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The Brian Show (originally titled Brian in the House) is an American/Worldwide animated television series created by Matt Groening, and produced by Cartoon Network Studios for Cartoon Network. The series originally premiered on September 6, 2010. The series ended on December 16, 2019.

Premise
Main article: List of The Brian Show characters From left to right: Hudson, Kevin, Edward, Erika, Kayla, Harry, Julie, Carrie, Tommy, Rob, Alex, Diesel, Kimberly, Brian, Maya, Jake, Memy and Steve. The series revolves around the daily lives of three siblings, Memy, Jake, and Steve. They live at a house, and spend their days trying to avoid getting grounded and entertain themselves by any means. This is much to the chagring of their parents Brian and Maya, and their adoptive daughters Rob and Alex, but to the delight of their (other) parents Diesel and Kimberly. Other siblings include an Hudson, Kevin, Edward, Erika, Tommy, Kalya, Harry, Julie and Carrie.

Creation
Matt Groening, creator of the show, Chris Hardwick and voice of Memy (the compared voice of Otis Cow from Back at the Barnyard), based the show on his student films produced at CalArts The Brian Show largely grew out of creator Matt Groening's life and experiences in college. Groening attended the California Institute of the Arts, and many of the characters on The Brian Show are based on the characters developed for his student films Brian gets in Trouble (2005) and Jake and Erika calls the Baby Stupid and gets grounded (2006). Both originated as part of a game called "48-hour films", in which students put words into a hat, pulled out one word at midnight and spent a weekend developing ideas for a film. Groening attended college with Thurop Van Orman and Pendleton Ward, who both went on to work at GoAnimate Network Studios with Quintel; Van Orman created The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Ward created Adventure Time. Quintel concurrently worked on Camp Lazlo and as creative director on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack while completing his degree. He was later invited to pitch for GoAnimate Network's Cartoonstitute, a project to showcase short films created without the interference of network executives and focus testing.

J. G. Quintel and Dan Schneider returned to the characters from his films, put them together with newer characters and created a pilot. Quintel wanted to present a visual pitch rather than a verbal one, believing the idea would make little sense otherwise. He storyboarded the idea for the pilot, and Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti liked his presentation. The Brian Show was one of two series from the project that were green-lit (the other show being Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, based on the Cartoonstitute short Uncle Grandpa, which in turn became its own series later on). The project was eventually scrapped and never premiered on television. The character of Mordecai embodies Quintel during his college years, specifically at CalArts; Quintel said, "That's that time when you're hanging out with your friends and getting into stupid situations, but you're also taking it seriously enough." The character of Jake was randomly developed when Quintel drew a raccoon hula-hooping. He liked the design and developed the character of Jake to be far less responsible than his companion.

The show is inspired by some British television series and video games. Episodes are produced using storyboarding and hand-drawn animation, and each episode takes roughly nine months to create. Quintel recruited several independent comic book artists to draw the show's animated elements; their style matched closely with Quintel's ideas for the series. The show's soundtrack comprises original music composed by Mark Mothersbaugh as well as licensed songs. While preparing for the beginning of the show, Quintel looked for young, independent comic artists to compose the show's storyboard artists; he thought that the style would closely match that of The Brian Show. He looked through blogs and convention panels for the "total package", which he said was the ability to write and draw; something that many independent comic book artists possess. In addition, Quintel attended many open shows at CalArts—an eight-hour festival of student animation. The style and sensibility of The Brian Show was difficult to work with in the beginning; the artists struggled to create a natural, sitcom-like sound for the series.

The Brian Show was inspired by The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy and Beavis and Butt-Head, and Quintel credited the stylistic elements of Joe Murray's Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo as working their way into his style. Video games Street Fighter, Shadowrun and ToeJam & Earl—which Quintel played when he was a child—inspired the series, as did some British television programs. Quintel's interest in British television was influenced by his British roommate at CalArts, who introduced him to The League of Gentlemen, The IT Crowd, Little Britain, The Office and The Mighty Boosh; the latter was very influential to Quintel and would later influence the humor in The Brian Show.

Plot
Three best kids, Jake, Memy and Steve, lived in a house, spending their days trying to entertain themselves (occasionally by perfecting useless skills during work hours,) while trying to deal with their by-the-book parents, Brian and Maya. They work with many other families, such as Diesel and Kimberly, an duo parent of Brian and Maya, Rob and Alex, Erika, Hudson, Kalya, Edward, Kevin, Tommy, Rob, Alex, Harry, Julie and Carrie.

