Vegas Moptops

Vegas Moptops is an American animated television series created by Edwin Ohm. The series centres on the apprehensive and self-conscious Tobi Lorrell, who juggles between his enrolment to secondary school and the way of living in a crime-heavy city, along with his friends Monty and Marc, and younger brother Lars. The show tackles on Las Vegas society, dilemmas within the transition through adolescence, and the quality of life.

The main characters were conceived by Ohm during a conversation shortly after finishing production of the first season of Intense Phys Ed, and based it off his experience in his first year of secondary, describing the show in interviews as the 'juggle back and forth from social awkwardness and the obsession of the status quo'. After pitching an 11-minute rough draft of the pilot to Aroba Animation, they assigned him with the plan of 24 half-hour episodes.

On August 15, 1998, Vegas Moptops made its primetime debut on CBS in the height of Aroba's popularity therefore opening to 6.1 million viewers. The show proved to be critically lauded for its themes, calling it a 'call to arms for more progressive animation for young audiences'. Due to the show's success, Aroba requested for Vegas Moptops to be syndicated and broadcast for the daytime Aroba Invasion block. The series garnered consistently high ratings throughout its 10-season run and became one of the longest-running animated shows produced by Aroba.

Years after its series finale on March 1, 2008, the original team pitched a screenplay for a theatrical film based on the show. The script adapted into The Vegas Moptops Motion Picture and was released to theatres on November 7th, 2012, while the original show lives on via reruns on ArobaCentral.

Characters
Vegas Moptops is known for its small ensemble of characters; this is based on Ohm's minuscule knowledge of his fellow classmates in school.

The main characters consist of a trio of Class One classmates: Tobi is an introvert and usually roams his school alone. He is an autistic child and is quiet, apprehensive, introspective and self-conscious of his public image; Marc Finley is one of the first people Tobi met, usually hanging out in lunchtime, and can get sensitive and melodramatic for when things don't go his direction; Monty Ramone has conversations with Tobi during classes if they were to be paired, and usually spouts non-sequiturs; Lars Lorrell is Tobi's 8-year-old younger brother and is usually loud and talkative, annoying his brother by demanding to play with him while not in the mood, or teasing him with noises or slapstick.

The show includes an array of supporting characters including Tobi's teaching assistant Lorne McMiller, teachers Hal Harte, Kelly Craig and Viola McAmos, and friends and peers Mark Black, Caleb Lead and Aaron Cuwertz.

Setting
Coming soon.

Development
Having just completed the production of season 1 of Intense Phys Ed, the show's crew had a lengthy conversation. Among the topics discussed were departures, thoughts on Aroba's projects, and baking of bread, during of which show writer Edwin Ohm conceived an idea for a down-to-earth animated sitcom about adolescence. Prior to his work with Aroba, he had envisioned a screenplay depicting the underbelly of a contrasting homogenized city, and a home movie about a man whose obsession of fitting in leads him to a mental breakdown. Vegas Moptops is essentially a loose fuse of the two concepts. The process of naming the show's cast was described by Ohm as "either looking through phonebooks looking for fine names, or nonsensically mashing names to vaguely form something resembling one". Months later, Ohm, in collaboration with fellow Phys Ed writers Lance Weltch and Marty Polenn, drafted an 11-minute short depicting Tobi having a daydream compiled from the stress invoked by his long multiplication homework; this was adapted to the episode "Rubber Brain". When forwarded to Aroba, they approved of it and assigned them a plan of 24 half-hour episodes.

In 1998, production of season one concluded. As the show, in tone, contrasted from the rest of Aroba's series at the time, Polenn negotiated with CBS preventing them to interfere with any of the show's content. The half-hour series premiered on August 15, 1998, with "Wingman".

Episodes
Coming soon.