Crash Canyon

Crash Canyon
Genre	Adult animation Animated sitcom
Created by	Jamie LeClaire Phil Lafrance Kyle MacDougall
Developed by	Joel Cohen
Written by	Joel Cohen Andy Lee Calvin Gary Chuck Tatham Craig Martin Edgar Lyall Emer Connon Greg Lawrence Laurie Elliott Mark Forward Meghan Read Pat and Ben Thornton Rob Sheridan Tim Long
Directed by	Greg Lawrence
Voices of	Patrick McKenna Jennifer Irwin Bryn McAuley Joanne Vannicola Dwayne Hill Shoshana Sperling Gil Anderson Tarah Consoli Martin Roach Marium Carvell Jajube Mandiela Anand Rajaram Teresa Pavlinek Tara Strong Peter Keleghan
Opening theme	"Crash Canyon!"
Ending theme	"Crash Canyon!" (instrumental)
Composer	Jeff Morrow
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producers	Joan Lambur Ira Levy
Producer	Greg Lawrence
Editors	Tom Berger Kirk Hudson
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Breakthrough Entertainment Jam Filled Entertainment[1] Elliott Animation[2]
Original release
Network	Teletoon at Night MTV (foreign countries)
Release	September 18, 2011 (2011-09-18) – March 3, 2013 (2013-03-03)

Crash Canyon is a Canadian adult animated sitcom created by Jamie LeClaire, Phil Lafrance and Kyle MacDougall for Teletoon's late-night block Teletoon at Night.^[3] The series is about a family who drives off a cliff and falls into the canyon after driving to their vacation.

It was produced by Breakthrough Entertainment and Jam Filled Entertainment in association with Elliott Animation. The series premiered on September 18, 2011 and ended on March 3, 2013. 26 episodes were produced. The series was distributed worldwide by MTV.^[4][5]

Plot[edit]

The Wendell family was looking for an original holiday by caravan, but their trip ends sooner than expected when they crash into a canyon in Alberta, Canada, which they cannot escape from.^[6] Soon they find out there is a whole community of 29 or 30 survivors from previous crashes down there. Dollars are not accepted and they use golf tees as a currency.^[7]

Development[edit]

Crash Canyon premiered on September 18, 2011.^[8] Joel Cohen, a Canadian expatriate living in Los Angeles while writing for The Simpsons, explained that creating an animated Canadian show with fellow expatriates would allow to write "jokes only hosers would get".^[3] He recruited ex-Canadian writers Tim Long of The Simpsons and Chuck Tatham of How I Met Your Mother to write scripts for the series.^[3] Co-producer and story editor Greg Lawrence explained that they have tried not to put too much emphasis on the family trying to escape the canyon.^[3] "It's not Gilligan's Island where every episode is: 'This week we're getting off the island.' But we do keep the sentiment alive, so as you move through the series there are attempts to get out and all fail."^[3]

Cancellation[edit]

In 2013, Teletoon released a press statement to Bubbleblabber stating that the network will not be moving forward with a 3rd season of the series. "Unfortunately a 3rd season of Crash Canyon is not in our plans at this time."^[9] The show ended on March 3, 2013.^[10]

Characters[edit]

Wendells[edit]

• Norman "Norm" Wendell (voiced by Patrick McKenna): An extremely rational engineer, he never loses his temper and is arguably the sanest person in the Canyon. He has little social skills and often tries to solve his problems with science, only to fail. He is the head of the family.
• Sheila Wendell (voiced by Jennifer Irwin): Norm's wife, who is easily enraged but also a very loving and caring wife. She openly hates Vernon, Beverly and Angel.
• Roxanne "Roxy" Wendell (voiced by Bryn McAuley): An extremely self-centered and selfish and constantly teenage daughter. She complains about being stuck in the canyon. She does show occasional love for her family, but this is rare.
• Jacob "Jake" Wendell (voiced by Jo Vannicola): A 10-year-old scam artist and the family's son, who is obsessed with making money through scams, gambling and fraud. He respects his father more than his sister does. Is often seen along with Sid's children Sly and Butch.
• Vernon "Vern" Wendell (voiced by Patrick McKenna): An alcoholic, enormously overweight, and rides around on a mobility scooter. He lives in the family's van, and is mean, ill-tempered and stupid, making him one of the least liked inhabitants of the canyon. She is Norm's third cousin.

