Trivia / I Am Weasel

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: In "Time Weasel", I.R. Baboon refers to dinosaurs as "big chickens". It is now scientific consensus that chickens (as well as all other birds) are not just descended from dinosaurs, but dinosaurs themselves.
• Acting for Two: The later seasons has Tom Kenny and Dee Bradley Baker voicing a majority of the minor characters, ESPECIALLY noticeable with the latter since he's featured in almost every episode in season 5.
• Adored by the Network: Cartoon Network promoted I Am Weasel as it was it's own show as early as 1997, two years before it became a full series. Similary, it also received it's own set of bumpers, and Weasel and Baboon were featured in numerous Cartoon Network ads, even back when it was the "B" segment of Cow and Chicken.
• Blooper: In "I Am My Lifetime", Cow is seen at the Old Cartoon Stars retirement home◊ alongside Weasel and other main characters from various Hanna-Barbera shows. However, at the end of the episode◊, she is placed at the Old Cartoon Sidekick home alongside I.R. Baboon and the secondary Hanna-Barbera characters.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Michael Dorn of Star Trek fame as Weasel.
  • Bronson Pinchot best known for portraying Balki Bartokomous in Perfect Strangers voiced Oscar the director in "I Are Big Star".
  • Laraine Newman voiced the basketball playing girl in "Disease Fiesta".
  • Ed McMahon had a guest role in "I Am Ambassador" as one of the Dakota governor's, Eugene Oregon and one of the five Canadian beavers.
  • Dom DeLuise as the Mayor in "Power of Odor" and Jean-Paul Beaver in "I Am Ambassador".
  • Earl Boen, best known for playing Dr. Peter Silberman in the first three Terminator movies voiced Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock in "Revolutionary Weasel".
  • Phyllis Diller appeared in the episode "I Are a Artiste" as Red Guy's mother, a character she previously voiced in the Cow and Chicken episode "Professor Longhorn Steer".
• Creator's Favorite: One of David Feiss' favorite characters is Jolly Roger◊, particularly his voice work by Dee Bradley Baker. Feiss found him too funny to just be a one off character and made him a recurring character later in the series.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Some◊ of David Feiss favorite episodes include "My Friend, the Smart Banana", I.R. "Pixie Fairie", "A Tree Story", "I.R. Mommy", "I.R.'s Phantom Foot", Fred: Last of the Idiots and "I.R.'s First Bike".
• Crossdressing Voice: Besides Charlie Adler as Cow in the occasional appearance, there were at least a couple other instances...
  • "Unsinkable I.R." has a large woman who was to christen Baboon's ship accidentally being pulled along by the ship via a rope. Her screaming was provided by Dee Bradley Baker.
  • "Dessert Island" has a mother voiced by Tom Kenny; as a result, her voice bears an uncanny resemblance to SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • The female organist in the episode "I.R. Do" was voiced by Kevin Schon.
  • "I Are Ghost" has Tom Kenny voicing an actress in one of Talulah Bottoms' (The Red Guy) old films.
  • "I Bee Weasel" has Dee Bradley Baker voicing the Queen Bee.
• The Danza: Charlie Adler as the Adler Tree.
• Deleted Role:
  • "I Am My Lifetime" had B. J. Ward credited as voicing Betty Rubble. While Betty does appear in the episode, she has no lines or vocal effects. It could well be Ward recorded her lines, but weren't used in the final product.
  • Merrill Ward is credited for voicing a character named Mr. Peas in the episode "I.R.'s Phantom Foot", though no such character appear in the episode.
  • Susan Tolsky is credited for voicing Betsy Ross and a peahen in the episode "Revolutionary Weasel", none of which appear in the episode.
  • Richard Steven Horvitz is credited as voicing a French-Canadian Beaver in "I Am Ambassador", but his role was cut and the final episode only featured 5 beavers instead. He still remains in the episode, as he also provided the voice of one of the spotted owls.
• Edited for Syndication: In the season two premiere, "I.R. Mommy", Baboon wore a football helmet and had a pennant with the letter 'N' on it, referencing the different Universities of Nebraska. After receiving regular complaints from said Universities, Cartoon Network had the 'N' from Baboon's helmet and pennant digitally removed in reruns. The overseas Cartoon Network channels have the original version with the "N" on the football helmet and pennant, while the version that was streamed on Netflix has the edited version.
• Executive Meddling: The whole show qualifies as this. According to an interview with Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible (21:40), Cartoon Network shows at the time needed to follow the Three Shorts format^note Many Hanna-Barbera productions followed this format, which carried over to the early Cartoon Network shows. which lead to the creation of I Am Weasel and Dial M for Monkey/Justice Friends for Dexter's Laboratory. Series creator David Feiss initally didn't want to make more Weasel episodes, as there was a lot of pressure to complete Cow and Chicken quickly, and felt that he couldn't dedicate enough time to the second show, but Cartoon Network liked Weasel and had plans for a spin-off, so it was kept in.
