| The Aquabats! Super Show! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Starring | The Aquabats |
| Narrated by | Mr. Lawrence |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 21(+ pilot) 9(The Aquabats! Saturday Morning!) 12(The Aquabats! RadVentures!)(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | Hub Network |
| Release | March 3, 2012 (2012-03-03)[1] – January 18, 2014 (2014-01-18) |
The Aquabats! Super Show! is an American action-comedy musical television series which aired from March 3, 2012 to January 8, 2014 onThe Hub Network, later resuming as an independentYouTube series from September 2019 to February 2025. The series was created byChristian Jacobs andScott Schultz, both the creators of theNick Jr. Channel seriesYo Gabba Gabba!, and Jason deVilliers.[1][2]
Based on thesuperhero mythology ofThe Aquabats, a real-life comedy rock band which series co-creator and lead singer Jacobs formed in 1994,The Aquabats! Super Show! follows the comic adventures of a fictionalized version of the band, a musical group of amateur superheroes, as they haphazardly defend the world from a variety of villains and monsters. Styled similarly to thecampy aesthetics of 1960s and 1970s children's television and Japanesetokusatsu,Super Show! utilizes various mediums of visual styles and special effects, mixing live-action storylines withcartoon shorts,parody advertisements and musical interludes.[3]
The series' first season concluded on June 16, 2012 following a run of 13 episodes, having met with a largely positive critical reception, consistently high ratings for the channel and aDaytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children's Series.[4][5][6] The series' second season consisted of an initial five episodes which aired through June 2013, with three additional episodes airing in late December and January 2014, receiving similar acclaim and a further seven Daytime Emmy nominations, ultimately winning one for Best Stunt Coordination. In June 2014, co-creator Jacobs officially announced the series' cancellation, following news of The Hub's financial losses which led to the network's rebranding asDiscovery Family later that October.
In July 2018, The Aquabats launched a successfulKickstarter to help independently finance new episodes ofThe Aquabats! Super Show!, promoting the campaign with a series of YouTube-exclusivemini-episodes continuing the original series' storyline.[7] From September 2019 to February 2025, the band premiered 12 of these new episodes on YouTube, retitled asThe Aquabats! RadVentures! though still retainingSuper Show!'s theme song and title card.
Chronicled in both live-action andanimated segments,The Aquabats! Super Show! is centered around the adventures ofThe Aquabats, a group of superhero rock musicians who travel the countryside on a self-appointed mission to fight evil and "destroy boredom", protecting the world from the villains and creatures who threaten to destroy it while aiming to become a famous rock and roll band in their own right.[8]
If the person is over 30, I'd say it's likeBatman meetsThe Monkees, with a little bit ofSid and Marty Krofft in it. If they're under 30, I'd sayPower Rangers meetsFlight of the Conchords, very sarcastic. If they're kids...superheroes fighting monsters. And at some point, something will explode.
The Aquabats consist of singer The MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs), the swaggering leader of the group; bassist Crash McLarson (Chad Larson), who can grow up to 100 feet in size; drummer Ricky Fitness (Richard Falomir), who has the power of super speed; guitarist EagleBones Falconhawk (Ian Fowles), who's armed with a laser-shooting electric guitar; and keyboardist Jimmy the Robot (James R. Briggs, Jr.), anandroid.[8] Despite their superhuman strengths and abilities, The Aquabats are quite bumbling, disorganized, and sometimes cowardly when faced with danger; this has in fact led them to be labeled "the world's most inept superheroes".[10] The band lives and travels by way of their "Battletram", a modified classic GMC motorhome which, despite its small exterior, has an implausibly massive interior (similar to theTARDIS fromDoctor Who or The Big Bologna fromThe Kids From C.A.P.E.R.), which contains, among many things, ascience lab, acommand center, and a living room.[11]
The Aquabats'origin story was left intentionally vague throughout the series, a choice Jacobs explains was done for the sake of the viewer's imagination, as he felt kids were more accepting of the inherent absurdity of the premise than adults tend to be: "'There's five guys. This is what each of the five guys does. There are monsters. They're gonna try to fight them'. It's so simple. And I think that's why it's so awesome with kids—they just take it and run with it".[12] In the first five episodes of season two, each member of The Aquabats shares their memory of how they joined the band via animatedflashback sequences; however, all of these flashbacks directly and intentionally contradict each other, leaving it unknown which—if any—could be considered officially canonical.