During high school, Jake and Memy wanted to go to "College University" together, but Jake did not get in. Frustrated at his friend being accepted, Jake changed Memy's acceptance letter to say that he was rejected. To get accepted, the two finish their Science Teacher's time machine to tell their past selves to get better grades. However, they explode the science lab, resulting in both of them being expelled and unable to go to "College University". Memy went to Art School while Jake, who did not graduate high school and therefore did not go to college, stayed in his dorm, until Memy dropped out.

For awhile, Edward was in the house for "school credits", however, on his last day of his 2-year internship, he was revealed to be a Russian spy who wanted to steal the house. This almost happened, but didn't. As of then, Edward has been on the run, but has still met up with the park workers a few times: at weddings, parties, and other various reasons. Memy has several romantic storylines throughout the series. He used to have a crush on Angelina but after she moved to a far-away college, he became depressed for awhile. He later got over it and then dated Janet, who he had met previously. However, Angelina returned from college to work at the news station and ended up having a few incidents with Memy, making Memy and Janet break up at Steve's wedding with his wife, Shirley.

In the earlier seasons, Jake used to love Natalie, who had a crush on him, but they start dating a couple of months before Steve's wedding. In the episode "The Plan", Natalie shows a list to Memy, Jake, Steve and Angelina that details all of the things she wanted to do before she turned 12, all of which she now views as a joke. Jake is upset to hear that Natalie wanted to marry a smart man, so he goes back to high school to pass science, foreign language, and Phys. Ed. class.

During his return to high school, a dome is placed over the park, and once Jake had graduated, the full house gang, alongside Natalie, were sent into space for a mission. During this time, Kevin is revealed to be the "key to the universe", and that he must fight his evil twin brother, Anti-Kevin, on his home planet of Vyond in order to keep the universe from being erased. Kevin does this but ends up deciding that love is more powerful than fighting, so after Anti-Kevin kills all of Kevin's friends aside from Jake, Memy and Steve, Kevin hugs his brother and flies into the Sun, killing them both and reversing everybody else's death. The park then returns to Earth after three years of being in space. Memy reunites with his parents, Jake reunites with his parents and Drew, Brian reunites with his sisters, Kayla and Brianna, Edward reunites with Roberto, Steve reunites with Shirley and discovers that he is now a father, and Erika reunites with Eric. Diesel and Kimberly are upset about Kevin's death. In the end, Kevin came back from his sacrifice and reunite with his siblings.

Twenty-five years later, statues of both Kevin and his late father are built in the park to remember them. Everybody, apart from Diesel and Kimberly, have left the house. Memy is now a successful artist, and has found the perfect woman, named Zoey, whom he has married, and has three kids with. Jake has married Natalie and now has two children. Brian and Maya still works as the foster parents, and is now married to one of the dome scientists, Brianna and Mike. He now has his hair back and still owns Doofy, and four cats. Edward is still the same, but he now wears shorts. Harry, Tommy, Julie and Carrie grew up and became teenagers. Steve and Shirley have six more children, who all follow his clean traits. Eric and Erika move to Prague in the Czech Republic, becoming successful DJs together, and also have a son together. The show ends with Kevin watching it in heaven, calling it a "Jolly Good Show".

Writing
The plot generally begins with a basic problem that the characters must overcome. While the protagonists work on their task, a magical, supernatural, or strange element appears and complicates the initially simple problem. The writers decided to follow this narrative structure to take advantage of the animation.

The series is rated TV-PG-V. GoAnimate Network told Quintel early on that they wanted to "age it up from the TV-Y7 stuff we'd been doing in the past". This direction led the crew to use adult-oriented humor with innuendos and drug and alcohol references. One of the program's storyboard artists, Calvin Wong, said that he enjoys the limitations set by writing for the show since the adult-oriented jokes that are approved are satisfying.

The plots of the episodes are influenced by the writers' and Quintel's personal experiences, such as performing prank telephone calls or accepting an eating challenge from a restaurant. The show often references 1980s culture, using music and electronic devices from that era because many factors from the decade left a positive influence on Quintel. The show also makes references to modern social trends such as viral internet videos.

