The Angry Beavers


The Angry Beavers is an American animated sitcom created by Mitch Schauer for Nickelodeon and was the eighth nicktoon that aired on Nickelodeon. The series revolves around the zany hijinks of Norbert and Daggett Beaver, two young anthropomorphic North American beaver brothers who have moved out of their parents' home to become bachelors in the forest near the fictional Wayouttatown, Oregon. The series premiered in the United States on April 19, 1997, and ended its initial run on November 11, 2001.
Five additional episodes would not premiere in the United States on Nickelodeon during its initial run and would premiere in that country on Nicktoons in 2006, with the last episode airing on August 27. The complete series has also been released on DVD in Region 1 by Shout! Factory.
During its initial run, The Angry Beavers was nominated for five Annie Awards and three Daytime Emmy Awards, and the show had won one of both awards.

Characters

The Angry Beavers

  • Norbert Foster "Norb" Beaver is a light-yellow beaver, who is Daggett's older brother by four minutes. Articulate and well-read, Norbert is a highly opinionated beaver who acts as the voice of reason and straight man to his younger brother's insane ideas. Despite this, he is very lazy and patronizing towards Daggett. Norbert can be extremely and unjustifiably selfish at times, and tends to bully, insult, and take advantage of his brother, which usually backfires in some way but does not lead to any permanent consequences for him like it does for Daggett.
  • Daggett Doofus "Dag" Beaver is a brown beaver, and the younger brother of Norbert by four minutes. Energetic and childish, Daggett has a habit of over-the-top and sensitive emotions, as well as a self-defence mechanism of name-calling. Those things could very well have to do with how he is constantly treated badly. He seems to have a love-hate relationship with Norbert, helping and antagonizing him as his mood requires. He may or may not be aware that Norbert is abusing him. He has a telephone in the likeness of Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle. While usually seeming to be unintelligent, Daggett's intelligence can vary widely to meet an episode's needs from being somewhat dim-witted to even accomplishing impressive scientific feats.

    Supporting and recurring

  • Stump is a giant sequoia stump who is a close friend of Norbert and Daggett. He frequents many of the beavers' social events, forming an integral part of their inner friendship circle. He is apparently alive, although he is never seen doing anything on screen, and he does not talk, at least out loud. When Daggett first met Stump in the Season One episode "Guess Who's Stumping to Dinner?", he was jealous of him, but Stump brought Norbert and Daggett closer together, essentially by emotionally manipulating Daggett. In the Season Two episode "Stump Looks for His Roots", he journeys off in search of his real family. Norbert and Daggett almost ate Stump while they were in a cave in the Season Three episode "What's Eating You?"
  • Treeflower is a dark orange hippie beaver with many jobs outside the forest, who is also Norbert’s soft spoken girlfriend. Treeflower first met Norbert in "Bummer of Love", but her first appearance was in an earlier episode titled "Long in the Teeth" which takes place after they first met. She once dated Truckee the Shrew in the Season Two episode "Tree of Hearts", but since he only cares about his truck they broke up and her and Norbert have had romantic feelings for each other again ever since. Treeflower was also Muscular Beaver's sidekick, Goody Good Gal. Her careers include elevator songwriter, championship snowboarder, superhero and firefighter. As revealed by series creator Mitch Schauer, she and Norbert were in fact boyfriend and girlfriend during the events of the series and had gotten married and had two daughters, Lily and Petunia after the events of the series.
  • Bing is an annoying talkative lizard who hangs out with Norbert and Dagget. Bing went through a breakup in the Season Three episode "Tough Love". Norbert and Daggett also fought over him because he told all the other creatures that they were both constantly ditching him in another Season Three episode "Nice & Lonely". Bing has a tendency to talk fast. Bing is able to camouflage himself to blend with his surroundings like a chameleon but is able to lose and generate his tail like a skink or a gecko, proving that he is an unrealistic species. Bing has a girlfriend named Wanda.
  • Barry Bear is Norbert and Daggett's disco/funk-loving grizzly bear best friend, whose voice and personality is modeled on Barry White. Barry is a vegetarian despite being a bear. He once made a disco album after everybody got sick of Beaver Fever. In the Season Two episode "Un-Barry-Able", Barry felt awkward around Norbert because he was acting like Daggett. In the Season Three episode "Finger Lickin' Goofs", the beavers thought Barry was going to eat them.
  • Truckee is a truck-loving shrew, who Daggett hates immensely. He drives a big truck around called "Big Renee". In the Season Four episode "The Posei-Dam Adventure", Truckee once worked together with Daggett when a "volnado" threatened to destroy his dam. Though they escaped, he stole all of Norbert's stuff. He can be seen without his outfit on and is very volatile about the size of his ears, as revealed in the Season One episode "Enter the Daggett". He also has a minor crush on Treeflower, as shown in the Season Two episode "Tree of Hearts".
  • Big Rabbit is Norbert and Daggett's toughest friend. It is revealed that he sent a threatening note to them and set up a bodyguard business so they would be his friend in the Season Three premiere episode "My Bunnyguard". Norb and Dag eventually meet his family in the Season Four episode "Big Fun".
  • Wolffe D. Wolf is an easygoing gray wolf who is a close friend of Norbert and Daggett and is the opposite of the typical wolfish stereotype.
  • Chelsea Beaver is one of Norbert and Daggett's younger sisters and a female doppelgänger of Daggett. Chelsea is also manic and naive like Daggett.
  • Stacy Beaver is another of Norbert and Daggett's younger sisters and a female doppelgänger of Norbert. Stacy is also level-headed and sardonic like Norbert.
  • Leonard Beaver is the lazy and scruffy father of Norbert, Daggett, Chelsea, and Stacy. In the Season Three episode "A Little Dad'll Do You", he once stayed with Norbert and Daggett because their mother and sisters left to visit their grandmother. Leonard has a strange condition called the "poo spot". In the Season Three episode "Slap Happy", he also encourages Dag to slap his tail even though beavers are only supposed to use the slap for emergencies.
  • Rose Beaver is Norbert, Dagget, Chelsea, and Stacy's mother and Leonard's wife. She is a secret agent as well as a housewife.
  • High Princess is the leader of the female raccoon tribe and the beavers' nemesis who appears twice in the series. During her first appearance, she mistakes Daggett for a god because he had a knot hole on his head. However, Norbert and Daggett end up destroying the knot hole. She gets even with the beavers by having her tribe cook their dam over an open flame. During her second appearance, it was revealed that she was the one pranking Norb and Dag.
  • Bill Licking is a wig-wearing wildlife television host and Norbert and Daggett's influence and sometimes rival. In the Season Two episode "Kandid Kreatures", he had a contract with the beavers to make them look good but instead he humiliated them. The beavers got even with him by attacking him on his show.
  • Laverta Lutz is a big, careless Southern-accented magical woman who works in the bowing alley as a maintenance worker who always bumps into Daggett for making wishes for him. She helped Dag bowl better, helped him win arguments against Norb, and transported him to a world where Norb was an only child.
  • El Grapadura is the Mexican Luchador, Norbert and Daggett's favorite wrestling hero. His name translates in English as The Stapler.
  • Oxnard Montalvo is Norbert and Daggett's favorite B movie actor. Norbert and Daggett once helped him save the world from the monsters in his movies because they brought them to life by remembering his films. Scientist #1 managed to make him do his movies in color. Unlike most humans in the series, Oxnard, along with Toluca and Dr. Cowtiki, is drawn more realistically.
  • Toluca Lake is an actress who plays the damsel in distress in Oxnard's B-Movies.
  • Dr. Cowtiki is the other actor who played the scientist in the B-Movies with Oxnard and Toluca.
  • Scientist #1 is a mad scientist who laughs in an evil way as he does his job for science and is the main antagonist of the series and archenemy of Norbert and Daggett. Scientist #1 always mistakes the beavers for pointy weasels. His chest hair is literally in the shape of one and in one episode, it is revealed that he does not have eyes underneath his glasses, though in previous episodes he was shown with eyes. In the Season Three episode "I Am Not An Animal, I'm Scientist #1", he once accidentally transformed himself into a beaver and built a futuristic society.

