Trivia / ChalkZone

• Acting for Two:
  • Candi Milo voiced both Snap and Reggie Bullnerd. The two argue in "Snap Out Of Water", amongst other episodes.
  • E.G. Daily voices both Rudy and Michelle Norwegiano.
• The Cast Show Off: Rudy's a good singer, and E.G. Daily is the only one of the main trio who made a career out of it.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • E.G. Daily as Rudy.
  • Snap and Reggie are voiced by Candi Milo.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Co-creator Bill Burnett's favorite episodes of the series are "The Wiggies", "Portable Portal", "Pumpkin Love", and "The Big Blow Up".
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: Because of a Wikipedia edit that was left unchallenged for years, it was mistakenly believed for a while that the show had two unaired episodes titled "Darkness Rain/Failure Zone/The Scent of Stupidity/Snap-a-Snap" and "The Art of Sucker Punch/Family Reunion". Neither of these episodes exist, as Fred Siebert confirmed that only 40 episodes were produced rather than 42 and the Complete Series DVD set does not include either alleged episode (with the only material missing from the DVD set being the segment "The Smooch" ^note which is omitted because of music licensing issues over the use of the Baha Men's cover of the song "Coconut" and the Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts "Chalk Dad" and "Chalk Rain" ^note which were the only two shorts from the Oh Yeah! Cartoons era to never be repackaged as episode segments when ChalkZone became its own show).
• Executive Meddling: Rudy was initially eight years old in the first two shorts. Co-creator Bill Burnett stated that when season two of Oh Yeah! Cartoons was in production, Nickelodeon was interested in making the series of shorts into a show- but requested that Rudy had to be aged up to ten. So in the second season of Oh Yeah!, Rudy ended up aged up and re-designed, while Penny was also added to the main cast.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: For a long time this show did not exist on the internet at all, with no torrents or episode downloads. Now as of June 2010 the whole series is downloadable, but does take some digging to find.
  • Averted at long last with the release of the entire series on services like Amazon.com, the Playstation Store, Xbox Marketplace, as well as the show streaming on Paramount+.
  • While the show has been released on digital services and on a DVD set, the episode "The Smooch" is omitted for legal reasons and the two Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts that weren't repackaged as episodes were left off the DVD. "Chalk Rain" however is available on iTunes in one of the Oh Yeah! Cartoons collections; "Chalk Dad" is nowhere to be found online (except in storyboard form), until November 2020 where Fred Seibert uploaded the short on his Vimeo account.
• Missing Episode:
  • "The Smooch/Power Play/All The Way To The Top" from Season 2 is not available for streaming on iTunes, Amazon, etc. due to music licensing issues with the Baha Men in the first segment (specifically, the use of their cover of the Harry Nilsson song "Coconut"). On the "complete" series DVD set, only "The Smooch" segment itself is omitted, leaving the latter two segments intact.
  • The same DVD set does not include the two Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts that weren't repackaged in the show ("Chalk Rain" and "Chalk Dad").
• Non-Singing Voice: In the first nine episodes, Robbyn Kirmsse did Penny's singing voice instead of Hynden Walch for the music video segments. From "There You Are" onward, this averted the trope.
• The Other Darrin: Some characters have different voice actors depending on the episode. The most notable examples include the Stick Figure Bakers. On most occasions, Stick Figure Bakers are voiced by series co-creator Bill Burnett, but they are voiced by Maurice LaMarche in "Vincent Van NoGo" and the Stick Figure Baker that pesters Barney the Encyclocentipedia near the end of "The Big Blow-Up" is voiced by Corey Burton.
  • Blocky is an interesting case, he was voiced by Robert Cait in the first episode, then Candi Milo took over when it became a show, but after a few episodes, the role was given back to Cait.
  • Bathtub Granny was voiced by E.G. Daily in the original "ChalkZone" short on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Miriam Flynn played her for the remainder of the series.
  • Spy Fly, introduced in season two, was played by Tress MacNeille in her first appearance in "Disappearing Act". Candi Milo played her for the rest of season two and the beginning of season three, until the role went back to Tress MacNielle in "Beanie Boys To Men".
• Out of Order: With the exception of the first episode, season one was aired out of order. For example, the second episode in production order was "Snapmobile/Rudy's Date/Future Zone/Mumbo Jumbo Jump". The episode instead aired as the fourth episode and "French Fry Falls/Gift Adrift/Escucha Mi Corazon", the third episode in production order, aired second. The first episode to air as part of season four, "Purple Haze/No Place Like Home/Disaster Park/I Need A Song", was actually produced as the second-to-last episode season three (as noted by the art style; season four had a notably different look from the rest of the show). Nickelodeon however held it off until the fourth season so they could air "When Santas Collide" in time for Christmas. The DVD and digital releases have the episodes in their correct order.
• Referenced by...: Robot Chicken: A sketch from "May Cause Indecision... or Not" has Rudy do battle with Harold from Harold and the Purple Crayon.
