Dan Vs.


Dan Vs. is an American animated sitcom created by Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson for the cable channel The Hub. The series stars Curtis Armstrong as Dan. Dave Foley and Paget Brewster also star as Chris and Elise, respectively.
The series ran for three seasons from January 1, 2011, until March 9, 2013 with a total of 53 episodes produced. The series was produced by Film Roman and The Hatchery.

Plot

The show is about Dan, a jobless misanthrope with a soft spot for his cat, Mr. Mumbles, caught in odd misfortunes and unable to provide income for himself. Accompanying him is his better-off friend Chris, who lives in a comfortable home and has a steady income. His dull day-job and stressful work causes him to be unable to resist going along with Dan's wild plots to get even, despite how ridiculous they may seem. Even when Dan gets on his last nerve, he cannot abandon him, "knowing there is something worth saving in him". Both their friendship, stemming from a bad experience at summer camp, through high school these two, along with Chris' wife Elise, go after the things that make society even more unbearable than it already is. The third regular character is Elise, Chris's wife, who objects to Chris's participation in Dan's revenge quests, but, on occasion joins in due to some of Dan's plots sharing similarities with her childhood annoyances or her secret operative work for the government. Elise's character enables advanced help with some of Dan's revenge missions due to her skills and most of her missions act as a subplot in the show. The show is set primarily in the Los Angeles area, and background scenes often show notable landmarks in and around Los Angeles.

Characters

Main

  • Dan is the main protagonist of the series. He is a very temperamental young man with extreme anger issues. In every episode, he plots revenge against anyone or anything which has enraged him with the help of his best friend Chris.
  • Chris is Dan's best friend and Elise's husband. He often gets dragged into Dan's schemes as his semi-reluctant accomplice, much to his dismay.
  • Elise is Chris' more levelheaded wife, who strongly dislikes Dan due to his rude and immature personality. She is also a spy working for an unnamed "quasi-governmental" secret organization.

    Supporting

  • Mr. Mumbles is Dan's pet cat who is rescued in the episode "The Animal Shelter". Despite the name, Mr. Mumbles is actually female as it’s implied Dan never bothered to check.
  • Crunchy is a happy-go-lucky, dreadlock-wearing hippie who works at several jobs throughout the series. His workplaces are often the target of Dan’s hijinks.
  • Sheriff is a large, fat, tough police man who is seen every time Dan makes reports. Whenever Dan makes trouble, the sheriff uses a taser to shock him.
  • Don is Elise's father who runs a successful cupcake store chain and hates Chris, to the point of trying to convince Elise to marry another man by various means.
  • Elise Sr. is Elise's mother. She dislikes Chris, and she keeps her time and attention to an unspecified Mafia family, unbeknownst to her husband and daughter.
  • Ninja Dave is a former ninja of the Koshugi clan who swore never to bake cookies, thus had to steal them whenever he wanted to eat some and to destroy any rivals of his clan.
  • Spy Boss is the unnamed and unseen boss of Elise who sends her on different missions during specific episodes. It is revealed he is a former super model in the episode "The Common Cold".
  • Hortence is an airhead employee of the Burgerphile restaurant chain who falls for Dan after he begins a protest against the restaurant.
  • The Imposter is an unnamed man who steals Dan’s identity and impersonates him. He manipulates everyone around him and portrays himself as a "good neighbor" to steal Dan's life. He is later arrested for Dan’s failure to serve jury duty, and swears revenge. He later returns in "The Telemarketer" where he continually harasses Dan with phone calls, and eventually gets Dan arrested.
  • Ben is Elise's younger brother and Chris' brother-in-law who was mentioned in the episodes "Elise's Parents" and "The Family Camping Trip" and appears in "The Family Thanksgiving" and "The Dinosaur". He seems to show a lack of distrust in Chris and has grown fond of him.
  • Mechanic Mike is Dan's local mechanic who works on his car free of charge since he loves working on off-brand Filipino cars.

    Voice actors

Main cast

was chosen to voice the part of Dan from early production, as were Dave Foley and Paget Brewster who voice Chris and Elise, respectively.

