Greeny Phatom

Greeny Phatom is an American-Canadian animated series created by Robert Stainton. The show centers on the fictional character Little Guy, the ruler of a city called 123 Greeny Phatom.

The series first aired on August 13, 1995.

Cast

 * Robert Stainton as Little Guy, Santed Sailor (season 24-present)
 * Smith Akin as Dr. Beanson
 * Katie Belshaw as Little Girl
 * James Sharp as Doctor
 * Carrie Finlay as Mona Gunpanow
 * Denis Akiyama as Dr. PBS (seasons 1-23)
 * Alain Goulem as Dr. Viacom
 * Sonja Ball as Dr. Mother
 * Rick Jones as Scratchy and Little Guy 3
 * Gabriel Garcia as Geo Guy
 * Tony Daniels as Gum
 * James Clayton as Santed Sailor and Little Guy 2 (seasons 1-20)
 * Scott McNeil as Gangster Sailor
 * Vlasta Vrana as Bob Beanson
 * Bronwen Mantel as Moctor
 * Terrence Scammell as Little Guy 4
 * Jessie Geisser as Little Guy 5

Episodes
see: List of episodes

Video games
see: Greeny Phatom/Video Games

Production
In 1989, Robert Stainton created two characters, Big Guy and Dr. Benson, which would later become Little Guy and Dr. Beanson. He called the series "Greeny Phantom" at first, but a copyist made an error when creating his business card, instead of spelling it "Greeny Phatom", however, Robert decided to keep it as it sounded "unique". He and James Sharp first pitched the series to Filmation, who liked it but chose not to produce it because they were being sold. Robert later pitched the series to Hanna-Barbera (who rejected it because they thought it was "too stupid" of an idea for them), DiC Entertainment (who rejected it due to Andy Heyward finding the idea "more fit for a indie comic book"), Ruby-Spears (who rejected it due to Robert being absent due to an appendix operation), Warner Bros. Television (who rejected it due to James Sharp arriving late), and Walt Disney Television (who rejected it due to it being "screwed-up" and "creepy").

In 1990, Big Guy and Dr. Benson's names were changed to Little Guy and Dr. Beanson, Robert shelved the series in 1991, until Sunday, July 18, 1993, when James Clayton met Robert while on vacation, Robert told him of Greeny Phatom, James was interested, and signed a deal with CINAR, a Canadian company James worked at, to fund the series, Robert started working on the pilot episode, there was one problem though, Robert and James were only given a week to produce the pilot, and on short notice hired the Chicago-based animation studio Jeepney Films to produce the pilot. Studio founder Jhonny "Joe" Montemayor directed and co-produced the pilot with Robert and James, with Robert and his friends doing much of the voice acting. Jeepney Films completed the pilot with hours to spare as the deadline came.

As soon it was finished, Robert invited an audience of kids aged 6-12 to watch the test screening of the pilot episode with their parents, the pilot was test screened at an event at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago on Friday, January 21, 1994 at 5:30 pm, the parents found it "a bit too dark for kids", but the kids liked it, Robert decided to pitch the series to Fox Kids Network, and shortly after, Robert and James got a call from Haim Saban that the series was greenlight for 1995, an 11-season contract was made for the series, the pilot episode aired on Saturday, October 29, 1994 at 10/9c, but the series wouldn't air it's first actual episode until Sunday, August 13, 1995 at 10/9c, it was aired on Sunday due to test which meant that the episode aired on the regular Fox Network, Greeny Phatom went on to be such a success that Robert and James went to the October 1995 MIPCOM in France where they put the series' foreign rights up for sale, and managed to get the series sold to 150 broadcasters worldwide successfully. Robert also signed a deal with Remco to produce toys for the series.

In 2000, Jeepney Films went on strike because they were paid less for their job as storyboard artists and external animation staff on Greeny Phatom. An agreement couldn't be reached in time, and as a result Jeepney Films were fired and CINAR's in-house animation team were sworn in as a replacement.

