Edward and Eric

Edward and Eric (sometimes shortened to E&E) is an American animated comedy series created by Gary Sauls. It made its debut on Kids' WB on September 5, 1998, and ended its run on September 17, 2005, with 6 seasons, 140 episodes, 5 TV specials (one of them being shelved) and a theatrical movie. The show is still sold on DVD to this day. All of the episodes (and the movie) are also available for digital purchase on iTunes and Amazon Prime. The entire series (excluding the movie) is also available on Hulu, while only the movie is available on Netflix.

The show is rated TV-Y7 FV.

Synopsis

The intellectually gifted Edward Pearson, accompanied by his scatterbrained brother, Eric, their workaholic father, Paul, and the family pet, Oscar the Owl, lives in Avenue A Apartment in Lakeside City, and he is always up for an adventure or two with Eric and the rest of his pals.

Episodes

See Edward and Eric/Episodes

Setting

The show takes place at Lakeside City, a fictional city located in the state of New York which also happens to be the capital of New York's "sixth borough", Lakeside. The show is set during the late 1990s, with things such as pagers, dial-up Internet, VHS tapes, cassettes, etc. being common throughout the series.

For the most part, the show does not rely on continuity. In fact, most episodes end with a character being heavily injured, stuck in a situation, exiled, or even killed. While there are a few callbacks to previous episodes, they are kept brief and do not interfere with the series. Gary Sauls has also stated that he hopes anyone can watch any episode in any production order and not feel “lost”.

Main Cast

Andrew Rannells as Edward, Paul, Oscar, The Narrator, additional voices, and himself
Josh Peck as Eric
Dan Green as Dallas
Gary Sauls as Constantinos, Joey and additional voices
Edward Felker as Stanley and additional voices
Mike Pollock as Principal Walker and additional voices
Veronica Taylor as Carver
Jacob the Dog as himself

Development

See Edward and Eric/Development

Production

Approximately 70 people work together whenever they produce an episode of Edward and Eric. Production of the series is handled at Chatterbox Productions in Astoria, New York, and when episodes are finalized, they are sent to Warner Bros. Animation in Burbank, California for approval. Every single episode is fully hand-drawn; the only instances where computers are involved is for scanning, which was introduced in the third season, when the show started to use ink and paint animation.

Just like other eleven-minute cartoons, an episode of Edward and Eric would take at least ten to nine months to produce. Writing starts whenever Gary Sauls and Edward Felker come up with a story for an episode. They plan it out, come up with gags, and give detailed notes on what should be added or changed. Once it looks good, they write down the script together. They revise it several times, and whenever they're done with making a final draft of the script and showing it to other Chatterbox employees, the animators, storyboard directors and storyboard artists work on the animation for a good amount of time before shipping it off to Rough Draft Studios in South Korea so that the animation can truly be done.

Edward and Eric contains a large variety of New York City voice actors, and recording sessions take place in Chatterbox's recording studio on Wednesdays. According to the documentary, The Making of Comedy World, actors clock in at 9AM. Sauls has said, "Seeing the action unfold in the studio is why I really, really love Wednesdays. The sessions get more unusual and wacky - it's so much fun. And the way the actors record their lines is like an old-school radio show style."

Whenever there are Los Angeles actors, they record their lines at Warner Bros. Animation, and they are sent over to Chatterbox within a few hours.

Reception

Ratings

When Edward and Eric debuted, the pilot episode attracted around 2.26 million viewers. Within its first few months on air, the amount of viewers expanded. As the show progressed, it became the number-one children's animated series on television. Needless to say, it became a major success for the Kids' WB programming block throughout the years. It was so successful, that it dominated Kids' WB's other most famous show, Pokémon, which was an achievement that seemed utterly impossible at the time. The show was also so popular, that reruns also aired on The WB. Even when The WB became The CW on September 17, 2006, reruns didn't stop, at least until 2010.

The time slot for new episodes was 9:30am on Saturday mornings.

Critical response

The show currently holds a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDb and an 8.6/10 on TV.com.

Home video releases

VHS

DVD

Cartoon Crack-Ups
Adventures in Lakeside City (Reprint)
Christmas Chronicles (Reprint)
Summer Shock (Reprint)
Crazy Antics (Reprint)
Hometown Heroes
The Comedy World Movie
Incredibly Incredible Adventures
Edward's Craziest Experiments
Suckers: The Complete Trilogy
The Very Best of Comedy World

Box sets

Broadcast

United States - Kids' WB (1998-2008), The WB (1999-2006), Cartoon Network (2000-2009; 2012), Boomerang (2005-2016; 2018-present), The CW (2006-2010), The CW4Kids (2008-2010)
Mexico - Fox Kids and Cartoon Network
Spain - Nickelodeon
Canada - YTV
United Kingdom and Ireland - Jetix and Cartoon Network
Japan - Cartoon Network
France - Disney Channel
Germany - Nickelodeon
Poland - Jetix
South Korea - Cartoon Network

Trivia

Whenever Andrew Rannells voices Edward, he always uses his natural speaking voice. Due to his calm, easygoing nature in real life, he never yells, so he had to learn how to sound angry so that he could properly record his lines whenever there was a scene where Edward was mad or annoyed.
The entire series was traditionally animated through the use of pencils and papers.
The show was entirely produced in New York.
Edward and Eric was the longest running original show on Kids' WB, lasting seven years.
The show was going to be renewed for a seventh season that would've ran through late 2005 and into the beginning of 2006, but Gary Sauls eventually refused the offer.
A slightly altered version of the end credits theme sometimes plays in episodes as background music.
During development, the show’s original title was “Edward Pearson’s Comedy World”.
Each season finale is well known for having a "dark ending".
The show is a notable example of Bloodless Carnage, as it is filled with slapstick, and the characters never bleed.
Gary Sauls was so burnt out from working on the movie, that he doesn't have any memories of working on the first few Season 5 episodes.