Misplaced Pages

#224775

55-465: The Problem Solverz is an American animated television series created by Ben Jones for Cartoon Network . It follows Alfe, Roba, and Horace; a group of detectives in their troubled town, Farboro. The aforementioned characters were designed while Jones attended college in the 1990s; he later founded the art collective Paper Rad with Jessica and Jacob Ciocci . The characters were featured in Jones' and

110-430: A support group for people that live with fur monsters. The Problem Solverz was first aired on April 4, 2011, on Cartoon Network . The premiere was seen by 1.1 million viewers, receiving a Nielsen rating of 0.8, in that 0.8 percent of families with a television set viewed the episode on that date. The most-watched episode of the series ("The Mayan Ice Cream Caper") was seen by 1.6 million viewers. Viewership fell with

165-518: A child-friendly show, shifted its target group to ages 12 and up, resulting in a darker and more mature storyline. Animated film theatrical series include all early animated series: Animated Weekly (1913), The Newlyweds (1913 — 1915), Travelaughs (1913, 1915 — 1918, 1921 — 1923), Doc Yak (1913 — 1915), Colonel Heeza Liar (1913 — 1917, 1922 — 1924), Kapten Grogg  [ sv ] (1916 — 1922), Les Aventures des Pieds Nickelés (1917 — 1918),

220-441: A five-year period, WTBS was renamed TBS Superstation . During this time, Turner also created CNN , a 24-hour news network. Both became the standard for cable providers by the late 80s. Due to this success, the studio building became too small to operate as a headquarters. A new campus was built across the street for the expanding Turner empire. Upon completion, Turner launched Cartoon Network to showcase their recent acquisitions of

275-542: A giant clock time monster. The trio achieves this through the many Alfe's clones collected by the same rollercoaster. Note : One of the scenes in which Alfe captures his clone is taken from the segment "D-O-G's Song" of the Paper Rad 's 2008 short Problem Solvers . Horace hinders a mission by being addicted to a video game, "Tomb of Nefertiti", given to him by Famitaro's owner Mr. Konishi, to kill its rogue AI. Horace himself continuing to play for 8 days, becoming hypnotized in

330-486: A group of thieves place experts in this race, called the "Elevator Banditz". To capture Alfe and Roba go undercover, and to do dress up and look like them. The work of a funny-face artists named Tony Marv, which Roba is a biggest fan, is stolen due to someone who leaked the photos of him in his program for the next show. His assistant Buddy Huxton presents the Problem Solverz, who asked them to solve this problem, finding

385-593: A local station of a television network broadcasts an animated series as a part of its own programming, the time-slot will vary by region. All early animated television series, the first being Crusader Rabbit (1950 — 1959), are comic cartoon series. However, later series include sports ( Speed Racer , Captain Tsubasa , Slam Dunk ), action ( Hajime no Ippo , G.I. Joe ), science fiction ( Mobile Suit Gundam , Tenchi Muyo ), drama ( Neon Genesis Evangelion ), adventure ( Dragon Ball ), martial arts ( Baki

440-455: A set time period in "segments", including several such shorts. When advertising is taken into account, the cartoon itself may be only 15 — 20 minutes of the half hour, although Netflix and many other streaming companies do not show commercials. There are also series with a very short episodes lasting approximately five minutes; they have recently become more common in Japanese animation . If

495-500: A shoestring budget, they tried to come up with compatible ideas. During brainstorming, they realized they could simply re-use footage of any animation in the Turner library. They eventually settled on Space Ghost and Dino Boy . Because they felt it would fit, they paired it with Mike Lazzo's idea of a satirical talk show with a clueless host asking guests a stream of stupid questions. The final pilot featured rotoscoped animation superimposed on

550-517: A simple background and used CNN interview footage for the live-action interview. They went back to Turner and presented the pilot, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast was then greenlit for a ten-episode season. Work began, and the minor CN production/storage facility became its own studio, named after Coast to Coast's own in-show one: Ghost Planet Industries. Soon the series was acquiring its first C and D-list celebrity guests, small animation and writing crew, and voice actors. The voice actor for Space Ghost

605-494: A television animator on Yo Gabba Gabba! and Wonder Showzen . The year of the DVD's release, Jones talked to Nick Weidenfeld , then an executive producer at Adult Swim , about an idea for a series of his own. The result was Neon Knome , a pilot produced by PFFR Productions and Williams Street in 2007, and released on Adult Swim's website two years later as part of a development contest sponsored by Burger King . Mark Marek, who

