"Normadeus" is the 11th episode of the second season of Freakazoid! as well as the 24th and final episode overall. It aired on June 1, 1997, on Cartoon Network, and was the second of two episodes never to air on Kids' WB.
Normadeus[]
Plot[]
The Lobe has designed the Lobe Finestra 3000, a wooden weapon which can resonate at specific frequencies to destroy matter. However, in order to execute the design, he needs the help of the greatest carpenter alive: Norm Abram. He then invites all of Freakazoid's enemies over to witness the demise of the Freak.
Crew[]
- Written by Paul Rugg
- Directed by Rich Arons and Dave Marshall
Songs[]
- "We'll Meet Again"
Notes[]
- Main Title Version: chimp with cowboy hat version.
- The title and the opening scenes parody the 1984 film Amadeus, which tells a largely fictional account of composer Antonio Salieri's jealousy-induced attempt to kill Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and to take credit for his Requiem Mass. The opening scenes of the episode copy Amadeus almost exactly, with Lobe in the role of Salieri and Norm Abram in the role of Mozart.
- The episode had its origin in the fact that Paul Rugg and Jean MacCurdy were both regular viewers of Norm Abram's PBS series This Old House. MacCurdy met Abram in New York and recruited him to guest star on the show, and Rugg began writing a script called "This Old Freakalair," wherein Abram would renovate the Freakalair. Unfortunately, the script "went nowhere." One night, while writing, Rugg happened to be listening to Mozart's Requiem Mass, and suddenly re-conceptualized the episode as an Amadeus parody.[1]
- Rugg was writing the episode on a tight deadline in his office on a Saturday night when he wrote the ending with the song "We'll Meet Again." The song, which was written during World War II, is most famous for appearing over the ending of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), which Rugg considers the greatest ending of all time.[2]
- Lobe watches Abram's New Yankee Workshop. Abram repeats his typical safety glasses warning from this series near the end of the episode.
- Among the conspiracy theories listed for Abram's disappearance is the "Bob Vila/Dean Johnson Conspiracy." Vila was the host of This Old House, and Johnson hosted the competing series Hometime.
- Detective Hermil Sioro is a parody of Agatha Christie's character Hercule Poirot.
- The exterior shot of a spooky mansion which introduces the Sioro scene is a reused painting from Dracula's castle in "Statuesque."
- The use of Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" over the Pixie People sequence parallels its use in the Lawn Gnomes segment.
- "Hank," the man who has his wood signed by Norm Abram, is the mascot for Home Depot. The two stick figures arrested in the UK were appearing in an Office Max ad at the time.
- This is the only Freakazoid! episode to have the producer credits run over the beginning of the episode, instead of in the closing credits.
- The "illness" that The Lobe suffers from that prevents him from being a carpenter is called carpenteria. Its name comes from the town of Carpinteria, located on the Southern California coast about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles.
Returning Characters[]
The following characters returned or debuted for the finale:
- Freakazoid
- Norm Abram
- Joe Leahy the Announcer
- Candle Jack (nonspeaking)
- Armondo Guitierrez
- Cave Guy
- Cobra Queen
- Sergeant Mike Cosgrove
- Doctor at the Conundrum Home for Villains (voiced by Jeff Glen Bennett)
- Debbie Douglas
- Douglas Douglas
- Duncan Douglas (nonspeaking)
- Hank (the Home Depot mascot; gets Norm's autograph; voiced by Jeff Glen Bennett)
- Inspector Hogan (British police inspector; voiced by Clive Revill)
- Invisibo
- Waylon Jeepers
- Professor Jones
- Roddy MacStew
- The Lobe
- Longhorn
- Man who stands to gain controlling interest of Sir Jeffrey's gassy helium (voiced by Larry Cedar)
- Medulla and Oblongata
- Mr. Chubbikins
- Orderly at the Conundrum Home for Villains (voiced by Larry Cedar)
- Lord Pringle (is too chubby to have murdered Sir Jeffrey; voiced by Maurice LaMarche)
- Hermil Sioro (British detective; voiced by Clive Reville; the name is spelled this way in the subtitles and the credits even though it is pronounced "Soiro")
- Steven Spielberg (nonspeaking)
- Steff (nonspeaking)
- Woman who despised Sir Jeffrey (voiced by Tress MacNeille)
Cast[]
| Voice Actors: | Character(s): |
| Paul Rugg | Freakazoid |
| Ed Asner | Sergeant Mike Cosgrove |
| Jonathan Harris | Professor Jones |
| Norm Abram | Himself |
| David Warner | The Lobe |
| Ricardo Montalban | Armondo Guitierrez |
| Maurice LaMarche | Longhorn |
| Jeff Bennett | Cave Guy |
| Tress MacNeille | Cobra Queen, Debbie Douglas |
| Larry Cedar | Oblongata |
| Clive Revill | Hermil Sioro |
| John P. McCann | Douglas Douglas |
| Joe Leahy | Our Announcer |
References[]