''Mr. Meaty'' is a

teen sitcom A teen situation comedy, or teen sitcom, is a subgenre of comedic television program targeted towards young people (Preadolescence, tweens, Adolescence, teenagers and, to a lesser extent, Young adult, young adults). In general, these types of prog ...

created by

Jamie Shannon Jamie Christopher Shannon (born February 26, 1972) is a Canadian actor, best known for his work in the Canadian television series ''Nanalan, as well as '' Ooh, Aah & You'', and the Canadian-American television series ''Mr. Meaty''. Career Hav ...

and Jason Hopley. The show centers on two lazy teenage boys, Josh Redgrove and Parker Dinkleman, who work at a

fast food restaurant A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food, fast-food cuisine and has minimal Foodservice#Table service, table service. The food served ...

called Mr. Meaty inside a shopping mall as they often encounter supernatural and bizarre situations. The series is set in the fictional town of Scaunchboro, based on

Scarborough, Toronto Scarborough (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 Census 629,941) is a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in the eastern part of the City of Toronto. Its borders are Victoria Park Avenue to the west, Steeles Avenue (Toronto), Steele ...

. ''Mr. Meaty'' originated as a series of 17 shorts that appeared as interstitials on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in the United States and

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

in Canada. A pilot episode featuring material from the shorts aired on December 30, 2005. The series officially premiered on September 22, 2006, and continued to air until May 23, 2009. It ended with a total of two seasons and twenty episodes, three of which are 22-minute specials.

Premise

''Mr. Meaty'' centers on a pair of teenage boys working at a fast-food restaurant established in the fictional Scaunchboro Mall: the nerdy, gluttonous, awkward Parker Dinkleman (Jason Hopley) and the charming, popular, but uncaring and self-centered Josh Redgrove (

). The boys are often placed in bizarre, supernatural or grotesque situations. They are also seen dealing with common teenage situations such as dating and

peer pressure Peer pressure is a direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests and experiences, or social statuses. Members of a peer group are more likely to influence a person's beliefs, values, religion and beh ...

Characters

Main

*Josh Redgrove: (voice by

) A 16-year-old cashier and employee at Mr. Meaty. *Parker Dinkleman: (voiced by Jason Hopley) Josh Redgrove's best friend who works as a fry cook. The character's appearance and voice are based on former coworker ( William Pawson). *Edward R. Carney: (voice by

Marty Stelnick Marty may refer to: Names * Marty (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters, also includes stage names * Marty (surname), a list of people Places in the United States * Marty, Minnesota, an unincorporated community * Ma ...

) He is the original founder and current owner of the Mr. Meaty chain. *Mr. Wink: The manager with an electric chip on the back of his head, he was once a kind and friendly individual. *Lizzy: (Alien who only worked there for a short time) She was cleverly disguised as an attractive young woman, being crushed on by both Josh and Parker for a short time. *Chip 2.6: First seen in Model Employee. He's a robot, built to be the perfect Mr. Meaty employee. *Eddie: Parker's pet yeti who only worked at Mr. Meaty's for a little bit, but was shipped back to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

Minor

*Ashley Steinberg: Her best friends are Brittney and Ashley 2. She seems to be the leader of the trio. *Brittney Of the three, she seems to have the most common sense and is almost always there to offer advice to Josh and Parker. *Art"ee"st Woman: The owner of Pantosphere. *Ashley 2: She and Brittney are followers of Ashley. *Goth Girl: She is a

goth Goth or Goths may refer to: * Goths, a Germanic people Arts and entertainment * Gothic rock or goth, a style of rock music * Goth subculture, developed by fans of gothic rock * ''Goth'' (2003 film), an American horror film * ''Goth'' (2008 f ...

who went on a date with Josh to see the premiere of ''Star Raiders IV''. *Gord: He wears his blond hair in beaded

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as dreads or locs, are a Hairstyle, hairstyle made of rope-like strands of matted hair. Dreadlocks can form naturally in Hair#Texture, very curly hair, or they can be created with techniques like twisting, Backcombing, ba ...

. *Ping: An employee who teaches Josh and Parker to be ninjas. *Doug: A beefy security guard with a buzz haircut, black shades, and a prominent bottom lip. He speaks with a macho attitude and is very dedicated to his job. *

R.O.B. R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is a toy robot accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was key to the NES's launch in October 1985, as a redesign of the which had been launched in July 1985 in Japan for Famicom. Its short li ...

