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The bestest friends ever.

Harvey Beaks (formerly known as Bad Seeds) is an animated series on Nickelodeon created by C.H. Greenblatt, the creator of Chowder and former storyboard artist/writer for Spongebob Squarepants. It ran from 2015 to 2017.

The series focuses on the eponymous Harvey Beaks, a sweet, well-meaning bird, who's best friends with two rambunctious wild children named Fee and Foo. While their companionship might seem odd, the trio's bond grows ever stronger as Harvey learns to step outside of his comfort zone and take big chances, resulting in many misadventures in the magical forest of Littlebark Grove that they call home.

Supporting characters include Harvey's loving parents, Miriam and Irving Beaks, and Harvey's other friends: a party-loving bear named Technobear, Rooter the survivalist boar, an obnoxious owl named Princess, a daydreaming bird named Piri Piri, Kratz the miserable skunk, Dade the stick-in-the-mud rabbit, and Claire the timid fox.

The series premiered on March 28th, 2015 and was confirmed to be renewed for a second season on June 21st, 2015, which started airing on June 13th, 2016 with the episode The New Bugaboo, in which Harvey's baby sister finally hatches from her egg. However, it has also been announced that it will also be the final season of the show, with the series moving to Nicktoons in 2017. Nevertheless, the show has proven to be much beloved by viewers and critics alike, earning itself nominations at the Emmy and Annie Awards, as well as a decent-sized fanbase who find its simple and charming stories to be highly endearing.

The last episode of the series aired on December 29th, 2017.


Tropes:

  • Aerith and Bob: Most characters have fairly normal first and last names, but there's a few oddball names out there. Most notably Piri Piri.
    • The twins Fee and Foo have an excuse, given that they lived in the woods together since they were little. They probably named themselves.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Played for Laughs at the end of "Night Maid," where Moff briefly forgets the lesson he and Littlebark learned about littering.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Fee and Foo aren't exactly liked by the other inhabitants of the forest. Their behavior has also gotten them banned from swimming in Wetbark Lake. Although how the other kids feel about Fee and Foo seems to change from episode to episode. One moment they don't like them, the next moment they're just fine with them. And in some cases they're afraid of them. Especially when Fee is angry. Dade in particular is the only one who is constantly shown disliking Fee and Foo.
    • The amount of trouble the twins cause for the other kids also seems to vary. Sometimes they play pranks on a regular basis, sometimes they're indifferent. This may contribute to the changing opinions of the other children, as they don't do anything that anyone seems to hold much of a grudge over for very long.
  • Ambiguous Ending: "The Finger" ends with the protagonists failing to decipher the mystery of the titular Finger, but realize that there are some things you'll never fully know or understand and the best thing to do is try to make the best of things.
  • Amusing Injuries: Almost all episodes including ones where Officer Fredd electroshocks troublemakers to subdue and incapacitate them with the use of his gloves that double as stun guns or tasers. He always shouts out "BA-ZAP" every time he electroshocks lawbreakers.
  • Animesque: Claire's fantasy sequences in "Buds Before Studs".
  • Art Shift: "It's Christmas, You Dorks!" has segments of stop motion animation interspersed between scenes of traditional animation.
  • Babysitting Episode: "Certified Babysitter", in which Harvey takes care of his unhatched sister. However, his parents have left Jeremy to take care of him as well, to the frustration of Harvey, who wants to prove that he can be a responsible babysitter.
  • Badly Battered Babysitter: Jeremy suffers this in "Comet Night!" — even though the baby in question is an egg. Also happens to Hanzi in "Mr. Borks and Mrs. Borks", although the cirsumstances are left mysterious.
  • Balloon Belly: Harvey gets one in "The Split" from having to eat lots of sandwiches with Dade after having just eaten a really big one with Fee and Foo.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Many of the characters, notably Harvey and Fee.
  • Big Sister Bully: Claire's older sister, based on what Claire says about her. Apparently, she polishes her many trophies with her younger sister's tears!
