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Dexter's Laboratory (TV series)

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Original Promo Poster for Dexter's Laboratory (1995)

Dexter's Laboratory is an Emmy award-winning American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios (also co-produced with Hanna-Barbera from 1996–1999). The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions. The series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on April 28, 1996; the last new episode premiered in 2003. Since 2006, Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang has also been airing the series.

The series initially debuted on the What A Cartoon! show as a cartoon short and later became the first of said program to be adapted into its own series. Each 22-minute episode consists of two to three segments (with the exception of the initial series finale). Dexter's Laboratory originally ended in 1998 after 52 episodes, but it was later revived for a TV movie, and, even later, 4 more seasons featuring a different production team, including Chris Savino , creator of the Loud House , taking over as creative director.

The show's logo.

As of March 30, 2012, the series has returned to Cartoon Network in re-runs on the revived block, Cartoon Planet . The series originally aired on YTV in Canada. On May 5, 2012, Dexter's Laboratory moved to Teletoon , airing Saturdays at 12:30PM ET, in favor of the launch of Cartoon Network .

• 1 Production
• 2 Opening Sequence and Premise
• 3.1 Dial M for Monkey
• 3.2 The Justice Friends
• 3.3 The Puppet Pals Show
• 3.4 Mini-Segments
• 4.1 Main Characters
• 4.2 Recurring Characters
• 6.1 Ego Trip
• 6.2 Music videos
• 6.3 Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip Hop Experiment
• 6.4 Video games
• 6.5 DVD Release
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Dexter's Laboratory was inspired by one of Genndy Tartakovsky's drawings of a ballerina. After drawing her tall and thin shape, he decided to pair her with a short and blocky opposite, Dexter. In 1991, he made his first "Dexter" short. On February 20 , 1995 , Dexter's Laboratory made its first run on the What a Cartoon! Show . In April 1996, the first season began airing. Directors and writers on the series included Genndy Tartakovsky, Rumen Petkov , Craig McCracken , Seth MacFarlane , Butch Hartman , Rob Renzetti , Paul Rudish , Mark O'Hare , John McIntyre and Chris Savino .

Dexter's Laboratory ended its initial run in 1998 , with the series finale being the episode "Last But Not Beast," but re-entered production in March 2001 . The new episodes, which ran for two more seasons, had a different production team than the originals, since Genndy Tartakovsky was busy working on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars . The second series featured new character and background designs, alternative storyline and character backgrounds, and different sound effects (which were mostly all classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects) and featured the transition from traditional cel animation to digital ink-and-paint. Also, Dexter's voice actress changed from Christine Cavanaugh to Candi Milo . Loud House creator Chris Savino was put in charge by Tartakovsky to take over the show in its last two seasons. Even though Tartakovsky approved of the change, and wanted Savino to put his own vision into the show, the run was met with mixed reviews, with many people calling it a disgrace to the series, while others enjoyed it as much as the original. The new character designs were done by Chris Battle, who not only worked on the first two seasons of the show, but was also known as a character designer for Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and the Powerpuff Girls . Much of the new creative crew included some people who worked on Samurai Jack , including Aaron Springer and the late Chris Reccardi .

In the United States, the show currently airs on Cartoon Network's sister, Boomerang, every night at 8pm (Eastern Standard Time). It aired on Cartoon Network on June 8, 2008 on the That's Nacho Chip Marathon on 12:30 P.M, and aired again on June 22, 2008 at 1:15pm during the You Big Baby Marathon .

Opening Sequence and Premise

Dexter standing in front of the unlit logo, from season 1.

The show opens with Dee Dee sneaking into Dexter's room and entering his lab through a chute hidden underneath a circular rug. She then prances into Dexter 's laboratory . Dexter is seen inventing a remote that Dee Dee snatches from him immediately after holding it over his head. Dexter pursues Dee Dee throughout the lab to get it back, but ends up crashing into a wall.

Dee Dee, however, finds herself at a dead end, and Dexter uses the remote to take it back from Dee Dee. He then stands in front of the unlit logo and presses the button on the remote to activate it, but nothing happens. As Dee Dee plugs it in, Dexter is greeted with a blinding flash of the logo as he falls to the floor.

The series revolves around a boy genius named Dexter, who has a secret laboratory filled with highly advanced equipment hidden behind a bookshelf in his bedroom. Access to this never-ending laboratory is achieved by speaking various passwords or by activating hidden switches on the bookcase (such as pulling out a specific book). Dexter is normally in conflict with his ditzy older sister, Dee Dee, who has an uncanny talent for gaining access to Dexter's lab despite his best efforts to keep her out. Dee Dee eludes all manner of security and, once inside, delights in playing in the lab, often destroying his inventions and creations. For reasons left unexplained, Dexter manages to keep the lab a secret from his clueless, cheerful parents, and in the beginning of the show, Dee Dee is the only other character to know about his lab. In several episodes, however, he is forced to reveal his lab to his parents, although such episodes always end with his parent's memories being wiped.

Dexter has an arch-nemesis, a boy named Susan "Mandark" Astronomonov. Often Mandark, through fraud or (rarely) by coincidence, attempts to take credit for Dexter's achievements. Mandark is also secretly in love with Dee Dee. In the later seasons, after the revamp, Mandark becomes significantly eviler, his laboratory dark-looking and spiky (instead of the bright, cartoony lab featuring a Death Star from earlier seasons) and his plans are more diabolical and nasty. It was shown in an episode that when Mandark was referred to as "Susan" Dexter mocked Mandark for looking like a girl and this sparked his hatred toward Dexter.

The show's humor derives in part from Dexter's essentially one-sided and intense rivalry with his sister (in which Dexter, although brilliant, never gets the upper hand) and from exaggerated stereotyping of his high intelligence and social awkwardness. Much absurd and surreal humour is used as well. Dexter also speaks with a Russian accent while his parents speak with distinctive American accents.

The show breaks the time-honored TV rule of returning the characters and situation to the status quo at the end of each episode; most episodes end in an unresolved state with no easy solution offered for returning the characters to normal; e.g. Dexter is a mutated mass of protoplasm , a large tentacled monster attacks the house, there are multiple clones of Dexter and Dee Dee running around, the entire lab self-destructs and is completely gone, Dexter destroys the lab and is later turned into a sandwich, etc. However, each episode always begins from the accepted "normal" premise of the program.

An hour-long special, Ego Trip , aired on Cartoon Network in 1999, in which Dexter travels through time and meets several of his future selves. Ego Trip was originally supposed to conclude the series, but two additional seasons followed.

Backup Segments

Two short segments ran in between episodes during 21-minute slots called " Dial M for Monkey " and " The Justice Friends ". These segments existed within the Dexter's Laboratory universe and main characters from either "show" appeared in actual episodes regularly. The episodes of the first half of Season 1 of the Dexter's Laboratory included the Dial M for Monkey segment in between two of the Dexter's Laboratory episodes. The last half of Season 1 included a Justice Friends segment in between the two Dexter's Laboratory episodes. Monkey often appeared in the Justice Friends segments and vice versa, teaming with his fellow superheroes.

Dial M for Monkey

The Dial M for Monkey shorts feature Dexter's lab monkey, Monkey (played by Frank Welker ), who (unknown to Dexter) has superpowers and fights evil with his partners. One episode, "Barbequor," caused a controversy and eventually led to that episode's banishment because of its portrayal of gay stereotypes. "Barbequor" was the second Dexter's Laboratory episode to be banned, first one being "Dexter Dodgeball." Monkey revealed his secret to Dexter in the all-star episode Last But Not Beast , only to erase his memories afterward. The segment's title derives from Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder . It may also reflect the DC Comics' backup feature " Dial H for Hero ."

