Stressed Eric

Stressed Eric
Genre	Black comedy
Created by	Carl Gorham
Written by	Carl Gorham Michael Hatt Gavin Rodgers
Directed by	Steve Ressel Steve Loter Cathy Malkasian Peter Western Roger Mainwood Kim Burden
Voices of	Mark Heap (original version) Hank Azaria (USA version) Morwenna Banks Rebecca Front Gordon Kennedy Doon Mackichan Geoffrey McGivern Paul Shearer Alison Steadman
Composers	Peter Baikie Mat Clark
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producers	Arlene Klasky Gábor Csupó Miles Bullough (series 2) Claire Jennings
Producers	Carl Gorham Mitch Watson Hank Azaria (USA version)
Editor
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Absolutely Productions Klasky Csupo
Distributor	BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network	BBC Two
Original release	20 April 1998 (1998-04-20) – 11 October 2000 (2000-10-11)
External links
Production website

Stressed Eric is a 1998 British adult animated television series that was produced by Absolutely Productions for the BBC Two television channel in the United Kingdom and Television New Zealand. The series revolves around Eric Feeble, a middle class man who is always stressed because of his family, work, co-workers, etc.^[1] The show ran for two series in the UK, although the redubbed American version broadcast on NBC only lasted for 1 series.

Overview[]

40-year-old Eric Feeble is still upset over his divorce two years before. He lives in a middle-class London house and is always kept under extreme amounts of pressure and stress from all aspects of life, which is represented by a throbbing vein in his temple. His two children, Brian and Claire, plague him with fear and worry daily. Claire is a frail 6-year-old who is allergic to virtually everything, including wheat, ponies, and spices; 10-year-old Brian has learning problems and has been kept back three straight years in school, and has an oral fixation and pica. The family's au pair housekeeper, Maria, is an 18-year-old Portuguese woman with a serious drinking problem; despite Eric's frequent attempts to keep her under control and focused, she stays passed-out drunk for hours at a time. His former wife Liz left him for a Buddhist but phones him up incessantly, which merely adds to his stress level. The next-door neighbours, the wealthy, successful, snobbish Perfect family, provide him a constant and painful view of what his life could have been.

Eric's workplace is absolutely no escape from his everyday problems. His boss, Paul Power (known as PP), is loud, rude and demanding; he has demoted Eric from Assistant Manager to a low-level clerk in an office sandwiched between the janitor's closet and the men's toilets. His secretary Alison is completely useless, spending all her "working hours" in personal phone calls and shrilling rudely at Eric when he requests her attention.

At the end of almost every episode, as the climax of events cause Eric's stress to reach breaking point, the throbbing vein emerges from his temple and wraps itself around his neck, strangling him.^[2]

Characters[]

Main[]

• Eric Feeble (Mark Heap) – Stressed out divorced father of two children. Eric is a kind, well-meaning man who loves his children. Although bitter and sarcastic about many aspects of his life, Eric genuinely tries to make the best out of situation and deeply loves his children, going to great lengths to make them proud. However, he normally fails due to no fault of his own, and the rare times he actually does well, something always happens to ruin it.
• Claire Feeble (Morwenna Banks) – Daughter of Eric; allergic to just about everything, but an intelligent, curious, playful little girl. Her allergies require her to eat special regulation food, but she is always sneaking ordinary food which immediately swells her up.
• Brian Feeble – Son of Eric; has been held back in school for 3 years straight. He has pica and as a result, is always putting strange things in his mouth.
• Maria Gonzalez (Doon Mackichan) – The Feeble family's punk-looking live-in au pair; she is Portuguese and always drunk or hungover.

The broadcast of the series on NBC in the United States replaced Mark Heap's voice with that of Hank Azaria, whom also serves as a producer for the dub,^[3] repurposing Eric as an American expatriate.^[4]

Supporting[]

• Liz (Rebecca Front) – Eric's eccentric former wife.
• Caleb – Liz's boyfriend.
• Ray Perfect (Alexander Armstrong) – Snobbish and "perfect" next-door neighbour of Eric. Shares Eric's workplace, but is senior and consistently praised for his fine work.
• Sue Perfect (Alison Steadman) – Snobbish wife of Mr. Perfect. Catchphrase: "How art thou, Eric?"
• Heather Perfect (Morwenna Banks) – Snobbish daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.
• Paul Power, a.k.a. P.P (Geoffrey McGivern) – Boss of Eric who is usually very angry. Catchphrase: "Double arseburgers, Eric!"
• Alison Scabie (Doon Mackichan) – Eric's useless secretary who spends all her time on the telephone gossiping to friends.
• Doc (Paul Shearer) – Eric's dementedly relaxed doctor, more interested in chasing women than treating Eric. He is the closest thing Eric has to a best friend.
• Mrs. Wilson – An old lady who slowly tries in vain to post a letter which always falls from her hand and into a drain, sometimes with Eric to blame. Catchphrase: "Morning, Mister Eric. Just off to the post..."
• Gordon Kennedy voices various characters

Episodes[]

Series 1 (1998)[]

Series 2 (2000)[]

Broadcast and production[]

The show was first broadcast on BBC2 in April 1998 and ran for two series.^[5][6] Stressed Eric was bought and briefly aired by NBC and adapted for American audiences with the lead characters' voice redubbed and re-worked as an American expatriate with several original lines changed for cultural purposes, a new opening sequence that reflects the changed storyline and cutting scenes for time constraints.^[7]

Stressed Eric continued when Hibbert Ralph produced the second series. The second series was animated by Varga Studio instead.

Reception[]

The U.S. version of Stressed Eric received mostly negative reviews by American critics.

In a positive view, Variety noted that the lead character "is so unfathomably pathetic that he makes Homer Simpson look like Bill Gates" and was critical of the decision to redub the series in American English, but stated that the series was otherwise "wry and smart".^[8]

Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times said that the series "seems to be trying to out-do 'South Park' for sheer tastelessness in an animated series" and that Azaria "may be able to make Eric likable, but it’s going to be an uphill battle" since "the characters on 'Stressed Eric' [...] come across as alienated, crass and nasty."^[9]

Tom Shales of The Washington Post expressed his surprise at the fact that the cartoon originally ran on the BBC—a broadcaster he felt "a history of great TV"—since "the British cartoon seems mainly an imitation of American cartoon hits like Fox's 'The Simpsons' and 'King of the Hill,' instead of the kind of thing the British do best." He also had a low opinion of the title character, calling him "an imbecilic stumblebum who appears to deserve the bad things that happen to him" and negatively comparing him to Homer Simpson.^[10]

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News gave the programme a two-star rating. He hoped that "Azaria's narration will be a little slower than that of the British voice performer" but remarked that "Eric is such a bumbler and his life is so stressful that it isn't much fun to watch." He also thought the comparison to South Park in the series' promos was foolish, noted that it ran against another Americanized version of a British series—Whose Line is it Anyway?—and remarked that "as good as it is to get some original programming in the summer, 'Stressed Eric' is so routine that it's difficult to understand why it has won awards across the ocean."^[11]

DVD release[]

The Complete Stressed Eric Collection was released on DVD in the UK on 2 May 2011, with the following special features:

• The Story of Stressed Eric
• Drawing the Characters with Stig Bergqvist
• Audio Commentaries
• Animatic of Nativity Episode
• BBC Trails
• Storyboard Excerpt from Pony Episode

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Stressed Eric

• Official Absolutely Productions Site
• Stressed Eric at BBC Online
• Stressed Eric at IMDb