The Venture Bros.
Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture
Format	Action-comedy
Created by	Jackson Publick
Voices of	James Urbaniak Patrick Warburton Michael Sinterniklaas Christopher McCulloch Doc Hammer
Composer(s)	J. G. Thirlwell
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	48 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Keith Crofford Mike Lazzo
Producer(s)	Rachel Simon
Running time	22-24 minutes
Production company(s)	World Leaders Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel	Adult Swim
Picture format	4:3 SDTV (Seasons 1 – 2) 16:9 HDTV (Season 3 – Present)
Original run	February 16, 2003 – Present
External links
Official website

The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series which premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on February 16, 2003. The series mixes action and comedy together while it chronicles the adventures of two dopey yet well-meaning teenage boys, Hank and Dean Venture; their emotionally insecure, ethically challenged super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture; the family's bodyguards: ultra-violent and macho secret agent Brock Samson (Seasons 1-3) and former supervillain/"cured" pedophile Sergeant Hatred (Season 4); and the family's arch-nemesis, the Monarch.^[1]

The fourth season began production in April 2008^[2] and began airing on October 18, 2009.^[3]

Contents 1 Origins 2 Characters 3 Episodes 4 Themes, homages, and references 4.1 Jonny Quest 4.2 "Failure" 5 DVD releases 5.1 The "Lost DVD Commentary" 5.2 Soundtrack CD 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Origins

Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym of Christopher McCulloch)^[4] was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated series The Tick. Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes of The Venture Bros. and written one full episode, "¡Viva los Muertos!". Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived Fox Broadcasting Tick live-action TV series, provides the voice of Brock Samson.

McCulloch created The Venture Bros. storyline sometime prior to 2000.^{[citation needed]} After working for the television program Sheep in the Big City and the live-action version of The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comics story and proposed that Comedy Central air The Venture Bros. as an animated series, but the network rejected it. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down" and was unaware of the existence of the network's Adult Swim sub-unit. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16, 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.^[5]

[edit] Characters

The characters of The Venture Bros. are largely either re-imaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains; or of other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the titular fraternal twin brothers of the show. Hank is the more adventurous and Dean the more timid and bookish of the two.

Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) a former boy adventurer and star of the "Rusty Venture" television series, runs what remains of Venture Industries, a once-leading global corporation established by his "Super-scientist" father with whom "Rusty" shared many of his adventures. Since Dr. Venture Sr.'s death, Venture industries has crumbled to a shell of its former glory, now only occupying the broken down and hardly used Venture compound and isolated structures such as Spider Skull Island or the space station built under Jonas. Dr. Venture follows in his father's footsteps by becoming a "Super-scientist" himself. Although Dr. Venture certainly has the knowledge to backup his career, his actual competence and credentials in the field are questionable, leading him to capitalize off the inventions of his late father.

Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the muscular, hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. Appointed by the Office of Secret Intelligence, Brock frequently uses his license to kill to protect the Venture family. Brock symbolizes the ultimate killing machine, often preferring to use his Rambo knife to do the job. Brock's enemy and love interest is the deadly Molotov Cocktease who occasionally makes appearances on the show.

In the fourth season, Brock Samson leaves the main cast and is replaced as bodyguard by Sergeant Hatred, a former supervillain and 'cured' pedophile; his pedophilia is actually controlled by an experimental drug given to him by the OSI and varies wildly between episodes.

Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), was the model "Super-scientist" of his day. He was a visionary that changed the world with his inventions and stands as the inspiration for most other protagonists in the series. He even formed "Team Venture", a collection of friends and associates that helped him fight crime and subsequently save his son (Dr. Venture) from his arch-enemies. To help his son cope without a mother figure, he developed a loyal and rather emotional robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (listed in episode credits as voiced by "Soul-Bot") that accompanies and assists the Ventures.

