Free for All (TV series)
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''Free for All'' is an American animated series created by Brett Merhar for
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
. The series, set in Colorado, follows the day-to-day life of Johnny Jenkins, an innocent 19-year-old college student who has to deal with a bitter, cigarette smoking grandmother and a coarse, sometimes-violent, alcoholic father, in a rather
dysfunctional family A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse and sometimes even all of the above on the part of individual parents occur continuously and regularly, leading other members to accommodate suc ...
while his friend, Clay, is living large with the settlement money he got from suing a taco restaurant for personal injuries. The show was developed for television by Merriwether Williams, the head writer for the first three seasons of ''
SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
''. The show lasted for only seven episodes that aired over the summer of 2003, the last ending on a cliff-hanger. Despite favorable to mixed reviews from critics, the show had very low ratings, due to poor promotion and basing the series on an already-unsuccessful property.
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
cancelled the animated series shortly after the last episode aired. Though the series is now considered "obscure" and no DVD release has been planned for it, the entire series is legally available on
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and
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. In America, the series was rated TV-MA for explicit sexual content, including nudity and scenes of sexual intercourse (S), extremely offensive language (L), and adult content (AD on Showtime's content warning screen). In
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, the series was aired on
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. The entire series is available on
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in the
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and
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, and
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in several European countries.


Characters

* Johnny Jenkins, the main character of the series, is a quiet, shy, blond nineteen-year-old and the main character of the show. Johnny wears blue jeans, sneakers and a black T-shirt whose anthropomorphic smiley face mimics Johnny's real expression or emotion (which goes completely unnoticed by other characters). When the naive Johnny isn't getting into trouble through his own fault, he is usually being bullied or pressured into dangerous, reckless and bizarre rituals of immature privilege by his rich best friend, Clay Zeeman. * Clay Zeeman is a tall, charismatic, cunning, and evil friend of Johnny's. Having become filthy-rich before the story plot by faking an accident at Taco Hell, Clay now lives with his ferret Angus (which he rescued from an animal testing lab) in a luxury penthouse apartment on top of a skyscraper. Yet, he repeatedly commits insurance fraud and tax evasion to further increase his fortune. His obsession with money drives him to attempt to bribe and blackmail IRS employees and beat up his own friends just because they don't argue in favor of tax cuts like he does. Clay prefers to spend his masses of leisure time either playing video games and consuming drugs with Angus or with women in his
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. He has tall, spiked, orange hair. * Angus is Clay's manic, attitudinal and violent drug-addicted pet
ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...
. Angus regularly consumes any drug imaginable (Vicodin, marijuana, wood glue, cocaine, and experimental fertility drugs to name a few). He is typically worn like a stole around Clay's neck much of the time when he is not in a social setting. He is physically cruel to Johnny, and his actions include defecating into his shoes and biting his genitals. In each episode, Angus goes into a drug induced fantasy which usually alludes to his sub-plot. * Sylvia Jenkins is Johnny's ancient, wrinkled, nymphomaniac and chain-smoking grandmother, who is ashamed of her entire family, particularly of her son Douglas (Johnny's father). Sylvia, Douglas and Johnny live in the same house, which is a cause for frequent tensions. Sylvia has lusted over and successfully had a large number of men, some of which include Clay Zeeman,
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, an army ranking officer, an ogre, a doctor's husband and Tom Jones. She frequently torments Johnny about him having the room upstairs that she wants deeply, even to the point of being willing to quit her 100-year record of smoking. Her menacing cackle is usually cut short due to an attack of smoker's lung. * Douglas Jenkins, Johnny's father, is an overweight severe alcoholic, suffers from incontinence and is occasionally prone to violence. He carries out his job as an office supplies salesman with a particular lack of success and, due to his chronic bankruptcy, constantly attempts to get Clay to invest in useless business ideas. Clay, however, always rejects due to his lack of respect for Douglas. In the seventh episode, he finally gets Clay to invest in the idea of a bar exclusively for tall people (Clay was bullied for his height as a child). However, Clay ends up firing Douglas due to his instability, questionable behavior towards guests and overall incompetence. Douglas has blonde hair (like his son Johnny), a mustache, and a round belly. At all times, he is either drunk or depressed; nonetheless he is always helpless and dependent. Douglas has absolutely no respect for Johnny, as in his eyes, Johnny ruined his life as an unintended child. His mother always seems to be solving all of his problems, even if it means by arranging a date or handling the excesses of his incontinence. * Paula Wisconsin is Johnny's next door neighbor, his childhood friend, and object of his desire. Johnny is hopelessly in love with Paula that is unrequited due to Johnny's reluctance of admitting his love and Paula's obliviousness. Most episodes revolve around Johnny getting himself into awkward situations as an attempt to impress Paula. While Paula is supportive of Johnny's escapades, she still remains completely in the dark about his true intentions. It is somewhat implied that Paula is not liked by most people, as some scenes have shown that many people she encounters (including Sylvia) refer to her as a, "tree-hugging bitch" due to her vapid pretentiousness. * Omar is Johnny's best friend who is of Indian heritage. He attends the same college and is just as immature, naive and shy, sometimes even more extremely than Johnny. The two of them frequently become victims of violence, mostly by Johnny's father or by their "classmates". * Johnny's mother does not appear in the series, her name is not mentioned. In the first episode, Douglas states to Johnny that they met during his half year at college and she skipped town after giving birth, leaving Douglas to raise Johnny alone.


