The Jeff Jones Show (1984 TV series)

The Jeff Jones Show is an American/Canadian live-action/animated series starring Jake Sanford (b. 1968) and featuring animation based on characters created by himself and other animators and writers. It was produced by CBC of British Columbia (CBUT) and Sanford Productions, with live-action/animated segments and animation by Apple Entertainment and various animation studios, and distribution by Apple Entertainment that ran for 11 seasons from February 13, 1984 to September 25, 1994. The animated monster characters later appeared in their (non-canon) 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters! by Klasky-Csupo. It aired in Syndication from 1984 to 1990 and on The Greeny Channel from 1991-1994. In Canada, it was first shown on CBC stations from 1984 to 1994 with reruns airing until 2007 and reruns starting again in 2014. It started showing on Teletoon Retro (Canada) (now showing on CBC again due to Teletoon Retro closing) and on The Greeny Channel Retro in the United States of America on February 2012, just in time for the show's 25th anniversary.

The animatronic characters were built and programmed by Creative Engineering, Inc. of Florida, United States, the puppets were built by Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop in New York, and the main set was designed and built by Sunset Construction Company.

The series spawned two spinoffs, The Kate Jones Show and Kazumi's Lucky Show and a couple of animated series and franchises based off the segments in the show. A reunion special for all three series, Return to the JeffCave aired on June 27, 2013.

Live-Action
Jake Sanford as Jeff Jones, a typical teenage (later adult) human being who has brown hair and glasses. "Season 0" said that he hates all cats, except a black cat named Spooky, who is actually Oblina in disguise, but the idea was dropped quicker than a hot potato when the series went on national television.

Various actresses as Kate Jones, Jeff's 12-year old sister who has dark brown hair and blue eyes. She was later a main character in her own TV show, The Kate Jones Show. Kate went through a total of 70 actor changes throughout the two shows, due to always being played by 12-year children who had a annoying tendency to become teenagers.

Lala Carters as Mozzi, a huge anthro monster formerly known as Katelyn Jones, Jeff's former cousin and a crazy 17-year-old, who is afraid of monsters. Jeff kicked her out of his house on the first Valentine's Day special on February 7, 1988. In the Season 4 finale, "The Christmas Misadventure", she moved away. At the end of the episode "Essex Chaos" she was transformed into Mozzi, and stayed as Mozzi until 1994, when Jeff sold her at a flea market in order to pay for the phone bills which Jack had racked up with calls to 900 numbers.

Angel "Cutie-Pie" Johnson as Kate, Jeff's new girlfriend. She became his wife in a 1994 TV special.

Chris Martin as Jeff's single dad, who lives alone at his house near Vancouver, Canada.

Jake Wrzesiński as Jack Jones, Jeff's brother, who usually hates cartoons in Season 1, and now likes them in Seasons 2 onward. He also appeared in the cartoons from Season 2 onward. According to one episode he was born in Września, Poland and was adopted by Jeff's family.

Alan Martin as himself, a 21-year old, dog-hating journalist who visited the Jones in a few episodes.

Sylvan Pirocchi as Ozzy, the owner of the Great Canadian Supermarket.

Jack Williams as himself, a news reporter at KID-TV who is obsessed with cheeseburgers, BBQ'ed beef, chicken pie, crunchy peanut butter...... and missiles. According to the episode Guess Who's Coming to Vancouver, he was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Ned Wertimer as Andy Henderson, the longest-serving reporter at KID-TV who often dozes off because of his age. Before he appeared in The Jeff Jones Show, he appeared in the 1964 B-movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Kristian "Chriserella" Michaels as Moose Edwards, Jack's girlfriend. She became his wife in a 1990 episode. Her actress Kristian Michaels is a male-to-female transgender who started her hormone therapy at the age of 10 and had just finished it at the age of 13 when she got the role. She also did many of the voices on the show (both of which were of different genders).

Vira Leonid as Yulia Waloosh, a Russian dance instructor who lives in the JeffCave. She usually instructed dance moves for the audience during specials. According to a 1993 episode, she was born in Chernobyl, Ukraine. She has a hairstyle that makes her look like her hair is on fire. She begins and spells sentences with V's and uses a Russian accent.

Sasha Sanford as Maria Mars, star reporter for KID-TV. She acts very smiliar to Kent Brockman from The Simpsons, and in one 1990 special only covered the fall of the Berlin Wall because her German cousin "Spankenhiemer" convinced her to. Her prosthetic makeup (a one-piece silicone prosthetic, silicone gloves, fat-suit, dentures and a wig) was reused for Lucretia Martina on the Dutch candid camera show Ushi & Dushi.