Butanes[edit]

Note: The entire hillbilly family speaks grammatical false English, and writes letters in false direction. Also, everyone of them is very dimwitted, bordering mental retardation.

• Sid (voiced by Dwayne Hill): Former British punk rocker. His main hit was a song called "I Wanna Punch A Rainbow", which can be heard in some episodes. He and his family ended up in the canyon after a plane crash.
• Emily (voiced by Jo Vannicola): Sid's wife. She is dimwitted, like the rest of her family, but seems to be more responsible to her children than her husband. She thinks French talking men are very romantic.
• Mace (voiced by Shoshana Sperling): The family's love-sick teenage daughter. She desperately looks for a boyfriend (even going so far as to date animals or create one in her mind). She is friends with Roxy and Pristine, but only Roxy can hold the three together.
• Sly (voiced by Gil Anderson) and Butch (voiced by Tarah Consoli): Perverse younger sons of the family. They have bad teeth and are extremely stupid, often endangering their lives because of it. They are friends (or rather, sidekicks) of Jake. They also seem to have an incestuous crush on their sister and each other; however, this can come from their dumbness.

Manderbelts[edit]

• Reginald (voiced by Martin Roach): Owner of Manderbelt Industries, husband of Beverly and father to Royce, Pristine and Vaughn. He is an arrogant, selfish and snobbish man who often boasts about his wealth. He and his family wanted to move with their home (literally), but ended up in the canyon.
• Beverly (voiced by Marium Carvell): The snobby matron of the family. She is as arrogant as her husband, and sometimes even more. She has a creepy crush on her son Royce, and she even bathes him.
  • Bjorn: The family's Norwegian servant, who never speaks. He has a very muscular build, and he does everything the family tell him to do, irrelevant of how bad or immoral it is.
  • Princess: The family's 2-legged, disabled cat.
• Royce (voiced by Dwayne Hill): The family's oldest son. Very handsome, he is Roxy's love interest until the 2nd season. Though not quite as nice as Pristine, Royce is somewhat affable by nature.
• Pristine (voiced by Jajube Mandiela): The family's middle child and only daughter who is also a friend of Roxy. Unlike her parents, Pristine is much less snobby and arrogant and rather kind and friendly towards the other inhabitants causing her to be regarded as ugly by the rest of her family, in spite of her actual prettiness.
• Vaughn: Youngest son and undefeated antagonist, he has anger issues. He does not say much aside from saying "I'm Vaughn". His parents do nothing to stop his aggressive behavior or discipline him.

Charbonneaus[edit]

• Angel (voiced by Teresa Pavlinek): Mother/daughter team who tours the junior beauty pageant circuit. They, like the Manderbelts, are very arrogant, and sometimes even more. Despite the fact that Angel is manipulating and mischievous, she loves her daughter dearly and is very maternal towards her.
• Brandi (voiced by Tara Strong): Ruthless girl very spoiled and unlike Roxy, she only cares about herself.
  • Stéphane (voiced by Peter Keleghan): Gay coach for Brandi's modelling. He acts like a stereotypical arrogant French man.

Other characters[edit]

