The Angry Beavers is an American animated sitcom created by Mitch Schauer for Nickelodeon. The series revolves around the zany hijinks of Norbert and Daggett Beaver, two young anthropomorphic North American beaver brothers who have moved out of their parents' home to become bachelors in the forest near the fictional Wayouttatown, Oregon. The series premiered in the United States on April 19, 1997, and ended its initial run on November 11, 2003.
Five additional episodes would not premiere in the United States on Nickelodeon during its initial run and would premiere in that country on Nicktoons in 2006, with the last episode airing on August 27. The complete series has also been released on DVD in Region 1 by Shout! Factory.
During its initial run, The Angry Beavers was nominated for five Annie Awards and three Daytime Emmy Awards, and the show had won one of both awards.
Contents
Characters
The Angry Beavers
Norbert Foster "Norb" Beaver (voiced by Mitchell Whitfield in the pilot and Nick Bakay in the series) is a light-yellow beaver, who is Daggett's older brother by four minutes. Articulate and well-read, Norbert is a highly opinionated beaver who acts as the voice of reason and straight man to his younger brother's insane ideas. Despite this, he is very lazy and patronizing towards Daggett. Norbert can be extremely and unjustifiably selfish at times, and tends to bully, insult, and take advantage of his brother, which usually backfires in some way but does not lead to any permanent consequences for him like it does for Daggett.
Daggett Doofus "Dag" Beaver (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz) is a brown beaver, and the younger brother of Norbert by four minutes. Energetic and childish, Daggett has a habit of over-the-top and sensitive emotions, as well as a self-defence mechanism of name-calling. Those things could very well have to do with how he is constantly treated badly. He seems to have a love-hate relationship with Norbert, helping and antagonizing him as his mood requires. He may or may not be aware that Norbert is abusing him. He has a Telephone in the likeness of Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle. While usually seeming to be unintelligent, Daggett's intelligence can vary widely to meet an episode's needs from being somewhat dim-witted to even accomplishing impressive scientific feats.
Supporting and recurring
Stump is a giant sequoia stump who is a close friend of Norbert and Daggett. He frequents many of the beavers' social events, forming an integral part of their inner friendship circle. He is apparently alive, but does not talk.
Treeflower (voiced by Cynthia Mann) is a dark orange hippie beaver with many jobs outside the forest, who is also Norbert's girlfriend. According to Mitch Schauer, Treeflower and Norbert went on to be married and had two daughters, Lily and Petunia after the events of the series.
Bing (voiced by Victor Wilson) is an annoying talkative lizard who hangs out with Norbert and Daggett. Bing is able to camouflage himself to blend with his surroundings like a chameleon but is able to lose and generate his tail like a skink or a gecko.
Barry Bear (voiced by John Garry) is Norbert and Daggett's disco/funk-loving grizzly bear best friend, whose voice and personality is modeled on Barry White. Barry is a vegetarian despite being a bear.
Truckee (voiced by Mark Klastorin in most appearances and Mitch Schauer in "Dag's List") is a truck-loving shrew, who Daggett hates immensely. He drives a big truck around called "Big Renee".
Big Rabbit (voiced by Scott Weil in most appearances and Richard Steven Horvitz in "Omega Beaver") is Norbert and Daggett's toughest friend. He sent a threatening note to them and set up a bodyguard business so they would be his friend.
Wolffe D. Wolf (voiced by Wally Wingert) is an easygoing gray wolf who is a close friend of Norbert and Daggett and is the opposite of the typical wolfish stereotype.
Chelsea Beaver (voiced by Chelsea Schauer) is one of Norbert and Daggett's younger sisters and a female doppelgänger of Daggett. Chelsea is also manic and naive like Daggett.
Stacy Beaver (voiced by Stacy Schauer) is another of Norbert and Daggett's younger sisters and a female doppelgänger of Norbert. Stacy is also level-headed and sardonic like Norbert.
