Greeny Phatom

Greeny Phatom is an American-Canadian television series that aired it's first episode first episode on August 13, 1995 and has been going on ever since, but it has been announced that the series will end with the Season 25 episode Goodbye to Little Guy on April 25, 2020.

Episodes
see: Greeny Phatom/Episode Guide

Video games
see: Greeny Phatom/Video Games

Production
In 1989, Robert Stainton created two characters, Big Guy and Dr. Benson, which would later become Little Guy and Dr. Beanson. He called the series "Greeny Phantom" at first, but a copyist made an error when creating his business card, instead of spelling it "Greeny Phatom", however, Robert decided to keep it as it sounded "unique". He and James Sharp first pitched the series to Filmation, who liked it but chose not to produce it because they were being sold. Robert later pitched the series to Hanna-Barbera (who rejected it because they thought it was "too stupid" of an idea for them), DiC Entertainment (who rejected it due to Andy Heyward finding the idea "more fit for a indie comic book"), Ruby-Spears (who rejected it due to Robert being absent due to an appendix operation), Warner Bros. Television (who rejected it due to James Sharp arriving late), and Walt Disney Television (who rejected it due to it being "screwed-up" and "creepy").

In 1990, Big Guy and Dr. Benson's names were changed to Little Guy and Dr. Beanson, Robert shelved the series in 1991, until Sunday, July 18, 1993, when James Clayton met Robert while on vacation, Robert told him of Greeny Phatom, James was interested, and signed a deal with CINAR, a Canadian company James worked at, to fund the series, Robert started working on the pilot episode, there was one problem though, Robert and James were only given a week to produce the pilot, and on short notice hired the Chicago-based animation studio Jeepney Films to produce the pilot. Studio founder Jhonny "Joe" Montemayor directed and co-produced the pilot with Robert and James, with Robert and his friends doing much of the voice acting. Jeepney Films completed the pilot with hours to spare as the deadline came.

As soon it was finished, Robert invited some kids to watch the test screening of the pilot episode with their parents, the pilot was test screened at an event at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago on Friday, January 21, 1994 at 5:30 pm, the parents found it "a bit too dark for kids", but the kids liked it, Robert decided to pitch the series to Fox Kids Network, and shortly after, Robert and James got a call from Haim Saban that the series was greenlight for 1995, the pilot episode aired on Saturday, October 29, 1994 at 10/9c, but the series wouldn't air it's first actual episode until Sunday, August 13, 1995 at 10/9c, it was aired on Sunday due to test which meant that the episode aired on the regular Fox Network, Greeny Phatom went on to be such a success that Robert and James went to the October 1995 MIPCOM in France where they put the series' foreign rights up for sale, and managed to get the series sold to 150 broadcasters worldwide successfully. Robert also signed a deal with Remco to produce toys for the series.

In 2000, Jeepney Films went on strike because they were paid less for their job as storyboard artists and external animation staff on Greeny Phatom. An agreement couldn't be reached in time, and as a result Jeepney Films were fired and CINAR's in-house animation team were sworn in as a replacement.

In late 2003, due to CINAR's growing legal issues, CINAR's animation team were replaced by Studio Lightbulb, a minor-league Japanese animation studio which was used as an animation outsourcing studio in some earlier episodes.

Schedules

 * Seasons 1-4: Saturday Mornings at 10/9c
 * Seasons 5-14: Saturday Mornings at 7/6c
 * Seasons 15-19: Sunday Evenings at 10/9c
 * Seasons 20-23: Saturday Mornings at 10/9c
 * Seasons 24-25: Weekday-Saturday Mornings at 10/9c (weekdays reruns only)