May 28, 2012 (2012-05-28) – March 17, 2014 (2014-03-17)
The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, or simply The Annoying Orange, is an American live-action/animated television series created by Tom Sheppard and Dane Boedigheimer for Cartoon Network. Based on the characters from the web seriesAnnoying Orange, created by Boedigheimer and Spencer Grove, it was produced by Annoying Orange, Inc., The Collective,[1] and 14th Hour Productions.[2] A preview aired on May 28, 2012,[3] and the official premiere was on June 11, 2012. The show ended on March 17, 2014, with two seasons and sixty episodes, with a total of thirty episodes per season.
The show follows the lives of Annoying Orange and his friends: the sarcastic Pear, the sassy Passion Fruit, the tiny Midget Apple, the eccentric Marshmallow, the unlucky Apple, the elderly Grandpa Lemon, and the egocentric Grapefruit. The show diverges from the YouTube series in that the Fruit Gang lives on a fruit stand in a supermarket called "Dane Boe's" (a reference to the creator Dane Boedigheimer) rather than in Dane Boedigheimer's kitchen.
A reoccurring character from the Annoying Orange YouTube series called Nerville (played by internet personality Toby Turner) now runs the supermarket (mainly as the janitor), and is the only human who can talk to the fruit.
Orange (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) is the main protagonist of the series. Much like his web counterpart, Orange is annoying, obnoxious, and partial to terrible puns, but always means well, even though his quirks often drag his friends into ridiculous adventures. The series shows another side of Orange that differs from his YouTube persona and casts him as a wacky hero.
Pear (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) is Orange's best friend, often serving as the sole voice-of-reason in the fruit stand (though he usually goes ignored).
Passion Fruit (voiced by Justine Ezarik) – Often referred to as "Passion", she is adorable, pragmatic, and smart. She has a crush on Orange, unlike the web series where the roles are reversed, to which Orange is completely oblivious, even though everyone else sees how obvious it is.
Midget Apple/Little Apple (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) is a small apple with a scrappy demeanor. He prefers to be called "Little Apple", and a running gag is that he will correct anyone who calls him "Midget Apple".
Marshmallow (voiced by Dane Boedigheimer) is a cute, eternally upbeat, and cheerful marshmallow.
Grapefruit (voiced by Bob Jennings) is a prideful narcissist with an ego problem who thinks of himself as "large and in charge" and often brags about things he's yet to accomplish. He believes he is in a rivalry with Orange for Passion Fruit's affections, but she has no interest in him.
Apple (voiced by Harland Williams) is an insecure pessimist who rarely joins Orange's adventures for fear he will get bruised, though he usually ends up even worse off by staying behind. There is a running gag where Apple gets killed and/or maimed in every episode, similar to Kenny McCormick from South Park.
Grandpa Lemon (voiced by Kevin Brueck) is the befuddled, elder statesman of the fruit stand. He thinks he is everybody's grandpa and has a habit of falling asleep mid-sentence.
Nerville (played by Toby Turner) is an employee at Daneboe's Fruit Store, where he lives, and is the only human who can talk to the fruits (as other humans dismiss it as insanity). He is a close friend to the fruits.
Supporting
Coconut (voiced by Tom Kenny) – Good-natured, but dim and hard-headed, Coconut is an occasional member of the gang, serving as the muscle when he does join.
Peach (voiced by Felicia Day) is another member of the Fruit Gang, a peach who normally makes cameos.
Broccoli Alien Overlord (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is an evil alien piece of broccoli, who speaks with an English accent, and serves as the main antagonist of the series. He is bent on enslaving Earth and becoming superior to fruit, though later his goals seem to be focused solely on destroying the Fruit Cart.
Guava (voiced by Tom Kenny) is a member of the Fruit Gang who got women's legs after dreaming about them.
Ginger (voiced by Felicia Day) is an organic ginger root who has a crush on Pear.
Elderly Banana (voiced by Tom Sheppard) is an elderly, ripe banana with a passion for the macabre and scary when within the Fruit Gang.
Big Rock Candy Monster (voiced by John DiMaggio) is a monster made entirely of rock candy and a native of the planet Marshmalia. Upset because marshmallows took their place in desserts, he swore revenge against them. After his initial appearance, he becomes a reoccurring character. He has also appeared in the Annoying Orange YouTube channel in a Gangnam Style parody video.
Boedigheimer confirmed that they had started producing a TV series based on Annoying Orange in April 2010.[7][8] Boedigheimer finished the script for the first 6 episodes of the show in October of that year.[9] When Boedigheimer began filming the pilot episode of the TV show in February 2011, they discussed with Cartoon Network about airing it on the station,[10] which was picked up on November 18 of that year.[11][12][13][14][15] The pilot episode had been completed in about 6–7 months.[16]
There were originally intended to be 6 episodes of the show, but the season 1 episode order was eventually increased to 30 segments. Subsequently, the show was green-lit for a 30-episode second season,[8][17] premiering on May 16, 2013.[18]
The show was produced by Boedigheimer, Conrad Vernon and Tom Sheppard, co-executive-produced by Spencer Grove, Kevin Brueck, Robert Jennings and Aaron Massey,[19] and produced with Gary Binkow, Michael Green and Dan Weinstein.[20][21][22]
Most of the visual effects, compositing, off-line, on-line, audio, RED Camera footage, graphics, and animation were done at Kappa Studios in Burbank, California.[23] The episodes were completed in 6 days using the Adobe Creative Suite, with each episode having 47,000 frames over stabilization. 3D software such as Cinema 4D and Lightwave were used in the second season. Production for season 2 was completed in October 2013. Despite having a lot of live-action, the show is still considered a cartoon.[24]
Cancellation
On December 5, 2014, Boedigheimer publicly confirmed the cancellation of the series on their web series, Daneboe Exposed.[25]
On April 24, 2015, Boedigheimer claimed that one of the main cause of the series cancellation was the shutdown of their studio, due to Collective Digital Studio closing their film and television division, and subsequently Collective was acquired by ex-Kirch media company ProSiebenSat.1 Media.[citation needed]
DVD releases
The series has one DVD release containing its 1st season.
A sneak peek aired on May 28, 2012, and the series officially premiered on June 11, 2012, as the #1 telecast among boys 6–11 that day.[27] In its first 2 weeks, the show averaged nearly 2.5 million viewers.[28]