Additional voices

The series employs many guest stars and recurring roles. Carlos Alazraqui portrays a balloon cult member in "New Mexico", both a surfer and a lifeguard in "The Beach", Maurice in "The Fancy Restaurant", Magnifico the Magnificent in "The Magician", and Flynn Goodhill in "Parents", among others. Matt Angel guest starred as a Burgerphile employee in "The Wedding". René Auberjonois is the voice of Chef Puree in "The Fancy Restaurant". Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter both play the voice of Elise's parents Don and Elise Sr.. Felicia Day voices the boss in her "titular episode". John DiMaggio plays the voice of a police officer in three episodes, Salvation Guy in “Salvation Armed Forces”, and a security guard in "baseball". Jenna Fischer voices Amber in "Anger Management". Judy Greer does the part of Jennifer in "The Neighbors". Seth Green does the voice of the mummy in his "titular episode". Ernie Hudson played the voice of the Camp Counselor in "Summer Camp".
Other guest stars include Clancy Brown, Mark Hamill, Tom Kenny, Bill Kopp, Kevin McDonald, John C. McGinley, Daran Norris, Carlos Alazraqui, Kurtwood Smith, Cree Summer, Harland Williams, and Henry Winkler for various parts.

Episodes

The series premiered on January 1, 2011, on The Hub, and ended its first season on July 9, 2011. The second season began on November 19, 2011, and ended on June 23, 2012. The third and final season premiered on November 17, 2012, and ended on March 9, 2013.

Season 1 (2011)

Season 2 (2011–12)

Season 3 (2012–13)

Production

Mandel's original idea was for the show to be a live-action sitcom, but new possibilities opened up once they started development for an animated series. The show was pitched to various networks, including Adult Swim.
Series creators Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson conceived the personalities of the main characters Dan and Chris by loosely basing them on their own negative qualities. He has stated that the show's self-mockery with the character Dan was in part inspired by the works of Evan Dorkin. Pearson once stated that he thought of the Dan character as "Calvin as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong somewhere."
The series is animated in Adobe Flash. The design for the characters was handled by a team of artists led by supervising director Matt Danner with some involvement from Mandel and Pearson. The vocal cast was selected through an audition first consisting of pre-recorded voice-overs, followed by several rounds of callbacks. Curtis Armstrong stood out prominently to the creators as the voice of Dan from the beginning of the process. The idea to have Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross portray Elise's parents Elise Sr. and Don came from executive producer Jay Fukuto, who had worked with them during their time together on Family Ties. Co-creator Dan Mandel does many voices in the series.

Cancellation

On October 17, 2013, Armstrong announced on his Facebook page that the show has been canceled. His statement read:

Broadcast and home media

Dan Vs. premiered on The Hub on January 1, 2011 with the final episode aired on March 9, 2013. After the series ended, reruns continued to air on the channel until October 3, 2014.
In March 2012, Starz and Anchor Bay Entertainment licensed the home video rights to the series in the United States and Canada. The entire first season was released on DVD on July 17, 2012. This is a 3-disc set, which contains all 22 episodes of the first season and includes an animatic of the episode "Burgerphile".
As of 2025, all 53 episodes of Dan Vs. are available for free on YouTube, Tubi, and The Roku Channel in the United States, as well as Crave via its Starz subscription in Canada. The series was added to Amazon Prime Video in December 2020 and has been on and off the platform since. In Australia, it is available on Network 10's streaming service 10 Play.

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResult
201239th Annie AwardsCharacter Design in a Television ProductionChris Battle
201239th Annie AwardsDirecting in a Television ProductionBrian Sheesley
201340th Daytime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Special Class Animated ProgramDan Angel, Dana Booton, Chris Pearson, Dan Mandel, Brian Sheesley, Lizbeth Velasco, Taesoo Kim, Producers
201340th Daytime [Creative Arts Emmy Awards]Daytime [Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program|Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program]Curtis Armstrong as Dan
201340th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing in an Animated ProgramBrian Sheesley, Stephanie Arnett, Ashley Lenz, James Krenzke and Hyeonsu ParkWon
201441st Daytime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Special Class Animated ProgramDan Angel, Dana Booton, Chris Pearson, Dan Mandel, Brian Sheesley, Taesoo Kim and Lizbeth VelascoNomitated
201441st Daytime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing in an Animated ProgramBrian Sheesley, Stephanie Arnett, James Krenzke, Ashley Lenz and Hyeonsu ParkNomitated