Weinerville

Weinerville is an American children's variety television program on Nickelodeon. It aired from 1993 to 1997. This series was based around a giant puppet stage that was designed to look like a city called Weinerville. It was created and hosted by Marc Weiner.

Production
Weinerville's first season aired as part of a two-hour marathon every Sunday on Nickelodeon beginning on July 11, 1993. Weinerville quickly gained popularity; in the middle of the first season, on November 15, 1993, Nickelodeon began broadcasting it on weekday afternoons. Marc and his Weinerville characters hosted Nick New Year's, a New Year's Eve television special akin to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve for the child demographic. Airing in 1993 and 1994, the New Year's Eve specials feature host segments, which serve as wraparounds for the best Nicktoons and shows of that year, where Weinerville characters read letters from viewers about their New Year's resolutions while counting down to midnight, at which point they celebrate by shooting slime into the sky. For the 40-episode second season, which premiered on March 21, 1994, episodes aired daily and were later part of the Stick Stickly show Nick in the Afternoon, which includes Marc as Dottie in some segments. Unfortunately with all the success of hosting two seasons, three television specials, and especially hitting a milestone for being the show to tape its 1000th episode at Nickelodeon Studios, Weinerville was not renewed for a third season. According to Marc, the cancellation happened because Nickelodeon was changing their identity from family friendly to edgy, sarcastic, and somewhat subversive shows, and a puppet show did not fit with the network's new direction of programming.

Overview
Weinerville was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios Florida. Its format is an audience-participation comedy series that focuses on Weiner and his puppets making a show. While early episodes do not have much of a plot or story line the show started to integrate these elements later in season one. In addition to 68 normal episodes, Nickelodeon aired five Weinerville television specials.

Following the first segment and a prelude to "Playland", the viewers watch cartoons of Mr. Magoo, Honey Halfwitch, The Alvin Show, Gerald McBoing-Boing, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, and Batfink.

Human characters

 * Marc Weiner - The host of Nickelodeon's Weinerville who is tasked with solving Dottie's or the town's problems. In season one, Marc wears an unbuttoned Weinerville baseball jersey with a green undershirt. In season two, the color of his undershirt changes.
 * Kevin Elemeno P. (pronounced: "L-M-N-O-P") - The network executive character, played by Orlando local child actor Travis Robertson, whose name is a pun on the show's executive producer, Kevin Kay.

Puppets
The puppets below feature Weiner's head and a puppet body where their parts have been pre-taped so that Weiner can interact with them:


 * Dottie - The mayor of Weinerville. Marc is usually forced to solve Dottie's problems and tends to get carried away with things if they do not get out of control. She has a sidekick/assistant named Zip. Dottie always quotes "Oh well, welcome to Weinerville" at the end of the cold opening.
 * Baby Jeffrey - The puppet nephew of Marc. He usually introduces Marc at the beginning of each episode and always makes a mess.
 * Big Pops - The owner of the diner Pops'. Big Pops usually does a lot with his nose, either picking it or playing the kazoo. On some occasions, Big Pops only appeared in Season One.
 * Schnitzel - Marc's sassy parrot sidekick in season one. While Schnitzel is usually played by Marc, an unnamed extra plays him when Marc is in front of the audience.
 * Commander Ozone - A space captain that runs the AV-1 Spaceship. He defends evil and saves the universe with his sidekick Wilson. In season one, he is renamed "Captain Ozone".
 * Eric Von Firstensecond - Commander Ozone's evil enemy who always devises an evil scheme to take over Weinerville or to marry Dottie. Eric only appears in season two.
 * Cocktail Frank - The bandleader and guitar player of the house band of the show "Cocktail Frank and His Weenies." Frank is the lead singer/guitarist where his puppet band consisted of Posse on piano/turntables, Antoinette on drums, an unnamed bass guitarist, and an unnamed saxophone player.
 * Joey Deluxe - The big shot manager and super entertainment agent.
 * Soup Tureen - The host of That's Not Fair who only appears in season two.

The ones listed below are puppet characters:


 * Zip (performed by Scott Fellows) - Dottie's assistant who always gets himself into trouble, makes his famous trademark scream, and crashes into the wall.
 * Boney (performed by Marc Weiner) - An obvious parody of Barney, he is a dinosaur skeleton in sneakers that lives in the jungles of Weinerville. Boney is beloved by children, but hates them himself. When Boney quotes "Now get outta here," the children and anyone else visiting him that are present leave his cave. The "theme song" at the end of his show consists of said puppet singing "I'm Boney, I'm Boney, leave me aloney!" Boney's puppet appears differently in season two and the specials. According to the 1995 summer issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, Boney is Weiner's favorite puppet.
 * Pops (performed by Ray Abruzzo) - Known in season one as "Little Pops", he is the local chef who works with Big Pops. After Big Pops is dropped from the show, Pops takes over the restaurant. He sometimes argues with Louie, but they tend to get along.
 * Louie (performed by Scott Fellows) - The local laundromat owner who has disagreements with Pops, but they tend to get along.
 * Socko (performed by Marc Weiner) - An inverted hand puppet who likes to kick Marc's buttocks, performed with his own props, who makes sarcastic gestures when things do not go right.
 * Wilson - The sidekick of Commander Ozone. In season one, he has a squeaky voice like Zip.
 * Professor Phosphate (performed by Scott Fellows and David Jordan) - A puppet scientist with green hair who can only be seen from the waist up who debuted in season two. Professor Phosphate is the owner of Weinerville Labs and often causes explosions with inventions that malfunction. Despite this, he often solves the problems.
 * Fufusky - A grub-like alien who is Eric von Firstensecond's alien sidekick. He stuns people using his breathe ray (silly string).
 * Berny - He is responsible for bringing out the Weinerizer being pulled by his tractor.

