Matt Melvin's Growing Up Mikey

Matt Melvin's Growing Up Mikey is an adult hand-drawn animated period comedy television series which parodies the "adult!narrator's point of view since childhood" cliché such as The Wonder Years, Everybody Hates Chris and The Goldbergs. It is created by former Cyanide and Happiness member, Matt Melvin.

It will air on September 5, 2020 through June 1, 2027. In Seasons 1-3, the theme song was "Gonna Make You Sweat" by C+C Music Factory, in seasons 4-6, the theme song is replaced with "Always" by Erasure, and as of the final season, the theme song is replaced with "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind.

Summary
An adult version of Mikey Thorndyke and how he not only reflects on his childhood, but also narrating his story. The entire series was set between the years 1991 and 1998. He has five siblings, a nerdy female next-door neighbor with Southeast Asian neighbors, an African-American Urkle-esque best friend and the most beautiful girl in the world whom he was friends with.

His middle school years take place in 1991 through 1994 while his high school years take place in 1994 through 1998.

Main

 * Michael "Mikey" Thorndyke (voiced by Cooper J. Friedman and Jason Ritter) is a young middle school (first few seasons only; later a high school student as of the later seasons) student living in the 1990s diagnosed with ADHD at age 5. He is possibly born in between August 1979 to September 1980. He loves not only cartoons, but rock music, grunge music, skateboarding, and movies. He has been to various mutiple movie theaters during weekends, labor days, Columbus days, Thanksgiving breaks, Christmas breaks, spring breaks and summer vacations as revealed in the final season episode, "Thorndyke, Siskel and Ebert". He is the leader of a group he made called The Class of '98.
 * Cameron "Cami" Thorndyke (voiced by Landry Bender) is Mikey's older sister who is bossy towards him. She is 15 years old (21-22 as of the final season).
 * Lucas "Luke" Thorndyke (voiced by Scott Menville) is Mikey's older 13-year-old (19-20 as of the final season) brother who uses his skateboard.
 * Janet Thorndyke (voiced by Juliet Donenfeld) is Mikey's younger 9-year-old (15-16 as of the final season) sister who loves paper fortune tellers, tea parties, hats with flowers, floral babydoll sundresses and her dolls. She has a doll collection and owns 50 dolls, until as of Season 5, by the time she turned 13, she outgrew playing with dolls so she can watch Beverly Hills, 90210.
 * Henry Thorndyke, Jr. (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is the youngest of the Thorndykes. He is 6-7 years old (11-12 as of the final season).
 * Melissa Thorndyke (née Bradshaw) (voiced by Katy Mixon) is the mother of the Thorndyke children. She works as a copywriter.
 * Henry "Hank" Thorndyke (voiced by Christian Slater) is the yuppie father of the Thorndyke chiildren. He works as a vice principal at Cami, Luke, Mikey and Janet's high school.
 * Carrietta "Carrie" Milton (voiced by Mckenna Grace) is Mikey's friend whom he describes as "the most beautiful and most prettiest girl in history". In Seasons 1 through earlier episodes of Season 3, her theme is "Carrie" by Europe. As of later episodes of Season 3 through the entirety of Season 7, her theme is "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Prince. She is part of Mikey's group, The Class of '98 and the leader of the JTT Fan Club.
 * Richard Lyons (voiced by Dallas Young) is Mikey's Urkle-esque BFF who idolizes Urkle from Family Matters. He is part of Mikey's group, The Class of '98.
 * Margaret "Peggy" Klemp (voiced by Jenna Davis) is the nerdy next-door neighbor with an older brother named Billy, her Vietnamese stepsisters, Katy and Eric, her mother Ramon and her stepfather Jason. She is part of Mikey's group, The Class of '98 and Carrie's fan club, The JTT Fan Club.
 * Mrs. Diana Brigman (voiced by Leigh-Allyn Baker) is the Madonna-obsessed music teacher at Mikey's middle school.
 * Principal James Jenkins (voiced by Nick Bakay) is the principal at Mikey's middle school.
 * Katherine "Katy" Nyugen-Klemp (voiced by Haley Tju) is the 14-year-old stepsister of Peggy and Billy and younger sister of Eric. She is a minor character in seasons 1-2, a recurring character in seasons 3-4, and a main character in seasons 5-7.
 * Erica "Eric" Nyugen-Klemp (voiced by Brianne Tju) is the 16-year-old stepsister of Peggy and Billy and older sister of Katy. She is a minor character in seasons 1-2, a recurring character in seasons 3-4, and a main character in seasons 5-7.