Throughout the series, the Venture family has had various recurring antagonists. Many are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent. An organization originally started to save man-kind but now serves as the premier provider of arch-enemies in the world. The organization is run by the mysterious leader known only as "Sovereign", who is revealed to be real-world singer David Bowie in episode 26. The Venture Family's primary nemesis is the pernicious but ineffective super-villain the Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch). Assuming the motif of a monarch butterfly and arching Dr. Venture since college, the Monarch will stop at nothing to kill Dr. Venture (even though his reasons are unknown). Accompanying the Monarch is the masculine-voiced Doctor Girlfriend, (voiced by Doc Hammer and referred to by the Monarch as "Dr. Mrs. The Monarch" since they were officially wed by The Guild). Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and bears a grudge against Venture, who he blames for the loss of his jaw in college, citing, "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!" The season-three premiere reveals that the Monarch was responsible for the explosion, an attempt on the life of Dr. Venture. Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a ruthless killer, villain insurance agent, and high-ranking Guild member (or was until he tried to usurp David Bowie as the Sovereign); also, he was the former lover of Dr. Girlfriend before she left him to become The Monarch's companion.

The Ventures' friends and acquaintances include expert necromancer Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his apathetic, teenage goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer), who rent out a portion of the Venture Compound; the albino computer scientist Pete White (voiced by McCulloch), a former college friend of Dr. Venture's; and hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture (a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture) have also appeared occasionally, the most notable of which is Colonel Horace Gentleman, who is a parody of Sean Connery.

[edit] Episodes

Most episodes open with a cold open: a scene prior the opening title sequence. Additionally, almost every episode features both a smash cut into the end credits, and a short scene following the credits.

The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix on June 23, 2006 and on television on June 25, 2006; the season finished on October 15, 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show, primarily because the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style (albeit digitally), causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with the time constraints of producing a first-season DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary for several episodes.

The third season began on June 1, 2008 and marked the beginning of the show's broadcast in high-definition. A 15 minute rough cut of "The Doctor Is Sin" aired on April 1, 2008 as part of Adult Swim's April Fools theme of airing sneak peeks of new episodes.

The fourth season of The Venture Bros. premiered on October 18, 2009.^[3] The season is planned to air as two sets of eight episodes, with the first eight airing in the Fall of 2009 and the remaining episodes likely airing Spring 2010.^[6]

Since the first season, two credits have changed every episode. Soul-bot's "voicing" the character H.E.L.P.eR., and another as a nickname for animation director Kimson Albert. Each nickname is a quote from its respective episode. In season two, each end credit sequence holds a different additional, fake duty for AstroBase Go!.^[7]

Since season 2 the premiere episode of every season has its own distinct opening credit sequence, usually replacing the running silhouettes of Hank & Dean Venture with the characters central to the episode's story.

[edit] Themes, homages, and references

One of the themes of The Venture Bros. is its multifarious use of allusion in its dialogue, character design and other facets. The series openly pays homage to a variety of sources, including adventure serials, pulp magazines, David Bowie, Klaus Nomi, Hunter S. Thompson and many other elements of pop culture; musical references, television shows, movies, toys, fads, and comic books have all been used for fodder.

[edit] Jonny Quest

The series' predominant homage is to Jonny Quest, as it is the basis for many of the main characters. Dr. Venture is loosely modeled on Benton Quest, although he is more of a portrayal of what Jonny Quest would grow up to be, having lived through the bizarre, life-threatening events that took place so frequently in his childhood. Brock is likewise modeled on Race Bannon. Though his name (and hair) also share a close resemblance to Doc Samson who is a Marvel super hero. The Venture boys correspond to Jonny and Hadji, though they most directly resemble the Hardy Boys. The comparisons, however, are taken to the level of an extreme parody. In the episode Ice Station – Impossible! Brock mentions that he had served with Race Bannon on several occasions. He regards his fellow agent with respect calling him "one of the best."

Dr. Venture is a pill-popping scientist who treats his children and those around him with overt disdain and contempt; Brock is a hyper-macho man with a (frequently used) license to kill; and the boys are nincompoops stuck in an out-of-date mindset. One newspaper critic remarked, "If filmmakers Woody Allen and Sam Peckinpah had collaborated on Jonny Quest, it would have come out a lot like this."^[8] In season 2, Jonny Quest was introduced into the show as Action Jonny, a homeless drug addict that deeply resents his father. As of season 4, Jonny is somewhat stable, and in a support group for former-boy adventurers, along with Dr. Venture, the first Wonder Boy, RoBoy, and The Bradley Twins.

