Galaxy High


Galaxy High is an American-Japanese science fiction animated series that premiered on September 13, 1986 on CBS and ran for 13 episodes until December 6, 1986. The series was created by Chris Columbus and featured music and a theme song composed by Don Felder. The series was later shown in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel's Cartoon Quest.

Synopsis

Two Earth teenagers are accepted into the intergalactic high school Galaxy High School on the asteroid Flutor. The teenage boy, Doyle Cleverlobe, was a skilled athlete and popular, while the teenage girl Aimee Brighttower was shy and, as the theme song states, "the smartest girl in school, not very popular, not very cool." But once in space, their roles are somewhat reversed. The alien teenagers seem to accept the not-so-popular Aimee, while Doyle tends to rub the aliens the wrong way. Although Doyle finds himself an outcast and having difficulties adjusting, Aimee does not abandon him, and suggests he can make friends and bring glory to Galaxy High through his excellent sporting abilities, which he does by winning a championship in "psych-hockey", which Galaxy High had always lost in the past. The show drops many hints of a budding romance between Doyle and Aimee, but was never given time to grow due to the show not being renewed for a second season.
The aliens in the school included Gilda Gossip, the girl with a big mouth, Booey Bubblehead, who has a bubble for a head and is absent-minded, Milo de Venus, the six-armed class president, Beef and the Bonk Bunch who bully Doyle, and the Creep, a small alien who resembled something between a very fat cherub and a marshmallow and had a huge crush on Aimee, which would often reveal itself as he serenaded like a Las Vegas lounge singer. The teachers are even more unusual than the students: Ms. Biddy McBrain has a light bulb attached to her head, while Coach Frogface eats flies and Professor Icenstein has to keep his classroom cold or he will melt.

Cast

Production notes

The animated series Partridge Family 2200 A.D., which debuted in 1974, features Keith and Laurie Partridge going to a futuristic space high school called "Galaxy High," and Laurie's friend Marion Moonglow bears a striking resemblance to the Wendy Garbo character from this series.
Galaxy High was animated, distributed and owned by TMS Entertainment.
John Kricfalusi was a character designer for the show and went on to create Ren and Stimpy and The Ripping Friends.
Syd Iwanter, the Creative Director came up with the concept and hired Kricfalusi to draw a one sheet pitch featuring the main characters for a proposed HIGH SCHOOL 2525. When Michael Chase Walker became Director of Children's Programs for the CBS Television Network he bought the show, changed the name to Galaxy High School and convinced up and coming screenwriter Chris Columbus to develop the show under his name. Walker was trying to develop a Saturday Morning schedule that resembled an old-fashioned Saturday movie matinee with a range of horror, science fiction , Comedy, and Western.
An alternate theme song exists showing clips from various episodes. The theme was changed to an instrumental one. At the end, Aimee speaks "Here we are Doyle! The only two kids from Earth at a high school in outer space! How do you feel?" Doyle responds "A little spaced out, Aimee!"
The show features transportation tubes, which people can enter and be whisked away around the school; these are reminiscent of old-style pneumatic tubes. In Galaxy High, they are known as "wooshers".
The show had been granted two time slots by CBS, for its 1986 and 1987 Saturday mornings, with the expectation of a two-season contract. When the show was not renewed for a second season, CBS elected to rerun the first season in its 1987 time slot, in order to make up for episodes that had been preempted by Saturday sporting events in 1986. Chris Columbus later remarked that CBS had been ambivalent about whether or not there would be a renewal, and had written one script in anticipation of a second season. The sole unproduced episode of Galaxy High'' concerned cliquish divisions in Galaxy High which start with pranks and food fights, but soon culminate into a school "civil war", causing Galaxy High's board of trustees to notice this and threaten to shut down the school.

Film

In 1996, Walker optioned the film rights with John H. Williams of Vanguard Films, and reteamed with Chris Columbus to develop the big screen version of Galaxy High School. After various development deals with both DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, the movie plans remain in limbo.

Series tie-in

An 85-page paperback book titled Galaxy High School was published in August 1987 by Bantam-Skylark Books and written by Ann Hodgman. It is an adaptation of six episodes, "Welcome to Galaxy High", "Those Eyes, Those Lips", "The Beef Who Would Be King", "Dollars and Sense", "Beach Blanket Blow-Up" and "Founder's Day". In the prologue, it says that Doyle and Aimee, while on Earth, attended Presley High School and its sports team was called the Hound Dogs. It also says that Aimee didn't know Doyle well before coming to Galaxy High, but did think he was cute, until they actually meet when first entering their new school. The paperback is out-of-print and is a highly sought collectible among fans of the show.

Airdates

Galaxy High originally aired at 11:00am EST/10:00am CST after Teen Wolf and before CBS Storybreak in the 1986-1987 season on CBS. It was also given a timeslot for the 1987-1988 CBS season in the expectation of a second season, but upon the show's retirement the 1987–1988 schedules re-ran episodes of the first season.
Later airdates: 2 January 1988 – 27 August 1988 on CBS, January 2, 1994–?, July 2, 1994–September 24, 1994, October 8, 1994–December 31, 1994–early 1995, 7 February 1996 – 23 February 1996, April 2, 1996 – April 19, 1996, May 27, 1996–June 17, 1996 on the Sci Fi Channel.
In 1996, it aired on Nickelodeon on weekday mornings in the United Kingdom.

Awards

The show was nominated for a Humanitas Prize for its anti-drug episode "The Brain Blaster".

Legacy

Four episodes of the show were re-edited into a compilation video titled Galaxy High in 1989 by Family Home Entertainment
Galaxy High has been released in full on DVD. All 13 episodes are available uncut and as they were originally aired, across two volumes, produced and distributed by Media Blasters through their Anime Works imprint.