Cartoon
Detention (American TV series)
The story
Detention is an American animated television series created by Bob Doucette and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation that ran on Kids' WB from September 11, 1999, to March 25, 2000. 13 half-hour episodes were produced.
Synopsis
The series is about a diverse group of eight stubborn 6th grade students from Benedict Arnold Middle School in the fictional U.S. town of Oak Forest who continually find themselves in detention overseen by the detention warden Eugenia P. Kisskillya. The kids are constantly trying to stay out of detention and out of trouble.
Main characters
Eugenia P. Kisskillya (voiced by Kathleen Freeman) – The Eastern European-American gym teacher and detention warden of Benedict Arnold Middle School who is the rival antagonist to her class, Having been a military sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Miss Kisskillya bosses the children around like such, calls other people by military rankings, bringing up some moments of her military past, and usually pronounces "detention" as "dee-tennnn-shun!!". Despite usually being tyrannical towards the children, she has been shown to be a very nice person and has a soft spot for them. She is based on the creator's grade schoolteacher who was a nun, as well as Freeman's character, the strict Sister Mary Stigmata, from The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000.
Shareena Wickett (voiced by Tara Charendoff) – A gothic 12-year-old girl that prefers to be a free spirit and finds pleasure in the sublime. Shareena's beliefs are not taken seriously by her parents. Her hobbies include reading horror fiction stories. She has a talent for séances.
Pig - Shareena's pet pig. While originally thought to be a male pig, it was discovered that Pig is actually a female pig in "The Blame Game"
Shelley Kelly (voiced by Pamelyn Ferdin) – An optimistic and peppy redheaded girl who always wears the same Ladybug Scout uniform and the only kid in detention not due to rule breaking, but because she is a teacher's pet to Ms. Kisskillya as she refers to Shelley as "Private Kelly". She is constantly kissing up to Miss Kisskillya (hence her name) and has a crush on Emmitt. As a result, she is often detested by the other kids for her toxically cheerful demeanor who she wishes to be friends with (she seems to have succeeded with Shareena to an extent). However, on some occasions, Shelley is an ally to the other kids as she will tend to go with their plans.
Emmitt Roswell (voiced by Billy West) – A conspiracy theorist and ufologist who states that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists in outer space. He is determined to make contact with aliens. As stated in "Boyz 'N the Parenthood", Emmitt seems to have an estranged father who may believe in his son's wild obsession for aliens.
Jim Kim (voiced by the series' writer Roger Eschbacher) – A timid, geeky Korean-American kid with an affinity for comic books, particularly the heroes of DC Comics. He takes on the characters' attributes at inopportune times.
Ramone "Gug" Gugliamo (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) – A short Latino-American kid with a very short temper. Constantly being left out of competitive sports, Gug constantly picks fights with other kids twice his own size and has even wanted to take down Miss Kisskillya. He and Emmitt have their occasional rivalries. However, they both agree on their lack of patience with Jim.
Duncan Bubble – A deaf, silent boy who is always playing with a yo-yo he is usually seen with and not speaking. He instead uses his yo-yo to spell out messages (for example, "Thanks guys", "Boring", and "Yeah") accompanied by an electronic voice (done by the show's creator Bob Doucette) reading the message. He is based on a deaf friend Doucette (the show's creator) had during production.
Lemonjella and Orangejella LaBelle (voiced by Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry) – A pair of identical female African-American twins (wore orange and yellow-colored fashion, but named after citrus flavors). They have been known to get themselves in trouble by hacking into the school computers and removing library fines. Their scientific descriptions tend to confuse Miss Kisskillya and the other kids, so they would tend to simplify them to make sense. Lemonjella and Orangejella have shown to be very competitive with each other.
Recurring characters
Patsy Wickett (voiced by Mary Gross) - The mother of Shareena.
Mr. Wickett (voiced by Billy West) - The father of Shareena.
Mr. Fletcher (voiced by Bob Doucette) - The science teacher at Benedict Arnold Middle School.
Broadcast and home media
In Autumn 1999, the show aired on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. and later moved to 11:00 a.m. EST beginning on November 6. In Spring 2000, the show moved to 11:30 a.m. EST on Saturdays. Reruns of the show aired on the Kids' WB Friday afternoon lineup from September 8, 2000, to August 31, 2001, but never reran on Cartoon Network nor its spinoff Boomerang. Since 2018, the show has been available on iTunes and on DVD in Region 1 as a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release that is only available through the Warner Archive website and other online stores.