130-454: Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and musician. He is the creator of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present), and a co-creator of the television series King of the Hill (1997–2010), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from
260-433: A Lady Gaga video convinced Van Toffler of the tenability of a Beavis and Butt-Head revival: "I felt like there was a whole crop of new artists—and what the world sorely missed was the point of view that only Beavis and Butt-Head could bring." As in the old series, Beavis and Butt-Head are high school students who, among other things, criticize contemporary music videos. In updating the show for its millennial-era audience,
390-530: A bass player with a touring blues band. He was a part of Anson Funderburgh 's band for two years, playing on their 1990 Black Top Records release Rack 'Em Up , while taking graduate math classes at the University of Texas at Dallas . He was planning to earn a master's degree as "a back-up plan" to become a community college math teacher after relocating to the north Dallas area for his then-wife's new job. In 1989, after seeing animation cels on display in
520-418: A cigarette lighter , killing the two-year-old. The mother later claimed that her son watched an episode in which the characters said "fire was fun". However, the neighbors stated that the family did not even have cable television and would thus be unable to view the show. As a result, all references to fire were removed from subsequent airings and prompted the show to a later time slot. The creators found
650-440: A 15-year old in his notebook," he later said. In describing the show's style, Elizabeth Kolbert from The New York Times wrote: "They are drawn with purposeful crudeness and their motions have the jerky, seasick quality of marionettes ." Getting the show to a place to where Judge felt it was running smoothly was difficult. He was particularly embarrassed by the first five episodes of the show, with its crude animation style, and
780-473: A DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP . That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News , Time , and Esquire . Time ' s Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox." Despite the film not being screened for critics,
910-470: A career in science, Judge focused on animation and short films. His animated short Frog Baseball was developed into the successful MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head , and the spin-off series Daria (with which Judge had no involvement). In 1995, Judge and former Simpsons writer Greg Daniels developed King of the Hill , which debuted on Fox in 1997 and quickly became popular with both critics and audiences. Running for 13 seasons, it became one of
1040-464: A censorship loophole and took delight in sometimes making Beavis scream things that sounded very similar to his previous "Fire! Fire!" (such as "Fryer! Fryer!" when he and Butt-Head are working the late shift at Burger World) and also having him almost say the forbidden word (such as one time when he sang "Liar, liar, pants on..." and pausing before "fire"). There was also a music video where a man runs on fire in slow motion ("California" by Wax ). Beavis
1170-481: A chance of being renewed for a second season. On August 8, 2009, however, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson stated that the show, along with Surviving Suburbia , had officially been canceled due to low ratings. In 2010, reruns of The Goode Family aired Monday nights at 10 pm on Comedy Central , beginning January 4. It departed the network's primetime schedule after four weeks, returning occasionally in low-trafficked timeslots. In 2012, Judge directed
1300-485: A computer and colored. The episodes debuted in the United States and Canada on October 27, 2011, and its premiere was a ratings hit with an audience of 3.3 million total viewers. This number eventually dwindled to 900,000 by the season's end, mainly due to its challenging time slot pitted against regular prime time shows on other networks. As part of a promotional campaign, cinemas screening Jackass 3D opened
1430-415: A duet with Cher on " I Got You Babe " and a track by themselves called "Come to Butt-Head". The track with Cher also resulted in a music video directed by Tamra Davis and Yvette Kaplan. It sold over two million copies worldwide. In 2015 the pair were featured in commissioned skits on the album Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven by Kid Cudi . The Beavis and Butt-Head duet with Cher on " I Got You Babe "
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#17327724095841560-505: A factory a little bit myself ... I hopefully write stuff that is recognizable as the archetypes of this world," Judge stated. Keeping true to this baseline of reality, Extract was shot in a working factory, in this case a water bottling plant south of Los Angeles, in the City of Commerce . He makes an uncredited appearance as Jim, a union organizer. The film premiered on September 4, 2009, and received mixed to positive reviews from critics and
1690-463: A future live-action movie still a possibility. Judge found it hard to replicate the characters' onscreen stupidity: "It was just sort of like watching teenagers imitate Beavis and Butt-Head." Beavis and Butt-Head are so stupid and sublimely self-absorbed that the exterior world has little reality except as an annoyance or distraction. It would be easy to attack B&B as ignorant, vulgar, depraved, repulsive slobs. Of course they are. But that would miss
1820-488: A knife at her former friend. In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer because, as she puts it, "housework's enough for me". Ruthanne Hendry (a new resident and the first black woman in Stepford) appears poised to become the next victim. Michelle Arrow says: "not only a satire of male fears of women's liberation, but
1950-554: A librarian, and William James Judge, an archaeologist. At the time of his birth, his father was working for a nonprofit organization in Guayaquil and other parts of Ecuador, promoting agricultural development. Judge was raised from age three in Albuquerque, New Mexico , where he spent a small portion of his life working on a chicken farm. He attended St. Pius X High School and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics from
2080-454: A live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie. Judge held auditions over Zoom for the project. He eventually talked the company into doing an animated movie instead to reestablish the characters first, with a future live-action movie still a possibility. In June 2022, it was confirmed that new episodes would debut later that year, along with the full library of over 227 original episodes, newly remastered, with music videos intact. One month later, it
2210-403: A live-action someday", then went on to speculate that Beavis might be homeless by now. In developing the series' second revival for Paramount+ in the 2020s, executives for the streamer had wanted a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie. Judge held auditions over Zoom for the project. He eventually talked the company into doing an animated movie instead to reestablish the characters first, with
