Gravity Falls

Overview

For their summer vacation, 12-year-old Dipper Pines and his twin sister Mabel are dropped off from their home in Piedmont, California to the fictitious town of Gravity Falls, Roadkill County, Oregon to live with their Great Uncle Stan Pines (often shortened to Grunkle Stan), who runs a tourist trap called the 'Mystery Shack'. Things are not what they seem in this small town, and with the help of a mysterious journal that Dipper finds in the forest, they begin unraveling the local mysteries. With appearances from Wendy Corduroy, Mystery Shack cashier; Soos Ramirez, friend of Dipper and Mabel and handyman to Grunkle Stan; plus an assortment of other characters, Dipper and Mabel always have an intriguing day to look forward to.

Main

Recurring

Concept

Prior to working on the series, series creator Alex Hirsch's primary inspiration growing up was the popular animated sitcom The Simpsons, where he observed that "animation could be funnier than live-action. That animation didn't have to just be for kids. That it could be satirical and observational and grounded in a sense of character interaction". Hirsch graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, and was hired to work as writer and storyboard artist for the Cartoon Network series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, where he was paired up with Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. Afterwards, he moved on to co-develop the Disney Channel animated series Fish Hooks; shortly before he pitched (and was subsequently green-lit) Gravity Falls.

Production

Hirsch explained in an interview with The A.V. Club during production of season 1, that a typical episode is conceived in a room reserved for writers, where a simple synopsis is presented, and from then on dramatic structure is defined, and the plot is modified to include a character-driven subplot, which Hirsch expresses as "the hardest thing ... to find a character story that actually uncovers, explores, or pushes tension—on something our characters care about—that is properly explored via the magic or monster or impossibility of the week."

B- and A-stories are created, and are given to a writer to produce an outline, which is then subsequently checked-off by Hirsch for feedback. The writer produces a draft from these edits, where more notes may be given. Hirsch states that he and creative director Mike Rianda may personally create a draft for themselves before a final script is produced, in which the dialogue from the draft received from the writer is majorly revised; Hirsch states that the revising process "is not a discredit to our writers—it's just we have a very particular vision. In particular, I usually rewrite almost all of Dipper's dialogue and most of Mabel's dialogue, just because I have them in my head. Me and Mike will stay up for about 24 hours prior to the delivery of every script. We'll take the weekend, we'll work all night, we'll drink Red Bull, we'll sleep on the couch in shifts like maniacs, we'll slap each other in the face."

A script is delivered, which then gets translated into a storyboard, where feedback is received from Hirsch to the board artists if a certain element, such as a gag, doesn't work. Afterwards, a pitch for the episode is given to the network, where they do a read-through, and then the episode is either checked out by the network, or retooled in the small amount of time allocated before an animation studio must receive something to work with.

Broadcast

The first twelve episodes of Gravity Falls aired in a regular weekly slot on Disney Channel starting in mid-2012, but subsequent episodes were broadcast without similar regularity; it took until August 2013 to broadcast the remaining eight episodes of the first season. The second season began airing a year later in August 2014, transitioning over to Disney XD, but again without any regularity to when new episodes would be first broadcast. According to Disney XD, as each episode took about six months of work to complete, they opted against stockpiling episodes to show weekly but instead take advantage of the serial nature of the show, broadcasting each episode as it was completed and making an event out of it.

Ciphers

At the end of every episode, there is a ciphered text in one of many substitution ciphers:

Season 1

Season 2

Critical reception

Gravity Falls received critical acclaim. Brian Lowry of Variety stated: "The show has a breezy quality that should play to kids, and tickle some twinges of nostalgia among their parents." Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd referred to the program as "...gently twisted, with some Disneyfied action and heart-warming folded in". In his review, David Hinckley of New York Daily News called Gravity Falls "quirky and endearing", and offered praise for the character of Mabel Pines. Matt Blum, writing for Wired, favorably compared the show to Cartoon Network's animated program Regular Show and Disney Channel's animated program Phineas and Ferb, hailing Gravity Falls as "clever, strange, and somewhat poignant". Erik Kain of Forbes called Gravity Falls "the best thing on TV at the moment". Kayla Cobb of Decider called Gravity Falls "one of the most structurally smart shows ever created"

Ratings

A special preview of the series following the Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine was watched by 3.4 million viewers. The series garnered high views on its fifth episode, which aired on July 13, 2012 and attracted 3.6 million viewers. On March 15, 2013, the episode "The Deep End" was watched by 4.5 million viewers after the premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place's The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, becoming the highest-rated episode of the series. WatchMojo.com ranked Gravity Falls as the third best cartoon of the 2010s.

Later moving on to Disney XD, the episode "A Tale of Two Stans" became the highest-rated telecast ever on Disney XD, with 1.91 million viewers. The series finale "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls" beat that record, being watched by 2.47 million viewers in the United States.

Disney Channel

The series began airing on Disney Channel Canada on September 1, 2015, following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada. In Canada the show began airing on Disney XD starting on December 1, 2015, following the launch of Disney XD.The show started broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 20, 2012 as a preview and officially premiered on September 7, 2012. In Australia and New Zealand it previewed on August 17, 2012 and premiered on September 24, 2012. It also premiered in Southeast Asia on October 27, 2012. In India it premiered on September 16, 2013. In the Middle East region, the series was previewed on October 19, 2012, and premiered on November 10, 2012. In Brazil, the first episode premiered as a sneak peek on September 30, 2012, before starting its original run on October 6, 2012.

Other

The series preview debuted in Canada on June 15, 2012 and premiered on July 6, 2012 on Family Channel, until January 2016 when it moved to the local Disney XD channel following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada from Family's owner DHX Media. In Australia, the show airs on Disney XD and 7mate while in Chile, the show is aired on Canal 13 on November 24, 2013 under its programming block CuBox. In the Philippines, the show is broadcast on TV5 beginning on May 4, 2014 while in Brazil, the show also began airing on Rede Globo on May 10, 2014. In Indonesia, the show premiered on RCTI on August 17, 2014.