Barūn Kameyama as Haruko the android, a talking silver and purple robot built by Ozzy. She often appeared in specials. Her prosthetic makeup was later reused in the Bollywood film Love Story 2050.

Alina Withers as Tina the Werewolf, a female werewolf. She is naked, a thing that got past the censors (and parents). Tina often appeared in specials. Her prosthetic makeup was later used for a female werewolf in David Hayter's 2014 horror-action film Wolves.

Animated
Jeff Jones (voiced by Jake Sanford), a teenage human who wears an Ickis costume and is best friends with monsters, aliens, and bats. He looks like a humanized version of Ickis. His voice sounds a lot like the air conditioner from the 1987 film The Brave Little Toaster. He changed a bit during the show, for example, he grew a goatee in 1992. According to one episode, he was born in Vancouver, Canada.

Jack Jones (voiced by Jake Wrzesiński) Jeff's brother who is a fan of personal hijinks.

Kate (voiced by Angel Johnson), Jeff's girlfriend and future wife. She first appeared in a 1989 episode, where Jeff in bat form met her in "The Dark Cave", what the bats call their cave. Her bat form inspired the design of Marina from the TV series Silverwing (2003-2004).

Ickis (voiced by Chris Williams in 1987-1993, Houschäng Néjadepour in 1993-1994, and Charlie Adler in 1994), a little red monster who is often confused with a bat without wings because of his large ears and nocturnal eyes. According to one episode, he was born in Chilliwack, Canada. He later appeared in the 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters.

Scarlet (voiced by Jennifer Darling), Ickis' girlfriend and future wife. She wears a red dress and has red hair and purple eyelashes.

Oblina (voiced by Clara Bella in 1987-1988, show writer Valerie Mancini, in 1988-1991, and Barūn Kameyama in 1991-1994), a black-and-white monster who looks like a banded sea krait with red lips. According to one episode, she was born in Tokyo, Japan. She later appeared in the 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters. Her 3rd voice actor, Barūn Kameyama was from Tokyo like the character she voiced.

Krumm (voiced by Houschäng Néjadepour in 1992 and David Eecles from 1992-1994), an skin-colored monster with eyeballs that are not attached to his body. To humans, his armpits smell like a garbage dump. His first appearance was in the 1992 AAAHH!!! Monsters! segment "Heeere's Krumm!" He later appeared in the 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters.

Mr. Gromble (voiced by Frank Olson), the teacher in the Chuckie's Disposal monster school. He is green-gray with two tufts of hair, a beard, glasses, a tail, and a red hoof on each of his four feet. His catchphrase was "Why-ee-yeeesss?" and his voice and smile were Frank-Nelson-type. His first appearance was in the 1991 AAAHH!!! Monsters! segment "Back to Drool". The glasses were later removed and he was renamed The Gromble in 1994. He later appeared in the 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters.

Slickis and Ickette (both voiced by Frank Welker), Ickis' nurturing parents from his memories. Slickis later appeared in the 1994 Nickelodeon animated series AAAHH!!! Real Monsters, but not Ickette.

aLEx (voiced by Dave Stevens), a purple alien with a pink belly and red eyes, and two antenna-like horns.

CarL (voiced by Houschäng Néjadepour), an Argokian, a pink alien with blue, almond-shaped eyes, sharp teeth, and a forked tail.

Bryan the Shark (voiced by Sylvan Pirocchi), an anthropomorphic great white shark. He has blue eyes, a pink underside, and a belly-button. He later appeared in the 1992 Nickelodeon animated series Shark & Octopus.

Boris the Octopus (voiced by Dave Stevens), a pink Pacific giant octopus. He has yellow eyes and he squirts brown ink. He later appeared in the 1992 Nickelodeon animated series Shark & Octopus.

Budweiser (voiced by Dan Castellaneta), a yellow alien who spends a lots of his time watching TV and drinking mouthwash. For this reason, the Aliens in the House shorts were banned from Nickelodeon in 1993, but they were still shown on FOX. His voice is the same as Barney Gumble (from The Simpsons). He was renamed Bud in 1994.

Kang (voiced by Harry Shearer) and Kodos (voiced by Dan Castellaneta): two green aliens that come from a faraway planet Rigel 7. Jeff first met them at Monster Nightclub in 1988. They later appeared in The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episodes.

Mike (voiced by Houschäng Néjadepour), a red monster and a doppelganger of Ickis. Previously appeared in The Secret Meadows special.

Cutella (voiced by Sam Ellen), a pink monster and a doppelganger of Oblina. Previously appeared in The Secret Meadows special.

