The first season of American animated television series The Angry Beavers was created by Mitchell Schauer. The season first aired on April 19, 1997 with the episodes "Born to Be Beavers" and "Up All Night" and ended on September 28, 1997 with the episodes "Bummer of Love" and "Food of the Clods."
Plot[]
The series revolves about Norbert and Daggett Beaver, two beaver brothers who have left their parents and home to become bachelors in the forest near the fictional town of Wayouttatown, Oregon. Their many adventures spark them to release their ugly sides very often, drawing in the name Angry Beavers.
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. (Schauer's employer at the time) 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 Angry Beavers was inspired from Schauer's early years in Oklahoma when he was homeless and often spotted beavers in a nearby river. 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.
There was often tension between Schauer and Nickelodeon, with the channel imposing seemingly arbitrary restrictions on the show's content. An example includes "Go Beavers!" where they rejected a scene that would have featured a blimp crashing into an audience of people, while a scene in the same episode featuring out of control zambonis that wipe into and supposedly kill a crowd of people didn't meet any objections.
Episodes[]
# | Title | Original air date |
---|---|---|
1 | Born to Be Beavers/Up All Night | April 19, 1997 |
One day in April 1996, two beaver brothers named Norbert and Daggett Beaver are kicked out of their parents' dam after their mother Rose gives birth to their little sisters Stacy and Chelsea and are forced to find a place of their own. However, this task proves difficult due to Norbert and Daggett's constant arguing, which is mostly due to Norbert’s laziness./The night after the brothers move into their new dam, Norbert and Daggett both get the idea to stay up all night just like they've always wanted. However, all throughout the course of the night the brothers get more and more sleepy and try their absolute hardest to stay up as long as they can.
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2 | A Dam Too Far/Long in the Teeth | April 27, 1997 |
After facing many problems trying to solve a flooding situation in the northwest, the government decides to hire Norbert and Daggett to dam up two rivers named The Big Happy and The Little Meanie, with Norbert being assigned the former and Daggett being assigned the latter. Little do they know, even more problems will arise when The Little Meanie actively tries messing with Daggett the entire time and preventing him from finishing the job./Norbert accidentally grows his front teeth to be long, clearly unaware of the danger of his teeth eventually impaling his brain. A fate all beavers suffer by growing their teeth, and a fate that Daggett tries to prevent Norbert from dealing with. However, Norbert ends up being praised for taking such a risk that he ends up being declared "The New Boss Rodent" by all the animals in the forest. Daggett tries ignoring his brother's popularity, but gets pushed to the edge after seeing Norbert getting lots of love and attention by his girlfriend named Treeflower, as Daggett tries to out-cool his brother by growing his teeth as well. | ||
3 | Gift Hoarse/Go Beavers! | May 4, 1997 |
It's Arbor Day, the Beaver equivalent to Christmas, and Norbert and Daggett are excited for the holiday season. Norbert is blessed with a gigantic train set for his present, while Daggett gets a measly pine tree air freshener. Norbert sees this present and offers his brother a gift trade out of kindness, but Daggett declines not wanting to show off his disappointment. All throughout the day, Daggett gets more and more jealous with his brother's trainset and ultimately decides to end his fun once and for all./Daggett and Norbert watch the twenty fourth annual game of Beaver Football as Daggett immediately has his bets on The Beavers, and becomes furious after they lose to the opposing team The Visitors. Daggett eventually decides to take action and make them win himself, with Norbert joining in as the referee. Norbert eventually convinces Daggett to just relax and not take the game too seriously, but after a physical altercation with The Visitors, Norbert and Daggett change their minds and make it their goal to take them down. | ||
4 | Box Top Beavers/Salmon Sez | May 11, 1997 |
After buying a whole isle's worth of cereal, Norbert and Daggett decide to try to collect as many box tops as they can to get some great toys. Norbert gets the better and higher-quality toys while Daggett is left with the crummy and cheaper toys, until eventually he sees a sweepstake for a Street Sweeper that he so desperately desires. However, after being repeatedly instructed by his brother about patience, Daggett eventually gets enraged at the fact that by the time he finishes collecting the coupons the Street Sweeper deal has already expired. Now it's up to Daggett and Norbert to get the Street Sweeper and take it for themselves./Norbert and Daggett are awoken one morning to the sound of lots upon lots of salmon crashing into their dam, with Daggett trying every opportunity he can to get rid of the salmon. After hearing that it's migrating season for the salmon, Daggett believes that the word "Spawn" is an acronym for "Smashing Property and Whomping Norb" and now has to find more ways to rid of the salmon. | ||