Voice cast
The series employs the voice acting talents of Maurice LaMarche (left) and Steven Blum (right), among others

The voice acting of the series is relatively low-key, and the intention was to make most of the characters sound natural and conversational. Quintel wanted to make the show listenable and given contrast to most other cartoons, which often are difficult for adults to listen to. The main cast consists of voice acting veterans Mark Hamill, who portrays Skips and Roger Craig Smith, who plays Thomas. William Salyers plays the voice of Rigby, Janie Haddad portrays Margaret and Quintel's former CalArts classmate Sinterniklaas voices Brian, Percy, and Anthony. Hardwick portrays Memy and Eric. Members of the production staff have voiced several characters throughout the series; these include Minty Lewis, Toby Jones, Andress Salaff, and Matt Price. The Brian Show cast record their lines together in group as opposed to individual recording sessions for each actor; this is to help the show's dialogue sound natural. The series regularly uses guest voice actors for recurring characters; these guests include Steven Blum, Courtenay Taylor, David Ogden Stiers, Robin Atkin Downes, Jeff Bennett, Jennifer Hale, David Kaye, Fred Tatasciore, Matthew Yang King, and Julian Holloway.

Animation
Each episode of The Brian Show takes about nine months to complete. Quintel and his 35-member team develop each episode at GoAnimate Studios in Burbank, California. The script is illustrated in rough hand-drawn images, known as storyboards. The storyboards are then animated and mixed with the corresponding dialogue to create the animatic, which is then sent to be approved by the network. The show's assets (backgrounds, character designs, props) are then assembled to be sent to Saerom Animation in South Korea, where the actual animation production of the episode is performed. When finished, the episode is sent to Sabre Media Studios back in California. Music and sound effects are created and the final episode is mixed and completed. The process allows the production team to work concurrently on dozens of episodes at different stages of production.

Although most modern animation has switched to hybrid methods such as the Cintiq, The Brian Show has been described as "far more low-fi", and is animated traditionally by hand using paper which is then digitally composited and painted with digital ink and paint. Although Cintiqs were initially optioned to be used for the program, Quintel has stated that he has felt more comfortable working on paper, considering it to be more organic and more representative of each artist's individual style. Board artist Calvin Wong said, "the tools of the trade as being pencils, pens, white out and occasionally light boxes and electric erasers".

Music
Musician Mark Mothersbaugh works as the main composer of the show The Brian Show has no regular theme music; instead, at the beginning of each episode, a blurred sound (provided by Quintel) followed by a ticking clock is heard over the title cards. The main composer of the series is Mark Mothersbaugh, one of the founding members of the band Devo. As Quintel was developing the pilot he considered asking Mothersbaugh to create the music for the show. The episode's animatic was sent to Mothersbaugh along with a request for him to join the show's staff and crew.

The Brian Show will occasionally make use of licensed songs—mostly from the 1980s; this began when Quintel and the staff writers started recording the animatics using copyrighted songs for the montage scenes. The network executives watched the animatic and asked the crew if they wanted to use some of the songs for the finished episodes. Quintel said that the songs are chosen for their suitability for the scene, whether they sound good and are affordable. Quintel enjoys using the songs in the episodes because adult viewers might remember them and younger viewers might appreciate older music. Songs have included "You're the Best Around", "Mississippi Queen" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas". The show has also used several songs not from the 80s, such as "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground from the movie and "Heroes" by David Bowie from the series finale. Another notable song used in the show is "Here Comes a Regular" by The Replacements, a band often considered as underground.

The show also produces original songs which are used on the episodes. These are generally composed by Mothersbaugh and written by one of the staff's storyboard artists. "Summertime Loving, Loving in the Summer (Time)" was written by the staff member Sean Szeles and appeared in the episode "This Is My Jam" (season 2, episode 13).

