'' Invader Zim'' is an American animated dark comedy

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that was created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez and aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. The series revolves around an extraterrestrial named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz) from the planet Irk and his ongoing mission to conquer or destroy a dark and satirical version of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. His various attempts to subjugate and destroy the human race are invariably undermined by some combination of his own ineptitude, his malfunctioning robot servant GIR (

Rosearik Rikki Simons Rosearik Rikki Allen Simons (born September 8, 1970) is an American voice actor, writer, cartoonist, and animator. He is best known as the voice of GIR in the Nickelodeon animated series, ''Invader Zim''. Simons has also written a number of nove ...

) and his nemesis Dib (

Andy Berman Andrew Mark "Andy" Berman (born February 24, 1968) is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his role as Dib Membrane in ''Invader Zim'', Dennis in ''The Jamie Foxx Show'' (1996-1997), Chuck in ''The Wo ...

), one of very few humans not oblivious enough to be unaware of Zim's identity. ''Invader Zim'' premiered on March 30, 2001. The series was targeted at older children and adolescents and met with

critical acclaim Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine *Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing in ...

. As the series went on, ratings declined and budgetary issues became more frequent. Before the second season was completed, Nickelodeon canceled the series, leaving several episodes unfinished. The show originally ran on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2002, with six of the completed second-season episodes initially going unreleased. These episodes were first made available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in 2004 and later made their television debut on the

Nicktoons Network Nicktoons (formerly Nicktoons Network) is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Media Networks. The channel is geared towards children aged 7 to 11, and broadcasts reruns of original animated series from sister network Nickelode ...

in 2006. Despite its early cancellation, due to increasing popularity and above-average merchandise sales, it has been widely regarded as a cult classic. The series consists of a

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

, twenty-seven episodes split into forty-six episode segments, and at least seventeen unfinished episode segments that were in production at the time of the series' cancellation. On December 24, 2011, the pilot episode aired on television for the first time. Thirty-eight episode segments were originally broadcast in pairs, each 12-minute episode segment debuting in the same half-hour. There are eight double-length episodes which run for 24-minutes each. This list is ordered by the episode order in the DVD releases, with broadcast dates noted. Every episode was directed by

Steve Ressel Steve Ressel (born October 12, 1967) is an American comic book artist, animator, storyboard artist, producer and director. Steve directed animated series such as ''Invader Zim'', ''The Wild Thornberrys'', ''Duckman'', ''Stressed Eric'', ''God, th ...

; except the pilot, which was directed by Jordan Reichek. A television film based on the series, entitled '' Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus'', premiered August 16, 2019 on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Series overview

Episodes

Pilot

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

for ''Invader Zim'' was produced for Nickelodeon in 1999, featuring Billy West as the voice of Zim. However, because he was too busy with ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

'' at the time, West was replaced by Richard Steven Horvitz in the series proper. It was first released publicly as a special feature on the ''Invader Zim Vol. 1: Doom Doom Doom'' DVD set on May 11, 2004. The pilot made its television debut simulcast on

and Nicktoons on December 24, 2011, as part of their "Nicktoon's Winter Funderland" block and the "Nicktoons on Nickelodeon block".

Season 1 (2001–02)

The first season of ''Invader Zim'' consists of twenty episodes, which are ordered below by production number and not their original broadcast order.
Note: All episodes of the series were directed by

Season 2 (2002; 2006)

In August 2001, Nickelodeon officially renewed ''Invader Zim'' for a second season which was originally planned to consist of twenty episodes. In January 2002, Nickelodeon announced that they had plans to cancel the series. The series finished with a total of twenty-seven out of its initially contracted forty episodes, leaving several episodes unfinished. The seventh episode of season two aired on Nickelodeon on December 10, 2002. The remaining six completed second season episodes were initially unreleased. These episodes would first be made available on DVD in 2004 and later made their television debut on the Nicktoons Network in 2006.

Netflix film (2019)

In April 2017, Nickelodeon announced that there would be a television film based on the series. On June 26, 2018, it was announced that the film was titled ''Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus''. The film released digitally on

on August 16, 2019.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Invader Zim Episodes Lists of American children's animated television series episodes Lists of American science fiction television series episodes Invader Zim Lists of American comedy television series episodes