I first saw this show in high school and I told other students about it, but no one had seen or heard of it. It was, in fact, cancelled after only 13 episodes were made in 1999-2000. Created by Simpsons producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, Mission Hill isn't as good as The Simpsons but nevertheless is one of the finest adult cartoons created.
The show is set in a city neighbourhood called Mission Hill, where 24-year-old aspiring cartoonist Andy French and his two roommates have to adjust to living with Andy's 17-year-old brother Kevin, who just moves in. Kevin is nerdy and the two brothers constantly fight. But Andy soon tries to show Kevin there's more to life than he thinks, and Kevin adjusts to living in a neighbourhood he finds strange, particularly with a radical liberal couple and an elderly gay couple as neighbours.
One episode makes fun of the MTV reality series The Real World, a show that will probably one day be forgotten, thus making this Mission Hill episode dated. But most episodes of Mission Hill will probably be timeless. They deal with real life struggles regarding social interaction, growing up, liking girls, sibling rivalry and jealousy, masturbation and pornography. Kevin is primarily interested in getting into a good university, but along the way he falls in love with a girl called Weirdie, who is sort of like him, and he begins to notice her shapely body. However, at the end we get classic Kevin jumping into the water to save what he wanted in the first place, a letter of recommendation for his college application from Weirdie's father. This episode and the two-part Unemployment episodes are highlights of the series. Another episode worth mentioning is Stories of Hope and Forgiveness, which depicts America in a pseudo-crisis. The way people react to it is reminiscent of September 11- this episode was made before but aired after 9/11.
There's some missed opportunities with Mission Hill, understandable since it only lasted for a season. One big one is Andy's female roommate Posey, voiced by an actress from NewsRadio- she's featured prominently in the title sequence and on the front cover of the DVD but plays only a small part in the actual show. Her best moment is when she tries to be mean in the Weirdie episode. Generally, though, we get to know the gay couple Wally and Gus better, particularly after the last episode, Plan 9 from Mission Hill. That's where we see their pretty funny movie which was obviously inspired by the works of Ed Wood.
See this show if you haven't already. There are some changes in the DVD, including with the music, and there's some audio problems with one episode, but they're still worth watching.
The show is set in a city neighbourhood called Mission Hill, where 24-year-old aspiring cartoonist Andy French and his two roommates have to adjust to living with Andy's 17-year-old brother Kevin, who just moves in. Kevin is nerdy and the two brothers constantly fight. But Andy soon tries to show Kevin there's more to life than he thinks, and Kevin adjusts to living in a neighbourhood he finds strange, particularly with a radical liberal couple and an elderly gay couple as neighbours.
One episode makes fun of the MTV reality series The Real World, a show that will probably one day be forgotten, thus making this Mission Hill episode dated. But most episodes of Mission Hill will probably be timeless. They deal with real life struggles regarding social interaction, growing up, liking girls, sibling rivalry and jealousy, masturbation and pornography. Kevin is primarily interested in getting into a good university, but along the way he falls in love with a girl called Weirdie, who is sort of like him, and he begins to notice her shapely body. However, at the end we get classic Kevin jumping into the water to save what he wanted in the first place, a letter of recommendation for his college application from Weirdie's father. This episode and the two-part Unemployment episodes are highlights of the series. Another episode worth mentioning is Stories of Hope and Forgiveness, which depicts America in a pseudo-crisis. The way people react to it is reminiscent of September 11- this episode was made before but aired after 9/11.
There's some missed opportunities with Mission Hill, understandable since it only lasted for a season. One big one is Andy's female roommate Posey, voiced by an actress from NewsRadio- she's featured prominently in the title sequence and on the front cover of the DVD but plays only a small part in the actual show. Her best moment is when she tries to be mean in the Weirdie episode. Generally, though, we get to know the gay couple Wally and Gus better, particularly after the last episode, Plan 9 from Mission Hill. That's where we see their pretty funny movie which was obviously inspired by the works of Ed Wood.
See this show if you haven't already. There are some changes in the DVD, including with the music, and there's some audio problems with one episode, but they're still worth watching.