Beetlejuice (TV series)

Plot

Episodes

Characters

Main

• Beetlejuice – A ghost and the main and title character of the show, who enjoys eating bugs and is known throughout the Neitherworld as a prankster. He is the oldest son of Gnat and Bee Juice, and he has a "disgustingly cheerful" younger brother, called Donny Juice. Beetlejuice was named after the star Betelgeuse. Beetlejuice is able to change shape, transform and conjure objects, teleport, and perform other feats of magic, although his powers can be reduced by various circumstances, such as when he feels fear, or when his head becomes separated from his body. At times, he must pause to think of exactly how to use his powers to escape a precarious situation unscathed. Due to what is later described in the series as his "juice", whenever Beetlejuice utters aloud a figure of speech, he or his surroundings change to act on the pun. Almost all of his transformations maintain the black-and-white striped pattern he wears on his suit, although sometimes the stripes are colored depending on the transformation. Though many Neitherworld denizens have some magic, it is Beetlejuice's greatly superior power that affords him the title—albeit mostly self-asserted—of "The Ghost With The Most" ; in fact, on multiple occasions, Beetlejuice was able to effortlessly subdue a number of supernatural beings, and his dis-corporeal, self-sentient brain once claims that Beetlejuice's power is more than enough to conquer the whole Neitherworld. Because of that power, almost everyone in the Neitherworld is fair game for his pranks, though no more so than he himself, since he is not immune to careless use of his power. Sometimes Beetlejuice will mix up one of his transformations, due to homophone-based confusion. At times, various of his body parts manifested minds of their own, independent of Beetlejuice's control, with his brain and even his entire skeletal system having to abandon him once. Beetlejuice's main pastime is pulling various pranks on the other denizens of the Neitherworld such as Jacques, Ginger, The Monster Across the Street, Poopsie, the Mayor and in the Living World it is Lydia's rival Claire Brewster and occasionally her parents.

• Lydia Deetz – A Goth girl in her preteens at the start of the series, and early teens later in the series. Lydia's favorite hobby is reading literary classics such as the collective works of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King and other Gothic and horror writers. She is established as being a creative, bright, lively, sharp, yet eccentric young girl, but otherwise Lydia's unique outlook on life makes her stand out from most of the other school-girls, which leaves her feeling out of place and alone in the real world, finding it difficult to fit in well with most of her classmates—leading her to frequently visit and seek out reassurance with her closest friend, Beetlejuice, in the Neitherworld, where she is accepted and loved for who she is as a person. Her regular outfit at home is a long dark purple top, a pair of black leggings, a light purple and pink sash tied around her waist and black slipper-shoes. Her Neitherworld attire consists of a large spiderweb pattern red poncho, over a full-body black Unitard. Lydia is a talented photographer, seamstress, and artist with an affinity and love for all things gross, scary, weird, surreal and macabre, and who celebrates all that is 'strange and unusual'. Despite her love of all things 'strange and unusual', Lydia is also a positive, well-mannered, friendly and patient girl, and aside from also being emotionally mature for her age, Lydia can be accredited as being very responsible for a girl in her age group. Lydia is also shown to be a naturalist, shown to feel very strongly about environmental issues, even to the extent of chaining herself to a tree, which Beetlejuice soon brought to life to save it from being cut down. Lydia has also shown that she is extremely gifted with anything mechanical and understands a lot about cars. In the series, Lydia attends "Miss Shannon's School for Girls" and is in the seventh grade. As mentioned, Lydia is Beetlejuice's best friend; and in the events of the pilot episode, Critter Sitters it is revealed she and Beetlejuice have already known each other for a year, as they are celebrating their first anniversary of friendship. Beetlejuice frequently addresses her as "Lyds" or "Babes" rather than "Lydia" though he does use her full name from time to time, like when he is scared, amused, or worried about her; for example: in "Worm Welcome" when Beetlejuice found out that "Worm Your Way" deodorant causes baby Sandworms to go crazy, he was scared Lydia would be eaten by the baby Sandworm, this, in turn, makes himself shout her name. Lydia knows how to summon Beetlejuice to her presence or make her own way to his: by calling his name aloud three times. Unlike Beetlejuice himself, Lydia is almost universally loved by the Neitherworld denizens, and she once won a Neitherworld award for Cutest Mortal to Ever Visit the Neitherworld. Having found herself a kindred spirit in Beetlejuice, Lydia looks up to Beetlejuice in many ways, primarily admiring his outrageous sense of humor. In one episode, Beetlejuice lent Lydia his funny bone so she could be funny as part of a school show, but without his funny bone Beetlejuice became much more serious and normal; this change in him even disappoints Jacques and Ginger. When Beetlejuice gets his funny bone back however, he becomes his abnormal self again much to Lydia's delight as she hugs him. It is revealed in "It's A Wonderful Afterlife", that if she had never met Beetlejuice, Lydia would have become an unhappy, social recluse, and not have had the confidence to stand up to Claire Brewster's bullying; indicating that Beetlejuice's friendship and dedication to her is the source of Lydia's own self-confidence. Although most of Beetlejuice's antics are motivated by self-amusement rather than malice, he can become genuinely hostile if Lydia is threatened, and any who might conceivably threaten their relationship. These are the objects of Beetlejuice's profound jealousy and resentment. However, Lydia never shows any romantic interest in anyone else except Prince Vince, and that quickly turns into a straight-out friendship. In the episode "Out of My Mind", Lydia is teleported inside Beetlejuice's mind, and it is learned that he actually has a working shrine to her in his head. During this time, she gave a donation towards the maintenance of his shrine to her.

