Review: Fillmore!
Note: sorry about the lateness of this one but due to
the sleeping problems I mentioned and some
other stuff I haven’t had a chance to do it.
If you don’t know Fillmore then shame on you, basic premise is about a pair of safety patrol members investing ‘crimes’ like people stealing test answers and someone shredding science projects. It’s like a 70s style cop show set in a high school. Now being an old cartoon it’s not on DVD and I couldn’t even find any episodes online (which I neither condemn nor condone) except one so I couldn’t do much refreshing of my memory. I did look through the episode list on Wikipedia and watched that one episode so I do have some knowledge to go along with the nostalgia. Also it does air on Disney channel here in the UK but I don’t have that at the moment. It does show here in the UK but I don’t have the kids channels at this point. So without further delay grab your badge and orange sash and let’s look at Fillmore!
Our hero and title character is former delinquent and safety patrol officer Cornelius C Fillmore. Before the start of the series he was given a choice by the safety patroller who busted him: stay in detention for the rest of his school life or help solve a case. He chooses to help and ends up joining the safety patrol with the patroller who gave him the choice, Wayne Liggit, as his partner. In the first episode Wayne moves to Tennessee and he eventually gets paired up with Ingrid Third. He is an African-American and since this is both a kids show and a homage to 70s cop shows he is made of cool. Oh and yes I did just link you to tvtropes, your productivity will now drop exponentially, have fun. He is the closest thing to a cowboy cop that a kids show could get away with, often going above and beyond to catch the perp,
His partner is Ingrid Third. She is the smartest kid in school and often uses her photographic memory to help solve the case of the episode. In the first episode she has just transferred when she is framed for dropping a stink bomb. She is voiced by the always awesome Tara Strong and is always seen in her black dress and combat boots. Acting as a calmer and less emotional counter point to Fillmore she doesn’t get much focus as a character as he does but that’s understandable given that he is the main character after all.
I won’t go into detail for everyone else but to sum up. The pair’s superior is Horatio Vallejo, the junior commissioner who serves as the chief who doesn’t like Fillmore’s methods but tolerates them in exchange for the criminals getting caught. Karen Tehama is the forensics officer and Joseph Anza is known for his bodyguard training. Danny O'Farrell is the comically inept crime scene photographer. Last but not least is principal Folsom taking up the unimpressed mayor role of the cast; every episode she threatens to turn the safety patrol office into a spa or a trophy room or whatever if the case doesn’t get solved. Oh and notably it had the man himself, the voice of god, Don LaFontaine, reading the title cards.
The episodes had a unique naming structure; they were called things like "Test of the Tested" or "Red Robins Don't Fly" or "Of Slain Kings on Checkered Fields" and each was split into three acts with equally quirky names. My favourite episodes were the two episodes before the finale; "Play On, Maestro, Play On" where an Ultrabox is stolen from a convention by a gaming genius and our heroes have to track it down. I like this one because of all the awesome contraptions shown, imagine this but on a life size scale. My other favourite is only so good looking back on it; "The Unseen Reflection" where a vampire based book series with a mostly female fanbase and a huge group that hate it has something that violates canon happen in the latest book. Gee sounds familiar doesn’t it? To clarify this episode aired in 2003 and the Twilight series didn’t even start until 2005 let alone get to this point. Funny how that works isn’t it?
The humour of this show mostly comes from how serious the kids take it; they’re just kids in clubs but they act like the crime of the episode is the most devastating thing ever. I remember one episode about tartar sauce smuggling for example but they were all based on real crimes like drug smuggling. It got cancelled in the end because it was just too smartly written and as such the demographic skewed far too high for Disney’s likes. This is one of those kids cartoons that are better when you’re older and understand all the crimes for what they really are and get the shout outs to gone in 60 seconds, assault on precinct 13 and Hannibal freaking Lecter. Yeah how many things aimed at preteens can you name that reference Hannibal the cannibal? Well Fairly Odd Parents had that one scene with Anti-Cosmo but in Fillmore they have an entire episode (“to mar a stall”) devoted to a graffiti-instead-of-killing version of the story. Seriously if you can find it then check it out.
