Dexter's Laboratory

“I have understood my love for science can be compared with nothing as common and humane as what you wear mortals call love. What you call love is for me only an appetizer to the great three-course feast that is my life dedicated to the science of understanding.”

~ Dexter on SCIENCE!

Dexter's Mandark's Laboratory
Genre	Comedy, Science Ficton
Format	Cartoon
Created by	Genndy Tartakovsky
Written by	Seth "Family Guy" MacFarlane Butch Hartman
Voices of	Peter Lorre Paris Hilton Beverly D'Angelo Chevy Chase Robert Carradine
Ending theme	"Dexter's Laboratory" (end title), performed by Tom Jones
Composer(s)	John Williams
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	π (3.14 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Genndy Tartakovsky (1996–99) Chris Savino (2001–03)
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera
Broadcast
Original channel	Cartoon Network
Original airing	March 14, 1996 – April 18, 2003

Dexter's Laboratory is a '90s cartoon that ran on Cartoon Network, created by an obese Russian-American man named Genndy Tartakovsky. The series follows Dexter Mcphearson, (code name Red Ghost) a Russian boy-genius and inventor who builds weapons for his fearless soviet overlords to exercise control over the world. He is constantly locked in a battle of wits with Dee Dee, his stupid American sister who is almost smarter than he is, and Mandark, his nerdy neighbor and fellow-genius who laughs maniacally a lot and composes romantic poetry.

Tartakovsky pitched Dexter's Laboratory to help guide America through a nightmarish decade of neon colors, X-TREME, and Disney cutesiness with his unique Russian brand humor, after the embargo on Russian humor was lifted following the fall of the iron curtain and the Berlin wall. The series ran for two pretty good seasons, and was supposed to end there, but it was revived for two more seasons with a new production team. These newer episodes contained vomitous background art, characters being changed for no reason, and very little comedy.

Dexter's Laboratory became one of Cartoon Network's most popular original series, back when the network were still good. During its run, the series won three Einstein Awards, with nominations for four Edison Awards, four Tesla Awards, and nine Oscar Wildes. The series is notable for helping launch the careers of several cartoonists, such as Broadway Singing '80s Reference Guy and Angular Art Pop Culture Reference Screams a Lot Guy.

Premise

He looks smart, but he always messes up.

The series revolves around Dexter Mcphearson, a boy-genius, scientist, and inventor who possesses a secret laboratory hidden under his bed. In his lab, Dexter builds top-secret nuclear and chemical weapons for the Soviet military, so they can take over the world from his secret KGB safe house. Due to Dee Dee's clumsiness, his schemes almost always fail. Access to the lab is granted by doing the secret KGB handshake with Dexter.

Dexter attempts to keep his lab a secret from his parents who are named Mom and Dad, which is pointless considering they're common folk and too oblivious to notice anything. He is frequently in conflict with his annoying, ADD-inflicted older-despite-being-taller-than-him sister Dee Dee. Because of Dee Dee, nothing ever goes right for poor Dexter, and his dreams of winning the Nobel war prize are always being crushed or snatched from him at the last minute.

In some episodes of the show, there would be a middle segment centering around characters from the Dexter's Laboratory universe other than Dexter. These segments were titled Dial M for Monkey and The Justice Friends. Dial M features Dexter's pet lab monkey who received super powers from a super soldier serum, while Justice Friends is basically a college frat-boy version of The Avengers.

Episodes

A typical episode usually begins with Dexter launching a Nuclear thermal rocket, when Dee Dee comes in and ruins everything with her interpretive dancing about the environment, resulting in the creation of another artificial radiation belt with radioactive missile debris raining down from the upper atmosphere across several states. Luckily, Dexter uses his giant mecha to save the day. The End, right? No.

In actuality, 99% of the episodes end with the city getting destroyed. At this time, the mayor of town goes on vacation, right when the citizens vote to form an angry mob and railroad Dexter and his family out of town for the extensive property damage totaling in the billions.

Oh, and Dexter either gets killed, mutated, or mentally scarred for life, usually thanks to Dee Dee. Despite this, he somehow goes back to normal by the next episode.

Production

Dexter's Laboratory was created by a Russian man named Genndy Tarta...Tart...Tatakavsko...Tartausaygusyg...Tartakovsky (phew). Genndy was once a KGB agent, but immigrated to the United States after the Soviet Union collapsed and he ended up unemployed.

While at a restaurant, in a fit of nervous rage, Genndy a silly-looking genius on his napkin. While at home, he saw an advertisement for Cartoon Network, a network dedicated to showing cartoons 24/7 until your eyeballs explode. He sent his doodle in to the network, and they surprisingly decided to greenlit a show based on the silly genius. A success story if I ever heard one.

Johnny Test

Johnny Test a clone of a clone of Dexter's Lab. It features Johnny Torch Test, a fiery haired 11 year old who is a cool and x-treme, dude and kind of a ditz like Dee Dee. He has a talking dog who smells really bad and his two older twin sisters who are smart like Dexter. The two shows are as different as the two twins with their distinct: curly and straight hair, star and moon brooches, and round and square rimmed glasses.