Gary & Mike

Gary & Mike is an American adult animated sitcom that aired on UPN in 2001 and Comedy Central in 2003. It was Big Ticket Television’s first animated show. [1] The show was produced in stop motion clay animation and lasted only one season. A total of thirteen episodes were produced.[2] The series was initially proposed to Fox, but was eventually passed over to UPN. UPN had aired the episodes out of order, leading to inconsistencies within the plot serialization (save for the production placement of the third and fourth episodes).

Gary & Mike
Genre	Animated sitcom
Created by	Fax Bahr Adam Small
Developed by	Will Vinton Studios
Voices of	Harland Williams Christopher Moynihan Kurtwood Smith Bryan Cranston
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producers	Fax Bahr Adam Small Tom Turpin Will Vinton
Running time	20–23 mins
Production companies	Bahr-Small Productions Will Vinton Studios Big Ticket Television
Release
Original network	UPN
Original release	January 12 – April 13, 2001

In addition to its own musical score with the title being composed by Bottlefly (as listed in the credits), the series has had a number of licensed songs that can be heard throughout most of the episodes. [3]

The Sizzle that was initially proposed to Fox was animated by Corky Quakenbush before the series was passed over to Will Vinton Studios. [4] It featured the songs Girls by Beastie Boys and Heroes by The Wallflowers. [5]

Plot summary

This mid-season replacement show was about best friends traveling across the United States on a road trip, accomplishing nothing of importance, and unwittingly destroying hopes, dreams, and personal property. Gary is a fairly normal, albeit high-strung, uptight, good hearted loser while Mike is the fun-loving, laid back, "best friend from hell" with a sex addiction. They meet hookers, mole people, and a scheming murderer, all while a vengeful father pursues Mike for bedding his daughter.

Although the final episode included a "to be continued" message, the show was canceled after its first season.[6] According to co-creator Adam Small, 10 more episodes were planned for the second season. The cancellation was actually a result of the financial issues UPN was facing at the time rather than a ratings issue.