The Aquabats! Super Show! juxtaposes both live-action and animated segments starring The Aquabats, interwoven with various tangential skits and cartoon interstitials.[3][13] The live-action storylines are the primary focus of each episode, following a self-containedvillain of the week formula. In the first season, each episode featured briefanime-styledcartoon shorts which one of the characters would introduce at a random point of the show, often by finding "A Cartoon" (represented by a miniature television set) in an absurd location. Unlike the live-action segments, these cartoons followed a serializedstory arc, with each installment ending in acliffhanger to be resolved in the next episode. In season two, this format was replaced with a series of animated flashbacks recounting the origins of The Aquabats, each by a different animation studio and in a different animation style. Between these segments arepantomime cartoon shorts starring "Lil' Bat", The Aquabats' anthropomorphic bat mascot, and live-actionparody commercials for outlandish fictional products, the latter of which has long been a staple of The Aquabats'multi-media stage shows.[14]
Jacobs says the concept behindSuper Show! was something he had always dreamed of doing, making a "campy, live-action, funky kid's show" in the vein of the 1960s and 1970s television that he and the rest of the series' producers had grown up with.[15] While the show pays homage to many facets ofpop culture, Jacobs has named the 1960sBatman television series as the primary influence onSuper Show!'s "obviously silly" tone and visual style, ranging from set design to the trademark use ofdutch angles for villain scenes.[13][16] Other notable influences Jacobs has repeatedly mentioned include the works ofSid and Marty Krofft andHanna-Barbera, Japanesetokusatsu series such asUltraman andJohnny Sokko And His Flying Robot, theShaw Brothers andHong Kong cinema, and shows includingDanger Island,Star Trek,The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, andPee-wee's Playhouse,[16][17][18][19] noting "there's a good 30 years worth of television culture packed into these 22-minute episodes".[20]
As The Hub's key demographic were children aged 6 to 12,Super Show! was ostensibly targeted towards said age group, though Jacobs has stated that the series primarily aimed to appeal to an all-ages crowd, with the intent of creating entertainment that both kids and parents can watch and enjoy together or separately.[13][19] In interviews prior to the series' premiere, he explained that this was merely an extension of The Aquabats' ownfamily-friendly ethos: "There's just obviously something about the costumes and being superheroes that really appeals to younger kids, and I think we always knew that as a band...I think we'll want to put things in [the show] for an older audience, because we realize we have an older audience, but then also we want the young kids, to not have it go over their heads".[13]
In 1994, musiciansChristian Jacobs,Chad Larson and former memberBoyd Terry formed The Aquabats inBrea, California.[21] Influenced as much by cartoons and camp television as theatrical bands likeDevo andOingo Boingo, The Aquabats gained instant notoriety in the Orange County music scene for their eccentric persona in which they claimed to be a band of superheroes on a quest to save the world and their elaborate stage shows which regularly featured scripted fights with costumed villains alongside similar stunts and comedy sketches.[21][22]
The Aquabats' second studio album, 1997'sThe Fury of The Aquabats!, proved to be a minor commercial breakthrough for the group, charting on theBillboard 200 and bringing them exposure through such venues asMTV, leading Jacobs – a former child actor with ties in the industry – to develop the concept of adapting the band's mythology for television.[23][24] In 1998,Buena Vista Television helped produce a live-action mini-pilot directed by comedianBobcat Goldthwait titled simplyThe Aquabats!, following the comic misadventures of the then-eight member band in an over-the-top camp style similar toSaturday morning cartoon shows.[25][26][27] The pilot, which has yet to be made available for public viewing, failed to generate any network interest and was ultimately even disowned by the band themselves.[28]
Undeterred, The Aquabats made an attempt at a second pilot the following year, using a music video budget granted by their record labelGoldenvoice Records for their 1999 albumThe Aquabats vs. the Floating Eye of Death!. Independently directed and produced by Jacobs and his creative partnerScott Schultz, the result was a five-minute promo video entitledThe Aquabats in Color!. In contrast to the wackier tone of the previous pilot,The Aquabats in Color! was a more action-oriented superhero series modeled after Japanesetokusatsu shows such asKamen Rider. According to Jacobs, theFox Family Channel reportedly expressed interest in the series and ordered production on a proper pilot episode, though following the channel's acquisition byDisney in 2001, the project was cancelled.[27][28]
In 2005, Jacobs and Schultz formed the Orange County-basedproduction company The Magic Store, focusing on creatingfamily-oriented television entertainment. One of the company's independently produced pilots, thechildren's television seriesYo Gabba Gabba!, was eventually picked up as a series byViacom'sNick Jr. Channel, premiering in August 2007 and ultimately becoming an award-winning and critically acclaimed international success. In the wake of the series' popularity, Jacobs and Schultz persuadedYo Gabba Gabba!'s joint production companyWild Brain to help produce a new pilot based around The Aquabats in conjuncture with The Magic Store.
