Sealab 2021 was an American comedy animated television series shown on Cartoon Network's adult-oriented programming block, Adult Swim. Each episode was 15 minutes long, including commercials. Like Cartoon Network's Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, the animation used stock footage from a 1970's Hanna-Barbera cartoon, in this case the short-lived, environmentally-themed Sealab 2020, along with original animation. Sealab 2021 was produced by 7030 Productions for Cartoon Network's Williams Street Studios. After five seasons, the final episode aired in April 2005. Despite rumors of Cartoon Network cancelling the series, the show was in fact ended by decision of 7030, who felt it was the right time to move on to new projects. Sealab is rated TV-14.
Characters and premise
Template:Spoiler The show is set one year after the time frame of Sealab 2020. During this year, the crew has slowly gone crazy, and as this has happened, the crew has spent more time goofing off in various ways rather than doing any serious work. Continuity is frequently ignored; more often than not, the entire installation is destroyed at the end of the episode. While the show contains many references to the pop culture of the 1980s-2000s, and appears to be set in the year 2021, John F. Kennedy is President, and Robert Kennedy is his Attorney General, suggesting that it is in fact still the early 1960's.
Main characters
Captain Hazel "Hank" Murphy is the ostensible leader of the crew. Unfortunately, he's also the most deranged member, and quite unfit for service; instead of providing any real leadership, he's either running a pirate radio show, complaining about his missing Happy Cake oven, or playing golf near the station's reactor core (among other things). He's bitter about getting beat up as a child, so he likes to sucker punch people when he can. His most hated enemies are Bizarro Murphy and Evans from Pod 6 (Murphy also despises Pod 6), who he thinks is named "Eggers." Murphy was voiced by Harry Goz until his death on September 5, 2003 from cancer. After that, Murphy was described as having left Sealab to fight in the "Great Spice Wars," probably a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune series. In Brazil, Murphy is voiced by Guilherme Briggs.
Captain Bellerophon "Tornado" Shanks earned his position as Sealab's new captain by answering a help-wanted ad. A retired football coach and lovable redneck, he has all of Murphy's shortsighted idiocy combined with a Southern charm. Tornado's leadership qualities have led him to coach the crew in a football game against killer robots, declare Sealab a sovereign nation, warp the minds of Sealab's orphan population, and assert that a huge tumor on his head would go away through prayer alone, forcing the crew to shrink themselves and get injected into his body in order to save him. Late in the series, Shanks dropped his southern accent because "everyone thought I (Shanks) was gay." Shanks is voiced by Michael Goz, son of the late Harry Goz.
Debbie DuPree (a.k.a. "White" Debbie) (voiced by Kate Miller) is the token female of the crew, a marine biologist, and blonde and beautiful to boot. Being the token female, she tends to get upset when the guys do chauvinistic things, but being a stereotypical blonde, she's not exactly all there herself (and she tends to hit on the guys as much as they hit on her). She has a sexual relationship going on with Doctor Quinn -- when she feels like it, of course -- and she's slept with Murphy at least once.
Derek "Stormy" Waters (voiced by Ellis Henican) is the station's resident pretty boy (his actual function on the crew has never been revealed). Very childish, he's all looks and no brains most of the time; he barely knows what's going on around him. He greatly enjoys cole-slaw. His stupidity has gotten him into trouble several times, mainly with "Black" Debbie (who thinks he's a racist). "Gonna go show Quinn this thing in my hand."
Doctor Quentin Q. Quinn (voiced by Brett Butler) is the brains of the outfit. As the only member of the crew with any formal education and any sort of common sense left, he's the one that ends up running the station (and, in some cases, trying to keep it from exploding). He's also the token black guy. He and Debbie have an on-again, off-again relationship. Quinn is actually a cyborg; an illness in his youth forced him to transplant his human brain into a replica robot body. Although Quinn dramatically revealed this in the pilot episode "I, Robot" it doesn't really affect his character that much, and it is only rarely mentioned again throughout the series.
Jodene Sparks (voiced by Bill Lobley) is the station's sarcastic, scheming radio operator, and co-conspirator with Captain Murphy in most of his escapades (though often as a front to further his own plans). In a dream of Murphy's, Sparks is portrayed as also being the head of a terror organization located inside of a mountain, where his minions refer to him as "The Overlord". Sparks is never seen without his headset or out of his rolling chair. He claims that he's crippled but in fact he is just lazy.
Marco Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar Gabriel Garcia Marquez (voiced by Erik Estrada) is the station's engineer, macho man, and wannabe Latin lover. He's tried to seduce both females on the station at various times, with limited success. He also has a thing for CHiPs, which of course starred Estrada himself. One of his catchlines is "I'll give it a shot of Vitamin M!" Captain Murphy gave Marco the nickname "Mailbox Head" in the episode "Happy Cake!". Note to the names: Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is the main character of the Spaniard epic XI century poem "El Cantar del Mío Cid" while Gabriel García Márquez is clearly a reference to the 1982 Literary Nobel Prize winner journalist and novelist from Colombia.
Minor characters
Debbie Love (a.k.a. "Black" Debbie) (voiced by Angela Gibbs) is both the only other adult female and the only other black person on the station. She teaches school to Dolphin Boy and the rest of Sealab's orphans, is very proud of her blackness (she's fought with Stormy over this at least once), and has been seduced by Marco several times. The former Heisman Trophy winner has also been known to get stoned off a hookah pipe, while loudly asserting that in full compliance with standards and practices (Cartoon Network's censoring department) that she's enjoying the pipe "in a drug-free way." (In one episode, her name is displayed on a monitor as Debbie Allison.)