The Justice Friends

The Justice Friends intro card.

Major Glory , Valhallen , and Krunk are all room mates who live in an apartment complex. Most of the adventures of the Justice Friends deal with the three trying to balance out their superhero adventures while just trying to keep their composure living in the house. They have also appeared on at least one episode of The Powerpuff Girls, thereby tying the "universes" of those two shows together. Most of these adventures play out like a sitcom along with a laugh track, used in a satirical manner. The segment's title likely derives from the DC Comics superhero organization The Justice League and its sanitized animated cartoon version, Super Friends. The three main characters are based on the Marvel Comics characters of Captain America, Thor, and Hulk. Valhallen's name comes from "Valhalla," the spiritual plane of Norse mythology (Valhallen frequently refers to himself as the "Viking God of Rock") and Eddie Van Halen.

Both of these segments crossed over into episodes of Dial M For Monkey . In addition to Agent Honeydew and Monkey, The three superheroes are seen in action along with additional superheroes, similar to the large amount of Justice League members in "Challenge of the Superfriends" .

The Puppet Pals Show

A TV series seen in the apartment of Major Glory, Valhallen, and Krunk called "The Puppet Pals Show" (or simply "TV Puppet Pals") is seen as a few small segments with live-action puppets. One of the cartoons featuring Dom DeLuise's character Koosalagoopagoop has an opening similar to the two main back up segments.

Mini-Segments

Mini-Segments are short segments of the show that will appear after some episodes. They will have short joke that is about a few seconds long that features Dexter and Dee Dee doing something funny.

Main Characters

Dexter - The Main Protagonist of the series. He is a boy genius who has a secret laboratory that he keeps a secret from his parents. He is always working in his laboratory making a new invention and going on wild adventures every time he makes a cereation.

Dee Dee - Dexter's high-spirited ditzy older sister who is always breaking into his laboratory and destroying all of his inventions. She is always messing up his inventions and ruining his plans. Dee Dee enjoys doing frilly girly things and she is also a ballerina.

Mandark - Dexter's worst enemy. He is also a boy genius with his own secret laboratory. Mandark is jealous of Dexter for being smarter than him and they are always getting into fights.

Mom - Dexter's Mother. Dexter is usually running into trouble with keeping his laboratory a secret from her and he always has to create diversions and think of plans to keep her away from finding out.

Dad - Dexter's happy-go-lucky father who is always loking on the bright side of things. His stupidity is what keeps him oblivious to Dexter's Laboratory.

Recurring Characters

Douglas E. Mordecai III - Dexter's best friend. He is a nerd just like him who shares the same interests as he does. The two of them do nerdy things together. They will also go on adventures and will usually have struggles along the way and will try to get their way out of trouble. Douglas and Dexter are often times getting bullied because they are nerds and sometimes they prove to the bullies that they are really cool.

Koosalagoopagoop - Koosalagoopagoop also known as Koosy or Koss is Dee Dee's imaginary friend who is a stupid and annoying rainbow happy imaginary dragon who lives in an imaginary land called Koosland . Dee Dee is sometimes going to Koosland and playing around with him in there going on adventures of her own. Sometimes, she brings him out into the real world and he annoys Dexter. Dee Dee kepps Koosalagoopagoop a secret from her parents the same way Dexter does with his laboratory.

Lee Lee and Mee Mee - Dee Dee's two best friends who are almost exactly like her. They go to the same dance class as her and are always playing with her and doing girly things. Sometimes, Lee Lee and Mee Mee tend to be as dumb as Dee Dee and they annoy Dexter by coming into his lab too, but other times, they seem to be smarter than Dee Dee.

Oceabird and Windbear - Oceanbird and Windbear are Mandark's Mom and Dad. The two of them are stereotypical hippies who do not understand Mandark's craving for evil and science or even his love for Dee Dee. They are always making Mandark do hippie rituals along which annoys him and alot of the time, gets in the way of his plans to destroy Dexter.

Main Article: List of Episodes

Ego Trip is an Annie Award -winning one-hour animated television special spawned from the Cartoon Network animated television series Dexter's Laboratory , produced by Hanna-Barbera (now Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network, and aired in 1999.

Music videos

see also|Groovies Four music videos were made in 2002 and had occasional airings between shows on Cartoon Network. One was a mock-anime video sung by They Might Be Giants called Dee Dee and Dexter .

The other three were rap songs which were released on a compilation album:

• Back to the Lab (by Prince Paul) A pop art video highlighting the walkway sequence of a stern Dexter, marching presumably back to his lab. The video consisted of various clips and animation derived from the series' later seasons.
• Secrets (by will.i.am): will.i.am singing/rapping within a color-tinged record studio, with Dexter bumping his head and mixing up beats on a turntable in the background.
• Dexter (What's His Name) (by Coolio): A pseudo "live" performance, essentially Coolio freestyle-rapping beside Dexter on an animated stage before a large cheering crowd composed of a host of Cartoon Network characters.

Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip Hop Experiment

Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip Hop Experiment , a complintation album featuring songs by various hip hop artists inspired by the series, was released on August 20, 2002. The track listing for the CD are as follows:

• " Dexter's Laboratory Opening Theme"
• "Secrets" - will.i.am
• "Dexter (What's His Name?)" - Coolio
• "Love According to Dexter" - Phife Dawg, introducing Slick E. Rose
• "Sibling Rivalries" - De La Soul
• "Mandark's Plan" - YZ
• "Back to the Lab" - Prince Paul

Video games

Four games were released to tie in with the series, Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage for the Game Boy Color, Dexter's Laboratory: Chess Challenge and Dexter's Laboratory: Deesaster Strikes! , both of which were released for the Game Boy Advance, and Dexter's Laboratory: Mandark's Laboratory? for the Sony Playstation all developed and produced by the now defunct [1] publisher BAM! Entertainment.

DVD Release

Note : No US or UK release has yet been announced. -

• ↑ Cartoon Network on DVD - Dexter's Laboratory Season 1 (2 Disc Set)
• ↑ Cartoon Network on DVD - Dexter's Laboratory Season 2 Part 1 (2 Disc Set)

External links

• imdb title|id=0115157|title=Dexter's Laboratory
• http://www.toonopedia.com/dexter.htm Dexter's Laboratory at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Hanna-Barbera_Studios/D-F/Dexter_s_Laboratory/index.html Dexter's Laboratory at the Big Cartoon Database

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• 1960s American Science Fiction
• 1960s American Animated TV Shows
• American Science Fiction
• American Animated TV Shows
• Animated TV Shows
• Traditional Animation
• Science Fiction
• 1968 Premieres
• Science Fiction TV Shows
• 1960s Science Fiction TV Shows

Fantastic Voyage

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Fantastic Voyage  is an animated TV series based on the 1966 film directed by Richard Fleicher. The series consists of 17 episodes each running 30 minutes. It was run on ABC-TV from September 14, 1968 to January 4, 1969. The series was produced by Filmation Associates in association with 20th Century Fox.

• 1 Opening Narrative
• 3 Characters
• 5 Producton
• 6 Broadcast History

Opening Narrative [ ]

Headquarters: CMDF, Combined Miniature Defense Force. Project: Fantastic Voyage. Process: Miniaturization. Authority: Top Secret, highest clearance. Team: Jonathan Kidd, Commander. Guru, master of mysterious powers. Erica Lane, doctor/biologist. Busby Birdwell, scientist/inventor, builder of the Voyager. Mission: In their miniaturized form, to combat the unseen, unsuspected enemies of freedom. Time Limit: 12 hours.

