson Publick|authorlink=Christopher McCulloch|date=2006-06-21|publisher=quickstopentertainment.com]

In the commentary for the episode "Home Insecurity" Hammer and Publick elaborated on the theme.

Publick: "This show... If you'll permit me to get 'big picture,' This show is actually all about failure. Even in the design, everything is supposed to be kinda the death of the space-age dream world. The death of the jet-age promises."

Hammer: "It's about the beauty of failure. It's about that failure happens to all of us...""Every character is not only flawed, but sucks at what they do, and is beautiful at it and Jackson and I suck at what we do, and we try to be beautiful at it, and failure is how you get by.""It shows that failure's funny, and it's beautiful and it's life, and it's okay, and it's all we can write because we are big fucking failures. (laughter)"cite web|url=http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=281|title=Quickcast Commentary:The Venture Bros.|accessdate=2006-06-21|author=Jackson Publick|authorlink=Christopher McCulloch|date=2006-06-21|publisher=quickstopentertainment.com]

Additionally, in a conversation between Dr. Impossible and Dr. Venture, Impossible—after telling Venture how little he thought of his super-scientist abilities when they were professor and student—goes on to say "I somehow doubt that 20 years of amphetamines and failure have changed you."

DVD releases

The first season of "The Venture Bros." on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video.cite web|url=http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=5026|title=Venture Bros., The - Street Date, Box Art, Extras & More For Season 1 Package!|accessdate=2006-07-11|author=David Lambert|date=2006-01-31|publisher=TVshowsonDVD.com] It coincided with the June 25 premiere of the second season. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. On May 31, 2006, the season one DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVDs list. [cite web|url=http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/13805.html|title=Holy crap!|accessdate=2006-07-11|author=Jackson Publick|authorlink=Christopher McCulloch|date=2006-05-31|publisher=Livejournal.com]

The "Lost DVD Commentary"

On a June 30, 2006, LiveJournal post, Jackson Publick revealed that he and Doc Hammer had recorded a commentary track for the season one episode "Home Insecurity." Warner Bros. chose to omit this track from the Season One DVD due to space limitations and some minor sound quality issues. Publick also stated that the commentary can be found and downloaded from Quickstop Entertainment. [ [http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2006/06/23/quickcast-commentary-the-venture-bros/ Quickcast Commentary: The Venture Bros. » Quick Stop Entertainment ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.adultswim.com/shows/venturebros/index.html Adult Swim - Venture Bros. Website]
* [http://www.tvsquad.com/category/the-venture-bros/ "The Venture Bros." on TV Squad]
* [http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/ Series Creator Jackson Publick's blog] at LiveJournal