In late 2003, due to CINAR's growing legal issues, CINAR's animation team were replaced by Studio Lightbulb, a minor-league Japanese animation studio which was used as an animation outsourcing studio in some earlier episodes.

In Late 2004, the 11-season contract was coming to an end, and Greeny Phatom was planned to end in 2005, FOX News reported on Greeny Phatom's nearing end in January 2005, with Robert Stainton guest starring, Robert said "I'm not sure if the contract with News Corporation will be renewed, there are some issues going on at 4Kids that might prevent Greeny Phatom from returning next year, the only way this can change is if Season 11 gives 4Kids TV a boost in ratings", in July 2005, Greeny Phatom was renewed for 9 more seasons (which meant new episodes would be made until 2015).

On November 10, 2008, 4Kids Entertainment announced that 4Kids TV would conclude at the end of the year due to intervening conflicts between Fox and 4Kids, as the latter company had not paid the network for the time lease for some time, while the network was unable to maintain the guaranteed 90% clearance for the block due to affiliate refusals and an inability to secure secondary affiliates to carry the programming in markets where the Fox station denied clearance for the block, this left Greeny Phatom without a proper channel or block to air on as Fox stated that they didn't want to air the show on their main channel due to Fox not wanting the show to interfere with their regular programming, and the channel that 4Kids launched a new block on, The CW, did not want to air a show made by one of their competitors and Fox also refused to let Greeny Phatom to air on The CW.

Because of Greeny Phatom's uncertainty on television, News Corporation's CEO Rupert Murdoch held a meeting with every higher-up of the production companies that worked on Greeny Phatom and also Robert Stainton and James Clayton, according to Clayton, everyone at the meeting was very worried, though 15 minutes into the meeting, Cookie Jar Group's CEO, Michael Hirsh, said that he heard from an employee at Corus Entertainment, Greeny Phatom's main distributor in Canada, that Corus was looking for a "big hit" for the television channel/block Qubo, reportedly, after hearing this, Murdoch told the people at the meeting "We'll try and contact Corus and let them know we got their "big hit", the meeting is over, you can leave now", only one minute after the meeting ended, Murdoch reportedly dashed to his phone and called Corus, telling them that Greeny Phatom needed a new home as 4Kids TV was shutting down and asking if they could air Greeny Phatom on Qubo"

Later in November 2008, Rupert Murdoch and Robert Stainton both got a phone call from Corus Entertainment's CEO, stating that Greeny Phatom was approved for air on Qubo, though after previous phone calls Murdoch had with Corus, they did file a contract that stated that Greeny Phatom would not air on Qubo's NBC, Telemundo and Ion blocks, though the show would air on Qubo affiliates, and some Ion affiliates in cities that didn't have the Qubo channel"

And thus, Season 15 of Greeny Phatom premiered in 2009 on Qubo, the show did surprisingly well on Qubo, even doing better ratingswise than the show ever did on 4Kids TV, when the season ended it's run on Qubo, Ion reportedly sent Robert Stainton a big Qubo cube replica with the words "Thank you and everyone working on Greeny Phatom for helping with making Qubo more awesome"

In 2014, Studio Ghibli stopped providing external animation due to a disagreement with payment for external foreign animation on Greeny Phatom and as a result, Studio Ghibli was replaced by GAINAX.

On December 29, 2014, Greeny Phatom's television producer and executive producer James Clayton died in a car accident at the age of 65, the entirety of Season 20 (the last season Clayton worked on before his death) was dedicated to him.

In 2015, Due to fan demand, Greeny Phatom was renewed for 5 more seasons.

In 2016, it was announced that Season 25 would be the final season of the series, though this would later be reversed in 2019, when Disney ordered 7 more seasons (which means there will be new episodes until at least 2027).

