is a

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 uni ...

animated series An animated series is a set of 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 have eith ...

that premiered on September 13, 1986 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and ran for 13 episodes until December 6, 1986. The series was created by Chris Columbus and featured music and a theme song composed by

Don Felder Donald William Felder (born September 21, 1947) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 until his termination from the band in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with th ...

. The series was later shown in reruns on

Sci-Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. ...

Cartoon Quest Cartoon Quest was the name of a block of mostly animated television shows that aired on the Sci Fi Channel starting in 1992. Similar to USA's '' Cartoon Express'', it featured reruns of various older cartoons interspersed with interstitial segm ...

Synopsis

Two

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 ...

teenagers are accepted into the intergalactic high school Galaxy High School on the fictional asteroid Flutor. The teenage boy, Doyle Cleverlobe, was a skilled athlete and popular, while the teenage girl Aimee Brighttower was shy and, as the theme song states, "the smartest girl in school, not very popular, not very cool." But once in space, their roles are somewhat reversed. The alien teenagers seem to accept the not-so-popular Aimee, while Doyle tends to rub the aliens the wrong way. Although Doyle finds himself an outcast and has difficulties adjusting, Aimee does not abandon him, and suggests he can make friends and bring glory to Galaxy High through his excellent sporting abilities, which he does by winning a championship in "psych-hockey", which Galaxy High had always lost in the past. The show drops many hints of a budding romance between Doyle and Aimee, but it was never given time to grow as the show was not renewed for a second season. The aliens in the school included Gilda Gossip, the girl with a big mouth (or rather mouths), Booey Bubblehead, an absent-minded girl with a bubble for a head, Milo de Venus, the six-armed class president, Beef and the Bonk Bunch who bully Doyle (and just about every student at Galaxy High), and the Creep, a small alien resembling something between a fat cherub and a yellow

marshmallow Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...

who had a huge crush on Aimee, which often revealed itself as he serenaded like a

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

lounge singer Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The rang ...

. The teachers are even more unusual than the students: Ms. Biddy McBrain has a light bulb attached to her head, while Coach Frogface eats flies and Professor Icenstein has to keep his classroom cold to keep him from melting.

Cast

* Susan Blu as Aimee Brightower *

Hal Rayle Hal Rayle (born January 4, 1955) is an American voice actor. He has done many roles for both animated series and live action movies. Career Rayle has had a number of voice acting jobs over his career. Rayle's animated series roles include Miss Pi ...

as Doyle Cleverlobe *

Howard Morris Howard Jerome Morris (September 4, 1919 – May 21, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, and director. He was best known for his role in ''The Andy Griffith Show'' as Ernest T. Bass, and as "Uncle Goopy" in a celebrated comedy sketch on Sid Ca ...

as Professor Icenstein and Luigi La Bounci (plus other miscellaneous voices) *

Pat Carroll Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She was known for voicing Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid'' and for appearances in CBS's ''The Danny Thomas Show'', ABC's '' Laverne & Shirley'', and NB ...

as Ms. Biddy McBrain *

Nancy Cartwright Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress. She is the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', for which she has received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Perform ...

as "Flat" Freddy Fender and Gilda Gossip *Guy Christopher as Earl Eccchhh *

Gino Conforti Gino Conforti (born January 30, 1932) is an American film, television and theatre actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Frank Angelino's chef Felipe Gomez in the American television sitcom ''Three's Company''. Life and career Conforti w ...

as Ollie Oilslick the cabbie and Reggie Unicycle *

Jennifer Darling Jennifer Darling (born Joan Darling; June 19, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American voice, film and television actress. Her best-known role on screen was as Peggy Callahan in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and its spin-off '' The Bio ...

as Booey Bubblehead, Myrtle Blastermeier and Wendy Garbo * Pat Fraley as Coach Frogface and Sludge the janitor *

