Drawn Together

Drawn Together is an adult animated series for adults. It aired on Comedy Central through 2004 to 2007. It is a spoof of reality shows and has Tara Strong, Cree Summer, Jess Harnell, Adam Carolla and James Arnold Taylor for the cast.

Cast and characters

• Captain Leslie Hero (voiced by Jess Harnell): A sociopathic, chauvinistic, idiotic, perverted, heteroflexible, necrophiliac and lecherous parody of superheroes, with a visual style taken from the cartoons of Bruce Timm and Max Fleischer. Being primarily macho, he is prone to occasional random fits of hysterics, akin to post-traumatic stress disorder, playing on the "tragic origin" stories of many superheroes. His character is based on the "flying brick" superhero archetype, especially DC Comics' Superman and Shazam, though he refers in one episode to his "hero cave", an allusion to Batman's Batcave.
• Wooldoor Jebediah Sockbat (voiced by James Arnold Taylor): A hyperactive, idiotic, gullible, bizarre children's show character, in the mold of SpongeBob SquarePants, who displays many of the typical reality-defying behaviors of Roger Rabbit or Looney Tunes characters.
• Princess Clara (voiced by Tara Strong): A pampered and bigoted princess. A Christian, she is passionate about singing, but repeatedly demonstrates homophobic and racist behavior. She is a spoof of Disney Princesses such as Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
• Foxxy Love (voiced by Cree Summer): A sharp-tongued, promiscuous, mystery-solving musician, and a ghetto-spoof of both Hanna-Barbera Productions and Archie Comics of the 1970s such as the Mystery Inc. Gang and Valerie Brown from Josie and the Pussycats.
• Toot Braunstein (voiced by Tara Strong): A fat, egotistical, alcoholic retro-style sex symbol who is a parody of Betty Boop. Toot demands to be the center of attention, cuts herself with razor blades, practices poor personal hygiene, eats excessively when depressed and often instigates conflict in the house.
• Xandir P. Wifflebottom (voiced by Jack Plotnick): A hypersensitive gay and effeminate spoof of young, blonde, and handsome swordsman protagonists from JRPGs, such as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII and Sega's Wonder Boy in Monster Land.
• Spanky Ham (voiced by Adam Carolla): A horny, toilet-humored, obnoxious anthropomorphic pig and a parody of various Internet Flash animation characters, specifically from Newgrounds and Adult Swim; his likenesses were inspired by The Real World: San Francisco cast member David "Puck" Rainey.
• Ling-Ling (voiced by Abbey McBride): A psychopathic, homicidal, anime battle monster from somewhere in Asia who is a spoof of trading card or "pocket-duel" franchises such as Pokémon and Digimon (mainly Pikachu). He battles using various supernatural powers/abilities (represented in anime-like style) English subtitles are shown on-camera due to Ling-Ling speaking pseudo-Japanese gibberish (or "Japorean", a portmanteau of "Japanese" and "Korean", as McBride calls it).

Voice cast

Drawn Together features an ensemble cast of veteran voice actors (Tara Strong, Cree Summer, Jess Harnell, Adam Carolla, and James Arnold Taylor) and newcomers to the field (Abbey McBride and Jack Plotnick).

Three of the show's voice actors had worked with creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein on other projects: Jack Plotnick on Action, and Adam Carolla and Abbey McBride on The Man Show. Two of Drawn Together's guest stars also came from the casts of earlier Jeser/Silverstein projects: "The Other Cousin" guest star Sarah Silverman (from Greg the Bunny), and Carolla's Man Show co-host Jimmy Kimmel, who guest-starred in "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree" and "Alzheimer's That Ends Well".

Tara Strong and James Arnold Taylor had previously worked together on the animated series Mutant League and the video game Final Fantasy X where they voiced the characters of Thrasher and Rikku (Strong) and Cannonball and Tidus (Taylor) respectively.

Principal cast member Tara Strong has stated that she deeply loves the show, as it was such a departure from the family-friendly productions that she was used to working on at the time. The only problems that she had with it were a few jokes related to Anne Frank.

Originally, Xandir was to have been played by Nat Faxon, but he was fired following the first table read because the network felt his portrayal of the character was too stereotypically gay. Actor Jack Plotnick ended up being cast because he could play a gay man without resorting to stereotypical mannerisms such as the gay lisp.

In addition to their regular roles, the show's cast provides many of the minor roles and guest voices on the series, Summer, Strong, Harnell and Taylor in particular. In the DVD commentary for "Hot Tub", Tara Strong jokes that this is because the show does not have a lot of money to pay guest stars. Chris Edgerly appears in the majority of season one and two episodes despite not having a regular role on the series.

Episodes

Season 1 (2004)

1. Hot Tub (October 27, 2004)
2. Clara's Dirty Little Secret (November 3, 2004)
3. Gay Bash (November 10, 2004)
4. Requiem for a Reality Show (November 17, 2004)
5. The Other Cousin (December 1, 2004)
6. Dirty Pranking No. 2 (December 8, 2004)
7. The One Wherein a Big Twist: Part 1 (December 15, 2004)

Season 2 (2005-2006)

1. The One Wherein a Big Twist: Part 2 (October 5, 2005)
2. Foxxy vs. the Board of Education (October 12, 2005)
3. Little Orphan Hero (October 19, 2005)
4. Captain Hero's Marriage Pact (October 26, 2005)
5. Clum Babies (November 2, 2005)
6. Ghostesses in the Slot Machine (November 9, 2005)
7. Super Nanny (November 16, 2005)
8. Terms of Entertainment (November 23, 2005)
9. Captain Girl (November 30, 2005)
10. A Tale of Two Cows (December 7, 2005)
11. Xaider and Tim, Sitting on a Tree (January 4, 2006)
12. The Lemon-AIDS Walk (January 25, 2006)
13. A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special (March 1, 2006)
14. Alzheimer's That Ends Well (March 8, 2006)
15. The Drawn Together Clip Show (March 15, 2006)

Season 3 (2006-2007)

1. Freaks and Greeks (October 6, 2006)
2. Wooldoor Sockbat's Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable! (October 13, 2006)
3. Spelling Applebees (October 20, 2006)
4. Unrestrainable Trainable (October 27, 2006)
5. N.R.A.Y. RAY (November 3, 2006)
6. Mexican't Buy me Love (November 10, 2006)
7. Lost in Parking Space: Part 1 (November 17, 2006)
8. Lost in Parking Space: Part 2 (October 5, 2007)
9. Charlotte's Web of Lies (October 12, 2007)
10. Breakfast Food Killer (October 19, 2007)
11. Drawn Together Babies (October 26, 2007)
12. Nipple Ring-Ring Goes to Foster Care (November 2, 2007)
13. Toot Goes Bollywood (November 9, 2007)
14. American Idol Parody Clip Show (November 16, 2007)

Film (2010)

1. The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010)