SECTION 10

#1733094329225

660-446: Is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by The Cartoon Network, Inc. division of Warner Bros. Discovery Networks , a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery . The studio is the in-house production arm of Adult Swim (the programming block on Cartoon Network ). Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford oversaw operations for the building for most of its existence. On December 16, 2019, co-founder Lazzo retired from

715-446: Is only for video games licensed by Williams Street Games; see Adult Swim Games for other video games produced after the label's dissolution. Williams Street formed their own music label, Williams Street Records . The label was created after Jason DeMarco, Adult Swim's vice president of strategic marketing and promotions, worked on Danger Doom , a project with Danger Mouse and MF Doom in 2005. Danger Mouse had previously worked on

770-482: Is the only The Problem Solverz game on the official Cartoon Network website. www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/theproblemsolverz/tombofnefertiti/index.html (Includes Badges) The Problem Solverz team up with K-999, a robot dog to stop a Girl Scout-aided alien invasion. The Problem Solverz are involved, thanks to the Police Captain of the city's huge mall, in an underground elevator racing, world from which they capture

825-776: The Tom and Jerry cartoon short films released in movie theatres from 1940 to 1967, and many others. Direct-to-video animated series include most Japanese original video animations (OVAs). The first OVA series (and also the first overall OVA) was Dallos (1983 — 1985). Almost all hentai (pornographic) anime series are released as OVAs. Animated web series are designed and produced for streaming services . Examples include Happy Tree Friends (1999 — 2023) and Eddsworld (2003 — present). They can also be released on YouTube , such as Asdfmovie , which debuted in 2008. Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC , formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries ,

880-506: The CNN Center in downtown Atlanta in the early 1980s, other Turner operations moved into the Techwood campus, an old country club which became the first headquarters for CNN . The street is named for early Atlanta settler Ammi Williams . The company's original name, Ghost Planet Industries, came from Space Ghost 's fictional planet, where the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast

935-623: The Fort Thunder music venue. After the venue's closure in 2001, Jones released animations on the Web using Adobe Flash , with some featuring Alfe. Paper Rad later produced animations with the premise of The Problem Solverz but with the three principal characters absent. The collective's 2006 direct-to-DVD release Trash Talking features a segment called "Gone Cabin Carzy" in which Alfe, Horace, and Roba appear. In tandem with these experiments, Jones worked as

990-553: The Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the mid-1990s, where he became motivated to launch a project he could adapt to different media. This impetus manifested itself in the characters Alfe, Horace, and Roba. Tux Dog, another principal character, was designed while Jones was in primary school. After his graduation, Jones formed the art collective Paper Rad with Jessica and Jacob Ciocci in 2000. The collective moved that year to Providence, Rhode Island, to participate in

1045-474: The 1990s, more mature content than those of traditional cartoon series began to appear more widely, extending beyond a primary audience of children. These cartoon series included The Simpsons , South Park , Family Guy , Futurama , The Ren & Stimpy Show , Rocko's Modern Life , Beavis and Butt-Head , King of the Hill , and Duckman . Canadian computer-animated series ReBoot , which began as

1100-454: The Grappler ), and other genres. The first animated sitcom was The Flintstones (1960 — 1966), produced by Hanna-Barbera . It was followed by other sitcoms of this studio: Top Cat (1961 — 1962), Jonny Quest (1964 — 1965), The Jetsons (1962 — 1963, 1985, 1987) and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972 — 1974), an adult-oriented animated series in

1155-414: The co-production of Mirari Films . The Problem Solverz was first aired on April 4, 2011. The first season consisted of nine episodes, concluding on September 29, 2011. A second and final season was released exclusively on Netflix in 2013. The show received extremely negative reviews from both audiences and critics, many considering it as one of the worst animated series ever made. The series follows

SECTION 20

#1733094329225

1210-452: The collective's animations and comics before the creator pitched a pilot in 2007 to Adult Swim featuring the trio, collaborating with PFFR and Williams Street . The network's executives referred Jones to Cartoon Network, who commissioned a series featuring the same characters. The series was produced in Adobe Flash , with around fifteen animators employed at Cartoon Network Studios and

