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''The Head'' is an American science-fiction adult animated television series created by
Eric Fogel Eric Fogel (born May 11, 1969) is an American director, writer, animator, producer, and voice actor who is best known as the creator of ''Celebrity Deathmatch''. He created the TV shows ''The Head (1994 TV series), The Head'', ''Starveillance'' ...
for
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
. It originated as a science-fiction mini-series that aired under the ''MTV's Oddities'' label between 1994 and 1996, and was followed by ''
The Maxx ''The Maxx'' is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 by Image Comics for 35 issues, before being collected in trade paperback by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The first appearanc ...
''. The series was released on DVD on December 15, 2009.


Plot

Created by ''
Celebrity Deathmatch ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' is an adult stop-motion claymated series created by Eric Fogel and produced by John Worth Lynn Jr. for MTV. A parody of sports entertainment programs, ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' depicted various celebrities engaging ...
'' creator Eric Fogel, ''The Head'' is the story of Jim, a trade-school student in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
who awakens one morning to find that his
cranium The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...
has enlarged to mammoth proportions. A week later, out bursts Roy, a little purple alien with an odd sense of humor who has taken up residence in Jim's head. Roy needed a place to stay to adapt to the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
's environment while on a mission to save the world from a power-hungry alien named Gork. Roy explains that there are two races of
symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...
aliens: his own, which is mutualistic; and Gork's, which is parasitic. Aiding Jim and Roy are Jim's girlfriend, Madeline; his personal physician, Dr. Richard Axel; and a group of "human anomalies." The group consists of Ray, a landscaper who has a
lawnmower A lawn mower (also known as a grass cutter or simply mower, also often spelled lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the ...
blade lodged in his skull; Mona, a beautiful young woman with a short tail; Ivan, a Russian who has a mouth in his chest; Raquel, who has an enormous nose and buckteeth which give her a slightly ratlike appearance; Earl, who has a fishbowl in his mouth; Chin, a long-limbed former
freak show A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "Freak, freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual Human#Anatomy and physiology, humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, t ...
performer from China; and the annoyingly normal head of the group, Shane Blackman. A notable aspect was that it was the first ever voice acting role for
John DiMaggio John William DiMaggio ( ; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the ''Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on '' Kim Possible'', ...
.


Characters

* Jim – A trade-school student who seemed to be an average joe before Roy entered his head. He had a crush on Madeline, whom he described as the most beautiful girl in his arc-welding class, but it took a while to gather the nerve to even ask her name. Since Roy began associating with him, Jim's confidence and self-image have grown and he has become a courageous, quick-thinking hero. * Roy – A purple alien from outer space. Roy is his nickname, but his true name is only pronounceable in an alien language that sounds suspiciously like reverse English – played backwards, "I'm from outer space". Because of an attack by a race of parasitic aliens, his species is few in number. Roy wants to save Earth from an even worse fate. To do so, he must reassemble his Anti-Invasion Machine, which was accidentally broken into five pieces and scattered around the world during his entry into Earth's atmosphere. Roy has telepathic powers, which he can use to communicate with Jim from afar and call up
clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to ...
visions. * Dr. Richard Axel – Jim's physician, a head specialist. Before Jim found out about Roy, Dr. Axel took an x-ray of his head and found only a black mass. He urged Jim to continue his appointments, which Jim refused to do. Soon afterwards, Dr. Axel was kidnapped by Dr. Elliot and his imbecilic agent cohorts. Jim rescued him, and he agreed to help Jim and Roy reassemble the Anti-Invasion Machine. * Madeline – Jim's girlfriend. At first, she is merely his crush. She is a faithful woman who admits her love to Jim rather early in the relationship. She comes to his apartment for dinner the night Jim found out about Roy, and there she was attacked by Gork. Gork entered her head, causing it to grow to the size of Jim's. Gork was eventually forced out of Madeline's head by Jim. Jim and Gork brawled for a few minutes before Dr. Elliot arrived and seized Gork. Afterward, Madeline's head returned to normal size, and she decided to help Jim and Roy. * Gork – A member of the evil alien race that destroyed Roy's planet and now wants to eat the brains of every human on Earth. He speaks alternately in three different voices. One voice sounds much like backwards English and is apparently his native language – one is very sinister and is obviously his own, speaking American English – and the third sounds like a human with a posh West-London (or a "Proper") British English accent. The third voice was commonly used when persuading Dr. Elliot (who would have been less likely to be assuaged by a sinister alien voice). Gork's special powers include the ability to control the mind he has inhabited,
telekinesis Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been cri ...
, and the ability to emit painful energy from his head. * Dr. Lucas Elliot – A member of an unnamed government agency. He is very paranoid and firmly believes in the existence of aliens,
Sasquatch Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...
, and other far-fetched urban legends. Because of this, he was a major figure of ridicule at the institute where he was taught. It seems Gork is the reason for this. As a child, Dr. Elliot saw Gork inhabit and kill a farmer. The only reason Gork let Elliot live is because he was too young and thus his mind was not advanced enough to be "inhabited." Dr. Elliot always travels with two doltish government agents who, it turns out, have a crush on each other. * Shane Blackman – Runs a support group that Jim is part of. Blackman is an acquaintance of Madeline's. Through Blackman's support group, Jim ends up meeting a group of abnormal friends who aid him throughout his adventures.