Episode list

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
1	"Dawn of the New Millennium"	Robin Ator & Doug Aberle	Fax Bahr & Adam Small	January 12, 2001
The story begins in St. Louis, Missouri where Gary Newton is saying his last goodbyes to his patients at the nursing home before he goes to follow the Lewis and Clark trail. He tells the patients that Kurt will take over and that he is not that bad, even though he is grungy. Kurt walks in and surprises Gary with a band (quite possibly based on Guns N' Roses due to the fact that their style, instruments and lead singer's voice all share similarities to the band) that sends the patients into shock because they are so loud. Meanwhile Mike is in bed with a girl named Julie. When he calls her by the wrong name, "Sandy", she doesn't care. In the morning Julie’s mom walks in to find them. She screams to Julie's father, Officer Dick, to hurry there. Gary's father has just given Gary the speech about the importance of his trip, and how he would be dead if anything happened to the SUV. Gary slowly pulls out of the driveway and starts driving just a few blocks from his house. Mike jumps out the window and out into the front yard as Dick gets a baseball bat. Gary is surprised when Mike jumps in the car. He sees Dick in the rear-view mirror, and speeds away. Julie calls her fiancé to tell him the wedding is off. Dick is angry, because it was the police chief's son—that was the only way he was going to be able to move from a trooper to a desk job, with a sizable pension. When Gary tells him about the trip, Mike decides he's going too. Mike asks his parents, but they are drunk and asleep so he takes it as a yes. Gary is dreaming about Lewis and Clark telling him that Mike picked up a hitchhiker while he was sleeping. When Gary wakes up, he sees a smelly hitchhiker next to him. But Mike claims the hitchhiker is harmless. Gary agrees when he hears the man's knowledge of the trail. He says he can lead them to a certain spot, so they say OK, but when they get there, the hitchhiker robs them of their clothes, money and he takes the car. Elsewhere, Officer Dick suits up on his motorcycle to look for Mike. So the guys sleep overnight in the woods. They kill and eat a rabbit for food. In the morning they realize they are just in a big backyard. They also find out the rabbit they ate was a little girl's pet rabbit. The little girl's mom calls the cops and they are arrested. They tell the cops about the hitchhiker. When their story checks out, and are told that their SUV is in an impound lot. They are given new clothes and are released from jail only to be greeted by a mob of angry evangelists with reporters, but they are picked up by actual devil worshipers who heard about their story and sympathize with them. They jump and tumble out of the devil worshipers' truck next to an impound lot where they find the totaled SUV. Gary reflects on the fact that "This trip went exactly as planned...and then [Mike] showed up." To make it up to him, Mike decides to reveal the hidden stash of money worth $250 in his boot to him and prompt Gary to start their own trail he would dub "the Gary and Mike trail" rather than go home and face his dad. They buy a junker of a 1964 Bel Air for $200. They spend their other $50 to buy a new rabbit for the little girl whose rabbit they'd eaten. But as they drive away, the bunny runs under their car and is smushed. So it ends by them driving, headed for nowhere in particular, away from home. Featured Music: Are You Ready For My Love by Rockell and Get Off by The Dandy Warhols
2	"Cult Status"	Paul Harrod	Fax Bahr & Adam Small	March 2, 2001
In Minnesota, as Hasselhoff's comet nears, Gary and Mike meet up with two girls whom turn out to be part of a cult. Gary wants to get out of there quick, but Mike says he's too close to getting some to leave, so Gary reluctantly agrees to stay the night. Soon, Gary is pulled into the cult with his new name: Ga. Hence, it's up to Mike, whose cult name is Huh, to save Gary in time.
3	"Springered"	Doug Aberle	Fax Bahr & Adam Small	March 23, 2001
While making their way to Chicago, Illinois, Gary has the inside of his mouth stung by a bee and is rushed to a hospital. After a close call with death, Gary soon decides he should come clean with his father about his road trip with his buddy Mike and breaks the news to him on a special Father's Day episode of "Jerry". (Based on the continuity of this episode, it was likely meant to be placed after "The Virgin Gary")
4	"The Virgin Gary"	Ken Pontac	Michael Kaplan	February 9, 2001
It's Viva Las Vegas for Gary and Mike, when Mike forms a plan to help Gary get rid of his "virginitis" by setting an unknowing Gary up with an escort. Gary thinks the girl really likes him and winds up falling for her hard. Meanwhile Mike is counting cards in the casino owned by the same honked-off mobsters who gave them their hotel room, as his source of income. Featured Music: Someone Else’s Blues by David Bromberg
5	"The Scene"	Gayle Ayres	Richard Doctorow	April 6, 2001
In Hollywood, California, the guys attempt to party with the celebrities. They elude an oversexed TV mother and then encounter a strangely compliant person who might be Gwyneth Paltrow. Featured Music: Et Meme Que Quai! by Michel Philippe Gentils, Crazy by Patsy Cline and Out of Control by The Chemical Brothers
6	"Washington D.C."	Gayle Ayres	Barry O'Brien	February 2, 2001
Gary and Mike enter the nation's capital, where they're in desperate need of money...so they hunt down a friend of Mike's mom. Soon, they're working on a campaign for a crusading senator’s health care legislation. Gary seems to be helping a great deal, but without knowing it is causing more trouble than the campaign can stand, meanwhile Mike finds himself falling for a much, much older woman who is a Supreme Court Justice. Featured Music: Hot by Black Eyed Peas
7	"New York, New York"	Sean Burns & Ken Pontac	Howard Gewirtz	February 16, 2001
Gary and Mike are in The Big Apple, New York, and their car gets stolen; so they decide to disguise themselves as Jews and go to a bar mitzvah. Some other Jewish people chase them down to the subway. Gary and Mike have an argument and separate, and Gary becomes one of the "Mole People" who live in the sewers while Mike seems to luck out at every turn from being handed $50 by a generous blind man, to getting to model with European supermodels, to bedding with them. Presumably after they reunite and reconcile, they would head to Atlantic City, New Jersey as mentioned. However, this was not made into an episode. Featured Music: Baby’s Got a New Revelation by The Exies
