The Tick | |
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Promotional poster
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Created by | Ben Edlund |
Starring |
Patrick Warburton David Burke Nestor Carbonell Liz Vassey |
Composer(s) | Ian Dye |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 9 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Ben Edlund Barry Josephson Barry Sonnenfeld Larry Charles David Sacks |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 22 minutes |
Production company(s) | Sonnefeld/Josephson Worldwide Entertainment Columbia TriStar Television |
Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
Release | |
Original network | Fox |
Original release | November 8, 2001 | – January 31, 2002
The Tick is an American sitcom based on the character Tick from the comic book of the same name. It aired on Fox in late 2001 and was produced by Columbia TriStar Television. With a pilot airing on November 8, the series ran nine episodes on broadcast television. It was released to DVD in 2003.
The 2001 sitcom was the first attempt at a live action incarnation of The Tick, a comic book created by Ben Edlund, which had previously been adapted for television as a successful animated series, The Tick, which ran 3 seasons from 1994 to 1996. The pilot for the live-action series, completed in May 2000, was written by the four main animated-series writers, Edlund, Randolph Heard, Richard Liebmann-Smith and Chris McCulloch, and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld with production design by Bo Welch.
Executive producer Larry Charles sought to create a character camaraderie similar to that of Seinfeld. He discussed this approach at a July 2000 press conference:
If the show is perceived as merely a superhero show or merely a superhero parody show, I don't think it's going to work on a weekly basis. What's great about the comic book and what was great about the cartoon also has to be great about the live-action show, which is the characters and the interaction of the characters and creating a world that you believe is real. It's a world in which the characters being superheroes is almost a secondary consideration, so that the characters are more important than their costumes.
While working on the pilot episode, Ben Edlund described the series as "closer in tone to the comic book, favoring character over action, painting a superheroic portrait of genuine human lameness." It features a parody style similar to the animated series and the bulky Patrick Warburton in the title role. Guest stars include Ron Perlman, Christopher Lloyd, Kurt Fuller, Armin Shimerman, and Dave Foley. The series also featured appearances by then unknowns T.J. Thyne and Missi Pyle.