Production
Conception and development
The Angry Beavers was the brainchild of Mitch Schauer, and was co-developed by Keith Kaczorek. Prior to the series, Schauer was originally an assistant storyboard artist for other Nickelodeon shows, such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, and Hey Arnold!. Schauer also storyboarded 8 episodes of the 1992 Addams Family television series. During his time as producer of the Warner Bros. animated series Freakazoid! in 1995, Gunther-Wahl Productions Inc. (Schauer's employer at the time) requested three ideas for animated series, as the studio had the opportunity to pitch a show to Nickelodeon. One of the three ideas that Schauer presented was an early concept for The Angry Beavers. Schauer wasn't even present for the pitch meeting, his ideas being pitched for him by the production company instead. Of the three ideas, network producer Mary Harrington was intrigued by the Beavers. The initial concept of the show centered on two bad-tempered, politically incorrect beavers that hated anything that was a fad, cause, or just popular in the media. "I tend to develop things that are counterculture," stated Schauer. "I like to buck whatever is popular at the time or considered society's way of doing things, because you get more interest when you stand outside the box." Schauer was against making the beavers cute, as a response to many of the "soft, safe" character designs at the time. He also cited cartoons such as The Pink Panther, The Flintstones, and Rocky and Bullwinkle as primary influences for the show.
As production progressed, Schauer and the crew adopted real-world beaver traits into the show, with Schauer considering himself a "beaver expert" by the end. Traits adapted into the show include their endlessly growing incisors, tail slapping, and scent glands. During his time at Nickelodeon, Schauer gifted Harrington a personally signed log that was bitten by a beaver, though he later admitted in 2017 that he bit it himself.
Richard Steven Horvitz and Nick Bakay were chosen as voice actors for main beavers Daggett and Norbert, respectively. Gunther-Wahl held auditions for over 300 different actors, but Schauer settled on the two because they embodied the two beavers' characters perfectly, also being impressed by their chemistry upon being introduced to one another. He recalled the two frequently going off-script while recording, which he encouraged, considering their improvisation leading to some of the series' best moments. Schauer was influenced by classic Hollywood director Howard Hawks for the show's ad-libbing and overlapping of dialogue; a type of technique that would be used in similar animated shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Phineas and Ferb, and Family Guy.
Challenges, censorship, and "Bye Bye Beavers"
There was often tension between the show's staff and Nickelodeon, with the channel imposing seemingly arbitrary restrictions on the show's content. An example includes Season One's "Go Beavers," where they rejected a scene that would have featured a blimp crashing into an audience of people, while a scene in the same segment featuring out-of-control Zambonis that wipe into and supposedly kill a crowd of people didn't meet any objections, nor did the instances of Norbert savagely beating Daggett with a stick and ignoring his many injuries. Most infamously, the phrase "shut up" was initially censored in the 1998 segment "Alley Oops." Writer Micah Wright attributed this to then-Nickelodeon president Herb Scannell, quoting him as saying: "I don't like it when children say 'shut up,' so if we never say it on our show, children will never say it in the real world." Wright further claimed that Scannell "would make these sweeping pronouncements about the way the world worked, and the way that kids thought, and what he wanted the world to look like." Scannell even imposed a "no drag policy," which forbade characters dressing in opposite-gender clothing in order to prevent "sexual confusion" amongst the show's younger viewers. Nick Bakay, voice of Norbert, also expressed displeasure with the network, dubbing them "not very artist-friendly."
While the show was popular and was renewed for four seasons, staff continued to push against the network's Standards and Practices division. "We were significantly over budget, behind schedule, and had generally worn out our welcome [with the network]," recalled series co-developer Keith Kaczorek. As the series faced cancellation, the crew devised a finale segment, "Bye Bye Beavers," where the Beavers are informed by mail that their show is cancelled. During the segment, they openly criticize the network for cancelling shows and syndication, wrestle with their existence as cartoon characters, and even reference the censoring of the phrase "shut up." The segment was expected to be fully produced, as Nickelodeon initially approved the premise of the segment, but as production went on they reversed their decision. Production was halted as the segment went against the network's policies of forbidding any reference to a show ending or characters dying. As a result, the segment only exists in the form of leaked storyboards and audio (the latter being released by Richard Steven Horvitz, voice of Daggett, in 2006). Margie Cohn, then-Executive Vice President of the network's original programming, admitted that the segment's script was "beautifully crafted, funny, and clever," but ultimately the network was against the idea of killing off characters that its audience had grown to love.
