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Johnofe.com posted some intresting interview with Micah Wright. TAB producer and creator, so we picked up this interview as well on our site.
It's a constant question in any TAB fans mind; Why did 'the angry beavers' finish?
Was it because Nickelodeon didn't like them? Or did the beavers just finish production cos they simply ran out of ideas and fingered that they have had their time? In this interview we will explore the factors that affected how the beavers ended and who was to blame of there is anyone to blame.
JohnOfE:
Was TAB actually *cancelled* as people say it was,
or has TAB just had its time and finished even though the few last ones never made to production?
Micah: A combination of reasons...
(a) the show had reached an order of 65 episodes and that's generally where Nickelodeon stops a show.
(b) the show was never as popular as, say, Rugrats, so going beyond 65 would have been unusual, and
(c) network politics, which is to say that certain Nick executives never liked the show and didn't
get along with the creator of the show, Mitch Schauer.
JohnOfE: Because TAB ran on for so long, producing an admirable 62 episdoes (approx), it would seem that TAB has had its time?
Micah: We were supposed to get to 65, but a decision was made to make two half-hour specials which were cancelled, and a third episode was killed because the network didn't like one of the two scripts which was supposed to go into it... and at that point, the choices were produce half an episode, produce a new script to finish a full episode, or just stop and not spend any money. Never give an executive a chance to not spend money or they'll leap on it.
JohnOfE: "Though it was popular, it obviously wasn’t popular enough to hold good ratings". Do you accept this statement?
Micah: Not in the least. The show's premiere broke all previous records. The show always got good ratings during its run... but it got good ratings with the wrong group. Nickeldeon only cares about shows which rate high from 3-14 years old. and 6-11 most of all. They were confused that Nickelodeon consistently got good ratings among adults with "The Angry Beavers," and failed to see that the show was a cult hit with college students and adults. They ignored such "non-core demographics" and fixed only on the fact that kids 6-11 didn't enjoy the show as much as Rugrats. Well, no duh... the shows were different. I believe that Nickelodeon ignored the potential for TAB to be a big cult hit among adults. They later realized their mistake and have marketed both SpongeBob and Invader Zim to adults. Better late than never, I suppose. Maybe someday they'll release a boxed DVD set of TAB as well. I'd also point out that the show does very well overseas where it's currently seen in several countries, and it still shows for 2 hours a day on the Nicktoons TV cable channel.
JohnOfE:
Why exactly did Nickelodeon make a big deal about episode "Ally Oops" when Norbert sais "shut up..." and put a BEEP in its place?
Micah: What we were told was this:
The President of Nickelodeon had just had a baby daughter. He felt that having characters say "Shut Up" was rude, so he issued orders to not have any occurrences of "Shut Up" in any show.
JohnOfE: But that doesn’t make sense, there are heaps of Nick- shows on TV where the characters say "SHUT UP!" in an even more horrible manner the Norbert would have said to Daggett in that particular episode scene of Ally Oops... What’s going on?
Micah: People change a lot when they have children, I guess.
JohnOfE:
TAB isn't at all bad in total perspective, especially compared to a show such as Ren and Stimpy (R&S) which Nick- also owns the rights to. What’s the deal here?
Micah: The same Nickelodeon executives who hated TAB also hated R&S. In fact, in their "Unedited and Uncut" DVD collection, quite a few of the Ren & Stimpy episodes ARE edited and cut, and two episodes aren't even in there. That's how much they hate R&S. The same President who issued the "no shut-ups" also took R&S off the air for four years, if I recall correctly.
JohnOfE: In your knowledge, are the DVDs that are for sale from various websites legal official copies?
None of the DVDs has the Nickelodeon logo on them and they are DVD-R format, not mass produced "pressed/printed" DVDs. Nickelodeon hasn't actually released anything to do with TAB like that have they?
Micah:
They're bootlegs. To me, the simple fact that bootlegs exist just proves how stupid Nickelodeon truly is: There's a giant unnerved market willing to pay $65 for a bootleg DVD set of their show... Why on Earth aren't they (Nickelodeon) willing to print DVDs and earn that money for themselves? I can buy episodes of Avatar for download on the iTunes Music Store, but why not TAB?
JohnOfE: In conclusion to the questions, I just want to get all the facts write about this whole matter.
I know its old and TAB finished years ago, Im just SO SICK of people always complaining and carrying on saying "Oh Nickelodeon cancelled them, Nick- hated TAB, Nick this and Nick that" etc etc. Is it right in your opinion for the general fans of TAB to be saying that "its all nickelodeons fault" that TAB isn’t being made any more?
Micah: Yes. While no show lasts forever, we certainly had more good ideas than CatDog did, and that show was picked up for 100 episodes from Day One. By comparison, TAB employees had to wait on pins & needles to see if we'd get another season every 13 episodes. Eventually, someone at Nickelodeon decided that TAB wasn't worth the time, effort and money and cancelled the show.
Thank you Micah for your time, you have been more then helpful.