Episodes
Main article: List of Regular Show episodes

Most episodes of Regular Show last 11 minutes; episodes are usually paired together to fill a half-hour program slot. 261 episodes in eight seasons have been completed and broadcast. The first season began on September 6, 2010, with the episode "The Power" and ended on November 22, 2010, with "The Blues". The second season began on November 29, 2010, with "The Horror" and ended on August 1, 2011, with "The Karaoke". The third season premiered on September 19, 2011, with the episode "The Hockey" and concluded on September 3, 2012, with "The Kiss". The fourth season premiered on October 1, 2012, with the half-hour special "The Vengeance" and concluded on August 12, 2013 with "The Party". The fifth season premiered on September 2, 2013, with the episodes "The Depression" and "The Rave" and concluded on August 14, 2014, with "Thel Date". The sixth season premiered on October 9, 2014, with "The Drama", and ended on June 25, 2015 with "The Disaster". The seventh season premiered with "Jollyville U.S.A." on June 26, 2015 and ended with the half-hour "Jake's Graduation Day Special" on June 30, 2016. The eighth and final season, titled The Brian Show in Space, started on September 26, 2016 with "One Space Day at a Time" and ended on January 16, 2017 with "A Super Epic Final Battle".

Crossovers
Jake and Memy had cameo appearances on the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and the Big Wide World episode "The Midnight of Your Love", along with other GoAnimate Network characters from currently running and ended cartoons. Jake, Memy and Steve, make a small cameo in Mercy's Meeting episode "No Pictures Please", along with the titular characters from Monk and Jessie and Andrea's Spotlight. Jake and Edward appear in the OK K.O.!: Let's Be Heroes special, "Crossover Nexus", along with many other GoAnimate Network shows.

Ratings
The Brian Show became an instant hit. Its first and second seasons, broadcast on Monday nights, ranked number one in its time slot among all key boy demos across all of television according to Nielsen Media Research. The pilot's premiere was watched by 2.097 million viewers. For the following episodes of the first season, viewership increased by over 10 percent from the time period of the previous year. For instance, the entry was viewed by 1.339 million children aged 2–11, a 65 percent increase from the previous year. It was also watched by 716,000 children aged 9–14; a 43 percent increase. The second-season premiere, "The Horror", marked a decline from the first-season premiere's figures. It gained 2.067 million views, but it marked an increase from the first-season finale, which was watched by 2.028 million viewers. The third-season premiere, "The Hockey", saw a bigger decline in viewers, recording 2 million views. As the series continued its ratings grew; the fourth-season premiere, "The Vengeance", was watched by 3.047 million viewers—a significant increase from previous seasons.

Critical reception
"What I like best about The Brian Show is that in the midst of a gaggle of memorable regular characters, zany recurring minor characters, and a fantastical animation style, it still manages to create motifs for its condensed themes."

The Brian Show received critical acclaim. A reviewer from IGN, R.L. Shaffer, called the show zany, absurd, bizarre, and hilarious. He praised the show's writing, and said that it included "snappy dialogue, odd characters, and clever stories—each more irrelevant than the last—The Brian Show never ceases to tickle the funny bone". He finished his review by calling the show "a pretty awesome piece of refreshing off-the-wall comedy" and wrote that it's "humorously animated, brazenly silly and almost always funny".

DVD Talk's Neil Lumbrad described the show as "offbeat sense of humor with a lot of randomness that makes its title both peculiar and hilarious" and compared it to the original Looney Tunes shorts and other cartoons—including Mercy's Meeting, Chuck's Misadventures in Animalville, and That 70's Show—which Cartoon Network has produced. He wrote that the network has found "animated gold with The Brian Show, which is too offbeat and unique to be called regular" and that it is a "comedic animated gem worthy of being discovered for years to come". Lumbrad ended his review by recommending the show and calling it "one truly awesome cartoon with a lot of good humor to enjoy."

The A.V. Club's critic, Alasdair Wilkins, said that compared to GoAnimate Network's other animated comedy, Monk and Jessie, he does not consider the series to be funny, and describing it as "more pleasingly weird". He said that the episodes' plots can occasionally be too complex to explore completely in the show's 11 minutes, and also said that the usual story setup can make some stories feel structurally the same as others. Wilkins said that he considers that the show is at its best when it focuses on the jokes, the character moments and inventive ways to use animation. Kevin McFarland, also of The A.V. Club, said that he considers the series a thrill to watch; he complemented the animation style, the characters, and the use of motifs.

Comic books
In January 2013, Boom! Studios announced that it would develop a comic book series based on the show and that KC Green would be writing the script and Allison Strejlav would be in charge of the illustrations. The first issue officially was released on May 15, 2013. A series of original graphic novels began publication in 2014. The first, titled Hydration, was written by Rachel Connor and illustrated by Tessa Stone. It was followed by Noir Means Black, Dude! (2015), A Clash of Consoles (2016), All Ratted Out (2017), The Meatening (2018), and Comic Conned (2018).