Overview [ ]

Fantastic Voyage is the story of the C.M.D.F. (Combined Miniature Defense Force), a secret United States government organization which possessed the ability to reduce people to microscopic size.

The main characters were Commander Jonathan Kidd; biologist Erica Lane; scientist Busby Birdwell; and a "master of mysterious powers" known as Guru. The team is reduced in size—for 12 hours only—and travel around in a microscopic flying submarine, the Voyager, doing battle against the unseen, unsuspecting enemies of the free world (both criminal and germinal matter).

Characters [ ]

Busby Birdwell

Jonathan Kidd

Episodes [ ]

• "Gathering of the Team" – September 14, 1968
• "The Menace from Space" – September 21, 1968
• "The Magic Crystal of Kabala" – September 28, 1968
• "The Atomic Invaders" – October 5, 1968
• "The Master Spy" – October 12, 1968
• "The Mind of the Master" – October 19, 1968
• "Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" – October 26, 1968
• "The Day the Food Disappeared" – November 2, 1968
• "Revenge of the Spy" – November 9, 1968
• "The Hobby House" – November 16, 1968
• "The Spy Satellite" – November 23, 1968
• "First Men on the Moon" – November 30, 1968
• "The Great Busby" – December 7, 1968
• "The Barnacle Bombs" – December 14, 1968
• "The Perfect Crime" – December 21, 1968
• "The World's Fair Affair" – December 28, 1968
• "The Most Dangerous Game" – January 4, 1969

Producton [ ]

The series was produced by Lou Scheimer, and Norm Prescott. Hal Sutherland was the director. Music was provided by Gordon Zahler.

Broadcast History [ ]

ABC-TV (September 14, 1968 to January 4, 1969)

Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy)

Sources [ ]

• 2 Amby & Dexter
• 3 Eric W. Schwarts

Dexter’s Laboratory

Dexter’s Laboratory is an American animated television series that was created by Genndy Tartakovsky. The series premiered on Cartoon Network on April 28, 1996, and ran for four seasons until November 20, 2003.

The show follows the adventures of Dexter, a boy genius who has a secret laboratory hidden behind a bookcase in his bedroom. Dexter is constantly creating new inventions and conducting experiments in his lab, often to the chagrin of his sister Dee Dee, who frequently interrupts his work.

Throughout the series, Dexter faces a variety of challenges and enemies, including his arch-nemesis Mandark, his own clones, and even his own inventions gone awry. Despite these challenges, Dexter always manages to come out on top, thanks to his intelligence, ingenuity, and the help of his loyal robot assistant, a.k.a. “Computer.”

Dexter’s Laboratory is known for its unique animation style, which features bold, angular designs and vibrant colors. The show has also been praised for its clever writing and witty humor, as well as its strong emphasis on science and technology.

The Big Sister

Old Man Dexter

Dimwit Dexter

DeeDeemensional

Maternal Combat

Dexter Dodgeball

Dexter’s Assistant

Dexter’s Rival

Double Trouble

Jurassic Pooch

Orgon Grindor

Dee Dee’s Room

Star Spangled Sidekicks

TV Super Pals

Babysitter Blues

Valhallen’s Room

Dream Machine

Dollhouse Drama

Krunk’s Date

The Big Cheese

Way of the Dee Dee

Say Uncle Sam

Tribe Called Girl

Dexter’s Debt

Inflata Dee Dee

Can’t Nap

Beard to Be Feared

Quackor the Fowl

Mom and Jerry

Chubby Cheese

That Crazy Robot

D & DD

Hamhocks and Armlocks

Hunger Strikes

The Koos Is Loose

Morning Stretch

Dee Dee Locks and the Ness Monster

Book ‘Em

Sister’s Got a Brand New Bag

Shoo, Shoe Gnomes

Lab of the Lost

Fantastic Boyage

Filet of Soul

Golden Diskette

Figure Not Included

Ewww That’s Growth

Nuclear Confusion

Germ Warfare

A Hard Day’s Day

Ocean Commotion

The Bus Boy

Things That Go Bonk in the Night

Ol’ McDexter

Sassy Come Home

Photo Finish

Star Check Unconventional

Dexter Is Dirty

Ice Cream Scream

Decode of Honor

World’s Greatest Mom

Ultrajerk 2000

Techno Turtle

Got Your Goat

Dee Dee Be Deep

Down in the Dumps

Unfortunate Cookie

The Muffin King

Picture Day

Now That’s a Stretch

Dexter Detention

Don’t Be a Baby

G.I.R.L. Squad

Sports a Poppin

Koosalagoopagoop

Project Dee Dee

Dee Dee’s Tail

No Power Trip

The Laughing

Dexter’s Lab: A Story

Coupon for Craziness

Better Off Wet

Critical Gas

Let’s Save the World You Jerk!

Average Joe

Rushmore Rumble

A Boy and His Bug

You Vegetabelieve It!

Aye Aye Eyes

Dee Dee and the Man

Don’t Be a Hero

My Favorite Martian

Paper Route Bout

The Old Switcharooms

Trick or Treehouse

Accent You Hate

Catch of the Day

Dad Is Disturbed

That’s Using Your Head

Just an Old-Fashioned Lab Song…

Repairanoid

Backwards (Sdrawkcab)

The Continuum of Cartoon Fools

Sun, Surf, and Science

Gooey Aliens That Control Your Mind

Misplaced in Space

Dee Dee’s Rival

Pslyghtly Psycho

Game for a Game

Blackfoot and Slim

Trapped with a Vengeance

The Parrot Trap

Dexter and Computress Get Mandark!

Pain in the Mouth

Dexter vs. Santa’s Claws

Last But Not Beast

Streaky Clean

A Dad Cartoon

Sole Brother

Mind Over Chatter

A Quackor Cartoon

Copping an Aptitude

A Failed Lab Experiment

The Grand-Daddy of All Inventions

Poppa Wheely

A Mom Cartoon

The Mock Side of the Moon

If Memory Serves

A Mandark Cartoon

Tele Trauma

A Boy Named Sue

Lab on the Run

A Dee Dee Cartoon

Would You Like That in the Can

That Magic Moment

A Silent Cartoon

Opposites Attract

Comic Relief

A Third Dad Cartoon

Robo-Dexo 3000

Glove at First Sight

A Mom & Dad Cartoon

Smells Like Victory

Oh, Brother

Another Dad Cartoon

Jeepers, Creepers, Where Is Peepers

Go, dexter family go.

Scare Tactics

My Dad Vs. Your Dad

Remember Me?

Over-Labbing

Sis-Tem Error

Bad Cable Manners

Dexter’s Library

The Scrying Game

Monstrosi-Dee Dee

Dad Man Walking

Dexter’s Little Dilemma

Faux Chapeau

Stuffed Animal House

School Girl Crushed

Father Knows Least

Dexter the Barbarian

Babe Sitter

Mountain Mandark

2Geniuses 2Gether 4Ever

Height Unseen

Bygone Errors

Folly Calls

The Blonde Leading the Blonde

Comic Stripper

Dexter’s Wacky Races

The Lab of Tomorrow

Chicken Scratch

Garage Sale

They Got Chops

Poetic Injustice

Comedy of Feathers

Search SFE    Search EoF

  Omit cross-reference entries  

Dexter's Laboratory

Entry updated 16 August 2021. Tagged: TV.

