BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an American adult animated television comedy created by Bloo J for The Bloo DeTour. The series centers on six friends: Bloo, Jenny Wakeman, Mac, Frankie Foster, Eduardo, and Wilt, who own a place called Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a home with fictional characters including The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Bob and Larry and many more. The show is set in the fictional town of Toonville and parodies American culture and society. Much like The Simpsons, South Park, Kim Possible, Family Guy, Futurama, and Rick and Morty, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was designed for mature audiences, featuring comical (sometimes bloody) violence, adult humor including coarse language (some swears are censored, though uncensored on DVD), running gags and pop culture references. This effectively makes BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Cinar's first adult animated television series.

The series was pitched to The Bloo in 1997 as part of their then-recently created block The Bloo DeTour. The company had greenlit the series for production in 1998 after the pilot was completed for The Bloo DeTour. The series was originally supposed to air in 1998 on MTV but the show was held back until 2 years later due to behind-the-scenes issues with The Bloo, as well as delays. Episodes are produced at Winking Pooh Entertainment, Bloo J's production company.

Since its debut on August 11, 2000, 354 episodes of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends have been broadcast. It has a comic book series named BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Comics and a 4D ride at WB Movie World and Universal Studios Hollywood called BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The 4D Experience. As of May 2019, it is currently The Bloo DeTour's longest-running original series. The BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on November 17, 2006, and grossed over $365 million.

Characters
Main article: List of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends characters

BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an animated comedy that follows the adventures of six friends who reside in the town of Toonville and own a large house for cartoon characters and imaginary friends. Episodes usually feature the central trio of Bloo, Jenny, and Mac, though occasional storylines center on the other main characters.
 * Bloo (voiced by Keith Ferguson) – Mac's imaginary friend who is often the leader of the group. He spends much of his time with his friends and trying to impress love interest and part-time girlfriend Jenny. He also likes to think of good schemes, along with the rest of his friends. Out of all the characters, Bloo saw the most appearances and character development throughout the series. Bloo's love for Jenny is a recurring theme throughout the series.
 * Jenny Wakeman (voiced by Janice Kawaye) - A teenage robot who is nice to everyone in the group. She is Bloo's primary love interest. Although Bloo thinks the world of her, she apparently likes Bloo a lot, but has thought of him as a "salvageable male". She is also very good at cooking and cleaning. Jenny is also a fan of the Japanese anime Sailor Moon, as she is obsessed with anime and manga sometimes.
 * Mac (voiced by Sean Marquette) – A confident 8-year-old boy who is Bloo's creator and best friend. The two often spend a lot of their time hanging out together. His parents are divorced and his behavior wavers between kindness and aggravation. He also likes to play video games and be a master of it.
 * Frankie Foster (voiced by Grey DeLisle) – Madame Foster's redheaded granddaughter, addressed as "Miss Frances" by Mr. Herriman. According to her driver's license, she was born on July 25, 1984.
 * Eduardo (voiced by Tom Kenny) – A Latin American monster created by a young girl, Nina Valerosa, to protect her in a dangerous neighborhood.
 * Wilt (voiced by Phil LaMarr) – A very tall, friendly and incredibly nice red-colored friend with only a right arm and a crooked left eye-stalk with a great sense of humor. His overtly passive demeanor is often taken advantage of by the other imaginary friends. He often hangs out with Mac and Bloo at most times.
 * Coco (voiced by Candi Milo) – A chicken-like bird with palm tree-like hair who can only say or write her name. A talent unique to her is her ability to lay colorful, plastic eggs containing a plethora of objects. Other characters usually understand her when she speaks.
 * Mr. Herriman (voiced by Tom Kane) – A gray and white elderly anthropomorphic lop ear rabbit friend imagined by Madame Foster.
 * Madame Foster (voiced by Candi Milo) – The caring founder of Foster's and grandmother of Frankie. She is the creator of Mr. Herriman.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) – A sea sponge and the main protagonist of the Nickelodeon series of the same name.
 * Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) – SpongeBob's best friend and a character from the popular cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. Patrick is the somewhat dimwitted friend of the eponymous sponge.
 * Bendy (voiced by Jeremy Irons) - The main antagonist of the show. yellow with black stripes imaginary criminal who likes to be mean to the Foster's Gang and try to kill Bloo.
 * Terrence (voiced by Tara Strong) - The second main antagonist. He is Mac's brother and bullys Mac a lot.
 * Ren Hoek (voiced by Billy West) - An intense, hyperactive, and short-tempered chihuahua, and one of the characters from Ren and Stimpy.
 * Stimpy (voiced by Eric Bauza) - A 3-year-old dim-witted and empty-brained cat and one of the characters from Ren and Stimpy.
 * Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) - one of the characters from The Simpsons, the husband of Marge Simpson, and the father of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
 * Marge Simpson (voiced by Julie Kavner) - one of the characters from The Simpsons, wife of Homer Simpson, and mother of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
 * Bart Simpson (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) - one of the characters from The Simpsons, and Homer Simpson's son, and the youngest child of Marge and Homer's children.
 * Lisa Simpson (voiced by Yeardley Smith) -, one of the characters from The Simpsons and the middle child of Marge and Homer's children.
 * Mickey Mouse (voiced by Wayne Allwine from 2000-2009, and Bret Iwan from 2009-present) - the main titular protagonist of the Disney franchise of the same name and the mascot of Disney. He is the long-time host of Bloo and Mac's favorite TV show, a combination of kiddie variety television hijinks and cartoons.
 * Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer) - A character from the Mickey Mouse franchise.
 * Donald Duck (voiced by Tony Anselmo) - Coming soon!

