Grim & Evil

Grim & Evil is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network. It consists of two segments which were eventually spun off into their own series, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy deals with the adventures of two young children respectively named Billy and Mandy who, after celebrating the birthday of Billy's pet hamster, bet that the Grim Reaper would lose to them in Limbo at his own game of limbo in an effort to save the hamster. Billy and Mandy win the bet, and Grim becomes their "best friend forever" as part of their deal.

Evil Con Carne follows the adventures of Hector Con Carne, a wealthy playboy whose body is destroyed in a tremendous explosion. His only surviving organs are his brain and stomach, which have been placed in jars and attached to a circus bear named Boskov.

The show premiered its run on August 24, 2001, on Cartoon Network, and ended its first 13-episode run on October 18, 2002. However, there was also another batch of 14 episodes made for the show, but were aired on Cartoon Network when the show was split into both shows in 2003. The second (and final) season of this era was aired in the UK on October 20, 2003, followed by a 27th episode as the combo special on October 22, 2004.

Premise
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a series about two neighborhood kids, moronic yet enthusiastic Billy and emotionless Mandy who force the Grim Reaper to be their best friend forever after defeating the Messenger of Death in a game of Limbo. This is the main segment, as two The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episodes are wrapped around an episode of Evil Con Carne (or, on rare episodes, vice versa).

Evil Con Carne is a series about an aspiring dictator obsessed with taking over the world, whose disembodied brain is transplanted onto the head of a slow-witted circus bear. This is usually the backup to The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as Evil Con Carne is put between two The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy cartoons. On occasion, the format is reversed, with a two-part Evil Con Carne cartoon sandwiching one The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy cartoon.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Billy (voiced by Richard Horvitz) is a dim-witted, happy-go-lucky child who has a large, pink nose, wears a blue and white striped shirt, and covers his orange hair with a red hat. His main affiliations are Grim and Mandy. Mandy is Billy's best friend, though she treats him more like a servant than a friend.

Mandy (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a girl about Billy's age who has a morbid, cynical and merciless attitude. Unlike Billy, she is more stable, sane and intelligent. She hates everything, especially unicorns. She will nag, punch, or otherwise injure (physically, emotionally, mentally or any combination of the three) anyone who gets in her way. She is Billy's "best friend" regardless of the awful way she treats him. She orders Grim and Billy to do chores for her, among a slew of other grunt work.

The Grim Reaper (voiced by Greg Eagles) is over 137,000 years old (as his early childhood took place during the Stone Age) and speaks with a Jamaican accent. His scythe is the source of his powers and possesses many magical qualities.

Evil Con Carne
Hector Con Carne (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is a dynamic, evil playboy type, reduced to an anthropomorphic brain and a stomach after a gigantic explosion. Somehow, the stomach has taken on a life of its own. He is often frustrated by the difficulty of taking over the world in its current state.

Major Dr. Ghastly (voiced by Grey DeLisle), a mad scientist, is the brains behind Hector's plans. Ghastly really does not seem to be intent on taking over the world; she does get more interested in inventing things and getting closer to Hector.

General Skarr (voiced by Armin Shimerman) is Con Carne's paramilitary leader. He is a cold-hearted, hateful and harsh man, with a scar on his face, and one eye. He tends to be more evil than Con Carne himself, many times trying to overthrow his leader.

Boskov (voiced by Frank Welker) is a former Russian circus bear who carries Hector's brain and stomach on his body via metal plates on said spots. He is usually controlled by Hector and seems to care for everyone around him. He is sometimes difficult to control due to his animal instincts and lack of intelligence.

Stomach (voiced by Armin Shimerman) is the former stomach of Hector Con Carne and will only talk if it is about food.

The Big Pick viewer poll
The series' existence is largely the result of a viewer poll. An Internet and call-in event called the Big Pick was held from June 16, to August 25, 2000. The three final choices were The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, Longhair and Doubledome. Out of the three, Grim & Evil won the poll with 57% of the vote and became its own series. Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? would later be made into a full series; Longhair and Doubledome would reappear with another pilot episode in another Big Pick-style show in 2002, only to fall short once again. Though initially announced by Betty Cohen in February 2001 for an October premiere, the first season appeared on Cartoon Network to kick off the "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays Big Pick Weekend" on August 24, 2001. A second season consisting of 13 episodes was announced in March 2002.

