.gif)
The Boondocks (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder
on Cartoon Network's
late night programing block, Adult Swim
, based on McGruder's comic strip
of the same name. The Boondocks is a social satire of African American culture and race relations revolving around the lives of the Freeman family: ten-year-old Huey
, his younger brother, eight-year-old Riley
, and their grandfather, Robert
. The series is produced by Rebel Base and has finished airing its third season on Adult Swim
. In a 2011 interview, cast member, John Witherspoon
announced that the series has been renewed for a fourth season, which will consist of 20 episodes. Voice casting director Andrea Romano
stated at Comic Con 2011 that season four is headed into production.
The Boondocks takes place in the same place and time frame as its comic counterpart. The Freeman family, having recently moved from the South Side
of Chicago
, Illinois
to the peaceful suburb of Woodcrest, find different ways to cope with this acute change in setting as well as the drastically different suburban cultures and lifestyles to which they are exposed. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, and races provides for much of the comedy in this series.
The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The 15-episode first season ended on March 19, 2006. The second season premiered on October 8, 2007. (Two of its 15 episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show," were not aired, but they appeared on the DVD release.) The third season began airing on May 2, 2010 and concluded on August 15, 2010. On May 9th, 2011, an interview with Witherspoon was uploaded to YouTube
, in which he stated that a 20-episode fourth season will be made.
, the student newspaper at McGruder's alma mater
, the University of Maryland, College Park
. The strip later found its way into The Source
magazine. Following these runs, McGruder began simultaneously pitching The Boondocks both as a syndicated comic strip and as an animated television series. The former goal was met first, and The Boondocks debuted in newspapers in April 1999.
In the meantime, development on a Boondocks TV series continued. McGruder and film producer/director Reginald Hudlin
created a Boondocks pilot for the Fox Network
, but found great difficulty in making the series acceptable for network television. Hudlin left the project after the Fox deal fell through, although McGruder and Sony Television are contractually bound to continue to credit him as an executive producer. Mike Lazzo
president of Adult Swim
and executive producer for Aqua Teen Hunger Force
and Space Ghost Coast to Coast
stumbled across the pilot and declared it too networky and ordered a 15 episode season and told McGruder to just tell stories.
The series has a loose connection with the continuity of the comic strip, though during the final year of the comic strip McGruder made a point to try to synchronize both. He introduced Uncle Ruckus into the strip, and the comic strip version of Riley's hair was braided into Cornrows to match the character's design in the series.
During the series' first season, McGruder put the strip on a six-month hiatus beginning in March 2006. He did not return to the strip the following November, and the strip's syndicate, Universal Press Syndicate
, announced that it had been cancelled.
The opening theme song used in the series (slightly remixed for the second season and again for the third season) is performed by hip-hop artist Asheru
.
and manga
. He cites Cowboy Bebop
and Samurai Champloo
as sources of inspiration for the series' fight scenes. The opening sequence of season 1 is also remarkably similar to that of Samurai Champloo, and the opening to season 2 was rather similar to the intro of Cowboy Bebop, using a trumpet as part of the opening theme mix (The trumpet is a prevalent instrument in jazz
music, which was the primary style of music performed in Cowboy Bebops theme and soundtrack). The season one intro used a record scratching sound effect in the opening theme as well (Record scratching is commonly used in hip hop music which was the main theme for Samurai Champloo) Some of the humor is based on the characters' anime-style movements. The second and third seasons features segments animated by Japanese animation studio Madhouse
. As a result, the following seasons of the series have more detailed animation, as well as minor updates for most of the character designs. Season 3 began airing on May 2, 2010.
s, alongside The Bernie Mac Show
, winner Everybody Hates Chris
, Girlfriends
, and Half & Half
. For the episode "Return of the King," the show won a Peabody Award
in 2006. As of July 8, 2010, The Boondocks had a 72% rating on MetaCritic
, based on 21 reviews.
Critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner said, "Each episode is beautifully crafted, with an eye on lush, shadowy visuals and a pulsing, jazz-like rhythm... the show is almost consistently funny, consistently brilliant, and, best of all, compulsively watchable."
It was named the 94th best animated series by IGN
, who describe it as a sharp satirical look at American society.