Development


From underground comic to animated series

In 1992, ''Free for All'' began life as an alternative comic strip published in college newspapers. The comic became nationally syndicated shortly afterwards, but eventually ended in 1998. A short
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for the series - which was never aired on television - was made in 2001. Brett Merhar pitched the show to Showtime in 2001 as an animated series, wanting to do edgier jokes than what he could do in the comic. He brought in a friend of his, Merriwether Williams, who was, at the time, the head writer for Nickelodeon's ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. She worked on ''Free for All'' as showrunner and head writer alongside her duties as writer for ''SpongeBob SquarePants''.


Writers

The show had three writers: Jeff Poliquin (future writer for
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
's short-lived animated sitcom ''
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'', and former writer for ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' video games), Gil Ferro (who also served as the show's editor), and Williams herself; Brett Merhar also co-wrote the first episode, "The Deal", with Williams.


Voice actors

The show had an all star cast: *
Jonathan Silverman Jonathan Elihu Silverman (born August 5, 1966) is an American actor, known for his roles in the comedy films ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'', ''Weekend at Bernie's'', and its sequel ''Weekend at Bernie's II''. Early life and education Silverman was ...
, from the 1980s farce/dark comedy ''
Weekend at Bernie's ''Weekend at Bernie's'' is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Robert Klane, loosely based on the 1959 novella ''The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell'' by Jorge Amado. The film stars Andrew McCarthy and Jona ...
'', was the voice actor for Johnny. *Brett Merhar himself voiced Clay Zeeman (originally,
Jeremy Piven Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ari Gold in the comedy series ''Entourage'', for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards. He also starred in the British ...
was going to voice Clay, but Piven turned down the offer). *Longtime voice actor
Dee Bradley Baker Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''Codename: Kids Next Door'', ...
provided vocal effects for Angus the ferret. *
Juliette Lewis Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress and alternative rock singer. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark themes. Lewis became an "it girl" of American cinema in the early 1990s, ...
, known for such films as ''
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ''National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'' is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film and the third installment in ''National Lampoon'' magazine's ''Vacation'' film series. ''Christmas Vacation'' was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, written and co ...
'' and ''
Natural Born Killers ''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American crime film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childho ...
'', voiced next-door neighbor Paula Wisconsin. *
Mitzi McCall Mitzi McCall is an American comedian and actress. Life and career Television In the early 1950s, then known as Mitzi Steiner, McCall had the ''Kiddie Castle'' program on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received national attention in 1 ...
voiced Sylvia Jenkins. *
Sam McMurray Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...
(who did voicework on such shows as ''Dinosaurs'' and ''The Simpsons'') was the voice of Johnny's father, Douglas.


