Mission Hill

Mission Hill Information

Mission Hill (originally titled The Downtowners) is an American animated television series that ran on The WB from September 24, 1999, to July 16, 2000, and on Adult Swim from July 14 to August 11, 2002. Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 episodes were produced. The show was put on hiatus by the WB Network after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned to the WB in the summer of 2000 but was canceled after four additional episodes. The show went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Teletoon's "Teletoon Unleashed" block, Cartoon Network's popular late night programing block, Adult Swim and Too Funny To Sleep, a late night programing block on TBS. Mission Hill was formerly known as The Downtowners, although MTV's production of the similarly titled Downtown forced a name change.

It has also been popular outside of the United States and Canada, receiving broadcasts in Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Spain and New Zealand. Stylistically, the series is recognizable for its bright, neon color palette, and features a peculiar mixture of modern animation and traditional "cartoonish" drawings (dashed lines coming from eyes to indicate line of vision, red bolts of lightning around a spot in pain).

The show was created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, former executive producers of The Simpsons, and the artistic designer was Lauren MacMullan. It features the voices of Wallace Langham, Scott Menville, Brian Posehn, Vicki Lewis, Nick Jameson, Tom Kenny, Herbert Siguenza, Jane Wiedlin, Tress MacNeille and Lisa Kushell. The theme song is a faster, instrumental version of "Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake.

Warner Home Video released all 13 completed episodes on DVD, on November 29, 2005.

Characters

Main characters

Andrew "Andy" French (Wallace Langham) - A 24-year-old in his third consecutive "post-college slump year." Andy is an aspiring cartoonist. From the pilot episode to "Unemployment, Part 1," Andy worked at a waterbed store where his boss was a short, ill-tempered foreign man who frequented strip clubs. From "Unemployment, part 2" to "Plan 9 from Mission Hill" (and including the unfinished episodes "Supertool" and "Pretty in Pink"), Andy works as an artist at the same advertising agency as Jim. Often bored and mellow, Andy is easily annoyed by his younger brother, Kevin, though it has been shown that Andy does indeed care about him.
Kevin French (Scott Menville) - 17 years old. Kevin moved in with Andy when his parents left for Wyoming, bringing his sheltered, suburban mindset to Mission Hill. He hopes to attend Yale University. He has a habit of "bling-blonging", saying "bling blong" over and over again while doing homework to drown out any/all distractions and is prone to heavily overreact to trivial matters.
Jim Kuback (Brian Posehn) - In his mid 20s, loft mate Jim has been Andy's best friend since high school. He is extremely tall and lanky, with red hair and a beard, and speaks in a deep, mono tone voice. Jim is a genius at all things electronic, whether it's electronic music or computers. He is mellow and able to express a wide variety of sentiments by nuancing the word "Okay." Jim is a high-powered advertising agent who is paid vast amounts of money to alter marketing campaigns to appeal to Generation Y.
Posey Tyler (Vicki Lewis) - In her mid 20s, Posey, the fourth loftmate, is somewhat a flower child, and very concerned about the health and well-being of her plants. She often gives her vegetables to charity, but gets upset when they are damaged. She often speaks in a nervous tone, and speaks fast.
Stogie - Andy's Golden Retriever, who can apparently stomach anything from alcohol to remote controls. At one point in the series his primary source of food was eating the couch cushions. Posey has stated that "there are dark forces at work within him", in the first episode.

