''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' is an American adult

animated television series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...

, and is the first collaboration between

Warner Bros. Animation Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 19 ...

and

Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC, d/b/a Williams Street and formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., ...

. It premiered October 27, 2014 on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

. The series features

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is con ...

solving mysteries, in the style of '' I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali'', ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...

'', ''

Jonny Quest ''Jonny Quest'' is a science fiction-adventure media franchise that revolves around the titular boy named Jonny Quest, who accompanies his scientist father on extraordinary adventures. The franchise started with a 1964–1965 television serie ...

'', and ''

Mister T Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud, May 21, 1952), is an American actor. He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series ''The A-Team'' and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film ''Rocky III''. He is also known for his di ...

''. On December 10, 2014, Adult Swim renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on November 1, 2015. A third season premiered on May 14, 2017, and the remaining Season 3 episodes aired from March 4, 2018, to May 13, 2018. A fourth season aired in Summer 2019 and early 2020. During a May 2020 interview, writer Larry Dorf revealed the show had not been renewed and the fourth season would be its last. Adult Swim has aired reruns as of 2022.

Premise

The show follows the fictional misadventures of boxer/actor

, the ghost of the Marquess of Queensberry, Tyson's adopted daughter, and an alcoholic talking pigeon, as they solve mysteries around the world. The style of the show borrows heavily from the 1983–86 '' Ruby-Spears'' produced ''

'' featuring actor/wrestler Laurence Tureaud as himself as well as 1970's

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

productions such as ''

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning cartoon schedule on Septem ...

'' and ''

The Funky Phantom ''The Funky Phantom'' is an animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, in association with Australian production company Air Programs International for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The show was a clone of Hanna ...

''. Targeted at a much older demographic than those children-oriented cartoons, the show contains adult language and concepts in the manner of ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

'', ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand ...

'', and many other Adult Swim shows. While each episode involves a mystery as a

framing device Framing may refer to: * Framing (construction), common carpentry work * Framing (law), providing false evidence or testimony to prove someone guilty of a crime * Framing (social sciences) * Framing (visual arts), a technique used to bring the focu ...

, they are often ignored entirely while the plot takes a completely different (and often oddball) direction as the mysteries are rarely solved and episodes sometimes end on

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

s that are never resolved.

Characters

Main characters

(voiced by himself) – The title character of the series, Mike Tyson is a retired boxer who now solves mysteries. He is portrayed as being wildly out of touch with reality, confusing a chess Grandmaster with the Grand Wizard of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

, or

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...

with

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, thinking a

binary code A binary code represents text, computer processor instructions, or any other data using a two-symbol system. The two-symbol system used is often "0" and "1" from the binary number system. The binary code assigns a pattern of binary digits, als ...

spells out 'Ooo', and eating junk food without realizing he's on a diet. He has a reputation for doing unusual things like taking an oatmeal bath with cooked oatmeal, owning a pet

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

, and using

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

es to help him sleep, along with pronouncing the names of many other characters incorrectly, even by calling his own daughter Yang or Yee instead of Yung. ** Tyson also appears in live-action form during the end credits. * Pigeon (voiced by

Norm Macdonald Norman Gene MacdonaldThe capitalization of Norm Macdonald's surname has been inconsistently reported in publications such as ''TV Guide''. Books that discuss him, such as ''Shales'' (2003) and Crawford' (2000), as well as other sources such as ...

) – An alcoholic, sexually depraved, sarcastic

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. He is a former human who was turned into a pigeon by his ex-wife as a curse for cheating on her. His real name is revealed to be Richard, although everyone still calls him Pigeon – his full name is later revealed to be "Richard Pigeon". Pigeon is disliked by Marquess and Yung Hee, but Tyson is seemingly oblivious to his obnoxious nature. Pigeon is Yung Hee's biological father from a one-night stand, although Pigeon keeps this information to himself on learning it after observing how close Mike and Yung Hee are. * Yung Hee Tyson (voiced by Rachel Ramras) – Mike's adopted

panromantic A person's romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the sex or gender with which a person experiences romantic attraction towards or is likely to have a romantic relationship with. The term is used alo ...

asexual daughter. Born in 1998, she was left by her birth mother on Mike's doorstep when she was a baby. A

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...

in the series is Yung being repeatedly mistaken for a boy. * Marquess of Queensberry (voiced by

Jim Rash James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He portrayed the role of Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Bes ...

) – The deceased real-life father of modern boxing, John Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry, is an alcoholic and flamboyant

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...

who provides Mike with intellectual advice. The Marquess portion of his name is pronounced "Marcus" and rendered as if it is his actual name, instead of a title. * Deezy (voiced by Chuck Deezy; main season 4, recurring seasons 1–3) – Mike Tyson's agent, whom he infrequently attempts to fire but find himself unable to due to a fear of direct confrontation.

Recurring characters

* Bert (voiced by Hugh Davidson) – A foul-mouthed

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

limousine driver. * Carol (voiced by Jill Matson-Sachoff) – Mike's short-term wife. * Jillian Davis (voiced by

Cheryl Hines Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and director, best known for playing the role of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on HBO's ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also s ...

) – A

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws ...

socialite. * Terry (voiced by

Rhys Darby Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for ...

) – The good-natured New Zealander who tends Mike's swimming pool. * Maxine (voiced by

Rachael Harris Rachael Elaine Harris (born January 12, 1968) is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her numerous acting roles, such as starring as Dr. Linda Martin in '' Lucifer'', her role in the ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' film series, and as a g ...

) – The owner of the ''Don’t Judge a Book'' antique store, and a confidant of Marquess's. * Delvin (voiced by David Hoffman or Larry Dorf) – The mild mannered manager of ''Munn's''

Supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

. * Harold Feder (voiced by

Kevin Ruf Kevin Ruf (born December 7, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He recently starred in the Comedy Central show '' Halfway Home'' as Kenny Carlyle, the house supervisor of a halfway house. Early life and education Born in Wilmington, Dela ...

) – Mike's attorney and Yung's godfather.

Episodes

Home media

The first season was released on DVD on October 20, 2015, by

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

. The second season was released on DVD on September 27, 2016, exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

Reception

The series has received mostly positive reviews from critics. The show currently holds an 82% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 11 reviews, with its consensus being: "A dizzying whirl of lowbrow and high-concept, ''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' should more than satisfy fans of Adult Swim's signature blend of animated silliness." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the show has a score of 75 out of 100 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Cancellation

In a May 2020 podcast interview, writer Larry Dorf confirmed that the fourth season would be its last, although Davidson, Ramras, and Dorf would continue working together on a new project for Warner Bros.

International release

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, ''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' was exclusively available on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

until June 30, 2022.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{Adult Swim original programming 2014 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2010s American adult animated television series 2010s American black cartoons 2010s American mystery television series 2020s American adult animated television series 2020s American black cartoons 2020s American mystery television series American adult animated action television series American adult animated comedy television series American adult animated mystery television series English-language television shows Adult Swim original programming Animation based on real people Boxing animation Cultural depictions of Mike Tyson Television series by Warner Bros. Animation Television series by Williams Street