2340-420: A major city lying 15 miles (24 km) away. The premise involves the married men of the fictional Fairfield County town of Stepford, Connecticut and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by
2470-561: A movie theater, Judge purchased a Bolex 16 mm film camera and began creating his own animated shorts in his home in Richardson, Texas . In 1991, his short film Office Space (also known as the Milton series of shorts) was acquired by Comedy Central , following an animation festival in Dallas. Shortly thereafter, he dropped out of school to focus on his career. In the early 1990s, he
2600-535: A naturalistic approach, seeking humor in the conventional and mundane aspects of everyday life while dealing with issues comically. After its debut in 1997, the series became a large success for Fox and was named one of the best television series of the year by various publications, including Entertainment Weekly , Time , and TV Guide . For the 1997–1998 season, the series became one of Fox's highest-rated programs and even briefly outperformed The Simpsons in ratings. Although ratings remained consistent throughout
2730-426: A notable amount of both positive and negative reaction from the public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society. Judge himself is highly critical of the animation and quality of earlier episodes, in particular the first two – Blood Drive / Give Blood and Door to Door – which he described as "awful, I don't know why anybody liked it ... I was burying my head in the sand." The series spawned
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#17327724095842860-425: A release date was set for September 1, 2006. The film was released without a trailer or substantial marketing campaign. The film was not screened for critics beforehand as is usually done. Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively attempted to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of
2990-418: A revival of King of the Hill being one of several series in development. During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, Judge stated that the show "has a very good chance of coming back." In September 2022, Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn confirmed that the series would not air on Fox, with the reason being that Fox prefers to have full ownership of whatever new shows they air. On January 31, 2023,
3120-404: A revival on Hulu was officially confirmed to be ordered. Bandera's first produced series is Anna Drezen 's Praise Petey starring Annie Murphy , John Cho , and Stephen Root among others. The series premiered on July 21, 2023 on Freeform and Hulu , and has received mostly positive reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 80% Fresh from critics, and 90% Fresh from audiences. The series
3250-547: A running gag on the show where adults mispronounced their names. For example, one character on the show, Tom Anderson, originally called them "Butthole" and "Joe" and believed the two to be of Asian ethnicity (describing them to the police as " Oriental "). In later episodes, Anderson uses the Hollings mispronunciation once and, on at least one occasion, refers to them as "Penis and Butt-Munch". President Clinton called them "Beavis and Bum-head" in "Citizen Butt-head", as well as in
3380-557: A savage view of heterosexual marriage. In this telling, a man would rather kill his wife and replace her with a robot than commit to equality and recognise her as a whole person." There are many feminist themes in The Stepford Wives . The novel tackles the role of women in the nuclear family and the control they have over their bodies by allowing the readers to observe what happens in Stepford when Joanna moves in. Before
3510-515: A second feature film entitled Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe premiered on June 23, 2022, to kick-off the new series. The new season followed on August 4, 2022, with its second season debuting on April 20, 2023. In addition, in 2022 Paramount+ announced they were to host the full library of over 227 original episodes, newly remastered, with music videos intact for the first time. As of 2024 only some of these episodes have been hosted. In
3640-462: A second season on April 21, 2014, and a third season on April 13, 2015. Silicon Valley aired its fourth season, which premiered on April 23, 2017. The series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on March 25, 2018, and a sixth season, which premiered on October 27, 2019, and served as its final season. On January 12, 2017, Deadline confirmed that Cinemax ordered 8 episodes of Judge's new animated series, Mike Judge Presents: Tales from
3770-488: A second time came from Judge, who created a concert intro for the band Portugal. The Man using the characters. He had not intended to return the characters again, but found performing the voices fun. He entered discussions with Paramount Global , which was met with more "enthusiasm" than its previous MTV incarnation. The show was originally set to debut on Comedy Central , but was moved to help launch Paramount+. This revival also encompasses additional spin-offs and specials;
3900-825: A symptom of a larger Hollywood reboot problem: "a tragedy of the Great Intellectual Property Plundering." In its heyday, Beavis and Butt-Head became a lightning rod for controversy over its content. "The downward spiral of the living white male surely ends here," John Leland wrote in Newsweek in 1993. The show was blamed for the death of two-year-old Jessica Matthews in Moraine, Ohio , in October 1993. The girl's five-year-old brother, Austin Messner, set fire to his mother's mobile home with
4030-883: A taste of their own medicine as restitution. Both versions were filmed in various towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut, including Redding , Westport , Darien , New Canaan , Wilton and Norwalk . The 1975 version had several locations in the Greenfield Hill section of Fairfield , including the Eberharts' house and the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church. Additional scenes from the 2004 movie were filmed in Bedminster, New Jersey , with extras from surrounding communities. The term "Stepford wife" entered common use in
Mike Judge - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-536: A temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful". Judge sold the completed film Office Space to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston , Ron Livingston , and David Herman . Originally,
4290-441: A tendency to mold their environment in their image. Or are they just so timelessly American that surprisingly little adaptation is necessary?" Daniel Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter called it "solidly amusing, if rarely remarkable." Lowry, now for CNN , viewed it "proudly stupid"; similarly Andy Greene , for Rolling Stone , "really loved" the new take. In contrast, Stuart Heritage writing for The Guardian , cast it as
4420-426: A twist ending in which it is a powerful woman (played by Glenn Close) who is the evil mastermind of the injustice perpetrated on other women, and features a "Stepfordized" male partner of a gay town resident. Unlike the original novel and most of the adaptations, the perpetrators of the conspiracy neither die nor get away with their crimes; the victims are freed from their control programming and subject their husbands to
