Extrano

Extrano (also known as Disney's Extrano) is an American animated mystery horror-comedy television series created by John Dathis which aired on Disney Channel, Disney XD and ABC between 1997-2021. The series follow a group of four kids, the protagonist, Tariq O'Quinn, The neurotic Harvey Patel, The geeky Bonnie Gilmore, the young and kind-of-an-airhead Eliot Gilmore, Bonnie's younger sister, and her anthropomorphic plush fox, Zorrito. Each episode, they explore a mystery in their home city of San Antonio, Texas.

John Dathis conceived the concept of the show while studying animation and writing at University of Southern California in the 1980s, and was inspired by his own adolescences when he was growing up in San Antonio, Texas. He pitched the show to Disney Channel in 1987. This led to the production of a pilot, produced by Disney Television Animation, that was screened at the Annecy Film Festival in 1993. A one-episode preview was aired on ABC in 1996, before the start of the Preseason NFL Football games. It again previewed on May 18, 1997 and officially premiered on June 9 on Disney Channel, later concluding on October 1, 2021 on Disney XD.

The show is one of the longest running animated televisions shows in America and the longest running show on Disney Channel. It received high viewership in the United States on cable television and influenced the development of merchandise, video games and several made-for-TV movies. Critics praised the writing, humor, story arcs and character development of the show, citing its appeal to a wide range of ages, however, some reviewers criticized its occasional gruesome imagery and immature jokes. The series won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2002 for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, and won several Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, Outstanding Character Voice-Over, Original Main Title Theme Music and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Premise
The show follows the adventures of "The Odd Company", consisting of Tariq O'Quinn, Harvey Patel, and Bonnie Gilmore, who are between fourteen and seventeen years old. They live in the city of San Antonio, Texas as they explore mysteries from across the city. Often these mysteries involve some sort of paranormal, supernatural, and other phenomena unexplained by science. At the end of each episode, the mystery is solved and is documented in their "Team Log". Sometimes, they're joined by Bonnie's younger sister, Eliot and/or her sentiant plush fox, Zorrito. These characters appear more often as the show continued.

Early Inspiration
John Dathis attributes the show's genesis to his own adolescence in San Antonio, Texas, where he lived in a low-income family. To occupy himself during the summer, John wrote stories about "adventuring into unknown worlds and discovering the paranormal". He was heavily inspired by the Twilight Zone, Marvel comics and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, especially Scooby Doo.

Conception
While attending University of Southern California, John studied animation and screenwriting for television. When looking back at this old stories, John decided to adapted into a screenplay as part of an assignment. Though he didn't pass, he knew that he had his show. While having lunch with his classmates, he sketched a self-portrait of his teen-self. When someone asked what he was drawing and he responded with "John Dathis Jr.", they responded with "That looks like more of an Aaron", which John misheard as "Tariq". At that point, he realized that he had a character for his show.

John used the sketch of Tariq as a base to create Harvey and Bonnie. When he showed the sketches to his friends, they said that Harvey looked like "the guy who tries to back out of near death situations" and that Bonnie looked like "an average nerdy girl". He later added Elliot as a parody of Cousin Oliver, but tweaked her to have a broader role. After graduation, he further developed the idea into "The Odd Show".

Pitching
After 5 years of development, John was ready to pitch the show. At first he had trouble finding a network to pitch the show, but after hearing about an internship at Buena Vista. he quickly applied. After a while, he pitched the show to the executives. They greenlit the idea and began production on a 30-minute pilot that was shown to Disney Channel. They weren't sure the first time, but they were later convinced after the pilot was screened at the 1993 Annecy Film Festival with great praise from critics and audiences, also where the show was renamed to Extrano to appeal to a more public audience.

Main Characters

 * Tariq O'Quinn (voiced by Jack Miller) – A 14-year-old obsessed with mystery and the paranormal
 * Harvey Patel (voiced by Chris Davis) – The neurotic friend and sidekick of Tariq O'Quinn
 * Bonnie Gilmore (voiced by Maya Henson) – A dorky AP student, on whom Tariq secretly has a crush on
 * Eliot Gilmore (voiced by Lili Wilson) – The 5-year-old younger sister of Bonnie Gilmore
 * Zorrito (voiced by Leo Carolin) – A plush fox, who is owned by Eliot Gilmore, brought to life by a guardian spirit
 * Lewis Anderson (a.k.a. Mr. Lewis, voiced by John Dathis) – The across-the-street neighbor of Tariq O'Quinn

Trivia

 * Due to the popularity of the first season, merchandise such as figurines, VHS's, DVD's, and clothing began production
 * At the end of the pilot, it's implied that Eliot originally had psychic abilities
 * The show's name originates from the Spanish word for "odd", to reflect the Spanish origins of the show's setting
 * The name "Extrano" was originally styled as "Xtrano" in the pilot, but was later changed to "Extrano" because, John Dathis thought that "Xtrano" felt too 90s, as it was nearing the 21st century
 * Due to the more comedic moments, this show spawned multiple internet memes and YTPs, more commonly, the earlier seasons