Space Goofs

Plot

Five extraterrestrials from the fictitious planet Zigma B named Candy H. Caramella, Etno Polino, Bud Budiovitch, Gorgious Klatoo and Stereo Monovici go on a picnic together in space. However, their spaceship crashes into an asteroid and they fall to planet Earth. They realize that if any human finds out that they are aliens, they could be captured and experimented on by scientists, so they take shelter in the attic of a house that is up for rent.

The aliens have two goals: chase away anybody who tries to establish themselves in the house, and find a way to return to their home planet. To remain unknown from humans, the aliens use a device called the SMTV that lets them transform into almost any entity of their choosing, but always cycles through three other unrelated transformations (as a running gag) when used.

In the second season, Stereo is now no longer part of the main cast, with said character only appearing in two episodes. An explanation was provided where Stereo has somehow managed to get back to Zigma B, so Candy, Etno, Bud and Gorgious continue to find a way back home.

Cast of characters

Main

Etno Polino, being short and purple with red lips, a big red nose and red eyes, is the leader and brains of the group. A scientific genius, he creates all sorts of machines with the intention of aiding the group's return to their own planet, including rockets. The aliens often fail to blast off into space, either due to Etno's rockets malfunctioning or someone else boarding the ships. In both the original English and French dubs, he speaks with an English accent, but in the English version, he also has a rather fast-paced manner of speech, vaguely reminiscent of those found in educational films about space exploration from the 1950s. He was voiced in English by Maurice LaMarche and in French by Peter Hudson (season 1) and Bernard Alane (season 2).

Candy Hector Caramella, small and green with a large, wrinkled forehead, red eyes and wearing a polka-dotted apron, is the uptight neat freak of the group. He is transgender and non-binary. He often chooses to disguise himself as a woman, unlike the other aliens in the house, and it is not uncommon to see him flirt with other men. He is very energetic (often cleaning around the house). In both the French and English versions, Candy's voice parodies a sophisticated English accent. He was voiced in English by Charlie Adler and in French by Éric Le Roch (season 1) and Éric Métayer (season 2).

Bud Budiovitch, tall and orange with three strands of hair, a long neck, and big pink bloodshot eyes, is lazy and naÏve. He is a television addict and spends most of the time sitting in front of it and drinking soft drinks. Like Etno, Bud is laid-back and usually the last one to panic in a situation. He always comes up with the best solution, but most of the time no one will listen to him. He was voiced in English by Jeff Bennett (season 1) and Jim Gomez (season 2) and in French by Marc Brettonière (season 1) and Éric Métayer (season 2).

Gorgious Klatoo, fat and blue with a heavy chin, green eyes and a protruding tooth, is the grumpy and snarky one of the group. He is very greedy, and his hobbies consist of eating, lazing around, and bullying his friends, although he is shown at several points in the series to care deeply about them underneath his gruff exterior. He was voiced in English by Michael Sicoly (earlier episodes) and Danny Mann (parts of "Gnome Alone", "Sweet Tooth Blues" and "Flora and Feast", "Dingo Bingo" onward) and in French by Patrick Préjean.

Stereo Monovici, two-headed and red in which each head has a slightly long nose and green eyes, acts as two people since each head has its own mind. Early episodes portray him as the "bookworm" of the group who often wastes his intelligence on the most useless information. Stereo is very energetic (like Candy) and is usually feeling happy. Both heads sometimes argue with each other. One of Stereo's heads speaks with a distinct high-pitched voice while the other head speaks with a rather low-pitched one. Stereo was removed from the series for season 2 as Xilam considered him a weak character, but reappeared in two segments of that season ("Other World Champs" and "UFO") where it was revealed that they managed to find their own way back to Zigma B. He was voiced in English by Jeff Bennett (season 1) and Danny Mann (season 2) and in French by Antoine Tomé (season 1) and Patrick Guillemin (season 2).

Additional

Almost every episode features a new visitor, à la a "villain of the week" formula, who will come to the presumed "vacant" home. These visitors come in a weird variety of characters (mostly humans, but sometimes animals like pigs and birds, and even other aliens). While the credits do not specify who, additional voices include:

Billy West

Laraine Newman

Frank Welker

Kath Soucie

Susanne Blakeslee

Kat Cressida

Michelle Layton

Jessica DiCicco

Jackie Gonneau

Sirena Irwin

Carolyn Lawrence

Some characters are voiced by the main cast. This is especially more prevalent in Season 2.

