Earthworm Jim Cartoon and Comics

When the first two games were released, it was already decided that Earthworm Jim was not going to stop there. It was planned to be multifaceted. Earthworm Jim was something that didn't have to be limited to one area of the Media or Arts. This was planned at the time. Along with the first two games came a TV Show, promotional comic books and toy line.

• Toys and Action Figures
• Comics

The TV Show

Doug TenNapel was the executive Producer for the show. The other producers were Roy Allen Smith, David Perry and Kathi Castillo. Douglas Langdale was the show's main writer. Other writers included John Behnke, Thomas Hart, Rob Humphrey, Jim Peterson and Steve Roberts.
It had a memorable Theme Tune which was written by Will Anderson.

Universal Cartoon Studios created a different style for Earthworm Jim in comparison to the original video games. In particular the style of humour and the direction it took was very different. Its humour was a mix of pop-culture reference, irony and some old fashioned slap stick for good measure. It made references to famous films and old sitcoms. Some of these included "I Love Lucy", "The Wizard of Oz", "Dune", "Star Trek" and "Citizen Kane". There were twenty three episodes made. The show lasted for two American seasons, and was eventually cancelled in 1997 by Warner Brothers.

Episodes Season 1

Episodes that aired in 1995

• Sidekicked
• The Book of Doom
• Assault and Battery
• Day of the Fish
• Conqueror Worm
• Upholstered Peril
• Sword of Righteousness
• The Egg Beater
• Trout!
• The Great Secret of the Universe
• Bring Me the Head of Earthworm Jim
• Queen What's Her Name
• The Anti-Fish

Episodes Season 2

Episodes that aired in 1996

• The Origin of Peter Puppy
• Opposites Attack!
• Darwin's Nightmare
• The Exile of Lucy
• Evil in Love
• Hyper Psy-Crow
• Peanut of the Apes
• Lounge Day's Journey Into Night
• The Wizard of Ooze
• For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls

Earthworm Jim was voiced by Dan Castellaneta (Homer in The Simpsons). Originally the voice director for the show Ginny McSwain, was said to have wanted the actor Matt Frewer for the role of Jim. Castellaneta had come in for one of the supporting roles. He being a bigger name at the time meant the producers wanted him instead. In hindsight I think he may have been doing a bit of a take on William Shatner (a little nod to Captain Jim Kirk of Star Trek), which was pretty cool. Voice actors are groovy like that.

Voice actors

• Earthworm Jim & Evil Jim Dan Castellaneta
• Peter Puppy & Narrator Jeff Bennett
• Princess What's Her Name Kath Soucie
• Queen Slug for a Butt & Mrs. Bleveridge Andrea Martin
• Professor Monkey For-a-Head & Monkey Charles Adler
• Evil The Cat Edward Hibbert
• Snott & Hench Rat John Kassir
• Bob the Killer Goldfish, Walter & Psy-Crow Jim Cummings
• Additional Voices Les Charteris
• Rosebud & Dr. Houston Ben Stein
• Evil Lounge Singer April Winchell

Characters

There were several noticeable differences between the games and the TV show. All the characters were re-designed for it, rather than looking (or behaving) as they did in the video games. The main strength of the cartoon show was in its quality of writing, which is what many people still remember it for.

The episodes didn't follow a set out story or plot. They were independent to one another, so didn't need to be watched in sequential order. They jumped from various themes which varied from lost egg beaters to children's popup books that held the secrets to destroying the universe.

In the TV show Earthworm Jim was incredibly silly. Despite having "four hyper intelligent brains", they were all pretty useless. He had a knack for getting into trouble, and an obsession with snow globes. He lived in a house with Peter Puppy and Snott. His house was situated in the small town of Turlock, which held a strange attraction to invading space aliens.

Peter Puppy wore clothes in the show - black pants and a green shirt. He liked jazz and played the banjo.
Instead of white, (He was pink in the first game, and white in the second - how's that for confusing?) he was beige and rather different in appearance. He was Jim's loyal sidekick-turn-demonic leg chewing monster throughout the show.

Snott also featured quite frequently as a sort of "docile pet" sort of character. Snott spoke his own language in the show and sometimes helped Peter and Jim out.

Princess What's Her Name - former damsel in distress one-dimensional Air Head in the video games...had the strength of ten men and was a bit prickly towards Earthworm Jim in her TV show incarnation. She was more independent and strong. She had a bit of a back-story which was a nice development. Exiled at birth, became a renegade freedom fighter. Chewed gum. Played cards on the weekends. That sort of thing.

Most of Jim's old enemies from the first video game were there. Psy-Crow, Queen Slug for-a-Butt, Evil The Cat, Professor Monkey For-a-Head and Bob the Goldfish. Obviously they were all a little different to the original video game versions, because the show allowed for more character development.

New characters (unique to the TV show) were introduced. There were many different characters in the show, but these appeared in more than one episode.

The Hamstinator; a super hero capable of stuffing anything into his cheeks. Basically a large walking hamster with a cape.

Henchrat(Evil the Cat's main lackey) - As well as demon rat followers who played heavy metal, Evil had a companion to kick around. Hench Rat was quite formidable, and wielded a large cheese blaster gun. He also played the piano remarkably well.