Setting
The primary setting of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is Toonville.

More coming soon!

Development
BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was created by Bloo J for The Bloo. So while working on it during production on Rocko's Modern Life, he decided to lower the number of imaginary friends. He pitched the idea to Nickelodeon, however they turned it down, telling him that it looked similar to Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, which contained too adult humor, and it would work better as an adult cartoon.

In February 1997, he pitched the idea to The Bloo, consisting of an 11-minute animation of a few of the main characters fighting over who gets to the bathroom first and Mr. Herriman pointing a knife at them at the end of the animation, as he orders them to form a line. Comedy Central accepted it and gave the greenlight to the show 2 months later. The series was originally supposed to air in 1998 on MTV but the show was held back until 2000 due to behind-the-scenes issues with Comedy Central, as well as delays.

Episodes
Main article: Episode Guide

Executive producers
Bloo J has served as an executive producer during the show's entire history.

More coming soon!

Writing
The writing process of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imagianry Friends generally starts with 14 writers that take turns writing the scripts; when a script is finished it is given to the rest of the writers to read. These scripts generally include cutaway gags. Various gags are pitched to Bloo J and the rest of the staff, and those deemed funniest are included in the episode. Bloo J has explained that normally it takes 10 months to produce an episode because the show uses hand-drawn animation. The show rarely comments on current events for this reason. The show's initial writers had never written for an animated show; and most came from live-action sitcoms.

During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, official production of the show halted for most of December 2007 and for various periods afterward. The Bloo continued producing episodes without Bloo J's final approval, which he termed "a colossal dick move" in an interview with Variety. Though Bloo J refused to work on the show, his contract under The Bloo required him to contribute to any episodes it would subsequently produce. Production officially resumed after the end of the strike, with regularly airing episodes recommencing on February 17, 2008. According to Bloo J, in 2009, it cost about $2 million to make an episode of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Voice cast
Main article: List of cast members, and List of guest stars

BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has three main cast members. Keith Ferguson voiced Bloo, Janice Kawaye voiced Jenny Wakeman, and Sean Marquette voiced Mac.

Like The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and Futurama, many episodes of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, entertainers, bands, musicians, and scientists. Many guest-stars voiced supporting characters, although many voiced themselves. Recurring guest stars include Carlos Alazraqui, Billy West, Jodi Benson, Mark Hamill, Sarah Silverman, Corey Burton, Wayne Knight, John Goodman, Cam Clarke, Debra Messing, Phil Proctor, Elijah Wood, Amy Hill, Maurice LaMarche, George Takei, Phil LaMarr, Harland Williams, Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Stewart, Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, and Dan Fogler. Jess Harnell and Fred Tatasciore have also appeared in minor roles, but do not voice any recurring characters. Harnell left the show in 2006, and since then Brian T. Delaney has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. John Cygan voiced the majority of other minor characters until his death on May 13, 2017. Other current additional voices also include Kari Wahlgren, Roger Craig Smith, Lex Lang, Bryce Papenbrook, Yuri Lowenthal, Jamie Marchi, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Joe Whyte.

