When HBO Max was first released, it initially teased fans by including nearly every property and franchise that Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting had become famous for. The initial product was received with mixed praise. Unless people were classic movie fans, HBO Max didn't release a satisfying catalog for any of its channels, including its Cartoon Network section.
That all changed in January 2021 when the streaming service uploaded various all-time classics, including Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and, of course, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. With the dark cartoon finally gracing people's screens, there are a few things that old and new fans should know.
10 Maxwell Atoms created it
The series was created by Maxwell Atoms, who had worked on a couple of projects before Bill & Mandy. He worked on The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and was a writer and storyboard artist for Cow & Chicken, and I Am Weasel.
Bill & Mandy was based on his thesis for the University of the Arts in Philadelphia entitled Billy and Mandy in The Skull and You's Trepanation. In those characters, that look a whole lot like Bill and Mandy practice in trepanation. Maxwell Atoms has also dabbled in voice work. He plays Jeff the Spider in the series and several background characters in Hazbin Hotel.
9 It Was Originally Called Grim & Evil
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy wasn't the initial project that was pitched to Cartoon Network. When it was first picked up, it debuted as Grim & Evil. During an age where cartoons acted more as variety hours rather than single identities, several iconic mascots, particularly from Hanna-Barbera cartoons, often shared their time slots with other characters, such as how Yogi Bear premiered in The Huckleberry Hound Show.
In Billy & Mandy's case, it shared its time slot with Evil Con Carne, a short series about dimwitted supervillains lead by a disembodied brain on a bear. As fun as that series was, the trio of Billy, Mandy, and death incarnate would eventually become Maxwell Atoms' main focus.
8 It Won "The Big Pick"
As much credit as Turner Broadcasting or its executives is due for bringing this series to the people. It was the people themselves who got Maxwell Atoms' seminal project greenlit. Bill & Mandy was initially part of a long marathon of other cartoons that the early Cartoon Network showed off to get impressions from the viewers.
After the marathon, fans were allowed to vote for which pilot would become its own half-hour series, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy won the first one with its pilot, "Meet the Reaper."
7 Grim Wasn't Supposed To Have A Jamaican Accent
When Billy & Mandy was first conceived, Atoms and his crew didn't envision its otherworldly mascot character with a Jamaican accent. That contribution is all thanks to the Grim Reaper's iconic voice actor, Greg Eagles.
When asked to do something different with his audition role, Greg Eagles infamously tried to pull off a Swedish accent, but it just came out as Jamaican. The crew rolled with it, leading Greg to become Grim's unique voice that fans didn't know they wanted.
6 Weird Al Yankovic Voiced Squid Hat
While Billy & Mandy is more obviously framed as dark humor, animated series that often parodies horror and science fiction tropes, it does dip its cold toes in a few other pools. One of its most famous parodies is of the Harry Potter franchise. The main characters get roped into various misadventures with the more nasally and cowardly Harry Potter ripoff, Nigel Planter.
In Nigel's magical world, Harry Potter's Sorting Hat is replaced with a hilarious talking squid, Squid Hat, played by none other than the master of parodies himself, Weird Al Yankovic.
5 Every Fred Episode Was Written By His Voice Actor
It's common for a writer to have their heart set on a particular character. This is especially so if they happen to be playing the character in question. If fans ever wanted a person to thank (or blame) for the annoying greatness that is the Fred Fred Burger episodes, then they can look to one of Maxwell Atoms' lead writers, C.H. Greenblatt.
C.H. Greenblatt is the iconic voice behind Fred and has written every episode that the green monster has been in, including his debut episode, "Keeper of the Reaper."
4 Voltaire Stretched His Part In "Little Rock Of Horrors"
Billy & Mandy doesn't do a lot of musical episodes. There have been many musical sequences, but Billy & Mandy never had the same musical heart that Steven Universe or Adventure Time did. However, there is one episode that has always stood out to the fans for its hypnotic tones and just overall creepy nature.
That would be "Little Rock of Horrors," in which Billy befriends and assists an alien meteor creature that wants to consume people's brains. Most of the episode has Voltaire's "Brains!" acting as the primary, catchy music. This is because the gothic rock musician himself, Voltaire, was paid for how many seconds of music he produced, and he tried to stretch out his performance as long as possible.
3 Meet The Reaper Was The Last Hanna-Barbera Cartoon
Before Cartoon Network, the major producer of syndicated animation was Hanna-Barbera. This animation staple was famous for producing a lot of the classics that have come to define Western cartoons' voice, including Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, and Jonny Quest.
After Turner Broadcasting acquired its properties and started producing its own content for Cartoon Network, it slowly phased out the Hanna-Barbera name. The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy or, to be more specific, its pilot, "Meet the Reaper," was the last thing produced by Hanna-Barbera and the last project to bear the studio's name and logo in its ending credits.
2 Its Ending Theme Includes A Secret Message
Unlike in anime, where the ending credits are as entertaining as the main series, ending credits in Western cartoons are not given the same flourish. They're mainly comprised of a simple song and a singular background that plays while the credits roll. This is no different in Billy & Mandy, whose ending sequence comprises the same creepy song and some pictures from the series.
However, if there's anything about this sequence that may catch some fans' attention, it's the ending beat that seems to be comprised of gibberish. When the end credits are played backward, this nonsensical beat is revealed to be a message from Maxwell Atoms himself saying, "No, no. This is the end of the show. You're watching it backward!"
1 Underfist Was Meant To Lead To A New Series
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy wasn't just canceled out of nowhere like many animated series, but it didn't necessarily end on a clean note either. The last bit of Billy & Mandy that fans ever got to see was a Halloween special entitled Underfist: Halloween Bash. This special oddly kept the iconic trio on the sidelines and focused on Irwin and some other side characters forming their own supernatural superhero team.
Complete with an entirely new animation style, Underfist certainly didn't seem like the Billy & Mandy that fans had come to love. Underfist was actually meant to be a pilot for an Underfist spinoff that unfortunately wasn't greenlit by Cartoon Network.