Animation

The show's animation was interesting, as it was a combination of CGI
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animation (cars/some buildings/panning backgrounds), and traditional hand drawn animation/backgrounds - drawn in pencil and ink on animation paper, then scanned into a computer and colored with
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tablets on
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Harmony. The show's animation was produced at
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in
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and outraced to
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. Dave Marshall, a former animation director for ''
Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, unti ...
'', was the series director. William Reiss and C. H. Greenblatt, two ''
SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
'' veterans, worked on the show as storyboard artists. The two of them would go on to work on the Disney Channel hit series ''
Fish Hooks ''Fish Hooks'' is an American animated television series created by Noah Z. Jones for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The show ran for three seasons from September 3, 2010 to April 4, 2014, airing a total of 59 episodes. Plot The series revolves ...
'', while C. H. Greenblatt would also go on to create ''
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'' for
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, and ''
Harvey Beaks ''Harvey Beaks'' is an American animated television series created by C. H. Greenblatt for Nickelodeon. The series aired from March 28, 2015, until December 9, 2016, when it was moved to Nicktoons on March 1, 2017, which followed the series fin ...
'' for
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. Both ''Fish Hooks'' and ''Chowder'' would become far more successful and profitable than ''Free for All''.


Notable distinctions

The show was also one of the first animated series to be broadcast in high definition. ''Free for All'' once held the distinction of being the first, and only, animated sitcom to air on Showtime up until the series ''
Our Cartoon President ''Our Cartoon President'' is an American adult animated satirical television series that premiered on February 11, 2018 and ended on November 8, 2020, on Showtime. The series was created by Stephen Colbert, Chris Licht, Matt Lappin, Tim Luecke ...
'' in 2018. It is currently also the only traditionally animated, half-hour sitcom to air on a premium network (
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has had six different animated shows, though ''
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'' was not a sitcom, and was animated on
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using the puppet tool. ''
The Life and Times of Tim ''The Life & Times of Tim'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Steve Dildarian for HBO. It premiered on September 28, 2008. The series is about a hapless man in his mid-20s named Tim (voiced by Dildarian) who lives in New York City ...
'', while it was a sitcom, was composed of two eleven-minute segments, and was created digitally with
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and
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, and ''
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'' and ''
Spicy City ''Spicy City'' is an adult animated erotic cyberpunk television series which was created by Ralph Bakshi for HBO. It is an anthology series in a similar format as television programs such as ''The Twilight Zone'' and ''Tales from the Crypt''. The ...
'' were, while traditionally animated, serial dramas rather than sitcoms).


After the cancellation

After the show was cancelled, Brett Merhar went on to create a web series with Gabor Csupo titled "Beverly Hills Anger Management," which premiered on
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in 2007. He was beaten to death in July 2016.http://homicide.latimes.com/post/john-doe-194/ Randall Brett Merhar,46 Williams went on to write for Cartoon Network's ''
Camp Lazlo ''Camp Lazlo'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network. The series follows Lazlo, an anthropomorphic spider monkey that goes to a camp called "Camp Kidney", a Boy Scout-like summer camp in Pimpleback M ...
'' as the head writer, as well as ''
Johnny Test ''Johnny Test'' is an animated television series created by Scott Fellows, originally produced in the United States by Warner Bros. Animation and later produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment. It premiered on Kids' WB on September 17, 20 ...
'' (also on Cartoon Network), '' My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' (on
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, now Discovery Family), and ''
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'' (also on The Hub/Discovery Family).


External links

* *


References

{{Showtime Network programming 2000s American adult animated television series 2000s American sitcoms 2003 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings American adult animated comedy television series American animated sitcoms English-language television shows Fictional ferrets Television series by Film Roman Showtime (TV network) original programming Television shows based on comic strips Animated television series about dysfunctional families Television series by CBS Studios