US animated tv series ( 1996-2003 ). Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Created by Genndy Tartakovsky . Directors include Robert Alvarez, John McIntyre, Rob Renzetti, Chris Savino and Genndy Tartakovsky. Writers include Walt Dohrn, Zeke Kamm, Seth MacFarlane, Cindy Morrow, Jason Butler Rote, Michael Ryan, Chris Savino and Genndy Tartakovsky. Voice cast includes Christine Cavanaugh, Kathryn Cressida, Eddie Deezen, Candi Milo and Alison Moore. 78 22-minute episodes, usually with three segments, plus a Television movie. Colour.

Boy genius Dexter (Cavanaugh/Milo) works in his vast Underground laboratory producing wonders of advanced science and Technology , including Teleportation , Cloning , Time Travel , Invisibility , interdimensional portals, Antimatter and Spaceships . Adopting a loose eastern-European accent, in the belief that is how Scientists talk, he works from his parents' suburban home; they are oblivious, but his older sister, the chaotic but balletic Dee Dee (Cressida/Moore), presser of buttons, is not; his attempts to keep her out of his laboratory fail and her cheerful (but perhaps tinged with malice) interference is the bane of his life. Little is said about how Dexter acquired the laboratory, but we do learn that he owes NASA $200m.

Adventures include Dexter building a Robot assistant that declares him obsolete ("... and all obsolete materials must be destroyed"); a journey to Mars ; Time Distortion ; a nod to Fantastic Voyage ( 1966 ) with Dexter undergoing Miniaturization and being injected into a dog; an attempt to move the Moon that has it crashing into the Earth; various interactions with Aliens ; a giant Dee Dee (see Great and Small ); age acceleration; everyone but Dexter and Dee Dee turned into babies; and being trapped inside a Videogame .

Though the first two series are fairly straightforward, some stories show the experimental touch that Tartakovsky would display in his next series, Samurai Jack ( 2001-2004 ; 2017 ): Dexter's journey into Dee Dee's room to retrieve a stolen bread slicer evokes Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness (February-April 1899 Blackwood's Magazine ; 1925 ); we also get Dexter's life story in operatic form; his visit to Japan as an exchange student becomes an Anime tribute, with Kaiju and Mecha . In a story never shown on television, Dexter and Dee Dee are split into their good and bad selves; the latter express themselves coarsely, with much bleeping of expletives.

The first two seasons also had occasional non-Dexter segments: Dial M for Monkey , about a Superhero monkey known as Monkey, and Justice Friends , about three flat-sharing superheroes. A television movie, Ego Trip ( 1999 ), intended as the series finale, had Dexter travelling to the future – firstly to where his rival Mandark (Deezen) has built a Dystopia , then onward to a Utopia built by himself, then journeying to the intervening period to see how Mandark was overthrown. Thanks to the show's continued popularity it was brought back in 2001 for two more (forgettable) seasons: by then Tartakovsky had other commitments and was no longer involved, save for two stories at the end of the final season.

As Cartoon Network's first original animated show, Dexter's Laboratory 's initial two seasons were well received by viewers and critics, the eccentric Humour and oddity influencing many later series. Though characterization is one-note and the series suffers the innovator's unhappy fate of looking dated after others have taken up their baton, it is often amusing and there are many scenes that still impress. [SP]

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How Dexter's Laboratory changed American cartoons by looking to live-action movies and anime

Despite lots of nostalgic highlights, American animation during the '70s and '80s was mostly driven by a desire to sell toys rather than by creativity. That started to change in the '90s when Nickelodeon began making creator-driven shows. The medium's next "eureka moment" came shortly after, when Cartoon Network began making original cartoons of its own rather than simply rerunning old classics. It was a little show called Dexter's Laboratory that made the network into an animation powerhouse. 

In 1995, under the leadership of Fred Seibert, Cartoon Network launched What a Cartoon! , a series of animated shorts that essentially served as an incubator for creator-driven cartoons. The first of these shorts to get a greenlight and become a full series was Dexter's Lab , a show about a boy genius named Dexter and his sister Dee Dee who always wrecks his experiments, created by Genndy Tartakovsky , a newcomer with only four years of experience doing animation for projects such as Batman: The Animated Series . The show, a result of a mishmash of influences ranging from Sergio Leone and Sam Raimi, to Tex Avery cartoons and anime, marked the start of a new era for Saturday Morning cartoons.

For Dexter’s Lab ’s 25th anniversary, SYFY WIRE spoke with creator Genndy Tartakovsky, as well as animators and writers Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti, and Butch Hartman, to unpack what made the series so special.

Right from the start, the idea of being fully in charge of a show, with free creative reins, allowed Tartakovsky to finally do everything he was never allowed to do by producers. "I worked as a storyboard artist on 2 Stupid Dogs , and everything I did in storyboards, the producer hated," Tartakovsky tells SYFY WIRE. "And it's obviously frustrating. We're all creative people trying to find our voice." Getting the green light on Dexter's Lab was a test of sorts for Tartakovsky, who wanted to see if the wild ideas he had boiling in his mind had any merit. 

These wild ideas were the result of a melting pot of influences not limited to animation. Writer and director Craig McCracken, who joined the Dexter's Lab crew from the beginning, recalls the early '90s as a time where an animator couldn't count on ever being able to make their own show, and even those who did weren't guaranteed to last very long. For McCracken, seeing John Kricfalusi get fired from Ren and Stimpy , a show he created for Nickelodeon, was a sort of wake-up call. "We better put everything we've ever wanted to put into a cartoon in these episodes," McCracken says. "Giant robots? Yes. Superheroes? Yes. Crazy science-based stuff? Yes. We didn't know if we'd ever get another chance to make something like this." 

Dexter's Lab had all those things, and more. Unlike things like Animaniacs , however, which focused on throwing as many homages and parodies at the audience as possible, Dexter actually had a unique style of visual storytelling that blended its many influences, rather than just copying them. Episodes consisted of three 7-minute segments (though sometimes they'd be two 11-minute segments), so there's limited time to tell stories. The task, then, was to pack as much story as possible into these Quibi-sized chunks of animation. "Whatever we could do to not have dialogue and tell more story, we did," McCracken says. The show would constantly use fast editing to quickly cut from one scene to the next, skipping transitions and just focus on the visual impact and symbolism.

Tartakovsky and his fellow creators found inspiration for their wildly creative children’s cartoon in some not exactly kid-friendly places. Among other notable filmmakers, both Sam Raimi  and the Coen brothers — who are adept at telling a story without saying much — influenced the look and tone of Dexter's Lab , to the point where segments like "Dexter Dodgeball" directly quoted Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 2.

Dexter’s Lab did more than just drop Evil Dead Easter eggs, though. Rami, in particular, was a huge influence on the show’s visual style. The cartoon relied on visual gags to tell stories with as little dialogue as possible. A particular sequence that became a sort of visual mantra for the show was the robot hand-sequence from Army of Darkness , which McCracken recalls Tartakovsky as being obsessed with replicating. "He applied that sequence to the show all the time, especially when Dexter was building stuff," McCracken explains.

The sequence barely shows Ash building the hand, but instead shows the bare minimum of movement and tool-handling, then zooms in on an iconic symbolic visual like a hammer being grabbed, a peasant being surprised, or a screw being turned. Having a strong and rhythmic element in the foreground before shifting focus to the background was a way for Dexter's Lab to be efficient, production-wise, while also offering iconic symbolic visuals in the simplest of ways. 

Butch Hartman, who started doing backgrounds for the show before moving on to do storyboards on many episodes, says the show was so focused on the visuals that the storyboards served as scripts.