Mike Hale of the New York Times has considered The Boondocks among the top television shows of 2010
, citing the episode "Pause" as a "painfully funny" satire of Tyler Perry
being portrayed as a superstar actor and a leader of a homoerotic cult.
protested the Martin Luther King, Jr.
character's use of the word "nigga" in the episode "Return of the King
". According to an article in The Washington Post
, references to Rosa Parks
were removed from one of the series' completed episodes within a week of her death. In the second episode, "The Trial of R. Kelly
", Parks was originally outside the courtroom protesting Kelly when she was hit with a large piece of fried chicken
. The scene appears as a deleted scene
in the season one DVD set. She is nonetheless seen, unidentified, at the end of the episode being enthusiastically embraced by the woman who had assaulted her with the fried chicken. A bump before the episode originally aired said that Aaron McGruder removed it prior to airing but never said why.
During The Boondocks second season, two episodes were banned from airing without any official word from the network. Originally slated to air on November 16 and December 17, "The Hunger Strike
" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show
" were both heavily critical of BET
. An exclusive clip of "The Hunger Strike" was given to HipHopDX.com in late January 2008, before both episodes were included in full on the Season 2 DVD release that summer. An anonymous source close to the show told HipHopDX.com that they heard BET had been pressuring Sony (the studio behind The Boondocks) to ban the episodes and threatened legal action. Cartoon Network publicly stated that "...neither Turner nor Adult Swim were contacted by BET, Ms. Lee or Mr. Hudlin." However, BET's parent company, Viacom, did threaten legal action against Sony if said episodes were broadcast to air in the United States. Further, the season 3 episode "Kentucky Fried Flu" was eventually renamed "The Fried Chicken Flu
".
Time magazine named The Boondocks as fifth out of 10 of the Most Controversial Cartoons of All Time.
in the United States, Teletoon
's Teletoon at Night block in Canada, and Season 2 has aired on The Comedy Channel
(pay TV network) in Australia. Sony Entertainment Television
(and later Sony Max) broadcasts the show in Africa
on DSTV
. It has also been aired on TV3 and TV6 in Sweden
, on Comedy Central (part of SkyTV) in New Zealand, MTV Italy
and Comedy Central Italy in Italy, and on 3+ in Denmark and Russia The Boondocks is aired on channel 2×2 under the name of Гетто (Ghetto in English), and in France on MCM.
It also airs on Animax
in Latin America, Germany, and in Hungary (under the name of A kertvárosi gettó (The suburban ghetto)). It also airs on Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America)
.
The Boondocks has also aired uncensored and uncut in the Middle East and North Africa on OSN.
, with uncensored dialogue. Season 1 was also released on UMD
.
Aaron McGruder
Aaron McGruder is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb, as well as being the creator and executive...
on Cartoon Network's
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
late night programing block, Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
, based on McGruder's comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
of the same name. The Boondocks is a social satire of African American culture and race relations revolving around the lives of the Freeman family: ten-year-old Huey
Huey Freeman
Huey Freeman is a fictional character of The Boondocks syndicated comic strip written by Aaron McGruder, as well as the main character and recurrent principal narrator of the animated TV series of the same name...
, his younger brother, eight-year-old Riley
Riley Freeman
Riley Freeman is a fictional character from the syndicated comic strip The Boondocks written by Aaron McGruder and its TV series adaptation...
, and their grandfather, Robert
Robert Jebediah Freeman
Robert Jebediah "Granddad" Freeman is a fictional character in the animated television show The Boondocks, as well as a regular character in a comic strip of the same name. He lives in the suburb of Woodcrest with his two grandsons, Huey Freeman and Riley Freeman...
. The series is produced by Rebel Base and has finished airing its third season on Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
. In a 2011 interview, cast member, John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon (actor)
John Witherspoon is an American comedian and actor who has had roles in over 28 movies and 20 television shows. Mostly known for the "Friday" series, he has been acting for over three decades and starred in shows such as Hollywood Shuffle , Boomerang...
announced that the series has been renewed for a fourth season, which will consist of 20 episodes. Voice casting director Andrea Romano
Andrea Romano
Andrea Romano is an American casting director, voice director, and voice actor, whose work includes casting, and voice directing Batman: The Animated Series, Tiny Toon Adventures, "Animaniacs", "Pinky and the Brain", Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and multiple Warner Bros...
stated at Comic Con 2011 that season four is headed into production.
The Boondocks takes place in the same place and time frame as its comic counterpart. The Freeman family, having recently moved from the South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
to the peaceful suburb of Woodcrest, find different ways to cope with this acute change in setting as well as the drastically different suburban cultures and lifestyles to which they are exposed. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, and races provides for much of the comedy in this series.
The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The 15-episode first season ended on March 19, 2006. The second season premiered on October 8, 2007. (Two of its 15 episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show," were not aired, but they appeared on the DVD release.) The third season began airing on May 2, 2010 and concluded on August 15, 2010. On May 9th, 2011, an interview with Witherspoon was uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, in which he stated that a 20-episode fourth season will be made.