Episodes

Season 1 (1997–98)

All episodes in this season were directed by Thomas Szabó and aired on Saturdays.

Season 2 (2005–06)

All episodes in this season were directed by Olivier Jean-Marie and aired on Fridays.

Production

Series co-creator Jean-Yves Raimbaud first conceived Space Goofs, initially titled Maison à louer (Home to Rent), as one of several personal projects before meeting Gaumont producer Marc du Pontavice at the 1993 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. du Pontavice took interest in the Home to Rent concept and saw potential for it to become an animated series. While discussing the show with du Pontavice, Raimbaud mentioned the American Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show, a show that du Pontavice had never heard of before but was nevertheless impressed and captivated by its characters and groundbreaking animation. Ren & Stimpy would serve as a template to the direction and tone of Space Goofs. Raimbaud would become the first artist hired by du Pontavice.

By late-1994, du Pontavice traveled throughout the United States to present several projects being worked on, including Space Goofs. All of the sets and concept art were developed by co-creator Philippe Traversat. Marc du Pontavice eventually negotiated with CBS in Los Angeles to produce the show for the network. Although initially happy, du Pontavice eventually backed out of the deal when he learned that CBS planned to have total editorial control and impose its creators. Instead, he agreed with France 3 to produce the series. Bertrand Mosca, the then-general director of France 2, agreed to commit to the series against the advice from his colleagues, and he gives it the largest budget ever granted to a public service animated series. The budget for the first season was $10 million.

Raimbaud would recruit several former Ren & Stimpy staffers as writers for the first season, including showrunner Bob Camp and writer Jim Gomez, who would also provide voice direction from Los Angeles. Gomez brought voice actors for the English dub of the show, such as Charlie Adler (Candy), Maurice LaMarche (Etno), Michael Sicoly and Danny Mann (Gorgious), Jeff Bennett (Bud and Stereo), and several others. In addition to the American series team, there was Olivier Jean-Marie in animation direction, who was appointed by Carbunkle Cartoons founders, Bob Jaques and Kelly Armstrong, Thomas Szabó in storyboarding, Nicolas Gallet in scriptwriting, Hugo Gittard in character design, and Hughes Mahoas in set design. Du Pontavice's wife, Alix de Maistre, was chosen by him to work as post-production supervisor on the first season. For the show's theme song, Raimbaud suggested David Bowie to sing it, of whom he was a big fan, but since Bowie was very busy, he came up with Iggy Pop instead. A remix of the theme song, made by 2 Lazy, was also released.

Broadcast and home media

Space Goofs also debuted in the same year in Germany on ProSieben, and aired in Canada on Teletoon. In the UK, the first season premiered worldwide on Fox Kids on August 31, 1997 and 3 weeks later on Channel 4 on September 21, 1997, both under the show's original title of Home to Rent. The second season premiered under the series' final name on Nicktoons UK on November 5, 2005 at 9:30 AM. Furthermore, the first season aired as part of the Fox Kids lineup on Fox in the United States. The show premiered on the same day on France 3 in France and on the Fox Kids block in the United States on September 6, 1997.

Of the more notable physical releases, three VHS tapes (entitled Alien Antics, Cartoon Tales and Animal Crack-Ups) of the series were released in the U.S. on August 11, 1998. The complete series (in 2 season sets) was also released in France on June 13, 2011.

In other media

Video game

An adventure game based on Space Goofs named Stupid Invaders was released in 2000–2001 by Ubisoft. It featured crew members from its first season and the voice actors of its English dub as the five aliens, having to go back home in a surreal world, after an infiltration by a bounty hunter named Bolok (voiced by Billy West). Development of the game initially began at Gaumont through Gaumont Multimédia before the studio was shut down by Gaumont in 1999, and it was originally slated for release in December 1999.

Canceled film adaptation

A film adaptation for the show, also titled Stupid Invaders, was planned, but was never released for reasons unknown – what only remained was a short video posted online. The cast of the original show reprised their roles for the main characters (sans Stereo). It was a CGI-animated adaptation of the show, where the four aliens (Etno, Candy, Gorgious and Bud) have ended up accidentally crash landing into someone else's house. Said house is revealed to be inhabited by an unnamed brunette girl, who gets curious upon her sight of the aliens.

Comics

In Germany, a comic book based on the series was released on September 30, 1998 by Dino Entertainment (Dino Verlag). On March 10, 2006, the series was adapted into comic books in France. Only two volumes were released by Jungle.