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Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

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Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an animated television program created and produced by animator Craig McCracken, who also created The Powerpuff Girls. It premiered on Cartoon Network on August 13, 2004, as a ninety-minute television movie. Half-hour episodes (with commercials) began airing the following Friday and continue to do so. It also played two eleven-minute episodes three times (Seeing Red was paired with Phone Home, When There's A Wilt, There's A Way was paired with Everyone Knows It's Bendy, and Sight for Sore Eyes was paired with Bloo's Brothers.) As of July 9, 2005, it is sometimes syndicated on Kids' WB.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
File:FostersLogo2.PNG
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends logo
Created byCraig McCracken
StarringKeith Ferguson
Sean Marquette
Candi Milo
Tom Kenny
Phil LaMarr
Grey DeLisle
Tom Kane
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes39 (includes pilot episode that counted as three episodes.)
31 have aired as of October 2005.
Production
Running time30 Minutes (including commercials)
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network
ReleaseAugust 13, 2004 –
Present


Show summary

In the world of Foster's, an imaginary friend becomes real the instant a kid imagines them. Everyone can see and talk to them, but sometimes, they still outgrow their friends. When that happens, the friends don't disappear, which is why Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was founded. This foster home (hence the title) was founded by the elderly Madame Foster to provide a home for abandoned imaginary friends; their motto is "Where good ideas are not forgotten." Children who cannot imagine their own imaginary friends can also adopt friends from Foster's Home.

The show is produced entirely in-house using computer vector graphics programs, including Macromedia Flash, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. This all-digital animation method is relatively inexpensive, and unlike most American traditionally animated shows, none of the animation is done overseas.

Foster's Home is known to attract older viewers with its quirky humor and odd plots. Hidden throughout the show are jokes, puns and references aimed at older children and young adults that they would understand, while the sarcastic, wise-cracking Bloo is an atypical character among standard children's fare.


Main Characters

File:0813foster-a.jpg
Standing, From Left to Right: Coco, Frankie, Mr. Herriman, Wilt, Eduardo. Seated, From Left to Right: Bloo, Madame Foster, Mac
  • The Best Friends
    • Mac
    • Blooregard Q. Kazoo (Bloo for short)
  • Humans
    • Madame Foster
    • Frances "Frankie" Foster
    • Terrence.
  • Imaginary Friends
    • Eduardo
    • Wilt
    • Coco
    • Mr. Herriman
    • Her Royal Duchess Diamond Persnickety, The First, Last and Only (Duchess for short).

For their biographies, see List of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends characters.

Episode List

Season One

Season One was comprised of ten episodes plus the movie, equal to three episodes.

MOVIE: House of Bloos. (Pun on the House of Blues.)

  1. Store Wars. (Pun on the Star Wars movie series.)
  2. The Trouble With Scribbles.(Pun on the Star Trek episode titled "The Trouble with Tribbles".)
  3. Busted.
  4. Dinner is Swerved. (Pun on "Dinner is Served")
  5. World Wide Wabbit. (Pun on World Wide Web)
  6. Berry Scary. (Pun on "Very Scary")
  7. a. Seeing Red./b. Phone Home. (b. From a line by the titular character of Steven Spielberg's 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.)
  8. Who Let the Dogs In?. (Reference to the song Who Let The Dogs Out? by Baha Men.)
  9. Adoptcalypse Now. (Pun on Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.)
  10. Bloooooo!

Season Two

  1. Partying is Such Sweet Soireé. (Pun on the line from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Parting is such sweet sorrow.")
  2. The Big Leblooski. (Pun on the title of the film The Big Lebowski.)
  3. a. Where There's A Wilt, There's A Way./b. Everyone Knows It's Bendy. (a. Refers to the phrase "When there's a will, there's a way"; b. Reference to a line from The Association's Number One hit "Windy", citing "Everyone knows it's Windy".)
  4. a. Sight for Sore Eyes./b. Bloo's Brothers. (b. Play on words of the Dan Aykroyd-John Belushi Saturday Night Live characters The Blues Brothers.)
  5. Cookie Dough.
  6. Frankie, My Dear. (Pun on the line from the 1939 adaptation of Gone With The Wind as Clark Gable said "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.")
  7. Mac Daddy. (Refers to the rap duo Kris Kross which featured Chris Kelly, a/k/a "The Mac Daddy.")
  8. Squeakerboxxxx. (Pun on part of OutKast's double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.)
  9. Beat With A Schtick. (Puns the cliché "Beat with a stick".)
  10. The Sweet Stench of Success. (Plays off the 1957 movie Sweet Smell of Success.)
  11. Bye Bye Nerdy. (Title spoofs the musical Bye Bye Birdie.)
  12. Bloo Done It. (Plays off the phrase "Whodunit?" for mysteries.)
  13. My So-Called Wife. (Pun on the Claire Danes TV series My So-Called Life.)