Recurring

 * Jason Nyugen (voiced by Dante Basco) is the husband of Ramon, the father of Eric and Katy and the stepfather of Peggy and Billy.
 * Ramona "Ramon" Klemp-Nyugen (née Hollander) (voiced by Hynden Walch) is the wife of Jason, the stepmother of Eric and Katy and the mother of Peggy and Billy.
 * William "Billy" Klemp (voiced by Sean Ryan Fox) is the older brother of Peggy and stepbrother of Katy and Eric. He is 17 years old (23 as of the final season).
 * Susan "Susie" Chandler (voiced by Sanai Victoria) is a friend of Peggy's. She is as nerdy as Peggy. She is an African-American girl with round Harry Potter-esque glasses which is the same as Peggy's. She seems to barely have a crush on Richard. She is part of Mikey's group, The Class of '98 and Carrie's fan club, The JTT Fan Club. She is a recurring character in seasons 1-4 and a main character in seasons 5-7.
 * Dodie Schwurtz (voiced by Abby Ryder Fortson) is an overweight friend of Susie and Peggy's. She is a huge fan of not just JTT, but media he starred in such as Home Improvement and of course, The Lion King. In "Weenohall", she is dressed as a bedsheet ghost consisting of a white bedsheet with two eyeholes. She is part of Mikey's group, The Class of '98 and Carrie's fan club, The JTT Fan Club. She is a minor character in season 1, a recurring character in seasons 2-4 and a main character in seasons 5-7.
 * Taylor Lyons (voiced by Skai Jackson) is Richard's older sister whom Luke has a crush on. She is a minor character in Season 1, a recurring character in seasons 2-4 and a main character in seasons 5-7.

Guest stars

 * Amanda Cooper (voiced by Sophie Reynolds) is the older twin sister of Ryan and the oldest daughter of the Coopers. She was first mentioned in the Season 1 episode, "Aunt Jodie is Coming To Town" and has first appeared in the Season 5 episode, "The Thorndykes' Spring Break". She is a huge fan of New Kids on the Block.
 * Ryan Cooper (voiced by Sean Giambrone) is the younger twin brother of Amanda and the oldest son of the Coopers. He was first mentioned in the Season 1 episode, "Aunt Jodie is Coming To Town" and has first appeared in the Season 5 episode, "The Thorndykes' Spring Break".
 * Aunt Joan "Jodie" Cooper (née Bradshaw) (voiced by Mindy Sterling) is the sister of Melissa and the mother of ten children. The children's names and ages are: fraternal twins Amanda and Ryan (19), Christopher (16), Phoebe (13), Samuel (11), Irene (9), Scott (7), Nina (4), Paige (2) and Matthew (12 months).

List of episodes
List of Matt Melvin's Growing Up Mikey episodes

Tropes

 * Acrofatic: Even though Dodie's obese, she can be athletic whatever she wants.
 * Affectionate Parody: It parodies, in fact, media involving adult narrators telling stories of their childhood.
 * Bedsheet Ghost: Dodie Schwurtz can be shown dressed as a ghost in the Halloween episode, "Smells Like Halloween Spirit".
 * Fat Best Friend: Dodie Schwurtz.
 * The '90s: From JTT, to The Spice Girls, to grunge rock, to Kurt Cobain's suicide. Everything does take place between late August 1991 and early June 1998.
 * Nostalgic Narrator
 * Product Placement: Due to having a show set in the '90s, there are various ones such as milk caps, Fruitopia, Lunchables, Madonna, The Lion King, Digital Underground, White Men Can't Jump, Claire's, Delia's, and Coca-Cola.
 * In one episode, Peggy and Susie are talking about how good JTT is, seeing how the JTT trend was shown in magazines everywhere since the '90s.
 * The Nirvana Smiley t-shirt was shown in Season 2.
 * A New Kids on the Block poster can be shown in Amanda and Ryan's room in one episode
 * Recycled...IN SPACE!: Harry Potter...EXCEPT ANIMATED AND THERE IS NO MAGIC NOR ANYTHING SUPERNATURAL HAPPENING HERE!
 * The Wonder Years...EXCEPT NOT ONLY IT WAS ANIMATED BUT IT ALSO HAD ADULT THEMES!
 * Alternatively, it's The Wonder Years...IN THE '90S EXCEPT IT IS ANIMATED!
 * Malcolm in the Middle...SET IN THE '90S EXCEPT IT IS ANIMATED AND HAS NOT ONLY ADULT THEMES BUT SEX JOKES, NUDITY, SWEARING, SEXUAL THEMES, R-RATED CONTENT AND OF COURSE, HAS THE ELEMENTS AND HUMOR OF PEN15!
 * Boy Meets World...BUT THE CHARACTERS ARE ANIMATED INTO CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS WEBCOMIC CHARACTER DESIGNS!
 * Story Arc:
 * Season 1 focusing on Mikey's 6th grade year and the first year of middle school.
 * Season 2 focusing on Mikey's 7th grade year.
 * Season 3 focusing on Mikey's 8th grade year and the last year of middle school.
 * Season 4 focusing on Mikey's 9th grade/freshman year and the first year of high school.
 * Season 5 focusing on Mikey's 10th grade/sophomore year.
 * Season 6 focusing on Mikey's 11th grade/junior year.
 * Season 7 focusing on Mikey's 12th grade/senior year and the last year of high school.
 * X Meets Y: Malcolm in the Middle meets The Wonder Years with a little humor of PEN15.
 * Boy Meets World meets Everybody Hates Chris with the humor of Bob's Burgers
 * The Goldbergs meets Harry Potter minus a magic school and anything magical.

Trivia

 * This is an affecionate parody of the Nostalgic Narrator trope/cliché, except set in the '90s.
 * It is basically a mix of F is for Family, The Simpsons, PEN15, Malcolm in the Middle and King of the Hill with a touch of the "adult person not only reflecting on but narrating about his childhood" trope such as The Wonder Years, Everybody Hates Chris, The Goldbergs and The Kids are Alright.
 * The whole entire plot is basically a homage of the Harry Potter, except there is no magic nor anything supernatural.