: R.O.B. is the Mr. Meaty security bot who only appeared in "Buffalo Burrito". *Ashley Steinberg: The long haired brunette who is very concerned. *Ashley 2: A member of the girl group of Scaunchburo Mall. *Brittany: The most reasonable and apparently liked girl of Scaunchburo Mall. *Tanya: A thick lipped girl with black shades and long dirty blonde hair. *Parkerina: (female version of Parker) who dressed in a cowgirl outfit, two red pigtails over his shoulders and with notable eyelashes. *Natasha: A European (probably

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, due to her accent) member of the Against Josh Group who appears on the screen during the Against Josh Group meeting in "Parkerina". *Sky: A member of the girl's group. *Ken: Josh's older brother who is extremely annoying. *Darryl: Ken's best friend and his bodyguard. *Tyrone: Provides the music for The Tater Tots so they can break dance. *Tater Tots: Three 8-year-old Hip-Hop gangster brats. *Hamish: Parker's other best friend. *Natalie: A little vampire girl discovered in the freezer. She turned Parker and Josh into vampires. *Barb: Josh's ex-girlfriend made of meat. *Leanne: Parker's girlfriend. *Brandon DuBois III: Parker's friend. *Gavin: Parker's friend. *Karlon Bugosi: A former actor who has now become a brain-eating zombie. Bugosi only appeared in "Dream of the Dead", in which he was the main antagonist and anti-hero. *Lucas E. Romero: A horror movie director who only appeared in "Dream of the Dead."

Production

''Mr. Meaty'' began as a series of shorts that played between longer programs on Nickelodeon from 2002 to 2005. They were also featured on CBC's variety show ''The Void'', on Nickelodeon's

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

listings, and on the

TurboNick Nick.com is a website owned and developed by Nickelodeon. The website now serves as an online portal for Nickelodeon content, and offered online games, video streaming, radio streaming and individual websites for each show it broadcasts. It prev ...

website. The show was Shannon and Hopley's second production for Nickelodeon after ''

Nanalan' ''Nanalan is a Canadian children's television series created by Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley. It began in 1998 as a series of three-minute shorts originally broadcast on YTV; it later ran for two seasons of full-length (21 minutes) episodes ...

'', as well as the

Disney Junior Disney Jr. (formerly Disney Junior) is an American pay television network owned by the Disney Branded Television sub-division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company. Aimed mainly at children two to seven year ...

series ''

Ooh, Aah & You ''Ooh, Aah & You'', also known as ''Ooh & Aah'', is a short-form children's series created by the Canadian puppeteer duo Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon, who also created ''Nanalan and ''Mr. Meaty''. It was produced by Kick Start Productions. ...

''. Neither of the series' creators had worked at a fast food restaurant prior to creating the show. However, Hopley had once worked at a movie theater's concessions stand, which gave him inspiration for some of the ideas in the show. He has also cited ''

The Ren & Stimpy Show ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', commonly referred to as simply ''Ren & Stimpy'', is an American animated Comedy film, comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotion ...

'' as a source of inspiration for the show's style of humor. The show was created specifically for a teenage audience; of the target age group, executive producer

Jack Lenz John Frederick "Jack" Lenz is a Canadian composer. He has written, performed, and produced music for film, television, and theatre, along with working on non-soundtrack album ventures. He is also the founder of Live Unity Enterprises, an organizat ...

said, "Entertaining kids in their teens is not easy and it takes a very strong concept to catch on with this demographic.

Mike Judge Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for being the creator of the animated television series ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present). He ...

clearly nailed it with ''

Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, Stupi ...

'' and we believe that ''Mr. Meaty'' will do the same." Nickelodeon commissioned a season of full-length episodes around September 2005. An 11-minute pilot titled "In Parker's Sight" aired on December 30, 2005. It was a retrospective featuring material from the earlier shorts. On September 22, 2006, the series made its official debut on Nickelodeon. The episode "Buffalo Burrito" had been released as a sneak peek on the iTunes Store two days earlier on September 18. The series moved to Nickelodeon's sister channel

Nicktoons Nicktoons is the brand name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company (Paramount Global) in their copyright bylines. Since ...

on February 23, 2007. Nicktoons aired the remaining episodes from March 10, 2007, to May 23, 2009.

Episodes

Series overview

Pilot (2005)

Season 1 (2006–2007)

Season 2 (2008–2009)

Home media

Reception

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

gave the series a rating of 3/5, stating that the humor was geared toward older children and noting that some viewers "will enjoy the idiosyncratic characters and their attempts to survive the uncertainties of puberty." Susan Stewart of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' gave the show a positive review, calling its puppetry "a perfect medium for sending up the foibles of the teenage years" and commending the two main characters' "deft characterizations". In May 2007, the show ranked as the fourth highest-rated Saturday morning program among children aged 2―11.

References

External links

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