Shark Bytes

OK, you guys would have preferred a cartoon with a guy who's been dead for hundred of years trying to get into the pants of a depressed 17 year old girl? See the movie was ended perfectly. An actual beetlejuice sequel would have been rotten (and one was slated to be made, "Beetlejuice goes Hawaiian," according to Wikipedia) because the movie said all it needed to say. As for the series, yeah it was nothing like the movie, but I had fun with it. Beetlejuice was pretty much the same character, yeah they 'softened' him, but it was a KIDS Show....and even then they got away with making Beetlejuice and Lydia's relationship just verge on the 'creepy attraction' side of things, without actually being gross. Remember the pilot episode, how BJ's face lights up when Lydia says "I could just KISS you..."?
I think it was the perfect balance. Any more, and it would have just been gross and not in the fun way the series was. Seriously, you guys wanted beetlejuice to be more like the movie? Can you picture that cartoon? what would the episodes actually center around? Would the Maitlands have really been that entertaining as staples in a kid's cartoon series? And wouldn't you all get sick of Lydia's self-centered 'Poor Me, I'm so misunderstood!" Goth-Emo attitude? I know I would. Goth chicks. Sometimes fun to look at, never fun to listen to.

My only complaint with the series was that Delia was just too annoying. Like insanely annoying. When I watch episodes online, I sometimes fast-forward through the little bits with her in them.

he is a BEETLE and yes, and so then. WHY? why does not he look like a beetle? IT is a depressing image, a beetle being played by a man. not to mention a man with very scary brow, that brow could crush a man's skull@@! a boy's. . . . and then they have a whore and it is a girl. Now everyone looks like that whore in my school, they are all her and once i said beetlejuice and he did not come and so i think i will sue this show.

I for one liked the show. And you have to remember there were no cartoons like family guy and robot chicken then...so they had to change it greatly. Cencorship has harshly dropped in the past 10 years! So if the cartoon were to be made today, it'll probaly be more based off the movie.

I owe my wit and sarasim to this show. I loved it!!How have the animated shows gone so far downhill, when you had grat shows like thi sin the early 90's??

I don't think it jumped the shark at all. It's a separate entity from the film with characters that only superficially resemble the movie characters, and never references the film except in reusing a few gags. It needs to be taken pretty much on it's own merit as more "inspired by" than anything else (though I have seen a few pieces of fanfiction that attempt to bridge the two, the change in Beetlejuice's personality is pretty much unexplainable in context). In that case, I think the quality of the show was fairly consistent and clever (mind you it's been years since I've seen quite a lot of the episodes, though I'm slowly making my way through what's available online). It's ful of bad puns that know they're bad, very subtle morals instead of the bash-you-over-the-head-obvious that were the rule of the day, and the occasional very clever allusion (basically all of which went over my head as a kid, but which keep it entertaining now). Plus, it's creepy and strange and while not the first cartoon with monsters and ghosts, the most interesting and outright *weird*. If you didn't like it from the beginning, then you didn't like it, but I don't see how you can argue it jumped the shark when there was no shark to *jump*.

OMG OMG OMG!!!! BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!

I was one of the animation directors on this series from Nelvana, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have to say, this show seems to be largely forgotten by all the so-called television animation critics and fans out there. They are all so quick to jump on the "John Kricfalusi bandwagon" or the "Beavis and Butt-head bandwagon" when it comes to giving credit for upping the ante and making kid's animation edgy again. Everybody seems to want to prostrate themselves at the altar of "Ren and Stimpy" or even "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" but I submit this, had it not been for the ground breaking "Gross-out" humor, death references, and general occult-heavy imagery of the cartoon series, "Beetlejuice" those other followers would have had a rougher row to hoe when it comes to audience (and network executive) acceptance. You must remember, "Beetlejuice" came out when the typical kid-fare on tv was a whole lot more lacking in content than it is today. In those days you had "Rescue Rangers" and "Duck Tales" as the better examples of animated programming, with the Scooby and Scrappy type of shows on the lower end of the quality meter. If it was not for groundbreakers like "Beetlejuice" and "Pee Wee's Playhouse" today's Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon shows very well might not exist in the forms we know and love.

I loved this show. Yes, the fourth season was not nearly as good as the other three, but some of the stuff the writers came up with was pure GOLD. And it had some educational value besides. How about the "Poe Pourri" episode, with all the references to Poe's assorted stories? Beetlejuice is probably my favorite cartoon of all time. They just don't make them like this anymore!

I never saw the "show". However I did see the movie which ROCKED!!! I love that movie its so funny and kept me watching, I thought the death was a little out there though, I mean what kind of town has a random dog running around. Great movie despite that.

Despite the movie and cartoon having very little to do with each other, the cartoon itself never jumped the shark. Sometimes clever, usually fun, always atypical. One of the best cartoons evar(sic)!

This show freaking rocked. There's totally no way that it jumped the shark. It was too cool and awesome.
I never liked Doomie, and I remember not liking him. He was just epic failure. However, I was totally in love with Beetlejuice and Lydia and all the cute, fun, and silly things that they did.
That show was the best.
Now...if I could just find DVDs of it, I would be really, really happy.
I left my e-mail up there in some kind of hope that someone can tell me if there are any and where I could possibly get 'em. XD;

I LOVED THIS SHOW...IT DESERVES TO BE ON DVD.

Yo, Lay off Doomie. He never did anything to you.

This show never jumped the shark. This show is the shark that all the other shows jump. Beetlejuice could be a shark if he felt like it. And he'd make a pun about it too.

How can Beetlejuice the movie have caused Beetlejuice the cartoon to jump?
If there were no movie there would never have been a cartoon. All in all this was probably one of the best cartoons of the late 80s early 90s.

While it seemed every other cartoon at the time was trying to beat viewers the head with some kind of moralistic message about saving the enviroment or don't do drugs Beetlejuice was all about being funny.

It never jumped the shark. i'm as anal as the next person, but seriously, why even be snobby about it you guys??? of course the cartoon didn't follow the movie EXACTLY, but good god, it was entertaining as all hell! and full of delicious imagery after. you knew there wasn't going to be a sequel, and thank jebus for that. this is the next best thing. plus, you know you were curious to see "what would happen next." these guys provided a(n unexpectedly) fun vehicle for that. unfortunately for me, i can't find these videos ANYWHERE. please let me know where to get them