'Mission Hill': the best cartoon you've never seen

The cartoon was ahead of its time.

By Chase Koeneke

Published Sept. 4, 2009

Shame on all you. You had one of the greatest cartoon shows ever made right in your hands and you let it slip through you fingers. How could you?

To be fair, it's probably not your fault. For those not in the know, "Mission Hill" was a 1999 animated series on the WB created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, best known as executive producers of "The Simpsons." Oakley and Weinstein came up with the idea after noticing there were no college-age kids living in the fictional Springfield, save for Otto the bus driver, but even he couldn't fill a void that large.

And so, "Mission Hill" was born, a show detailing the life of Andy French, aspiring cartoonist with a minimum wage job at Ron's Waterbed World. His friends flower child Posey, surprisingly insightful stoner Jim and his teen brother Kevin — a super geek "Yale or bust" high schooler just trying to snag some coolness from his city-dwelling sibling — round out the cast. By focusing on these 20-somethings, "Mission Hill" was able to touch on different topics than "The Simpsons" ever could, including relationships, unemployment and even taking the dreaded SAT.

In line with tackling these more grown-up subjects, "Mission Hill" also incorporated a more mature style of humor, making use of subtlety along with the more traditional slapstick and gags. What's even better is "Mission Hill"'s jokes hold up quite well after repeated viewings, unlike an episode of "Family Guy" — chock full of pop-culture references that become dated within a week.

In addition to its fantastic writing, "Mission Hill"'s biggest draws are its stellar art direction and voice acting. Nailing an underground comic book feel, the show is vibrant and colorful. Each screen is packed with details, such as posters for fictitious bands and advertisements for fictitious products; you could watch an episode four times back-to-back and you'd still see new things the fifth time.

Continuing with the underground comic theme, "Mission Hill" embraces old graphic novel conventions and utilizes them in episodes. Conventions from stars emphasizing dizziness to dotted "sight lines" playing up exactly what a character is examining, aren't just used stylistically, but for comedic effect as well.

The cast is perfect, pulling off each character's voice realistically. Well-known nerd comedian Brian Posehn flawlessly achieves Jim's laid-back attitude while Kevin's geeky tones come courtesy of Scott Menville, whom you might remember as the voice of Robin on "Teen Titans."

Sadly, even with all this perfection, "Mission Hill" ended up canceled after six episodes. Part of it was due to the people who could appreciate it - our generation of college students — were watching "Doug" re-runs and "Spongebob Squarepants" 10 years ago. Part of it was due to the WB sticking it in a crummy 8:30 p.m. Friday time slot with an even crummier marketing push, so an audience could never quite build up. But most of it was due to the $1.2 million per episode production cost price tag. For perspective, Cartoon Network spends about $300,000 for an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

The show did see somewhat of a rebirth on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2002, airing all 13 of its completed episodes. Although these did gain some success, production had long since ceased, meaning 13 episodes were all we were going to get.

There are only two ways to watch "Mission Hill" nowadays: One is finding a copy of the limitedly run DVD set released in 2005, offering a few nice extra features and some commentary. Unfortunately, after six years, the licensing agreements for the music had all but dried up, forcing the DVD episodes to use unlicensed tracks in lieu of the awesome original pieces. The second — and free way — is through YouTube, which thankfully has preserved the original music, albeit sacrificing the overall picture quality.

Either of these methods is absolutely worth the effort to see this masterpiece of a program. Once you're hooked and have watched all 13 episodes, do a little digging on the Internet for "Mission Hill Animatic" to find one and a half more shows, arguably the best to date. "Mission Hill" was sadly ahead of its time and now, it's too late to revive it.