[edit] "Failure"

Publick and Hammer have stated that one of the primary themes of The Venture Bros. is failure.

"Yeah failure, that's what Venture Bros. is all about. Beautiful sublime failure." —Doc Hammer^[9]

In the commentary for the episode "Home Insecurity" Hammer and Publick elaborated on the theme.

Publick: "This show... If you'll permit me to get 'big picture,' This show is actually all about failure. Even in the design, everything is supposed to be kinda the death of the space-age dream world. The death of the jet-age promises."

Hammer: "It's about the beauty of failure. It's about that failure happens to all of us..." "Every character is not only flawed, but sucks at what they do, and is beautiful at it and Jackson and I suck at what we do, and we try to be beautiful at it, and failure is how you get by." "It shows that failure's funny, and it's beautiful and it's life, and it's okay, and it's all we can write because we are big fucking failures. (laughter)"^[9]

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Season One	May 30, 2006	13	This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 1. The episodes are presented as broadcast, with bleeped profanity. Bonus features include "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" (the pilot) and "A Very Venture Christmas", deleted scenes, behind the scenes mockumentary with the Venture Bros. Cast and creators commentaries on "Mid-Life Chrysalis", "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!", "Tag Sale – You're It!", "Ghosts of the Sargasso", "Return to Spider-Skull Island", and "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay".
Season Two	April 17, 2007	13	This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 2. As with the Season 1 DVD release, any nudity has been covered with black bars and the profanity has been censored. Bonus features include commentary on every episode by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer and, for some episodes, "special guests" such as voice actors James Urbaniak and Michael Sinterniklaas. Features also include deleted scenes and a tour of Astro-base Go!.
Season Three	March 24, 2009	13	This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 3. Unlike the previous DVD releases, Season Three is uncensored, with all the profanity and nudity intact. Bonus features include deleted scenes and commentary. The season was also released on Blu-ray, which is packaged with an exclusive CD that includes 20 tracks that constitute the score from the season.[10] The box cover is based on the box covers of many videos games on the Atari 2600. Although the Blu-ray is only available in the "Region A" zone, it functions in the "Region B" zone also.

The first season of The Venture Bros. on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video.^[11] It coincided with the June 25 premiere of the second season. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. On May 31, 2006, the season one DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVDs list.^[12]

[edit] The "Lost DVD Commentary"

On a June 30, 2006, LiveJournal post, Jackson Publick revealed that he and Doc Hammer had recorded a commentary track for the season one episode "Home Insecurity." Warner Bros. chose to omit this track from the Season One DVD due to space limitations and some minor sound quality issues. Publick also stated that the commentary can be found and downloaded from Quickstop Entertainment.^[13]

[edit] Soundtrack CD

For the video release of the Season 3, a soundtrack album was also released, entitled "The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell". This is the same audio CD included as a bonus with the Blu-ray version of Season 3. While the CD release was originally made available at Adult Swim's website, it was given a wide release on May 12, 2009;^[14] the vinyl LP release came out a month earlier. It can also be downloaded from the major digital retailers. The CD features 20 tracks, while the vinyl LP release is 16 tracks.^[15]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Venture Bros.

• Adult Swim - Venture Bros. Website
• The Venture Bros. on TV Squad
• Series Creator Jackson Publick's blog at LiveJournal
• The Venture Bros. at the Internet Movie Database
• The Venture Bros. at TV.com
• The People's Republic of Venture, a Venture Bros. fan site/wiki

v • d • e The Venture Bros. Characters Main · Secondary Hank Venture · Dean Venture · Dr. Thaddeus Venture · Brock Samson · H.E.L.P.eR. · Jonas Venture Junior · Dr. Orpheus · Triana Orpheus · Master Billy Quizboy · Pete White · Molotov Cocktease · The Monarch · Doctor Girlfriend · Phantom Limb · Sergeant Hatred Organizations Team Venture · Order of the Triad · Monarch henchmen · Guild of Calamitous Intent See also List of episodes · World Leaders Entertainment · The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell

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