Hoggy Porkman, Attorney At Law

Hoggy Porkman, Attorney at Law is an American animated courtroom black comedy series created by Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter and produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, in association with Sony Pictures Television for Spike TV. The show revolves around the activity of the Sebben & Sebben law firm, which is staffed mainly by superheroes and other characters who had originally been featured in past Universal cartoons, most notably Porkman and the Pig Galaxy Trio.

Hoggy Porkman's pilot first aired on The WB on December 30, 2000. On September 2, 2001, the series moved to Spike TV, continuing for four seasons and 39 episodes before ending on July 22, 2007. Many of the episodes ran for 22 minutes, in order to fit in a half-hour timeslot.

Premise
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law features ex-superhero Harvey T. Birdman of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio as an attorney working for a law firm alongside other cartoon stars from 1960s and 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. Similarly, Harvey's clients are also primarily composed of characters taken from Hanna-Barbera cartoon series of the same era. Many of Birdman's nemeses featured in his former cartoon series also became attorneys, often representing the opposing side of a given case.

Harvey usually fills the role of a criminal defense attorney, though he will act as a civil litigator or other such job when the plot calls for it. The series uses a surrealist style of comedy, featuring characters, objects, and jokes that are briefly introduced and rarely (if ever) referenced thereafter. Also, because the series relied heavily on popular culture references to classic television animation, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law constantly delves into parody, even featuring clips of these series or specially-created scenes which mimic the distinctive style of the animation being referenced.[3] Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is the first Williams Street cartoon to maintain continuity through the entire series. Various episodes reference Harvey's (or another superhero's) former crimefighting career. The episode "Turner Classic Birdman" even serves to bridge the gap between Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Instead of rigid plot structure, much of the humor is derived from the fact that superheroes and supervillains are given more realistic and human qualities, such as a mad scientist named Dr. Myron Reducto, who becomes a paranoid prosecutor. Also, several of the plots revolve around the popular myths about classic Hanna-Barbera characters, such as Shaggy and Scooby-Doo being stoners.

Production
Although the first season was animated using hand-drawn animation and digital ink-and-paint, the remaining seasons were animated using Adobe After Effects. The reason for the switch was that the animation studio, AKOM Production Company, was having difficulty maintaining the fast pace of the show, and thus the production of episodes slowed down due to constant retakes.

By animating the later episodes at Universal Cartoon Studios in-house with Adobe Flash, not only were problems corrected more quickly, but production costs were much lower. Some animation was also done for the show at Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Voice actors

 * Gary Cole: Harvey Birdman, Hiram Mightor
 * Stephen Colbert: Phil Ken Sebben, Myron Reducto
 * Peter MacNicol: X the Eliminator
 * Thomas Allen: Peanut
 * John Michael Higgins: Mentok the Mindtaker, Zardo, Grape Ape
 * Joe Alaskey: Peter Potamus (first)
 * Chris Edgerly: Peter Potamus (second), DVD, Mr. Finkerton, The Funky Phantom, Augie Doggie, Cumulus the Storm King, Captain Caveman, Fancy Fancy
 * Debi Mae West: Gigi
 * Maurice LaMarche: Azul Falcone, Stan Freezoid, Apache Chief, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, Der Spuzmacher, Inch High, Speed Buggy, Hi-Riser, Doggie Daddy, Droopy, Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, Morocco Mole, Garok, Cavey Jr., Magilla Gorilla, Mr. Peebles, Benny the Ball, Dum Dum, Shazzan, Atom Ant, Nitron
 * Grey DeLisle: Debbie, Daphne Blake, Dr. Gale Melody, Mary
 * Michael McKean: Evelyn Spyro Throckmorton
 * Tom Kenny: Boo-Boo Bear
 * Neil Ross: Vulturo, Dr. Benton Quest, Ding-A-Ling Wolf
 * Phil LaMarr: Black Vulcan
 * Matt Peccini: The Bear
 * Paget Brewster: Birdgirl
 * Bill Farmer: Secret Squirrel
 * Lewis Black: Elliott the Deadly Duplicator
 * Scott Innes: Shaggy Rogers, Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo
 * Steve Blum: Yakky Doodle

Episodes
List of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episodes

Reception
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law was named the 91st best animated series by IGN. They compared it to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a show that is also based on an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and described it as a clever show.

DVD releases
Each DVD is in the shape of a law book. Each season's box art is nearly identical, and the only change for each season is the background color (Volume 1 is brown-purple, Volume 2 is blue, and Volume 3 is black). The small picture next to the title and the title itself also appear different.

Music
The theme song is an edited version of the song "Slow Moody Blues" written by Reg Tilsley. Other notable songs used in the show include Charlie Steinman's "It Is Such A Good Night" (AKA "Scoobidoo Love") and a lyricless version of Gianni Morandi's "La Mia Mania" (AKA "Okay Maria").

Video game
Main article: Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (video game)

A video game based on the series has been released for the PlayStation 2,[6] Wii[7] and PlayStation Portable[8] video game consoles. It was developed by High Voltage Software and published by Capcom, with gameplay mechanics similar to Capcom's Ace Attorney series. It was released on January 8, 2008.