Origins
The Boondocks began its life as a comic strip in The DiamondbackThe Diamondback
The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin...
, the student newspaper at McGruder's alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. The strip later found its way into The Source
The Source (magazine)
The Source is a United States-based, monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, founded in 1988. It is the world's second longest running rap periodical, behind United Kingdom-based publication Hip Hop Connection. The Source was founded as a newsletter in 1988...
magazine. Following these runs, McGruder began simultaneously pitching The Boondocks both as a syndicated comic strip and as an animated television series. The former goal was met first, and The Boondocks debuted in newspapers in April 1999.
In the meantime, development on a Boondocks TV series continued. McGruder and film producer/director Reginald Hudlin
Reginald Hudlin
Reginald Alan Hudlin is an American writer and film director.-Biography:Hudlin is the son of Helen , a teacher, and Warrington W. Hudlin, Sr., an insurance executive and teacher...
created a Boondocks pilot for the Fox Network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, but found great difficulty in making the series acceptable for network television. Hudlin left the project after the Fox deal fell through, although McGruder and Sony Television are contractually bound to continue to credit him as an executive producer. Mike Lazzo
Mike Lazzo
Michael Lazzo, , is a television producer and the senior executive vice president in charge of Adult Swim at Williams Street Studios....
president of Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
and executive producer for Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Aqua Teen Hunger Force , retitled Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 in 2011, is an American animated television series on Cartoon Network late night programing block, Adult Swim, as well as Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block and later G4 Canada's ADd block in Canada...
and Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American animated parody talk show hosted by the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. The show premiered on April 15, 1994 on Cartoon Network...
stumbled across the pilot and declared it too networky and ordered a 15 episode season and told McGruder to just tell stories.
The series has a loose connection with the continuity of the comic strip, though during the final year of the comic strip McGruder made a point to try to synchronize both. He introduced Uncle Ruckus into the strip, and the comic strip version of Riley's hair was braided into Cornrows to match the character's design in the series.
During the series' first season, McGruder put the strip on a six-month hiatus beginning in March 2006. He did not return to the strip the following November, and the strip's syndicate, Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate, a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, is the world's largest independent press syndicate. It distributes lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird...
, announced that it had been cancelled.
The opening theme song used in the series (slightly remixed for the second season and again for the third season) is performed by hip-hop artist Asheru
Asheru
Asheru, born Gabriel Benn, is an African American hip hop artist, educator, and youth activist. He is widely known for performing the opening and closing themes for the popular TV series, The Boondocks, as well as his pioneering and innovative efforts to forward the Hip Hop Education...
.
Characters
- Huey FreemanHuey FreemanHuey Freeman is a fictional character of The Boondocks syndicated comic strip written by Aaron McGruder, as well as the main character and recurrent principal narrator of the animated TV series of the same name...
is one of the three main characters. He is each episode's primary narrator (usually), the voice-of-reason and moral compass of the family, and a spokesperson for contemporary AfrocentrismAfrocentrismAfrocentrism is cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States, dedicated to the history of Black people a response to global racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions by revisiting this history with an African cultural and ideological center...
. He is an intelligent, wise-beyond-his-years ten-year-old who is an avid reader and knowledgeable about a variety of subjects. He is heavily influenced by the theories of various left-wing social movements and social justiceSocial justiceSocial justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
leaders. He is constantly ridiculed and underestimated by his family, who thinks he is a fool for having goals and values that aim higher than those of the lower class environment from which they came. While Huey promotes various social causes, he is openly contemptuous of African-American pop culture as portrayed in mainstream American media for glamorizing wasteful extravagance, self-defeating lifestyles, and ignorance. Unlike the other characters, Huey rarely smiles; although, in the episode "Let's Nab OprahLet's Nab Oprah"Let's Nab Oprah" is the eleventh episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, The Boondocks. It originally aired on February 12, 2006.-Plot:...
", he smiles after his duel with Riley. He also smiles when Riley begins to succeed in winning basketball games in the episode "Ballin'Ballin' (The Boondocks)"Ballin" is the eighth episode of the second season of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks and the twenty-third episode overall...
".