Geronimo Stilton (voiced by Houschäng Néjadepour), a talking mouse who lives in New Mouse City on Mouse Island. He works as a journalist and editor for the fictional newspaper The Rodent's Gazette. He appeared in the "Geronimo's Quests" segments, which were spun off into a separate franchise, named after Geronimo. He and the other characters of the GQ segments were created by Elisabetta Dami.

Thea Stilton (voiced by Kristian Michaels), Geronimo's sister. She appears in the "Thea and the Thea Sisters" segments alongside Paulina (Bryn McAuley), Colette (Jules de Jongh), Violet (Melissa Altro), Nicky (Tara Strong), and Pamela (Frank Welker impersonating 12-year old Shirley Temple). They later appeared in the Thea Stilton books. Like Geronimo, she was created by Elisabetta Dami.

I.M.EVIL (voiced by Rossen Varbanov), a crazed mad scientist who lives in a castle on top of a toilet in a school. He speaks in a Bulgarian accent and is evil. His design was later used for Tommy's "I'm Not Tommy!" form in the Rugrats episode "In the Dreamtime".

SpongeBoy (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh (credited as Josephine Sandberg in Season 6 episodes)), a childish, joyful, eccentric sea sponge who lives in a pineapple in the underwater city of Clam Acres. He works as a fry cook at The Crusty Crab, a job that he is exceptionally skilled. SpongeBoy lacks a lot of knowledge and is a constant annoyance to those around him (especially Squidward Tentacles (voiced by Rodger Bumpass)), but he is very good-natured. His friends are Patrick (Rossen Varbanov), Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), Mr. Krabs (Jake Sanford), and Pearl (Britt Allcroft). He appeared in the SpongeBoy Ahoy! segments and later appeared (now named SpongeBob) in his own series, SpongeBob SquarePants.

Jane Pea (voiced by Melissa Altro using what would later become her Pippi Longstocking voice), a imaginative girl who with her friends, Gina Lash (Rossen Varbanov), Johnny Abatti (Frank Welker), and Gordy Rhinehart (Tiffany Brissette doing her Vicki voice), go to school with Nanette Manoir and her Girl Posse, and get into all sorts of wacky hijinks. She was later renamed "Angela Anaconda" and later appeared in KaBlam shorts and her own series on Fox Family. She appeared in the Jane Pea segments.

Minor Characters
Alien from Alien (voiced by Smith Field), a talking alien who looks a lot like the creature in the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien. He only appeared in one episode from 1992, where he was found in Caleb's backyard by Ickis. Alien made a return on the 1992 film Space Case starring Caleb Martin.

Batty Koda (voiced by Dan Castellaneta), a talking fruit bat who has wires and antennas fused into his head. He only appeared on one skit, where Jeff was lost in a tropical rainforest. He later appeared in the 1992 film Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest.

Kylee (voiced by Kylie Minogue), an Australian pop singer who is famous around the world. She only appeared on one skit, where Jeff bought a ticket to her concert in Vancouver, Canada.

Kool Whisp (voiced by MC Hammer), an alien who looks a lot like Twisp, except he wears sunglasses and a hat. Like Twisp, he always pops out of a box of Kool Whisp, a la Jack-in-the-box, whenever anyone opens the box. He first appeared in the episode "Caleb M's Birthday", where Caleb attended his birthday party and opened the present, only to find out that Kool Whisp popped out of it, and he performed "The Birthday Rap (Happy Birthday, Jeff!)" (based on "Holiday Rap" by MC Miker G & DJ Sven). This character is notably created by Jay Ward himself before his death in 1989.

Twisp (voiced by Matt West), an alien who looks a lot like Quisp from Jay Ward's 1962 animated series The Karate Turtles, except he's magenta instead of pink. He only appeared in all episodes, whereas he was popping out of any obstacle or even out of nowhere. Like Quisp, he was crazy-eyed and was promoted as a "Quazy Queature". He also has the ability to shapeshift into anything ranging from teacups to boxes. In the episode "Jeff's Birthday", it is revealed that Kool Whisp hates Twisp, because Twisp hates rap music. This character is notably created by Jay Ward himself before his death in 1989.

Mark Headmann (voiced by Matt West), a parody of the Max Headroom pirate incident in some Chicago TV channels on November 22, 1987. In one episode, Jeff turned on the TV set and watched Mark get slapped by a girl with a flyswatter. Then, the TV broadcast changed to a scene of a Doctor Who parody.

Chuck Naboozle (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) is a rapping monster. He was first mentioned in the episode "Caleb M's Birthday" and was later appear in the episode "Caleb's Big Halloween Party".