  • Birthday Episode: The Season 1 finale features two birthdays — Havey's and Fee and Foo's.
  • Bittersweet Ending: "The End and the Beginning". Fee and Foo finally find their parents, but are forced to leave Littlebark Grove to be with them. Despite promising to stay in touch and that they'll visit him again (and possibility vice-versa), their departure leaves Harvey sad and depressed. His parents help him through it by pointing out that he still has the memories of all the good times they shared, how they helped him grow and change as a person, and that a part of them will always be with him. In the climax, Harvey goes to the playground, and uses the swing to take him past the "safety line" etched into a nearby tree, showing how Fee and Foo helped him become bolder and braver, and that those experiences will remain with him forever. In the final moments of the episode, a letter from the twins arrives in their friend's mailbox, and the possibility exists that they might see Harvey again.
  • Bowdlerization: On the UK version of Nicktoons TV, the episode "The Blister" is edited to remove Blister spraying himself in the face with a fire extinguisher (as the UK censors consider is dangerous and imitable behavior).
  • Break the Cutie: Dade in "Wade Is Cooler Than Dade". The poor guy gets practically abused by his little brother to the point where he breaks down in tears.
    • Has happened to Harvey occasionally.
  • Bros Before Hoes: Technobear turns down a girl asking for a dance in "Nightclub Night" so he can help out Harvey.
  • …But He Sounds Handsome: From "Someone's Stealing My Stuff", as Harvey disguises himself as a thief to grab the attention of the mob looking for who did what the episode's title says and the detective who "finds" the thief.
    Harvey: You'll never get me, Harvey Beaks! Even though you're such a cool and smart detective.
  • Childhood Friends: Irving and Moff.
  • Christmas Episode: The simply titled "It's Christmas, You Dorks!", an anthology musical episode inspired by Fantasia.
  • Chromatic Arrangement: Harvey with his blue feathers, Fee (red/magenta fur and hair), and her brother Foo (Orange fur).
  • Cold Opening: Every episode uses one before the title cards.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In "Anti-Valentine's Day", Harvey misses the point of the holiday, which Fee lampshades.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: "Fee and Foo's Birthday". Virtually every character who had appeared in the show to that point appears (including one-time characters like Jackie Slitherstein), Irving and his buddies bring back their party band from "Garage Band", Miriam and the girls reform their group from "Comet Night!", and so on and so forth.
  • The Cover Changes the Meaning: In "The Negatives of Being Positively Charged" Fee and Foo's song is the Irving Berlin song "What'll I Do" with some lyrics changed.
    • The same thing happens in "Old Fashioned Dade", where he, Fee, and Foo sing "We all love Harvey", with a rhythm similar to "I love the nightlife".
  • Creator Thumbprint: Similar to Chowder, C.H. Greenblatt's previous show, Harvey Beaks features child voice actors voicing the children in the series (except Dade and Princess).
  • Darker and Edgier: The series itself is pretty much this in comparison to the sillier, yet very poorly-received Nicktoons before it, Sanjay and Craig, Breadwinners, and Pig Goat Banana Cricket.
  • Dare to Be Badass: A theme of the show Harvey is trying to break out of his meekness, with Fee and Foo helping him along.
  • Did Not Do the Bloody Research: In "Yeti Ready" Rooter's dad Mitch, who is Australian, says "bloody".
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • "Pee-Choo", Harvey is determined to get banned so that he can join Fee and Foo in getting launched into the air from the lake. After going through everything possible, he finally gets banned and can get launched with his friends. He forgets until it actually happened that he's afraid of heights.
      Harvey: THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!!
    • "Why Are You Even Friends?": Determined to prove he and Harvey are best friends, Dade glues himself to Harvey's back. Because of Dade's weight, he ends up crushing Harvey and nearly drowns them in the lake.
  • Enchanted Forest: The show's setting is a vast magical forest full of wonder and mystery. Perfect for children like Harvey and his friends to explore.
