One of the things WB tried to do was develop some animated series of their own to counterprogram Fox's The Simpsons & King of the Hill. However, despite bringing in two former producers from the former, the network ended up laying an egg.
Mission Hill lasted just 1 season (1999-2000), and not even a rerun cycle on [adult swim] could revive viewer interest, in contrast to [as] reviving interest in Fox's Futurama & Family Guy, the latter of which is still on the air today.
Perhaps the biggest reason why Mission failed was because it was airing on the same night as the Fox toons. Scheduling it on another night might've at least extended its lifespan, but we'll never know for sure.
I never saw the show, so there won't be a rating. Instead, this sample is a public service.
3 comments:
The creators of Mission Hill (Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstien) once said that they thought of MS as being "The anti-Friends" or "the anti-Felicity". It's too bad that this show never got a second season. I've seen much less deserving shows get renewed.
Mission Hill was an underrated pleasure of mine; not Futurama good, but definitely better than the banana-balls scatological shock-fests that make up today's [adult swim] programming. I liked how the producers made the show look like an early 90's indie comic, and any show which employs the talents of Wallace Langham, Scott Menville, Brian Posehn and Tom Kenny is A-OK in my book. The show also boasted some of the better opening and closing theme music, performed by the band Cake.
You're right about the series having the feel of an indie book, which might've been a goal in the first place. Oakley & Weinstein also did some voices on the show, and I wonder if they also did that on The Simpsons.
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