Grossology (TV series)

Grossology is a Canadian animated television series produced by Nelvana, and based loosely on the non-fictional children's book series of the same name by Sylvia Branzei. It debuted on the YTV network in Canada on September 29, 2006, and was broadcast on Discovery Kids (now Discovery Family) in the United States on January 13, 2007. It also aired on Jetix on June 2, 2007 and Kix! from September 15, 2008 in the United Kingdom and on ABC TV in Australia in December 2007.

The first season consists of 26 half-hour installments, and the second season has premiered on September 2008. The principal character designs were done by Faruk Cemalovic.

The French title of this series in Canada is Glurp Attack.

Plot

Ty and Abby are a teen brother and sister crime-fighting team who report to the Bureau of Grossology, a secret government facility whose job is to investigate gross criminals, their gross crimes, and/or various gross phenomena.^[1] Each episode of the series follows the pair on adventures based on real scientific facts. Aided by their friend Lab Rat (a human scientist), their boss The Director, and their police liaison, The Detective, Ty and Abby work to keep the city safe, all while keeping their identities hidden. (Oddly, villains never recognize Abby apart from her Grossology uniform, despite her floor-length ponytail.)

Characters

Major characters

• Tyler "Ty" Archer (voiced by Michael Cohen) – Ty is Abby's little brother and a hard kid to face. His cool, analytical mind takes everything in. He sees himself as a scientist and he takes his job very seriously, too seriously if you listen to Abby. In his mind, science is everything, and his goal is to be remembered with the very best in his field. He and Lab Rat share many common interests. On the field, Ty pilots the GRS-1 and is great at strategic maneuvers. His quick thinking has saved the day many times. His utility pack doubles up as a jet pack. Ty owns a chemistry set at home and often does analyses on things he finds (e.g. Hairball's hairballs). He gets tongue tied around his love interest Naomi. It was hinted in the episode "Queen for a Day" that he is afraid of clowns. Ty is hinted many times to be much smarter than Abby. He is also allergic to dust mites.
• Abigail "Abby" Archer (voiced by Krystal Meadows) – Abby unravels mysteries so disgusting that no adult will touch them. She loves everything gross and slimy – nothing grosses her out. Abby likes to test her limits to see if there is something so gross, so slimy, so disgusting, that it will make even her, the Queen of Squeam, turn green. So far nothing has come close. Although she closely resisted gagging at gross sights on a rare number of occasions, such as in the episodes "The Slim Slime Man" and "Go Fish", the only exception was in the episode "Yack Attack", when she unknowingly drank contaminated water and threw up. She gets covered in slop the most, and being dirty has yet to affect her trademark ponytail. On the field, she is a competent fighter. She holds a severe grudge against not only villains like Lance Boil, but her school rival Paige. Unlike her younger brother Ty, she is athletic and depends on her instincts and feelings at times, however sometimes her feelings cloud her judgment when she has an affection for the suspect in question. Throughout the series she has shown interest in drama and sports like volleyball. She is scared of leeches as shown in the episode "Vein Drain". In the episode "When Allergies Attack" she was shown to develop an allergy to ladybugs. Abby and Ty share ownership of their kitten, Hairball, and delight in collecting samples of hairballs. She also tried out for the volleyball team at the goading of her father Harvey, who wanted her to live his dream through her.
• Paul "Lab Rat" Squirfenherder (voiced by M. Christian Heywood) – Paul Squirfenherder is the Grossology Department's tech support, designing and building gadgets and vehicles to aid Grossologists on their missions, and he is also a friend of them. He spends so much time doing experiments that it earned him the nickname "Lab Rat," which he prefers to his real name. His impressive inventory of hi-tech gadgets and encyclopedic knowledge make him invaluable to the team. He has a pet rat named Hermes, who he treats as his best friend. Lab Rat often gives Ty and Abby solutions and inventions to stop the villains. Lab Rat suffers from Agoraphobia, he only ventures out of the Gag Lab for Hermes' well being and under the circumstance where he is forced to leave. The episode "Owl Most Foul" shows Lab Rat not only stepping out of the Gag Lab for the first time, but also wearing his blue slime suit for the first time. In the episode "Fartzilla", a robotic version of Hermes was used to break into the school cafeteria in order for Ty and Abby to investigate. Abby often jokes that he stinks due to the fact that bathing is not one of his favorite activities. Lab Rat also has a severe mango allergy.
• The Director (voiced by Paul O'Sullivan) – He gives the Grossologists their repulsive assignments, often in a state of panic. ("Grossologists! It's gross! It's terrible! It's DISGUSTING!!!") He is incredibly squeamish, and is terrified at the slightest hint of anything gross. (This prompting Ty to ask his sister "What exactly does he do anyway?"). The Director is known to arrogantly enter the scene when the crime is solved and take all the credit. He claims that Abby and Ty's success is because of his "great leadership skills" and a variety of other qualities. Abby and Ty see right through his farce and make sure to it that his ego is kept in check. That isn't hard to do, since the crime scenes often unnerve the Director. (For example, he once claimed to have an iron-cast stomach in front of The Detective. After sniffing Ty's Sloppy Joe induced stench, he promptly vomited on the spot. In reply, The Detective said "Mr. Director, do you mind cleaning up your iron-cast stomach off my shoes?"). Despite his incredibly squeamish nature, he has on one known occasion, gone into the field on his own to search for his missing agents.^[2] He is allergic to cats.

