TV Trash: Stressed Eric

Stressed Eric is an upcoming episode of TV Trash, hosted by Chris Lee Moore.

Transcript
RowdyCMoore: Welcome to TV Trash. Usually, when it comes to torturing characters, you have to make a deserving of it. But when a character gets tortured for no reason, that's where the problem lies.

As you all know, I am not a big fan of the butt-monkey trope used in media. Shows like My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Sidekick, Superjail!, CatDog, and even Sealab 2021 tend to have a trope of characters getting tortured for no reason, and it's not even funny in the slightest. And for good reason. EVERYONE IN THESE SHOWS ARE JERKS!!!! I've already talked about Superjail!, and I may getting into talking about these other shows on TV Trash.

But there was a specific show I do remember watching on NBC in 1998, and is one that I've always hated.

This show is titled "Stressed Eric", which was the creation of Carl Gorham, and was originally first aired in the UK on BBC Two. The show was a full production of Absolutely Productions for the BBC, and that show was more famous there for their work on the sketch comedy show "Absolutely", which is still a big hit to this very day. The show was originally animated by Klasky Csupo (Class Key Chew Poe) Animation Studios, the same studio behind the likes of Rugrats, Duckman, ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and the Wild Thornberrys'' just to name a few. And yes, I know how to say "Class Key Chew Poe", unlike how certain people call it "Klasky Soupo". Klasky Csupo was also the animation studio behind the first three seasons of the Simpsons, and if I'm gonna be honest, I don't really like most of the studio's shows all that much. Okay, maybe I did enjoy a good Duckman or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters to an extent, but I didn't care that much for Rugrats, if I'm gonna be honest.

The show began production as far back as 1997, as Klasky Csupo's first British animated series produced, and possibly their last of their adult animations for the time being before they launched their Global Tantrum studio in the 2000s, only for that studio to close down in 2007. The show premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Two in 1998, and would debut here in America on NBC a few months later, still that year, but with an American redub by Hank Azaria of the Simpsons.

And I have a feeling that we're gonna be here all day! So, let's dive right into "Stressed Eric"!

Oh, and you'll never guess how the intro goes out. Okay, so the show takes place in London, which is obvious, considering this was a cartoon made in Britain, and the first line of the show?

Eric: (knocking on the door) Maria! (opens the door) I'm ten years late already!

(Maria then throws up; and we get a stressed Eric Feeble, and the logo appears as the theme song gets more into punk rock)

RowdyCMoore: Yeah! That's how the original intro goes! Short, lackluster, and uninteresting. We get a start with Eric Feeble telling Maria that he’s "already ten years late", and Maria only responds by vomiting, leaving Eric stressed. And then Eric takes his kids into his car, only for the car to run out of gas, and then he takes them to a heath school, and when Eric goes to work, his last name is called by his boss, and the intro ends with him and his pumping vein. That’s it!!!

THAT HAS GOT TO BE ONE OF THE LAZIEST INTRO SEQUENCES I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! IS THAT WHAT THE ORIGINAL INTRO WAS LIKE??!!

The good news is that there was an alternate version of the intro, but it was only used in America. And for what it's worth, the intro for the American version is surprisingly interesting and better than the original UK intro, because for once, it shows how Eric's life went downhill. Even if NBC insisted on repurposing Eric as an American expatriate, who moved from New York to London.