''Dilbert'' is an American adult animated sitcom produced by

Adelaide Productions Adelaide Productions Inc. (also referred to as Sony Television Animation) is a television animation division of Sony Pictures Television that was founded on April 12, 1993 by Columbia Pictures Television. Unlike other animation studios, it does ...

, Idbox and

United Media United Media was a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. ...

, and distributed by

Columbia TriStar Television Columbia TriStar Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CTT) was an American television production and distribution company, which was active from 1994 until its reincorporation as Sony Pictures Television in 2002. It was the third iteration of what ...

. The series aired on

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

from January 25, 1999 to July 25, 2000. The series is an adaptation of the comic strip of the same name by

Scott Adams Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the ''Dilbert'' comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of business, commentary, and satire. Adams worked in various corporate r ...

, who also served as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

and

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

for the series along with former ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...

'' writer

Larry Charles Larry Charles (born ) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom ''Seinfeld'' for its first five seasons. He has also directed the documentary film '' Religulous'' and the mockumentary comedy films ...

. The first episode was broadcast on January 25, 1999, and was UPN's highest-rated comedy series premiere at that point in the network's history; it lasted two seasons with thirty episodes and won a

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for its title sequence. ''Dilbert'' received positive critical reviews which praised its humor.

Synopsis

The series follows the adventures of a middle-aged white-collar office worker, named Dilbert, who is extremely intelligent in regards to all things that fall within the boundaries of electrical engineering. Despite his intelligence he is unable to question certain processes that he believes to be inefficient, due to his lack of power within the organization. Thus, he is consistently found to be unsatisfied with the decisions that are made in his workplace, because he has many suggestions to improve the decision, yet is incapable of expressing them. Consequently, he is often found to show a pessimistic and frustrated attitude, which ultimately lands him in various comedic situations that revolve around concepts like leadership, teamwork, communication, and corporate culture.

History

The first season centers on the creation of a new product, the "Gruntmaster 6000". The first three episodes involve the idea process ("The Name", "The Prototype", and "The Competition" respectively); the fourth ("Testing") involves having it survive a malevolent company tester named "Bob Bastard", and the fifth ("Elbonian Trip") is about production in the famine-stricken fourth-world country of

Elbonia ''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title characte ...

. The prototype is delivered to an incredibly stupid family in Squiddler's Patch,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, during the thirteenth and final episode of the season, "Infomercial", even though it was not tested in a lab beforehand. The family's misuse of the prototype creates a black hole that sucks Dilbert in; he instantly wakes up in the meeting seen at the start of the episode, then locks his design lab to keep the prototype from being shipped out. The second season features seventeen episodes, bringing the total number of episodes to thirty. Unlike the first season, the episodes are not part of a larger

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of a plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing narrative, storyline in episode, episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strip ...

and have a different storyline for each of the episodes (with the exception of episodes 29 and 30, "Pregnancy" and "The Delivery"). Elbonia is revisited once more in "Hunger"; Dogbert still manages to scam people in "Art"; Dilbert is accused of mass murder in "The Trial"; and Wally gets his own disciples (the result of a complicated misunderstanding, the company launching a rocket for NASA, and a brainwashing seminar) in episode 16, "The Shroud of Wally". The theme music, "The Dilbert Zone", was written by

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

. It is an abbreviated instrumental rewrite of the theme from the film ''

Forbidden Zone ''Forbidden Zone'' is an American absurdist musical fantasy comedy film produced and directed by independent filmmaker Richard Elfman, and co-written by Elfman and Matthew Bright. Shot in 1977 and 1978, the film premiered in 1980 and was di ...

'', originally performed by Elfman's band, The Mystic Knights of the

Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave music, new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a Surrealism, surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and wri ...

Conception

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, decided to create the series for UPN because the network promised 13 episodes on air, while other networks would only consider the series against other programming options. Adams added to that "If we had gone with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, they would have given Dilbert a love interest with sexual tension." UPN was the sixth-ranked network at the time and picked up the show in hopes of broadening their appeal and to prove they were committed to riskier alternative shows. Adams stated about turning Dilbert into a series "It's a very freeing experience because doing the comic strip limits me to three (picture) panels with four lines or less of dialogue per issue, in the TV series, I have 21 minutes per episode to be funny. I can follow a theme from beginning to end, which will add lots of richness to the characters." Adams wanted the series to be animated because the live action version shot previously for

FOX Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

didn't translate well. Adams added to that "If Dilbert's going to be at the top of the Alps, you just draw it that way and you don't have to build an Alps scene. You can also violate some laws of physics, and cause and effect. People forgive it very easily. So it's much more freeing creatively."

