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Really Surreal is an American animated sitcom created by Geo G. and Terry Ward that ran on Fox from 1998 to 2007, before moving to NightHouse. The series centers on the Surreals, a family consisting of parents Geoff and Lana; their children, Penny and Sean; and their anthropomorphic pet penguin-like bird, Davy. The show is set in the fictional town of Smokeville and parodies American culture and society, as well as surrealism. Although visually similar to Geo's previous animated series Gabriel Garza, Really Surreal was designed for mature audiences and features cartoon violence, alcohol and tobacco use, profanity, adult humor, and pop culture references.

The family was conceived by Geo and Ward in 1992 while working on Gabriel Garza for Gingo following the controversy of the aforementioned series' episode "Mr. TV", which was criticized by critics and parents who interpreted the episode as an example of promoting and implicitly satirizing use of profanity towards children, leading to the creation of Really Surreal. They pitched a seven-minute pilot to Fox in May 1997, and the show was greenlit and began production. The series was originally set to premiere in fall of 1997 with the pilot they showed to Fox earlier that year but the episode was declined to be used by Fox (until it was finally preserved on the season 1 DVD in 2003). The producers of the show then decided to "go ahead" and air another first episode as a mid-season replacement in 1998.

Since its debut on February 8, 1998, 457 episodes of Really Surreal have been broadcast. It is the second longest-running American sitcom only behind The Simpsons and the third longest-running animated series in the U.S., behind The Simpsons and Arthur. Really Surreal has been nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and 14 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. A Really Surreal Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on June 17, 2005, and grossed over $288 million.

Beginning on December 12, 2007, Gingo's night block NightHouse picked up the series for the 11th season following the final episode airing on Fox as the 10th season on May 20, 2007. Really Surreal is a joint production by Glass Ball Productions, Double G Productions, and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television. Despite NightHouse buying the rights to air new episodes of the series in 2007, 20th Century Fox Television still owns the copyrights and still produces the show and 20th Television still syndicates it to NightHouse, owned by NBCUniversal, which is a subsidiary of Comcast.

Really Surreal ' s twenty-second season (its 12th on NightHouse) premiered on July 24, 2019. On October 22, 2018, NightHouse renewed the series for a 23rd season.

Characters
The show revolves around the adventures of the Surreal family, consisting of father Geoff (voiced by Gregg Berger), a hypersensitive, cocky, yet good-hearted, outgoing, independent, and confident worker; Lana (voiced by Jennifer Hale), a pampered, kind, witty, sarcastic, intelligent, and dazzlingly beautiful housewife; Penny (voiced by Hynden Walch), their cheerful, happy-go-lucky, hyper, energetic, gentle, sweet, cute, and yet geeky teenage daughter who is a huge fan of Disney animated films like The Black Cauldron (due to the fact she was designed to look like Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron); and Sean (voiced by Jason Marsden), their awkward, immature, overemotional, dim-witted, clumsy, talkative, childish, and yet friendly teenage son. Living with the family is their sardonic, foul-mouthed, selfish, and ill-tempered purple and green penguin-like creature Davy (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz).

Recurring characters appear alongside the Surreal family. These include Geoff's best friend Frank McDilly (voiced by Jim Cummings); Geoff's rival Grodi Shelby (voiced by Neil Ross) and his wife Wendy (voiced by Grey Griffin); Penny's shy, moody, depressed goth and emo friend Kathy Lipowski (voiced by Grey Griffin); Sean's best friend Jack Binaski (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz); mad scientist Eddie Lioose (voiced by Gregg Berger); and Mayor James Pucksbottom (voiced by Jim Cummings).

Setting
The primary setting of Really Surreal is Smokeville.

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Development
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Most of the Gabriel Garza team were given duties for Really Surreal, Craig Kellman retained his duties as art director; Craig McCracken retained his lead character design role; Phil Ortiz had his background and prop design role; along with Salene Weatherwax, the latter having a prop design role during the first four seasons.

Executive producers
Geo and Ward serve as executive producers and showrunners during the show's entire run, and also function as creative consultants. Duncan Reid became an executive producer for season 15 and subsequent seasons.

Writing
Planning for each episode begins with a table meeting of writers, who discuss the plot ideas as a group. The writers are given index cards with plot points that they are required to use as the center of activity in each episode. A single staff writer writes an outline and then produces a script. Once the first draft is finished, the writers and executive producers call in the actors for a table read. Afterwards, the writers collaborate to rewrite the script as a group before sending it to the animation team.

