The Capitol Critters Homepage!
Capitol Critters was an animated TV show that ran in prime-time on the
ABC television network in early 1992. It featured a cast of rodents and roaches
living in the walls of the White House in Washington DC, and was produced by
Hanna-Barbera and animated by Wang Studios. Interestingly, this show was Steven
Bochco's foray into animation, and while the series was mainly a comedy, it did
seem to have a more serious tone than any other animated television show at the
time. (And lots of continuity between episodes, which wasn't prevalent at the
time for animated TV series.)
Although the ratings for the first few episodes were good, they started
dropping rapidly after episode 2 and ABC yanked it from the air after having
shown only 7 of the 13 episodes that were produced.
Fast-forward to 1995....
The Cartoon Network picked up the series in late 1995 and was running it
(including the unaired episodes!) throughout most of 1996. However, it
has been a few years now since it stopped running on TCN. So as of now, the
show's future availability is up in the air at the moment. Hopefully, the
episodes will get a video release someday or perhaps TCN will revive it now
that so much time has passed. (Hint, hint... :-)
So, here's the list of all 13 episodes of Capitol Critters and descriptions for
each episode, and the times for the originally aired episodes. (All times
listed are for the east coast.) Note that my numbering the episodes after 8
becomes arbitrary, as TCN may not have been showing them in the order they were
meant to be aired, and I have no way of finding out.
Fast-forward to 2005....
Capitol Critters is still not available on video/DVD and hasn't been rerun
since the initial complete airing 10 years ago! :-(
Anyway. without further ado....
The Main Characters
|
| Max |
Neil Patrick Harris |
| Jammett |
Charlie Adler |
| Berkeley |
Jennifer Darling |
| Trixie |
Patti Deutsch |
| Muggle |
Bobcat Goldthwait |
| Moze |
Dorian Harewood |
Episode 1: Max
Original air date & time: Tuesday January 28th, 1992 8:30 PM
The series pilot. Max, a mouse living in a Nebraska farmhouse basement with his
family, is the only survivor when the farmer living there hires an exterminator
to take care of all the mice. Max leaves for Washington D.C. to go live with
his cousin Berkeley, an activist mouse who still dresses like it's the 1960's.
There he also meets the rest of the cast of the series - Jammett, a
wisecracking rat, and his mother, Trixie. Muggle, an ex-lab rat who's had one
experiment too many done on him. Moze, a roach who like all roaches lives
segregated from the rats and mice. Finally, the P-Cat and VP-Cat, the rodents'
new nemeses. The episode focuses on Max getting to know the other characters
and his coming to terms with his family's tragic deaths.
Episode 2: Of Thee I Sting
Original air date & time: Friday, January 31st, 1992 8:00 PM
Max's optimistic view about Washington politics gets crushed when he witnesses
first hand a shady senator taking a bribe from a businessman who wants him to
vote a certain way.
Episode 3: The Rat to Bear Arms
Original air date & time: Saturday, February 1st, 1992 8:30 PM
Jammett seeks revenge on the P-Cat when a friend of his is eaten. He decides
the best way to get rid of the cat is to kill him with a gun he comes across,
but this makes Max and Berkeley uneasy.
Episode 4: Hat and Mouse
Original air date & time: Saturday, February 8th, 1992 8:30 PM
During a recent food raid on the White House kitchen, Max loses his hat only to
have it returned to him by Moze the cockroach. Max soon learns that Moze (and
all the other roaches) are not very popular among the other rodents, especially
Jammett....
Episode 5: A Little Romance
Original air date & time: Saturday, February 15th, 1992 8:30 PM
When a troop of Japanese dancers visits the White House, Max falls for a cute
Japanese mouse named Miko who lives in the troop's luggage with her family. In
the process of trying to rescue her from the P-Cat, he accidentally "kills" him
and this dredges up all sorts of memories of his parents' deaths. To further
complicate matters, Miko is leaving the next day and he wants to go back to
Japan with her!
Episode 6: Opie's Choice
Original air date & time: Saturday, February 29th, 1992 8:30 PM
(The show had a 1-week hiatus before this episode aired.)
Jammett becomes a local drug dealer when he starts selling caffeine pills to a
squirrel named Opie. Max despises him for this, but Max soon gets into trouble
himself when some tough pill-pushers think he's the one selling to Opie
and don't like others taking over their business. They overdose Max on pills in
order to kill him and this greatly upsets Jammett, who also learns Opie stole
all of his family's food in order to pay Jammett for the pills he got!
Episode 7: An Embarassment of Roaches
Original air date & time: Saturday, March 14th, 1992 8:30 PM
(Another 1-week hiatus. Wasn't a good sign!)
A couple of roaches move in upstairs with the rodents and no one is happy, but
Max and Berkeley convince the others to let them stay. They soon question that
decision, however, when the roaches start multiplying and the entire upstairs
becomes covered in wall-to-wall baby roaches!
Episode 8: Into the Woods
Original air date & time: Never aired on ABC, though it was listed
in the TV Guide as supposed to air on March 21st!
Max and Jammett are hijacked by PETA activists and end up dumped in the
wilderness, only to discover the animals' homes there are endangered by the
construction of a mini-mall. Surprisingly, it's Jammett who takes the
initiative in this episode!
Episode 9: Gimme Shelter
The gang discovers a rat and a roach who have been living together for 30 years
(ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis) but perhaps not totally in peace and
harmony. So the two species try to re-integrate each of them into their
respective groups but is modern life too much for these two?
Episode 10: The KiloWatts Riots
When the electricity is cut off to the rodents and roaches, they start to panic
until Jammett gets the idea to bring in another source of power via extension
cord, thus becoming his own electric company. (And charging outrageous rates to
everyone, including his own mom!) But the other rodents decide they aren't
going to put up with him any longer, and the confrontation may be too much even
for Jammett!
Episode 11: The Bug House
Jammett umps a rat vs. cockroach baseball game and cheats by intentionally
mis-calling a play when it appears the roaches will win. Moze doesn't like this
and him and Jammett get into a scuffle which escalates into a riot - a serious
crime in the roach world. Jammett is put on trial by them but all they want is
vengeance, not justice -- except for one certain roach whom Jammett wouldn't of
expected to have helped him!
Episode 12: The Lady Doth Protest To Munch
After a bill to help the hungry is defeated, Berkeley decides to go on a hunger
strike until it is passed. But, can she withstand the temptation to eat as the
gang goes on a citywide adventure when the truck they happen to be sitting in
is stolen?
Episode 13: If Lovin' You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna be Rat
President
Bush's grandchildren are coming to visit, and one of them brings a hamster with
her - a female hamster named Violet! Amazingly, Jammett falls for her
instantly, and she for him! But can a domesticated animal live outside of her
cage? Meanwhile, Max feels bad for the little girl who is now missing her pet,
and decides to find a new hamster for her. But this time Max gets far more than
he bargained for!!
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