''Perfect Hair Forever'' is an American adult

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

created by

Mike Lazzo Michael Lazzo (born April 10, 1958) is a retired American television producer and the former executive vice president in charge of the Adult Swim programming block of Cartoon Network, and its production arm, Williams Street. Life and career Laz ...

Matt Harrigan Matthew "Matt" Harrigan is an American television writer, producer, and voice actor who is best known for his work on shows like the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and ''Celebrity Deathmatch''. He was also the television host of ''FishCent ...

, and

Matt Maiellaro Matthew Gerard Maiellaro (born August 17, 1966) is an American filmmaker, musician and voice actor. He is the co-creator and writer of the cult animated Adult Swim shows, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and ''Perfect Hair Forever'', and the creator ...

for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

's late night programming block

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. The series revolves around a young boy named Gerald Bald Z and his quest to find perfect hair. ''Perfect Hair Forever'' premiered on November 7, 2004, and ended on April 1, 2007, with a total of 7 episodes. Two additional episodes premiered unannounced on April 1, 2014, as part of Adult Swim's annual

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

stunt. The series is a spin-off of ''

Space Ghost Coast to Coast ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' is an American adult animated comedy talk show created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and hosted by a re-imagined version of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. In contrast to the original ...

''.

Premise

The series concerns a young boy named Gerald who is on a quest to find the perfect hair to remedy his premature baldness. He is joined on his wanderings by an array of strange companions. Gerald is opposed by the evil Coiffio and his minions for reasons which are never stated in the series. The series is a spin-off of ''

'', due to a special featuring

Space Ghost Space Ghost (Tad Ghostal) is a fictional superhero created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in the 1960s for TV network CBS. He was designed by Alex Toth. In his original incarnation, he was a superhero who, with his teen sidekicks, Jan and Ja ...

, ''

Adult Swim Brain Trust ''Adult Swim Brain Trust'' (also known as ''Anime Talk Show'') is an animated television special that aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, on November 7, 2004. The special revolves around the unofficial pilot for ...

'', coming on right after the premiere of the series to help tie it together. Space Ghost appears in every episode, either as a character with an actual role, or in the background.

Production

''Perfect Hair Forever'' employs an ongoing serial format, a style that had been uncommon to previous

Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC, d/b/a Williams Street and formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., ...

projects with their lack of emphasis on continuity. Each episode of the series features different opening sequence music and visuals. The style and music of the

end credits Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of ...

also varies from episode to episode. Following the first six episodes, members of the ''Perfect Hair Forever'' creative team posted (on the official Adult Swim message board) that they weren't interested in continuing the show to a second season. Cancellation was formally announced at the Adult Swim panel at

Comic-Con A comic book convention or comic-con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events ...

2006. In October 2006, Adultswim.com stated that ''Perfect Hair Forever'' was back in production with 16 episodes to be aired on its online streaming network The Fix, though after episode seven aired, the series was never continued. Episode 7 aired April 1, 2007, as part of Adult Swim's annual April Fool's Day joke, and was also available on Adult Swim's The Fix website. In 2007, the Japanese noise rock band

Melt-Banana Melt-Banana is a Japanese noise rock band that is known for playing extremely fast noise rock mixed with experimental, electronica and pop-based song structures. Since forming in 1992 the band has released ten albums and toured worldwide extensi ...

recorded the song "Hair-Cat (Cause the Wolf Is a Cat!)" for ''Perfect Hair Forever''.

Broadcast history

The ''Perfect Hair Forever''

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 ...

first aired on November 7, 2004, in the time slot that had been advertised as the premiere of the ''

Squidbillies ''Squidbillies'' is an American animated television series created by Jim Fortier and Dave Willis for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. An unofficial pilot for the series aired on April 1, 2005. The series later made ...

'' pilot. Unknown to the audience at the time, the existing ''Squidbillies'' pilot had fallen behind and wasn't ready to air.Squidbillies, Vol. 1 DVD commentary Williams Street continued advertising the ''Squidbillies'' premiere up to and including the

bump Bump or Bumps may refer to: * A collision or impact * A raised protrusion on the skin such as a pimple, goose bump, prayer bump, lie bumps, etc. Infrastructure and industry * Coal mine bump, a seismic jolt occurring within a mine * Bump (u ...

directly preceding the show, which talked about wanting to make the show "perfect" for you and your "hair" "forever", revealing the title "Perfect Hair Forever." The night's confusion continued when, instead of seeing the opening titles for ''Squidbillies'', viewers were confronted with a title card for an episode of ''

'' called "Perfect Hair Forever", thus starting the pilot episode. After the ending credits ran, a bumper card appeared, apologizing for the apparent scheduling mix up, only for it to fade out to a fake "Technical Difficulties" card featuring a selection of ''Perfect Hair Forever'' characters. This was shown on screen for several seconds, accompanied by typical music, before the card faded to static whilst the Action Hot Dog's "Do da la la la la!" echoed. The card returned, and the music was replaced with a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

of Action Hot Dog's chant. The first season of ''Perfect Hair Forever'' premiered on Sunday, November 27, 2005, at 12:30 AM

Eastern Standard Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and ...

with the airing of the second episode. The pilot re-aired on November 20, 2005, though without the ''Adult Swim Brain Trust'' discussion spoof. Season 2 was supposed to contain 16 episodes, and was planned to premiere online on Adult Swim Video. On May 22, 2007, "Return to Balding Victory" debuted on Adult Swim Video, officially ending the series. This episode had already aired on television on April 1, 2007, as part of Adult Swim's April Fool's Joke. This joke spanned the entire block, beginning with this episode and then airing all of season one in reverse order and in the style of old VHS

fansubs A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program, typically anime or dorama which has been translated by fans (as opposed to an officially licensed translation done by paid professionals) and subt ...