  • Establishing Character Moment: As they're Scatting at the start of "Pee-Choo!", the main trio comes across a stack of rocks and each of them briefly interacts with it in turn. Harvey takes the fallen top rock and neatly places it back on top of the stack, Fee picks up the same rock and throws it away, and Foo picks up the next rock and wears it on his head.
  • Everybody Cries: Towards the end of the episode "The End and the Beginning", Harvey, Fee, and Foo briefly cry together when Fee and Foo prepare to move away with their recently-found parents.
  • Evolving Credits: The second season intro features some new shots, as well as the induction of Michelle, having hatched from her egg in the season premiere.
  • Eye Scream: At the end of "Pee-Choo!":
    Harvey: So, I'm not a monster?
    Fee: (beans him in the eye) Don't ask stupid questions!
    Harvey: Cool.| Foo: I can see your tush!
    • In the same episode, Fee threatens the rest of the forest's inhabitants that if they don't get Harvey banned from the lake, then she was going to "let Foo do something really gross to them".
      Foo: I'm going to lick your eyeballs!
    • Barely avoided in "The Negatives of Being Positively Charged" when Fee tries tucking Foo in from a distance with a sharp stick.
    • In "Someone's Stealing My Stuff" Harvey accidentally pokes Fee in the eye with a stick while trying to get her attention.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Harvey probably should've known beforehand that giving an "Anti-Valentine's Day" card to "someone special" probably didn't mean to give it to his parents.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: The weapons Les Squirrels use are slingshots loaded with acorns, but they're still designed to look as much like real pistols as possible.
  • Fantastic Racism: "Ghost Problem" is about Fee having to get over her prejudice against tree spirits. It takes a Karmic Transformation plot to make her change her ways.
  • Fantasy Helmet Enforcement:
    • In "The Rentl Bike", Harvey refuses to ride his bike without a helmet, even while Randl is chasing him. Later, he fashions a helmet for Foo out of an acorn.
    • In "The Rebel", Harvey wears a helmet while sliding down a bannister.
  • Fantasy Twist: Subverted in "The Finger" when Dade worries about what could happen if they try digging up Ira Fingerman and then has an Imagine Spot where their digging opens a vortex that swallows Fee and Foo, making Dade more eager to keep digging.
  • Faux Horrific: Harvey's story in "Harvey's Not Scary" has things like a coat missing buttons, a too-short blanket, and an expired frozen dinner. This last one turns out to be Kratz's greatest fear.
  • Feud Episode: "The Split" sees this between Dade and the twins, with their mutual dislike for each other reaching new and problematic heights for Harvey.
  • Fictional Sport: Barkball. It's a lot like soccer except players use a pair of sticks to carry the ball around.
  • Flashback Fail: Princess's flashback of Claire giving her doll is...a bit different than what actually happened.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Whenever Dade joins the trio, it's much like this: Harvey (Phlegmatic), Fee (Choleric), Foo (Sanguine) and Dade (Melancholic).
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: "Princess Harvey" sees Princess and Harvey swap bodies thanks to one of Doctor Roberts' crystals. Also averts Voices Are Mental by having Harvey and Princess' voice actors not switch, but instead they do impressions of each other's characters.
  • Freudian Slip: Harvey calls Fee "Mom" during "Barkball".
  • Freudian Trio: Harvey (Superego), Fee (Ego), and Foo (Id).
  • Funny Animal: Almost all of the characters in the show. Harvey, for example, is a bird.
  • Gender-Separated Ensemble Episode: "Comet Night?" and "Comet Night!" with the guys hiking out to see the comet while the girls run amok in the woods.
  • Genius Loci: The eponymous garden of "Secret Gordon", though its intelligence is centered in a single gigantic flower that controls the entire area.
  • Genre Throwback: C.H. Greenblatt describes Harvey Beaks as one towards the down-to-earth Nicktoons much beloved by those who grew up in the 90s, such as Hey Arnold! and Rugrats.
  • The Ghost: Claire's mom, not counting her supposed appearance in "The Spitting Tree". See Retcon.
  • Giant Spider: Tara, a friend of Miriam and the owner of the barbershop. She has hundreds of normal-sized children who constantly cause trouble.
