''Nerds and Monsters'' is a Canadian animated television series that aired on YTV. Produced by Slap Happy Cartoons Inc. and

9 Story Media Group 9 Story Media Group Inc. (formerly known as 9 Story Entertainment) is a Canadian children's media production company and international distributor founded by Vincent "Vince" Commisso, Steve Jarosz, and Blake Tohana on September 1, 2002, and head ...

. It was announced at the 2014

Banff World Media Festival The Banff World Media Festival (formerly known as the Banff World Television Festival) is an international media event held in the Canadian Rockies at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The festival is dedicated to world ...

that the series was renewed for a second season. On July 14, 2015, the series was picked up by

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

to stream it as part of Hulu Kids. The series ended on August 27, 2016. 40 episodes were produced.

Premise

The series follows three nerdy kids and a simple football linebacker on a fantastic uncharted island with monsters.

Characters

Humans

*Dudley Squat (voiced by

Tabitha St. Germain Tabitha St. Germain, formerly known as Paulina Gillis Germain and also known as Tabitha or Kitanou St. Germain, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is known for a variety of roles across many different shows. She has been actively doing voi ...

) – the self-proclaimed leader of the nerds, despite his short stature. He apparently has a

Napoleon complex The "Napoleon complex", known informally as small man syndrome, is a syndrome normally attributed to people of small stature. It is characterized by overly-aggressive or domineering social behavior, such as lying about earnings, and carries th ...

, as he is often demanding things be done a certain way – HIS way, but just not to be too bossy though. Dudley is also willing to undo his wrongdoings whenever his frequent selfish desires put Irwin, Becky, and Stan in trouble. He is

Jewish Canadian Canadian citizens who follow Judaism as their religion and/or are Jewish ethnic divisions, ethnically Jewish are a part of the greater Jewish diaspora and form the third largest Jewish community in the world, exceeded only by those Israeli Jew ...

. *Irwin Chang-Stein (voiced by Vincent Tong) – a nerd who is often cowardly and accident-prone, as he has a phobia of everything, except some things, including Becky, who he has a crush on. He is of mixed

Chinese Canadian , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = Chinese Canadian population by province.svg , image_caption = Chinese Canadians as percent of population by province / territory , pop = 1,715,7704.63% of the ...

and

descent. *Rebecca "Becky" Rogers (voiced by

) – a tall, excitable

Scottish Canadian Scottish Canadians are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture sin ...

nerd, who is the only female in the group. She has a particular fondness for

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

and

entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

, as she enjoys keeping journals about various creatures inhabiting the island. She is the love interest of both Irwin and Stan. *Stanley "Stan" Carver (voiced by

Ty Olsson Ty Olsson (born January 28, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing Benny Lafitte in ''Supernatural'', real-life 9/11 victim Mark Bingham in the A&E television film ''Flight 93'', and Ord in the PBS Kids animated children's series ''D ...

) – a fun-loving and goofy

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadian ...

jock, who serves the top lineman on the Beaverton Middle School Bulldogs

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

team. He is nowhere near as smart as his nerdy friends are, yet he is very friendly and sweet towards everyone he meets. Stan also has an obvious crush on Becky, and she appears to reciprocate his feelings. The only reason he's with Dudley, Irwin and Becky is because he "thinks he got on the wrong bus".

Monsters

*Zarg (voiced by Brian Dobson) – king of the monsters, and Lyle's uncle. His position as Supreme Leader is threatened by the nerds' arrival. *Skur (voiced by

Ian James Corlett Ian James Corlett (born August 29, 1962) is a Canadian voice actor, animator, and author. He is the creator of Studio B Productions' animated series ''Being Ian'' and ''Yvon of the Yukon''. One of his best-known animation roles was the first En ...

) – Zarg's servant, a winged lizard-like monster who is fed up being second banana, so is bent on dethroning Zarg and becoming king of Monster Island. *Lyle (voiced by

Brian Drummond Brian Drummond (born August 10, 1969) is a Canadian voice actor. He formerly served on the board of directors for the New Westminster-based Urban Academy along with his wife, Laura Drummond, also a voice artist. Usually working in Vancouver, h ...

) – a nerdy monster, King Zarg's nephew, who is forced to live life like the other monsters. This is proved in one episode where he doesn't want to 'monster up'. *Urp and Durn (voiced by Lee Tockar and

Michael Adamthwaite Michael David Adamthwaite (born September 1, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He is credited with providing the voice for many characters in various anime series. He is also known for portraying the Jaffa Herak in the science fiction television series ...

) – Lyle's parents that share the same body. Durn is the sister of King Zarg. *Vink (voiced by

Michael Daingerfield Michael Daingerfield is a Canadian actor, acting coach and founder of On The Mic Training, a voice acting school in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his voice roles of Ace Ventura in '' Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'', playing Gordo ...