  Supporting

Peaceful Pines inhabitants

• Charles Deetz – Lydia's father, a nervous man who likes quiet and calm activities. He also has a terrible allergy to dogs. One of his favorite hobbies is ornithology, which he seems to be very fond of, and he also likes baseball. He is closer to Lydia than Delia is, as they share a love of baseball. He is often the victim of Beetlejuice's continuous pranks and mischief. Despite this, Beetlejuice is oddly quite fond of him, probably because Charles is one of the few people who is always falling for his pranks, usually when Beetlejuice is in his "real-world" guise of "Mr. Beetleman". Charles' catchphrase is "Try to relax. Try to relax.".
• Delia Deetz – Charles Deetz's wife and Lydia's mother. Delia is an eccentric, air-headed yuppie, who is also somewhat self-absorbed. She deludes herself that she is both a great cook and a great artist, and hankers after new clients; however, both her cooking and her surreal art are not well received and Delia just cannot understand why her art is rejected or laughed at. Also, due to her eccentric/air-headed/yuppie nature, Delia is not easily frightened, unlike her husband; being a surrealistic artist, she mistakenly thinks that the frightening things she experiences are part of something else. While she talks about wanting to express her creativity, she also tries to get Lydia to give up her love for scary stuff and focus on cute "normal" stuff ; this was emphasized briefly in "Critter Sitters" and was the plot of one of the stories in the comic book. While in the film, the fact that Delia is Lydia's stepmother is made clear, in the cartoon this fact is never pressed upon.
• Percy – The Deetz family's pet black cat, an animal so high-strung that he makes Charles look relaxed. Considering the amount of torment that Beetlejuice puts Percy through, this is not really surprising. Although Percy is most times a victim of Beetlejuice's pranks, he sometimes manages to take revenge on him, in more than one way.
• Bertha – Lydia's friend from school. She is tall, gangly and has an overbite. Bertha loves to swoon over teen boys, read teen magazines, and eat chips. Like Lydia, she too shares a passion for anything strange and unusual. Beetlejuice refers to her as 'Burp'.
• Prudence – Lydia's other friend from school, who is a lot smaller than Bertha. Like Lydia and Bertha, Prudence is interested in anything strange and unusual but doesn't like anything too scary. She is a straight-A student who loves to read. Beetlejuice refers to her as 'Prune'. But he does appear to get on well with both her and Bertha. In the episode "Brides of Funkenstein", Beetlejuice helped Prudence become more confident during the group's brief time as a rock band. He also praised her and Bertha's bravery during a camping trip in the Neitherwoods when they saved him and Lydia from a sandworm attack. Also when Betty Juice was running for school president, he tried to get them on board supporting his campaign.
• Claire Brewster – Lydia's upperclass rival and Beetlejuice's second rival from school. Claire is the epitome of the 'spoiled little rich girl' stereotype and a typical spoiled princess; being overindulged by her parents, Claire believes everything should go her way and because of that, she clashes with Lydia, serving as a personality foil for Lydia in the series. Claire hates Lydia Deetz with a passion and swears to embarrass or outdo Lydia at every opportunity,, but the one person she hates more than Lydia is Betty Juice. For the most part, Lydia tries to ignore Claire's scathing remarks, comments and attempts to humiliate her, not wanting to validate any of Claire's actions, but nevertheless there is many a time when Claire gets under her skin, and Lydia dreads being humiliated in front of Claire. Claire is a narcissist who believes she is the prettiest, beloved and most popular girl of all, and abuses any power she's given. Claire is not only egotistical and overtly vain, she is also outright cruel, unapologetic, and incredibly obnoxious and seems to have no redeeming values whatsoever; she also reacts very badly to anyone who is prettier than her, as shown in "Foreign Exchange" when she deliberately embarrassed Alex Spenceten, a female foreign exchange student from Scandinavia. In "Brides of Funkenstein", it is revealed that Claire is tone deaf. Claire's vanity and narcissism are further demonstrated in an episode where she and Lydia design a haunted house. Believing that everyone would want to see "her in danger" she filled the house with cardboard cutouts of herself, rather than anything that was actually scary.