1265-434: The company, with business partner and co-founder Crofford retiring the following year. Michael Ouweleen was named president of Adult Swim on April 29, 2020. From November 27, 2019 to July 1, 2020 and since May 13, 2022, Ouweleen was named president of The Cartoon Network, Inc. , which also oversees Adult Swim . In 1976, Ted Turner bought the building and used it for his own television station, WTCG. This new channel

1320-433: The condition that Alfe be a character on The Problem Solverz . Eric Pringle, a veteran of 2D digital animation , was employed as animation director, providing Jones with much technical assistance. Pringle's colleagues from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , another Cartoon Network production, comprised a team of around fifteen full-time animators at the network's studio, all working on Apple computers. Greg Miller

1375-402: The culprit. At the beginning Roba and Horace are still in doubt to solve it due to Alfe, that under the effect of "Taco crazy" think they know you already know everything with a rangefinder taco, and doing even suspect that a loser funny-faces artist named Fungsten has not leaked the photos. But then discover that real culprit is still at large when the taco truck sign blocking the view. At the end

1430-419: The end of '93, the three mustered up courage to approach Ted Turner with their ideas for Cartoon Network original programming. It didn't go as planned and they were eventually kicked out of Ted's office. According to Lazzo, they were clearly told that unless CN started making more money for Turner, they wouldn't be allowed funding or a chance. They didn't listen. They decided to produce their own series pilot. On

1485-485: The eponymous detectives Alfe ( Ben Jones ), Roba (also Jones), and Horace ( Kyle Kaplan ). The trio take up solving, and sometimes creating, the numerous problems that plague their town, Farboro. To their aid is Tux Dog ( John DiMaggio ), an extremely wealthy dog who helps the Solverz in some of their cases but is just as often the source of their problems. Alfe (pronounced Alfé ) is a large, fluffy, fur monster (even though it

1540-497: The first episode to have been aired on a Thursday ("Hamburger Cavez"), which was watched by 1.1 million viewers. The first season concluded on September 29, 2011, after eighteen episodes. A second season consisting of eight episodes was released exclusively on Netflix on March 30, 2013. The series received mostly negative reviews from critics, who viewed the series as "dull, boring, and uninteresting"; but worse reviews from audiences and online viewers. Criticism of The Problem Solverz

1595-420: The first seamless use of Flash for television animation, with conceptualization and the end result occurring in the same program. Writing was the longest aspect of production, taking up to several months for the crew to conceive the story and draft a script. Animation was comparatively quicker, with the team delivering work in only a few weeks given the digital approach; Jones felt that the animators could play to

1650-463: The group, but he suffers from insecurity and anxiety. Horace is the calm and collected leader of the team, usually applying common sense with his detective work and caring after Alfe. Growing up in Pittsburgh, creator Ben Jones had an appreciation for comics and animation. His father's Macintosh computer served as a vehicle for Jones to create art and influenced his later visual style. Jones attended

1705-414: The height of popularity, it was awarded its own spin-off. Turner commissioned GPI to produce some sort of lighter version for TBS, due to a need for children's programming. Cartoon Planet premiered on TBS in 1995 and later moved to Cartoon Network in 1996. The series featured Space Ghost hosting segments and cartoons for young viewers. After two seasons, TBS decided to cancel all kids' programming, following

The Problem Solverz - Misplaced Pages Continue

1760-488: The main Problem Solverz characters, it introduces the problem solving concept which Jones would use as the basis of his homonymous Cartoon Network series. The short describes the adventures of six original characters: Dewey, T Bubbles, Pandemonia, Riviera, Buck, and D-O-G. It's composed of three segments ("Intro", "Dewey's Bike Ride", and "D-O-G's Song"), and from only two episodes: Note : D-O-G, Dewey, and Buck are

1815-404: The music for Toonami and wanted to do an album that sampled that work. The group suggested the idea to Mike Lazzo; the project was successful. Williams Street Records now releases a majority of the music related to their shows. The label is managed by DeMarco. 1065, the street number for Williams Street, is also the hull number for FishCenter Live ' s USS FishCenterprise (a parody of

1870-555: The official debut of The Problem Solverz on Cartoon Network, a preview of this episode was shown on the official Paper Rad YouTube channel. Note 2 : The opening theme in this episode is to Neon Knome , the Adult Swim 's pilot. Eight episodes were produced for Season 2 and were originally supposed to air in 2012, but were released through Netflix on March 30, 2013 due to the show's negative critical reception. It never aired on television. Alfe discovers that Roba and Horace attend