If you don’t know Fillmore then shame on you, basic premise is about a pair of safety patrol members investing ‘crimes’ like people stealing test answers and someone shredding science projects. It’s like a 70s style cop show set in a high school. Now being an old cartoon it’s not on DVD and I couldn’t even find any episodes online (which I neither condemn nor condone) except one so I couldn’t do much refreshing of my memory. I did look through the episode list on Wikipedia and watched that one episode so I do have some knowledge to go along with the nostalgia. Also it does air on Disney channel here in the UK but I don’t have that at the moment. It does show here in the UK but I don’t have the kids channels at this point. So without further delay grab your badge and orange sash and let’s look at Fillmore!
Our hero and title character is former delinquent and safety patrol officer Cornelius C Fillmore. Before the start of the series he was given a choice by the safety patroller who busted him: stay in detention for the rest of his school life or help solve a case. He chooses to help and ends up joining the safety patrol with the patroller who gave him the choice, Wayne Liggit, as his partner. In the first episode Wayne moves to Tennessee and he eventually gets paired up with Ingrid Third. He is an African-American and since this is both a kids show and a homage to 70s cop shows he is made of cool. Oh and yes I did just link you to tvtropes, your productivity will now drop exponentially, have fun. He is the closest thing to a cowboy cop that a kids show could get away with, often going above and beyond to catch the perp,
His partner is Ingrid Third. She is the smartest kid in school and often uses her photographic memory to help solve the case of the episode. In the first episode she has just transferred when she is framed for dropping a stink bomb. She is voiced by the always awesome Tara Strong and is always seen in her black dress and combat boots. Acting as a calmer and less emotional counter point to Fillmore she doesn’t get much focus as a character as he does but that’s understandable given that he is the main character after all.
I won’t go into detail for everyone else but to sum up. The pair’s superior is Horatio Vallejo, the junior commissioner who serves as the chief who doesn’t like Fillmore’s methods but tolerates them in exchange for the criminals getting caught. Karen Tehama is the forensics officer and Joseph Anza is known for his bodyguard training. Danny O'Farrell is the comically inept crime scene photographer. Last but not least is principal Folsom taking up the unimpressed mayor role of the cast; every episode she threatens to turn the safety patrol office into a spa or a trophy room or whatever if the case doesn’t get solved. Oh and notably it had the man himself, the voice of god, Don LaFontaine, reading the title cards.
The episodes had a unique naming structure; they were called things like "Test of the Tested" or "Red Robins Don't Fly" or "Of Slain Kings on Checkered Fields" and each was split into three acts with equally quirky names. My favourite episodes were the two episodes before the finale; "Play On, Maestro, Play On" where an Ultrabox is stolen from a convention by a gaming genius and our heroes have to track it down. I like this one because of all the awesome contraptions shown, imagine this but on a life size scale. My other favourite is only so good looking back on it; "The Unseen Reflection" where a vampire based book series with a mostly female fanbase and a huge group that hate it has something that violates canon happen in the latest book. Gee sounds familiar doesn’t it? To clarify this episode aired in 2003 and the Twilight series didn’t even start until 2005 let alone get to this point. Funny how that works isn’t it?
The humour of this show mostly comes from how serious the kids take it; they’re just kids in clubs but they act like the crime of the episode is the most devastating thing ever. I remember one episode about tartar sauce smuggling for example but they were all based on real crimes like drug smuggling. It got cancelled in the end because it was just too smartly written and as such the demographic skewed far too high for Disney’s likes. This is one of those kids cartoons that are better when you’re older and understand all the crimes for what they really are and get the shout outs to gone in 60 seconds, assault on precinct 13 and Hannibal freaking Lecter. Yeah how many things aimed at preteens can you name that reference Hannibal the cannibal? Well Fairly Odd Parents had that one scene with Anti-Cosmo but in Fillmore they have an entire episode (“to mar a stall”) devoted to a graffiti-instead-of-killing version of the story. Seriously if you can find it then check it out.