Bobby's World

History

Howie Mandel said that he accidentally created the voice that would be later used to voice Bobby when he was choking on a piece of cake. Two of Mandel's friends Jim Fisher and Jim Staahl signed an agreement with the Fox Corporation's then newly created television division in 1989. Fisher and Staahl asked Mandel to join them in creating a show based on Mandel's Bobby character and voice. Mandel said that he believed Fox did not think his stand-up routines were "family entertainment." He, Fisher, and Staahl (co-producers) recalled stories from their childhoods as they discussed the formation of the show. Mandel stated "that was the seed of Bobby's World." Later stories from the childhoods of writers Dianne and Peter Tilden along with Mitch Schauer were used as the basis of many of the stories. The other characters on the show were mixes of characteristics of the creators' parents' friends and relatives. Specifically, Uncle Ted was based on Fisher and Staahl's former comedy partner in a comedy trio formed by the three after leaving Chicago's Second City, called The Graduates. Amazingly, that partner Tino Insana read for and won the part of Uncle Ted.

During his standup routines, Mandel would commonly go into character with the same voice as Bobby, often conversing with an unseen "parent".

The voices of Kelly Generic (Bobby's sister) and Martha Generic (Bobby's mother) are based on two recurring characters Gail Matthius played when she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1980. Martha is based on the character Roweena, a chain smoking hair stylist with an Upper Midwestern accent who gets into arguments with her best customer Nadine (Denny Dillon), while Kelly Generic is based on the character Vicky, a valley girl who annoys others with her shallow questions and rambling stories and often is seen with her friend Debbie (also Dillon).

Mitch Schauer drew the designs for the main characters. Bobby's character design was based on Schauer's then four-year-old son.

In the United States, starting in 1996, the show was open-captioned; this was intended as an aid to help younger children learn to read.

According to a stand up video posted on YouTube, Mandel mentions that they are working on new episodes.

On February 12, 2007, the character Bobby made a surprise appearance on an episode of Deal or No Deal.

Episodes can occasionally be seen in syndication, on a variety of websites, on Netflix or on Comcast's On Demand service.

Possible revival

In an April 2006 online interview, Mandel expressed his desire for a possible re-launch of the series.

In November 2014, it was announced that Mandel told a crowd at Comikaze that plans to revive the series were in motion.

Show format

Episodes often consist of a short live-action segment either before or after the main story (and sometimes both before and after). The segment would include Mandel describing some aspect of the story and often relating it back to his personal childhood. Often very similar. Sometimes during these segments, the character of Bobby would appear in animated form and converse with Mandel. Other times, a live action child would appear and exchange words with Mandel. Endings of the show also featured Mandel breaking the "fourth wall" by talking to viewers about the preceding episode. In some part of the episode, Bobby will break the fourth wall by telling the audience his perspective on life.

Bobby Generic

Robert Adelvice "Bobby" Generic (voiced by Howie Mandel using the same voice he used for Skeeter in Muppet Babies) is the main character of the series, a four- (five- in seasons 2 through 6, then six- in seasons 7 and 8) year-old little boy with huge imaginations. An imaginative Bobby claims however that he came from a magical place called "Bobbyland" where he ruled everything. Scenes with Bobby most often involve elaborate literal interpretations of the popular or colloquial sayings uttered by other characters during the show (i.e. a "traffic jam" becomes Traffic Jam, as Bobby imagines spreading tiny cars and trucks on a piece of bread and taking a bite). When he enters contests, he tends to end up losing because Bobby ends up being himself instead of using his common sense.

Bobby has spiky black hair. In "Bobbyland", he wears a white sailor-like hat with a black tassels, white shirt with short sleeves, blue navy sailor collar with white stripes, blue shorts with two white buttons, white socks and black Mary Jane shoes. On earth, he wears a white shirt with red short sleeves, red shorts and blue sneakers.

Generic family members

The Generic family's surname is pronounced "JEN-uh-rick" to make it sound like the word "general", but uttered as "jin-AIR-ic!" (as in the prescription classification) by other characters.

Recurring characters

Home video releases

From 1994 to 1998, Fox Kids Video released VHS titles of the series.

In 2004, Anchor Bay Entertainment released two best-of compilations- Classic Scratch 'n' Sniff Episodes and The Signature Episodes on DVD in Region 1. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

On December 15, 2011, it was announced that MoonScoop Group had acquired the rights to the series and planned to release all eight seasons of Bobby's World on DVD in Region 1 via Amazon.com's CreateSpace program in early 2012. These are manufacture-on-demand releases, available exclusively through Amazon.com. All seasons were made available for purchase on March 13, 2012.

Video game

A video game based on Bobby's World was made for the Super NES in 1994. It was developed by Riedel Software Productions and published by Hi Tech Entertainment. In the game, Bobby's mother tells him to clean his room. As he is cleaning his room, Bobby starts daydreaming about a toy. After beating a level, Bobby has another daydream about another toy that he puts away.

Broadcast history

During its original run, Bobby's World was seen on Fox Kids. After it was cancelled in 1998, reruns began airing on Fox Family (now Freeform) until 2001.

The series was available in its entirety on Netflix instant streaming and Kabillion as well. It's now available on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

International broadcast