"Rather than write a script and then hand it in to a storyboard artist, they'd give you a short premise and tell you to storyboard the entire thing," Hartman tells us. "They once told me, 'Dexter and Dee Dee go into an anthill, and Dexter has a new invention called the ant pants,' and that's it. The story is dictated by the visuals."

Take that dodgeball episode, for instance. In just seven minutes we get a very simple setup: a substitute gym teacher forces Dexter to participate in dodgeball, which goes horribly wrong. Most of the dialogue is just the laughter and mockery of three kids who are constantly bombarding Dexter with balls. The camera focuses on the impact of the balls hitting Dexter, and barely shows them moving towards him, except for an extended sequence where three balls chase Dexter across the entire school like it's the Trench Run scene in Star Wars .

And just like George Lucas when he made Star Wars , Tartakovsky was heavily influenced by Spaghetti Western maestro, Sergio Leone. Similar to the Coen brothers and Raimi, Leone employs visual storytelling in a way that feels minimalistic yet still packs a whole lot of story, mostly through his use of silence. Leone would often draw out a scene to emphasize its emotional impact, so Dexter's Lab followed suit.

One of the best examples on the show is the newspaper ninja duel in "Paper Route Bout," which has minimal dialogue, and instead focuses on visuals and sound, a true duel between competing warriors taken straight out of a Leone Western or an Akira Kurosawa samurai movie. The editing in the segment even speeds up or slows down depending on the emotion, cutting rapidly between the ninja's faces and closing in on their newspapers, then cutting away to the broken windows they leave behind, to wide shots of the destroyed neighborhood, and drawing out the quiet scenes where our ronin or cowboy (Dee Dee) is living a quiet life before getting involved in the conflict. The segment is very simplistic and to the point, which makes the action and jokes land harder.

"When you're working for kids' television, the instinct is to overexplain and overshow," Tartakovsky says. "But once you get experience you realize that you can do half as much and still be as impactful. You can rely on music and visuals and take your time." The goal with Dexter , then, was to be snappy like the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the '60s or classic UPA (United Productions of America) cartoons. The show would use limited animation to emphasize the movement that the audience actually sees, rather than the constant and relentless movement of Animaniacs or Tiny Toons . 

"A lot of cartoons at the time would have flat animation," director and animator Rob Renzetti explains. Other cartoons in the era seemingly had movement for the sake of movement, as the number one goal was to keep kid's eyes glued to the screen. "But if all of a sudden, after a bombastic sequence there's a moment of silence and nothing happens, you get instantly drawn into the show, because something's changed."

Dexter's Lab was more than just rote replications of unexpected influences. The series translated those influences and created something new. Though Dexter’s Lab might still use entire segments to pay homage to a show or movie — like a Poltergeist or Speed Racer segment — the animators would mostly strive for a feeling rather than an exact replication of what had come before. McCracken says he often found himself disappointed when rewatching some of the shows he watched as a kid, because they were not as exciting as he remembered them being. "I said, 'We should make the cartoons we thought were made when we were kids,'" McCracken explains. "We wrote that down and put it on Genndy's door. We thought it was better to not actually reference the stuff, but just the memory and the feelings of it." 

"If I'm watching something, whether it's animated or live-action or whatever, and I get a feeling from it, I want to duplicate that feeling to the audience," Tartakovsky adds. "Because I feel like that's when the director is successful, when you can communicate those ideas."

Unlike other cartoons of the early '90s like Ren and Stimpy or Rugrats , which were overly expressive and detailed, Dexter's Lab took a page out of UPA cartoons from the 1950s. UPA, the studio behind the Mr. Magoo shorts, among other things, was known for its stylized or simplistic designs, a big departure from the ultra-realistic animation style from Disney at the time. Dexter and Dee Dee are simple enough that any kid watching could replicate the drawings themselves, yet they still had a unique design that made the show distinct from any other cartoon. The cartoonish style fit with the cartoonish plots and physics in the show, making the audience believe in this animated world so unlike our own, yet still recognizable because of the characters.

Many later cartoons in the ‘90s would adopt a similarly simplistic style as Dexter’s Lab , including Hartman’s own cartoon . "When I started making Fairly OddParents , I took cues from what Genndy did in terms of simplifying the designs and using bold colors and simple shapes," Hartman says. It's easy to see the bold departure from the ultra-detailed Ren and Stimpy to the clean and plain shapes in Dexter , and how many Cartoon Network shows would continue to look this way for years to come, from Johnny Bravo  to Total Drama . 

In addition to being a deliberate and effective creative decision, Dexter’s Lab’ s simplicity had another practical effect. After seeing productions like Ren and Stimpy go over budget due to its detailed animation, and having its showrunner fired, McCracken and the team wanted to go in the opposite direction. "A lot of people call it limited animation, but Genndy's preferred term was 'controlled animation,'" McCracken says, referring to the practice popularized by UPA in the '50s, which would emphasize character close-ups and camera movements in order to avoid animating every single movement. 

Though animators at UPA originally intended for this practice to be an artistic choice, Hanna-Barbera Productions adopted it as a cost-cutting measure, which persists to this day. "The idea was that you're only animating precisely what you need to, but what you are animating, you're doing so really well. The other stuff you can just hold still, or pan the camera to get away with not fully animating it," McCracken adds. Though the use of controlled animation came as a result of having to easily relay information and orders to the animators abroad who couldn't physically be there to discuss the making of the show, it quickly evolved into a style that's recognizable in everything Tartakovsky does, and much of what his former co-workers animate as well, including later series like  Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and  Primal .

Though McCracken and Renzetti refuse to take credit for Dexter's Lab influencing modern cartoons, it's not hard to see a change in the way animated shows are made today as compared to then. Whether it's looking at live-action for cinematic techniques, or anime for its longform storytelling, or simply being able to use silence and cost-effective limited animation to make each moment stand out, an entire TV network's worth of cartoons may not be here now if it wasn't for a group of young animators looking to shake things up. 

• Cartoon Network
• Genndy Tartakovsky

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Dexter's Laboratory

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This show has a wiki of its own: Dexter's Laboratory Wiki .

Dexter's Laboratory Intro

Dexter's Laboratory Intro

Dexter's Laboratory (commonly abbreviated as Dexter's Lab ) is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky , creator of Samurai Jack , for Cartoon Network , it is the first Cartoon Cartoon. The series follows Dexter, a boy-genius with a secret laboratory filled with his inventions. He constantly battles his sister Dee Dee, who always gains access despite his best efforts to keep her out, as well as his arch-rival and neighbor, Mandark. The series' first two seasons contain additional segments: Dial M for Monkey , which focuses on Dexter's pet lab-monkey-turned-superhero, and The Justice Friends , about a trio of superheroes who share an apartment.

Tartakovsky first pitched the series to Hanna-Barbera 's animated shorts showcase World Premiere Toons , basing it on student films he produced while attending the California Institute of the Arts. A pilot aired on Cartoon Network in February 1995, and in August viewer approval ratings convinced the network to order a half-hour series, which premiered on April 28, 1996. By 1999, 52 episodes and a television movie had been produced, and Tartakovsky then left the series to begin work on his other projects, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars . In 2001, the network revived the series under a different production team at Cartoon Network Studios , and after 26 more episodes, the series ended on November 20, 2003.