Henry Gibson Henry Gibson (born James Bateman; September 21, 1935 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor and poet. His best-known roles include his time as a cast member of the TV sketch-comedy series ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 to 19 ...

as Doyle's locker * David L. Lander as Milo de Venus * Danny Mann as the Creep *

Neil Ross Neil David Ross is a British-American voice actor and announcer. Noted for his Trans-Atlantic accent, he has provided voices in many American cartoons, most notably ''Voltron'', '' G.I. Joe'', and ''Transformers'', as well as video games, incl ...

as Rotten Roland * John Stephenson as Beef Bonk and Harvey Blastermeier

Crew

- Voice Director

Episodes

Production notes

The animated series '' Partridge Family 2200 A.D.'', which debuted in 1974, features Keith and Laurie Partridge going to a futuristic space high school called "Galaxy High," and Laurie's friend Marion Moonglow (a Martian) bears a striking resemblance to the Wendy Garbo character from this series. ''Galaxy High School'' was animated, distributed and owned by

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as '' Lupin the Third' ...

. TMS produced ''Galaxy High'' as an attempt to create a similar series to their hit Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and 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 Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

show ''

Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were published in 34 ''tankōbon'' volume ...

'' (released 1981, based on a 1978 manga) for the American market. While ''Urusei Yatsura'' involves an alien girl attending a human high school, the school scenario in ''Galaxy High'' is reversed to be based around humans attending a high school for aliens.

John Kricfalusi Michael John Kricfalusi ( ; born September 9, 1955), known professionally as John K., is a Canadian illustrator, blogger, voice actor and former animator. He is the creator of the animated television series ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', which was ...

was a character designer for the show and went on to create ''

Ren & Stimpy ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' (also known as ''Ren & Stimpy'') is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Originally produced by Spümcø for Nickelodeon, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to Decemb ...

'' and ''

The Ripping Friends ''The Ripping Friends: The World's Most Manly Men!'' (also known as ''The Ripping Friends'') is an animated television series, created by John Kricfalusi, creator of ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' on Nickelodeon. The series aired for one season on Fox ...

''. Syd Iwanter, the creative director, came up with the concept and hired Kricfalusi to draw a one-sheet pitch featuring the main characters for a proposed ''HIGH SCHOOL 2525''. When Michael Chase Walker became director of children's programs for the CBS Television Network, he bought the show, changed the name to ''Galaxy High School'' and convinced up-and-coming screenwriter Chris Columbus to develop the show under his name. Walker was trying to develop a Saturday morning schedule that resembled an old-fashioned Saturday movie matinée with a range of horror (''

Teen Wolf ''Teen Wolf'' is a 1985 American coming-of-age romantic fantasy comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is chang ...

''), science fiction (''Galaxy High School''), comedy (''

Pee-wee's Playhouse ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's po ...

'') and Western (''

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

''). An alternate theme song exists showing clips from various episodes. The theme was changed to an instrumental one. At the end, Aimee speaks "Here we are Doyle! The only two kids from Earth at a high school in outer space! How do you feel?" Doyle responds "A little spaced out, Aimee!" The show features transportation tubes, which people can enter and be whisked away around the school; these are reminiscent of old-style

pneumatic tubes Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are used for transporting solid objects, ...

. In ''Galaxy High'', they are known as "wooshers". The show had been granted two time slots by CBS, for its 1986 and 1987 Saturday mornings, with the expectation of a two-season contract. When the show was not renewed for a second season, CBS elected to rerun the first season in its 1987 time slot, in order to make up for episodes that had been preempted by Saturday sporting events in 1986. Chris Columbus later remarked that CBS had been ambivalent about whether or not there would be a renewal, and had written one script in anticipation of a second season. The sole unproduced episode of ''Galaxy High'' concerned cliquish divisions in Galaxy High which start with pranks and food fights, but soon culminate into a school "civil war", causing Galaxy High's board of trustees to notice this and threaten to shut down the school.