Sharko is Marco's interspecies son, from when Marco "put his human penis in Sharko's shark mother's vagina," (referred to as a "shark-gina") as is painfully stated in every episode he appears in. Sharko is scatterbrained and flighty, and longs to know as much as he can learn about his father. Created after a short run of episodes with no spoken lines from Marco, and with Sharko making reference to Marco being dead, Sharko's introduction fueled rumors that Erik Estrada had left the series. The two finally meet in Season Four, which Marco responds to by not recognizing Sharko and shooting him with a Mini-Uzi, though not fatally.
Dolphin Boy is a little, chubby boy (who looks to be about 10) that talks in dolphin noises. He's a member of Black Debbie's class, and is the target of endless fat jokes.
Doctor Ilad Virjay (voiced by Adam Reed) is the station's official doctor and in-house surgeon. He has been known to use the surgery's gas mask on himself. He also once headed his own rockabilly band.
Chopper Dave is a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Navy. He is also a werewolf, and (in the show) has his own popular television show and made-for-TV movies.
Hesh Hepplewhite is the station's intern, and quite often the whipping boy as well. It was revealed that he is Jewish. Nasal-voiced, smart-mouthed, and whiny, Hesh isn't well liked by most of the crew, and thus works in the part of the station furthest away from them (the reactor core). Exposure to intense radiation will turn Hesh into "Monster Hesh," an Incredible Hulk-like alter ego with a huge face on his torso (instead of a head) and limbs which lack hands and feet. Hesh has a habit of continually referring to himself in the third person. The character is voiced by independent rapper and former Cartoon Network staffer mc chris (Chris Ward). He also "wants married sex." When Hesh cross-dresses, he prefers to be called "Heshina".
Evans is Captain Murphy's most hated enemy. Murphy thinks his name is "Eggers," and Evans just goes along with it. In one episode, he stole the Murphmobile (Murphy's personal mode of transportation), and ran Murphy over with it.
Carl is an overweight man who works in the reactor room with Hesh, barely tolerating him. He often ends up killed by whatever crisis the crew is currently facing. Carl is voiced by Sealab 2021 artist Christian Danley.
Fatass McBlobbicus is an acne-infested, bespectacled member of Black Debbie's class. While Dolphin Boy is chubby, McBlobicus is severely overweight. While substituting for Debbie one day, Quinn didn't believe that McBlobbicus' name was real, but a quick check of the class roster proved him wrong.
The Bizarros are a group that resemble the main Sealab characters only with black uniforms and other noticeable features. Bizarro Murphy has a scar and an eyepatch. Bizarro Debbie has a cyborg arm and pink hair. Bizarro Stormy has ice hair and can breathe ice cubes. He feels the need to constantly point out "I am Bizarro Stormy." Bizarro Marco has a metal jaw with sharp teeth and Bizarro Sparks is a head in a floating jar. The strangest is Bizarro Quinn, who hatches out of an egg. It is short, white, has orange hair, a beak, gangly hands without arms, and an allergy to peanuts. The Bizarros have a tendency to use the word "Bizarro" almost every time they say something, and sometimes encourage others to. The Bizarros are a reference to the DC Comics villain "Bizarro", an imperfect clone of Superman who is one of that hero's more memorable villains. During Bizarro's appearances in Hanna-Barbera's productions of Super Friends, his speech was very disjointed, and the Bizarros of Sealab share a similar impediment.
"Gay Guy" Lance is a stereotypical gay man. He is fit, has a mustache and doesn't wear a shirt. He thinks that Shanks is gay because of his southern accent, which he dropped for that reason.
"Squishface" A gloop that Murphy bought and gave some liquor to, resulting in an episode spoof of the Star Trek episodes dealing with tribbles, only usings gloops. Sadly, this loveable, stinky thing met its end when it and its progeny possessed Murphy's brain and tried to take over Sealab and got themselved torched.
Episode list and original air dates
DVD Boxsets
Season Releases
| DVD Name | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|
| Season One | July 20 2004 | This two disc boxset contains the first 13 episodes (I, Robot through Swimming in Oblivion), along with Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume Two. |
| Season Two | February 1 2005 | This two disc boxset contains the second set of 13 episodes (Der Dieb through Return to Oblivion) was released alongside The Brak Show Volume 1 DVD. Unlike Season 1, which had sparse special features, Season 2 had commentaries for all thirteen episodes, an animatic for the unseen episode "Ronnie," and other assorted bonus features- many of which involve women in bikinis. |
| Season Three | July 12 2005 | This two disc boxset contains the third set 13 episodes (Tourist Season through Neputati), with two unseen episodes and the animatic of a third unseen episode, commentary for four episodes, and other features. |
| Season Four | 2006 | This two disc boxset will contain the final 13 episodes (Isla de Chupacabra through Legacy of Laughter) This will most likely be relased along side The Brak Show Volume 2 and Space Ghost Coast to Coast Volume 4. |
Fignuts
Fignuts is a term originating from Sealab 2021. It was often used by Captain Murphy in the episode "Radio Free Sealab". It has later appeared on Sealab 2021 merchandise such as t-shirts and stickers. It is never fully explained what the definition of fignuts is.
See also
External links
- Official Sealab 2021 Website
- Theme song by Calamine
- Clunky Robot Blog and artwork by Christian Danley, who worked on the show
- Sealab 2021 at TV.com
- Sealab 2021 at IMDB
- mackwilliams.com Blog and artwork by Mack Williams, who worked on the show
- mc chris Official site of Chris Ward, who worked on the show
- Ellis Henican Official site of the voice of Stormy
- Sealab Message Board (Fan Forum)
- Soylent Forums Popular messageboard which also provides discussion for Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Futurama