The page contains mature content. Continue on at your own risk.
March 11, 2005 – May 19, 2006
Wonder Showzen is an American adult sketch comedytelevision series that aired between 2005 and 2006 on MTV2. It was created by Vernon Chatman and John Lee of PFFR.
Described as a children's television series for adults, the show's format is a parody of educational PBS Kids shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company (e.g. use of stock footage, puppetry, and clips of children being interviewed). In addition to general controversial comedy, it satirizes politics, religion, war, sex and culture with black comedy.
Summary[]
Wonder Showzen was created by Vernon Chatman and John Lee, who originally made an early concept of it back in 1999, and pitched to the USA Network in 2000, but after a few minutes of viewing, executives there quickly concluded it did not fit the network's programming style. However, Viacom was re-branding MTV2 and made Wonder Showzenpart of its new programming lineup. It aired as part of Sic 'Em Fridays, along with Dirty Sanchez and Wildboyz. The pilot and early concept were named simply "Kids Show". The Wonder Showzen theme song was also called 'Kids Show'. Reruns of the show also aired on MTV and Comedy Central. The first episode had animated segments provided by Raw Power, while the rest of the series had animated segments done by Augenblick Studios.
Ben Q. Jones, who was a member of the art collective Paper Rad, did some animations for the series, before continuing to work with PFFR again on his failed Adult Swim pilot Neon Knome, which was rejected, yet turned a show on Cartoon Network called The Problem Solverz, which Jones himself created. Another notable crew member who worked on Wonder Showzen was Mark Marek, who also worked on Cartoon Network's Mad and Nickelodeon's KaBlam!; he created Yuck, Yuck, Goose, and his sidekick, his Butt for Wonder Showzen.
MTV released the first season of Wonder Showzen on DVD March 28, 2006. The second season of Wonder Showzen premiered on March 31, 2006 and had its season-two finale starring Clarence on May 19, 2006 on MTV2. This season was released on DVD October 10, 2006, with an easter eggthat featured an animation contest. The grand prize was announced as the winner's animation appearing on "the next DVD", but the creators later said a third season was unlikely, and MTV afterward canceled the show.
TV Show Intro[]
