Space Goofs () is a French animated series that was produced by Gaumont Multimedia for its first season and Xilam for its second season, produced for France 3, and broadcast on that network from September 6, 1997 to May 12, 2006. It also debuted in the same year in Germany on ProSieben, and aired in Canada on Teletoon. In the UK, the first season premiered on Channel 4 in 1998 under the show's original title of Home to Rent and the second season premiered under the series' final name on Nicktoons UK on November 5, 2005 at 9:30am. Furthermore, it aired as part of the Fox Kids lineup on Fox in the United States.
The series also served as the basis of an adventure game, developed by Xilam themselves and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows and Sega Dreamcast called Stupid Invaders in 2000 – which was dedicated to its co-creator, Jean-Yves Raimbaud. In contrast to the original show, it featured plenty of toilet humor and slightly more crude, adult content. It also was the first work produced by Xilam to be made for an older audience – the others being the adult animated movies, I Lost My Body and Kaena: The Prophecy, as well as another series, Mr. Baby.
Plot
Five extraterrestrials from the fictitious planet Zigma B, Candy H. Caramella, Etno Polino, Bud Budiovitch, Gorgious Klatoo and Stereo Monovici go on a picnic together in space. However, their spaceship crashes into an asteroid, and they fall to planet Earth. They realize that if any human finds out that they are aliens, they could be captured and experimented on by scientists, so they take shelter in the attic of a house that is up for rent.
The aliens have two goals: return to their home planet, and chase away anybody who tries to establish themselves in the house. To remain unknown from humans, the aliens use a device called the SMTV that lets them transform into almost any entity of their choosing, but always cycles through three other unrelated transformations (as a running gag) when used.
In the second season, Stereo is now no longer part of the main cast, with said character only being bought back for one episode. An explanation was provided where Stereo has somehow managed to get back to Zigma B, so Candy, Etno, Bud and Gorgious continue to find a way back home.
Characters
Candy Hector Caramella
Voiced by (French): Eric Le Roch (season 1), Éric Métayer (season 2) Voiced by (English): Charlie Adler Small and green, with a wrinkled forehead, red eyes, and wearing a polka-dotted apron, Candy is the uptight neat freak of the group. He is homosexual (often disguising himself as a woman), and it is not uncommon to see him flirt with men. He is very energetic (often cleaning around the house). He was changed to a female in the Latin American Spanish dub, but considers a sex change entirely in Stupid Invaders. In both the original French version and the English dub, Candy's voice parodies a fancy English accent.
Etno Polino
Voiced by (French): Peter Hudson (season 1), Bernard Alane (season 2) Voiced by (English): Maurice LaMarche Being short and purple with red lips, a big nose and red eyes, Etno is the leader and brains of the group. A scientific genius, he creates all sorts of machines with the intention of aiding the group's return to their own planet, including rockets. The aliens often fail to blast off into space, either due to Etno's rockets malfunctioning or someone else boarding the ships. In the original French dub, he speaks with an English accent, but in the English dub, he has a rather fast-paced manner of speech, vaguely reminiscent of those found in educational films about space exploration from the 1950s.
Bud Budiovitch
Voiced by (French): Marc Brettonière (season 1), Éric Métayer (season 2) Voiced by (English): Jeff Bennett (season 1), James Louis Gomez-Garneau (season 2) Tall and orange with three strands of hair, a long neck, and big pink bloodshot eyes, Bud is lazy and naive. He is a television addict and spends most of the time sitting in front of it and drinking soft drinks. Like Etno, Bud is always the last one to panic in a situation. He always comes up with the best solution, but most of the time no one will listen to him.
Gorgious Klatoo
Voiced by (French): Patrick Préjean
Voiced by (English): Michael Sicoly (earlier episodes), Danny Mann (onward) Fat and blue with a heavy chin, green eyes and a protruding bottom tooth, is the grumpy and brutal one of the group. He is very greedy and his hobbies consist of bullying the other aliens and eating.