4550-442: Is a 1972 satirical "feminist horror " novel by Ira Levin . The story concerns Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer, wife, and young mother who suspects that something in the town of Stepford is changing the wives from free-thinking, intelligent women into compliant wives dedicated solely to homemaking. As her friends slowly transform, Joanna realizes the horrific truth. The book has had two feature film adaptations, both using
4680-542: Is a political joke or anything. I don't want to do a bunch of stuff about the war , particularly. In June 2016, before the presidential election in November, Etan Cohen told BuzzFeed that he and Judge would produce Idiocracy -themed campaign advertisements mocking Donald Trump's presidential campaign if given permission from 20th Century Fox to do so. It was later reported by Business Insider that they would not have been campaign ads, would have mocked all of
4810-473: Is hypnotized by it and can barely say "fire". However, MTV eventually removed the episode entirely, leading it to be locked away in the MTV vault. References to fire were cut from earlier episodes—even the original master tapes were altered permanently. Other episodes MTV opted not to rerun included "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way". Copies of early episodes with the controversial content intact are rare, and
4940-464: Is often considered a classic piece of 1990s youth culture and Generation X . Trey Parker and Matt Stone , creators of South Park , cite the series as an influence and compared it to the blues . In 1997, Dan Tobin of The Boston Phoenix commented on the series' humor, saying it transformed "stupidity into a crusade, forcing us to acknowledge how little it really takes to make us laugh." In 1997, Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix described
5070-460: Is that they are afraid of losing control over their wives. The similarity between sex robots and the women in Stepford is that they are both lifeless and docile, hence the men do not need consent in order to fulfill their sexual desire. In 1975, the book was adapted into a science fiction thriller directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman and starring Katharine Ross , Paula Prentiss , Peter Masterson and Tina Louise . While
5200-539: Is that they are budding misogynists ." When Beavis consumes too much caffeine or sugar, he becomes Cornholio, a hyperactive alter ego. Over the course of the series, Beavis and Butt-Head developed more distinct personalities; Butt-Head is the leader and "devious visionary", while Beavis, the sidekick, is the "loose cannon". Most episodes integrate sequences where Beavis and Butt-Head watch music videos and offer commentary. They prefer videos with "explosions, loud guitars, screaming and death", and favor rock bands such as
5330-549: The Butthole Surfers , Corrosion of Conformity , and Metallica . Judge said he saw Beavis and Butt-Head as "pretty positive characters, generally speaking ... They usually think everything's pretty cool. Or, in one way or another, everything sucks." He said his perception of the characters changed over the years: "When I first started out with the first show, which was Frog Baseball , they were just two guys that I would definitely want to keep my distance from ... But, by
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5460-459: The Extract script was given new life. Seeking to keep Extract below the radar of the studio system, Judge and his producers set up a production company, Ternion Productions, and arranged private financing while partnering with Miramax for domestic distribution of the film. Judge relied heavily on his own personal knowledge of the industrial world to bring the story to life. "I actually worked in
5590-769: The University of California, San Diego , (UCSD) in 1985. After graduating from UCSD in 1985, he held several brief jobs in physics and mechanical engineering , but found himself growing bored with science. In 1987, he moved to Silicon Valley to join Parallax Graphics , a startup video card company with about 40 employees based in Santa Clara, California . Disliking the company's culture and his colleagues, Judge quit after less than three months, describing it as, "The people I met were like Stepford Wives . They were true believers in something, and I don't know what it was". Shortly after quitting his job, he became
5720-540: The feature film with a 3-D Beavis and Butt-Head short subject. The revival encompassed 24 episodes (12 half-hour programs), but only lasted one season. In a later interview, Judge confirmed "Things didn’t quite click. There were a lot of problems on the animation side of things, trying to get it to look right. I don’t know if that played into it. But it actually did pretty well — the ratings were good. MTV just didn’t want to do anymore." The network's demographic had also shifted to include more female viewers, complicating
5850-476: The libertarian magazine Reason seems to agree, comparing King of the Hill to the anti-authoritarian point of view of South Park and The Simpsons , though he calls the show more populist , noting the disdain King of the Hill seems to have for bureaucrats, professionals, and big-box chains . Still, Judge denies having political messages in his shows, saying in 2006 in an IGN interview about King of
5980-504: The longest-running American animated series . During the run of the show, Judge took time off to write and direct Office Space , Idiocracy and Extract . As King of the Hill was coming to an end, Judge created his third show, ABC 's The Goode Family , which received mixed reviews and was cancelled after 13 episodes. After a four-year hiatus, he created his fourth show, the live-action Silicon Valley for HBO , which has received critical acclaim. In 2017, Judge's fourth animated series,
6110-573: The movie , where an old lady (voiced by Cloris Leachman ) consistently calls them "Travis" and "Bob-head". In "Incognito", when another student threatens to kill them, the duo uses this to their advantage, pretending to be exchange students named "Crevis and Bung-Head". The bully, seeing through the disguises, calls them "Beaver and Butt-Plug ". In "Right On!", when the duo appear on the Gus Baker Show , host Gus Baker (a caricature of Rush Limbaugh ) introduces them as "Beavis and Buffcoat". And in
6240-417: The state department of health to inquire about possible toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife after a "romantic getaway" with her husband. At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home, she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from
6370-399: The "biggest phenomenon on MTV since the heyday of Michael Jackson ". In Time , Kurt Andersen wrote that Beavis and Butt-Head "may be the bravest show ever run on national television". In 1997, Judge said the show was "my reaction to the whole fringe aspects of the political correctness movement". Over its run, Beavis and Butt-Head received both positive and negative reactions from
