|
As we boldly step into the year 2007, I cannot help but think how far I have come with Lilredhead Productions. Starting off with the first episode of Mr. Binkee’s Class and achieving what I have with Enterprise: Flashed and I Am Ahoyager is pretty mind boggling to me. And if I can come this far, I know I can go even further! But it’s always fun to step back and see where I’ve actually been and how I’ve gotten to this point today. Over the next few days I will be doing a feature on the past of Lilredhead Productions and where it’s going to lead us in 2007. So hold on, grab some popcorn, it’s time to take a trip into the past! Previous A Look Back Articles: 2004- What the Hell is a Binkee? During the journey that was 2003, I hit a slight snag I forgot to mention in my 2003 article. You see, Mr. Binek’s Class, my first animated Flash series, was in fact inspired by a high school teacher I once had. The series even carried his name. You can read all about this in the history part of Mr. Binkee’s Class, but here is a brief run down. Mr. Binek was a freshman high school science teacher of mine. And to be blunt, the man was a complete asshole and had no right to be a teacher. In my class, over half the students failed (and in my friend’s class, three people out of 20 passed). He even once called me stupid because I couldn’t figure out a portion of the lab we were doing. This man really angered me. But instead of insulting him directly and risk getting detention or whatever, I made a cartoon series about him instead. So I guess I channeled that negative energy into creative energy. So it’s either very therapeutic or just stupid, one of the two. This cartoon series was first made in 3dmm and later in 2002 brought into Flash form. During mid-2003, my website began to circulate around the high school. One day a few students were watching an episode of Mr. Binek’s Class in the school library and a teacher spotted it. The teacher was insulted, contacted the tech people and ordered them to block my site from the school server. And so, one of the tech people investigated it, watched some episodes, became a fan, but banned the site anyway (since he had to). When this happened, I couldn’t have been happier. Why the hell would I be happy about my site getting banned? Well, to me, this meant that my cartoons were a hit. I mean, come on, only good sites are banned from school servers, right? 
 I wonder if the real Mr. Binek hangs out with magical dancing wieners? However, I had a slight fear in the pit of my stomach. What if the real Mr. Binek were to discover these cartoons? Knowing him, and his temper, that could lead to trouble for me. So after mulling it over, I finally decided in early 2004 to rename Mr. Binek’s Class to Mr. Binkee’s Class. I also went ahead and renamed another character, Mr. Anderson, who was also based on another teacher. So I had to go back through each episode and redo the voices whenever “Binek” or “Anderson” were said. Then the last two episodes produced, Episodes 12 and 13, used these new changes. It took some time for my friends and I to adjust to this. I mean, what the hell is a Binkee? We had a clear image in our heads of what a Binek was. But a Binkee? I’m sure the internet audience cared less. But at the time that didn’t seem to matter. And now the issue is void since I openly admit the change and no longer try to hide it. I never had plans to end Mr. Binkee’s Class. But after making two episodes in January, my interest just sort of dwindled away. Besides a school project and the revival of the three year old Mr. Binek’s Class 3DMM series in the spring of 2004, Mr. Binkee stepped down as a star in his own animated series. 
Mr. Binkee and the gang in the unofficial episode entitled “The Temporal Blunder”. Overall, 2004 didn’t bring too many surprises. We had the death of Mr. Binkee’s Class, the death of The ZJ Chronicles (after it’s fourth and final episode was released in early 2004), and from there Bubba Has a Gun pretty much lead the way as far as new content was concerned. Bubba Has a Gun saw four episodes released in 2004. I personally think Episode 5- Dinner at Mom’s lacked in some areas (probably due to the polethera of insides jokes that would seem foreign to the internet audience). However, the three episodes that followed turned out pretty well. In Episode 6- Bubba’s Revenge (a remake from the 3dmm series) we got to witness Bubba’s thick headedness get him into trouble (once again) and Cernal Sanders’ ghost give Bubba a very important message. Episode 7- High School Bubba featured a guest appearance from Mr. Binkee as Bubba struggles to get his high school diploma. It turns out Mr. Binkee was Bubba’s science teacher years ago and Bubba faces the same problems he did in 1988. Halloween Special 2: Dawn of the Living Bubba, arguably the best Bubba episode out of 2004, features a “what if?” storyline. Bubba gets killed and after 20 years is reborn as a zombie. As his zombie comrades take to the streets to feast, Bubba heads back to his home to warn his family. The end result isn’t very pleasant.
