Dan Vs.
| Dan Vs. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Dan Mandel Chris Pearson |
| Voices of |
Curtis Armstrong Dave Foley Paget Brewster |
| Composer(s) | Patrick Griffin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 53 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Dan Mandel Chris Pearson Dan Angel Jay Fukuto (Season 1) Dana Booton (Season 2–3) |
| Producer(s) | Lizbeth Velasco |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Film Roman The Hatchery |
| Distributor | Starz Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | The Hub |
| Original release | January 1, 2011 – March 9, 2013 |
Dan Vs. is an American Flash animated television series created by Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson. The series spanned three seasons, airing on The Hub from January 1, 2011, to March 9, 2013.
The show is about Dan, a jobless misanthrope with a soft spot for animals, caught in odd misfortunes and unable to provide income for himself. Accompanying him is his better-off friend Chris, a big softy, who lives in comfortable home and has a steady income (he even reluctantly pays for the little or big expenses that Dan needs). His dull day-job and stressful work causes him to be unable to resist going along with Dan's wild plots to get even, despite how ridiculous they may seem. Even when Dan gets on his last nerve, he can't abandon him, "knowing there is something worth saving in him" [Dan vs *Dan Impostor episode]. Both their friendship, stemming from a bad experience at summer camp, through High School these two, along with Elise, go after the things that make society even more unbearable than it already is. The third regular character is Elise, Chris's wife, who objects to Chris's participation in Dan's revenge quests, but, on occasion joins in due to some of Dan's plots sharing similarities with her childhood annoyances or her secret operative work for the government. Elise's character enables advanced help with some of Dan's revenge missions due to her skills and most of her missions act as a subplot in the show. The show is set primarily in the Los Angeles, CA, area, and background scenes often show notable landmarks in and around Los Angeles.
Mandel's original idea was for the show to be a live-action sitcom, but new possibilities opened up once they started development for an animated series. The show was pitched to various networks, including Adult Swim.
Series creators Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson conceived the personalities of the main characters Dan and Chris by loosely basing them on their own negative qualities. He has stated that the show's self-mockery with the character Dan was in part inspired by the works of Evan Dorkin. Pearson once stated that he thought of the Dan character as "Calvin [from Calvin and Hobbes] as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong somewhere."
The series is animated in Adobe Flash. The design for the characters was handled by a team of artists led by supervising director Matt Danner with some involvement from Mandel and Pearson. The vocal cast was selected through an audition first consisting of pre-recorded voice-overs, followed by several rounds of callbacks. Curtis Armstrong stood out prominently to the creators as the voice of Dan from the beginning of the process. The idea to have Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross portray Elise's parents Elise Sr. and Don came from executive producer Jay Fukuto, who had worked with them during their time together on Family Ties. Co-creator, Dan Mandel himself does many voices in the series.
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