Cancellation

On November 22, 2006, when Adams was asked why the show was canceled, he explained: On June 28, 2020, Adams claimed on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that the show was cancelled because he was white and UPN had decided to focus on an African-American audience, and that he had been discriminated against.

Cast

Main

* Daniel Stern as

Dilbert ''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satire, satirical office humor about a White-collar worker, white-collar, micromanagement, micromanaged offic ...

Chris Elliott Christopher Nash Elliott (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his surreal sense of humor. He was a regular performer on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' while working as a writer there (1983–1988), created ...

as Dogbert * Larry Miller as The

Pointy-Haired Boss This is a list of characters that have appeared in Scott Adams' ''Dilbert'' comic strip. Primary characters Dilbert The main character in the strip, Dilbert is a stereotypical technically-minded single male. Prior to October 2014, he was usua ...

* Gordon Hunt as

Wally Wally may refer to: People and fictional characters * Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Wally the Green Monster, mascot of the Boston Red Sox * Water Wally, mascot of the Singapore's Public Utilities Board * Wall ...

Kathy Griffin Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television series, comedy specials and has released multiple comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her rea ...

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

Jackie Hoffman Jacqueline Laura Hoffman (born November 29, 1960) is an American actress, singer, and comedian known for her one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues. She is a veteran of Chicago's famed The Second City comedy improv group. ...

as Dilmom *

Jim Wise James M. Wise (born July 30, 1964) is an American actor, singer, writer and composer. He is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Coach Tugnut in the Disney Channel Original Series ''Even Stevens''. He is also known for his voice-over wo ...

as Loud Howard *

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...

as Ratbert, Asok, Dilbert's shower, additional voices *

Gary Kroeger Gary Kroeger (born April 13, 1957) is an American businessman, politician, writer, comedian and actor best known for his work as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1982 to 1985, and his work on various game shows. He ran in the Democra ...

as Additional voices *

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor. Across a career spanning more than four decades he has voiced Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler on ''The Real Ghostbusters'', The Brain on ''Animaniacs'' and its spi ...

as The World's Smartest Garbageman,

Bob the Dinosaur This is a list of characters that have appeared in Scott Adams' ''Dilbert'' comic strip. Primary characters Dilbert The main character in the strip, Dilbert is a stereotypical technically-minded single male. Prior to October 2014, he was usua ...

, additional voices *

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire "Tress" MacNeille (; born June 20, 1951) >https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/macneille-tress-1951 is an American voice actress, who has contributed to voice-over work with credits including vo ...

as Carol, Lena, additional voices *

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor and comedian. Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Golden Globe ...

Catbert This is a list of characters that have appeared in Scott Adams' ''Dilbert'' comic strip. Primary characters Dilbert The main character in the strip, Dilbert is a stereotypical technically-minded single male. Prior to October 2014, he was usu ...

Griffin was starring in the NBC series ''

Suddenly Susan ''Suddenly Susan'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 19, 1996, to December 26, 2000. The series was created by Clyde Phillips and starred Brooke Shields in her first regular series. Shields played Susan Keane, a ...

'' during the time that ''Dilbert'' was in production. Under the terms of her contract with NBC, she could not receive on-screen credit for any roles in series that aired on other networks.

Guest stars

Stone Cold Steve Austin Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson and later Steven James Williams; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, producer and retired Professional wrestling, profes ...

as Himself * Jennifer Bransford as Ashley *

Andy Dick Andrew Roane Dick (born Andrew Thomlinson, December 21, 1965) is an American actor and comedian. Dick was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and joined The Second City and studied improvisational theater. Dick has had a long career as a stand ...

as Dilbert's Assistant Alfonso *

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau ( ; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

as Holden Callfielder *

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, best-known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York dialect, his squint, and his edgy, often-controversial, sense of humor. Hi ...

as Accounting

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

Tom Green Michael Thomas Green (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian and American comedian, show host, actor, filmmaker, podcaster, and rapper. After pursuing stand-up comedy and music as a young adult, Green created and hosted '' The Tom Green Show'', whi ...

as Jerrold *

Christopher Guest Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born 5 February 1948), known professionally as Christopher Guest, is a British-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy ...

as The Dupey *

Buck Henry Buck Henry (born Henry Zuckerman; December 9, 1930 – January 8, 2020) was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's ''The Graduate'' (1967) for which he re ...

as Dadbert *

Harry Kalas Harold Norbert Kalas (March 26, 1936 – April 13, 2009) was an American Sports commentator, sportscaster, best known for his Ford C. Frick Award, Ford C. Frick Award-winning role as lead Sports commentator, play-by-play announcer for the Phila ...

