Kevin Spencer (TV series)

Last updated
Kevin Spencer
Kevinspencer.jpg
Genre Black comedy
Created byGreg Lawrence
Written byRick Kaulbars
Greg Lawrence
David Elver (2004)
Directed byDave Bigelow
Adrienne Reid (1999–2001)
Voices ofGreg Lawrence
Thomasin Langlands
Mike Wetmore
Dave Bigelow
David Elver
Narrated byGreg Lawrence
Theme music composerSerge Cote
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons8
No. of episodes113 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerGreg Lawrence
Production locations Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Running time22-23 minutes
Production companiesOcnus Productions
Atomic Productions
Original release
Network CTV/The Comedy Network
Release17 January 1999 (1999-01-17) –
4 November 2005 (2005-11-04)

Kevin Spencer is a Canadian animated television series created by Greg Lawrence for CTV and The Comedy Network. The show is aimed at adult audiences, and takes its name from the main character, taking place in Landville, Ontario. It is based on the shorts of the same name that premiered on CTV in 1997-98. [1] It also aired on Burly Bear Network and Spike TV in the US, however the half-hour series version officially came out on January 17, 1999. [2]

Contents

Later on in April 2001 the original 1997-1998 shorts were remade and released on Mondo Media’s flash cartoon site in the US. [3]

Plot and characters

The show revolves around the everyday happenings of the Spencer family. Kevin himself is a 16-year-old, sociopathic juvenile delinquent addicted to alcohol, cough syrup and tobacco. He lives with his parents, whom he often shows ambivalence towards, and is a student at a local high school, although he rarely attends school. It is demonstrated many times throughout the series that Kevin is mentally unstable, as he is prone to random outbursts of violence, even towards himself, shows signs of insanity, and has a complete disregard for life, including his own. It is also shown that Kevin is probably mentally challenged, as he often has difficulties with performing the simplest of tasks, such as making himself a bowl of cereal, forgetting what he was talking about the instant after saying something, or even realizing that he was hungry, yet at times throughout the series, makes very well-articulated statements about certain aspects of society, culture, politics, and education, possibly indicating Kevin is a savant. Throughout the series, Kevin almost never speaks, aside from during dream sequences and occasional one-sentenced outbursts that the viewer only sees as speech or thought balloons. Instead, the show's narrator (voiced by Lawrence) speaks for Kevin; that is, he describes what Kevin is saying, thinking, and how Kevin reacts to the world around him. Kevin finally does speak in Season 2, Episode 17 (Dreamland), but only in his dreams.

His parents, Anastasia (voiced by Thomasin Langlands) and Percy (voiced by Lawrence), are also alcoholic, cough syrup-addicted chain-smokers. Both are crude, overweight, unattractive and extraordinarily stupid people who live off of welfare. Both parents neglect or otherwise use Kevin for their own selfish gains, and both show clear signs of sociopathic tendencies. Neither parent is faithful to the other, and Anastasia in particular is highly promiscuous. Their antics usually involve attempting to gain money or alcohol through illegal acts, which quite randomly succeed or fail. While both parents primarily show hatred and disgust towards one another, both occasionally demonstrate a small degree of lust for each other, though these moments rarely last longer than a scene of an episode.

Another frequent character in the show is Kevin's imaginary friend, Allen the Magic Goose (voiced by Mike Wetmore). Allen often encourages Kevin's sociopathic nature, noally asking him to do illegal, indecent, and/or dangerous things simply for the sake of the thrill or for vengeance. However, Kevin, being a sociopath, often shows ambivalence towards Allen, sometimes threatening or intimidating the bird. During such times, Allen often reminds Kevin of the futility of these outbursts, since Kevin is simply imagining Allen's existence. However, in Season 2, Episode 12 (The Potted Goose), Kevin and Allen have a falling out and go their separate ways, and it's revealed that Allen and other "imaginary" friends can leave their hosts and "find another head to live in". Allen tries living in the heads of other humans (during which time Kevin can no longer see Allen), including Percy, one of Kevin's teachers, Charlie Plunt, and the Widow Coulson. Meanwhile, Kevin tries out new imaginary friends, including Hacky the Cigar-Smoking Rollerskating Monkey, Zoltron (a robot that doesn't know the difference between a transformer and a transvestite), and a pimple-faced nerd who's new to the imaginary friend game. Neither Kevin nor Allen can find a suitable replacement, and reconcile at the end of the episode.

Charlie Plunt (voiced by Mike Wetmore) is Percy's friend.

Another frequent character, is Shauna(voiced by Tori Hammond Shauna is Kevin’s love interest. Throughout the series, we see her slowly devolve into being more and more sociopathic, eventually killing her mother.

In the final episode, it is revealed that the entire series is actually just a mental delusion created by Allen himself, and he has been seeking therapy to regain his sanity.

Streaming

Ocnus Productions (creators of Kevin Spencer) sold the rights to the shows around May/June 2011 to Netflix. The seasons were therefore removed from Expressmedia.ca where Manufacture-On-Demand DVDs had been available for sale for several years. All 8 seasons were made available in the US on Netflix's streaming service July 15, 2011, although as of December 2011 the show failed to appear on Netflix's Canadian version of the streaming service. On July 17, 2012, Netflix stopped featuring it altogether. Seasons 1-2 were later added on to Hulu the same year. All 8 seasons of the show are currently available on Amazon Prime Video, Plex (software),. [4]

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References

  1. ↑ "Kevin Spencer". everything2.com. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  2. ↑ "Untitled Document". web.archive.org. 2002-08-09. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
  3. ↑ "Kevin Spencer Message Board - Reply to Topic". 2001-05-07. Archived from the original on 2001-05-07. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  4. ↑ "Kevin Spencer".
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