Again creatively spearheaded by Jacobs and Schultz, The Aquabats' third pilot, titledThe Aquabats! Super Show!, was shot on location throughout southern California in late 2007 and early 2008. Part of this filming took place at a free invitation-only concert for members of the band's officialfan club at theEl Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on January 12, 2008. While The Aquabats' previous pilots were short, live-action promotional videos,The Aquabats! Super Show! was a fully realized 22-minute episode featuring two separate storylines based on the adventures of The Aquabats, one live-action and one animated, and interspersed with parody commercials and live footage of the band. Speaking on the decision to structure the show in such a varied format, Jacobs said "[w]e did that for a strategic reason – some networks like cartoons more than other networks. We wanted to say, 'this could be both shows'."[13]
Following a period of post-production, The Aquabats began widely self-promotingSuper Show! in June 2008, redesigning their website to promote the pilot and releasing ateaser trailer and several exclusive clips through an officialSuper Show! YouTube channel. On July 25, 2008, the band screened the full pilot at a concert inSan Diego held during the weekend ofSan Diego Comic-Con, while a segment of the episode was hosted onBoing Boing the same day.[29] In 2009,Cartoon Network allegedly picked the series up for a run of 22 episodes, though following major staff changes within the company—which, according to Jacobs, included the termination of the executives who had green-lightedSuper Show!—the project was again cancelled.[28]
The Hub is not afraid...[t]hey're looking at new programming and doing things differently, from a different standpoint that a lot of networks are still scared or they aren't able to do. The Hub is fresh and new so they can take new ideas and new shows, things that are kind of funky, or things that other networks would say, 'The Aquabats? That's stupid! Those guys are old and fat!' Whereas The Hub goes, 'The Aquabats? Those guys are old and stupid and fat! Perfect!'"
After several more unsuccessful network pitches into the 2010s,The Aquabats! Super Show! was finally picked up as a series by family cable channelThe Hub, a joint venture betweenHasbro andDiscovery which launched in 2010 as a replacement forDiscovery Kids. The Hub formally announced the series in apress release on March 23, 2011, revealingSuper Show! would be given a first season run of 13 episodes, produced in conjuncture withFremantleMedia.[3] In promotion of the series, The Aquabats appeared as part of a panel at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con where they discussed their initial plans for the show, while The Hub sponsored an Aquabats concert held at the nearbyHouse of Blues during the same weekend.[13][23]
Production on season one ofSuper Show! officially began in May 2011.[27] The entirety of the first season was shot within and around The Aquabats' hometown ofOrange County, California; according to the first season DVDaudio commentary, episodes were shot on location in the cities ofIrvine,Silverado,Yorba Linda,Huntington Beach andFullerton, while a privatesound stage inSanta Ana was used for interior shots of the Battletram.[17] A public Aquabats concert held at The Glass House club inPomona on November 5, 2011 was also filmed to provide live footage of the band which is featured in the series' opening credits montage and several individual episodes.