Animation
The 11-minute animation was animated at Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, Freelance Animators in New Zealand, and AKOM in South Korea. Ink-and-paint services were provided by Bardel Entertainment.

The Bloo provided animation services "in case if animation was proved to be difficult". Animation for the first two seasons were split between Saerom Animation in South Korea, Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, and Toon City Animation in the Philippines. Bardel Entertainment also provided ink-and-paint facilities during the second and third seasons. Various other animation studios were contracted beginning in season three.

Music
The show's soundtrack was composed by Walter Murphy while its theme song was composed by multi-instrumentalist Danny Elfman, produced by Devo's singer Mark Mothersbaugh, and was recorded at Mutato Muzika Studios.

Hallmarks
Coming soon!

Reception and legacy
In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that like other satirical comedies, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends "is most popular in cities. The show's popularity was more correlated with support for Hillary Clinton than any other show". As of 2008, the franchise has generated $1 billion in total revenue, including $400 million from TV syndication, $400 million from DVD sales, and $200 million from merchandise sales.

Critical reception
BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has received universal acclaim, specifically for its animation, voice acting, characterization, and its off-color humor. It currently holds a 8.7 rating on TV.com, and 8.9 rating from 10,222 users on IMDb.com. The first season holds a perfect 100% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The series continued to garner critical acclaim throughout its run, earning praise for its dialogue, humor, animation, as well as its appeal to both teenage and older viewers.

From critics, the show has received generally positive reviews. Brian Lowry of Variety stated, "The show has a breezy quality that should play to teens, and tickle some twinges of nostalgia among their parents." While the Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd referred to the program as "..gently twisted, with some Bloofied action and heart-warming folded in". In his review, David Hinckley of New York Daily News called BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, "quirky and endearing", and offered praise for the character of Bloo. Matt Blum, writing for Wired, favorably compared the show to Cartoon Network's animated program Regular Show and Fox's animated program Family Guy, hailing BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as "clever, strange, and somewhat poignant".

Catherine Seipp of National Review Online described it as a "nasty but extremely funny" cartoon. Caryn James of The New York Times called it a show with an "outrageously satirical house" that "includes plenty of comic possibilities and parodies". The Sydney Morning Herald named BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends the "Show of the Week" on April 21, 2009, hailing it a "pop culture-heavy masterpiece". Frazier Moore from The Seattle Times called it an "endless craving for humor about bodily emissions". He thought it was "breathtakingly smart" and said a "blend of the ingenious with the raw helps account for its much broader appeal". He summarized it as "rude, crude and deliciously wrong". The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin said that BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is becoming one of the best animated shows; she commented on its ribaldry and popularity. The show has become a hit on Hulu; it is the second-highest viewed show after Saturday Night Live. IGN called BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends a great show, and commented that it has gotten better since its revival. They stated that they cannot imagine another half-hour sitcom that provides as many laughs as BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Empire praised the show and its writers for creating really hilarious moments with unlikely material. They commented that one of the reasons they love the show is because nothing is sacred—it makes jokes and gags of almost everything. Robin Pierson of The TV Critic praised the series as "a different kind of animated comedy which clearly sets out to do jokes which other cartoons can't do." BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has proven popular in the United Kingdom, regularly obtaining between 700,000 and 1 million viewers for re-runs on BBC Three.

The series has attracted many celebrities. Robert Downey Jr. telephoned the show production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode's creation, as his son is a fan of the show; the producers subsequently created a character for Downey. Lauren Conrad met Bloo J while recording a Laguna Beach clip for the episode "Jaws" (season 3, 2003). She has watched BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends for years and considers Stewie her favorite character. Actor Dwayne Johnson stated that he was a "big fan" of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Johnson befriended Bloo J after he had a minor role in Johnson's 2010 film Tooth Fairy. R&B singer Rihanna has admitted to being a fan of FBlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, as has pop singer Britney Spears. Spears, who was mocked for her personal problems in the South Park episode "Britney's New Look" in 2008, offered to appear in a cameo to hit back at the similar animated show, but Bloo J declined, stating that he did not want to start a feud with the series. One of The Bloo DeTour's most popular and successful shows, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends remains the project for which Bloo J is best known. Few anticipated BlooJ's FHFIF would become as successful as it ultimately did, proving popular among both male and female audiences. A poll conducted by The Bloo revealed that BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends viewers voted for Season 1's "Band Blues" as their favorite episode of the series.