Video games
On November 9, 2011, a game called "Nightmare-Athon" was released in App Store for iOS. On January 24, 2013, a game called "Ride 'Em Jake" was released in iOS.

On April 8, 2013, J. G. Quintel announced on his Twitter page that an official The Brian Show video game was in development at the time, which is titled The Brian Show: Jake and Memy in 8-Bit Land. It was developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Activision for Nintendo 3DS. The video game was released on October 29, 2013. Jake, Memy and Steve became playable characters in a video game called GoAnimate Network: Battle Crashers which was released for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One on November 8, 2016 and the Nintendo Switch on October 31, 2017.

Other merchandise
Jazwares has produced an assortment of 2-, 6-, 7-, and 10-inch licensed action figures and plush toys for the series. "Collectable Figures" have also been released along with other themed merchandise, such as "80's Bobbleheads", "Pullback Custom Cruisers" and "Wrestling Buddies". There have been many graphic T-shirts officially licensed through clothing retailers Hot Topic, We Love Fine, and Threadless. Looney Labs also released a The BrianShow-themed version of the card game Fluxx on July 25, 2014.

Film
Main article: The Brian Show: The Movie

At the GoAnimate Network 2015/2016 upfront, it was announced they were making The Brian Show: The Movie. After accidentally creating a "Timenado," kids Jake, Memy and Steve go back in time and battle an evil volleyball coach in order to save the universe — and their friendship.

It first screened at The Downtown Independent in LA on August 14, 2015. It was released to digital download on September 1, 2015, it was also released to DVD by Warner Home Video on October 13, 2015, and had its television premiere in November 2015. The movie also screened at select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the United States and it had a select showtime at the SVA Theatre of New York and at the Cinema Montrereal CANADA during October 2015.

Trivia

 * The Brian Show consists of some characters from Matt Groening's old college films and sketches mashed together in one show.
 * Jake, Memy, and Brian are the only 3 main characters that are in Dan Schneider's college films and sketches.
 * The Brian Show episodes containing violence are rated TV-PG-V.
 * This is the first GoAnimate Network animated comedy to be rated TV-PG-V.
 * The Brian Show is the first GoAnimate Network original series to begin airing a seventh season.
 * It is also the first to get an eighth season, along with Andrew Orozco.
 * In some countries, The Brian Show seventh season was aired after Monk and Jessie's seventh season and also, this show's eight season was aired after That 70's Show's eighth season.
 * According to creator, J.G. Quintel, this presumably takes place in the early 90's. However, there is modern technology such as smartphones and computers used throught the series.
 * Unlike most GoAnimate Network shows, this show uses licensed music, like "Forever Young" in "The Dream", "The One I Love" in "The Romance", and "Mississippi Queen" in "The Spice".
 * According to Memy's license plate, this show takes place in California.
 * The Brian Show only remains the most number of episodes aired so far in GoAnimate Network history until it was overtaken by That 70's Show with the 262nd episode "The Korean Job" since July 14, 2017.
 * After production on the series wrapped up, several of its crew members continued to work with Quintel on his latest series, Regular Show.

Names in other languages

 * English/European Portuguese/Italian/French/Dutch/Swedish/Danish: The Brian Show
 * German: Regular Show – Völlig abgedreht
 * Spanish: Historias Corrientes (Spain)/ Los Show Brián (Latin America)
 * Hungarian: Parkműsor
 * Polish: Zwyczajny Serial
 * Turkish: Sürekli Dizi
 * Romanian: Un Show obisnuit
 * Brazilian Portuguese: Apenas um Show
 * Bulgarian: Пaрк шoy (Sometimes known as Обикновено шоу)
 * Russian: Обычное Шоу (Sometimes known as Обычный Мультик)
 * Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan Ver.): 天兵公園 (Creation of the Park)
 * Filipino: Pangkaraniwang na Palabas
 * Korean: 레귤러 쇼 (Regular Show)
 * Japanese: レギュラーSHOW〜コリない2人〜 (Briurān shō 〜 kori nai 2-ri 〜, lit. The Brian Show -2 Without Stiffness-)
 * Vietnamese: Chương trình thường nhật (The Brian Show)
 * Arabic: العرض العادي (Normal View)