Voice actors

 * See also: List of Really Surreal cast members and List of Really Surreal guest stars

Really Surreal has five main cast members. Gregg Berger provided the voices of Geoff Surreal, Eddie Lioose, Nick Smith and many other incidental characters. The character of Geoff was originally created and intended to be performed by Bill Murray, but turned down the role, which he later regretted, and Berger was given the role.

Jennifer Hale voiced Lana Surreal and other, more minor, characters. The role of Lana was originally assigned to Debi Derryberry, who voiced Gabriel Garza in Geo's animated series of the same name. However, the producers found Derryberry's voice acting too similar to Gabriel Garza so Hale was given the role of Lana instead.

Hynden Walch performed the voice of Penny Surreal. Jason Marsden voices Sean Surreal, Koibito Mitt, and other various characters. Marsden originally auditioned for the role of Geoff Surreal, using the voice he uses to perform Sean, and also auditioned for Sean using a different voice. Richard Steven Horvitz voiced Davy Surreal and Jack Binaski. Horvitz was asked to voice the characters due to his involvement in the Nickelodeon animated series The Angry Beavers.

In addition to the main cast, Jim Cummings voiced Frank McDilly and Mayor James Pucksbottom, Neil Ross voiced Grodi Shelby, and Grey DeLisle (or otherwise known as Grey Griffin) voiced Kathy Lipowski, Wendy Shelby and several supporting and minor characters. Like Gabriel Garza, The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and Futurama, many episodes of Really Surreal feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, entertainers, bands, musicians, and scientists. Many guest-stars voiced supporting characters, although many voiced themselves. Recurring guest stars include Carlos Alazraqui, Billy West, Jodi Benson, Mark Hamill, Sarah Silverman, Corey Burton, Wayne Knight, John Goodman, Richard Kind, Debra Messing, Phil Proctor, Elijah Wood, Amy Hill, Maurice LaMarche, George Takei, Phil LaMarr, Harland Williams, Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Stewart, Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, and Dan Fogler. Posthumously, Chris Farley originally voiced Geoff's father Roland Surreal in the first season but was since replaced by John Lithgow in the second season after Farley's death in 1997.

Jess Harnell and Fred Tatasciore have also appeared in minor roles, but do not voice any recurring characters. Harnell left the show in 2006, and since then Brian T. Delaney has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. John Cygan voiced the majority of other minor characters until his death on May 13, 2017. Other current additional voices also include Kari Wahlgren, Roger Craig Smith, Lex Lang, Yuri Lowenthal, and Kevin Michael Richardson.

Animation
Animation for the first two seasons were split between Saerom Animation in South Korea, Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, and Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines. Fil-Cartoons also provided ink-and-paint facilities during the second and third seasons. Various other animation studios were contracted beginning in season three.

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Music
The show's soundtrack was composed by Shawn Patterson, while its theme song was composed by multi-instrumentalist Josh Mancell, produced by Devo's singer Mark Mothersbaugh, and was recorded at Mutato Muzika Studios.

Hallmarks
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Critical reception
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Broadcast
Really Surreal premiered and originally aired in the United States on the Fox network, February 8, 1998 – May 20, 2007. Adult Swim carried the series in the US September 7, 2001 – December 31, 2007, followed by NightHouse December 12, 2007 – present. Syndicated broadcast of the series in the US began in September 2002.

Canadian networks YTV, Teletoon and Global Television broadcast Really Surreal February 8, 1998 – present.

The series was broadcast in Australia on the following stations: Seven Network aired the series from November 7, 1999 – present, Fox8 from 2000–present, Network Ten between 2003–present, and on 7mate September 23, 2009 – present.

Audiences in New Zealand received the series on the following stations: TV2 February 26, 1998 – 2006, the BOX from 1999–present, Fox from 2000–present, and on Four from 2003–present.

Really Surreal currently airs in Ireland on networks Fox, Pick and Sky1.

The series was carried by the following networks in the United Kingdom: Sky1 from August 20, 1999 – present, Channel 4 from 2000–present, and the series is currently repeated on Pick and Fox.

Really Surreal was also broadcast in Japan on the following stations: Fox from April 5, 1999 – present, Fuji Television from March 20, 2000 – present, Tokyo Broadcasting System from 2000–2005, TV Asahi from September 22, 2002 – present, and on TV Tokyo from 2012–present.

The show has also aired on Fox in other countries including South Korea, China, Russia, Brazil, Spain, and others since 1999.

Comic books
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Video games
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Merchandise
Since the show's premiere, various forms of merchandise based on the show have been released, such as home media releases, action figures, clothing, food, and more.

Trivia
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