Dexter's Laboratory received high ratings and became one of Cartoon Network's most popular and successful original series. During its run, the series was nominated for 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, 4 Golden Reel Awards, and 9 Annie Awards, winning 3 additional Annie Awards. The series is notable for helping launch the careers of several cartoonists, such as Craig McCracken ( The Powerpuff Girls , Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , and Wander Over Yonder ), Seth MacFarlane ( Family Guy , American Dad! , and The Cleveland Show ), Butch Hartman ( The Fairly OddParents , Danny Phantom , T.U.F.F. Puppy , and Bunsen Is a Beast ), Rob Renzetti ( My Life as a Teenage Robot ), Chris Savino ( The Loud House ), and Cody Taylor ( Colorforce ). Spin-off media include comic books, DVD and VHS releases, music albums, collectible toys, and video games. It ended up being the second longest-running Cartoon Cartoon, right behind Ed, Edd n Eddy (which ran for 10 years on Cartoon Network). The revival, on the other hand, was a critical failure over the original series.

In December 2021, it made a one-time return for the holidays.

In August 2023, the series, along with Ed, Edd n Eddy , Courage the Cowardly Dog and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy aired reruns on Adult Swim as part their new " Checkered Past " throwback block regarding some of the show’s adult themes that were featured in the 1990s.

• 1 Production
• 2.1 Main Characters
• 2.2 Secondary
• 4 Show Premise
• 5.1 Dial M for Monkey
• 5.2 The Justice Friends
• 6 Series Overview
• 8 Later regards
• 9 Home media
• 10 Video games
• 11 Music releases
• 12 Appearances in other projects
• 13 In other languages
• 14 Broadcast history
• 17 References

Production [ ]

Dexter's Laboratory was inspired by one of Genndy Tartakovsky's drawings of a ballerina . After drawing her tall and thin shape, he decided to pair her with a short and blocky opposite, Dexter. In 1991, Tartakovsky made his first "Dexter" short. On February 20, 1995 , Dexter's Laboratory made its first run on What a Cartoon! Show . In March 1996, the first season began airing. Directors and writers on the series included Genndy Tartakovsky , Rumen Petkov, Craig McCracken, Seth MacFarlane, Butch Hartman, Cody Taylor, Rob Renzetti, Paul Rudish , Mark O'Hare, John McIntyre and Chris Savino .

Dexter's Laboratory ended its initial run in 1999 , with the series finale being the episode "Last But Not Beast", but re-entered production in 2001 . The new episodes, which ran for two more seasons, had a different production team than the originals, since Genndy Tartakovsky was busy working on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars . The second series featured new character and background designs, alternative storyline and character backgrounds, and different sound effects (which were mostly all classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects). Also, Dexter's voice actress changed from Christine Cavanaugh to Candi Milo. Some changes and restrictions were made for the revival, including the reduction of age disparity -based storylines.

On November 18, 2001, Cartoon Network aired the 12-hour "Dexter Goes Global" marathon in 96 countries and 12 languages. The marathon featured fan-selected episodes of Dexter's Laboratory and culminated with the premiere of the first two episodes of season 3. On January 16, 2006, the series began airing in reruns on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang ; the occasion was marked by a 12-hour Martin Luther King Jr. Day marathon.

The show was rerun on Cartoon Network during weekday mornings from November 8, 2010 until March 4, 2011. On March 30, 2012, the series returned to Cartoon Network in the United States in reruns on the revived block, Cartoon Planet . The Canadian version of Cartoon Network airs reruns as well, with the series being featured on the channel's launch on July 4, 2012. The launch was commemorated by parent network Teletoon, which aired Cartoon Network-related programming blocks and promotions in the weeks leading up to the event, including episodes of Dexter's Laboratory.

On January 22, 2013, Adult Swim uploaded the never-aired episode "Rude Removal". It has since disappeared from Youtube.

Characters [ ]

Main characters [ ].

• Dexter's mom
• Dexter's dad
• Susan "Mandark" Astronomov
• Quadraplex T-3000 Computer

Secondary [ ]

• Douglas E. Mordecai III
• Philips Luzinsky
• Koosalagoopagoop
• Mee Mee and Lee Lee
• Olga "Lalavava" Astronomov
• Christine Canavaugh as Dexter (Seasons 1 and 2)
• Allison Moore as Dee Dee (Season 1 only)
• Candi Milo as Dexter (Seasons 3 and 4)
• Jeff Bennett as Dexter's Dad
• Kat Cressida as Dee Dee (Season 2 only)
• Kath Soucie as Dexter's Mom, Agent Honeydew, and Quadraplex T-3000 Computer
• Allison Moore as Dee Dee (Season 3 only)
• Eddie Deezen as Mandark
• Frank Welker as Monkey and The Infraggable Krunk
• Rob Paulsen as Mayor Glory
• Tom Kenny as Valhallen
• Dom DeLuise as Koosalagoopagoop

Show Premise [ ]

The series revolves around a boy genius named Dexter who has a secret laboratory filled with highly advanced equipment that is hidden behind a bookshelf in his bedroom. Access to this seemingly endless laboratory is achieved by speaking various passwords or by activating hidden switches hidden on the bookcase (such as pulling out a specific book). Another mean of lab access is a retinal scanner. Dexter is normally in conflict with his ditzy older sister Dee Dee who has an uncanny talent for gaining access to Dexter's lab despite his best efforts to keep her out. Dee Dee eludes all manner of lab security and once inside, delights in playing in the lab, often destroying many of Dexter's inventions and creations. For reasons left unexplained, Dexter still manages to keep his lab a secret from his clueless, cheerful parents. In the beginning of the series Dee Dee is the only other character who knows about his lab, in several episodes however, he is forced to reveal the lab to his parents, although all of these episodes end with all of his parents' memories being wiped. Dexter also has an arch-nemesis, another boy genius named Susan "Mandark" Astronomonov. Mandark often competes with Dexter and tries to outdo him any chance he gets, examples of this include: a school science fair, a soapbox derby, etc. Mandark is also secretly in love with Dee Dee.

Recurring Segments [ ]

Episodes from the first two seasons of Dexter's Laboratory were usually divided into three segments, with each segment being a separate Dexter's Laboratory cartoon. Occasionally, the middle segment centered around characters from the Dexter's Laboratory universe other than Dexter and his family. Two of these segments were shown, primarily during the first season: "Dial M for Monkey" and "The Justice Friends". Dial M for Monkey appeared in the first half of the first season, while The Justice Friends appeared in the second half of the first season. The Dial M for Monkey characters sometimes appear in the Justice Friends segments and vice versa, though Dexter and Dee Dee only appear in the Dial M for Monkey segments.

Mini-segments were played during the first two seasons between the main three segments, which involve Dexter and Dee Dee in various scenarios. There were also several live-action segments featuring "The Puppet Pals", a TV show sometimes seen in the main segments. "The Puppet Pals" are two puppets named Puppet Pal Mitch (voiced by Rob Paulsen) and Puppet Pal Clem (voiced by Tom Kenny), presumably parodies of Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street . These segments involve Puppet Pal Clem telling Puppet Pal Mitch a joke, with the punchline being a pun on the word "bonk". Puppet Pal Mitch would then bonk Puppet Pal Clem on the head with a foam-padded stick.

Dial M for Monkey [ ]

A segment that airs between two Dexter's Laboratory segments during the first half of the first season. in the segment Dexter's pet lab monkey (voiced by Frank Welker), who was given superpowers through Dexter's experiments (unbeknownst to Dexter), fights crime as a masked superhero. Monkey is joined by his partner Agent Honeydew (voiced by Kath Soucie), the Commander General (voiced originally by Robert Ridgely and later Earl Boen), and sometimes "The Justice Friends". This is a spoof of DC's comic book Dial H for Hero.