Other sketches
The show also featured several non-puppet characters played by Weiner himself:


 * Captain Bob - Captain Bob is a sea captain in yellow rain gear that constantly cracks puns. He owns the S.S. Bob at Port Weinerville (which is located near the building where Cocktail Frank and His Wienies are located). On many shows, an audience member would be invited to climb aboard where an offscreen person would fling water on him before the "tidal wave" (a bucket of water, or, in some cases, slime, thrown by a stage hand) soaked the participant. Captain Bob first appeared on Saturday Night Live when Weiner was a writer in the early 1980s. In scenes in which Marc Weiner interacts with Captain Bob, an actor seen from behind would portray Captain Bob with Weiner dubbing his voice in during post-production.
 * The Weinerville General Store - Members of the audience are also called down to participate in various activities during the main part of the show, such as helping to demonstrate items in the Weinerville General Store. A recurring joke on the show takes place in the General Store, in which Weiner sells comedic props similar to those of Carrot Top. Nearly everything in the store sells for $13.50. It only appears in season one.
 * Running Joke - Occasionally, the "$13.50" gag is used in other segments. For instance, on the "Talent Show" episode, the winners won with 1,350 points. On the "DTV" episode, DTV was on channel 1350. On the General Store and Captain Bob skits, that would be the price when Marc would hand the participant anything. "$13.50" originated as an inside joke between Weiner and head writer Ray Abruzzo. Thinking it was funny, the two ultimately put it in the show.
 * That's Not Fair! - A game show where a kid and an adult played for points answering questions. Usually the kids win. It was only featured in Season 2. According to an interview with Marc Weiner, "That's Not Fair" was a pilot he made for Comedy Central in 1991, after it was tested, the network said it was appropriate for children, so Nickelodeon got a hold of it and the pilot became "Weinerville".
 * Weinerizer — The show always ends with Weiner choosing two people from the audience to get "Weinerized" (turned into puppets). The participants enter a contraption called the Weinerizer upon being helped by two crew members. The Weinerizer appears to shrink them to puppet size (by having contestants place their heads into a hole above a miniature puppet body). They compete in a game and the winner receives "The Golden Hot Dog" as well as a dose of green slime. During the credits, the two people are seen being let out of the Weinerizer. Although the audience members were ostensibly chosen at random, Matt Day (who at the time was working on Nickelodeon's Clarissa Explains It All) revealed that participants were sometimes selected beforehand, including himself on the "Baseball" episode in Playland.
 * Playland - In a prelude, Weiner selects two audience members to be placed in the Weinerizer and sent to Playland. In season two, an alarm sounds to alert Weiner that it is almost time for Playland. Participants then compete in a game to test their skills operating their puppet bodies. The runner-up receives the "Silver Hot Dog", with the winner receiving the "Golden Hot Dog" as well as the "Special Topping" (a small amount of green slime dumped onto the player's head). If a malfunction occurs or both players tie, they both get the "Golden Hot Dog". Occasionally, both players receive the Special Topping, especially when both players are adults, and if the game involves pies, both contestants are hit with pies themselves instead of anyone getting the Special Topping (the special topping is awarded for pie games in season two). The Playland stage was enlarged and revamped the second season to incorporate more elaborate stunts; these frequently had the contestants facing each other and squirting water or whipped cream at some target, usually soaking the other contestant in the process. Some season 2 stunts are team stunts where each player has a non-Weinerized teammate. Season one was a carnival-style. In the second season, it was a radio-active style.

Episodes
All 68 episodes aired out of sequence and in no particular order. When the last episode was taped, it was the 1000th television episode to be shot at Nickelodeon Studios. The filming schedule for the second season was November 29, 1993, to February 14, 1994.

Guest stars
(not all interviews are shown, Sean O'Neal and Jason Zimbler are just quickly glimpsed)
 * Marc Summers of Double Dare is referenced regularly, including cameos in "Giant Spider" and the Chanukah, New Year's, and election specials.
 * Pro Wrestler Kevin Nash in the "Chanukah Special"
 * Phil Moore of Nick Arcade in "Variety Show or Sitcom"
 * Dr. Joyce Brothers in "XR-3 Space Shuttle Game"
 * Denny Dillon in the Chanukah special
 * Buster Poindexter in the Chanukah special
 * Moira Quirk of Nickelodeon Guts in "Variety Show or Sitcom"
 * Huey Lewis
 * The cast of Clarissa Explains It All in "DTV"
 * Melissa Joan Hart in the New Year's and election specials and "DTV"
 * Mike Maronna of The Adventures of Pete & Pete cameos in the New Year's special
 * Paul Shaffer cameos in the New Year's special
 * Bill Maher in the election special
 * John Tesh and Mary Hart in the election special
 * Leeza Gibbons in the election special
 * Pat O'Brien in the election special
 * Joe Lieberman in the election special
 * Andy Lawrence