Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures (1990 TV series)
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures | |
---|---|
Voices of |
Keanu Reeves (season 1) Alex Winter (season 1) George Carlin (season 1) Christopher Kennedy (season 2) Evan Richards (season 2) |
Theme music composer |
Randy Petersen (season 1) Kevin Quinn (season 1) |
Opening theme | Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 21 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
David Kirschner (season 1) Paul Sabella (season 1) Andy Heyward (season 2) |
Running time | 20–23 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Hanna-Barbera Productions (season 1) DiC (season 2) Nelson Entertainment Orion Television MGM Television |
Release | |
Original network |
CBS (season 1) Fox Kids (season 2) |
Picture format | 4:3 |
Original release | September 15, 1990 – November 16, 1991 |
Chronology | |
Followed by | Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures (1992 TV series) |
External links | |
Website |
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures is a 1990 spin-off animated television series following the misadventures of two time-travelling slackers as they travel into the distant past and future. It was based on the 1989 film, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and is part of the Bill & Ted franchise.
Overview
The first season was produced by Hanna-Barbera and aired on CBS, with Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, and Bernie Casey reprising their film roles.[1] In the second season, the show switched production companies and networks, now airing on Fox Kids[2] and produced by DIC Entertainment. As Fox was also planning on airing a new live-action series of the same name,[3] the cast was replaced, and the leads were now voiced by Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy, the actors who respectively portrayed Bill and Ted on the short-lived series. The new episodes introduced a "Squint" phone booth that could take Bill and Ted into literature, television shows, and (after shrinking them) inside the human body. The new show had trouble catching on, and after one more season, Bill and Ted was cancelled.
Episodes
Season 1 (1990)
- One Sweet & Sour Chinese Adventure – To Go (9/15/90) - Bill & Ted play loud rock n' roll music and accidentally break a Chinese vase. To avoid getting in trouble, the dudes use their trusty phone booth time machine to go to ancient China to find a replacement where they also meet the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo.
- The Birth of Rock & Roll or Too Hip for the Womb (9/22/90) - Bill & Ted are flunking music appreciation and are given an assignment about classical music, and end up meeting musical personalities such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Little Richard. They also get in trouble with history's greatest archer, William Tell.
- A Most Excellent Roman Holiday (9/29/90) - The dudes are taking a Latin class & are given an assignment about a rare Ancient Roman coin, & the end up going to Latin America in 1450 & Rome in 44 B.C. They also save Julius Caesar from being assassinated.
- Model 'T' for Ted (10/6/90) - Ted is given driving lessons in his father's car, "Blue Betty", & he accidentally wrecks it, which leads to him & Bill going back in time to require some help. They also improve the first Thanksgiving feast, meet pirates & sea explorers like Sir Francis Drake, car pioneer Henry Ford & the inventors of the airplane, The Wright Brothers.
- The More Heinous They are, the Harder They Fall (10/20/90) - Bill & Ted use their phone booth to find a heinous bully to deal with a bully at Deacon's school. They try the English ruler Henry VIII, evil Russian king Ivan the Terrible, cowgirl personality Calamity Jane, & American patriot Paul Revere & they even sign their names on the Declaration of Independence.
- Birds of A Feather Stick to the Roof of Your Mouth (10/27/90) - The duo housesit for an eccentric explorer named Mr. Stickler & a cat eats his most prized possession, a rare bird called "Prince Rupert III" which leads to finding a replacement. They also help polar explorer Richard E. Byrd fly across the South Pole, build a nose for the Sphinx, & help Mr. Henry Morton Stanley find Dr. David Livingstone.
- A Black Night in San Dimas (11/3/90) - A math teacher named Ms. Spleen is fed up with Bill & Ted & threatens them with expelling them unless they can catch up with their homework. In order to get a great audience at their concert, they go back to get their old friends Joanna & Elizabeth from 15th century England, but end up in the Crusades with Muslim leader Saladin.
- Pocket Watch Full of Miracles (11/10/90) - It's Mr. Preston's birthday & the dudes use their phone booth to get him a present: an antique pocket watch, but end up getting watches from Mr. Preston when he was 10 years old, folk hero John Henry, Swiss general Hannibal & the Empress of India, Queen Victoria.
- This Babe Ruth "BABE" is A DUDE, Dude (11/24/90) - The dudes are faced with lunchtime detention and accidentally wash off a signature off Coach Sweatsock's baseball which leads to meeting Babe Ruth, Harriet Tubman, and the famous vampire Count Dracula.
