Gravedale High


Gravedale High is an American animated series produced by H-B Productions Co. for NBC Productions. The series premiered in the fall of 1990 on NBC as part of its Saturday morning children's lineup and lasted thirteen episodes.
The show was developed as an animated vehicle for Moranis, building on his star appearances in the series of Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids film franchises.

Premise

The show revolves around the misadventures of human teacher Max Schneider who has unwittingly taken a job at Gravedale High, a school for monsters, near the city of Midtown. Schneider, the only human in the school, presides over a group of ghoulish teenagers that are latest-generation versions of classic movie monsters.
Most of Schneider's students are either disruptive, uninterested, and/or unduly self-preoccupied in school, and the class is generally considered disreputable if not uncontrollable, the implication being Schneider was hired to teach the class because no monster teacher would take the job.
The actual "town" of Gravedale is occasionally seen and consists primarily of various cemeteries including the Eastside Cemetery and the Midtown Mausoleum. It can thus arguably be considered a "suburb" of Midtown, although few humans seem to know of its existence. In addition to the students' homes, it is known to include a doctor's office and a literal body shop where people can purchase parts to assemble monsters. The existence of a charitable organization known as the United Monster Fund indicates Gravedale is part of an entire monster subculture.

Characters

Main characters

  • Maxwell Schneider - A human teacher with a very thin physique. Very much the grown up nerd and very proud of being a teacher who can make a difference. Dresses in a plain preppy business suit attire. He always wears a polka-dotted bow tie and thick dark horn-rimmed glasses, and he has wavy auburn hair and warm brown eyes. His personality is quirky but very steady ; he is friendly, fun, open-minded, and one of the hardest-working teachers on the Gravedale High staff. He often wears hats or wigs related to his lesson of the day. He would be just like one of the monsters if he was not human. A dedicated instructor who truly cares for each of his students.
  • Vinnie Stoker - A Fonz-esque version of Count Dracula. His name is an homage to Bram Stoker and the commonality in fiction of giving vampires names that begin with V. He dresses like a 1950s greaser and often arrives late to class, which stems more from his lack of interest in academia than nocturnal habits. This is source of much debate between Schneider and Vinnie, who spends a lot of his time keeping Vinnie's boots off his desk. Vinnie is lazy by nature, but will do "studious things" or hard work if it serves his best interest.
  • Frankentyke - A short Frankenstein teenager. His short stature is the antithesis of the classic image of a hulking, frightening monster. As seen in Night of the Living Dad, his father is a human scientist who evidently created him; he apparently has no mother.
  • Reggie Moonshroud - A red-haired werewolf, Reggie is prone to shedding a great deal when nervous, and may sometimes howl, but generally has his emotions under control. As a nod to Richie Cunningham from Happy Days, he and the Fonz-like Vinnie are best friends, which also embodies the antithesis of the classic monster movie genre, which often depicts werewolves and vampires as mortal enemies.
  • J.P. Ghastly III - A wealthy blue-skinned ghoul. Sid once referred to him as a "quirk," which, if taken literally, implies that he is one of a kind and, indeed, his monster classification is unidentified. There is a bit of rivalry between him and Vinnie.
  • Gill Waterman - A lagoon monster surfer. His name is a pun on both terms, and he overuses surfer lingo. Best friends with Frankentyke, Gill likes to surf, idolizes famed surfer Kahuna Bob, and has a voracious appetite. As seen in Night of the Living Dad, Gil's parents dress in attire associated with the aristocracy of the Southern United States, but Mr. Waterman shares his son's fondness for surfer lingo.
  • Cleofatra - An overweight teenage mummy in contrast to the emaciated appearance generally associated with mummies; she is best friends with Duzer. Her name is usually abbreviated as "Cleo." Best friends with Duzer. Cleofatra has a crush on TV monster celebrity Billy Headstone who is the star of the daytime soap opera "Trudy and the Beast".
  • Sid - A Invisible teenager. Sid is the class clown and does various impersonations. He draws attention to himself with his antics as opposed to going unnoticed. Oddly, like many cartoon anthropomorphic animals, Sid apparently does not wear pants, unless his pants are invisible, as the rest of his wardrobe is not. Sid's parents are also talented impersonators as seen in the episode "Night of the Living Dad."
  • Blanche - A French-accented zombie girl who loves to shop, a literal "mall zombie." Her name and personality comprise a pun on the verb form of "blanche" as a synonym for turning pale, 'carte blanche', and Blanche DuBois. Blanche frequently dates J.P., although it is implied she finds his money to be his most attractive asset. Blanche is a shopaholic who is frequently teased by her classmates about how many credit cards she has maxed out. She is a bit of a clothes horse. She does sew her own clothes and can cook, though she does not like domestic duties; her ambition being to marry the richest monster in the world. J.P.'s ambition, in turn, is to be the richest monster in the world.
  • Duzer - A medusa Valley girl minus the petrifying gaze; her hair includes three snakes who can act of their own accord, much to her irritation since, when in motion, they are strong enough to drag her along with them. She is best friends with Cleo, whom she often drags into various schemes, against Cleo's better judgment. Her response to anyone who annoys her is "Get a life!" which is ironic in that many Gravedale students and staff members are in fact already dead. She is pretty, vain, competitive, bossy, and likes to be the boys' center of attention, particularly that of Vinnie, who she seems to have an unrequited crush on. In the first episode, Duzer replies that she cannot do anything with her snake hair and Cleo offers to help her "get her hair ready for Vinnie." Duzer states that she does not have a crush on Vinnie Stoker. Frankentyke swipes her diary off her desk and reads out loud a passage about that reveals otherwise. Schneider enters the classroom just as Duzer gives chase and states that Frankentyke took her diary. Tyke throws the evidence out the window. Vinnie flies into the window with said diary and tries to read it before Duzer yells at him "If you read that, you're dead." Beyond this, there was no mention of Duzer and Vinnie's relationship in the series.