Others

Gus Duncz (Nick Jameson) - A gay man in his late 60s, he owns a diner in Mission Hill. He is a very large, burly man with a short temper and is married to Wally. According to audio commentary by the producers, Gus is based on Broderick Crawford, though according to the audio commentary for the season seven Simpsons episode, "Marge Be Not Proud," Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein claim the inspiration for the character was Lawrence Tierney (who voiced the Try-N-Save store detective who catches Bart shoplifting).
Wally Langford (Tom Kenny) - A gay man in his late 60s, Wally is a projectionist at the local art movie house. He is based on David Niven. He enjoys cinema and ragtime music. In the episode "I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space", it is revealed that he directed a film in the 1950s entitled The Man from Pluto (which parodied Plan 9 from Outer Space). It starred his partner Gus in the titular role, a reference to Tom Graeff's film Teenagers from Outer Space.
Natalie Leibowitz-Hernandez (Vicki Lewis) - Late 20s. Politically correct and intellectually well-endowed, Natalie is a professor of Women's Studies at the local college. Sensitive to biases in our culture, Natalie and her husband have yet to name their baby as they want it to have cultural significance reflective of their own respective cultures. She is of the Jewish faith. She is a working mother who supports both "Baby Nameless" and her non-working "marital partner" Carlos. The character of Natalie was based and modeled on the writer and educator Lois M. Leveen, a long-time friend of the show's creators. She auditioned for the voice of her own character, but the actress Vicki Lewis was determined to be even more "Lois-y" than Lois Leveen herself, and she was cast in the role instead.
Carlos Hernandez (Herbert Siguenza) - Late 20s. He is a struggling artist and stay-at-home dad for Baby Nameless. Unlike his wife Natalie, Carlos is a Christian, his work is, at times, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, Diego Rivera and Bob Ross. He prides himself on having no discernible style. Carlos and Natalie have a pet snake as a result of an episode involving a raid on an animal testing lab.
Gwen (Jane Wiedlin) - Early 20's. Andy's on and off again girlfriend, Gwen completed two years of community college before settling in Mission Hill. She met Andy working at Ron's Waterbed World. Someday she'd like to be an accomplished person who achieves her goals and makes a serious contribution to society. Likes the Go-Go's.
Toby Mundorf (Josh Weinstein) - In his late teens and one of Kevin's best friends in Mission Hill. His overprotective mother worries a great deal about him, as he frequently suffers from allergies, asthma, and hunger. A born coward.
George Bang (Bill Oakley) - Kevin's other best friend. George works long hours after school in his father's market. George is extremely competitive in everything from taking tests to playing video games. He shares all the same interests as his best friends and is particularly proud of owning the complete Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game. Unlike his friends Toby and Kevin, his parents don't seem to be overprotective, so he is more sarcastic and aggressive than either of them. George is of Korean descent.
Ron (Nick Jameson) - A sleazy, immoral Russian (though the commentary described Ron as being from a country that used to be a part of the Soviet Union, which does include Russia, but could also be any number of countries from Eastern Europe and Central Asia) man and former boss of Andy (who loathes him). On "Unemployment, Part 1," Ron was arrested for tax evasion and his store was confiscated by the government. He has an extremely short temper and often takes his rage out on his employees.

Episodes

Thirteen episodes of the show were produced while five more were written, but never completed. Animatics for some of these episodes were in production at the time of the show's cancellation. It was planned to put these animatics on the DVD for the series, but this never came to fruition. However, several of the animatics"?including a completed video animatic and synchronized audio read-through of the episode "Pretty in Pink (Crap Gets in Your Eyes)""?have been released through various internet outlets.

Season 1 (1999-2002)

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Incomplete episodes

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Location

The show takes place in a district called Mission Hill. Mission Hill is a diverse neighborhood in a much larger city called Cosmopolis. Cosmopolis is depicted as a large modern urban metropolis similar to New York City or Chicago. The official website states Mission Hill is a mix of Mission Hill in Boston (only miles away from where creator Bill Oakley went to college), Mission District in San Francisco, Silver Lake in Los Angeles, Wicker Park in Chicago, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The exact location of Cosmopolis has never been revealed, as it is a mix of East and West Coast cities. Most of the series takes place in the neighborhood of Mission Hill, although the skyscrapers of Downtown Cosmopolis are seen in the background. In the DVD commentaries, Josh Weinstein says that a large portion of the development of the show was spent developing Mission Hill into a functional, albeit fictional, city. Writers and animators worked together to create fictional advertisements, bands, foods, and even bus schedules.

Awards

Mission Hill received the 2000 Pulcinella Award for "Best Series for All Audiences"; the award cited the show's "stylized design and honest approach to sexual and moral issues."

The show won an award from GLAAD for its positive portrayal of a gay relationship.

Home release

Warner Home Video released all 13 completed episodes on DVD, on November 29, 2005. The collection however has replaced some of the original soundtrack with stock music, most glaringly "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. in the episode "Andy vs. The Real World."