• Monkey - Dexter's lab monkey whom he often experiments on, trying to give hime superpowers. Unbeknownst to Dexter his experiments were successful and Monkey takes on the superhero persona of "Monkey".
• Agent Honeydew - Monkey's sidekick and girlfriend, who can ask Monkey for help with her telepathic abilities. She has short black hair with curly bangs and wears a blue S.H.I.E.L.D.-style jumpsuit.
• Commander - parody of Marvel Comics' Nick Fury. He is the head of Global Security whose main duty is to monitor the Earth for any signs of danger. He is never seen outside of a TV monitor, even when at a barbeque in the episode "Barbequor".

The Justice Friends [ ]

A segment that airs between two Dexter's Laboratory segments during the second half of the first season and two episodes of the second season.

The Justice Friends consists of Major Glory, The Infraggable Krunk, and Valhallen, who are all roommates living in an apartment complex called "Muscular Arms". Most of the adventures of The Justice Friends deal with the three trying to balance out their superhero adventures while just trying to keep their composure while living together in the apartment. Most of these adventures play out like a sitcom along with a laugh track, used in a satirical manner. The name derives from the Justice League and the Super Friends , although they are more a parody of the Avengers.

• Major Glory - parody of Captain America with some traits of Superman. Nephew of Uncle Sam.
• Infraggable Krunk - parody of the Incredible Hulk. Color is reversed of Hulk. Krunk is kinder than Hulk, but still speaks in poor English: "You want Krunk smash?" He calls Major Glory "Flagman", similar to Hulk referring to Iron Man as "Metal Man".
• Valhallen - combination of Valhalla and Van Halen. A parody of Thor. Has hard rock/heavy metal powers. Has a "surfer dude" personality.
• White Tiger - parody of Black Panther
• Tiki Torch - parody of Human Torch
• Capital G - parody of Giant Man
• Living Bullet - parody of Iron Man
• Sam-R-I - parody of Silver Samurai
• Phan Tone - parody of the Vision
• Miss Spell - parody of the Scarlet Witch

Series Overview [ ]

Episodes [ ].

Dexter's Laboratory broadcast 78 half-hour episodes over 4 seasons during its 7-year run. Two pilot shorts were produced for World Premiere Toons that aired in 1995 and 1996 and were subsequently fused into the series' first season. Fifty-two episodes were produced over the original run from 1996 to 1998, which was followed by the TV movie Ego Trip in 1999.

An additional 26 episodes were produced and broadcast from 2001 to 2003. The short "Chicken Scratch" debuted theatrically with The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002 and was later broadcast as a segment in the series' fourth and final season.

Later regards [ ]

Scene from episode "Dee Dee and the Man", one of the many first two seasons episodes heavily subjected to age disparity before restrictions being settled for the 2001 revival.

Dexter's Laboratory is one of the few known cartoons produced in the 1990s that included the use of adult humor and themes, including that by use of a child character. Dexter is apparently the victim to this matter as one episode, "911" from season 2, shows the titular character delivering a baby from a woman going through labor in a taxi. Before the restrictions settled for the 2001 revival, several of the episodes gave Dexter some risqué plot points including subjects to the young boy pursuing scantily clad older women, one of them is a buxom high schooler, which was produced at the time of including sexist stereotypes in children’s cartoons. One episode, "Dexter Detention" also from season 2, shows an attractive teacher developing a crush on Dexter and talks in a suggestive manner. Neither of the women stayed in the show. These are no longer used in today’s programs due to modern sensibilities since the 2010s owing to the concerns regarding physical child abuse as some of the pre-2010s media, like the famous 2006 French film Arthur and the Minimoys for example, are victims to the matter of showcased age disparity . These issues were apparently few of the reasons the show was included on Adult Swim 's Checkered Past .

Home media [ ]

A VHS release, Greatest Adventures, was released in 2001.

The first season of Dexter's Laboratory was released on DVD in the United States on October 12th, 2010.

Dexter's Laboratory used to be available on Netflix along with other Cartoon Network shows from March 2013 to March 2015. The series was later available on Hulu from May 1, 2015 to May 2018.

All 4 seasons of the series, with the exceptions of Ego Trip and the controversial "Rude Removal", are available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon Prime, as for Ego Trip, it was available on Amazon Prime itself from December 30th, 2022 to December 30th, 2023.

A complete series DVD set known as Collected Experiments was released in Australia in 2017. It even included the TV movie, Ego Trip.

The series was available on HBO Max from May 27, 2020 to May 10, 2023.

Video games [ ]

Dexter's Laboratory was spawned into six video games:

• Robot Rampage for GameBoy Color (2000)
• Deesaster Strikes! for GameBoy Advance (2001)
• Science Ain't Fair for PC (2001)
• Chess Challenge for GameBoy Advance (2002)
• Mandark's Lab? for PlayStation (2002)
• Security Alert! for mobile phones (2007)

Dexter, Dee Dee, Mom, Dad, and Mandark were playable characters in the 2006 video game, Cartoon Network Racing. Mom and Dad were exclusive to the Playstation 2 version, while Dexter, Dee Dee, and Mandark are playable in both Nintendo DS and Playstation 2 versions.

Dexter and Monkey were playable characters in Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion for Nintendo 3DS, Dee Dee and Mandark appeared as assist characters, Mayor Glory and Valhallen were featured in the XL version (Wii, PS3, X360), they were also assist characters like Dee Dee and Mandark.

Dexter, Dee Dee, Mandark, Dexter's computer, and Major Glory were featured as NPCS in the MMO online game, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.

Dexter appeared as a boardwalk customer in the 2018 mobile game, Cartoon Network: Match Land, he later became a playable character in the 1.2.0. update, the update itself also features Dee Dee as a boardwalk customer.

Music releases [ ]

A snapshot of the Dee Dee and Dexter music video produced by Klasky Csupo.

Dexter's Laboratory has spawned two music soundtrack albums: The Musical Time Machine , which was released by Atlantic Records on May 19, 1998, and The Hip-Hop Experiment , which was released by the Kid Rhino and Atlantic Records dual label on August 20, 2002. The Hip-Hop Experiment concurrently released with three hip hop music videos for the tracks "Back to the Lab" by Prince Paul, "Dexter (What's His Name?)" by Coolio, and "Secrets" by will.i.am. A fourth music video featuring Japanese-style animation was released by They Might Be Giants for the song "Dee Dee and Dexter", which was produced by Klasky Csupo , the animation studio known for producing Nickelodeon's Rugrats , Aaahh!!! Real Monsters , The Wild Thornberrys , Rocket Power , and As Told by Ginger animated series. Upon Cartoon Network's request for the artist to write an original song for Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip-Hop Experiment , rapper Coolio, who provided the track "Dexter (What's His Name?)", stated, "I didn't really know what I wanted to do at first, but I knew I wanted it to be positive and lively." Three Dexter's Laboratory tracks are featured on Cartoon Network's 1999 compilation album Cartoon Medley .

Appearances in other projects [ ]

Dexter made a non speaking role as an elderly man in the I Am Weasel episode, I Am My Lifetime.

Dexter, Dee Dee, and Monkey made appearances as a toys in The Powerpuff Girls episode, Ploys R' Us. Dexter also made cameos in the episodes, Powerpuff Bluff, Uh Oh Dynamo, Criss Cross Crisis, Him Diddle Riddle, and Forced Kin. Dexter's Dad also made a cameo in the episode, Beat Your Greens.

Dexter appeared in the Time Squad final episode, Orphan Substitute.