• Fake Nationality: None of the French-Canadian Beavers in "I Am Ambassador" are voiced by actual French or Canadian people.^note  The voice actors being Charlie Adler,Carlos Alazraqui, Scott Weill Dom DeLuise and Ed Mcmahon.
• Fake Scot: The British Neil Dickson as the Scottish Banana in the episode "My Friend, the Smart Banana".
• Inspiration for the Work:
  • According to an interview with David Feiss, he got the title "I Am Weasel", off of one of his favorite books as a teenager, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
  • I.R. Baboon's creation came from the nursery rhyme "Pop Goes the Weasel" which heavily features a monkey and a weasel. The theme song for the show is also an edited version of said nursery rhyme.
  • According to production material◊, the overall format of the show with Weasel and Baboon having different jobs or role in every episode is inspired by The Huckleberry Hound Show.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • This series got hit hard with this, especially if you live in North America, where there was no season boxsets released for the series—only seasonal compilation releases with other Cartoon Network series. It was on Xfinity On Demand under Cartoon Network's Cartoon Planet section, but nowadays, you can't even find it there. It's was also available on Netflix in the Cow and Chicken episodes rather than as a separate series. Also, if you want to find the original version of "I.R. Mommy",^note the one where I.R. has the helmet and pennant that has the "N" on it then your best bet is torrent downloading or trying to find the overseas reruns, because all reruns in America (including Netflix) has the edited version. However, in August 2018, the I Am Weasel episodes were finally made available, packaged with the rest of Cow and Chicken on video streaming and purchasing sites such as iTunes, YouTube and Amazon.
  • The episodes created expressly for the Spinoff were only released on DVD in Australia, and that DVD has gone out of print and fetches expensive secondary market prices.
• The Other Darrin:
  • For the first 2 seasons, Loulabelle was voiced by Susan Blakeslee (best known for voicing Wanda and Timmy Turner's mom on The Fairly OddParents!); for her few appearances in season 3, Teresa Ganzel took over (she had a habit of playing those types of roles when she wasn't playing Pyramid).
  • Minor character Admiral Bullets was voiced by Jess Harnell in the first season and by Michael J. Gough for his appearances in the second and third seasons.
  • Santa Claus was voiced by Bruce McGill in the first Christmas episode "Happy Baboon Holidays" and later by Dee Bradley Baker in the second Christmas episode "I.R.'s First Bike".
  • I.M. Weasel's voice in the Mexican dub was provided by Blas García in the first season, but he was then recast with Víctor Hugo Aguilar as of the second season.
• Out of Holiday Episode: "Happy Baboon Holidays" and "I.R.'s First Bike" aired on September 1997 and August 1999 respectively, months before Christmas.
• Same Voice Their Entire Life: "I Am My Lifetime" shows that Weasel could speak properly ever since he was born, where he has the same voice as an adult.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Feiss considered having James Earl Jones to be the voice of Weasel, but Michael Dorn was recommended to him by Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible and found him to be a perfect fit.
  • "I Am My Lifetime" was made around the time of the 1996 Time Warner-Turner merger that brought Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera under one roof. According to Richard Pursel, the writers considered having elderly versions of Looney Tunes characters at Weasel's retirement home to take advantage of this, but in the end stuck to Hanna-Barbera characters since the writers were sure they could use them legally.
  • According to Maxwell Atoms (creator of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy), the original plot for "The Magnificent Motorbikini" was about Weasel crashing his Vespa in Italy, but in the end changed it into a motorcycle/bikini hybrid and Weasel crashing into another dimension since he found it entertaining.
  • An early design◊ for I.R. Baboon had him with a more exposed butt, thinner tail, slighty longer face, no hair on his head, and the R on his shirt turning left instead of being upside down.
  • Early◊ concept◊ art shows that the show was originally going to be called "I Are Weasel" and I.R. Baboon was named I.R.◊ Monkey◊ at one point.
  • Before settling with I Am Weasel as the backup segment for Cow and Chicken, creator David Feiss◊ had an additional concept titled Uncle Mustard◊.
  • Orginally◊, "Ping Pong at Sea" was going to open with Baboon watching TV inside his trailer, ironing his shirt and playing with a paddle ball. The final episode has him watching TV outside his trailer while roasting a chicken and playing ping pong.
  • As shown in the early production material in "Inspiration for the Work", the original idea for the episode "I Am Ambassador" had Mexican loggers holding the Canadians tourists hostage by saw point in exchange for an forest. The final version replaced the Mexicans with two Surfer dudes and the Canadian tourists became French-Canadian beaver scouts.