5 | Beach Beavers a Go-Go/Deranged Ranger | June 1, 1997 |
Refusing to spend another winter hibernating in their dam, Norbert and Daggett decide to head south for the winter in order to soak up the surf and the sun. However, Daggett's day doesn't go as smoothly as he had anticipated./Daggett is assigned as a park ranger and is permitted to make several mandates in order to improve the quality of the wilderness. However, when Daggett starts to go onto a power trip, Norbert must stop him before he destroys the entire forest. | ||
6 | Muscular Beaver/Fish and Dips | June 8, 1997 |
After Daggett had cosplayed as Muscular Beaver multiple times ever since the events of "Gift Hoarse," Norbert has been getting more and more annoyed with his antics and asks him to stop while Dag is in the middle of one of his superhero shenanigans. This prompts Dag to ditch his identity and make Muscular Beaver his new identity, making Norbert all the more aggravated with his brother./Daggett gets his tail bitten off by a very dangerous muskellunge named Old Gramps, while Norbert denies this and claims that Old Gramps is a sailor's story. Daggett goes out of his way to prove him wrong by taking his brother out on a boat trip in the pond and find Old Gramps, and every attempt failing. | ||
7 | Enter the Daggett/Bug-a-Boo | June 22, 1997 |
While Norbert and Daggett watch some karate movies with all their friends, Daggett claims that he could easily defeat a gang of ninjas while his arch nemesis, a shrew named Truckee, taunts him with a fight on the spot as Daggett becomes a big chicken and runs off back to the dam. Norbert tries reassuring his brother that it's perfectly natural for beavers to run and hide, but Daggett does not want to run and hide anymore and wants to be known as "The Silent Wind of Doom."/When a cricket sneaks into the dam, Daggett starts to lose his sanity as the cricket refuses to stop chirping. It's up to Norbert to save his brother by finding and removing the annoying insect, though he isn't even certain where he should start looking. | ||
8 | Mission to the Big, Hot, Thingy/I Dare You | June 29, 1997 |
Norbert and Daggett visit the space museum and are shocked to find out that there have been no recorded cases of beavers ever being in space, so they decide to change that by having the privilege of being the first ever beavers to travel the cosmos. After some scientists find out that they are in space, they decide to give Norbert and Daggett various tasks to complete during their time on the spaceship, which they both do successfully. However, what they don't realize is that this is a one way trip heading straight to the sun and they shall be incinerated by the sun's deadly heat and now it's up to Norbert and Daggett to escape the sun's gravitational pull before it's too late./One winter day Norbert dares Daggett to get some twigs that he thinks are tasty, but after trying them and claiming that they aren't actually tasty Daggett dares him right back. After Daggett ends up unleashing the "Infinity Times End of the World Numbooger Triple Spoot Secret Dare", both him and Norbert end up encountering the almighty Risk Keeper Beaver and are forced to obey his every dare with the threat of "kick me" signs and being labeled "chicken." | ||
9 | Stinky Toe/House Broken | July 13, 1997 |
Norbert ends up contracting Stinky Toe, a very horrible beaver-exclusive disease that makes the victim's toe swell up and become really foul smelling. When he says that he should live on a desert island where the world won't have to suffer his rancid odor, Daggett agrees to help his brother out and get rid of the disease himself. After trying multiple attempts to cure his brother, they all turn out unsuccessful with Norbert ending up going to his desert island himself. Daggett then encounters two scientists named Scientist Number One and Pete, who inform him that in the next 24 hours, they will be sending all the affected beavers into space on a rocket, giving Daggett even more motivation to save his brother./Sick and tired of fending for themselves, Norbert and Daggett sneak into a pet store and put themselves up for sale. When they get adopted by a super rich family who is perfect in nearly every way, they decide to make themselves comfortable as they've just hit the jackpot. However, things aren't as perfect for the beavers as they actually seem to be. | ||
10 | Tree's Company/Guess Who's Stumping to Dinner? | July 20, 1997 |
Norbert gets a very important package in the mail. A brand new Last Year's Model that took twelve months to arrive, making him all the more eager to set it up. Daggett wants to join in, but Norbert tells him repeatedly that he wants some alone time to finish the model causing Daggett to think he wants nothing to do with him and ends up leaving the dam. After Norbert finishes his model, he ends up finding Daggett having a big treetop blowout by himself, making Norbert feel lonely and ending up trying to convince his brother to come back./While Daggett prepares to watch a new horror movie with Norbert, he finds out that Norbert made a new friend named Stump (a stump that the brothers chewed down earlier that morning) and becomes jealous that it's taking his spot on the couch. Norbert tries to get his brother to try to be friends with Stump, but Daggett has a hard time trying to even pretend like he cares about Stump. | ||