    Production

Conception and development

The Angry Beavers was the brainchild of Mitch Schauer, and was co-developed by Keith Kaczorek. Prior to the series, Schauer was originally an assistant storyboard artist for other Nickelodeon shows, such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, and Hey Arnold!. Schauer also storyboarded 8 episodes of the 1992 Addams Family television series. During his time as producer of the Warner Bros. animated series Freakazoid! in 1995, Gunther-Wahl Productions Inc. requested three ideas for animated series, as the studio had the opportunity to pitch a show to Nickelodeon. One of the three ideas that Schauer presented was an early concept for The Angry Beavers. Schauer wasn't even present for the pitch meeting, his ideas being pitched for him by the production company instead. Of the three ideas, network producer Mary Harrington was intrigued by the Beavers. The initial concept of the show centered on two bad-tempered, politically incorrect beavers that hated anything that was a fad, cause, or just popular in the media. "I tend to develop things that are counterculture," stated Schauer. "I like to buck whatever is popular at the time or considered society's way of doing things, because you get more interest when you stand outside the box." Schauer was against making the beavers cute, as a response to many of the "soft, safe" character designs at the time. He also cited cartoons such as The Pink Panther, The Flintstones, and Rocky and Bullwinkle as primary influences for the show.
During production of the series, Schauer and the crew began to learn more about real world beavers and implemented their traits into the show's storylines, considering himself to have become a "beaver expert" by the end of its run. Traits adapted into the show include their endlessly growing incisors, tail slapping, and scent glands. During his time at Nickelodeon, Schauer gifted Harrington a personally signed log that was bitten by a beaver, though he later admitted in 2017 that he bit it himself.
Richard Steven Horvitz and Nick Bakay were chosen as voice actors for main beavers Daggett and Norbert, respectively. Gunther-Wahl held auditions for over 300 different actors, but Schauer settled on the two because they embodied the two beavers' characters perfectly, also being impressed by their chemistry upon being introduced to one another. He recalled the two frequently going off-script while recording, which he encouraged, considering their improvisation leading to some of the series' best moments. Schauer was influenced by classic Hollywood director Howard Hawks for the show's ad-libbing and overlapping of dialogue; a type of technique that would be used in similar animated shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Phineas and Ferb, and Family Guy.