''Game Over'' is a 2004 American adult computer-animated sitcom created by

David Sacks David Sacks is an American television writer and producer. Biography He attended Harvard College, graduating with a degree in Government. While there he began his comedy writing career as an editor of the school's humor magazine, ''The Harvard ...

(who later became president of

Nickelodeon Animation Studio Nickelodeon Animation Studio is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Global. It has created many original television programs for Nickelodeon, such as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', '' The Fairly OddParents'', '' Rugrats'' and '' Avatar: ...

), produced by

Carsey-Werner Productions The Carsey-Werner Company (previously known as Carsey-Werner Productions and Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Productions, before that, Carsey Productions and also known as Carsey-Werner Television) is an independent production company founded in 1981 by ...

, and broadcast on

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

in 2004. It was cancelled after five episodes. ''Game Over'' (the title was inspired by the phrase " game over" that commonly concludes video games) focused on what happens to video game characters after the game ends. It recounted the lives of the Smashenburns, a far-from-ordinary suburban family that lived in an alternate video game universe. The show made numerous references to video games and even featured certain game characters as cameos. For example, ''

Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...

'' appears on a

Got Milk? Got Milk? (stylized as got milk?) is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of milk and dairy products. Created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993, it ...

billboard, and creatures from '' Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee'' appear in one of the episodes.

Marisa Tomei Marisa Tomei ( , ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She came to prominence as a cast member on '' The Cosby Show'' spin-off '' A Different World'' in 1987. After having minor roles in a few films, she came to international attentio ...

voiced the character of Raquel Smashenburn in the series' unaired pilot episode, but scheduling problems saw

Lucy Liu Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress. Her accolades include winning a Critics' Choice Television Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Seoul International Drama Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award. Liu has sta ...

take over the role for the actual series. ''Game Over'' was heavily hyped by UPN before its debut. It generally received positive press on its airing. Despite this, only six episodes were made, which aired on a variety of different days – the fourth and fifth episodes were broadcast on April 2, 2004, and the sixth episode ("Monkey Dearest") was not aired.

Characters

* Rip Smashenburn, a

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

driver who races every day and crashes his car all the time (voiced by

Patrick Warburton Patrick Warburton (born November 14, 1964) is an American actor. On television, he has played David Puddy on '' Seinfeld'', the title character on ''The Tick'', Jeb Denton on ''Less Than Perfect'', Jeff Bingham on '' Rules of Engagement'' and L ...

) * Raquel Smashenburn (née Grunkmeyer), a covert agent who fights monsters and is vaguely similar to

Lara Croft Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around th ...

(voiced by

) * Alice Smashenburn, a cynical yet socially conscious 14-year-old, who is part of a beach volleyball team, but wears a hoodie instead of a bikini (voiced by

Rachel Dratch Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. After she graduated from Dartmouth College she moved to Chicago to study improvisational theatre at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. Her breakthrough r ...

) * Billy Smashenburn, a 13-year-old hoping to become a rapper (voiced by Elizabeth Daily) * Turbo, their pet, a 300-pound talking doglike creature who robs pawn shops and smokes cigars, and shows an inclination towards teenage girls (voiced by

Artie Lange Artie is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Arthur. Notable people with the given name include: People * Artie Bettles (1891–1971), Australian rules footballer * Artie Butler (born 1942), American popular music arranger, songwriter ...

) * The Changs, including Dark Princess Chang ( Marie Matiko), a family of Kung-Fu-fighting Shaolin monks who live next door * Another Next door neighbor who talks to Rip in first person perspective

Episodes

Home media

Anchor Bay Entertainment Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television se ...

released all six episodes of the series as ''Game Over: The Complete Series'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in North America on June 28, 2005.Game Over - Complete Series
, TVshowsonDVD.com.

References

External links

Official UPN website for ''Game Over''

Carsey-Werner ''Game Over''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Game Over (TV series) 2000s American adult animated television series 2000s American sitcoms 2004 American television series debuts 2004 American television series endings American adult animated comedy television series American adult computer-animated television series American animated sitcoms English-language television shows Television series by Carsey-Werner Productions UPN original programming Animated television series about families