Villains

• Insectiva (voiced by Lili Francks) – She was once a promising young university student who wanted to study entomology (the study of insects) until she discovered how insects are treated by science; captured and dissected. Now, armed with all sorts of bugs, she pursues an insect agenda, to wipe all people off the planet so bugs can rule again. She, like many insects, can't get past windows, therefore she is continuously running into them. She began a romantic relationship with Sloppy Joe in the Valentine's Day episode "Pucker Up". She also has a twin sister, Arachnidia, who is also her rival.
  • Real Name: Cara Chitin
  • First Appearance: Episode 1 ("Queen for a Day")
  • Cara Chitin's last name is based on chitin, what insects' exoskeletons are made of.
• The Slim Slime Man (voiced by Neil Crone) – A bitter old sewer worker, who abnormally fused with a living slime mould while working in the sewers one day, becoming a strange giant slime creature with a ghoulish skull-like head seen inside. As he gets more powerful, he aims to cover the surface world with living slime molds.
  • Real Name: Slim
  • First Appearance: Episode 2 ("The Slim Slime Man")
• Fartor (voiced by Sean Cullen) – Fifteen years ago, he was just an ordinary kid. That was until his older brother Gary tortured him by stuffing his brother under the bed sheets and farting in there. During those fifteen years, he became adapted to breathing the gases in farts. Like a fish being out of water, clean air is toxic for him, so he breathes toxic gases in a dome that he wears on his body. There was only one thing Fartor wanted... revenge on his brother Gary.
  • Real Name: Larry
  • First Appearance: Episode 3 ("Fartzilla")
• Sloppy Joe (voiced by George Buza) – After discovering that a whiff of his stink was enough to render people unconscious, Joe vowed to never let a drop of water, soap, or deodorant touch his skin again, and turned to an easy life of crime. His plan: go from filthy, to filthy rich. Despite his stink, he is sometimes shown to be a protagonist, like when he retired from his job to get into the holiday spirit and works as a mall Santa. When clean he is shown to be an albino. Insectiva is his girlfriend as of the Valentine's Day episode "Pucker Up".
  • First Appearance: Episode 4 ("The Perfect Stink")
  • Real Name: Joseph Puglowski
• The Scab Fairy (voiced by Jessica Holmes) – A crazed former beauty queen who was traumatized over a small cut to her shoulder, ending her career. Not seen since then, she used her exceptional degree in dermatology and mythology to create a high-tech dragonfly-winged suit made of scabs, and takes the identity of the Scab Fairy, based on a Tooth Fairy-like myth figure that collects scabs (rather than teeth). She is armed with a high-tech wand that removes scabs from people's wounds, and inflicts them on others. Her ultimate obsession is to inflict scabs on anyone pretty, as revenge for the loss of her old beauty queen career.
  • Real Name: Helena Globin
  • First Appearance: Episode 5 ("The Scab Fairy")
  • Helena Globin's name is a pun on the word hemoglobin, a blood-related property.
• Lance Boil (voiced by Juan Chioran) – He was once a successful Grossologist; but, as explained in the episode, "The New Recruits," envied The Director's authority. Believing he was to be "...replaced by these amateurs [Ty and Abby]," Boyle tried to pull a coup, using a "prototype shrink-ray." However, Ty had tinkered with the weapon, and left out a key part. This caused Lance to blast himself and shrink, in a somewhat lopsided manner (small body; large, misshapen, pus-filled head). Horrified at first, Lance is shown to be very proud of his boil. Banished from the team, he decided to use his skills for evil, with one goal in his twisted head revenge against all Grossologists; especially Abby Ty and their friends. He is allergic to fish.
  • Real Name: Lance Boyle
  • First Appearance: Episode 6 ("When Ya Gotta Go")
