The Cramp Twins

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The Cramp Twins
The Cramp Twins Title.PNG
Genre Animated sitcom
Created byBrian Wood
Developed byBrian Wood
Richard Liebmann-Smith
Written by
Directed by
  • Frank Gresham
  • Becky Bristow
  • Tamara Varga
Starring
Theme music composerHélène Muddiman
ComposerHélène Muddiman
Country of origin
  • Germany
  • United Kingdom
  • United States (season 1)
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52 (104 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Peter Völkle
  • Ken Olshansky (Season 1)
  • Carole Weitzman (Season 1)
  • David Ferguson (Season 2)
  • Marion Edwards (Season 2)
  • Finn Arnesen and Daniel Lennard (for Cartoon Network Europe)
Producers
  • Jodey Caminski-Cashman (Season 1)
  • Denise Green (Season 2)
Editors
  • Michael Geisler (Season 1)
  • Jim Andrews (Season 2)
  • Darren Jones (Season 2)
Running time20 minutes (2–10 minute segments)
Production companies
Original release
Network Cartoon Network
Release3 September 2001 (2001-09-03) [4]  
2004 (2004)

The Cramp Twins is an animated television series created by British cartoonist Brian Wood based on his 1995 graphic novel of the same name. [5] The show was produced by Sunbow Entertainment (in season 1), Telemagination (in season 2), and TV-Loonland AG, in association with Cartoon Network Europe. [6]

Contents

Overview

The series follows the day-day exploits of Lucien Cramp (Kath Soucie) and Wayne Cramp (Tom Kenny), fraternal twin brothers who live with their germophobic mother Dorothy (Nicole Oliver) and their Western-obsessed father Horace (Ian James Corlett) in the fictional, industrial town of Soap City. Wayne and Lucien's personalities clash, and they hate one another. Wayne has a friend called Dirty Joe (Lee Tockar), who owns a dump, and neighbour Wendy Winkle (Jayne Peterson) has a crush on him, but he despises her. Wayne's and Lucien's teacher is Miss Hillary Hissy (Cathy Weseluck). Lucien's friends include swamp-dweller Tony Parsons (Terry Klassen) and socially-awkward Mari Phelps (Tabitha St. Germain).

Two seasons of The Cramp Twins were made altogether. In the United States, season 1 aired as two separate seasons, and did not get broadcast until long after it had aired in its home country. All episodes were aired 2–3 years earlier in the UK leaving one episode from season 2 (4 in the US) unaired.

Characters

Main

Recurring

Minor

Production and development

The Cramp Twins was developed between Sunbow Entertainment and Cartoon Network Europe during the development of their first co-production Fat Dog Mendoza . [7] The production of the series was announced in July 1999. [8] [9]

In October 2000, Sony Wonder's TV arm was acquired by German company TV-Loonland AG, putting The Cramp Twins under the control of Loonland. [10]

In March 2001, TV-Loonland AG pre-sold the British terrestrial rights to the series to the BBC. [11] In September, the series was pre-sold in Germany to KI.KA. [12] By late 2001, the series pre-sold to TF1 in France, [13] and TV-Loonland subsidiary Salsa Distribution pre-sold the series in Latin America to Fox Kids. [14]

In 2002, the second season was produced by Telemagination, a British animation company that TV-Loonland owned. By that time, the series was picked up in over 50 countries worldwide. [15]

Broadcast

The Cramp Twins premiered in the United Kingdom on 3 September 2001 on Cartoon Network and on BBC One during the CBBC programming block, later airing on the CBBC channel itself in February 2002. [16] The show achieved high popularity with children in the UK, pulling in 1.5 million viewers a week on CBBC and becoming the top-rated weekend series on Cartoon Network during its initial broadcast. [17] Although the series ended, reruns continued to air on CBBC and Cartoon Network for a few years afterwards, with Cartoon Network airing the show well into the mid-2010s at night, in order to fill European content requirements alongside Skatoony and Robotboy . It was also repeated on Boomerang UK and Cartoon Network Too. [18]

In early 2003, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the exclusive merchandise licensing, television broadcast and home video rights for the series within the United States. The series premiered in the country on the company's FoxBox Saturday morning block on Fox on 8 February on the same year. [19] [20] It would continue to air on the block at various intervals until 19 August 2006. The series also aired on Cartoon Network in the US from 14 June 2004 [21] to April 2005.[ citation needed ]

In Canada, the series aired on YTV, premiering in 2004. [22]

Home media

United Kingdom

In the UK, the series was released on DVD (with Volume 1 also released on VHS) by Metrodome Distribution, a home video company that TV-Loonland AG majority-owned at the time. Volumes 4 and 5 were released under the distributor's "Mini Metro" budget range.[ citation needed ]

All episodes released on DVD in the country made up the entirety of Series 1. Volume 5 also includes a Season 2 episode.

DVD titleRelease dateIncluded episodes
Mr. Winkle's Monkey & Other Stories

(DVD & VHS)

United Kingdom: 17 February 2003 [23] [24]
  • "Fashion Passion / Small Wonder"
  • "Mr. Winkle's Monkey / Wicked Wendy"
  • "Swamp Fever / Kung Foolish"
  • "Silence Please / Fur Fungus"
  • "Home on the Range / Holesome"
Haircut Horrors & Other Stories

(DVD)

United Kingdom: 15 May 2006 [25]
  • "Date Dupe / Agent X"
  • "Sick Daze / Picket Picket"
  • "Nostalgia Nasty / Haircut Horrors"
  • "Big Baby / Ad Bad"
  • "Workout / Sixth Senselessness"
  • "Twin Studies / Birthday Blues"
Wolfman Wayne & Other Stories

(DVD)

United Kingdom: 15 May 2006 [26]
  • "Grandma's Piano / Guide Games"
  • "Prize Swallow / Ice Scream"
  • "Wolfman Wayne / Shed Dead"
  • "Spy's Pies / No Means Yes"
  • "Miss Kissy / Friend Fight"
  • "Walk Like A Man / Bouncy Bob"
Dirty Monkey & Other Stories

(DVD)

United Kingdom: 9 October 2006 [27]
  • "Room Rage / Dirty Monkey"
  • "Hotel Hysteria / Alien Glow"
  • "Chameleon Chaos / Weedkiller"
  • "The Great Luciani / Wendy Boy"
  • "Food Fight / Mari Mania"
Pantaloonacy & Other Stories

(DVD)

United Kingdom: 26 February 2007 [28]
  • "Great Bowl of Fear / Mud Crush"
  • "Petrified Poodles / Harp Wars"
  • "The Bad Seed / Rodeo Rita"
  • "Worm Funeral / One Sock Wonder"
  • "Pantaloonacy / Girl Gang"

"Sick Daze / Picket Picket" was also featured on a compilation VHS and DVD called "Boys Stuff" from 2004 which also featured episodes from The Transformers , G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero , Yvon of the Yukon and Super Duper Sumos . [29]

United States

In the United States, two DVDs containing 11 segments each were released on DVD by Platinum Disc and 4Kids Home Video.

The first, "Twin-Compatible", was released on 19 April 2005, and the other, "Twin-Sult", was released on 10 March 2006. [30]

Ratings

Award nominations

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  1. Animation outsourced to RG Prince Films [3] and Loonland Animation.