Mrs. Bleveridge - a strange middle aged woman who lived in a trailer park near Earthworm Jim's house (The Egg Beater & Exile of Lucy). She got caught up in Jim's adventures whether she liked it or not.

A large built prison convict known as Walter made a couple of appearances as a running gag character. He usually wanted to use Jim as dental floss.

Jim was also given an evil doppelganger after an incident with a photocopier. Evil Jim was essentially a twisted green-skinned with bad yellow teeth, intelligent version of Jim. He was an unhealthy shade of green and his suit had an angular twisted build with black chest straps.

There was also the addition of Grayson in one episode (Upholstered Peril). He could best be described as the number one EWJ enthusiast in the whole world (literally) and was very intelligent, if a little "socially challenged".

Toys and Action Figures

Toy Show

Along with the show came a toy line by Playmates. Their designs were based on the TV show character design so their success was balanced on how long the show would air. They were good quality on the whole. The action figures included Earthworm Jim with Snott, Battle Damage EWJ with Battle Damage Snott, EWJ in Special Deep Sea Mission Suit with Special Mission Snott (A blue fish seen in Pod Race from EWJ 1), Monstrous Peter Puppy and Peter Puppy, Princess What's-Her-Name with Runt Zurb Guard, Psy Crow with Major Mucus, Bob and #4 and Henchrat with Evil The Cat.

The box packaging was nicely designed and illustrated. The language used on the packaging was very descriptive. Though I can't say I'm terribly keen on it.
Here is a sample from the Deep Sea Mission Jim figure.

"Fear not, my water licking lads! I, Earthworm Jim, have come to rescue you all! I have converted my super suit to allow me to traverse the great barrier below. Notice my watertight helmet and extra oxygen tanks - very stylish.
By the Great Worm Provider! Is that Bob & #4 I see approaching with a giant mechanical bay shrimp? Why, yes, it is! Quickly, I must whip out my Stick-it-to-'em Spear Blaster and aim for the giant mechanical shrimp's eyes. Oh, Great Wiggling Worm, he has no eyes! The horror, oh the horror! In mere moments, I will be a worm-stain on his mechanically sharpened shrimp teeth. He does have teeth, I can see that!
Deep Sea Snott, my Spears please. Thanks, my snorting sleeve-wipe of a friend. Just a little to the left...there, got 'em! Now it's blind shrimp cocktail for everyone! But before I dine, I must rid this under-water world of the evil that is Bob & #4. With my Real Water Shooting Gun with Jetpack Water Storage, I shall pre-soak them until they shrink into nothingness. I love this job!

Equipped with my Special Mission Deep Sea Suit, I have once again defeated evil on its own turf - making the waterways safe for all fishes to eat, sleep and play! Oh, Amazing Annelid, who holds the sky above out heads, is that Professor Monkey-for-a-Head with a giant mechanical Sea anemone? No, it's just Deep Sea Snott with a case of the bends. See you all later, my water-wallowing weirdos! Whoa, over yonder breaking wave, is that a surfin' cow I see? Cowwwamoooga!

All the large figures in the line were articulated or had a special action of some kind. Jim's head was made to pop out of his suit by pressing a button on his back. There were different versions of Jim made - an Underwater Jim and a battle damaged Jim which had different special attacks. The underwater version had a water gun. There were prototypes made for Queen Slug for-a Butt however they were never released. Promotional extras showing the toys were also added to the Earthworm Jim Can 'o Worms's game for the PC, as they were released in conjunction with it.

Comics

Doug TenNapel's first published comic book was about Evil The Cat. It was published in 1991 by Mocking Bird Press.

A three book edition comic produced by Marvel Absurd was made in 1995. It tried to be more intone with the game as well as the TV show while adding some new ideas from the writers to fit in with the story.

They were written by Dan Slott (Ren & Stimpy comics, Batman Adventures, Avengers, She Hulk) and drawn by Barry Crain. On the whole they were very well made and illustrated aside for a couple of noticable faults. Most noticable was the drop in quality illustration-wise in the second comic which picked up again in the third and final one. It was a one-off edition and as far as it is known was not intended to be a fully fledged series.

You can read the EWJ comics in the Media Gallery.

A UK comic based more so on the TV Show was also produced around the same time which was published by Arcadia. This was pencilled and inked by Tim Perkins. I haven't seen a copy of it to date. It appears to be very rare so it's not possible to comment on it.

The TV Show was cancelled in 1997. The action figures stopped production and the future of Earthworm Jim became uncertain.

The TV Show was designed for a specific audience and the current values or trends in Warner Brother's line up for that time. The broadcasters aired the show towards too young an age group for it's style of humour which was very developed and clever. It didn't get the high ratings it needed to last a third season. There was a VHS release of the series, but no DVD release.

It would have been nice to see more of the story-driven side to the Earthworm Jim franchise. However it didn't last long enough for this to develop. With the TV Show down the drain and Doug TenNapel off doing other things, everything else came to an end.

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References / Sources:

(Episode list and cast details)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111948/ IMDB Entry on Earthworm Jim.
Usenet back in 1998 (Via Athena).
The Earthworm Jim TV Show.
Earthworm Jim The Whole Can O'Worms
Marvel Absurd Earthworm Jim Comic.

Additional information thanks to: Will Anderson's Website and Tim Perkins.