A Dexter balloon appeared in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode, Operation U.N.C.O.O.L.

A cardboard cutout of Dexter (facing backwards) appeared in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy special, Billy and Mandy Moon the Moon, which aired as part of Cartoon Network Invaded.

Dexter, Dee Dee, and Mandark made brief cameo appearances in Codename: Kids Next Door and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy crossover special, The Grim Adventures of the KND, where the three of them were seen popping out of the Delightful Reaper. Mandark later appears during the end credits along with Jake Spidermonkey with a mini-crossover of My Gym Partner's a Monkey titled My Gym Partner's a Mandark.

In the Steven Universe episode, Say Uncle, Dexter and Dee Dee's names appeared on Uncle Grandpa's list.

Dexter and Dee Dee appeared as cameos in a segment of the Uncle Grandpa episode, Pizza Eve, along with characters from current and ended Cartoon Network shows.

A Dexter's Laboratory skit was featured in an episode of the Adult Swim series, Robot Chicken .

Dexter made a cameo in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode, Crossover Nexus , where he appears as one of Ben Tennyson's transformations to defeat Strike. Monkey also appeared both as stone and one of Ben Tennyson's transformations. A Dexter's Laboratory poster was also seen.

In the Craig of the Creek episode, Kelsey the Elder, Barry, a character, mentions the series.

Dee Dee was featured in the Adult Swim short, Come and Learn with Pibby .

The series was acknowledged in Cartoon Network’s 30th Anniversary video in October 2022.

Dexter and Dee Dee appeared in the Teen Titans Go! special, Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary.

In other languages [ ]

Broadcast history [ ].

• Cartoon Network (original run: 1996-2003; re-runs: 2003-2008, 2010-2011, 2012-2014, 2021, 2022)
• Boomerang (re-runs: 2006-2015, 2016-2017, 2018-2019, 2020-2021)
• Adult Swim (re-runs: 2023-present)

Gallery [ ]

• In the 2001 revival, many aspects of the main villain Mandark were retconned, including his full name (replaced that of Susan) and his little sister (which in question only appeared in one episode of the original series as Mandark is portrayed as an only child of Hippie parents in the revival).
• Dee Dee had two friends, Lee Lee and Mimi in the original run. In the revival, they are strangely absent.
• The show's first season is the only season to be released on DVD in the US, while Seasons 2-4 are only on streaming and digital purchases.
• On April 2023, creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, confirmed that he has no interest in revisiting Dexter's Laboratory, due to Christine Cavanaugh (the woman who voiced Dexter in the first two seasons) passing away back in 2014.
• Candi Milo, who replaced Cavanaugh for the 2001 revival, was declined to repeat this by Cartoon Network’s respect.

References [ ]

• 1 List of original series broadcast by Cartoon Network
• 2 Checkered Past
• 3 Invincible Fight Girl

Dexter's Laboratory (TV Series)

Labels/game show/fantastic boyage (1997), full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits  , cast (in credits order)  , produced by , music by , casting by , art direction by , production management , art department , sound department , animation department , casting department , editorial department , music department , additional crew .

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Fantastic Boyage

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" Fantastic Boyage " is the third segment of the 20th episode and the 7th episode of Season 2 from Dexter's Laboratory .

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• Fantastic Boyage on Dexter's Laboratory Wiki

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Dexter's laboratory: ego trip.

Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky

After Dexter is confronted with robots who wish to "destroy the one who saved the future," he uses his time machine to see how he saved it. They declare that they are here to destroy the one who saved the future, and make ready to attack Dexter. Dexter easily destroys them with the use of various tools and gadgets from his lab. However, news that he is "The One Who Saved the Future" intrigues him, and he decides to travel through time to discover how cool he is. In the first time period he visits, Dexter finds a tall, skinny, weak version of himself working in office-designing cubicles, with Mandark as his rich, successful boss. The child Dexter unwittingly reveals the existence of blueprints regarding the "Neurotomic Protocore", and Mandark steals it after the two Dexters move forward in time.

Christine Cavanaugh Eddie Deezen Jeff Bennett Kath Soucie Kat Cressida Tom Kenny

Director Director

Genndy Tartakovsky

Story Story

Genndy Tartakovsky Chris Savino John McIntyre Craig McCracken Amy Keating Rogers Paul Rudish

Production Design Production Design

Dan Krall Craig Kellman Paul Rudish

Composers Composers

Thomas Chase Steve Rucker

Hanna-Barbera Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Spanish

Releases by Date

17 dec 1999, releases by country.

• TV Cartoon Network

50 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Eli ★★★ 5

Despite being only 48 minutes in length, Ego Trip manages to be a extremely fun venture into "feature length" territory. It's simple but fun time travel plot leads Dexter on a trip to save the world with his future selves. All the jokes land, the animation is nice and the designs are really wonderful.

Really the only issues with this movie is the fact that's more of just a long TV episode rather than a film. I was it was around 80 minutes in length because then it would have more room to play around and even possibly bring in other characters besides Dexter. While it is cinematic in narrative it suffers from being a TV movie. If only we…

Review by ToonrificTariq ★★★ 1

I think I thought I was gonna have a little more fun rewatching this than I did but that third act is such a damn trip.

An ego trip, if you will.

Review by shatnerd ★★★★★

A cinematic masterpiece.

Review by Marie

At long last, Genndy Tartakovsky got a feature-length opportunity to do what he clearly always wanted to do with his little cartoon: Metropolis Junior. (with just a little bit of Caligari.) Thank you sir

Review by molly ★★★★

Dexter's Laboratory: Into the Dexter-Verse

Review by FoundOnYouTube ★★½ 4

Shoutout to @dragonsblood23 for the request.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXrVHAnN6Rw

Dexter must use the power of time travel to prevent his archnemesis from conquering the Earth. Sound familiar to Samurai Jack, doesn't it? Ego Trip features Genndy Tartakovsky's usual minimalistic and geometric style. However, it is more action-oriented than your typical episode of Dexter's Laboratory, signaling Tartakovsky's transition into doing more violent material.

Review by Kyle Donovan

Genndy is the man.

Review by earl12456 ★★★★

Dexter Laboratory Ego Trip is movie i have seen many times so good and crazy

Review by claudio ★★★ 3

an endearing amalgam of nerdism displayed in fifty minutes: german expressionist-like opening credits, time travels, mecha inventions, sci-fi wacky schemes, orwellian dystopias. being a children's cartoon the happy ending is taken for granted, but such a conclusion also leaves food for thought; the scientific advance formulated by those who seek personal recognition, above improving the quality of human life, is not as poisonous as the "evil plans" of a military doctor (e.g.), but they are related motivations, egotistical fruits from the same root

Review by Walter ★★★★

The most important piece of media since Eadweard Muybirdges The Horse in Motion

Review by 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Aaron🇵🇭 ★★★½

The cartoons back in my day seemed to be top notch with some real standouts with Dexter's laboratory being one of them I believe. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky(Samurai Jack,The PowerPuff Girls,Star Wars:Clone Wars 2003). The animation is simple and really well done, nicely animated. I've not watch this 50 minute film in many years but remember parts here and there, I remembered the outcome involving Dee Dee rather well. I've never understood why Dexter voiced by Christine Cavanaugh had a foreign accent always seemed strange to me. Some moments made the film Brazil come to my mind don't quite know why, Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip had one or two little darker moments. The plot is simple enough which sees Dexter…

Review by KaiserBeamz ★★★★ 1

This is Gendy's transition from Dexter's Lab to Samurai Jack and it is awesome.

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