1925-508: The only characters of the short that made cameo appearances in The Problem Solverz . The pilot episode "Neon Knome" was produced in 2007 by PFFR and Williams Street for Adult Swim , and then released in 2010 on their official website as part of the "Big, Über, Network, Sampling" programming block. The Problem Solverz encounter on the city's amusement park "Time Twister", a time-travelling rollercoaster that ages people. They solve

1980-413: The problem of people and seal the rollercoaster, but Alfe later uses it to satisfy his pizza cravings by traveling back in time and getting a slice of pizza, and ends up causing the appearance prehistoric animals to cause chaos in the city plus he turns into a baby. To put an end to this mess, the Solverz on the advice of Tux Dog must reverse the process destroying Time Twister through its core of Eternitron,

2035-453: The process until after the universe is threatened by the same video game enemies. To stop the invasion Alfe and Roba, with the help of a special cable given to them by Tux Dog, enter the game but must return before Horace completely turns into a virtual human block. Once finding him immediately the trio must pass the last three levels and then defeat the AI at the final level. Note : Tomb of Nefertiti

2090-796: The second season more "subdued" than the first, allowing viewers to concentrate on the principal character's relationships. She compared the series to the band Anamanaguchi , in that its unique and polarizing style makes fans of the series hard to find. Animated television series Animated television series are presented daily or on certain days of the week during a prescribed time slot , including for example saturday-morning cartoons , prime time cartoons , late night anime , and weekday cartoons ; series broadcast only on weekends. The duration of an episode also varies. Traditionally, they are produced as complete half-hour or nearly half-hour programs; however, many are presented as animated shorts of 10 — 11 minutes, which can be combined for filling

2145-461: The series as misguided, its stories as undeveloped, and its visual style as unappealing. The Weekly Alibi ' s Devin D. O'Leary acknowledged the style as Paper Rad 's own and found the writing more solid than that of Adult Swim 's programming for which it could be mistaken. The jokes were not instantly funny according to O'Leary, but the visual style combined with the writing would provide amusement for Paper Rad's existing fans. Critics felt that

2200-553: The series would've worked better had it been on Adult Swim instead of Cartoon Network. Art-related publications, on the other hand, gave praise to Jones' creativity. Dan Nadel, a former publisher of Jones, lauded the series in The Comics Journal for the imagination displayed, "funny and humane and invaluable" at the same time. Paper writer Sammy Harkham called The Problem Solverz "radical" and unlike any other series on television. Geek Exchange writer Liz Ohanesian called

2255-564: The strengths of the fully digital animation process. The show's criticism led to only 26 episodes being produced. 18 of which were produced during the first season in 2011. Towards the end of 2011, eight episodes were produced for the second and final season, and was supposed to air by the end of 2011 or any time in 2012, but due to the show's low ratings, they were only released through Netflix on March 30, 2013. The main Problem Solverz characters first appeared in an animated short entitled, "Alfe: Gone Cabin Carzy" [ sic ]. The short

The Problem Solverz - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-1038: The style of All in the Family . The Alvin Show from Ross Bagdasarian Sr. and Beany and Cecil from Bob Clampett are also sitcoms. The 1980s and 1990s were a renaissance of the animated children and adult television series. Various broadcast networks and media companies began creating television channels and formats designed specifically for airing cartoon and anime series. Companies that already had these types of formats in place began to revamp their existing models during this time. Most of this animations were American-based or Japanese anime. Listed below are examples of television networks and channels that include animated programs. American British Japanese Canadian Australian Examples of animation-focused networks and channels are listed below; but some of them aired live-action programs occasionally. American South Korean Canadian Japanese During

2365-571: The trend of TNT and USA . The current name of the company originates from the location of its headquarters building – which is also the home office for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim – at 1065 Williams Street NW in Atlanta , Georgia near the current offices of TBS and TNT on Techwood Drive. The facility began as a carpet factory and was purchased by Turner as overflow offices for, among other things, set building and woodworking facilities, as well as CNN Field Engineering. Soon after CNN moved into