6500-462: The 10th, 11th and 12th seasons and had begun to rise in the overall Nielsen ratings (up to the 105th most watched series on television, from 118 in season 8), Fox abruptly announced in 2008 that King of the Hill had been cancelled. The cancellation coincided with the announcement that Seth MacFarlane , creator of Family Guy and American Dad! , would be creating a Family Guy spin-off called The Cleveland Show , which would take over King of
6630-614: The 1990s; he wrote that they were the postmodern descendants of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn , who were the "exemplars of males coming of age in American popular culture". In December 2005, TV Guide ranked the duo's distinct laughing at #66 on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases. In 2012, TV Guide ranked Beavis and Butt-Head as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. The show's millennial -era revival saw mixed reviews. Karen Olsson from The New York Times found it "dumber and funnier" than
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#17327724095846760-515: The 1997 Beavis and Butt-Head state as "reduced to self-parody of their self-parody". In the Baltimore Sun , David Zurawik said that Beavis and Butt-Head was "intelligent social satire that especially speaks in a meaningful way to a generation of teenage boys who are going through a uniquely complicated socialization at the hands of their baby-boomer parents". He said that its popularity may have taught audiences about male adolescence in
6890-873: The European Hot 100, 9 on the Netherlands Dutch Top 40, 10 on the Netherlands top 100 and number 40 in Sweden. In 2019, Gauselmann Group's UK-based games studio Blueprint Gaming launched the Beavis and Butt-Head online slot game. The game features moments and scenes from the TV show and film. The branded game was among the 10 most exposed slot games in UK online casinos days after its release in late May 2019. The Stepford Wives The Stepford Wives
7020-476: The Hill executive producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky . The HBO comedy is a single-camera live-action sitcom set in Northern California. One of its main themes is the idea that "the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success". The first season of Silicon Valley was 8 episodes long and received critical and public acclaim. Silicon Valley was renewed for
7150-404: The Hill is often a satire of protagonist Hank Hill , identifiable as a conservative , and his The Goode Family is essentially a satire centered around a liberal family, Judge avoids discussing his own political leanings. In reviewing Idiocracy , Salon stated, "Judge's gimlet eye is so ruthless that at times his politics seem to border on South Park libertarianism ". A writer for
7280-428: The Hill : I try to not let the show get too political. To me, it's more social than political I guess you'd say, because that's funnier. I don't really like political reference humor that much. Although I liked the episode 'Hank's Bully' where Hank's talking to the mailman and he says, 'Why would anyone want to lick a stamp that has Bill Clinton on it?' To me that's just like more of a character thing about Hank than it
7410-470: The Hill's time slot. Hopes to keep the show afloat surfaced as sources indicated that ABC (which was already airing Judge's new animated comedy, The Goode Family ) was interested in securing the rights to the show, but in January 2009, ABC president Steve McPherson said he had "no plans to pick up the animated comedy." On April 30, 2009, it was announced that Fox ordered at least two more episodes to give
7540-503: The Tour Bus (2017–2018). He wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009), and co-wrote the screenplay to Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022). Judge was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico . He graduated from the University of California, San Diego , where he studied physics. After losing interest in
7670-506: The Tour Bus . The series premiered on September 22, 2017. Judge wrote the story for Action Point , the film was released in 2018. In 2018, he starred in the film, The Front Runner . In 2019, Judge announced he had been developing two projects for HBO : QualityLand and A5 , both of which were later scrapped by HBO in 2021. In June 2020, Comedy Central announced it had ordered a second revival of Beavis and Butt-Head consisting of two new seasons along with spin-offs and specials. In
7800-516: The US box office and grossed more than $ 60 million. On the April 13, 2024 episode of Saturday Night Live guest host Ryan Gosling , and cast regular Mikey Day , appeared in a sketch as live-action versions of Beavis and Butt-Head. The sketch went viral and received large media coverage and critical acclaim. The pair reprised the roles on the red carpet at The Fall Guy movie premiere. MTV marketed
7930-400: The actual season number, MTV incorrectly refers to this season as "Season 9", even though it is technically the eighth season. Later reruns of this iteration of the program were broadcast on MTV Classic in the mid-2010s. Over a decade after the last iteration of the series, the series was again revived, this time in the streaming era for Paramount+ . The concept of relaunching the show
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#17327724095848060-406: The camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert." Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!" In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated
8190-448: The candidates, and would not go forward. Beavis and Butt-Head Beavis and Butt-Head is an American adult animated sitcom created by Mike Judge . The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head , both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy , lack of intelligence , lowbrow humor and love for hard rock and heavy metal . The original series juxtaposes slice-of-life short subjects—in which
8320-501: The characters from a primitive state of mind: "You go to that place in your mind where thoughts begin and then just stay there." The music video commentary was more-or-less improvised by Judge, who recorded them alongside an engineer in Austin. Judge had also tried to have the duo comment on the network's other programs, like The Real World , but found that recording dialogue on top of dialogue too confusing for viewers. After writing,
8450-526: The characters to develop an additional season of the program, which aired in 2011. John Altschuler, formerly a writer for King of the Hill , told a Rolling Stone reporter that he saw signs that Mike Judge was thinking of reviving Beavis and Butt-Head . On more than one occasion, Judge told the writers that one of their ideas for an episode of King of the Hill would work well for Beavis and Butt-Head ; eventually he concluded, "Maybe we should just actually make some good Beavis and Butt-Head episodes." Later,
8580-488: The conspiracy. In a 1987, a television sequel/remake titled The Stepford Children , both the wives and the children of the male residents were replaced by drones. It ended with the members of the conspiracy being killed. A 1996 version called The Stepford Husbands was made as a third television movie with the gender roles reversed and the men in the town being brainwashed by a female clinic director into being perfect husbands. Another film titled The Stepford Wives