 Bubba wakes up to a zombie invasion in “Dawn of the Living Bubba”. Ahoyager: The Journey Home continued on with two more episodes before being canceled in the summer of 2004. I hit a slight snag when it came to this series. At this time I was starting to form a sort of community between my cartoon series. Bubba had Binkee as a teacher, Zakk and Justin were stars of the ZJ Chronicles but also students in Mr. Binkee’s Class, and Pakaday was always making appearances in every series I’ve made. So how can Pakaday be in two places at once? She’s in Mr. Binkee’s Class one minute, but then on a star ship thousands of light years from Earth the next? This made no sense. The solution? Make Ahoyager a TV show this community watched! Yep, Pakaday became nothing more but a local celeberty who went to school, hung out with Bubba and starred in a TV show. It seemed perfect and on July 6th, 2004, Episode 4- Revamped was released. To shake things up a bit, I revealed Ahoyager was nothing more then a TV show and had Pakaday quit at the same time. The end of the episode revealed that William Shatner would be taking over as the new captain of the Ahoyager. The follow up episode, Choices, was released a mere four days after Revamped. We got to witness the Ahoyager crew trying to adjust to the new command of Captain Flirt (William Shatner). And of course Flirt has to go sleep with an alien princess and start a huge conflict (not to mention his ass gets stuck in the bridge floor) before the ship runs out of food. The episode wasn’t that bad really. However, like Mr. Binkee’s Class, my interest dwindled in the series. But, I wasn’t through with Ahoyager just quite yet. 
 Captain Flirt takes on a hostile alien king in “Choices”. In December of 2004 I started work on a total reboot of the Ahoyager series. The basic premise was the Ahoyager crew was preparing for a Christmas celebration. But as their festivities ensue, an unknown alien ship attacks the Ahoyager, destroying it. The pieces of the destroyed ship hit an uncharted planet. A survivor from the wreckage emerges with no memory intact. He discovers the Quack, the Ahoyager’s holographic dentist. The Quack tells the young crewman that an alien ship destroyed the Ahoyager. The Quack then goes offline, his program is lost, and is never seen again. This young man than builds a new Ahoyager, assembles a new crew, and goes on a new mission: to avenge his fallen comrades. I started animating this movie, and got about half way done. But I set it aside and never touched it again. The thing is, this concept is kinda similar to I Am Ahoyager, which is now in development. So this project never really died, it was just reborn in a new and unexpected form. 
 The unnamed hero of the new Ahoyager. Perhaps the biggest and most underrated event for Lilredhead Productions in 2004 was the birth and death of The Mighty Ones. This series was yet another concept thought up by Pete Thomas (co-creator and co-writer of I Am Ahoyager) and myself. The idea was to take a bunch of misfit superheroes, and have them ban together and fight crime. So basically it was The Justice League with a twist. After finally nailing down the characters I wanted, I got working on the episode right away. In recent memory I never had so much fun working on a cartoon. I actually stayed up for about 48 hours and worked on this thing. I got it all done within that time period. It was also very long too, so it was quite a feat. On August 23rd, 2004, Episode 1- The Chloroplastanator was released. I was so excited for people to see this episode, I submitted it to Flashplayer.com. To my surprise, it was accepted (there’s a first time for everything I guess). However, the people over at flashplayer.com seemed to really despise the movie. People who I personally showed it to loved it. It really came down to my work wasn’t quite up to par to be submitted to a site like that. This was quite discouraging, and due to the fact I couldn’t think of a solid plot for Episode 2, the series began and ended with one episode. However, this short lived series help me fine tune my animations, further hit home the community aspect of my cartoons (such as Bubba watching Ahoyager on TV) and showcased some pretty funny moments. 
 Bill Clinton is taken hostage be a giant tree. When I look back, I see 2004 as being one of the best years for Lilredhead Production. Sure, four series didn’t return in 2005 for another run. However, three out of the four of these series delivered solid episodes throughout 2004. So I’d say they went out on a high note. And of course Bubba Has a Gun cruised along into 2005, even if it was short lived. But I’ll talk about that next time. So, what did 2005 bring for Lilredhead Productions? A whole hell of a lot actually. Who knew the cancellation of one television series could have such a huge impact on this one man production company? Tune in tomorrow to read more! |