, complete with

Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to s ...

subtitles on most episodes. Occasionally, instead of the Engrish subtitles, transcripts from other Adult Swim shows were presented instead. It replaced scheduled premieres of ''

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

'', ''

Blood+ Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the ...

'', and ''

Eureka Seven ''Eureka Seven'', known in Japan as , is a 2005 Japanese anime series created by Bones. The series was directed by Tomoki Kyoda, with series composition by Dai Satō, character designs by Kenichi Yoshida and music by Naoki Satō. ''E ...

''. The prank was hinted at, though, as the schedule listed the same episodes that were to be shown that weekend for the next weekend ahead of time. Seven years after the series conclusion, an eighth episode was produced and aired unannounced on April 1, 2014, as part of Adult Swim's 2014 April Fools' Stunt. Two versions of this episode, "Muscular Distraction - A" and "Muscular Distraction - B," exist and were aired at 12:00 AM and 12:15 AM, respectively.

Characters

* Gerald Bald Z ( Kim Manning) – The main protagonist of the story, Gerald, is a young boy suffering from premature hair loss. Because of this, he goes off on a journey to acquire "Perfect Hair Forever". He is portrayed as a sometimes melancholy, yet optimistic young lad who believes that his goal is possible. His name is a play on the anime series, ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

''. * Uncle Grandfather (

) – Described by producer

as a "bald, pot-bellied, dirty old man," Uncle Grandfather is Gerald's father figure of sorts. He spends almost all of his time snacking, watching Brenda put on lewd displays, or reading

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

. He also exhibits a stereotypical Asian speech impediment, where he pronounces English 'l' sounds as 'r' sounds. * Brenda – A silent girl whose only means of dialogue is a non-English language, and she is kept by Uncle Grandfather to bring him trays of hamburgers and satisfy his perverted needs. * Action Hotdog (Will Armstrong) – The first character to join Gerald's journey. Action Hotdog is a

hot dog A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced Hot dog bun, bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener (Vienna sausag ...

which flies around and is only capable of uttering the words "Doo da la-la-la-la-la-la la la-la-laaaaa-la-la!". * Norman Douglas (Nick Ingkatanuwat) – A talking

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

, also known as the Inappropriate Comedy Tree. Originally an agent of Coiffio, his task was to follow Gerald and watch him. * Terry/Twisty ( Dave Hughes) – A sapient tornado. When he is Terry his eyes are blue, and he seems nice and kind, and when he is Twisty his eyes are red, and he is violent. * Coiffio (

Dave Willis Dave Willis (born May 1, 1970) is an American voice actor, writer, animator, producer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the Adult Swim animated series ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and '' Squidbillies'', the former of which he ...

) – The main villain of the series, Coiffio is a self-centered old man with an enormous, multi-colored "

coif A coif () is a close fitting cap worn by both men and women that covers the top, back, and sides of the head. History Coifs date from the 10th century, but fell out of popularity with men in the 14th century."A New Look for Women." Arts and ...

" atop his head, who otherwise looks like a more fit version of Uncle Grandfather with a slightly different beard. He speaks in an odd, indeterminable accent. * Catman (Dennis Moloney) – A grumpy, fat man in a catsuit who is Coiffio's main henchman. Catman lives in a large, litterbox-shaped house, and is shown working at a convenience store in several episodes. * Young Man ( C. Martin Croker) – A young, enthusiastic man in a bright purple suit that claims to be from the "Ministry of Planning" and calls himself the "King of All Animals". * Sherman (

MF Doom Daniel Dumile ( ; July 13, 1971October 31, 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom (both stylized in all caps), was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and ...

) - A

giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...

that travels primarily with Young Man and his other Animals. * Rod: the Anime God (Matt Maiellaro) – An entity made of fire, who calls himself the god of

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

. Rod is introduced early in the series and pops in at random intervals. Rod is the focus of a secondary plot in the series, involving Coffio attempting to sell him a house. *

(

George Lowe George Edward Lowe (born November 10, 1957) is an American voice actor and comedian whose voice roles include Space Ghost on the animated series ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' and its spin-off, ''Cartoon Planet''.Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, ''Perfect Hair Forever'' previously aired on

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and " cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts ...

Teletoon at Night Teletoon at Night (stylized as TELEToON AT NiGHT and formerly known as Teletoon's Adult Block, The Detour On Teletoon and Teletoon Detour) was a Canadian English language late night programming block that aired on Teletoon, which is owned by Tel ...

block and on the Canadian version of Adult Swim.

Home media

On October 27, 2009,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

and distributor

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

released '' Adult Swim in a Box'', a seven-disc

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 kind ...

box set of various Adult Swim shows. The pilot episode of ''Perfect Hair Forever'' appears in this set. In June 2010, the individual DVD was made briefly available for purchase at the Adult Swim website store. The first season was released on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

.''Perfect Hair Forever'' season 1
at

. The entire series has been made available for free streaming on the Adult Swim website.

References

External links

* *
''Perfect Hair Forever'' review
from

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

''Perfect Hair Forever'' review
from

TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...

{{Radical Axis Space Ghost Coast to Coast 2000s American adult animated television series 2000s American black comedy television series 2000s American mystery television series 2000s American surreal comedy television series 2010s American adult animated television series 2010s American black comedy television series 2010s American mystery television series 2010s American surreal comedy television series 2004 American television series debuts 2014 American television series endings American adult animated comedy television series American adult animated mystery television series American adult animated television spin-offs Anime-influenced Western animated television series English-language television shows Adult Swim original programming American television series revived after cancellation Television series by Williams Street Television series created by Mike Lazzo Television series created by Matt Maiellaro Television series created by Matt Harrigan