8710-526: The copies that exist are made from home video recordings of the original broadcasts, typically on VHS . In an interview included with the Mike Judge Collection DVD set , Judge said he is uncertain whether some of the earlier episodes still exist in their original, uncensored form. When the series returned in 2011, MTV allowed Beavis to use the word "fire" once again uncensored. During the first video segment, " Werewolves of Highland ",
8840-462: The couch." Season 9 continues the concept of the Beavis and Butt-Head multiverse initially explored in its film predecessor; Teenage Beavis and Butt-Head and Smart Beavis and Butt-Head all get their own dedicated episodes in the revival as well. To promote the revival, Paramount+ attempted to break the world record for the largest serving of nachos at S. Alameda St in Los Angeles to celebrate
8970-590: The country annually for several years, screening animated shorts. In 2005, Judge was presented with the Austin Film Festival 's Outstanding Television Writer Award by Johnny Hardwick . Judge has made supporting and cameo appearances in numerous films. Judge had a voice cameo as Kenny in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), the feature-length film adaptation of the popular Comedy Central series; he voiced Kenny McCormick when he
9100-493: The drinking water here too". An album inspired by the series, The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience , was released on Geffen Records . The label's namesake, David Geffen, came up with the concept for the album. He was sold on the show's success upon its debut, and contacted MTV to make a deal to co-finance the album and later film. The album features many hard rock and heavy metal bands such as Megadeth , Primus , Nirvana and White Zombie . Moreover, Beavis and Butt-Head do
9230-501: The duo also watch episodes of Jersey Shore , Ultimate Fighting Championship matches, and amateur videos from YouTube . Some characters like Daria Morgendorffer did not return. According to TMZ , MTV had not asked Tracy Grandstaff to reprise that role; Judge confirmed that the character was limited to a cameo appearance . As the animation business had switched to digital tools in the time between, this version utilized digital ink and paint , with each drawing simply scanned into
9360-483: The end of the series, I would think that two guys like that would at least be fun to sit and watch TV with." Judge composed the program's theme song , which is descended from AC/DC 's " Gone Shootin' ". Judge later claimed that the central guitar riff of the theme is that song played backwards. Beavis and Butt-Head was created by the American animator Mike Judge . He graduated with a degree in physics but struggled to connect with his work in computer science . In
9490-434: The ending and felt that a complete rewrite of the third act was necessary. In the film, he made a cameo appearance as Stan (complete with hairpiece and fake mustache), the manager of Chotchkie's, a fictionalized parody of chain restaurants like Chili's , Applebee's and TGI Friday's , and the boss of Jennifer Aniston 's character, whom he continually undermines and interrogates over her lack of sufficient enthusiasm for
9620-443: The episodes were storyboarded and went to the layout phase of animation, before being transferred to cels and photographed. Judge estimated it could "take anywhere from five months to a year before it's on the air." To save time, the animators made a stock selection of different movements like head turns to simplify editing the program. Though many early seasons were made at MTV's midtown Manhattan campus, Judge preferred to produce
9750-473: The feature-length film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and the spin-off show Daria . After a hiatus of two decades, the series aired a new season on October 27, 2011. The premiere episode was a ratings hit, with an audience of 3.3 million total viewers. On January 10, 2014, Judge said that there is still a possibility that Beavis and Butt-Head could be pitched to another network, adding that he wouldn't mind making more episodes. In early 1995, after
9880-516: The film received positive reviews and was a minor box-office success. In the U.S., the film was released to DVD in January 2007 and later aired on premium-television , multiplex channels Cinemax in September 2007 and HBO in January 2008. Since then, it has gained a cult following . Judge's fourth directorial effort was 2009's Extract . Shortly after completing Office Space , Judge was already about 40 pages into his follow-up script, set in
10010-589: The first new episode of the revival, Beavis utters the word "fire" a total of seven times within 28 seconds, with Butt-Head saying it once as well. In February 1994, watchdog group Morality in Media claimed that the death of eight-month-old Natalia Rivera, struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a highway in Jersey City, New Jersey , near the Holland Tunnel by 18-year-old Calvin J. Settle,
10140-432: The house on foot and several of the men's club members track her down. They corner her in the woods, and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes
10270-479: The job and the insufficient quantity of "flair" (buttons, ribbons, etc.) she wears on her uniform. The film was released on February 19, 1999, and it was well received by critics. Although not particularly successful at the box office, it sold well on VHS and DVD, and it has come to be recognized as a cult classic . Beginning in fall 2003, Judge and fellow animator Don Hertzfeldt created an animation festival called " The Animation Show ". "The Animation Show" toured
10400-413: The late 1980s, he began making short animated films on his own; he taught himself how to draw and animate and would shoot his projects with a cheap Bolex 16mm film camera . He made several shorts, including Frog Baseball , which marked the first appearances of the characters. Judge cold-called networks to pitch this concept, and would send out VHS tapes with prints of his films. The voice of Beavis
10530-558: The local men's association, mocks her fears. As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and researches the pasts of Stepford's wives, discovering that some of the women were once feminist activists and successful professionals. The leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to
10660-405: The majority of the episodes. The show centers on two socially incompetent, heavy metal -loving teenage wannabe delinquents, Beavis and Butt-Head , who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas. The two have no adult supervision, are dim-witted, sex-obsessed, uneducated, barely literate, and lack any empathy or moral scruples, even regarding each other. Over its run, Beavis and Butt-Head drew
10790-455: The music video (animation by Titmouse ) for country music group Zac Brown Band 's " The Wind ". In 2013, Judge collaborated with Seth MacFarlane on a mashup episode of Family Guy , in which, complete with a Hill -themed opening, Judge reprises his role as Hank Hill. Earlier in 2010 and 2012, Judge played cameos as Hank on two episodes of MacFarlane's The Cleveland Show . Judge created his fourth show, Silicon Valley , with King of
