History Trivia / Freakazoid

* RoleReprisal: In the German dub, Frank Schaff, Santiago Ziesmer and Ranja Bonalana reprised their roles as the Warner Siblings in their short appearances, and Jan Spitzer returned as Brain.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/DavidWarner is primarily known for playing serious characters but he completely lets loose and plays the Lobe with a manic energy. On the DVD commentaries, the production crew notes that this is one of the few straight comedic roles Warner's taken in a decades long career (the other is on the short-lived series ''WeseternAnimation/{{Toonsylvania}}'').

** Dexter Douglas isn't the only [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom teen with a superhero second identity]] that Creator/DavidKaufman has voiced

** And more recently, the [[{{Pantheon/Crime}} God of Kidnapping]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The pilot episode's depiction of the internet, particularly of how it was obscure and difficult to access.

** The entire character of Professor Jones, voiced by Jonathan "Dr. Smith" Harris.

** The original idea was for the series to be a fairly straightforward superhero show with comedic overtones (SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker as a good guy) with Creator/BruceTimm in charge. Creator/StevenSpielberg, however, asked for a full-blown comedy. Timm bowed out, as he honestly thought he wouldn't do a full-blown comedy concept justice. This is perhaps a textbook example of ExecutiveMeddling ''improving'' a show. (The ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries New Batman Adventures]]'' episode "Beware The Creeper" is a glimpse of how Timm and Creator/PaulDini would have done ''Freakazoid!'')

** The show was never popular amongst WB executives, who didn't like how the ratings skewed much higher than they intended. It ultimately ended after two seasons when a regime change in studio management decided to clear just about everything out of their SaturdayMorningCartoon lineup. To justify this, they instituted an ad gimmick called "Big Kids Come First", where all the adult-skewing cartoons were aired earlier than the ones skewing for younger kids, making sure that nobody watched anything and ensuring that ratings dropped low enough to justify a massive overhaul.

** In "The Chip", Guiterrez (Ricardo Montalban) gives Dexter a speech paraphrased from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. Heck, Guiterrez would later appear in an episode entitled "The Wrath of Guiterrez".

** Kenneth Mars plays a psychiatrist named "Dr. Gunther Hunterhanker", which was explicitly said in commentaries to have been written to be performed like [[YoungFrankenstein Inspector Kemp]].

** Paul Rugg as Freakazoid. It was more of a fluke, as no suitable actor had been found and Rugg was just trying to provide an example of how the voice should sound. However, Steven Spielberg heard the performance and thought it was great, so Rugg inadvertently got the role.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/DavidWarner is primarily known for playing serious characters but he completely lets loose and plays the Lobe with a manic energy. On the DVD commentaries, the production crew notes that this is one of the few straight comedic roles Warner's taken in a decades long career (the other is on the short-lived series ''{{Toonsylvania}}'').

** The original idea was for the series to be a fairly straightforward superhero show with comedic overtones (SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker as a good guy) with Bruce Timm in charge. Spielberg, however, asked for a full-blown comedy. Timm bowed out, as he honestly thought he wouldn't do a full-blown comedy concept justice. This is perhaps a textbook example of ExecutiveMeddling ''improving'' a show. (The ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries New Batman Adventures]]'' episode "Beware The Creeper" is a glimpse of how Timm and Dini would have done ''Freakazoid!'')

** A second ''Toby Danger'' short was written, but it was dropped due to the aforementioned switch from segmented shows to half-hour episodes (it should be noted that the episode was originally intended to be a segment on ''Animaniacs'', but was instead put in to this series to fill space for one episode).

* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Dexter Douglas is voiced by Creator/DavidKaufman.
** Cosgrove is voiced by [[WesternAnimation/{{Up}} Carl Fredricksen]] and Guiterrez is voiced by '''[[SayMyName KHHAAAAAAN!]]'''...I mean...Ricardo Montalban.
** One episode features Creator/TimCurry as a guest voice. In one scene, he [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow sounds VERY similar to a more famous character he played.]] He Also sounds just like [[MightyMax the Skull Master]] and Pretorius from ''WesternAnimation/TheMask'' animated TV show.
** Freakazoid has the same voice as Mr. Director from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}''. Froynlaven!
** On a more obscure note, David Warner plays The Lobe using the same voice he used for [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Ra's Al Ghul]] and [[{{Toonsylvania}} Dr. Vic Frankenstein]], only played more comically.
** Craig Ferguson, host of ''The Late, Late Show'' (and the actor who played Drew's boss on ''The Drew Carey Show''), provided the voice of Roddy [=MacStew=].
** Ben Stein shows up to present us all with Relax-O-Vision.
** Professor Jones is ... [[Series/LostInSpace Dr. Smith]].
** One-shot villain Deadpan was voiced by Bebe Neuwirth, known for playing the [[IncrediblyLamePun very deadpan]] Lilith Sterin on Series/{{Cheers}} & Series/{{Frasier}}.
** Vorn the Unspeakable was played by [[Series/NightCourt Bull Shannon]]
** Mo-Ron is StanFreberg doing his classic Pete Puma voice.
** Fan Boy is [[WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand Booster]].
** The Nerdator is [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Killer Croc.]]
** The villain Invisibo is Creator/CoreyBurton, whose most famous roles include Brainiac in the Franchise/{{DCAU}}, Shockwave and Spike Witwicky in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', and Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt, among others, in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''.

