The show was about Marc Weiner portraying as half-man, half-puppet characters interacting with a live audience doing skits and storylines. He would play these characters alongside other actors like Ray Abruzzo, Scott Fellows, David Jordon, and Brian Burns. Weiner would host the show and try to solve the problems of Dottie, the mayor of Weinerville.
Most of of the half-man half-human characters were played by Weiner himself. They included the following:
Dottie is the mayor of Weinerville. She always goes through a bit of misfortune and screams a lot in pain.
Baby Jeffrey would introduce the show, then start crying afterwards.
Commander Ozone was an intergalactic superhero. He would defend evil from the villain Eric Von Firstensecond alongside his sidekick Wilson.
Cocktail Frank was the leader of the house band Cocktail Frank and the Weenies. He was the only half-man half-puppet while every other band member were puppets.
There were also puppets included in the show.
Zip was Dottie's assistant who always ended up getting in trouble and crashing into walls.
Pops was an owner of a restaurant who always starts fights with a laundromat owner named Louie.
Louie was a laundromat owner who always argues with Pops.
Socko was a hand puppet who loved to kick Marc and make sarcastic gestures.
Boney was a parody of Barney who would tell kids stories about negative things. He was being a represented beloved children's character, but he actually hates kids. He would always tell kids in the end of every story "Now get out of here. I'm Boney, I'm Boney. Leave me alone-y." He was the favorite puppet among Weinerville fans, including Weiner himself.
In between the segments, they would always run a cartoon for the kids ranging from educational cartoons to classic cartoons like Mr. Magoo.
At the end of every episode, two kids from the audience get "Weinerized" which was get turned into half-man half-puppets. They would play a game called Playland in which the winner would receive The Golden Hot Dog.
Also, I made a minor mistake when it came to Rugrats being the first Hanukkah special since Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. Weinerville had a Hanukkah special before Rugrats had theirs one year prior. See, this is what happens when you don't look at the minor details.
The show also had special celebrity guest appearances. Some of them included Dr. Joyce Brothers, the wrestler Kevin Nash, Paul Shaffer, Huey Lewis, Andy Lawrence, and Bill Maher. Also, you can't have a Nickelodeon show without throwing him some Nickelodeon stars at the time. They included Marc Summers, Phil Moore, Moira Quirk, and the cast of Clarissa Explains it All.
The show lasted for 2 seasons ending its run on June 30, 1997. The people involved with the show did other things after Weinerville.
Scott Fellows had created other shows for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network such as The Moxy Show, Cartoon Network's very first original show, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Johnny Test, and Big Time Rush. He has also written episodes for shows like U to U, The Fairly Odd Parents, 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, and Brand Spanking New Doug.
Ray Abruzzo had done other TV roles such as The Practice, Dynasty, The Sopranos, The Nanny, Law and Order, NCIS, and House.
As for Marc Weiner, he had decided to take his show on a live tour known as Marc Weiner's Weinerville Live. On and off over the years, he was traveled to other parts of the world to do live shows based on his show until he stopped in 2000. He is currently providing the voices of Swiper the Fox and Map on Dora the Explorer. On January 23, 2011, Marc and his son Max launched a YouTube channel called Weinerville TV in which they are bringing the show back for people who grew up with Weinerville as well as a new generation who had never seen it. They claim that new episodes will be coming in soon.
They launched a Facebook page, Twitter page, and an official website. Check it out right here at http://www.weinerville.com/.
When Weinerville first came out, it was something that has never been seen before. It was the first and only show that involved with half-man half-human puppets. It had gained a huge amount of popularity among audiences and it was acclaimed by Good Morning America, The Early Show, The New York Times, The Daily News, Newsday, TV Guide, and The Los Angeles Times. It was nominated for two CableACE Awards. It was one of the most popular, zany, and creative shows that Nickelodeon had done up to that point.
Overall, looking back at this show, it was one of the zaniest, kookiest, strangest, and most unique Nickelodeon shows that has ever aired and I still love it! I grew up watching this and some of the jokes are still funny. Sure, there are some that are a bit dated due to some of the pop culture references, but other than that, it's a show that I can really appreciate due to its amount of creativity that it had at the time. Similar to Roundhouse, no other show try to replicate what Weinerville tried to do at the time or since then. But unlike Roundhouse, there's just something about it that makes Weinerville still work after all these years. I can appreciate the charm, creativity, humor, and zaniest that Marc Weiner did for this show. I highly recommend checking it out.
That's all for now. Tune in next time as I discuss, in my opinion, the best Nickelodeon kids' game show in the 90's. Legends of the Hidden Temple. Also, Kevin is going to review one of his favorite Nicktoons that many people call a Ren and Stimpy clone, Rocko's Modern Life.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading.
-Patricia
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