You really can’t watch all of The Venture Bros. in a day, but at least having the complete series at your fingertips makes it tempting to try. Jumping from disc to disc provides a look at how far a series can come from humble beginnings, and what happens as creators age and tastes change. For it’s always been the vision of Christopher McCulloch (aka Jackson Publick) and Doc Hammer, who joined shortly after the pilot. While the mythos of Astro-Base Go may have faded, its impact was far-reaching.
The Complete Series set does not contain any new extras. Let’s assume that’s because it coincides with finishing touches on Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, the final movie chronicling the adventures of one of the most dysfunctional venturing families in fiction. Publick and Hammer’s last words are likely there, but take this opportunity to look at the beginning — including a tour of the space station where Astro-Base Go allegedly produced the show.
From its humble beginnings as a hopeful pilot produced by Noodle Soup, the main details are already there. Only Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton) may have been slightly toned down afterward, but even that’s arguable. Someday, I’ll do an episode by episode rewatch and breakdown, because once you know where the series went, it’s amazing to see how much is set up in that first season.
Admittedly, some of the humor may not have aged well. The sexual tastes of the reformed villain Sgt. Hatred get joked about pretty heavily long past time they should have been. From the vantage point of 2023, the idea that maybe something is wrong about the hero/kid sidekick relationship has been played out. If you’re new to The Venture Bros., know that it’s not the emphasis of the show at all. Instead, it’s a narrative about American pulp mythology being a bit ridiculous, and what happens when you’re stuck in it and can’t live up to it.
The show took its influences from all over. It starts as sort of a parody of Jonny Quest before becoming something deeper and richer. Superbeings show up, some competent, some not, and even the title changes its meaning after the first season cliffhanger. Which, back then, was a real WTF moment, horrible and then hilarious. You get a touch of Doc Savage here, a sprinkling of glam rock pixie dust there, and somehow even G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero gets dragged. It’s also pretty clear that either McCulloch or Hammer read a lot of the weirder 70s Marvel Comics.
As far as completeness, this is indeed complete as far as video goes. The set includes the sublime Christmas special and the documentary about Hank Venture’s band Shallow Gravy. When the series streamed on Hulu, that was missing. The only thing missing that maybe could have been included were the Christmas songs the characters recorded in between seasons. Dolly Parton’s version of “Hard-Candy Christmas” may be beautiful, but you haven’t lived until you’ve heard it sung by the Monarch and Henchmen 21 and 24.
It just means we could hope for a CD — or am I as behind the times as Dr. Venture himself? Either way, The Venture Bros. The Complete Series is exactly what I wanted for Christmas, but I got it in June. And that’s a good thing.
Fanboy Planet is an Amazon affiliate. Purchases made through links on this and other pages may generate revenue for this site.