  Neitherworld inhabitants

• Jacques LaLean – A French skeleton bodybuilder and neighbor of Beetlejuice. A running gag in the series entails Jacques getting broken into multiple pieces, often thanks to Beetlejuice, who will then proceed to call a number of random dogs upon him. In spite of such antics, Jacques actually likes Beetlejuice and it is revealed that Beetlejuice reciprocates this despite his vehement pretensions to the contrary. He pursues a dream of becoming a great bodybuilder, a mostly comedic endeavor as he has no muscles nor a body to devote fitness to, a fact he is very aware of but regardless does not take into consideration, and once against all odds won the Mr. Neitherworld bodybuilding title, defeating the reigning champion Armhold Musclehugger. According to "Highs-Ghoul Confidential", Jacques and Ginger attended the same high school as Beetlejuice and went to the school prom together. During that time, Jacques was on the school train track team and had an overbite.
• Ginger the Tap Dancing Spider – A cute pink mediocre tap dancing spider who speaks with a New York accent.. Another of Beetlejuice's neighbors, her act is often ruined by pranks of Beetlejuice. She dreams of someday being a famous tap dancer and can be very sensitive to cruel pranks. Although she is one of the innocent creatures in the Neitherworld, she has admitted that she stole a few dance steps from other living and dead dancers. According to "Highs-Ghoul Confidential", Ginger and Jacques attended the same high school as Beetlejuice and went to the school prom together. During that time, Ginger was on the school cheerleading squad and had magenta-colored hair in a fifties hairdo.
• The Monster Across the Street – A tall, hairy monster from the West who lives across the street from Beetlejuice.
• Poopsie – The Monster's beloved and talented pet dog, one of Beetlejuice's favorite prank victims, and because of this he strongly dislikes him, but he has the same affection towards Lydia as his owner. Poopsie's girlfriend is The Monstress Across the Street's dog Poopette. Poopsie is also one of Doomie's favorite targets when the roadster undergoes his Jekyll/Hyde transformation.
• Doomie – Beetlejuice and Lydia's convertible, neon-green-painted sentient car,. The origin of his name is Lydia having desired to construct a "Dragster of Doom," though this title was only utilized in a single episode. Doomie is normally an affable and friendly creature, but due to the abnormal brain Beetlejuice gave him during his construction, Doomie transforms into a vicious "four-wheeled werewolf" type of monster in response to the presence of a Neitherworld dog near him, or to anger, fear, or the danger of his 'passengers', somewhat like a vehicular Jekyll and Hyde. A recurring gag is for Doomie to turn into his "werewolf stage" to chase dogs around the Neitherworld,. In later episodes, he is known to "speak", which is given as the sound of an engine turning over in ignition. It is at these times, Lydia usually plays a translator for him, as we understand a more complex, benevolent, and hopelessly romantic side to Doomie, such as when he began courting Mayor Maynot's convertible Pinky. Beetlejuice makes a point of claiming his ownership over Doomie and often demands his loyalty whenever Doomie should contradict him or is needed to aide in Beetlejuice's endeavors. However, Beetlejuice can be greatly apathetic to any plight of Doomie's, necessitating Lydia's persuasion to help him.
• Barry MeNot – A CGI character who pops up in the Neitherworld's commercials to promote a product revolving around a plot point in a humorous side.
• Bea Juice – The mother of Beetlejuice who is always picky about cleanliness.
• Nat Juice – The father of Beetlejuice who is always trying to get Beetlejuice to find a job.
• Mayor Maynot – The Mayor of the Neitherworld. In season one, he is a short green-skinned man in a top hat. In season two, he was redesigned to be a mummified monster of normal height. Mayor Maynot is always on Beetlejuice's case where he is always threatening to have him sent to Sandwormland.
• I.M. Smallhead – The small-headed assistant to Mayor Maynot where he always agrees with him. While he is shown to dislike Beetlejuice, he can be friendly to him at times. I.M. Smalllhead is loosely based on Harry the Hunter from the live-action film.
• Judge Mental – The Neitherworld's residential judge who would always threaten to sentence Beetlejuice to be condemned to Sandwormland when Beetlejuice ends up on trial in his courtroom.
• Mr. Monitor – A humanoid with four televisions for a head. He runs the Neitherworld TV Network where he is always keeping an eye on the ratings.
• Armhold Musclehugger – First appeared in the fourth-season episode "Raging Skull"; a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the former Mr. Neitherworld bodybuilding champion. He is green-skinned with a blond crew-cut hairstyle and wears only bodybuilder briefs. As Mr. Neitherworld, he is extremely arrogant, but when he reappears in the episode "Goody Two-Shoes" he is more affable. Later on, he becomes more toadying and goes to work for Chester Slime as his well-muscled right-hand man.
• Scuzzo and Fuzzo – The trouble-making clowns and the rivals of Beetlejuice.
• Sandworms – Huge purple and green snake-like creatures with four eyes and stegosaurus-like spines on their backs that reside in the desert region of Sandwormland which is below the Neitherworld.