10920-465: The music-themed Tales from the Tour Bus , premiered on Cinemax , to acclaim. Judge has won a Primetime Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for King of the Hill and two Critics' Choice Television Awards and Satellite Awards for Silicon Valley . Michael Craig Judge was born on October 17, 1962, in Guayaquil , Ecuador . He is the middle of three children born to Margaret Yvonne ( née Blue),
11050-497: The new series, Beavis and Butt-Head enter a "whole new Gen Z world" with meta-themes that are said to be relatable to both new fans, who may be unfamiliar with the original series, and old. This iteration has several episodes that depict the characters settling into middle-age , which is a concept Judge had suggested might be amusing over the years. While promoting his film Extract in 2009, Judge noted: "I wouldn't mind doing something with them as these two dirty old men sitting on
11180-437: The new series, Beavis and Butt-Head will enter a "whole new Gen Z world" with meta-themes that are said to be relatable to both new fans, who may be unfamiliar with the original series, and old. In February 2022, it was announced that the revival would instead premiere on Paramount+ , following a second Beavis and Butt-Head feature film entitled Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe . Originally, Paramount executives wanted
11310-463: The original run, and Brian Lowry of Variety "still a rowdy, guilty hoot." Others found it tiresome: Slate 's Troy Patterson called it a "grim" rehash, and James Poniewozik writing for Time found it not as "innovative" but still amusing. Matthew Gilbert from the Boston Globe felt television was now too dumb for them: "The problem is, there actually isn’t much of a need for
11440-591: The original series finale, "Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead", a news reporter refers to the two boys as "Brevis and Head-Butt". In the Season 9 episode "Locked Out" Tom Anderson mistakes Beavis and Butt-Head for honest and responsible boys, and blames "Buford" and "Bernardo" for the alleged damage to the paint on his new truck, though Beavis and Butt-Head lied about the damage. Beavis and Butt-Head have been compared to idiot savants because of their creative and subversively intelligent observations of music videos. This part of
11570-491: The point, which is that Mike Judge's characters reflect parts of the society that produced them. To study B&B is to learn about a culture of narcissism , alienation , functional illiteracy , instant gratification and television zombiehood . — Roger Ebert (1996) During its original run, Beavis and Butt-Head was MTV's highest rated show. It was one of the most popular series when it premiered in 1993. In 1993, Rolling Stone described Beavis and Butt-Head as
11700-520: The program with a surplus of merchandise, with items as varied as clothing, hats, and aftershave . Judge found it difficult to extend his sensibility to the consumer products that bore his name; he noted that he had no involvement in the show's video games. From 1994 to 1996, Marvel Comics published a monthly Beavis and Butt-Head comic under the Marvel Absurd imprint by a variety of writers, but with each issue drawn by artist Rick Parker . It
11830-493: The public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society. It became the focus of criticism from some social critics such as Michael Medved , while others such as David Letterman and the National Review defended it as a cleverly subversive vehicle for social criticism and a particularly creative and intelligent comedy. Either way, the show captured the attention of many young television viewers and
11960-401: The rest was handled by an in-house animation unit for MTV. Initially, the show's animators condensed the show's art style down to the industry standard of limited animation , which Judge likened to a Saturday morning -type style. He was specific about the show looking intentionally off-kilter: "there's something kind of interesting about seeing drawings animated that look like they were done by
12090-496: The return of the show. They were successful and were given a ceremonial plaque from the Guinness World Records representative which stated "The largest serving of nachos was achieved by Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head and Paramount+". On June 5, 2024, it was announced that the revival had been renewed for a third season, which is expected to air sometime in 2025 on Comedy Central . The concept of taking
12220-453: The role of Beavis, having imitated the character while Marlon Brando imitated Butt-Head during the production of Don Juan DeMarco (1995). He initially disliked the idea of bringing the characters to the real world, but by 2008 had come to believe that "maybe there's something there"; around the same time, he also suggested that " Seann William Scott 's kinda got Butt-Head eyes." A decade later, Judge told Radio Times "maybe it could be
12350-424: The same title as the novel: the 1975 version , and the 2004 remake . Edgar J. Scherick produced the 1975 version as well as all three of the television sequels. Scherick was credited posthumously as producer of the 2004 remake. In a March 27, 2007, letter to The New York Times , Levin said that he based the town of Stepford on Wilton, Connecticut , where he lived in the 1960s. Wilton is a "step" from Stamford ,
12480-405: The script emphasis is on gender conflict and the sterility of suburban living, and thus the science fiction elements are only lightly explored, the movie still makes it much clearer than the book that the women are being replaced by some form of robot. Goldman's treatment of the book differed from that of Forbes, with the robots closer to an idealized Playboy Bunny ; it has been claimed that the look
12610-648: The series aired in syndication the week of May 3, 2010, and again on Adult Swim during the week of May 17, 2010. During the panel discussion for the return of Beavis and Butt-Head at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, Mike Judge said that no current plans exist to revive King of the Hill , although he would not rule out the possibility of it returning. Judge began to develop one of his four animated short films titled Milton , about an office drone named Milton that Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey and later aired on Saturday Night Live . The inspiration came from
12740-510: The series. In September 1992, MTV flew Judge to their New York headquarters to commission a full series of the concept. Executives initially approved 35 episodes; the show's seven-figure budget floored Judge, who had only made the films on his own for $ 800. The original series aired from 1993 to 1997. The show hired four staff writers, who would work up a treatment to present to Judge, who would then revise it to capture his artistic voice. One early writer, David Felton, found it best to write
12870-436: The show a proper finale. The show's 14th season was supposed to air sometime in the 2009–10 season , but Fox later announced that it would not air the episodes, opting instead for syndication. On August 10, 2009, however, Fox released a statement that the network would air a one-hour series finale (which consisted of a regular 30-minute episode followed by a 30-minute finale) on September 13, 2009. The four remaining episodes of