  • Girl's Night Out Episode: "Comet Night!", in which Miriam, Fee, Claire, Piri Piri, Princess, and Randl's mother run about Littlebark Grove, wreaking havoc while the guys go out to see the eponymous shooting star.
  • Go to Your Room!: In "Anti-Valentine's Day" Harvey's dad sends him to his room after he gives his mom an insulting Anti-Valentine's card when they're not in on the joke.
  • G-Rated Drug: Dade gets drunk on sugar in "Nightclub Night", while cake is extremely addictive for Jeremy.
  • Green Aesop: "Night Maid"'s obvious moral is about littering, but there's also a more subtle one about the importance of taking responsibility for your own actions and not getting others to clean up (literally or otherwise) after you.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Foo, Kratz, and Technobear are only dressed from the waist down, the latter wearing nothing but a Speedo.
  • Halloween Episode: Season 1's "Le Corn Maze...of DOOM!" and "Harvey Isn't Scary", as well as Season 2's "Technoscare".
  • Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": "Johnny Tornado", the star of Kratz's handmade comics.
  • Heroic BSoD: Piri Piri as one during "Arbor Day" when she finds out the legend behind her favorite holiday isn't all it's cracked up to be.
  • I Owe You My Life: Forms the basis for the plot of "Life Debt" when Foo saves Rooter.
  • Insane Troll Logic: In "Yeti Ready", after Miriam falls in one of his yeti traps, Rooter's dad Mitch assumes she must be a shapeshifting yeti. After he and the rest of his family fall in another trap, he assumes they must all be yetis too.
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: With the occasional "Harvey!" put through it.
  • Jerkass Gods: Halbreth who also qualifies as a Psychopathic Manchild.
  • Karmic Transformation: Fee gets turned into a tree spirit by Bartleburt for her Fantastic Racism against "ghosts". However, she doesn't grasp the significance of why Bartleburt turned her into one and just enjoys her new tree spirit powers.
  • Large Ham: Princess and her dad. Then again, her dad is voiced by Matt Berry...
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Chowder makes several appearances at the party in "Fee & Foo's First Birthday", facing away from the audience every time.
  • The Movie: "Steampunks", the show's one-hour special, is considered this for the show (the crew went on record saying it's "essentially the Harvey Beaks Movie"), though its two parts were aired separately for its premiere (with Part 2 airing the following day after Part 1's premiere).
  • Musical Episode: "Steampunks" and "It's Christmas, You Dorks!", the latter having no dialogue at all aside from two songs.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Asides from Foo's penchant for taking his pants off randomly, the first episode sees Harvey strip himself and moon the Spirit of Wetbark Lake in his Sanity Slippage.
  • Narcissist: Princess is very much the textbook definition.
  • Nature Is Not Nice: The moral of "The Nature of Nature". Through the episode, Harvey attempts to make nature safe and orderly when he takes the magical camera of Halbreth, a nature spirit whose duty is to cause chaos in the forest. However, Harvey's work ends up doing more harm than help and Halbreth restores the forest to its natural chaotic form, which proves to be better for everyone, including Harvey.
  • Nature Spirit: Many exist in Littlebark Grove. Bartleburt and his kin are tree spirits, while a dragon-like water spirit dwells in Wetbark Lake.
  • No-Dialogue Episode: The Christmas special is a Vignette Episode that has no dialogue, barring lyrics for music in the last two traditionally animated segments (the former of which is only ambient music).
  • Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Irving throughout "Comet Night?"
  • Noodle Incident: In "Anti-Valentine's Day", we are never shown what Harvey supposedly wrote for his card, but it's apparently enough to make even Foo flabbergasted.
  • Not Really a Birth Scene: The episode "Icky Chicky" opens with a scene of the day Harvey was born. We hear Miriam groaning and Irving coaching her to push. It turns out they she was trying to open a jar of pretzels while waiting for Harvey to hatch from his egg.
    Miriam: Why do they make these so hard to open?
