March 7, 2000

1:01 AM

Clerks: The Animated Seriesis coming to ABC in May (here's a preview in quicktime format). How far will ABC let slacking, smoking, cursing vandals go? Are they gunning for SouthPark? I can't imagine a watered-down version of Clerks being very funny at all, the whole point of Clerks the movie was the absurdity of the dialogue and jokes. Don't get me wrong, I used to be an über Kevin Smith fan, but I just can't imagine enjoying a kid-friendly version of the New Jersey universe.
posted by mathowie (9 comments total)

How could anyone (a) think of this series and (b)manage to package it successfully enough for ABC to buy it? Looks like cartoons are now "officially" society's avenue for satire. I only have one thing to say to ABC, "Have ya'll gone Berzerka..."?
posted by Ms Snit at 2:15 AM on March 7, 2000

What's next? Kevin Smith directing Home Alone 6 for Disney? I think the "Clerks" Poster in my apartment will soon be replaced.
posted by Baud at 3:07 AM on March 7, 2000

Why do we only accept cartoons with a semi-realistic bent for primetime? The Simpsons being only the slight exception. Look at Family Guy, King of The Hill, etc.

Have we all lost our collective imaginations this badly?
posted by jbeaumont at 8:44 AM on March 7, 2000

I can see this scenerio: Little billy's favorite cartoon is Clerks. He just loves that wacky Silent Bob. He's at Blockbuster with his Mom when he spots "Clerks: The Movie". "No Way!" he thinks. So he screams and begs for Mom to rent it. She looks at the box while billy explains that they must have made a "real life" version of his favorite show. Mom shrugs. Rents the movie. Little billy learns a lot that day.
posted by pb at 9:41 AM on March 7, 2000

How soon before the "Chasing Amy" animated series comes out? That would be more fun. This just looks like a total sell out. I wonder if Smith okay'ed this or if someone else owed the rights. And why "Clerks"? Wouldn't "Mall Rats" work better for this type of thing? I'm very confused. Maybe that's why I'm not a famous Hollywood mogul.
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:52 AM on March 7, 2000

smith is appartenly a huge comic book fan, so it's not that surprising that he'd let someone turn one of his movies into a cartoon. he apparently owns at least one comic book shop in new jersey, if i understand my friends from that area correctly.

it is surprising, however, that abc is doing it. it'd be a much better fit for comedy central/hbo/showtime, where they could be pottymouths...
posted by mmanning at 10:38 AM on March 7, 2000

I thought the same (lame) thing when I heard about this. Then I read a description of the sixth episode, which is pretty much them ripping on the fact that they took an indie film and turned it into a cartoon that’s something completely different from the original. This might be worth tuning in for , or at least taping while I’m out enjoying the summer. As for it being a sell out, I think Mallrats beat this to the punch.

Apparently, this was originally slated for a spring release, and then ABC pushed it back to May. Kevin Smith publicly bitched about it and a pissing contest ensued.

posted by alan at 1:45 PM on March 7, 2000

Well, I sure do suck ($%&^ing smartquotes). Here are the URLs for my attempted links.

http://newsaskew.com/clerkstcs/eguide.shtml
http://newsaskew.com/clerkstcs/episode6.shtml
http://www.newsaskew.com/
posted by alan at 1:47 PM on March 7, 2000

Chasing Amy the cartoon? It's been done. To death.
posted by plinth at 11:47 AM on March 9, 2000