- Riley FreemanRiley FreemanRiley Freeman is a fictional character from the syndicated comic strip The Boondocks written by Aaron McGruder and its TV series adaptation...
is Huey's trouble-making, eight-year-old younger brother. Unlike his brother, Riley is an enthusiastic follower of contemporary African-American pop culture. Though he is otherwise charming, clever, and artistically gifted, Riley maintains loyalty to those pop culture ideals, even in the face of their self-destructive consequences. In the episode "The Fundraiser" Huey tries to warn him directly about the foregone conclusions of his poor decisions, but Riley offhandedly rebuffs him. The bulk of the series' episodes focus on Riley's misadventures (most of which are fueled by his love of gangsta rapGangsta rapGangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
, and a desire to emulate other people he admires), or on his various outlandish schemes, which his grandfather often endorses and assists in. Despite his wild nature and attempts to appear tougher than he actually is, Riley occasionally shows a softer, innocent side.
- Robert FreemanRobert Jebediah FreemanRobert Jebediah "Granddad" Freeman is a fictional character in the animated television show The Boondocks, as well as a regular character in a comic strip of the same name. He lives in the suburb of Woodcrest with his two grandsons, Huey Freeman and Riley Freeman...
, a.k.a. "Granddad," is the grandfather and legal guardian of Huey and Riley. While he loves his two grandsons, he sometimes explodes in tirades of angry frustration over the constant schemes, misadventures, and wise-cracking observations they have brought into his life. Robert himself is no stranger to this; for instance, his eager, misguided dating pursuits invariably attract bizarre or dangerous women. According to the Season 3 episode "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman", "Nobody knows exactly how old Robert Freeman is -- not even Robert Freeman himself. A big believer in the values of a long-gone generation of African-Americans, Robert often threatens to discipline on his grandsons through Three StoogesThree StoogesThe Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
-style corporal punishmentCorporal punishmentCorporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
. He generally uses his belt for this purpose and has developed a remarkable degree of speed and dexterity in wielding it.
Episodes
Both the comic strip and the cartoon named after it were influenced by McGruder's love of animeAnime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
. He cites Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop
is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 1998 Japanese anime series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and produced by Sunrise. Its 26 episodes comprise a complete storyline: set in 2071, the series follows the adventures, misadventures and tragedies of five bounty...
and Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo
is a Japanese anime series created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. It was broadcast in Japan from May 20, 2004 through March 19, 2005 on Fuji TV. Samurai Champloo has earned Watanabe a renowned title in the anime and Japanese television communities...
as sources of inspiration for the series' fight scenes. The opening sequence of season 1 is also remarkably similar to that of Samurai Champloo, and the opening to season 2 was rather similar to the intro of Cowboy Bebop, using a trumpet as part of the opening theme mix (The trumpet is a prevalent instrument in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music, which was the primary style of music performed in Cowboy Bebops theme and soundtrack). The season one intro used a record scratching sound effect in the opening theme as well (Record scratching is commonly used in hip hop music which was the main theme for Samurai Champloo) Some of the humor is based on the characters' anime-style movements. The second and third seasons features segments animated by Japanese animation studio Madhouse
Madhouse (company)
is a Japanese animation studio, founded in 1972 by ex–Mushi Pro animators including Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It has created and helped to produce many well known shows, starting with TV anime series Ace o Nerae! in 1973, and including western favourites Ninja...
. As a result, the following seasons of the series have more detailed animation, as well as minor updates for most of the character designs. Season 3 began airing on May 2, 2010.
Reception
On January 2006, The Boondocks was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 37th NAACP Image AwardNAACP Image Award
An NAACP Image Award is an accolade presented by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and literature....
s, alongside The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
, winner Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
, and Half & Half
Half & Half
Half & Half is an American sitcom that aired on UPN from September 23, 2002, to May 15, 2006. The show focuses on the lives of two paternal half-sisters in their twenties who were estranged throughout their childhood, and are finally developing a close relationship...
. For the episode "Return of the King," the show won a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
in 2006. As of July 8, 2010, The Boondocks had a 72% rating on MetaCritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, based on 21 reviews.
Critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner said, "Each episode is beautifully crafted, with an eye on lush, shadowy visuals and a pulsing, jazz-like rhythm... the show is almost consistently funny, consistently brilliant, and, best of all, compulsively watchable."
It was named the 94th best animated series by IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, who describe it as a sharp satirical look at American society.
Mike Hale of the New York Times has considered The Boondocks among the top television shows of 2010
2010 in television
2010 in television may refer to:*2010 in American television*2010 in Australian television*2010 in British television*2010 in Canadian television*2010 in Japanese television...
, citing the episode "Pause" as a "painfully funny" satire of Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
being portrayed as a superstar actor and a leader of a homoerotic cult.
