THE TICK Is One of the Most Hilariously Insane Animated Shows Ever!
When it comes to the animated shows that came out of the 90s, shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles left quite an impression on a lot of kids. Fans love talking about those shows, but there’s another one from the 90s that blew my mind with its hilarious insanity. That show was 1994’s The Tick.
We’ve seen a couple of live-action Tick shows since that animated series came to an end, but neither of them reached the awesomeness of the animated series. The series was based on the comic book series created by Ben Edlund while he was still in high school.
The Tick is a superhero who underwent the tryouts at the National Super Institute in Reno, Nevada where superheroes who pass will be assigned to the best cities to protect from crime. Upon passing the tryouts, he is assigned to The City where he befriends a former accountant named Arthur whom he takes on as a sidekick.
With the help of other heroes such as Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, and other superheroes, the Tick and Arthur protect The City from a bunch of crazy-ass villains like Chairface Chippendale, Breadmaster, El Seed, The Terror, and others.
This show was filled with such wonderfully wacky characters, great hilarious dialogue, a unique comedic tone, and a cool animation style.
The series was produced by Sunbow Entertainment, the small, New York-based animation company that also created The Transformers, G.I. Joe, and The Mask. Edlund was paired up with writer Richard Liebmann-Smith to work on the project and neither of them had any experience in animation or television.
They worked hard on the first episode, but ultimately they didn’t care for the final script and neither did Fox when they turned it down at first. Luckily, the network gave them another chance to refine it and make it better. Over the course of a weekend, they put something together that made Fox happy and the show got picked up! When talking about his experience producing the series, Edlund said:
“There was a period where I was extremely attentive to everything that had to be solved, and these efforts ultimately made the show a year late. I saw the storyboards that were being done and realized that if The Tick were animated off of those, it would fall apart. It would be a shadow of what it is now, which is something that isn't massively successful, but has this real staying power. So now instead of looking like bad '90s animation, it kind of looks like bad '70s superhero animation, which definitely has a unique style about it.”
I loved that style! What they ended up going with ultimately worked and strengthened the show. The series was a success and it had a solid run through 1996 before it ended.
A fourth season was being planned before Fox canceled it. Some of the fourth season's developments would have involved Arthur and Tick moving in with Carmelita, the Terror finding the Fountain of Youth, and Barry (from The Tick: The Tick vs. the Tick) being revealed to be Carmelita's brother, who was originally destined to wear Arthur's moth suit.
I love showing The Tick to people that have never seen it before. If you haven’t watched it, this is a show you’ve gotta check out. If you are familiar with it, you’ve got to revisit it. This is one of those shows that still makes me laugh every time I watch it.