- When the Going Gets Tough Bill & Ted are History (12/1/90) - Bill & Ted are fed up with not getting any applause, so they break up the band, which becomes a breach in time security which causes Rufus to get younger, which leads Bill & Ted meeting famous inventor Thomas Edison, professional artist, thinker, scientist & inventor Leonardo da Vinci, English chemist Joseph Priestley, and history's greatest sailor, Christopher Columbus.
- Never the Twain Shall Meet (12/8/90) - The dudes must find a person for Career Day, or "else". First they meet the greatest playwright ever, William Shakespeare, gold pioneer John Sutter, and American novelist & humorist Mark Twain.
- A Job, a Job – My Kingdom for a Job (12/15/90) - Bill & Ted must find a job, so they find jobs baking a cake for Marie Antoinette's birthday, help the Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate find the Lost City of Gold, help Lucrezia Borgia, and help write haikus with Matsuo Bashō.
- A Grimm Story of an Overdue Book (12/22/90) - Ted is on the library's "Most Over-due Book" list for not returning a story written by the Brothers Grimm, so he & Bill scourge through many places in the past to find a copy of the book, & they meet the actual Grimm Brothers, George Washington, Davy Crockett, and Lady Godiva.
Season 2 (1991)
- Now Museum, Now You Don't (9/14/91) -
- The Totally Gross Anatomy of a Gym Teacher (9/21/91) -
- The Star Strangled Banner (9/28/91) -
- Leave it to Bill and Ted (10/5/91) -
- Goodbye, Columbus... and America (10/12/91) -
- It's a Bogus Day in the Neighborhood (10/26/91) -
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Babysitting (11/2/91) -
- The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Phone Booth (11/16/91) -
Cast
Hanna-Barbera version
- Keanu Reeves – Ted "Theodore" Logan
- Alex Winter – Bill S. Preston, Esq.
- George Carlin – Rufus
- Bernie Casey – Mr. Ryan
- Danny Cooksey – Deacon Logan
- Peter Renaday – Detective Logan
Additional voices
- Joe Alaskey -
- Ken Berry -
- Roscoe Lee Browne -
- Hamilton Camp -
- Brian Cummings -
- Keene Curtis -
- Bernard Erhard -
- Pat Fraley -
- Richard Gautier -
- Joan Gerber -
- Ernest Harada -
- Phil Hartman -
- Arte Johnson -
- Vicki Juditz -
- Zale Kessler -
- Maurice LaMarche -
- Lu Leonard -
- Page Leong -
- Little Richard - Himself (ep. 2)
- Dave Madden -
- Kenneth Mars -
- Rob Paulsen -
- Henry Polic II -
- Clive Revill -
- Robert Ridgely -
- Kimmy Robertson -
- William Schallert -
- Kath Soucie -
- Jeffrey Tambor -
- Susan Tolsky -
- B.J. Ward -
- Jonathan Winters -
- Anderson Wong -
DiC version
- Christopher Kennedy – Bill S. Preston, Esq.
- Evan Richards – Ted "Theodore" Logan
- Tara Charendoff – Mary Jane
- Rick Overton - Rufus
Additional voices
- Susan Boyd -
- Alyson Court -
- Paulina Gillis -
- Dan Hennessey -
- Marilyn Lightstone -
- Judy Marshak -
- Greg Morton -
- Susan Roman -
- Andrew Sabiston -
- Stuart Stone -
- Marlow Vella -
Crew
- Gordon Hunt - Voice Director (Hanna-Barbera version)
- Greg Morton - Voice Director (DiC version)
Home release
The first episode of the first season was released as a special feature on the Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Collection DVD box set, and on the Blu-ray of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
In 2013, TGG Direct, LLC (under license from MGM Home Entertainment) released a 2 disc "Best of" DVD. Disc 1 has most of the episodes from Season 1 (5 episodes are missing), while Disc 2 has the complete second season. It was a Wal-Mart exclusive at first, but now it's available nationwide.[4]
Broadcast
- Chile
- New Zealand
- TV3 (1992–1993)
- Australia
- Channel 7 (1991–1992)
- Philippines
- TV5 (1992–1993)
- United Kingdom
- Channel 4 (1991–1993)
References
- ↑ "Networks Juggle Saturday Morning TV Lineups". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1990. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
- ↑ "Fine-tuning cartoons for young and old". Providence Journal. September 6, 1991. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
- ↑ DuBrow, Rick (May 22, 1991). "Fox Network Goes Out on a Limb Again". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
- ↑ "Best of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures: Animated TV Series: Keanu Reeves, George Carlin, Alex Winter". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
External links
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures at the Internet Movie Database
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Online Adventure
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures at Hulu