Broadcast

After the initial 13 fifteen-minute installments had aired, ''MTV's Oddities'' began airing another serial, entitled ''
The Maxx ''The Maxx'' is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 by Image Comics for 35 issues, before being collected in trade paperback by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The first appearanc ...
''. When ''The Maxx'' had finished airing, ''The Head'' returned with a fifteen-minute recap of season 1 (''The Pasquale Mendoza Show'') and a new season of thirty-minute episodes, but the focus often shifted from Jim and Roy to the other "human anomalies" they had befriended. The second season lacked the serialized story structure and each episode began with a secondary opening sequence (following the ''Oddities'' credits) which introduced the characters/premise. Shortly after the second season finished airing, ''The Head'' (along with "MTV's Oddities") vanished from the airwaves. Reruns of the series were seen briefly on
MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, through PMN’s MTV Entertainment Group Subdivision. The channel launched initially as an all-music ...
in August 2009.


Episodes

The first season follows Jim's and Roy's efforts to stop Gork's race from infecting the people of Earth. The second season focuses on the further adventures of the Human Anomaly support group.


Series overview


Season 1 (1994–95)

The first season consisted of 13 serialized chapters packed into 7 10-minute episodes. The season finale originally concluded with an extended preview of the next "Oddities" serial, ''
The Maxx ''The Maxx'' is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 by Image Comics for 35 issues, before being collected in trade paperback by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The first appearanc ...
''.


Season 2 (1996)


Home media

The first 13 episodes were released on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
under the title ''The Head Saves the Earth''. Snippets from the original airings were left off the video version to keep the running time under two hours. The second season was never released on VHS. The "complete series" was released on DVD on December 15, 2009, via
Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...
through their CreateSpace manufacture-on-demand program. There are no extras. This release omits the ''MTV's Oddities'' opening credits sequence, "''Inside The Head''," and the extended preview of ''
The Maxx ''The Maxx'' is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 by Image Comics for 35 issues, before being collected in trade paperback by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The first appearanc ...
'' that followed "''The Invasion''." The series was subsequently made available for sale on
Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
and the DVD was discontinued.


Other media


Graphic novel

In 1996, Pocket Books released a 96-page graphic novel entitled ''The Head: A Legend Is Born'', which was based on an unproduced episode. The cover shows a picture of Jim, and a rectangular panel folds out to reveal a large pop-up of Roy inside of his head. The story takes place after the events in season 2. Roy and Jim have parted ways but reunite to save Mark, Roy's younger brother, who has sent out a distress call from a ship in outer space. Meanwhile, Madeline is abducted by Gork, and Dr. Elliot makes his triumphant return to wreak havoc upon the Earth with the help of his "children". Jim and Madeline's child is born—and they name it "Mark".


Trading Cards

The show was featured in
Fleer The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989. Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blubb ...
's 1995 trading card set "MTV Animation" alongside ''
Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, Stupi ...
'', ''
The Brothers Grunt ''The Brothers Grunt'' is an adult animated comedy television series, and the earliest series made by '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' creator Danny Antonucci. It originally aired from August 15, 1994, to April 9, 1995, on MTV. It centers on five humanoid ...
'', and ''
The Maxx ''The Maxx'' is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 by Image Comics for 35 issues, before being collected in trade paperback by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. The first appearanc ...
''. The cards included summaries of the first season episodes, character bios (with information that's not revealed in the show), and characters also appeared on the special hologram cards, foil puzzle, and packaging.


Cancelled video game

A
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
version of the show was planned and was going to be released both for
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
and
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
in February 1995, but was cancelled very early into development. However, the source code for the Genesis version was discovered in May 2014.


References


External links

*
The Head Official site
-
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Head, The 1990s American adult animated television series 1990s American animated comedy television series 1990s American comic science fiction television series 1994 American animated television series debuts 1996 American television series endings 1990s American LGBTQ-related animated television series American adult animated fantasy television series American animated science fantasy television series American adult animated comedy television series American adult animated science fiction television series American comic science fiction television series American English-language television shows MTV cartoons Fictional humanoids Animated television series about extraterrestrial life Animated television series set in New York City Television series created by Eric Fogel