    Other students

Other recurring students include:
  • Alpha-Mae Centauri - A centaur.
  • Blobby - A student reminiscent of The Blob.
  • Busby - A human fly.
  • Elephant Boy - An elephantine parody of the Elephant Man |Elephant Man]. He speaks with Received Pronunciation. One of two students who campaigned vigorously for Class President.
  • Iggy - A hunchbacked student that resembles the archetypical "Igor" type of mad scientist assistant. Iggy has a zipper along the length of his scalp implying he is both hunchback and a Frankenstein-type monster. He tends to forget his brain and is often scolded by Headmistress Crone for this.
  • Moorehead - A Metaluna Mutant who is a student in Coach Cadaver's class.
  • Nardo - A gargoyle jock who is Vinnie's rival in sports. He is also a student in Coach Cadaver's class.
  • Natasha Neckinski - A vampire girl with a Russian accent, contrasting to the thoroughly Americanized Vinnie.
  • Rover - A werewolf who speaks in a manner similar to Scooby-Doo.
  • Seymour - A cyclops.
  • Suey - A porcine girl. Like Elephant Boy, she vigorously campaigned for Class President. The two performed a Romeo and Juliet-like recital at a talent show, suggesting they are dating.
There are also some unidentified students resembling the monsters from The Brain from Planet Arous, The Crawling Eye, and other films.

Teachers

The bespectacled Mr. Schneider has his hands full with his new students, but he has Gravedale's spooky staff to help him out. Like Schneider, each teacher oversees a specific class of students. Gravedale High's staff include:
  • Headmistress Crone - The strict principal who runs the school with an iron albeit easily-detachable left hand. As her name implies, she is a witch-like monster. Her grandfather Cretin Crone founded the school and later passed it on to his son Addlepate. She can be ruthless to trouble-making monsters and faculty who do not toe the line, but is generally an able administrator. Although Headmistress Crone considered herself taking a risk hiring a human teacher, she knows she made the right decision when Schneider disciplines the unruly "misfit" class and now works to give him support.
  • * Clawford - Headmistress' Crone's undead cat who is periodically seen hunting and being outwitted by a hunchbacked rat called Bella.
  • Boneyard - A lanky white-haired staff member dressed like an undertaker. He fills various roles at Gravedale High including bus driver, driver's ed teacher, and Gravedale Gazette printing press operator. He somewhat resembles the Tall Man from the Phantasm films and is a little reminiscent of Digby O'Dell from The Life of Riley.
  • Coach Cadaver - A strict hot-headed zombie who works as a gym teacher. He is categorized by Crone as a "human-hater." Coach Cadaver dislikes Schneider's students as well as Schneider himself. His nasty attitude is generally disliked, making him a pariah among the Gravedale faculty as opposed to Schenider's easygoing demeanor.
  • Miss Dirge - A teacher that resembles the Frankenstein |Bride of Frankenstein]. She shows mild romantic interest in Schneider, as she admits some monster women find human men attractive. Her name is a play on dirge or mournful funeral song.
  • Chef Sal Monella - A monster of unspecified variety who works as a chef in the school cafeteria. Sal takes pride in his filthy kitchen. His name is an obvious pun on salmonella.
  • Mr. Tutner - A mummy history teacher with bad breath who wears sunglasses, a coat, and a tie. Like Cleofatra, Mr. Tutner is pudgy, contrasting the typical association of mummies with sickliness and emaciation. He gets along well with Schneider and tries to compete for a charity fundraising award by attributing his long life to pyramid power as seen in "Monster Gumbo." He notes that, thanks to pyramid power, he " look a day over five thousand," implying he is significantly older than that.
  • Miss Webner - As the presence of the word "web" in her name suggests, she is a spider-woman, having six arms and two legs.

    Episodes

Cast