  • Odd Friendship: A quiet, well-behaved bird and two loud, trouble-making Imps wouldn't seem like the kind that would get along, right?
  • Our Demons Are Different: According to The Other Wiki, Fee and Foo are stated to be Imps. This was confirmed in the series finale when their parents come from the Greater Impland Empire.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Not far from Little Bark Grove is a community of "tree spirits." The spirits resemble floating, translucent tree stumps with arms and faces. One of them, Bartleburt, works at the library alongside Miriam. A tree spirit has the power to turn others into tree spirits, as shown when Bartleburt turns Fee into one after she insults him.
  • Overly Long Gag: In "The Finger", Miriam, Fee, Foo and Harvey high-five over, and over, and over again, up until they slowly get sick of it.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In "A Tail of les Squirrels", Fee comes to talk to the squirrels. Even though she said she came alone you can clearly see her coat hiding Clare, Kratz, and Dade. Kratz even sneezes, leading to Dade saying "bless you." The squirrel lets her in anyway. After Fee exposes the other three, the squirrels panic, with the leader sincerely saying that he "did not see that coming."
    • In "Operation Peanut Butter", Harvey disguises himself as Bootsy St. Claire to help Les Squirrels, which is just him in stereotypically French attire. To play up the joke, the episode ends with Les Squirrels hanging up a picture of "Bootsy"... directly next to a picture of Harvey in the exact same pose.
    • A hilarious example in "The Rentl Bike", in which Harvey and Foo crudely disguise themselves as a husband and wife to take one of Randl's bicycles. Foo forgets what the plan is though and actually asks Harvey out loud what it was. Randl takes no notice of this.
  • Parental Abandonment: Fee and Foo are orphans and raised themselves in the woods.
  • Power Trio: Fee, Foo, and Harvey, of course!
  • Previously on…: Parodied at the beginning of Part 2 of "Steampunks". Dade tries to give one, but the events shown go by too fast for him to recap and he quickly gets lost and confused.
  • Retcon: According to Word of God, the lady fox in "The Spitting Tree" who was originally Claire's mom is no longer Claire's mom and Claire's mom will remain The Ghost.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Played for Laughs in "Kathy With a K"; Fee and Foo are unaware of who Kathy is. Harvey tells them that she's always been there. We then see some flashbacks to scenes from earlier episodes, with Kathy added to them, as if she was always part of things.
  • Sanity Slippage: At the end of "Pee-Choo!", where Harvey takes his friends' "insults" about him seriously and says he's "AN EMPTY SHELL OF A PERSON!!!"
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: In "Nightclub Night" after chugging a big bottle of soda, Princess says "Burp!" at the same time she actually burps.
  • Scat Singing: At the start of "Pee-Choo!".
  • Scenery Porn: The show has beautiful watercolor backgrounds in every episode.
  • Series Continuity Error: In "Pee-Choo!" Fee said she couldn't read, but in "Anti-Valentine's Day" she's reading and writing cards. Given that Fee said the former quote in a very mocking tone, it's likely she really can, but it becomes even more confusing when in the start of "The Nature of Nature", she passes the business card to Harvey because she states "Oh right, I can't read." C.H. Greenblatt has stated on his Tumblr that Fee can read, just not very well, and pretends not to be able to read at all to avoid it when it's unnecessary.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: A minor one in the end of "Somebody's Been Stealing My Stuff". After Claire gets her glasses back, she falls down and breaks one of the lens.
  • Ship Tease: Harvey and Piri Piri get one in "Secret Gordon". Piri Piri develops a crush on Harvey after noticing his aura (in other words, his kind nature). When she tells him at the end of the episode, he doesn't get it... but then, the episode ends with Harvey noticing Piri Piri's aura, which looks exactly the same as his.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work: In "The Negatives of Being Positively Charged", Fee and Foo get magnetic properties by rubbing themselves on magnetic rocks. To an extent, that's actually possible.
  • Sick Episode:
    • Implied in "Comet Night!", when Fee mentions her and Miriam getting tummy aches after eating peanut butter off the floor and not being able to get up for an hour.