2420-458: The trio back to Buddy Huxton which, however, admits: he leaked that photos to postpone tonight's show of Tony, and in order to avenge him for his trauma as a child. Alfe, Roba and Horace find some Go-Seeki Hide and Seek Ninjaz in whom kidnap a little girl of the Hido Clan's mom. The Problem Solverz are called upon to stop an ice-cream factory from being destroyed by its owner. Note 1 : Before of

2475-507: The vast MGM and Hanna-Barbera library of cartoons. When Turner moved out of the Williams Street building, they kept ownership, using it as a storage facility. Although no longer its main purpose, to this day, Williams Street houses all the show tapes for Turner Networks. Appointed to run the building were veteran Turner employees such as Keith Crofford , Andy Merrill , and former mail-room employee Mike Lazzo . Although Cartoon Network

2530-413: Was created and produced by the art collective Paper Rad , and was written by Ben Jones . This short was included on their DVD Trash Talking , published by Load Records in 2006. The second Paper Rad animated short, "Problem Solvers", was released on a stand-alone DVD in 2008 as a bonus for the seventh volume of The Ganzfeld , a periodical book series written by Dan Nadel. Although it does not include

2585-493: Was directed at the visual style and writing. Rob Owen writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the style reminiscent of Atari 5200 video games and wrote that viewers could "thank" or "blame" Jones for his creation. For the magazine Variety , Brian Lowry disregarded the series as uninteresting and challenging to watch, the visuals and sounds weird for weirdness' sake. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media defined

2640-441: Was employed as a writer for most episodes, with Mirari Films ' CEO Eric Kaplan supervising the creation of scripts. The series was noted for its visual style employing highly saturated colors and varying shapes. Jones was inspired by the limited-animated series Roger Ramjet and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show , which he felt employed good character design, cohesiveness, jokes, and timing. He credited The Problem Solverz as

2695-479: Was hired as supervising director, Martin Cendreda as technical director, and John Pham with Jon Vermilyea as character designers. Miller is the creator of Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? , another series on the network. Vermilyea worked also as a character designer on the network's series Adventure Time , while Cendreda, Pham, and Jones all contributed to the anthology comic book Kramers Ergot . Michael Yank

2750-414: Was known for his work on Nickelodeon 's KaBlam! was one of the artists and animators for the short. After deciding the show's aesthetics were not a good fit for Adult Swim, who claimed it looked "too mind-blowingly cute" for their channel, the network's executives later referred Jones to Cartoon Network , believing his creativity would fit better there. Jones agreed to do business with Cartoon Network on

2805-504: Was local voice actor George Lowe ; all other roles were done by the GPI crew. The series eventually premiered on April 14, 1994. This marked Cartoon Network's first original series and the first animated talk show in history. Due to its more mature surreal humor, the series attracted a devoted cult audience. Its success led to a special that was simulcast on TBS, a special short for VHS release of blockbuster The Mask, and much more famous guests. In

SECTION 50

#1733094329225

2860-513: Was purportedly filmed. The studio's production logo features a wavy, blurred gray image of Space Ghost's fictional studio, with the words "Williams Street" beneath it. The soundtrack of Jack Webb 's Mark VII Limited 's production logo – a rumbling drum roll and two clinks of a hammer – is often used while the GPI/Williams Street production card is shown. Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Awesome Inc This list

2915-499: Was run at Hanna-Barbera Studios at the time, certain duties were eventually controlled by the trio at Williams Street. One of their most important early tasks was producing host segments for The Moxy Pirate Show (later The Moxy Show). From 1990 to 1993, TBS had started its own original programming such as Captain Planet and 2 Stupid Dogs . This interested the team at Williams Street, and they all wished to create their own series. Towards

2970-469: Was suggested that he may be "half-chocolate, half-mutt" in Neon Knome or that he was a man-dog-anteater by creator and voice actor Ben Jones during the 2011 San Diego Comic Con Panel) found and raised by Horace when both were young. He loves devouring large quantities of food, especially pizza and hamburgers, and acts impulsively during missions. Roba, Horace's twin brother and cyborg, is the smartest member of

3025-424: Was the result of a recent UHF takeover. In December 1976, the first WTCG signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems located around Georgia . This broadcast was the first use of non-pay-service satellite transmission, an innovation that would come to revolutionize basic cable nationwide. Starting out as a minor local channel, the station grew into success and was re-launched as WTBS in 1979. Then, after

#224775