Much ofSuper Show!'s staff consist of friends and colleagues of The Aquabats who've previously worked with the band on various projects, ranging from members ofYo Gabba Gabba!'s production team to fellow musicians within the southern California music scene. Among the more notable examples include Dallas McLaughlin and Matthew Gorney, both members of the San Diegohip hop bandBad Credit, who prominently served as writers, composers and performers,Warren Fitzgerald, guitarist forThe Vandals, who was hired as a writer and music director, internet sketch comedy groupMega64 were commissioned to produce original material, primarily the series' parody commercials, and Japanese artist Pey, who had designed much of The Aquabats' promotional art and merchandise during the 2000s, was hired to design the season's animated segments.[15][30] Additionally, several industry professionals were brought in to help work on the show: Dani Michaeli, a staff writer onSpongeBob SquarePants, was hired as the series' story editor, whileMatt Chapman, co-creator of the internet Flash cartoonHomestar Runner, acted as a writer, director and actor on several episodes. As none of the members besides Jacobs had any previous acting experience, comedianMatt Walsh of theUpright Citizens Brigade was brought in to help teach The Aquabats comedic acting and timing.[15]
In further homage to the originalBatman series,[31]Super Show! features a variety of celebritycameo appearances. The series' first season included appearances from actorsJon Heder,Lou Diamond Phillips andSamm Levine, comediansRip Taylor,Paul Scheer andPaul Rust, and comedy musician"Weird Al" Yankovic, who appeared in two episodes as different characters. The first season also included several "Easter egg" cameos from original Aquabats membersCorey "Chainsaw" Pollock andBoyd "Catboy" Terry, as well as from fellow musicians Warren Fitzgerald and Art Mitchell of the bandSupernova.
Despite having been originally announced as part of The Hub's 2011 Fall line-up, production delays postponedSuper Show!'s premiere to early 2012. The series' marketing campaign began in December 2011, with a later announcement of an official premiere date confirmed for March 3, 2012.[2] Following a non-consecutive run of 13 episodes, the first-season finale aired on June 16, 2012.
On October 16, 2012, The Aquabats and The Hub confirmed production on new episodes ofSuper Show! through the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, announcing a tentative debut date of Spring 2013.[32] Principal photography on season two began on October 22 and wrapped on December 1.[33][non-primary source needed][34] Unlike the first season, the majority of season two was shot in and aroundSalt Lake City, Utah, which Jacobs explained was considerably less expensive than shooting in California.[31]
While no changes were made toSuper Show's creative team, in December 2012 it was announced that season two would introduce the series' first guest director, musician and comic book writerGerard Way, who co-directed and co-wrote the season finale "The AntiBats!" with Jacobs and deVilliers. Way's involvement with the series was heavily covered by the music press in the wake of the March 2013 break-up of his popularalternative rock bandMy Chemical Romance.[35][36] Among the guest stars featured in season two were professional skateboardersTony Hawk andEric Koston,Devo frontman andYo Gabba Gabba! cast memberMark Mothersbaugh,internet celebrityLeslie Hall, actorMartin Starr and My Chemical Romance bassistMikey Way.[31][37]
On December 2, 2012, deVilliers revealed on his Twitter account that the upcoming season would consist of only five new episodes, in what he called more "season 1.5" than a "season 2",[38] though mentioned the possibility of more being made in the future.[37] On May 1, 2013, it was announced throughEntertainment Weekly that the series' second season would begin airing on June 1.[39] After a run of only five episodes, the season concluded on June 29, 2013.
On August 22, 2013, series performerChad Larson confirmed via Twitter that three additional episodes ofSuper Show! were being filmed near the end of the year, "and maybe more next".[40] Principal photography on these episodes eventually began in Utah in early October.[41] Throughout the month, The Aquabats posted numerous pictures of production on the new episodes on their Twitter andInstagram accounts, some of which revealedproduction code numbers of 301, 302 and 303, ostensibly indicating what would be a third season.[41][42] Though these numbers were later verified by theInternet Movie Database, a November press release from The Hub explicitly referred to these three episodes as "specials".[43][44]
The first of these specials, "Christmas with The Aquabats!", aired on December 21, featuring comediansRobert Smigel andMatt Walsh in guest roles. The second of these episodes, "The Shark Fighter!" (based on The Aquabats'song of the same name), featuring comedianRhys Darby, aired the following week on December 28, while the final special "Kitty Litter!" aired on January 18, 2014. "Kitty Litter!" was helmed by another guest director, Munn Powell, best known for his work ascinematographer on theJared and Jerusha Hess filmsNapoleon Dynamite andGentlemen Broncos.
