The Venture Bros.

The Venture Bros. (alternatively The Venture Brothers) is an American animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey yet well-meaning teenage boys, Hank and Dean Venture; their emotionally insecure, ethically challenged super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture; the family bodyguard, secret agent Brock Samson; and the family's arch-nemesis, The Monarch.

In April 2008, Jackson Publick announced that he and Doc Hammer have begun producing episodes for a 4th season. In March 2009, Adult Swim began airing bumps revealing that new episodes should begin airing in November 2009. In August 2009, a trailer for the 4th season was released on Adult Swim's website.

Origins: Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym of Christopher McCulloch)was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated series The Tick. Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes of The Venture Bros. and written one full episode, "¡Viva los Muertos!". Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived Fox Broadcasting Tick live-action TV series, provides the voice of Brock Samson.

McCulloch created The Venture Bros. storyline sometime prior to 2000 After working for the television program Sheep in the Big City and the live-action version of The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comics story and proposed that Comedy Central air The Venture Bros. as an animated series, but the network rejected it. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down" and was unaware of the existence of the network's Adult Swim sub-unit. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16, 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.

Facts: Format Action-comedy Created by Jackson Publick Voices of James Urbaniak Patrick Warburton Michael Sinterniklaas Christopher McCulloch Doc Hammer Composer(s) J. G. Thirlwell Country of origin United States Language(s) English No. of seasons 3 No. of episodes 39 (List of episodes) Production Executive producer(s) Keith Crofford Mike Lazzo Producer(s) Rachel Simon Running time 22-24 minutes Production company(s) World Leaders Entertainment Broadcast Original channel Adult Swim Picture format 4:3 SDTV Seasons 1 and 2 16:9 HDTV Seasons 3+ Original run February 16, 2003 – present

Characters: The characters of The Venture Bros. are largely either re-imaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains; or of other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the titular fraternal twin brothers of the show. Hank is the more adventurous and Dean the more timid and bookish of the two.

Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) runs Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist", and certainly has the knowledge to back up these claims, but his actual competence and credentials in the field are questionable. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the muscular, hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He is an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a frequently used license to kill. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal and rather emotional robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (listed in episode credits as voiced by "Soul-Bot") that accompanies and assists the Ventures.

Throughout the series, the Venture family has had various recurring antagonists. Many are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent. The organization is run by the mysterious leader known as the Sovereign, who is revealed to be real-world singer David Bowie in episode 26. The pernicious but ineffective supervillain the Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), the masculine-voiced Doctor Girlfriend, (voiced by Doc Hammer and referred to by the Monarch as "Dr. My Wife" since they were officially wed by The Guild), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's primary nemeses. Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and bears a grudge against Venture, whom he blames for the loss of his jaw in college, citing, "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!" The season-three premiere reveals that the Monarch was responsible for the explosion, an attempt on the life of Dr. Venture. Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a ruthless killer, villain insurance agent, and high-ranking Guild member; also, he is a former lover of Dr. Girlfriend's before she left him to become The Monarch's companion.

The Ventures' friends and acquaintances include expert necromancer Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his apathetic, teenage goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer), who rent out a portion of the Venture Compound; the albino computer scientist Pete White (voiced by McCulloch), a former college friend of Dr. Venture's; and hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture (a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture) have also appeared occasionally, the most notable of which is Colonel Horace Gentleman, who is a parody of Sean Connery.