    • "The Ballad of Muesli and Jangles" is very much this. It's basically about Irving telling the story on how he and Miriam met...while Harvey and the twins are ill, though this episode technically isn't worthy of the Vomit Discretion Shot trope.
  • Spoof Aesop: In "Stalemates", after Fee and Foo manage to get themselves disqualified from an arm wrestling contest they had no chance of winning, Fee remarks that the lesson they've learned is "If you can't win, then don't play". Harvey immediately lampshades the questionable moral.
  • Springtime for Hitler: "Pee-Choo!" has this twice. The Spirit of Wetbark Lake installed a defense system that boots out anyone who is banned from the lake... which involves catapulting from a geyser of water. Fee and Foo are actually thrilled and end up abusing this defense system. Harvey tries to get banned, too, but his attempts to annoy people are actually appreciated.
  • Steampunk: Moff, but the show even had a whole 44-minute special based around it.
    Moff: The Sci-Fi subculture that perfectly marries Victorian technology and, like, gears and watches and stuff.
  • Sticky Situation: Dade glues himself to Harvey's back in "Why Are We Even Friends?".
  • Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Invoked for Harvey's "yamthem" during "Yampions."
    Harvey: You put the yam seed into the ground, then use your rain storm card to make the rain come down. And if the zombies come, just cast a spell. If you roll all the right dice, you can send them to-
    Irving: Harvey!
    Harvey: What? I was just gonna say "you can send them to your opponent's side!"
    Irving: Oh, okay. Carry on.
  • Superhero Episode: In "Night Maid", Harvey makes himself the hero Night Maid to fight against the litter problem in Littlebark Grove. However, the people decide to take advantage of it to get Harvey to clean up for them and pin the blame on a made-up garbage monster.
  • Synchronous Episodes:
    • "Comet Night?" and "Comet Night!"
    • "Grand Motel" and "Missing Harvey".
  • Theme Tune Extended: Yes, this show has one.
  • Tongue on the Flagpole: One of the stills for It's Christmas, You Dorks shows Fee trying to pull Kratz's tongue off of a pole.
  • True Companions: In "A Tale of Les Squirrels," Fee basically admits that she considers Harvey and his parents family.
  • Unexpectedly Dark Episode: "Steampunks" and "Technoscare".
  • Valentine's Day Episode: "Anti-Valentine's Day" deals with a reverse version invented by Fee, in which the kids give hurtful letters to each other instead. Interestingly, Valentine's Day is treated as more of a Halloween-like holiday in the show, with kids going to homes to give Valentine's cards and get treats in return.
  • Voices Are Not Mental: During the "Freaky Friday" Flip episode "Princess Harvey", Harvey and Princess' voice actors do impressions of the other while they are stuck in their bodies.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Fee (almost) suffers this trope in "Comet Night!" as she spins around with Miriam. Hadn't Officer Fredd zapped the twosome in the nick of time, there's no doubt that it would've been a Vomit Discretion Shot indeed.
    Fee: I think I'm gonna throw up!
  • What Is This Feeling?: In "Princess is Better Than You", after learning that Princess' only toys are her dad's New Age healing crystals, Claire gives her a doll. Princess is moved to tears, though she doesn't understand what is happening, and when informed that she's "having a feeling," she demands it stop.
  • Woodland Creatures: The majority of the cast, as is expected with this show's forest setting, with a few monsters here and there.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: In "Bark Kart", Technobear throws a Banana Peel on the track anticipating one of the other racers to slip over it. A racer simply runs over the peel without any repercussions.
    Technobear: Aw man. I guess that makes sense.
    • In "Stalemates", Fee and Foo are the undisputed arm wrestling champions among the kids, but when they try to fight in an arm wrestling tournament for adults, they lose to everyone.
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: "Technoscare" gives the classic tale a Halloween twist. Subverted in that Technobear didn't learn his lesson from the ghosts' attempts to make him see the error of his ways, but realized it at the nightclub instead.

Alternative Title(s): Bad Seeds

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Harvey Beaks

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