  Voice cast

• Stephen Ouimette – Beetlejuice, Snugglejuice, Posijuice, Negajuice
• Alyson Court – Lydia Deetz
• Elizabeth Hanna – Delia Deetz, Miss Shannon
• Roger Dunn – Charles Deetz
• Harvey Atkin – Lipscum, Exorcist
• Tara Strong – Bertha, Claire Brewster, Little Miss Warden
• Len Carlson – The Monster Across the Street, Judge Mental, Barf Birfman, Mayor Maynot, Mr. Juice, Uncle Clyde, Messy Jesse, Foreman, Hopalong Casualty, Poopsie
• Tabitha St. Germain as Prudence, Ginger
• Keith Knight – Barry MeNot, Flubbo, Armhold Musclehugger, Chester Slime, Dr. Zigmund Void
• Ron Rubin – Germs Pondscum, Doombuggy
• Colin Fox – Dragster of Doom
• Keith Hampshire – Doomie
• Joseph Sherman – Scuzzo the Clown
• David Goldberg – Fuzzo the Clown
• Stuart Stone – Ramon
• Dan Hennessey – Jesse Germs, Captain Kidder, Bully the Crud
• Peggy Mahon – Mrs. Bugsley, Aunt May
• Susan Roman – Miss Shapen, Percy, Poopette, The Monstress Across the Street, Mrs. Juice
• Richard Binsley – Donnyjuice, Wyatt Burp
• Don Francks – Count Mein, Mr. Big
• Michael Stark – Fleagor
• Charles Kerr – Jacques
• Allan Stewart Coates – Ed
• John Stocker – Mr. Monitor, Bartholomew Batt
• Hadley Kay – Prince Vince

  Production

Merchandise

Home media releases

Awards

• 1990 – Outstanding Animated Program