• Keith Van Kobbler (voiced by Pat Mastroianni) – A popular and undefeated young basketball player, and Abby's former idol. Calls himself "VK" for short, and always refers to himself in the third person. Endorsed the "KVK-1" brand super-sneakers, which have been a runaway success, but after a short while, all wearers (including VK's opposing players, up-and-coming basketball players) suffer a severe case of foot fungus! After painstakingly examining the KVK-1 sneakers in the case, Ty and Lab Rat suspect VK himself to be the culprit, while Abby has difficulty accepting their suspicion. As it turns out, VK is indeed the culprit, with a twisted method behind his fame; he single-handedly manufactured the KVK-1 sneakers for mass consumption, and spiked them with fungus (while wearing a non-spiked "Deluxe Edition" pair for himself, of course), so that everyone will have foot fungus, and most of all, eliminate the competition, so that he will be the only basketball player in the world. His weapon is a high-tech "Wrecking Ball" basketball.
  • First Appearance: Episode 9 ("It's Gotta Be the Shoes")
• Mr. Fowler (voiced by Derek McGrath) – He is the custodian at Ringworm Junior High School. He is small, timid, shy, afraid of Paige, and wears oversized glasses. Always hums the song "4 and 20 Black Birds Baked In a Pie." He grew tired of cleaning up the excess pigeon poop around the school, so he built a giant mechanical owl suit, with which he captures pigeons and plots to put them in a pie to bake them.
  • First Appearance: Episode 10 ("Owl Most Foul")
• Kid Rot (voiced by Travis Ferris) – After a science experiment mishap, young boy Chester gains the "rotting touch," with which he causes all organic materials to rot with a single touch, and also gives off a horrible smell. He becomes a new student at Ringworm Junior High School, and causes chaos upon his arrival, with a concerned Abby and Ty trying to cure him (Abby initially had feelings for him, much to Ty's suspicion). But Chester's rotting powers literally go to his head, giving him a twisted personality (even christening himself "Kid Rot"), and making him a formidable and diabolical foe for the Grossology team. Worse, he has a psychotic infatuation for Abby (who ultimately hates him, at least his prevalent Kid Rot persona), and will stop at nothing to win her heart, even going as far as to rot the entire world! His rotting powers used to be an excellent fertilizer (in a way making his science experiment a success), but the second time they met, his rotting powers had evolved to where they just kill whatever they touch. The last time we saw Kid Rot, he was engulfed in rot he had created. Abby and Ty gave up looking for him but as the episode is about to end we see a hand (presumable Kid Rot's) sticking out from the rot and as a leaf lands on it, it's grabbed by the hand. The episode ends as we hear some heavy breathing. We have yet to know what has become of Chester/Kid Rot.
  • Real Name: Chester
  • First Appearance: Episode 13 ("Kid Rot")
• Dr. Cornelius Colon (voiced by Peter Keleghan) – A mad proctologist, who plots to engulf the world in a gigantic colon, starting with Ringworm Junior High School (on the last day before its Summer vacation), to take revenge on people for unsympathetically making fun of him for his unfortunate surname. Has giant tapeworms as henchmen.
  • First Appearance: Episode 18 ("School's Grossed Out for Summer")
• Far-Ty – Ty as a temporary villain. Feeling he's not needed after Abby showed him up several times, Ty, trying to overcompensate for himself behind her back, was captured by Fartor, who was in the midst of planning yet another full-scale fart attack on the world. He exposes Ty to the same deadly gases that transformed him, using a special process to speed up the transformation. Now, Ty, as Far-Ty, becomes Fartor's greatest asset in carrying out his dastardly plan. And just as Fartor plotted revenge on his older brother Gary, Far-Ty carried out a twisted revenge on his older sister Abby.
  • Real Name: Ty Archer
  • First Appearance: Episode 20 ("Silent But Deadly Part 1" and "Silent But Deadly Part 2")