) – a giant, childlike monster with a short attention span. *Maiden Cheena – Queen of Monster Island, a children's inflatable pool toy that was washed up onto the island some time ago. Her name comes from the

Made in China Made in China, Product of China or sometimes Made in PRC is a country of origin label affixed to products manufactured in the People's Republic of China. The ''Made in China'' label is the most recognizable label in the world today, due t ...

label imprinted on her rubber back.

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

# Dear Diary / Monster and Commander (March 12, 2014) # Sub Sandwich / Dorkathalon (March 19, 2014) # Honk If You're In Love / Fright Of Passage (March 26, 2014) # The Marriage Ref / Ka-Boom With a View (April 2, 2014) # Are You Gonna Eat That? / Monster BFF (April 9, 2014) # For The Love Of Dung / The Voice Of Treason (April 16, 2014) # What's Mine Is Mine / The Wind Beneath My Wings (April 23, 2014) # Maiden Cheena Lays an Eggie / Hero Zeros (April 30, 2014) # Guys and Dolls / Heat Wave (May 7, 2014) # Oh Brother / The Comic Or The Girl (May 14, 2014) # Eye! Eye! Eye! / Stan By Me (May 21, 2014) # Dudley The Manservant / Cure For The Common Nerd (May 28, 2014) # Fab Rick / Inside The Box (June 4, 2014) # Monstervision / The Squider Whisperer (June 11, 2014) # The Host With The Moats / Monsterball (June 18, 2014) # Flower Power / Maiden Cheena Is Missing (June 25, 2014) # Franken-Nerd / Monstergeist (July 9, 2014) # Monster Movie / Springing Lyle (July 23, 2014) # Pet Peeved / No Pranks To You (August 13, 2014) # Molting Day / Zanti-Clops (August 27, 2014)

Season 2 (2016)

# Miss Monster Island / Lucky Day (January 8, 2016) # Where's The Beep? / Evolution (January 15, 2016) # It's Not Good To Be King / Monster Island: The Game (January 22, 2016) # Nerd Fu / Dudley's Kitchen Nightmare (January 29, 2016) # Nerd High / Me Stan, You Linty (February 6, 2016) # The Sky's The Limit / Clown Of Darkness (February 13, 2016) # Tickle Stick / Monstarrrghs! (February 20, 2016) # Run Nerd Run / Adventures In Monstersitting (February 27, 2016) # The Falconerd / The Head Of Destiny (March 5, 2016) # Nerds and Monster Bus / Zarg's Ducky Day (March 12, 2016) # Nerdzilla / Monster Fever (March 19, 2016) # The Big Stanuna / Power To The Pimple (March 26, 2016) # Zarg World / The Nerdscapes (April 2, 2016) # Bee-Hive Yourself / Bucktooth Rogers (April 9, 2016) # Cannibal Run / Little Bundle Of Terror (June 25, 2016) # Survival Of The Twittest / Nerdes and The Moonsters (July 9, 2016) # Irwiener / Brother Brother (July 16, 2016) # Chatty Cheena / That's Snot Art (July 23, 2016) # Einstan / The Nerdhood Of The Traveling Pants (July 30, 2016) # Behind the Scrotch / Night of the Living Nerds (August 27, 2016)

Early prototype

The first prototype of the series had four nerds; Becky Hoogerstein, Dudley Squat, Winston Chang and Fareed Singh. They were completely different in appearance; Becky was a curly haired brunette, Dudley had bigger glasses and blond hair and Winston had shorter hair and was described as

Spock Spock is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as science officer and first officer (and Kirk's Second-in-command) and ...

-like. Fareed was written out of the final version and replaced with Stan. Becky's name was shortened and Winston became Irwin with the 'stein' from Becky's original name being inserted into his. Dudley's name was kept, but he too was altered.http://www.slaphappycartoons.com/PDF/NerdsAndMonsters/SH_Nerds_web.pdf Zarg was originally called Zar and designed with orange fur, and Skur had no fur at all. Urp and Durn's only change was the addition of fingers instead of tentacle-like hands.

Broadcast

The series also airs on

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

and ITV in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, UTV in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

Canal+ Family Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

and

Télétoon+ Télétoon+ (formerly Télétoon, stylized téléTOON+) is a French pay television channel operated by Canal+ Group, Canal+, focusing its programming on animation (and live-action in evening since the Canal+ acquisition) for children ages 7 to 1 ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Gloob Gloob (Portuguese pronunciation: "Glubi"), also known as Mundo Gloob, is a Brazilian pay television children's channel that was launched on 15 June 2012, aimed at children 6 to 12 years old. Owned, operated and part of Canais Globo, a televi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

ABC3 ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3. Hist ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Awards and nominations

References

{{Former YTV original series 2010s Canadian animated television series 2010s Canadian comic science fiction television series 2014 Canadian television series debuts 2016 Canadian television series endings Television series by 9 Story Media Group English-language television shows YTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming Canadian flash animated television series Canadian children's animated action television series Canadian children's animated adventure television series Canadian children's animated comic science fiction television series Canadian children's animated science fantasy television series Animated television series about monsters