11 | Fancy Prance/H2Whoa! | August 3, 1997 |
After lots of pestering by Daggett about his lifelong dream, Norbert finally spills the beans to his brother that he's always wanted to be a Lipizzaner Stallion (despite being a beaver) and tells him all about his fascination with the specific breed of horses. Coincidentally, a bus arrives heading from Oregon to Vienna, Austria as Norbert takes this as an opportunity to finally fulfil his dream as Daggett comes along to be his trainer. After they arrive in Austria, Norbert attempts to try out as a Lipizzaner and succeeds at first, but then fails the final test and is kicked out by the very demanding Sargent Gunter. Norbert thinks about giving up at first, but then is helped out by Daggett to get better through long vigorous hours upon days of training./On a hot summer's day, Norbert and Daggett's pond water gets randomly sucked up as the brothers struggle to stop it. However, soon after they find out that their water is actually being taken to a brand new waterpark called Fort Waterland, with Daggett being furious and Norbert genuinely enjoying the rides. After Daggett becomes convinced to enjoy the park, the brothers then decide to spice up the entire waterpark to fit their idea of fun. | ||
12 | The Bing That Wouldn't Leave/You Promised! | August 10, 1997 |
One day while looking for random stuff in the forest, Daggett makes friends with a tree lizard named Bing who he immediately gets along with and finds fascinating. After taking him home to hang out at him dam, Norbert at first has a hard time getting along with Bing due to him and Daggett's recklessness. That is, until Bing perfectly fixes a Redwood model that him and Daggett accidentally destroyed on him, and that's when Norbert starts to finally get along with Bing and realizes that he really is an amazing friend. However, three days go by and Norbert and Daggett end up getting sick of Bing's presence and now they have to try to ditch him./During a very competitive game of Suction Cup Enduro 500 (a game where one bikes all across the dam with suction cup bikes), Daggett ends up winning as Norbert attempts to con the prize from his brother by promising him to do anything he wants a year from them. Daggett ends up agreeing as life goes on like normal for the beavers over the next year. However, one year finally passes as Daggett reminds his brother of the promise, thus shocking Norbert. | ||
13 | Bummer of Love/Food of the Clods | September 28, 1997 |
In this somewhat prequel to "Long in the Teeth," Norbert and Daggett's dam is invaded by a rock concert and are both eventually evicted by the very muscular Security Guard after Daggett taunts him. Daggett orders Norbert to create a diversion to help them sneak back into their dam, however Norbert gets sidetracked by seeing his new love interest Treeflower. They both immediately fall in love with each other with Treeflower inviting Norbert to join her band The Friendly Chartreuse Bubblegum Machine, meanwhile Daggett tries every possible way he can to get their dam back./Norbert decides to fall asleep on the couch while watching scary movies, but doesn't realize that the spicy snacks that he ate just before would cause him to go into total hypnosis and start sleepwalking, thinking he is a character in the movies. Daggett tries confronting his brother about his strange newfound habit the following morning, with Norbert flat out denying it and claiming he doesn't sleepwalk. After a second attempt at staying up all night, Daggett ends up seeing his brother's sleepwalking happen in front of him and now it's up to him to defeat his maniac brother before he causes even more damage. |
Character Debuts[]
"Born to Be Beavers"[]
"Up All Night"[]
"Long in the Teeth"[]
"Gift Hoarse"[]
"Deranged Ranger"[]
"Enter the Daggett"[]
"Stinky Toe"[]
"Guess Who's Stumping to Dinner?"[]
"The Bing That Wouldn't Leave"[]
Trivia[]
- This season spanned five months and nine days, from April 19 to September 28, 1997.
- Despite this season airing in 1997, it takes place from April 18, 1996 to December 21, 1996.
- "Born to Be Beavers" and "Up All Night" take place exactly a year before they aired.
- "Food of the Clods" is the last episode of Season 1 to air, despite it not being the last one to take place.
- "I Dare You" is the last episode of Season 1 to take place, despite it not being the last one to air.
- ”You Promised” takes place in two different years. The first half of the episode takes place in 1996, while the second half takes place in 1997.
- This is the only season where the crew member's names don't have any puns in them during the end credits.
- This season started production in early or mid 1996 and finished production in late 1996 or early 1997.
- 1996 is also when most of this season takes place.
- In this season, the title cards all have “The Angry Beavers starring in:” at the very top of the screen. Starting with the following season, this was removed.