8	"The Furry Duffel"	David Bleiman & Brad Schiff	Will Gluck	January 12, 2001
On their way through the Bible-Belt in fictional Wenville, Texas, they stop to get some food. They pull in to a Jesus-themed restaurant, aptly named “Baptist Burger”, whereupon Gary and the drive-thru clerk become smitten with each other. In hilarious sit-com fashion, he fails every time to notice that she has a growth that covers half her face, but Mike sure does...until Gary goes to her house to meet her. Meanwhile, Mike tries to win a Hotrod in a "hands on the Hotrod" contest. Featured Music: Loose by Primer 55 and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
9	"Phish Phry"	Ken Pontac	Howard Gewirtz	January 19, 2001
The duo now find themselves at a Phish concert in Vermont where Gary accidentally swallows 4 hits of acid. When he comes to his senses, he discovers he's married to a 35-year-old hippie woman (voice by Shannen Doherty) with three kids. Officer Dick also manages to find the duo’s car after tracking them for so long and seeks to exact his revenge on Mike, under the cover as a hippie himself. Meanwhile, Mike discovers the secret evil behind the band's unwarranted success. This episode features a strata-cut animation sequence by David Daniels. Featured Music: Voices by Disturbed and This’s What It Feels Like by Beachwood Sparks
10	"Road Rage"	Jim Hardison	Richard Doctorow	January 26, 2001
Gary and Mike go on MTV's Road Rage (a play on Road Rules) and visit Mike's brother, Ben in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ben gets jealous of Mike because he becomes more popular than him, and Gary meets a new "friend". WWF wrestler Chyna makes a guest appearance and falls in love with Gary's new "friend" at the end of the episode. Officer Dick catches up with Ben, whom he believes is Mike under an assumed identity, and shoots out the tires of his SUV which he won at the end of the Road Rage program. Featured Music: Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Damce Now) by C & C Music Factory, I Think I Love You by David Cassidy, It’s Now or Never by Elvis Presley, Wild Thing by The Troggs and Who I Am (Chyna) by WWE, Jim Johnston
11	"Shotgun Wedding"	Doug Aberle	Heather MacGillvray & Linda Mathious	March 30, 2001
After traveling from Miami, Florida to Seattle, Washington, the duo discover Mike's ex-girlfriend, Beth, who has been seen as RazorKat's drummer, is getting married in Miami, prompting Mike to drive all the way back. Mike doesn't like the guy, whom seems to have everything. Thanks to some books about a John Shaft knock-off, Gerald Stroke, Gary is acting emulous in a Shaft-like manner, and helps Mike figure out what Beth's finance is really about, as Mike attempts to sort out his feelings for her. (This episode is said to take place on June 20th, set 3 days after "Springered", which is set on Father’s Day. Likely meaning this was intended to be the 5th episode in the series continuity, despite its production code.)
12	"Corn Ugly Dog"	Ken Pontac & Doug Aberle	Matthew Berry & Eric Abrams	April 13, 2001
Between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, the duo make their way to the Mall of North America (a parody of Mall of America) to spend a large amount of coupons to support themselves for the whole winter...only to discover that the coupons have expired (the coupon book turned out to be sold to Mike by an ex-con who conned Mike into buying it). Through the kindness of a corn dog business owner (played by Stacy Keach), Gary and Mike get a job at Corn Diggity Dog in the Mall. A competitor corn dog company called Porn Dog is putting Corn Diggity Dog out of business until Gary realizes he can save the business by winning a trick Corn Dog competition. Featured Music: Hey Song (Rock and Roll Pt. 2) Hockey Mix by Sports All-Stars
13	"Crisscross"	David Bleiman & Brad Schiff	Drake Sather	April 13, 2001
In San Francisco, California Officer Dick finally manages to catch up with the duo again, and pursues them in a high-speed chase. However, like his last two attempts, his efforts would end in vain. After Dick lands into a gay bar, both of them run over a speed-bump, causing Mike to spill his Slurpee on the Marine Corps flag Gary bought for his dad, as well as his shirt. Mike then prompts Gary to take off his shirt and dry it off in the breeze along with the flag. Little do the two of them know that they are driving in front of a Gay Pride Parade on national television which Mr. Newton sees, and mistakenly assumes that Gary is gay and Mike is his partner. After Gary's dad signs him up for the Marines, he goes to a strip club and meets a mysterious stranger, Jared, (voiced by Tim Curry) who tells him he will kill Gary's dad; if Gary kills the stranger's wife. After the wife dies accidentally, Gary must race to save his father's life. However upon stopping Jared, he tells the police Gary killed his wife and then him (after Gary accidentally makes Jared get a lethal injection). They are then chased by the Police themselves and are cornered at an incomplete highway. Gary in turn, feeling trapped by his dad with nowhere to go but down, then tells Mike to make the suicidal jump. The episode ends with a fade to white with the caption "To Be Continued..."   According to co-creator Adam Small, the duo was scripted to survive by landing in the water or something else. 10 more episodes were planned and fully developed for a second season but never saw production on account of the circumstances surrounding the show's cancellation. Featured Music: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor

Awards

The show won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. It was also nominated in the category for Outstanding Music & Lyrics.[7] Gary and Mike was also nominated by the Casting Society of America for Best Casting for Animated Voiceover-Television.[7]

References

1. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-1476665993.
2. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 234. ISBN 978-1538103739.
3. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JBRUNKVE0FCaOmh8gGZUd?si=GgB0MwIAQB6lWey64Y6_vw
4. https://www.facebook.com/38495803047/posts/10158406817973048/?vh=e&d=n
5. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JBRUNKVE0FCaOmh8gGZUd?si=GgB0MwIAQB6lWey64Y6_vw
6. "Gary and Mike: Crisscross Episode Summary on TV.com". Retrieved 11 January 2011.
7. "'Gary & Mike"' (2001) - Awards on IMDb". Retrieved 11 January 2011.

External links

• Gary & Mike at IMDb
• Gary & Mike at TV.com