• Frankenbooger – A giant monster made of nose mucus stolen by Sloppy Joe (using a suction gun), who simply wanted to make a "boogerman" with said mucus (much like a snowman). Abby and Ty confront Sloppy Joe, and in the process, inadvertently cause an electrical accident that brings the "boogerman" to life. The monster sucks mucus out of people's noses, and the more he consumes, the larger he gets. Its only weakness is dirt particles (just like any mucus), which cause him to not only dry up, but decrease in size.
  • First Appearance: Episode 24 ("Frankenbooger")
• Darko Crevasse (voiced by Julian Richings) – A gothic caped villain whose eyesight is accustomed to darkness, and therefore must wear dark glasses. He summons a huge flock of bats to drop guano on anyone who opposes him. As he cannot stand light, his ultimate plan is to plunge the city into eternal darkness. In the Halloween episode "Night of the Living Roadkill", Paige commented that he was Goth.
  • First Appearance: Episode 23 ("Lights Out")
• Sarah Senia (voiced by Jayne Eastwood) – A lady whose DNA structure was crossed with that of plants. Has leaves and tendrils around her body. Plotted to use giant carnivorous plants to attack the city, and ultimately, the world.
  • First Appearance: Episode 25 ("A New Leaf")
• Arachnidia (voiced by Maria Vacratsis) – Insectiva's twin sister. Unlike Insectiva, she loves arachnids, as her name suggests. She and Insectiva have had a bitter rivalry, and both pit their own respective arthropods against each other, with catastrophic results. She is the gothic version of Insectiva.
  • First Appearance: Episode 27 ("Sinister Rivalry")
• Frederick Follicle (voiced by Stephen Ouimette) – A hair dresser who doesn't like to change styles. After getting kicked out of a job, he went underground doing biological experiments, and ended up with living hair.
  • First Appearance: Episode 31 ("Hairless Whispers")
• Roger Pink-Eye (voiced by Lyon Smith ) – A kid with a pink eye. He is curious about Ty and Abby's extra-curricular activities, and thus sets off to find the truth about his classmates' secret identities, using various attempts to do so, but all of them end in failure. In the second season trilogy (Pinkeye and The Brain, Pinkeye's Revenge Part 1, Pinkeye's Revenge Part 2), he teams up with Lance Boil (after successfully capturing him) to find out Ty and Abby's secret. He eventually becomes a Grossologist, but he is fired/quits after his plan backfires with Lance betraying him.
  • First Appearance: Episode 33 ("Mold Monster")
• Basso Profondo (voiced by Ben Campbell) – A disgraced opera star, who was once part of the Three Baritones. He's back for revenge, but this time he's singing a whole new tune; in other words, he's now a burping star.
  • First Appearance: Episode 39 ("Ain't Over Till the Fat Man Sings")
• Gary Gumdrop (voiced by Adrian Truss) – People call him the ultimate candy man, but he's just a crazy man with a big sweet tooth and a lot of rotten teeth. His plan is to make super tooth-rotting candy, pretending that they'll take care of your teeth, and distribute them to everyone, so he won't be the only one with a rotten mouth and a large craving for candy.
  • First Appearance: Episode 40 ("Candy Isn't Dandy")
• Gundy McGoober (voiced by Bruce Pirrie) – Tired of campers bringing their new electronic devices with them, Gundy uses mutated worms to scare away people from his lake.
  • First Appearance: Episode 42 ("Squirm")
• Evil Clone Abby (voiced by Krystal Meadows) – She is the creation of Roger Pink-Eye and Lance Boil, used as part of a scheme to get Abby fired so that they can take over the Bureau of Grossology. She is made from a combination of human DNA and rat DNA. She attacked the city with an army of rats, and later infiltrated the Gag Lab and fired Ty and Lab Rat.
  • First Appearance: Episode 46 ("Pink-Eye's Revenge (Part I)")
• Slitherbuddies – They are cute, cuddly and very adorable but these genetically modified reptiles are not so nice when they grow.
  • First Appearance: Episode 48 ("Fang's A Lot")