Film

In 1996, Walker optioned the film rights with John H. Williams of Vanguard Films, and reteamed with Chris Columbus to develop the big screen version of ''Galaxy High School''. After various development deals with both DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, the movie plans remain in limbo.

Series tie-in

An 85-page paperback book titled ''Galaxy High School'' was published in August 1987 by Bantam-Skylark Books and written by

Ann Hodgman Ann Hodgman (born 1956) is an American author of more than forty children's books as well as several cookbooks and humor books and many magazine articles. Biography Ann Hodgman was raised in Rochester, New York and graduated from Harvard Univers ...

. It is an adaptation of six episodes, "Welcome to Galaxy High", "Those Eyes, Those Lips", "The Beef Who Would Be King", "Dollars and Sense", "Beach Blanket Blow-Up" and "Founder's Day". In the prologue, it says that Doyle and Aimee, while on Earth, attended Presley High School and its sports team was called the Hound Dogs. It also says that Aimee didn't know Doyle well before coming to Galaxy High, but did think he was cute, until they actually meet when first entering their new school. The paperback is out-of-print and is a highly sought collectible among fans of the show.

Airdates

''Galaxy High School'' originally aired at 11:00am EST/10:00am CST after ''

'' and before ''

CBS Storybreak ''CBS Storybreak'' is a Saturday morning anthology television series that originally aired on the CBS network from 1985 to 1989. Hosted by Bob Keeshan (and in its 1993 return by Malcolm-Jamal Warner), the episodes are half-hour animated adaptation ...

'' in the 1986-1987 season on

. It was also given a timeslot for the 1987-1988 CBS season in the expectation of a second season, but upon the show's retirement the 1987–1988 schedules re-ran episodes of the first season. Later airdates: 2 January 1988 – 27 August 1988 on

, January 2, 1994–?, July 2, 1994–September 24, 1994, October 8, 1994–December 31, 1994–early 1995, 7 February 1996 – 23 February 1996, April 2, 1996 – April 19, 1996, May 27, 1996–June 17, 1996 on the

Sci Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

. In 1996, the show aired on Nickelodeon on weekday mornings in the United Kingdom. Prior to that, in the early-to-mid 1990's, it aired on ITV's breakfast programmes, TV-AM and later GMTV.

Awards

The show was nominated for a

Humanitas Prize The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...

for its anti-drug episode "The Brain Blaster".

Legacy

*''Galaxy High'' appears frequently in the 1980s animation magazine ''cereal:geek''. *The role-playing game '' Teenagers from Outer Space'' released in 1987 expanded upon this concept. *Episode 17 of ''

Space Dandy , is a 2014 Japanese comic science fiction anime television series produced by Bones. The series follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assi ...

'' features a similar setting.

Home media releases

Four episodes of the show were re-edited into a compilation video titled ''Galaxy High'' in 1989 by

Family Home Entertainment Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California. History The company was founde ...

''Galaxy High School'' has been released in full 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 kind ...

. All 13 episodes are available uncut and as they were originally aired, across two volumes, produced and distributed by

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

through their Anime Works imprint. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, during 1989, Channel 5 Video released the first two episodes of the television series on video.

References

External links

*
''Galaxy High School''
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on August 21, 2015.
''Galaxy High''
a
ClassicKidsTV.co.ukTMS Entertainment (Japanese)
{{TMS Entertainment 1980s American animated television series 1980s American high school television series 1986 American television series debuts 1986 American television series endings 1986 Japanese television series debuts 1986 Japanese television series endings American children's animated comic science fiction television series American children's animated science fantasy television series American children's animated space adventure television series Japanese children's animated comic science fiction television series Japanese children's animated science fantasy television series Japanese children's animated space adventure television series Anime-influenced Western animated television series Animated television series about extraterrestrial life CBS original programming Fictional high schools Japanese high school television series TMS Entertainment Television series set in 1986 Teen animated television series