** Vorn the Unspeakable was played by [[NightCourt Bull Shannon]]

** One episode features TimCurry as a guest voice. In one scene, he [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow sounds VERY similar to a more famous character he played.]] He Also sounds just like [[MightyMax the Skull Master]] and Pretorius from ''WesternAnimation/TheMask'' animated TV show.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The show suffered from this due to being popular with [[PeripheryDemographic attracting the wrong demographics]] -- at least, in the eyes of the network executives.

** The series always skewed towards an older audience and there was serious consideration towards just putting it in prime-time (as was done with ''PinkyAndTheBrain''). This is part of the reason why the second season largely had half-hour episodes instead of ThreeShorts.

** Mo-Ron is Music/MichaelJackson (no, really).

* CreatorBacklash: Freakazoid's "low bridge" chant in ''Dance of Doom'' was hastily adlibbed by actor/writer Paul Rugg and was only meant as a place-holder until he and the rest of the crew could think of something better. When it ended up being in the finished episode, he was not pleased, to say the least.

** Mo-Ron is Music/MichaelJackson.
* NamesTheSame: The entire series and its protagonist have nothing to do with the song "Freak-A-Zoid" by Midnight Star.
* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/DavidWarner is primarily known for playing serious characters but he completely lets loose and plays the Lobe with a manic energy. On the DVD commentaries, the production crew notes that this is one of the few straight comedic roles Warner's taken in a decades long career.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The show suffered from this due to [[PeripheryDemographic attracting the wrong demographics]].

** See that SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome from the first episode? Originally Freakazoid was just supposed to say "No!", but Paul Rugg improvised the rant.
** According to the DVD commentary, it apparently went on for over 10 minutes, becoming increasingly disjointed and profane. It got cut off before the swearing started.

* ActorAllusion: In "The Chip", Guiterrez (Ricardo Montalban) gives Dexter a speech paraphrased from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. Heck, Guiterrez would later appear in an episode entitled "The Wrath of Guiterrez".

** Also the entire character of Professor Jones, voiced by Jonathan "Dr. Smith" Harris.

* DescendedCreator: Paul Rugg as Freakazoid. It was more of a fluke, as no suitable actor had been found and Rugg was just trying to provide an example of how the voice should sound. However, Steven Spielberg heard the performance and thought it was great, so Rugg inadvertently got the role.

* ExecutiveMeddling: See WhatCouldHaveBeen for Spielberg invoking this trope in an ultimately positive way.

* FanNickname: JustForFun/CandleJack also goes by Jack Candle, "that spooky boogieman guy", the Boogieman (the for-real one), and the Ghost Who Needs More Rope. [[LoopholeAbuse Note that half of these only exist to talk about him without invoking]] SpeakOfTheDevil.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Dexter Douglas is voiced by Creator/DavidKaufman.
** Likewise, Cosgrove is voiced by [[WesternAnimation/{{Up}} Carl Fredricksen]] and Guiterrez is voiced by '''[[SayMyName KHHAAAAAAN!]]'''...I mean...Ricardo Montalban.
** One episode features TimCurry as a guest voice. In one scene, he [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow sounds VERY similar to a more famous character he played.]]
*** To be fair, Tim Curry often sounds like that, and as a result also sounds just like [[MightyMax the Skull Master]] and Pretorius from ''WesternAnimation/TheMask'' animated TV show.

* ThrowItIn: See that SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome from the first episode? Originally Freakazoid was just supposed to say "No!", but Paul Rugg improvised the rant.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original idea was for the series to be a fairly straightforward superhero show with comedic overtones (SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker as a good guy) with Bruce Timm in charge. Spielberg, however, asked for a full-blown comedy. Timm bowed out, as he honestly thought he wouldn't do a full-blown comedy concept justice. This is perhaps a textbook example of ExecutiveMeddling ''improving'' a show. (The ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries New Batman Adventures]]'' episode "Beware The Creeper" is a glimpse of how Timm and Dini would have done ''Freakazoid!'')

*** One episode features TimCurry as a guest voice. In one scene, he [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow sounds VERY similar to a more famous character he played.]]

** Professor Jones is ... [[LostInSpace Dr. Smith]].