History Recap / TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandyS1E1

* DontFearTheReaper: Subverted. Grim ''wants'' Billy and Mandy to be afraid, but Billy is too stupid to know who he is and Mandy is too smart to fear him.

''takes another taste of it]''

This pilot was the final production to bear Creator/HannaBarbera's name. A year after it's release (and following the death of Bill Hanna), the studio would officially become Cartoon Network Studios.

(''Produces a set of plastic wife and kids'')\\
'''Mandy''': He’s better off now.\\
(''Mandy continues to melt the soldier until he's nothing but a smoldering wad of black mush'')

* CasualDangerDialogue: Just before Grim enters the scene, he appears as a glowing vortex in Billy's room, which the two of them seem more puzzle by than frightened.

(''Mandy approaches the beam of light, takes a dollop of it on her finger and tastes it like it's ice cream'')\\

(''Takes another taste of it'')

* ChekhovsSkill: Mr. Snuggles' "kiss kiss" trick. Billy shows it to Mandy at the start of the episode, with her commenting how it is more of a bite than a kiss. Later, when Grim is about to win the game of limbo, Mandy announces "kiss kiss" and this triggers Mr. Snuggles into attacking Grim and causing him to lose.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Billy spends most of the episode mistaking Grim for Santa Clause and failing to pick up that he isn't.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: When making the bet with Billy and Mandy, Grim says that if they won, he would be their best friend forever. He didn’t think they would actually win.

* DontFearTheReaper: Subverted. Grim ''wants'' Billy and Mandy to be afraid, but Billy is too stupid to know who he is and Mandy is too smart for fear him.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Though not a huge difference, Billy and Mandy lack the disproportionately-sized heads they'd later be drawn with (Billy's head is more circular than it's more famous egg shape) while Grim is drawn with slightly more realistic anatomy. The crew had also clearly not yet shaken the influence of their previous show, ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' (up to and including the involvement of it's creator, Creator/DavidFeiss, who drew some of the layouts), as evidenced by Mr. Snuggle's appearance when he goes rabid.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment
** The episode opens with a scene of Billy playing excitedly with toy soldiers in his front yard until Mandy shows up and intrudes by using a SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass to melt one of them. Billy is momentarily sad, but shrugs it off because he's happy to see Mandy. Right away, this tells us everything we need to know about both character and their relationship to one another.

* {{Irony}}: Despite being the first to notice that he's probably going to die of old age soon, Mandy is the one who challenge Grim for Mr. Snuggles' life.

* MovingTheGoalposts: Grim sets the limbo bar impossibly low, mere inches from the ground in an effort to beat Billy and Mandy. Unfortunately, he didn't count on Mandy sicing Mr. Snuggles on him so he'd trip over the bar.
* OffModel: When Mandy says "A deal is a deal," her otherwise normal-looking eyes briefly being BlackBeadEyes.

* ShoutOut

* SoreLoser: As soon as Grim loses, he goes from being a calm and sinister to a whining ManChild.

-->'''Grim:''' Look, aren’t you two scared? Uh, BOO! BLAH! (''{{Beat}} as Billy and Mandy don’t even so much as blink'') …Oh, come on! I’m a walking skeleton! Isn’t that scary?

'''Grim:''' But... but... this isn’t fair!\\

'''Billy:''' (''grins happily'') Yeah! And now you’re our best friend ''FOREVER''!\\
'''Grim:''' (''starts trembling'') [[LittleNo No]]... [[ThisCannotBe this is impossible!]] I am the Grim Reaper! MASTER OF THE FORCES OF LIFE AND DEATH!\\

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Gladys freaks on open seeing Grim a third time, Grim bemoans that at least he has clothes on.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Or in this case, naked skeletons. Billy's mom walks in on Grim in the shower, to both of their horror. Grim is even momentarily drawn with butt cheeks on the back of his pelvis for comic effect. Don't ask how a skeleton can be naked, or even why he'd need a shower, [[RuleOfFunny it's just funny]].

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Billy, though still the dumber of the two, is slightly more coherent and soft-spoken than the loud, spastic doofus he would later become. Similarly, Mandy is a somewhat friendlier DeadpanSnarker, if not just a normal kid with a dark sense of humor, than a downright abusive EnfantTerrible (tellingly, the episode ends on her ''smiling'', something which later causes the universe to implode). This being his first time meeting the two, Grim is less the beleaguered wreck he would later be and is more AffablyEvil.

* AmbiguousDisorder: It’s implied that Gladys has one with a throwaway line said by Harold.
-->'''Harold:''' Did someone forget to take their medicine today?

** Mandy's skin was much more tan than in the series. According to Maxwell Atoms, this was due to the official Hanna-Barbera color palette only having two tones of Caucasian, neither of which were pale enough for her.

* MovingTheGoalposts: Grim sets the limbo bar impossibly low, mere inches from the ground in an effort to beat Billy and Mandy. Unfortunately, he didn't count on Mandy sicing Mr. Snuggles on him so he's trip over the bar.

'''Grim:''' (''starts trembling'') [[LittleNo No…]] [[ThisCannotBe this is impossible!]] I am the Grim Reaper! MASTER OF THE FORCES OF LIFE AND DEATH!\\

* {{Irony}}: Despite being the first to notice that he's is probably going to die of old age soon, Mandy is the one who challenge Grim for Mr. Snuggles' life.

-->'''Billy''': Awww, [[IHaveAFamily he had a wife and two kids]].\\

'''"Meet The Reeper"'''

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Neither Billy nor Mandy are particularly scared, let alone put off, by the fact that the ''Grim Reaper'', a sentient skeleton, is in Billy's room.