On March 20, 2019, The Walt Disney Company aqquired Greeny Phatom as part of Disney-Fox acquisition and started airing the series on Disney Channel and Disney XD and Disney terminated Ion's contract, which enraged many employees at Ion including Ion's CEO, Ion planned to sue Disney for breaching the contract they originally made with 21st Century Fox, though they decided not to sue as many higher-ups at Ion considered the idea to sue Disney "too risky for Ion".

"Guthuili Coke Colar"
The Season 2 episode "Guthuili Coke Colar" had a scene where Dr. Beanson gets shot was cut to black in the UK and Spanish airings of the episode, in the Dutch dub, it was cut out entirely.

"Grow Greeny Spot"
The Season 5 episode "Grow Greeny Spot", was banned in Germany, China, Taiwan, Hungary, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Bulgaria, the Middle East and North Africa, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Portugal, and Norway due to its content being offensive, but all of said countries later pulled their ban, the scene where Dash and Dot are shown with guns was cut from the Dutch dub.

"I'm With British Stupid"
There is an episode that makes fun of British people that aired November 7, 2009 and is the 2nd episode of the 15th season of the Greeny Phatom, named "I'm With British Stupid". In UK DVD releases, this episode was not put on the list. In the UK, the episode was cut, meaning that the episode was the shortest episode of the season. Also, the title was changed to "Little Guy vs. The UK". One peer-to-peer website included the original version, and was taken down by Ofcom a few seconds after uploading, then it was available in the show's website. It will be available in the UK release of the Greeny Phatom DVD Pack as a special feature.

Distaste from Parent groups
Greeny Phatom was heavily criticised by parent groups for "supporting hooliganisim", with parent group One Million Moms saying it was "Too Violent for Kids TV"

Lawsuit
Vladim Munieré filed a lawsuit against GreenyWorld Productions LLC and News Corporation in January 1996, saying that Robert Stainton had plagiarized a show that his great grandfather (Ross Munieré) made, Greeny Phantom, with Greeny Phatom. The court settled in favor of GreenyWorld, saying that "the names of the shows and character designs are merely a coincidence, the setting of the shows are different", the case was closed in July 1996 and GreenyWorld Studios acquired the Greeny Phantom franchise for 5 billion dollars in August 1998.

International broadcast
See: List of countries that have aired Greeny Phatom

Trivia

 * When the characters were first created, their shirts were different, since Robert made them that way only to be changed twice.
 * The series was banned in Russia until 1999 after Boris Yeltzin said that the show had a negative view towards russians, this happened after he found out that RTR acquired the Russian dubbing rights of the show, however, the ban was lifted in 1999 after Boris Yeltzin was replaced by Vladimir Putin as president, but the show would be heavilly censored from then on out.
 * The series was banned in Nigeria until 2007 after the president said it was too inappropriate for kids. The ban was lifted in 2007 after Olusegun Obasanjo was replaced by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as president.
 * The European theme song/intro was licensed out to a game called "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney", but the original was made in Mario Paint. The name of the song in the game is "Detention Center", from the Ace Attorney series. The American one is a original composition.
 * Somehow in the Japanese version, during it's 1st sneak peak the announcer accidentally called it an anime.
 * Some episodes have the non-union voice actors using pseudonyms. For example, the pilot pitch has Georgia Denney credited as "Jeanette Smithee".
 * ERTL has held the toy license for Greeny Phatom since 1995.
 * Greeny Phatom debuted for streaming on Netflix and Hulu in 2007, Greeny Phatom is currently also on Disney+ as of 2019, with many of the episodes being remastered.
 * A documentary of the series' production was made titled "Greeny Phatom: The Making of a Children's Series" made by Touchstone Pictures and distributed by Disney Media Distribution and released on August 13, 2020.

Schedules

 * Seasons 1-4: Saturday Mornings at 10/9c
 * Seasons 5-14: Saturday Mornings at 7/6c
 * Seasons 15-23: Saturday Mornings at 10/9c
 * Seasons 24-present: Weekday-Saturday Mornings at 10/9c (weekdays reruns only)