• Sarah Forbes (voiced by Shoshana Sperling): A cheerleader who is the mayor of Crash Canyon and runs its school. She is always happy and never seems to lose her nerves.
• Nalappat Brajabashimayum (voiced by Anand Rajaram): An Indian-Canadian ventriloquist who treats his dummy like a living being. He runs the only bar in the canyon, serving a strange drink that he made himself.
• Frida Dominguez (voiced by Shoshana Sperling): A Latin-Canadian lady, she runs a restaurant with low hygiene standards. She is a very sexually active person and has an affair with Bjorn.
• Colton Steel and Private Lippy (voiced by Dwayne Hill): Astronauts who ended up in the canyon when their capsule landed there after re-entry. Colton is a very patriotic astronaut, while Lippy has a crush on Roxy. They both are best friends. He is the only one in the canyon with a US nationality.
• Earl: A biker thug who ended up in the canyon after a friend from his group punched him. He is very violent, but can be humorous sometimes. He has a large beard and red hair.
• Hiko: An elderly Japanese-Canadian man, he talks like a stereotypical, fast-talking Asian. Most people in the canyon seem to never get that he is Japanese, as many believe him to be Chinese, Taiwanese or of other Asian descent, which angers him.
• Mrs. Mcgurck and Bear: An abusive old lady who throws her insults and tortures at a brown bear (after she believed it ate her husband) and treats him like a slave. The bear takes it.
• Pete and Carol: (voiced by Dwayne Hill and Shoshana Sperling): Ambulance attendants, most of the time they act very amoral and irresponsible for their occupation. They make many jokes. They ended up in the canyon after Pete let go of the wheel and they went off the road.
• Coma Steve (voiced by Patrick McKenna): Pete and Carol's patient, whom they primarily treat as an object. It is shown that Coma Steve is still aware of what happens around him, and occasionally comments on it, but is unable to move. Before he fell into the canyon he had a perfect life (he was engaged, about to become a father, and won 50 million dollars), but while trying to save a kitten he dislocated his arm. When Pete and Carol drove him to the hospital, Pete got off of the road, falling into the canyon, causing Steve to fall into a coma.

One-time characters[edit]

• Russel Mcgurck: Husband to the aforementioned widow. He appears in "Moose on the Loose". It turns out that he and his wife ended up in the Canyon after he attempted to suicide because of the constant insults of his wife. When he wanted to eat some honey, he took off his clothes because they were full of it. Once he came back, the bear was chewing on his clothes. Russel took the chance to go into the woods and live there, but he is later found by Norm and Jake. After a failed moose hunt, the moose kicks him from a cliff, and they believe that he is dead; at the end of the episode, however, it turns out that he is still alive and hiding from his wife. It is unclear if he would join the other Canyonites if they ever find a way to escape.
• Cannonball Harris: He never actually appears in the series, Colton mentions him in the pilot episode. When trying to shoot himself out of the Canyon, he crashed on one of the canyon's walls and died. Due to this character, the fact that Sarah lives in a school bus and the presence of more vehicles than Canyonites, it is hinted that there were far more people who fell into the canyon, but they got lost or died.
• Bobby Joe (voiced by Patrick McKenna): Bobby Joe was a man who had a very bad life until he met the girl of his dreams Cathy, until he caught her cheating on him with a deceased man. Bobby Joe then had sex with a diseased primate, and caught the fatal Rametse virus, he then tried committing suicide by jumping into the canyon, after coming together as a community, the Canyonites throw Bobby Joe a proper funeral after he finally succumbs to death and is raped to death by Bear.
• Robin Banks: A bank robber in the 1800s, who hid in the canyon along with his two accomplices (a monkey and a donkey). He sealed off the canyon with an impenetrable door that could only be opened with a donkey hoof and a monkeys paw. Unfortunately, Banks never made it back out of the canyon as his leg got stuck in a fire ant hill, and his other leg was eaten by a python. He left his diaries behind in case someone else ever ended up in the canyon.

Episodes[edit]

The show consists of 2 seasons, with the 1st season consisting of 18 episodes and the 2nd season consisting of 8 episodes.^[11] The episode order of the show as aired on Teletoon in Canada^[12] differs from that of airings in other countries.^[13] In the United States, the first 13 episodes premiered on Nick at Nite in April 1, 2012, with the other 13 episodes premiering in September 1, 2013.

Season 1 (2011-12)[edit]

Season 2 (2013)[edit]

Telecast and home media[edit]

Crash Canyon first premiered on Teletoon's Teletoon at Night in Canada on September 18, 2011. The final episode aired on March 3, 2013. Internationally, the series was distributed by Viacom's MTV.^[14] In the United States, it aired on MAVTV.^[15]

The series is currently available on Tubi, Amazon Prime Video and Crackle. The entire series became available on Breakthrough Entertainment's YouTube channel in mid-2020.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Crash Canyon at IMDb
• Website
• Production website