13000-495: The show from his Austin home; in a Los Angeles Times piece from 1994, it observes: "Judge makes occasional trips to New York to approve the music videos that will be used in the series and to take care of other business, but generally works by fax , FedEx and video conferencing from Austin." Animation was also partially handled by studios in Korea . The show's first season was animated by J. J. Sedelmaier Productions , while
13130-542: The show was mostly improvised by Mike Judge . With regard to criticisms of the two as "idiots", Judge responded that a show about straight-A students would not be funny. A theatrical film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America , released in the US 1996 and later in the UK and Europe in 1997. It features the voices of Bruce Willis , Demi Moore , Cloris Leachman , Robert Stack , Eric Bogosian , Richard Linklater , Greg Kinnear (in an uncredited role) and David Letterman (credited as Earl Hofert). It opened at number one at
13260-459: The show's appeal. In an interview with Howard Stern in 2014, Judge mentioned that while the show's ratings were high, meeting this key demographic was a factor in its cancellation. He also said that MTV was close to selling it to another network, but it became "lost in deal stuff". Judge remained outwardly open to producing more shows, suggesting in 2014 that there was a chance of pitching Beavis and Butt-Head to another network. Conflicting with
13390-411: The show. MTV also responded by broadcasting the program after 11:00 p.m. and included a disclaimer, reminding viewers: Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh. This
13520-473: The studio wanted to make a film out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast –based film. The studio suggested that he should make a film like Car Wash but "just set in an office". Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film's director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put
13650-418: The submissive wives of Stepford who seem to lack free will, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends (Bobbie, Charmaine), fellow new arrivals to Stepford, turn into mindless, docile housewives, each time beginning after a romantic weekend with their respective husbands. All the women deny anything is wrong. Joanna's own husband, Walter, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of
13780-484: The successful first run of Beavis and Butt-Head , Judge decided to create another animated series, King of the Hill . Judge conceived the idea for the show, drew the main characters, and wrote a pilot script. Fox was uncertain of the viability of Judge's concept for an animated comedy based in reality and set in the American South, so the network teamed him up with The Simpsons writer Greg Daniels . Judge
13910-990: The teens embark on low-minded misadventures in their Texas town—with the pair watching and commenting on music videos . Judge developed the pair when financing and making his own animated shorts; two of these films, including Frog Baseball , were broadcast by MTV 's animation showcase Liquid Television . The network commissioned a full series, which over its seven seasons became its most popular program. The original series ended in 1997, but has been twice rebooted, first in 2011 for MTV, and again in 2022 for Paramount+ . Starting in 2025, new episodes will air on Comedy Central . During its initial run, Beavis and Butt-Head received critical acclaim for its satirical, scathing commentary on society, as well as criticism for its alleged influence on adolescents. The characters became pop culture icons among Gen. X viewers, with their sniggering and dialogue becoming catchphrases . However many Gen Zs and others still found it Iconic. The series
14040-434: The teens to the silver screen has been floated since the program was taken on the air. Paramount approached Judge at the start of the show's run to produce a live-action adaption; David Geffen reportedly wanted to cast unknown actors for the role, but Judge refused. Judge has also suggested on more than one occasion directing a live-action adaption of the program. He revealed that Johnny Depp had once expressed interest in
14170-457: The third Jackass film, titled Jackass 3D , at the beginning of the film, telling viewers to put on their 3D glasses for the film. Judge's third film, Idiocracy , a dystopian comedy starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph , was given a limited release theatrically by 20th Century Fox in September 2006, two years after production. The film's original release date was intended to be on August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge. In April 2006,
14300-467: The two dopes and their anti-wisdom anymore." Conversely, Tom Carson for GQ found it "just right [...] Judge anticipated the trickle-down version of popland's Age of Meta." Its 2022 revival brought similar comments. The New York Times 's Jason Zinoman extolled the revival: "[the show] remains singular [...] they all hit comic notes with moseying cadences you can’t find elsewhere." Jesse Hassenger from The Wrap wrote "Beavis and Butt-Head have
14430-443: The viewer's imagination: there is little said of the characters' backstories, or their parents, and it's unclear whose house the characters are couch-surfing. This aspect of the show was also inspired by Peanuts , where the characters also seem to inhabit a liminal world without parents. MTV bought Frog Baseball and two other films to air as part of its late-night animation showcase, Liquid Television , from which it commissioned
14560-452: The women in Stepford turned into lifeless, docile robots, they were avid activists and successful career women who had lives outside of being a wife. However, the men in Stepford were opposed to this, turning their wives into robots and reducing their only purposes in life down to serving their husbands. The theme of consent is tackled in The Stepford Wives franchise. The reason why the men in Stepford make their wives into submissive robots
14690-418: The world of an extract factory, when he was convinced by his representative team that he needed to shelve that and concentrate on something more commercial. Over the next several years, he focused his energy on developing Idiocracy . But years later, by the time of the film's release, audiences had decided that Office Space had struck a chord, so they were ready to see Judge return to on-the-job humor, and thus
14820-483: Was a direct-to-video release. Judge also created a video clip of Beavis and Butt-Head ripping into Steve-O for his video Poke the Puss , where the two try imagining if they would like the video better if they were black. The clip aired as a part of Jackassworld.com: 24-Hour Takeover , a February 23, 2008, television special on MTV to coincide with the official launch of jackassworld.com. The characters appeared again in
14950-464: Was a former resident of Garland, Texas , upon which the fictional community of Arlen was loosely based, but as Judge stated in a later interview, the show was based more specifically on the Dallas suburb of Richardson . Judge voiced characters Hank Hill and Jeff Boomhauer . The show is about a middle-class Methodist family named the Hills living in a small town called Arlen, Texas. It attempts to retain
