Dexter's Laboratory - Series Overview

Series Overview

The series revolves around Dexter (voiced originally by Christine Cavanaugh and later Candi Milo), a young boy-genius with a secret laboratory filled with highly advanced equipment hidden behind a bookcase in his bedroom. Access to the lab is achieved by speaking various passwords or by activating hidden switches on his bookshelf (e.g. pulling out a specific book). Dexter is normally in conflict with his ditzy older sister, Dee Dee (voiced by Allison Moore in seasons 1 & 3 and Kathryn Cressida in seasons 2 & 4), who always mysteriously gains access to his lab no matter what he does to try to keep her out. Dee Dee eludes all manner of security and, once inside, delights in playing in the lab, often destroying all of his creations (by pushing the wrong button on an invention, for example). This is often preceded by Dee Dee asking "Oooooh, what does this button do?", without waiting for an answer.

Despite her hyperactive personality, Dee Dee sometimes makes more logical decisions than Dexter, or even gives him helpful advice. Dexter, though highly intelligent, often fails at what he has set out to do when he becomes overexcited and makes careless choices. He manages to keep the lab a secret from his clueless, cheerful parents (voiced by Jeff Bennett and Kath Soucie), who amusingly never notice any evidence of the laboratory. Despite coming from a typical all-American family, Dexter speaks with an accent, a reference to Tartakovsky's own accent that he spoke with during childhood.

Dexter's arch-nemesis is a boy from his school named Susan "Mandark" Astronomonoff (voiced by Eddie Deezen), who lives down the block from Dexter and has a secret laboratory of his own. Mandark's schemes are generally evil and are designed to gain power for himself while downplaying or destroying Dexter's accomplishments. Dexter often makes better inventions than Mandark, but Mandark tries to make up for this by stealing Dexter's plans. Mandark is also in love with Dee Dee, though she ignores him and never returns his affections. As the series progressed, Mandark's schemes became significantly more evil, his laboratory darker-looking, industrial and angular (thereby distinguishing it more from Dexter's), in contrast to his original brightly-lit lab which had more rounded features.

Continuity is not generally an aspect of the show, and many episodes are self-contained or leave characters in predicaments that are unresolved and never referenced afterward (e.g. the entire lab is completely destroyed, Dexter is turned into a sandwich, there's an army of Dee Dees etc.). Most episodes end in disaster because of a flaw in Dexter's logic or in his inventions.