Conception
Maxwell Atoms created a student film titled "Billy and Mandy in 'Trepanation of the Skull and You'" in 1995. Atoms reused ideas from his student film to create the animated short "Meet the Reaper" for Cartoon Network. Along with Billy & Mandy, Atoms produced another short, Evil Con Carne, that would later be combined with the former as one show, under the title Grim & Evil. The decision came as Cartoon Network wanted the show to have a "middle cartoon" to air in between the Billy & Mandy segments (similar to the Dial M for Monkey and The Justice Friends shorts in Dexter's Laboratory, and the I Am Weasel segments on Cow and Chicken). Sometimes the format was reversed, with a single Grim segment in between two Evil shorts. Both sides of the show were influenced by cartoons Atoms watched in the 1980s; Grim took inspiration from classic comedies from Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros., while Evil was a spoof of the era's action cartoons such as G.I. Joe and Transformers.

Spin-offs
In 2003, before the series aired in reruns for the final time on June 8, the network separated it into The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne, effectively giving both a full-length series, despite the 2003 episodes originally made for Grim & Evil. The short-lived Evil Con Carne series was canceled once all the already-made episodes previously seen on Grim & Evil were aired. In 2004, Evil Con Carne was given another short-lived run with the newly created intro and end credits, only to be canceled again. Grim & Evil, in its original form, has not been seen on TV since 2003. Evil Con Carne's General Skarr became a recurring character on Billy and Mandy beginning in the second season, including as a main character in the TV film Underfist, with other Evil Con Carne characters making occasional cameo appearances.

On October 22, 2004, Cartoon Network aired the half-hour Billy & Mandy/Evil Con Carne combo: "Five-O-Clock Shadows" and "Ultimate Evil", with it being the final half-hour Grim & Evil episode. On March 16, 2007, Cartoon Network aired the 11-minute Billy & Mandy/Evil Con Carne crossover episode titled "Company Halt".

Episodes
The first season originally aired from 2001 to 2002. They were re-aired in 2003, when they were divided into both shows. Another batch of 14 episodes produced for the series in 2003 only aired when they were divided into both shows.

Season 2 (2003–04)
Fourteen Grim & Evil episodes premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States in 2003 and 2004 when The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne were split into two half hour shows, but they were not made for the two standalone shows, as they were also made for the second season Grim & Evil in the UK in October 2003. Although not released officially in 2003 as episodes of the show, Maxwell Atoms confirmed that Cartoon Network erratic broadcast schedule, with the exceptions of Jacked-Up Halloween, Five O' Clock Shadows, and Ultimate Evil. They were, however, aired on various channels outside of the United States, including Canada's Teletoon Detour and France's Boing. Episodes 21, 25, and 26 do not contain any Evil Con Carne segments. The entire second and final season was eventually released in October 2017 on Cartoon Network on Demand.

Broadcast
The series began airing again in 2005 as part of the Cartoon Cartoon Show with 13 extra episodes unannounced. The series aired again on October 29, 2010, for the first time since the Cartoon Cartoon Show airing, but the title sequence did not play at all and all of the cartoons were three Billy & Mandy cartoons from the Grim & Evil era.

On October 20, 2017, all 26 episodes produced were released on Cartoon Network on Demand, including 13 other episodes made up of segments that aired as separate series, but put together in their original Grim & Evil format (two Billy & Mandy segments surrounding one Evil Con Carne, only this time, there are three cases where it is entirely Billy & Mandy). They were listed on the website of The Detour on Teletoon in Canada.

On January 8, 2019, Maxwell Atoms confirmed on Tumblr that these 13 extra episodes aired in the United States, but the dates that they aired on are still currently unknown, though it can be assumed that it would be sometime in 2002 and 2003, as the credits for each episode have copyright dates of those years.

On October 2, 2023, the series returned in reruns on its original format with the series' opening and credits on Adult Swim for their Checkered Past programming block, despite listings referring to the show as Billy & Mandy. The episode aired was episode 16 which had not premiered in the United States.

Grim & Evil currently airs in reruns on Checkered Past.

In other media
Grim, Billy, and Mandy made appearances in the Teen Titans Go! "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary" special.

Grim, Boskov, Hector Con Carne, Billy, Mandy, General Skarr, and Major Dr. Ghastly will appear in a 2-part Jellystone! crossover special.

Home media
Other releases including The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy season one/Grim & Evil episodes:
 * "Billy and Mandy's Jacked-Up Halloween" – Cartoon Network Halloween: 9 Creepy Cartoon Capers (August 10, 2004)
 * "Night of the Living Grim" – Cartoon Network Halloween 2: Grossest Halloween Ever (August 9, 2005)
 * "Crushed!" – Codename: Kids Next Door: Sooper Hugest Missions: File Two (August 23, 2005)

The entire series of Grim & Evil was officially available on Cartoon Network on Demand from October 2017 until 2019.