Controversy
In 2006, Reverend Al SharptonAl Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
protested the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
character's use of the word "nigga" in the episode "Return of the King
Return of The King (Boondocks episode)
"Return of the King" is the ninth episode of the animated television series The Boondocks, airing on Cartoon Network as part of its Adult Swim programming. It was originally broadcast on January 15, 2006, which would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 77th birthday. The episode's name was taken...
". According to an article in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, references to Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
were removed from one of the series' completed episodes within a week of her death. In the second episode, "The Trial of R. Kelly
The Trial of R. Kelly
"The Trial of R. Kelly" is the second episode of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks. It originally aired on November 13, 2005.-Plot:...
", Parks was originally outside the courtroom protesting Kelly when she was hit with a large piece of fried chicken
Fried chicken
Fried chicken is a dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens which have been floured or battered and then pan fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior...
. The scene appears as a deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
in the season one DVD set. She is nonetheless seen, unidentified, at the end of the episode being enthusiastically embraced by the woman who had assaulted her with the fried chicken. A bump before the episode originally aired said that Aaron McGruder removed it prior to airing but never said why.
During The Boondocks second season, two episodes were banned from airing without any official word from the network. Originally slated to air on November 16 and December 17, "The Hunger Strike
The Hunger Strike
"The Hunger Strike" is a second season episode of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks. It was set to premiere on January 7, 2008, between "The Story of Thugnificent" and "Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch", but has not aired in the United States...
" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show
The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show
"The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show" is a second season episode of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks. It has not aired in the United States...
" were both heavily critical of BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
. An exclusive clip of "The Hunger Strike" was given to HipHopDX.com in late January 2008, before both episodes were included in full on the Season 2 DVD release that summer. An anonymous source close to the show told HipHopDX.com that they heard BET had been pressuring Sony (the studio behind The Boondocks) to ban the episodes and threatened legal action. Cartoon Network publicly stated that "...neither Turner nor Adult Swim were contacted by BET, Ms. Lee or Mr. Hudlin." However, BET's parent company, Viacom, did threaten legal action against Sony if said episodes were broadcast to air in the United States. Further, the season 3 episode "Kentucky Fried Flu" was eventually renamed "The Fried Chicken Flu
The Fried Chicken Flu
"The Fried Chicken Flu" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of the American animated television series The Boondocks. It first aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's programming block Adult Swim on August 1, 2010...
".
Time magazine named The Boondocks as fifth out of 10 of the Most Controversial Cartoons of All Time.
Network
The Boondocks airs on Adult SwimAdult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
in the United States, Teletoon
Télétoon (Canadian TV channel)
Télétoon is a Canadian French language Category A specialty channel that specializes in animation programming. Télétoon is owned by Teletoon Canada Inc; a 50/50 partnership between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment...
's Teletoon at Night block in Canada, and Season 2 has aired on The Comedy Channel
The Comedy Channel
The Comedy Channel is an Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television.-History:...
(pay TV network) in Australia. Sony Entertainment Television
Sony Entertainment Television (South Africa)
Sony Entertainment Television South Africa is a general entertainment channel that is part of the DStv bouquet of satellite channels owned by MultiChoice...
(and later Sony Max) broadcasts the show in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
on DSTV
DStv
DStv is MultiChoice's multi-channel digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995. It operates from two satellites over Africa, broadcasting on Ku band via Eutelsat W7 and Intelsat 7 , which only requires a small satellite dish...
. It has also been aired on TV3 and TV6 in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, on Comedy Central (part of SkyTV) in New Zealand, MTV Italy
MTV Italy
MTV Italy is the Italian speaking version of the popular 24 hour music and youth entertainment channel. Unlike its counterparts elsewhere in Europe, MTV Italia is a national channel available free-to-air on terrestrial television since September 1, 1997 and available on digital terrestrial...
and Comedy Central Italy in Italy, and on 3+ in Denmark and Russia The Boondocks is aired on channel 2×2 under the name of Гетто (Ghetto in English), and in France on MCM.
It also airs on Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
in Latin America, Germany, and in Hungary (under the name of A kertvárosi gettó (The suburban ghetto)). It also airs on Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America)
Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America)
Sony Entertainment Television, commonly shortened to Canal Sony , is a general entertainment channel co-based in Perú, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Miami, Florida, United States. It airs in 26 countries in Latin America, and is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment...
.
The Boondocks has also aired uncensored and uncut in the Middle East and North Africa on OSN.
Releases
All three seasons are available on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, with uncensored dialogue. Season 1 was also released on UMD
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
.
External links
- The Boondocks at Adult Swim.com