This Is Actually The Most Famous Show On Cartoon Network
There are few shows as important to a single medium as Dexter's Laboratory was for televised animation. This series was so much more than a manic piece of animation about an adolescent scientist. It was a breakthrough moment for a network and a creator who would go on to create works that literally reshaped the way people would view animation. This is a story of one experiment gone right and everything that came after.
In the beginning, Cartoon Network was a relatively unknown station that only aired reruns of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and not original content. Nevertheless, Dexter's Laboratory would be the first entirely animated block of original programming for the network. Luckily, the series was a massive success, validating the network's foray into animated programming and giving the channel a foundation to build upon. Cartoon Network had many iconic shows running simultaneously, and Dexter's Laboratory paved the way for all of them.
Dexter's Laboratory Is Cartoon Network's Most Popular And Successful Original Series
It can't be denied that the late '90s and early 2000s era of Cartoon Network had the best shows of all time. When Genndy Tartakovsky sat down to create Dexter's Laboratory, he didn't design Dexter; he drew Dee Dee, a tall dancer with an engorged head. And then, in an attempt to create her polar opposite, he drew a small block that became Dexter.
Children's animation had fallen into a bit of a rut in the early '90s, and formula had developed in an attempt to recreate the icons of the previous Hanna-Barbera generation. Nevertheless, Genndy created an icon by throwing the playbook out the window. In fact, Dexter, as one of Cartoon Network execs put it, was created to be an icon. He is short and a square, extremely simple in design. The spatial structure was limited to make him easier to animate with his giant glasses juxtaposing his stout frame.
Dexter is extremely idiosyncratic in design. His age is intentionally imperceptible. According to The New York Times Magazine, he was given an accent because, as Genndy put it, "all great scientists have accents." Most importantly, the way he is animated borrows from anime and Japanese influences melded together with classic Hanna-Barbera techniques. Dexter showed a team of very important people that creating an animated icon in the children's space was possible without following a template.
Who Worked On Dexter's Laboratory?
Ever wonder why Dexter's Laboratory is still remembered so fondly today? It's because it was phenomenal, and it was the start of the careers of people who define talent in the industry. Animator Craig McCracken was getting his right hand on the series. Then, he would create The Powerpuff Girls and later Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, where he takes the same idiosyncratic approach to character design and applies it to imaginary friends like Wilt and Eduardo.
Seth MacFarlane would get a big break in the industry writing and supporting Genndy's Dexter's Laboratory as well. MacFarlane later would become the man behind Family Guy. Dexter's Laboratory was one of the first shows that paved his eventual path to Peter and the Griffin baby. Butch Hartman would also write the storyboard for Dexter, a show in which he would learn a lot of the lessons that led to the creation of Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom, a show about a teenage boy who becomes half-ghost. The series was so popular that it remains relevant to this day, to the point that there's a fan theory that says that Danny Phantom was a trans character.
Until this day, viewers are still seeing the impact of Dexter's Laboratory like it's the case of Chris Savino, who would eventually create the Nickelodeon show The Loud House. The team that came up with Cartoon Network's first animated original show, most of which worked on their first big show for a bigger network, is very talented.
The team of Dexter's Laboratory would go on to define an entire generation of animation, and all of them at one point in time sat at the same table creating, writing, and animating the adventures of Dexter and Dee Dee. Most importantly, those adventures shape and mold the very adventured they'd create long after the story of Dexter ended.
Dexter's Laboratory Paved The Way For The '90s Animation Style
The other '90s animation was attempting to break a new kind of mold. The Hanna-Barbera era presented a style of animation and narrative that was primarily aimed at children, with very little concern for adult viewers. However, Dexter set out to assist in breaking the mold for animation that was layered. Dexter's Laboratory was created for viewers of all ages in mind. It just wasn't a simple children's show. As proof of it, the action scenes were built with purpose and nuance in a way that was extremely rare to see in western animation at the time. Dexter's Laboratory was an obvious labor of love. From its hand-drawn animation to the attention to detail, the show was unlike anything else on television.
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