Supporting characters

• Harvey & Petunia Archer (voiced by Richard Binsley and Karen Hines, respectively) – Abby and Ty's father and mother, respectively. Both are shown to be gullible, and as such, are completely unaware of their children's secret jobs as Grossologists. Harvey manages the city's water treatment plant while Petunia teaches entomology. Petunia has a fear of heights as shown in the episode "Squirmed".
• The Detective (voiced by Danny Wells) – A gruff, burly police detective, who occasionally works with Abby and Ty on cases, and is the only outsider who knows their secret. He bears MORE than a strong resemblance to Detective Dick Gumshoe from the Phoenix Wright series of games.
• Mr. Scheffer (voiced by Chad DeRohgth) – An often nervous and uptight teacher at Ringworm Junior High School. He has been noted to teach science (Silent But Deadly: Part 1) and direct plays (When Ya Gotta Go).
• Paige Logan (voiced by Melissa Altro) – A popular but very snobbish girl at Ringworm Junior High, and Abby's bitter rival. However, as seen in "New Recruits", she was once actually nice to her. Her father is very rich, and her favorite color is pink. She has been noted several times throughout the second season to have a crush on a blond boy named Rudy.
• Naomi (voiced by Lauren Collins) – A shy and gentle girl at Ringworm Junior High, and Ty's love interest. She takes ballet. She also has three incredibly jockish brothers as seen in the episode "When Allergies Attack" when Ty went on a family picnic with her. It was also noticed in the previously mentioned episode that she has a long list of allergies.

Production

• Back when the series was in development in 2004, the planned series was somewhat different. Background designer Brad Graham was originally slated to do the character designs and backgrounds. The character designs looked completely different, and had more of a conventional "abstract" look like most modern kids' cartoons, but many of Graham's elements remained in the final version. The more diverse Grossology team lineup consisted of Abby and Ty (who were still the main characters, only Abby had pigtails rather than the long trademark ponytail), Nigel Stodding (a British kid fashioned like 1960s secret agent Harry Palmer), Lab Rat (who was an overweight Caucasian boy, but still had Hermes, who looked somewhat identical to the final version), and a weirder assortment of kids including Pink Eye (a beatnik boy; the basis for the villain Roger Pink-Eye), Creepy Crawly (a goth girl with spiders, who may have been the basis for the adult villainess Insectiva.), Sloppy Joe (a dirty spud-shaped kid, who ultimately became an adult villain for the series) and Colin Polyp (A bulb-headed kid who may have evolved into the adult villain Dr. Cornelius Colon in the final series). Abby and Ty still went to Ringworm Junior High School (which looked like a more classic-style school than the more modern one in the series), and the Gag Lab was originally a more complex underground secret base called the Grossotorium. Abby and Ty did not wear Slime Suits at this point.^[3]

Episodes

• Airdates are from original Canadian broadcasts on YTV.

Season 1: (2006–07)

Season 2: (2008–09)

This season has yet to air in the United States, but several episodes can be found on YouTube.

DVD releases

The first official DVD release for this series was issued in Australia on July 2008. Two volumes are available so far:

• Grossology – Vol. 1: The Perfect Stink (Region 4 – Australia, PAL)
  • Released: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
  • Price: A$17.97
  • Label: Magna Pacific
  • Specs: Widescreen (16:9 Enhanced), Stereo (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Running Time: 132 Minutes
  • Special Features: None
  • Episodes Included: "Queen For A Day", "The Slim Slime Man", "Fartzilla", "The Perfect Stink", "This Scab's for You", "When You Gotta Go"
• Grossology – Vol. 2: Yack Attack (Region 4 – Australia, PAL)
  • Released: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
  • Price: A$17.97
  • Label: Magna Pacific
  • Specs: Widescreen (16:9 Enhanced), Stereo (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Running Time: 110 Minutes
  • Special Features: None
  • Episodes Included: "Club Parasites", "Go Fish", "Gotta Be The Shoes", "Owl Most Fowl", "Yack Attack",

September 2008 saw the first official DVD release in the series' native Canada. One volume is available so far:

• Grossology: The Perfect Stink (Region 1 – USA/Canada, NTSC)
  • Released: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
  • Price: CAN $15.99
  • ASIN: B001CQS7C4
  • Label: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
  • Specs: Widescreen (16:9 Enhanced), Stereo (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Running Time: 90 Minutes
  • Special Features: Bonus episode of Di-Gata Defenders
  • Episodes Included: "Queen For A Day", "The Slim Slime Man", "Fartzilla", "The Perfect Stink".

References

1. ↑ Ytv.com
2. ↑ Episode 13, "Kid Rot"
3. ↑ Bradford I. Graham. "The Grahams: Grossology Development". brad-graham.blogspot.com. Retrieved March 28, 2015. 

External links

• Grossology on Nick Canada
• Grossology at the Internet Movie Database
• Grossology at TV.com
• Original Grossology development art by Bradford I. Graham