• Release Date Change: After it's initial airing on December 31, 1999, the rest of season one was to debut in either September or October 2000. For unknown reasons, Nick held the show off for two years. To fill in the gap, Nick began to air reruns of Pinky and the Brain.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The music licensing issues with "The Smooch/Power Play/All The Way To The Top" (specifically, the first segment using the Baha Men's cover of the song "Coconut") led to the entire episode being omitted from services such as iTunes and Amazon, while the DVD set does include the episode, albeit omitting the segment containing said music licensing issues.
• Screwed by the Network: The show premiered on December 31, 1999 (as part of the annual- and final- Nick New Years block) and the rest of season one was to premiere in Fall 2000. Nick held it off until March 2002. While it was the highest rated premiere for any Nicktoon at the time (until The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius premiered a few months later), Nick didn't air season two (which was already finished by the time season one was done airing) until May 2003 (leading to a number of fans believing the show was cancelled). It was at that point where they moved the timeslot to 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM (making it the last show to air on Nick for the night before Nick At Nite began), which was just around the time the show's target audience would be going to bed. Eventually by 2005, Nick gave up on the show and cancelled it right in the middle of the fourth season. Nick eventually burned the last half of season four off at a six AM timeslot through the summer of 2008 (the episodes had already aired outside the US) without advertisement.
  • YTV in Canada aired the final episodes of the series in the fall 0f 2007 on weekday afternoons at 12:00, when the show's target audience would be in school.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment:
  • The first season was completed in 1999 and was set for a Fall 2000 premiere date (all of season one's episodes have a copyright notice of 2000). Besides the first episode premiering as a sneak peek on December 31, 1999, Nickelodeon held it off until 2002.
  • The fourth (and final) season stopped premiering in June 2005 with six episodes left. It wasn't until June 2008 that Nick decided to burn-off the remaining episodes at six in the morning on Saturdays without any advertisement. This only applies to the US airings — the remaining six season four episodes aired with the rest of the season overseas.
• Short Run in Peru: Season four already aired in it's entirety outside the US by the time Nickelodeon burned the rest of the episodes off in dead timeslots in 2008.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The series would've been developed by Hanna-Barbera had it not have been acquired by Warner Bros. Animation at the time, which caused potential development to drop as a result.
  • An interview with Bill Burnett revealed that, had the show continued, season 4 would have had Skrawl partnering up with another human creator, who had Chalked Up after staying in ChalkZone for too long and was causing trouble by drawing things into ChalkZone. This was planned to be either an arc or a movie.
  • The original version of the openinburned g theme had a synthesizer in place of the iconic electric guitar used. The original version can be found on the 2001 album The Newest Nicktoons.
  • The song "Lollipoppian Rhapsody" was originally going to be the theme song for an aborted 1991 Nickelodeon sketch comedy pilot, Real Mature. Bill Burnett composed the opening. When the show wasn't picked up, he repurposed the song for the third season of ChalkZone thirteen years later.
  • As mention below, the real series finale to Chalkzone would've been about Snap coming to terms with the fact that as Rudy gets older, he will stop visiting him one day.
• Word of God: The creators have shed light on a few subjects for the fans.
  • If ChalkZone had gotten a proper finale, it would have been about Snap having to come to terms with the fact that as Rudy gets older, he will stop visiting him in ChalkZone. Tear Jerker, much?
  • Why was Skrawl among the Zoners saying their tearful goodbyes to Rudy, Penny, and Snap in "Let's Go Wanderin'"? According to them, Skrawl knows deep down that Rudy is his creator and needs him for a purpose.
  • To answer the questions of Rudy/Penny shippers everywhere, Rudy and Penny would begin dating each other in college, with Penny being the more dominant member of the relationship. Rudy would be studying fine arts, while Penny would study sciences.
  • According to Carlos Ramos, Norm Macdonald was their ideal candidate for the voice of Mr. Wilter but were denied by Nickelodeon's casting department. But they did recommend Robert Cait since he can do an impression of Macdonald, which led him to be cast with the role. This wouldn't be the only time where Cait filled in for Macdonald in a Nickelodeon series.
  • On 2022, it was revealed that the music video "Time to Go Home" would've had roll-on credits at the end of the song showing all of the dinner theatre patrons leaving the building (except for a sleeping patron) once the performance finishes, with the credits for the episode being played in the middle of it. This was removed in the final episode airing presumably for timing reasons.
  • According to Bill Burnett, the soundtrack for the series was supposed to be more softer and done in children toy instruments but the Nickelodeon execs suggested a techno track instead to contrast the show's supposed "cute" look.
• Write Who You Know: Rudy's father, Joe Tabootie was based off Bill Burnett's father who, like Joe, was a butcher. Similarly, Larry Huber's mother, who was an opera singer, was the basis for Rudy's mother, Mildrid, who often exercises an operatic voice.