Kevin Spencer (TV series)
Kevin Spencer is an animated television series developed by Greg Lawrence; it aired in Canada on The Comedy Network. The show is aimed at adult audiences, and takes its name from the main character. The half-hour show takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, and is based on the flash cartoon of the same name that premiered on Mondo Media's flash cartoon site in the late nineties. It also aired on Spike TV in the US in 2003.
| Kevin Spencer | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation Black comedy |
| Created by | Greg Lawrence |
| Written by | Rick Kaulbars Greg Lawrence |
| Directed by | Dave Bigelow |
| Voices of | Greg Lawrence Thomasin Langlands Mike Wetmore Dave Bigelow David Elver |
| Theme music composer | Serge Cote |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 112 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Greg Lawrence |
| Production locations | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Running time | 22-23 minutes |
| Production company | Atomic Productions |
| Distributor | Bell Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | The Comedy Network |
| Picture format | 4:3 SDTV |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 31 October 1998 – 6 November 2005 |
| External links | |
| (defunct) Website | |
| (defunct) Production website | |
Characters
The show revolves around the everyday happenings of the Spencer family. Kevin himself is a 14-year-old, chain-smoking, alcoholic, cough syrup-addicted, sociopathic juvenile delinquent. He lives with his parents, whom he often shows ambivalence towards, and is a student at a local high school, although he rarely attends school. It is demonstrated multiple times throughout the series that Kevin is mentally unstable, as he is prone to random outbursts of violence, even towards himself, shows signs of insanity, and has a complete disregard for life, including his own. It is also shown that Kevin is probably mentally challenged, as he often has difficulties with performing the simplest of tasks, such as making himself a bowl of cereal, forgetting what he was talking about the instant after saying something, or even realizing that he was hungry, yet at times throughout the series makes very well-articulated statements about certain aspects of society, culture, politics, and education, possibly indicating Kevin is a savant. Throughout the series, Kevin almost never speaks, aside from during dream sequences and occasional one-sentenced outbursts. Instead, the show's narrator (voiced by Lawrence) speaks for Kevin; that is, he describes what Kevin is saying, thinking, and how Kevin reacts to the world around him.
His parents, Anastasia (voiced by Thomasin Langlands) and Percy (voiced by Lawrence), are also alcoholic, cough syrup-addicted chain-smokers. Both are crude, overweight, unattractive and extraordinarily stupid people who live off of welfare. Both parents neglect or otherwise use Kevin for their own selfish gains, and both show clear signs of sociopathic tendencies. Neither parent is faithful to the other, and Anastasia in particular is highly promiscuous. Their antics usually involve attempting to gain money or alcohol through illegal acts, which quite randomly succeed or fail. While both parents primarily show hatred and disgust towards one another, both occasionally demonstrate a small degree of love (or at least lust) for each other, though these moments rarely last longer than a scene of an episode.
Another frequent character in the show is Kevin's imaginary friend, Allen the Magic Goose (voiced by Mike Wetmore). Allen often encourages Kevin's sociopathic nature, usually asking him to do illegal, indecent, and/or dangerous things simply for the sake of the thrill or for vengeance. However, Kevin, being a sociopath, often shows ambivalence towards Allen, sometimes threatening or intimidating the bird. During such times, Allen often reminds Kevin of the futility of these outbursts, since Kevin is simply imagining Allen's existence.
Common plots
Most of the adventures on the show involve illegal actions and antics of the Spencer family. Their motives for these actions range from attempting to acquire more money, alcohol, drugs, or merely for the sake of having something to do. Oftentimes, the show will shift between Kevin's antics and his parents', as well as follow some subplots of other minor characters that tie into the Spencers' schemes and adventures.
Episode 8 of season 1 was only aired once before it was banned from TV, due to excessive violence and disgusting humor.
Streaming
Ocnus Productions (creators of Kevin Spencer) sold the rights to the series around May/June 2011 to Netflix. The seasons were therefore removed from Expressmedia.ca where Manufacture-On-Demand DVDs had been available for sale for several years. All 8 seasons were made available in the US on Netflix's streaming service July 15, 2011, although as of December 2011 the show failed to appear on Netflix's Canadian version of the streaming service. On July 17, 2012, Netflix stopped featuring it altogether. Seasons 1 and 2 were later added on to Hulu the same year. All 8 seasons of the series are currently available on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.