North Springs

North Springs is an American created by Don Foster and Rob Farlane for. It is set in the fictional titular town in the state of, and revolves around the lives of 8-year-old boys Philly Lyndon, Tommy Briggs, Cole Makowski, and Ben Sears. The show has become very popular to due its profanity and dark, surreal comedy that satirizes numerous topics.

The series is animated in-house using two-dimensional computer animation, which has been produced by various companies over the years of the show's production. Since 2009, the series has been animated by North Springs Studio.

The series premiere, "Ben Almost Dies", was originally broadcast on June 2, 1996. In 1998, it became the second most-watched television series on pay television in the U.S., and it reached first place in 1999. 375 episodes have been aired. The show has also been adapted into a feature film and three video games.

North Springs has been nominated for numerous awards, including and. However, it has also been criticized due to its adult content.

Setting and characters


North Springs takes place during present time in North Springs, a fictional city in the U.S. state of. According to a map shown in the season 3 episode "Put Your Money Where Your Ass Is", it is located close to the West Coast.

Tommy Briggs, Philly Lyndon, Cole Makowski, and Ben Sears are the protagonists of the show. They all first appeared in the pilot episode. Supporting characters include Michael Wendy, Katie Emery, and Robert Malabrovsky.

Style and themes
Don Foster and Rob Farlane credited  and the works of George Moon as inspiration for the humor in North Springs. Their idea was to have the show look like a "kiddie" cartoon while retaining its adult themes. As a result, they created the show's simplistic art style, often excluding noses on child characters and females and fingers.

Child characters curse frequently, which Foster said was because he and Farlane know that children use strong language when adults are not present. The duo also included the element of young characters being interested in adult topics.

Conception
In 1993, Don Foster and Rob Farlane pitched an idea for an adult animated televidion series to the TBS television channel in 1994, who said they would come back to it "in a little bit."

Crew and deadline
In 1994, work on the show began. The production team given a 5-day production deadline. This was done so that the writers could catch up to recent events.

The first season took about two months to complete. The characters were designed solely by Foster and Farlane. The writers of the season alternated between Foster, Farlane, Josh Kimm, Stephen Kessman, Kay Utolo, Nic Kawl, and Daniel A. Salisbury; after season one, each season had one writer, rotating between Foster and Farlane.

Design and animation
The art and animation of North Springs were both heavily inspired by paper cutout animation. The show's animation begins with the characters. The art of a scene's characters is put into Toonwash, and after the characters are animated, a background is added.

The first two seasons were animated by Sequitur Studios. The seasons 3 and 4 were animated by Eye Identity Studios, seasons from 5 to 13 were animated by Paintcup Productions, and the show has been animated in-house by North Springs Studios since season 14.

The show is animated using EyeScope Animate and Wangong Axis 2D.

Episodes
375 episodes of North Springs have been distributed. "Ben Almost Dies", the first episode of the entire series, premiered on June 2, 1996.

Ratings and critical reception
The show was rated 8/10 by OGN, the online magazine writing, "Spectacular adult animated sitcom manages to keep its high quality to this day." It was also rated 8.2/10 by users on, and B+ by ViewBox.

Controversies
Despite the high ratings received by North Springs, the criticized the show for its sexual themes, uncensored profanity, violence, and drug references.