Fir-Eddy (voiced by Mike Hoffman), a monster who resembles a Christmas tree. He only appeared in one Christmas special, where he shaked the ornaments off himself, after Ickis put a star on top of his head.

The Shape Bandit (voiced by then-Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür), a shape stealing cat with a German accent. He is grey and wears a beanie, a sweater, and gloves and he has only one set of whiskers. He only appeared in the 1986 episode "The Shape-Stealer". He later appears in a couple Team UmiZoomi episodes.

Draco (voiced by Vince Prince), a vampire bat who is tired of drinking blood and likes eating insects. He only appeared on five episodes and two Halloween specials.

Douglas Fir (voiced by Steve Duff), an animatronic Christmas tree that sings and dances. It only appeared in one Christmas special, where Ickis walks by it and it sings. When Ickis saw the tree, he screamed and ran away. Douglas Fir later sold in real-life stores, such as Wal-Mart, in the mid-1990's.

Screamo Jello (voiced by Audel LaRoque), a purple blob that screams a lot because he is afraid of Jeff and his monsters. Jeff ran him over with the JeffMobile in the episode "Ickis and Jeff in Blobtown". He was the blob who sang "I'm Scared", a style-parody of "I'm Not Scared" by Eighth Wonder. Viewers said that this blob resembles Scream Cheese (from Hotel Transylvania).

The BBQ Man (voiced by Hank Azaria), a mentally handicapped man who grilled objects that he thought were food with too much lighter fluid. He almost cooked Ickis and Oblina, until Jeff found him at a abandoned 76 gas station. He sounds like a low-voiced version of Cletus from The Simpsons and looks like Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. He only appeared in the 1992 special Jeff vs the BBQ Man.

Mantenna (voiced by Lou Schiemer), a red, Ickis-like monster with four legs and laser antenna-eyes. He "warp-jumped" from planet Etheria to Earth. He appeared in several episodes. He previously appeared on the 1985 TV series She-Ra: Princess of Power. In this show, his catchphrase is "I'm not Ickis!" In one episode's closed captioning, his name was misspelled as "Mantana".

Cartoon Segments

 * AAAHH!!! Monsters! (Pencil Sharpener Animation and later Klasky-Csupo, 1984-1994; characters later used on Nickelodeon's AAAHH!!! Real Monsters)
 * aLEx and CarL (Nelvana, 1984-1994)
 * I.M.EVIL (DIC, 1984-1994)
 * Zack's Zoo (Pencil Sharpener Animation, 1991-1992, cancelled after the animation studio that produced the skits went out of business, Zack (gender changed and now named Lucy) and animal characters later used on 64 Zoo Lane)
 * Aliens in the House/Space Goofs (Xilam, 1989-1994, not aired on The Greeny Channel during the daytime due to alcohol references)
 * My Friends Are Aliens (Xilam/Nelvana, 1988-1994; replaced the Space Goofs shorts on daytime Greeny Channel airings)
 * The Drunken Boat (Spümcø, 1992, cancelled due to budget cuts, alcohol references that got past the censors, and Spümcø wanting to focus on other shows)
 * Geronimo's Quests (Geronimo Animation S.r.l., 1991-1994, characters later used in Geronimo Stilton books)
 * Thea and the Thea Sisters (Geronimo Animation S.r.l., 1991-1994, characters later used in Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton books)
 * Jane Pea (MeMe Animation, 1988-1994)
 * SpongeBoy Ahoy! (Tomboy Cartoons, 1989-1994, characters later used in SpongeBob SquarePants)

Live-Action
Seasons "0" (the time in 1983 spent as a local program on CBUT), 1, and 2 were filmed at the VPW studio at 657 Stafford St. in Winnipeg, Canada. As a result, the actors and actresses were flown in from Vancouver (where Jake Sanford lived), Toronto (where Jake Wrzesiński had lived since moving from Poland), Boston, Massachusetts, United States (where Kate Jones' original actress, Alina Withers, lived), and Sacarmento, California, United States (where Lala Carters lived) to Winnipeg. The set at the time resembled the interior of Jake Wrzesiński's childhood home in Poland. When Season 3 came around, filming moved to a converted elementary school in Vancouver's outskirts, nicknamed "A+ Studios" in the show credits and by the show staff. The gym was converted into a set known as "The Jeff Cave" which was located in a abandoned mine in Chiliwack, according to a early Season 6 episode. A hole was made (and fitted with a roll up door) in the gym wall to serve as the exiting and entering area of the "JeffMobile". The JeffMobile was a converted 1982 Ford Country Squire station wagon (though six of the 16 JeffMobiles were converted Mercury Colony Park station wagons from 1983, 1988, and 1990). The show also featured live animals trained by show writer Valerie Mancini's husband Mark Anderson and later her cousin Anna Mancini after Mark was killed in a "freak cheeseball incident" where he fell onto TTC tracks and was run over by a subway trainset (ironically the same trainset that collided with another in the Russell Hill accident). The Great Canadian Supermarket scenes were filmed at Wallace Avenue Studios in Toronto. Scenes were shot on a camera system which used S-VHS cassettes, nicknamed the "Hogger" by the staff. The Hogger required six people to operate. After live-action filming was done the tapes were transferred to master tapes at Mr. Edit Video Services in Vancouver.

