Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, is an American adult animated television sitcom produced by Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late-night programming block. The show revolves around the activities of the Sebben & Sebben law firm, which mostly consists of superheroes and other characters originally featured in past Hanna-Barbera cartoons, most notably Birdman and the Galaxy Trio.
History of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law:
The pilot first aired on the Cartoon Network as a sneak peeks on 30 December 2000. The series was formally premiered on Adult Swim on September 2, 2001, the night the block was launched.
It concluded on July 22, 2007, with a total of 39 episodes, over the course of four seasons. The entire series was made available on DVD and other forms of home media, including on-demand streaming. A special, entitled Harvey Birdman: Attorney General, premiered on 15 October 2018, and a spin-off, Birdgirl, was ordered to be held in May 2019.
Harvey Birdman, Attorney General, features former superhero Harvey T. Birdman of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio as a prosecutor working with other cartoon stars from the 1960s and 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoon series.
Harvey’s clients are also the main characters from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series of the same period.
Many of Birdman’s nemesis from his former cartoon series appear as prosecutors, sometimes representing the opposite side of the argument.
Harvey typically fulfils the role of a criminal defence attorney, even though he can serve as a civil litigator or other such duty when the plot calls for it.
Surrealist style of comedy:
The series uses a surrealist style of humour, featuring characters, objects, and jokes that are quickly introduced and seldom (if ever) referred to afterwards.
Since the series relies heavily on popular culture references to classic television animation, Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney, is continually drifting into parody, using clips from these series or specially created scenes that imitate the distinctive style of the animation being referenced.
Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney, is the first Williams Street cartoon to preserve continuity in the series. Various episodes refer to Harvey’s (or other superhero’s) previous crime-fighting career.
The episode “Turner Classic Birdman” serves to close the distance between Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney.
Most of the comedy comes from making superheroes and supervillains more quirky characteristics, such as turning mad scientist Dr Myron Reducto into a paranoid prosecutor. Several of the plots revolve around common misconceptions about the classic Hanna-Barbera characters, such as Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, who are recreational drug users.
Summary: A wonderful original performance from the golden age of Adult Swim 's classics. Birdman was originally a 60’s HB cartoon before superhero cartoons such as Spiderman and the Justice League hit the pace, here comes BIIIIIRDDDDMANN as a defence attorney who will battle the case mainly against the craziest situations involving many other cartoons of the period.
Production & Reception:
Harvey Birdman, Lawyers’ Attorney Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter were initially writers for Space Ghost Coast to Coast, where the title character initially made his debut.
The show was Adult Swim’s most expensive original series at the time, and it’s the most expensive spin-off from Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
While the first season was animated with digital ink and paint, the remaining seasons were animated with Adobe After Effects.
The explanation for the switch was that the animation studio had trouble keeping the speed of the film, and so the production of episodes slowed down due to continuous replay.
By animating later episodes at Turner Studios in Atlanta with Adobe Flash, not only were problems more easily fixed, but the cost of production was much smaller.
In 2009, Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney, was named IGN’s 91st best-animated film. They found the idea of the show “wonderful” and the show as a whole “particularly clever.” The review summarized that "Harvey Birdman worked as both a spoof and a tribute to those cartoon characters we know and love, with a lot of humorous, surreal jokes along the way.
Summary: Its production though was of heavy budget but if the cost is compared to what return it got, it is like a penny. This series was a big hit & received not only local but international awards & recognition.
Return of Harvey Birdman Attorney General in 2008:
Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney ended in 2007 & after a decade in 2008 got aired. It was a training programme for Adult Swim back in the early days of the network that a return to the world of this show would sound poignant in such a way that it wouldn’t be for a lot of other shows.
The animated series began as a modest, tiny production, but the bulk of the cast went on to find immense success in such a way that this homecoming now feels very star-studded.
Series writers, Erik Richter and Michael Ouweleen were wise enough to end Harvey Birdman Attorney general while he was still at the top of his game, but they also found the right time to bring the series back.
The superhero-turned-lawyer turns his contested powers to the president of the megalomania and finds himself facing his biggest case to date.
Harvey Birdman, Attorney General, offers the very best of what made the original series so much fun in the first place but uses a profoundly prescient modern perspective to build those characters around.
In honour of the show’s return, we when asked from Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter about bringing this world back, Stephen Colbert’s tour de force success, and if there will be more Birdman in the future!
This is what he replies;
We’ve been doing little projects together with the director Rich [Ferguson-Hull] since the end of Harvey Birdman, but I don’t think we’ve ever felt we’d be doing Birdman again. So (Mike) Lazzo from Adult Swim asked us to do something like a special thing, but the idea was never to be a special Birdman.
He just asked us to come up with something, and then we’d do it. We tossed a lot of ideas around and then, oddly enough, my boss, Christina [Miller], who is helping to manage the Adult Swim and Cartoon Network, was like, "Harvey Birdman, Attorney General! It’s right there, you son of a ■■■■■. "So I texted Erik about it, but it took him a couple of times before he realized I wasn’t kidding.
Summary: Harvey Birdman Attorney at law’s return got some comedy that’s cut and dry, along with gags that often reach you out of nowhere with a laugh, or just circumstances that make you burst like a fart in a quiet room. It’s hard to understand without describing the show since half the fun of each episode is another case of Birdman trying to figure it out while balancing stuff like adult life in general, which is often completely insane.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQs):
Here are the few now & then asked queries regarding this topic, hope this read will reinforce your knowledge about.
Where can I watch Harvey Birdman Attorney General?
It’s up to Harvey Birdman to find a way to get President Phil Ken Sebben out of office before everyone begins to worry that it’s more than a ludicrous plot for an animated film. Each episode is now available on HBO Max!
Is Harvey Birdman coming back?
The show ended in 2007, but now, over a decade later, it looks like Harvey, Peanut, and the rest of the legal team at Sebben & Sebben are coming back to TV. On Monday, Adult Swim announced that it will revive Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for a brand-new, one-off special called Harvey Birdman: Attorney Genera
Who voices Harvey Birdman?
Gary Cole’s
Harvey Birdman, Law Solicitor
Harvey Birdman / Voice by
Harvey Birdman (spoken by Gary Cole) is a superhero starring Birdman and the Galaxy Trio in the 1960s at the Hanna-Barbera show.
Is Birdman about Harvey Birdman?
Harvey Birdman is a fictional character based on the superhero Birdman from the Hanna-Barbera Birdman show and the Galaxy Trio. He is presented as a prosecutor for Harvey Birdman, Attorney General.
Is Birdman a Marvel or DC?
Birdman is the name of many superhero fiction characters. The first was Hanna Barbera’s cartoon character. All the latest iterations of Marvel’s Ani-Men villain party had a member named Bird-Man.
Is Birdman in a homecoming for Spiderman?
‘Batman,’ ‘Birdman,’ and his new role as The Vulture, complete a journey in which each part was based on the previous part. Inarritu’s Birdman or (The Unintended Virtue of Ignorance)—who scored an Oscar nomination— and now Vulture in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming
How many seasons of Harvey Birdman are there?
There are four (4) seasons of Harvey Birdman.
Conclusion:
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, is a flagship programme that is instrumental in helping Adult Swim to create an alternative brand in its early days. Programs such as Harvey Birdman, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and Sealab 2021 all took on the classic cartoon assets that brought dust together and slathered them with a new imaginative paint coat. Harvey Birdman, Law Attorney, came to an end in 2007. After a decade it returned with a ■■■■. This return is as funny as some of the best things recently broadcast on this show. It’s so perfect that the bad thing about it is that we don’t get a full season of more Birdman to comfort us through the troubled times we’re living in.