Mission Hill is an American adult animated sitcom created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein for The WB. It originally aired for five episodes from September 21, 1999 to July 16, 2000; unaired episodes were burnt off on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from May 26 to August 11, 2002. The series follows Andy French, a retail worker who lives with roommates Jim and Posey as well as their dog, Stogie. Andy's lifestyle is taken for a turn when his younger brother Kevin moves in with him.
While initially garnering poor ratings, it has since gained a cult following, and is also popular outside of the United States and Canada, receiving broadcasts in Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Spain and New Zealand. Stylistically, the series is recognizable for its bright, neon color palette, and features a peculiar mixture of modern animation and traditional "cartoonish" drawings (dashed lines coming from eyes to indicate line of vision, red bolts of lightning around a spot in pain). The style was made to be reminiscent of 1930s rubber hose cartoons like Fleischer Studios, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM, as well as mid-century modern cartoons with the likes of Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Jay Ward, and The Pink Panther. The designs were done by Lauren MacMullan, who cites the comic series Eightball as her source of inspiration for her overall design.
History
Mission Hill was conceived in 1997 by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, former executive producers/showrunners of The Simpsons, with the original artistic designer being Lauren MacMullan. Oakley has mentioned that one of the main inspirations for Mission Hill was the 1997 MTV series Austin Stories, which followed a group of 20-somethings in Austin, Texas. After failed pitches to Fox and NBC, the rights to Mission Hill were purchased by Castle Rock Entertainment and The WB in the fall of 1997, following a successful pitch to Garth Ancier, the then-head of programming at the WB. At the pitch, network executives from the WB were presented with three designs for Andy, Jim, Kevin and Posey. One depicted them in a drastically different, more cartoonish art style; the other two drew closer resemblance to the final designs, but one featured slightly more realistic designs for Andy and Kevin, with another featuring less realistic designs for Jim and Posey. When one of the WB executives saw the alternate designs for Jim and Posey, he thought that they were the parents of Andy and Kevin. MacMullan states that final design chosen for Posey looked "much more attractive" when compared to the two alternate designs.
In mid-1998, the WB officially announced that a 13 episode first season would begin airing in the fall of 1999, with the project being known as The Downtowners at this point. MTV's production of the similarly titled adult animated series Downtown eventually forced a name change. When the series was first sold to the WB, it was not yet synonymous with teen female-oriented programs such as Dawson's Creek. Oakley claims, "In the time they ordered the show and the time it had appeared on the air, the network had redefined itself." He adds, "they had this leftover programming, and by the time they figured out we shouldn’t be lumped in together [we] were in danger of killing that entire network. We hugely damaged the ratings of those other shows."
It featured the voices of Wallace Langham, Scott Menville, Brian Posehn, Vicki Lewis, Nick Jameson, Tom Kenny, Herbert Sigüenza, Jane Wiedlin, Tress MacNeille and Lisa Kushell. The theme song is a faster, instrumental version of "Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake, who Oakley and Weinstein were fans of. This version was specifically recorded for the show. Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 were produced. The series was put on hiatus by The WB after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned in the summer of 2000 with little promotion, and was canceled on July 18, 2000, after four more episodes aired to poor ratings. The series went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Teletoon's Teletoon Unleashed block; Cartoon Network's popular late-night programming block Adult Swim; and Too Funny to Sleep, a late-night programming block on TBS. Warner Home Video released all 13 completed episodes on DVD on November 29, 2005.
Bill Oakley has since voiced his dissatisfaction with the way Warner Bros. handled the series, and has said he doesn't mind if people pirate the series.