Animation
Episodes were animated after the studios got storyboards from the creators of the shorts. After the skits were animated they were sent to Canada on NTSC, SECAM, and PAL format tapes and transferred to the master tapes at Mr. Edit Video Services.

The ''AAAHH!!! Monsters!'' segments used a special animation technique.


 * The backgrounds were miniature sets (made with various materials and usually built on 2 or more 4 by 8 feet (1,200 mm × 2,400 mm) sheets of plywood) built by the team who later made the sets for the preschool TV series Theodore Tugboat that were photographed using a large picture camera.
 * The characters and some objects were animated by hand by animators at Pencil Sharpener Animation (later at Klasky Csupo) and were cells photographed onto pictures of the sets.
 * Special effects were drawn on a Alias-1 program on a SGI workstation and animated using computer animation controlled by a joystick (one based using the blueprints of the joysticks used in the Project Gemini rocketships). Alias Research custom built the system for the show.

Make-up
Make-up was done for the live-action segments by Fred Phillips, Janna Phillips & Ve Neill. Jake Sanford and Janna Phillips make the prosthetic makeup pieces for Mozzi, Haruko, and Maria Mars. Lala Carters described the Mozzi makeup in a interview for Fox News in 2008:

"Grueling yes – because the work everyday was hard. Mozzi's make-up, dealing with daddy long legs arachnids and paint peeling off walls … If I remember correctly – the Mozzi makeup for my face took five hours to get on and three to get off. It was terrible and Chris Martin wouldn’t sit by me during lunch break of the episode where Moose and Mozzi worked to get a dance crew for the JeffCave because he thought I was too ugly.".

Main Theme
The theme song was "You Think You're a Man" by Divine and the ending theme was "Boing Boom Tschak" by Kraftwerk ("Showroom Dummies" for Season 1 and 2 episodes).

Soundtrack

 * In "The Underground (monster nightclub)" setting, the music is usually an Italo-Disco, Hi-NRG, New Beat, or Acid House tune (Eurodance in 1994 episodes).
 * When Jeff met Kang and Kodos, the music in the background was a slightly faster remixed version of "Angel Eyes" by Lime. The same version of this song appeared at a costume-dance party in a 1989 Halloween Special and the series finale segment of Thea and the Thea Sisters.
 * When Jeff and Jack are stopping bullies in an 1993 anti-bullying episode, a slightly 120-beat version of "Babe, We're Gonna Love Tonight" is heard.
 * Many of the songs in this show were performed by Italian-born show head writer Sylvan Pirocchi and composed by Spanish-born Toronto based musician "DJ Mike Esposito".
 * Some episodes such as "It's Not Candy" and the banned episode "Ickis, What are You Doing?" use a song that sounds like an instrumental version of "Roadrunner" by UK as a part of their soundtracks.
 * Some episodes, including "Jeff Meets Mantenna" and some aLEX and CarL segments, use "Galactica" by Rockets. This song was later used in Caleb's 2012 film Argok: A Musical Alien Story.
 * Other songs heard in this show are "Dolce Vita" by Kristian Conde, "Happy Station" by Fun Fun, "The night is wild in the forest..." by Fresh, "Happy Song" by Baby's Gang, "Into the Night" by Michael Fortunati, "Marinero" by Lucia, and "Upside Down" by Coo Coo.

Episodes

 * Season 0 (1983)
 * Season 1 (1984)
 * Season 2 (1985)
 * Season 3 (1986)
 * Season 4 (1987)
 * Season 5 (1988)
 * Season 6 (1989)
 * Season 7 (1990)
 * Season 8 (1991)
 * Season 9 (1992)
 * Season 10 (1993)
 * Season 11 (1994)
 * Unaired/Test episodes

List of Other TJJS Media

 * The Jeff Jones Movie (1988, released by Clubhouse Pictures and Apple Entertainment)