8 /10 1 Votes8
No. of seasons 1 First episode date 4 October 1997 | 8/10 IMDb Country of origin United StatesCanada No. of episodes 24 Final episode date 25 April 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Voices of Harvey AtkinRobert TinklerTracey MooreTony RosatoPatrick McKennaDan HennesseyRon RubinAron TagerCatherine DisherJohn StockerTony DanielsRick Jones Executive producer(s) Patrick LoubertMichael HirshClive A. SmithRobert RossGwenn Saunders Eckel Cast Harvey Atkin, Robert Tinkler, Tracey Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police is an American/Canadian animated television series starring Sam & Max, a duo of private investigators composed of Sam, an anthropomorphic dog, and Max, a lagomorph or "hyperkinetic rabbity-thing." The show was created by Steve Purcell, also creator of the original comic book series. The series first aired in October 1997 on Fox Kids in the United States and YTV in Canada, producing 24 episodes and winning the 1998 Gemini Award for "Best Animated Series" before it was canceled in April 1998. With the exception of the first and last episodes, which each had a running time of about 20 minutes, each episode was approximately 10 minutes in length, and were usually aired in pairs.
Contents
Premise
The series revolves around the freelance police accepting missions from the mysterious Commissioner, whom they have never seen. The assignments usually lead them into far-off and exotic locales such as the Moon, Mount Olympus, the center of the Earth or the mutant inhabited waters of Bohunk Lagoon. In between these assignments, the pair also manage to squeeze in fridge-spelunking, time traveling, Bigfoot-hunting and numerous other escapades. There were also holiday themed episodes, such as visiting a prison on Christmas and delivering an artificial heart on Valentine's Day.
Characters
VHS
Selected episodes from the series had been released in three separate compilations on VHS by Sullivan Entertainment. The episodes included in the VHS compilations are as follows:
DVD
On March 11, 2008, the complete series was released by Shout! Factory. Features include original case art by Steve Purcell, three 'educational' shorts, an interview with Purcell, a short featurette about Telltale Games, an art gallery, an "Original Series Bible", a flash-based cartoon titled 'Our Bewildering Universe' and a playable demo of Ice Station Santa. A sticker of the Sam & Max title card was also included.
Web release
GameTap announced on October 11, 2006 that they would be releasing one episode from the series each week on GameTap TV, as a promotion for Telltale Games' Sam & Max: Season One. Their schedule includes a release of every episode, appearing out of order. Up until mid-July 2008 all episodes (except "Fools Die on Friday", possibly due to the September 11 terrorist attacks) were available to watch online at GameTap for free until the GameTap TV section was closed down as part of a site redesign. The series is now available for free streaming on YouTube via the YTV Direct channel.