15080-419: Was a minor commercial success. Judge's third television series, The Goode Family , debuted on ABC but was cancelled after one season. Comedy Central first aired the series in reruns on January 4, 2010. However, the series was pulled off the schedule shortly thereafter. It was confirmed on The Goode Family Facebook page that Comedy Central had picked up the reruns of the series, which were to be evaluated for
15210-812: Was adapted into a theatrical film, the commercially successful Do America (1996), as well as a sequel , Do the Universe (2022). The franchise also spawned a comic book series, video games , books , an album, and more. Beavis and Butt-Head are unintelligent teenage boys who live in the town of Highland, Texas. Rolling Stone described them as "thunderously stupid and excruciatingly ugly". They spend time watching television, drinking unhealthy beverages, eating, and embarking on "mundane, sordid" adventures, which often involve vandalism, abuse, violence, or animal cruelty. According to The Baltimore Sun , Beavis and Butt-Head are "at their most incorrect when it comes to sexuality and matters of gender. The nicest thing you can say about them in this regard
15340-408: Was also inspired by the work of John Kricfalusi , and fellow Texas animator Wes Archer and his film Jack Mack and Rad Boy Go! Aesthetically, Judge likened the program's best episodes to comfort food : "I think there’s something kind of relaxing about it," he noted. He claimed the wacky comedy of The Beverly Hillbillies was an influence on the show. Other elements of the setting are left up to
15470-420: Was also reprinted by Marvel UK, which created new editorial material. A spin-off based on classmate Daria Morgendorffer premiered in 1997. Mike Judge was not involved at all except to give permission for use of the character (created by Glenn Eichler and designed by Bill Peckmann). The only reference to the original show is Daria's mentioning that Lawndale cannot be a second Highland "unless there's uranium in
15600-516: Was announced that the revival would premiere on August 4, 2022. Season 9 continues the concept of the Beavis and Butt-Head multiverse initially explored in Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe . Teenage Beavis and Butt-Head, Old Beavis and Butt-Head, and Smart Beavis and Butt-Head all get their own dedicated episodes in the revival. In January 2022, it was announced that Judge and Daniels had formed an animation company called Bandera Entertainment , with
15730-450: Was based on a kid in his high school calculus class, who would always snicker in a distinct way at their attractive female teacher. The art style of what became Beavis and Butt-Head was intentionally disruptive and ugly; Judge wanted it to look like "it was drawn by an insane person." The comic strip Peanuts was an unlikely influence: Judge stated that Schulz 's line work and sketchy sensibility worked its way into his as well. He
15860-577: Was cancelled after one season. In 2024, Judge, along with Zach Woods and Brandon Gardner, co-created the series In the Know . The series premiered on January 25, 2024 on Peacock . Judge married Francesca Morocco in 1989; they divorced in 2009. Together they have two daughters and a son. The family lives in Austin, Texas , and Santa Monica, California , having previously resided in Malibu . While King of
15990-621: Was later changed to: Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human. They're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: don't try this at home. This disclaimer also appears before the opening of their Sega Genesis and Super NES games as well as their Windows game Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity . They were famously lambasted by Senator Fritz Hollings ( D - SC ) as "Buffcoat and Beaver". This subsequently became
16120-436: Was partially inspired by Beavis and Butt-Head . The group said that Settle was influenced by the episode "Ball Breakers", in which Beavis and Butt-Head load a bowling ball with explosives and drop it from a rooftop. While Morality in Media claimed that the show inspired Settle's actions, the case's prosecutors did not. It was later revealed by both prosecutors and the defendant that Settle did not have cable TV, nor did he watch
16250-498: Was playing blues bass with Doyle Bramhall . In 1992, he developed Frog Baseball , a short film featuring the characters Beavis and Butt-Head , which was to be featured on Liquid Television , a 1990s animation showcase that appeared on MTV . The short led to the creation of the Beavis and Butt-Head series on MTV, in which Judge voiced both title characters as well as the majority of supporting characters and wrote and directed
16380-432: Was ready to end the show after the second season, when he felt like he was running out of ideas. He claimed he got a "second wind" in the series' third season, which is where he felt like it hit its stride, and he also felt particularly inspired during the series' fifth season. The relentless pace in making the show was wearing him down, which is why he chose to end the series after its 1996 film adaption. Judge returned to
16510-813: Was released as a single in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US, the UK CD had a special limited edition sticker to promote The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience available with the release. On January 15, 1994, the song charted at number 35 in the UK charts and stayed on the charts for 4 weeks. On December 4, 1993, the song charted on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart in the US peaking at number 8. The single also charted at number 69 in Australia, 19 in Belgium, 18 in Denmark, 69 on
16640-455: Was released in 2004. It was directed by Frank Oz and featured Nicole Kidman , Bette Midler , Matthew Broderick , Christopher Walken , Roger Bart , Faith Hill , Glenn Close and Jon Lovitz . It was intended to be more comedic than the previous versions. The new script by screenwriter Paul Rudnick has the women being transformed into carefully controlled cyborgs rather than being murdered and replaced with robots. The script culminates in
16770-468: Was scrapped when Forbes's actress wife Nanette Newman was cast as one of the town residents. A 1980 television sequel was titled Revenge of the Stepford Wives . In this film, instead of being androids, the wives underwent a brainwashing procedure and then took pills that kept them hypnotized. In the end, the wives broke free of their conditioning and a mob of them killed the mastermind behind
16900-510: Was unhooded towards the end of the film. He later acted in the science-fiction family comedy franchise Spy Kids , where he played Donnagon Giggles in the first three films. His next film appearance was Serving Sara (2002) where he played a motel manager. He later appeared in the comedy Jackass Number Two (2006), in which he can be seen during the closing credits. An extended version of his sequence can be seen in Jackass 2.5 (2007) which
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