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Announcer *

Wayne Knight Wayne Elliot Knight (born August 7, 1955) is an American actor. In television, he played recurring roles such as Newman on the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'' (1992–1998) and Officer Don Orville on the NBC sitcom ''3rd Rock from the Sun'' (1996� ...

as Path-E-Tech Security Guard *

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno ( ; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Tonight Show'' from 1992 until 200 ...

as Himself *

Eugene Levy Eugene Levy (born December 17, 1946) is a Canadian actor and comedian. Known for portraying flustered and unconventional figures, Levy has won multiple accolades throughout his career including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and ...

as Comp-U-Comp's Plug Guard *

Camryn Manheim Debra Frances "Camryn" Manheim (born March 8, 1961) is an American actress who first came to attention with her off-Broadway one-woman show, "Wake Up, I'm Fat", in 1994. She is known for her portrayals of Ellenor Frutt on ''The Practice'' (1997 ...

as Juliet *

Mr. Moviefone Russ Leatherman (born February 14, 1962) is a co-founder of Moviefone, a popular movie guide. Known for his trademark greeting, “Hellooo and welcome to Moviefone!”, the greeting has been featured or parodied on many programs including ''The S ...

as Himself *

Chazz Palminteri Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri (born May 15, 1952)
. Chazzpalminteri.net. Retrieved on November 19, 2013. is an America ...

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

Jeri Ryan Jeri Lynn Ryan (née Zimmermann; born February 22, 1968) is an American actress best known for her role as the former Borg drone Seven of Nine in '' Star Trek: Voyager'' (19972001) and '' Star Trek: Picard'' (20202023) for which she won two Satur ...

as ''

Seven of Nine Seven of Nine (born Annika Hansen) is a fictional character introduced in the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: Voyager''. Portrayed by Jeri Ryan, she is a former Borg drone who joins the crew of the Federation starship ...

Alarm Clock An alarm clock or alarm is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of people at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they can sometimes be used for o ...

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...

as Comp-U-Comp *

Billy West William Richard Werstine (born 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor, comedian, radio personality, impressionist and musician. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film ''Space Jam'', the title characte ...

as Vibrating Chair Salesman, Rioting Engineer (Pilot episode only)

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1999)

Season 2 (1999–2000)

Syndication

Dilbert has aired on

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized in all caps) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a j ...

in different countries, and aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

from 2001 to 2005, and later IFC from 2012 to 2013.

Home media

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home entertainment distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures library ...

released 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 ki ...

in Region 1 on January 27, 2004. The set included some special features including trailers and clip compilations with commentary by

, executive producer

, and voice actors

, Larry Miller,

, and Gordon Hunt. The DVDs can be played on some PCs and DVD players with Region 2. The first disc contains seven episodes (1-7), the second disc contains six episodes (8-13), the third disc contains eight episodes (14-21), and the fourth disc contains nine episodes (22-30). On November 8, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the home video rights to the series. They re-released the complete series on January 21, 2014.

Reception

''Dilbert'' was favorably received by television critics. Ray Richmond of

Variety.com ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

liked the show stating "it's surely the wittiest thing the netlet has ever had the good fortune to schedule, and based on the opening two installments, it has the potential to score with the same upscale auds that flocked to "

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

" and transformed

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

from a wannabe to a player a decade ago."

David Zurawik David Lee Zurawik (born October 26, 1949) is an American journalist, writer, and professor. He has been the TV and media critic at ''The Baltimore Sun'' since 1989 and is a professor of communications and media studies at Goucher College. Before t ...

of ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'' gave the show a positive review stating "sit down tonight in front of the tube with more reasonable expectations, and you will find yourself smiling, if not laughing out loud at least once or twice." Terry Kelleher of ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'' magazine picked Dilbert for "Show of the week" and said the show featured "smart, pointed humor aimed at corporate bureaucracy, mendacity and absurdity." In 2017, James Charisma of '' ''Paste'''' magazine ranked the show's opening sequence #13 on a list of The 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time.

Ratings

Dilbert's premiere episode received a 7.3 rating from the nation's biggest 44 markets, the highest of the 1998–1999 season for UPN. Across the whole country, the premiere episode received a 4.2 rating.

Awards

*Primetime Emmy: Outstanding Main Title Design – 1999

References

External links

* * {{UPN Dilbert Animated satirical television series 1999 American animated television series debuts 2000 American television series endings 1990s American adult animated television series 1990s American animated comedy television series 1990s American satirical television series 1990s American sitcoms 1990s American workplace comedy television series 2000s American adult animated television series 2000s American animated comedy television series 2000s American satirical television series 2000s American sitcoms 2000s American workplace comedy television series American adult animated comedy television series American animated sitcoms American English-language television shows Primetime Emmy Award–winning television series Television shows based on comic strips Television series by Adelaide Productions Television series by Rough Draft Studios Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows scored by Danny Elfman UPN animated television series UPN sitcoms Television series about talking animals Television shows based on American comics