Trivia / Sonic Underground

• Absurdly Short Production Time: Episodes were written at a pace of two scripts per week, resulting in Ben Hurst not being able to make the show as lore-driven as he'd have liked, outside of the three-part Origins Episode.
• Accidental Downer Ending: This fate befell this series twofold. The original cartoon series is all about Sonic and his two siblings learning to work in harmony so they can reunite with their mother and take back Mobius from Doctor Robotnik but by the end of the first season, they're no closer to their goal. The plan was to have a second season to wrap things up, but the second season never came. After a decade of silence however, it was announced that they would finally get a resolution in the Sonic Universe side-series of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). Unfortunately, after years of postponing and hemming and hawing from Archie about when the story would arrive, Archie Comics would end up completely divorced from Sonic the Hedgehog after lengthy and costly legal battles and Sonic Underground would (among other unresolved storylines as mentioned in Comic Book) again be denied any sort of closure since the new IDW series of comics deal near-exclusively with the video game continuity with no inclination of visiting anything to do with any of the classic cartoons.
• Accidentally-Correct Writing: There actually was a "Sister Sonic" planned early in the franchise's history, but was scrapped after Popful Mail fans complained about her replacing the titular character in a Dolled-Up Installment based on that game. Given how she was only announced in a few issues by Electronic Gaming Monthly, with no information other than her existence, it's highly unlikely she served as an inspiration for the character of Sonia.
• Acting for Two:
  • Jaleel White voices all three main characters.
  • In the French dub, Éric Peter is the voice of both Robotnik and Dingo.
• Creator Backlash: Ben Hurst disliked the premise and had a bad time working with the material of other staff, in addition to this cartoon being greenlit as opposed to a Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) continuation.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Jaleel White voices Sonia using a modified Steve Urkel voice.
• Directed by Cast Member: The French dub was directed by Éric Peter, who also voiced both Robotnik and Dingo.
• Disowned Adaptation: Sonic Team reportedly hated this cartoon, with Yuji Naka especially hating due to it giving Sonic siblings. To give one an idea, the Archie Sonic comics — which had been free to use characters from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) — was forbidden to use any characters and elements from this series, with a planned epilogue comic getting cancelled because of it, despite having Underground part of the comic's multiverse. It's likely the failure of this show led to the development of Sonic X, which was made with Yuji Naka's input so it can be more faithful to the source material than the previous shows.
• Early Draft Tie-In: The manual for the LCD game contains what appears to be an early draft of the show's premise, which mentions the medallions being golden with inscribed musical notes, the Oracle dying as he informs Sonic about his family, and "sheriff" Robotnik seeking to marry Queen Aleena to legitimize his rule (which was only relevant for one episode in the final show).
• Executive Meddling: According to Ben Hurst, the show's infamous songs and rock band concept were added so that DiC could receive royalty payments from them; this also led to the show's infamously rushed production.
• Franchise Killer: Due to terrible ratings, the series led to DIC Entertainment losing the license to produce Sonic television series not long after the show ended, leaving the West without a Sonic cartoon for 15 years (barring Sonic X, a Japanese production exported overseas by 4Kids Entertainment). When Sonic Boom came around, it ended up being co-produced in-house by Sega of America. Sadly, not even that was enough, and since that series got screwed by CN, all Sonic animation has been in short-form and made largely in-house until 2022 when Sega partnered with Man of Action Studios and WildBrain (the current owner of a majority of DIC's back catalogue) to produce Sonic Prime for Netflix.
• The Merch: This show's mechandise included plush toys of Sonic and Knuckles that were sold at Denny's, a sticker sheet, puzzles of Sonic, Sonia, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik, and a handheld LCD game by Tiger Electronics.
• Non-Singing Voice: All three hedgehogs had three separate voice actors for the singing segments - Samuel Vincent for Sonic, Tyley Ross for Manic, and Louise Vallance for Sonia.
• Out of Order: The Origins and Chaos Emerald three-part episodes aired in between standalone episodes in the initial broadcast, with home video releases adding the former at the start of the series and the Chaos Emerald episodes in sequence.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Underground was once rumored to have had a total of 60-65 episodes produced, of which only 40 aired. However, series writer Ben Hurst confirmed in 2008 that only 40 episodes were ever produced for the series.
• Release Date Change: The show was supposed to premiere in 1998.
• Recycled Script:
  • The episode "Winner Fakes All" has the same plot as the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) episode "Sonic Racer", and "Sonic Tonic" is a rehash of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Full-Tilt Tails".
  • "Moby Deep" is recycled from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea".
  • Underground wasn't afraid to recycle its own plots either; "the hedgehogs meet a foe pretending to be a friend who ends up being a friend" could describe at least five different episodes.
• Role Reprise: Jaleel White returns as the voice of Sonic and also voices Sonia and Manic. The only key difference is the hedgehogs' singing voices were provided by different voice actors.^note Sonic's singing voice was provided Samuel Vincent, Sonia's was provided by Stevie Vallance, and Manic's was provided by Tyley Ross. However, Jaleel sang in his Sonic voice five times in the previous two series.
• Screwed by the Network: On the syndication block Bohbot Kids Network, the show aired at 7:00 AM Eastern on weekdays, when its target audience was getting ready for school. To make matters worse, eight episodes that were originally scheduled to air on Fridays were skipped and replaced with Double Dragon (1993)^note which was later replaced with King Arthur & the Knights of Justice instead. As a result, only 32 of the 40 episodes produced aired.
• Short Run in Peru: The entire series first aired in France and the United Kingdom before its American debut in August 1999.
• Unfinished Episode: "Three-Part Disharmony", which seemingly only made it to the premise stage. In it, Sleet disguises himself as Queen Aleena and sows discord among each of the hedgehogs, claiming that their siblings are secretly plotting to betray them.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sonic Universe #50 was initially announced as a proper conclusion to the series, and had cover artwork revealed for it. However, Sega went back on these plans for unknown reasons, and #50 wound up having nothing to do with Underground.
  • Early concept art shows Queen Aleena with a very different design.
  • According to Ben Hurst, this series would have at one point been a continuation of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM). Instead, it was decided to retool the concept and make it into a separate series.
  • In early drafts of the show's premise, the band's name was "the Newsonics", Scratch and Grounder would have returned as Robotnik's lackeys instead of Sleet and Dingo, Manic was named "Edsel", and Queen Aleena was named "Rachel". Additionally, what happened to the triplets' father (whose existence is never mentioned once in the final show) would have been a Driving Question alongside the search for their mother: he was, in fact, killed by his brother Robotnik (which would have made him Sonic's uncle).
  • Alongside Underground's development (and possibly predating it), a pitch was written for a separate show starring Sonia, in which she protects the planet while Sonic and Robotnik are off in space. She had a sidekick in a Hopeless Suitor porcupine named Quilley, and would have battled Robotnik's twin brother Grotty, alongside a returning Scratch and Grounder.
• Word of God: According to executive producer Robby London, the series never had a "final episode" planned or even discussed. This was because they were uncertain about the number of episodes or seasons the series would have before being cancelled. If they were to create a "final episode" and then additional episodes were ordered, it would pose significant challenges for the writers in terms of continuing the story seamlessly. Hence, the approach they took was to craft each episode as a standalone adventure, without a linear storyline, which made it easier to keep producing episodes without interruption.

---