Production
Dexter's Laboratory was inspired by one of Genndy Tartakovsky's drawings of a ballerina. After drawing Dee Dee's tall, thin shape, he decided to pair her with a short and blocky opposite, Dexter (inspired by Tartakovsky's older brother Alex). After enrolling at CalArts in 1990 to study animation, Tartakovsky wrote, directed, animated, and produced two cartoon shorts that would become the basis for the series. Dexter's Laboratory was then made into a short film as a part of Cartoon Network's What A Cartoon! project, promoted as a World Premiere Toons on February 26, 1995. Viewers worldwide voted on what series should be given a full-time slot; the first to earn that vote of approval was Dexter's Laboratory. The series was picked up for a season of 13 episodes in August 1995. The show debuted as a half-hour series on April 27, 1996, with further promotion by its broadcast on both TNT and TBS as well as the Cartoon Network. Mike Lazzo, then-head of programming for the network, said that the short was his favorite of the 48 shorts, commenting "We all loved the humor in brother-versus-sister relationship". Directors and writers on the series included Genndy Tartakovsky, Rumen Petkov, Craig McCracken, Seth MacFarlane, Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, Paul Rudish, John McIntyre, and Chris Savino.
Dexter's Laboratory was responsible for pushing Cartoon Network in a new direction towards focusing on creator-driven cartoons. This was because of the way the show was designed and directed. The show was notable in its sense of design and space. It was animated in a stylized way which Tartakovsky says was influenced by the Merrie Melodie cartoon The Dover Boys at Pimento University. Dexter's Laboratory, however, was staged in a cinematic way, rather than flat and close to the screen, to leave space and depth for the action and gags. Tartakovsky was also influenced by other Warner Bros. cartoons, Hanna-Barbera, Japanese animation, and the UPA shorts. Tartakovsky has said the character Dexter was designed "as an icon"- his body is short and squat and his design is simple, with a black outline and relatively little detail. Since he knew that he was designing the show for television, he purposely limited the design to a certain degree (designing the nose and mouth, for instance, in a Hanna-Barbera style to animate easily).
Dexter's Laboratory ended its initial run in 1998 after two seasons (with the second season lasting 39 episodes, a notable record for a single TV production season on Cartoon Network). The initial series finale was "Last But Not Beast", which differed from the format of the other episodes in that it was not a collection of cartoon shorts, but was a single 25-minute episode. It features Dexter's family, alongside many of the recurring characters from the Dexter universe, in a battle against a monster that Dexter accidentally released from a volcano as an exchange student in Japan. In this episode Dexter was forced to reveal the lab to his parents, though it ended with their memories being wiped clear of the experience.
In 1999, Tartakovsky returned to direct "Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip", an hour-long television movie. This was the last Dexter's Laboratory production that Tartakovsky was involved with and was originally intended to be the final conclusion to the series. The special was hand-animated, though the character and setting designs were subtly altered. The plot follows Dexter on a quest through time as he finds out his future triumphs. Christine Cavanaugh won an Annie Award for her voice performance as Dexter in "Ego Trip" for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting By a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production".
The series re-entered production in 2001. The new episodes, which ran for two more seasons, had a different production team than the originals since Genndy Tartakovsky was busy working on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars (MacFarlane and Hartman had left Time Warner altogether at this point, focusing on Family Guy and The Fairly OddParents, respectively). Beginning with season three, Chris Savino took over as the creative director for the show in the absence of Tartakovsky. Later in season four, Savino was also promoted to producer giving him further control over the show (such as the budget). This second line of episodes featured noticeably different visual designs, minor inconsistencies with the original episodes both in storyline and in visuals, different sound effects, and Christine Cavanaugh was replaced by Candi Milo as the voice of Dexter for the majority of these new episodes (as Cavanaugh had retired from voice acting in 2001 for personal reasons, though she still voiced Dexter for the first few episodes of the third season).
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