Reception
The show received generally positive reviews from critics. Harlene Ellin of the Chicago Tribune praised the show for its humor, visuals, cultural references, and nonsensical plots, writing "Although the story lines can be pure silliness, the characters are well-developed and likable, whether they're fighting each other or working together. But most of all, [this show is] downright funny. And dam it, 'The Angry Beavers' is definitely that." Hollywood.com considered the show to be "truly the most clever and mature cartoon to air on Nickelodeon", praising its "whip-smart" dialogue and cultural references, considering it underappreciated when compared to Nickelodeon's other classic cartoons. Spencer Coriarty of Screen Rant wrote, "Together the two seem to get involved in every odd occurrence conceivable [...] the animation here is rather stunning, as is the offbeat writing which includes throwbacks to 1950s sci-fi. Creative as it is sporadic, The Angry Beavers is chaotic, nutty, whacky, and fun in the best possible way." Olivia Armstrong of Decider praised the show for appealing to older audiences, saying "Not only did you love to watch the adventures of Norbert and Daggett Beaver, but so did your parents and older siblings, without pestering you to hand over the remote. Perhaps it was the pure slapstick comedy or their bizarre, sometimes inappropriate friends and neighbors, but those beavers will go down in history as the funniest dam dwellers to ever exist and the oddest way to bring your family together." Andrea Graham of Common Sense Media spoke positively of the series, writing "While the series' humor may seem sophomoric, it's actually quite funny."
Home media
Nickelodeon and Amazon.com teamed up to release The Angry Beavers and other Nick shows on manufacture-on-demand DVD-R discs available exclusively through Amazon's CreateSpace arm.
The Angry Beavers sets, among others, were discontinued when Nick began releasing traditional DVDs of many of their series in association with Shout! Factory. The first DVD release for Angry Beavers was the Seasons 1 and 2 4-disc set on August 23, 2011. Season 3: Part 1 was released in a 2-disc set on February 28, 2012. Season 3: Part 2 was released in a 2-disc set on August 14, 2012. Season 4 (The Final Season) was released in a 2-disc set on February 4, 2014.
On July 30, 2013, Shout! Factory released the complete series set in Region 1.
In Australia, The Angry Beavers has been released on DVD by Beyond Home Entertainment.
Video games
Though the series has no official video games, Norbert and Daggett appear in Nicktoons Racing and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 as playable characters. The two also make cameo appearances in Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, and Nicktoons MLB.
Future
On January 5, 2016, Mitch Schauer mentioned on the Apathetic Enthusiasm Podcast episode titled "The Not So Angry Animator" that he would be open to the idea of bringing the series back and getting the original actors involved if he could. He also revealed that his daughter Chelsea Schauer came up with the title "ReSpooted" and that Norbert would be married and he would have children with Treeflower while Daggett would still be single.
On June 11, 2017, Patricia Miranda interviewed Schauer on her podcast titled Old School Lane and he brought up that it would be a parody of the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film The Shining. He also said he's pitched it to Nickelodeon and they've been "on and off" about it.
On January 7, 2018, Nickelodeon Animation's Tumblr page said this about the possibility of a revival: "Nothing's being whispered down the halls right now...but you never know!"
On April 19, 2022, Schauer and various people who worked on the series were interviewed again by Miranda in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the series. Mitch expanded upon the "ReSpooted" idea, stating that Norbert and Treeflower's children would be two daughters named Lily and Petunia and that Daggett would still visit them from time to time.
On March 18, 2025, Schauer was once again asked by a fan on Instagram if he had any more plans to bring back the series, only for him to respond, "Only Paramount knows for sure."