| The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius | |
  | |
| Format | Animated television series |
|---|---|
| Created by | John A. Davis, Keith Alcorn, Steve Oedekerk |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 60 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Steve Oedekerk Keith Alcorn |
| Distributor | Nickelodeon |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon (United States) |
| Original Air Date | September 10, 1998 (pilot) July 20, 2002 – November 25, 2006 (series) |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by: | Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius |
| Followed by: | Planet Sheen |
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (originally promoted as Jimmy Neutron: The Series) is an American television series, starring characters from the film, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The series continues the lives of Jimmy Neutron and his five best friends Carl Wheezer, Sheen Estevez, Goddard, Cindy Vortex and Libby Folfax.
The series first aired on July 20, 2002 and the final episode aired on November 25, 2006. The series spawned three seasons (with 20 episodes per season), 3 crossover specials with The Fairly OddParents and a theatrical film. The series was critically acclaimed with viewers and TV critics alike.
Episodes
Cast
- Debi Derryberry as Jimmy Neutron
- Rob Paulsen as Carl Wheezer
- Jeffrey Garcia as Sheen Estevez
- Carolyn Lawrence as Cindy Vortex
- Crystal Scales as Libby Folfax
- Candi Milo as Nick Dean
- Frank Welker as Goddard
- Mark DeCarlo as Hugh Neutron
- Megan Cavanagh Judy Neutron
Production
The early prototype of Jimmy was "Johnny Quasar: Boy Genius". John A. Davis produced a short film of the character in early 1995 and was pitched at SIGRAPH 1995. However, since the name sounded too much like, "Jonny Quest", he changed the name to "Jimmy Neutron".
Then, John met Keith Alcorn and Steve Oedekerk and they decided to work together and revamp John's idea for the series.
The pilot, Runaway Rocketboy! was produced for Nickelodeon and was supposed to start the series, but since CGI was becoming popular for movies, they made the movie and the show was made after the movie came out. The producers had a mere three weeks to slam together an entire episode.
Reception
Since its premiere date, Jimmy Neutron has become one of the most iconic Nicktoons of all time. To this day, it has remained one of the most popular and iconic 2000's Nicktoons along with Danny Phantom, Invader Zim and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
In its early days, it was falsely accused of ripping off Dexter's Laboratory (a show from Nickelodeon's rival channel, Cartoon Network), but overtime, many people saw how the show had its own identity. Even though the movie was popular while in theaters and being shown on Nick, many consider the show to be better than the movie. Also, due to the movie playing often on Nickelodeon long after it had left theaters, some people believed that it was released during or after the show.
The series had the most-watched television premiere on Nickelodeon at that time with 4.3 million viewers.
Cancellation
A fourth season was planned, but plans for this season were scrapped after DNA Productions went bankrupt, thanks to the lackluster performance of The Ant Bully. Cancelling the series was a big loss for the company, so producing the fourth season would have been too costly and Nickelodeon couldn't purchase the company to continue the production. Four scripts were finalized for this season, but two of them have yet to be revealed.
In this proposed season, the tone was going to be darker and more serious. The premiere episode, "Deep Impacts", would've featured the return of Evil Jimmy, who would've had his final battle with Good Jimmy on the moon. In another episode called "Three's a Crowd", Cindy and Betty would've made up their differences and become friends. There would be an overarching story about the kids starting middle school, while at same time encountering new and old villains. Another overarching story would've been about the League of Villains rebuilding their organization and planning the final blow to Jimmy and his friends, all in the proposed series finale. Nick was also planned to rejoin the main cast and continue to develop his character, as well as his relationships with the gang.
Spin-Offs
The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour
"The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour" is a crossover trilogy with the Fairly OddParents. The first crossover aired on May 7, 2004 during the show’s second season. It was so successful that it spawned two sequels, "When Nerds Collide!" and "The Jerkinators", airing on January 16, 2006 and July 21, 2006, respectively.
Planet Sheen
A second spin-off series called "Planet Sheen" ran from October 2, 2010 to February 15, 2013 with only one season and 26 episodes. It focused on Sheen getting stranded on another planet after stealing Jimmy’s experimental rocket ship. The series was critically panned by both critics and fans of the Jimmy Neutron franchise.
Possible Revival
Over the years there have been rumors of Jimmy Neutron reviving, but so far have all been false. On December 2015, Click Hole published an article about Nickelodeon creating a sequel series called, Jimmy Neutron: Re-Energized exclusively for Netflix. It turned out to be a hoax.
With a recent shake-up in Nickelodeon’s executives and their new interest in reviving old materials, the writers might now be attempting to bring Jimmy back, but so far there is no news about it.
There is a group called The Jimmy Neutron Revival Project on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other sites about getting Nickelodeon to bring Jimmy back for new and old audiences. Fans of Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold and Invader Zim have used this same approach in the past, and they all succeeded in gaining Nickelodeon’s attention and eventually seeing the shows return in revival movies.
John Davis stated that he would love to do the series and he has a story that would be a good reboot film, but there's not much known about it. In an online interview, Debi Derryberry also has stated that the time is coming for Jimmy Neutron to come back into the world. In a recent interview, she also stated that the creators have written a script for a revival film, but Nick has to green light it first.
Trivia
- Since the series takes place a year after the film, the main characters received several design changes for the show:
- Jimmy now wears blue jeans and white sneakers.
- Cindy now wears a green halter top, beige khakis, a single ponytail and her eyelids are now grayish purple. This became more well-known by fans.
- Carl doesn't wear suspenders anymore. However in season one, his pants look like they're still pulled up. This goof was corrected in Make Room for Daddy-O.
- The ends of Sheen's sleeves and collar become lighter.
- Libby kept her old design until the end of season one, where she received a new hairstyle (Egyptian dreads, to be exact). In the season two premiere, she changed her outfit to a pink striped shirt, blue flared trousers, brown shoes and her eyelids became darkish pink.
- Nick kept his old jacket until the episode Jimmy for President, where he started wearing a black leather jacket. However, his blue one is more remembered by fans and it made an appearance a few episodes later in Love Potion 976/J and Holly Jolly Jimmy.
- Brittany no longer wears bracelets.
- However, it should be noted that despite Nick and Libby's design changes, they still have their original designs in storybooks.
- The series was supposed to be released before the movie, but there wasn't enough time, so the shorts were created and the series was released a year later.
- The second half of season three has not aired since 2006.
- Had the series continued, it would've become the third longest running Nicktoon (along with The Fairly OddParents and SpongeBob SquarePants) in terms of years.
Polls
Gallery
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