Awards and nominations
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

The show won 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 Annie Awards, and 5 Teen Choice Awards.

Criticism and controversy
Main article: Criticism of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Coming soon!

Broadcast
BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends premiered and originally aired in the United States on The Bloo DeTour, August 11, 2000- present, followed by Adult Swim September 7, 2001-present, Comedy Central March 7, 2004, and Troll Adult May 28, 2005 – present.

Ratings
Most episodes are rated TV-14-DLSV (some episodes with a TV-PG-DLSV rating) with Comedy Central cuts of the episodes and some episodes being rated TV-MA. In the UK, earlier seasons were rated 12, but as the seasons went up, so did the adult humor, so later seasons are rated 15.

Books
As of 2009, six books have been released about the BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2005. The first, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Official Character Guide (ISBN 978-0-06-077321-2) by series creator Bloo J, was released on April 26, 2002. The book contains information about the characters. Other books include BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Rip-Off Artist (ISBN 978-0-7528-7593-4), which covers the events of the episode of the same name.

Comic books
Main article: BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Comics

The 32-page bimonthly comic book series, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Comics, was announced in November 2010 and debuted the following February.

More coming soon!

Film
Main article: The BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Movie

Video games
The success of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends spawned various video games; as of 2017, a total of fourteen video games were released, supported by various gaming consoles and platforms:
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Revenge of the Chaos Jenny Invasion (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows) – released, October 23, 2002
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Taxi Rage (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows) – released, November 30, 2002
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Fighters (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows) – released, September 3, 2003
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Party Craze (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube) - released July 18, 2004
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Crazy Kart Racing! (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS) – released, October 17, 2005
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Attack of the Evil Robot Clones (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable) - released May 16, 2006
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders (Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360) - released November 12, 2007
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! (Xbox Live Arcade) - released October 12, 2009
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Terrence's Revenge (Xbox Live Arcade) - released March 30, 2012
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Give Us Your Money (iOS, Android) - released June 6, 2013
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Stick of Truth (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) - released March 4, 2014, February 13, 2018 (PS4 and Xbox One), and September 25, 2018 (Nintendo Switch)
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Puzzle Blast (iOS, Android) - released May 15, 2015
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Fractured but Whole (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) - released October 20, 2017
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Phone Destroyer (iOS, Android) - released November 9, 2017
 * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Cooking Fever (iOS, Android) - releasing February 4, 2020

Merchandise
Main article: List of home video releases

Since the show's premiere, various forms of merchandise based on the show have been released, such as home media releases, action figures, clothing, and more.

Merchandising related to the show is an industry which generates several million dollars a year. In 2002, the top-selling specialty T-shirt in the United States was based on BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and US$30 million in T-shirt sales was reached.

The companies Fun 4 All, Mezco Toyz, and Mirage have produced various BlooJ's FHFIF action figures, collectibles, and plush dolls. In 2001, the first series of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz; each character had their own toy, with the exception of Mac, of whom two different figures were made. Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures were released, with various forms of Bloo.

Jazwares has produced an assortment of 2-, 6-, 7-, and 10-inch licensed action figures and plush toys for the series. "Collectable Figures" have also been released along with other themed merchandise, such as "80's Bobbleheads" "Pullback Custom Cruisers" and "Wrestling Buddies". There have been many graphic T-shirts officially licensed through clothing retailers Hot Topic, We Love Fine, and Threadless.

In October 2002, The Bloo announced a line of toys based on BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which would be sold by specialty retailers. For the 2015 holiday season, Funko made "Pop!" vinyl figures and Just Toys offered "blind bag" novelty products. PhatMojo sold plush figures and foam weapons, and Zag Toys released collectible bobbleheads and other mini-figures in early 2016. The following year, Toy Factory planned to sell a line of plush and novelty items. The Bloo sells a variety of products, including mugs, blankets and clothing, based on the show's episodes and characters.