Season Three

  1. Eddie Monster. (Pun on the character Eddie Munster of The Munsters.)
  2. Hiccy Burp. (Pun on a Quincy Jones song called "Hikky Burr" which served the theme of The Bill Cosby Show from 1969 to 1971.)
  3. Camp Keep A Good Mac Down. (Pun on the phrase "You can't keep a good man down.")
  4. Imposter's Home For Um…Make 'Em Up Pals. (A reworded version of the series' title.)
  5. Duchess of Wails. (Scheduled to premiere on September 23, 2005.) (Pun off the royal name of the Princess of Wales, the title may be changed for UK viewers.)

For a complete synopsis of these episodes, see List of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episodes.

Currently (as of September 2005) the show airs at the following times in the USA:

  • Monday through Friday — 4 PM and 7 PM with an additional airing Friday at 10 PM.
  • Saturday and Sunday — 10 AM and 2 PM with an additional airing Sunday at 7 PM.

(All times are Eastern and Pacific.)

Trivia

  • The Big Leblooski isn't the only reference from "The Big Lebowski" used during the series. In the premiere movie, Bloo spoofs The Dude's meeting with vandals in his house by saying "Right, right or Blooey, Bloo the Blue Dude, El Blooderino, or hey, how about just plain Bloo?" after Terrence calls him bloofus in the first two minutes. Also in The Big Leblooski character's looking very similar to The Dude, Donny and Walter appear at the bowling alley.
  • Both Mr. Herriman and Townsville's Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls have these similarities: they both wear black top hats and waistcoats, monocles over their left eye, and have thinning white hair just above their temples.
  • Frankie is loosely based on series supervising producer (and real-life fiancée of series creator Craig McCracken) Lauren Faust. She always wears a stylized Powerpuff Girls t-shirt, and bears a resemblance to Vicky the Babysitter from The Fairly OddParents, right down to the voice actress who provides both their characters — Grey DeLisle. However, Frankie and Vicky are polar opposites.
  • Mojo Jojo (The Powerpuff Girls' arch-nemesis) is also seen in the Foster's TV movie during the part when Wilt is showing all the friends in Foster's. Mojo is considered an unimaginary friend, as in a friend "copied" from TV shows.
  • In Cookie Dough, not only does Bloo pay homage to Lady Tremaine and her daughters, Anastasia and Drizella, in Walt Disney's "Cinderella", he also — albeit with fierce anger — shouts Donald Trump's catch phrase from The Apprentice, "You're fired!" (listen when he says "YOU'RE ALL FIRED! F-I-R-D! FIRED!").
  • The character Wilt is obviously a reference to Wilt Chamberlain, the legendary basketball player.
  • The character Coco is probably a reference to the Cocos Islands, which is thought quite possibly to be the island that Robinson Crusoe became shipwrecked on.
  • In the episode Bye Bye Nerdy after Bloo puts on his sunglasses, he and Frankie perform a scene that is an homage to a scene in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers where Bloo says "It's a hundred and six blocks to Mac, I've got a full bladder, half a mind, it's Tuesday and I'm wearing sunglasses", and Frankie opens the window and says "Hit it!"

Awards

  • Blooregard Q. Kazoo was the winner in the Best Character category and the series was also named the winner of the Best Cartoon Series for All Audiences by being honored with two Pulcinella Awards at the 2005 Cartoons on the Bay Festival in Positano, Italy.
  • The show was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004
  • House of Bloo's won two Emmy Awards for art direction (Mike Moon) and character design (Craig McCracken) as well as World Wide Wabbit winning an Emmy for best storyboard (Ed Baker).
  • The show's theme song — described by McCracken as "psychedelic ragtime" and written by James L. Venable — was nominated for Best TV Show Theme in 2005. It lost to Danny Elfman's theme to Desperate Housewives.

Titles in other languages

The show is now seen on Cartoon Network channels in Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as Teletoon/Télétoon in Canada. The titles are as follows in their native languages:

  • Chinese
    • Taiwan: 親親麻吉 (qìn qìn má jí)
  • French: Foster, la maison des amis imaginaires. (Also Canada {French})
  • Italian: Gli amici immaginari di Casa Foster.
  • Japanese: フォスターズ・ホーム (fosutāzu hōmu; Foster's home.) The show will premiere in Japan on October 30, 2005.
  • Norwegian and Danish: Fosters hjem for fantasivenner.
  • Polish: Dom dla zmyślonych przyjaciół pani Foster.
  • Portuguese
    • Brazil: A Mansão Foster para Amigos Imaginários.
  • Spanish
    • Spain: Foster, La Casa de los Amigos Imaginarios.
    • Latin America: Mansión Foster para Amigos Imaginarios.
  • Swedish: Fosters hem för påhittade vänner.

Some of the characters have slightly different names to fit their particular language. Check here.

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