Following this short run of episodes, there was no confirmation by either The Hub or The Aquabats as to the production of any future episodes. In a December 2013 interview, Christian Jacobs acknowledged the network's unusually small order of episodes but didn't elaborate on any possible reasoning. In the same interview, he stated that the band had initially prepared for another order of 13 episodes, having written as many scripts for potential future episodes.[45]
On May 1, 2014, the nominees for the 2014Daytime Emmy Awards were announced, revealing thatSuper Show! had been nominated for five awards in four categories, including the award for Best Writing in a Children's Series for the episode "The AntiBats!".[46] The awards ceremony was held on June 22, 2014, where the series ultimately won the award for Best Stunt Coordination for stuntman Skip Carlson.
In mid-2014, it was announced in entertainment press that Hasbro and Discovery had been in the process ofrebranding The Hub following what they saw to be disappointing returns for the channel, changes which included the departure of CEO Margaret Loesch, who was instrumental in acquiringSuper Show! as a series.[47] In aHuffington Post feature about The Aquabats prior to the band's appearance at the 2014San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that The Hub had opted not to renewSuper Show! for a third season, effectively cancelling the series.[48]
Jacobs admitted he was surprised by this turn of events, noting "Everything we heard was that the show has been a real Cinderella story for the Hub and that it was rating really well with viewers. We just assumed that we'd eventually go back into production or at least get picked up for Season 3", but ultimately concluded "it is what it is" in regard to the network's decision. Despite this, Jacobs remained optimistic about the series' future, saying "Given that we now live in a world where people are streaming TV shows directly onto their iPhones & computers, and given that companies likeNetflix &Yahoo! are now picking up so much new content for their customers...I just find it hard to believe thatThe Aquabats! Super Show! is really over. I mean, we haven't even made any toys yet".[48] He concluded by stating "It took us almost 15 years to get that TV series made. And even though we've got a bunch more concert dates lined up for the rest of this year, our first priority is to find a new home forThe Aquabats! Super Show!".[48]
On March 31, 2015, the nominees for the 42nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards were announced, withSuper Show! earning nominations for Best SFX Mixer (Blaine Stewart) and Best Stunt Coordinator (Braxton McAllister).[49]
On June 27, 2015, The Aquabats screened the entire first season ofSuper Show! before a sold-out crowd at theFrida Cinema in downtownSanta Ana, which was accompanied by a live performance by the band and Q&A sessions with The Aquabats and numerous members of the cast and crew.[50] A similar presentation of the entire second season – including the three additional specials – took place at The Art Theater inLong Beach on December 16, 2017, coinciding with the release of the second season Blu-ray.
Following weeks of teasing a major announcement, The Aquabats launched aKickstarter campaign on July 31, 2018 to help finance the return ofThe Aquabats! Super Show! as well as new studio albums from the band at a minimum projected cost of $1.1 million.[7] The Aquabats promoted their campaign with a video featuring a slew of celebrity cameos, includingSuper Show! guest stars "Weird Al" Yankovic, Robert Smigel (asTriumph the Insult Comic Dog), Matt Chapman (asHomestar Runner andStrong Bad), former Aquabats memberTravis Barker,Adrian Young,Tom Dumont,Oscar Nunez,Kate Micucci,Blake Anderson,Imagine Dragons,Felicia Day andTom Lennon, all of whom appeared in The Aquabats' trademark uniforms and spoke the Kickstarter's promotional slogan "I am The Aquabats"/"We are The Aquabats".[51] Most prominently featured, however, was comedianJack Black, who was later confirmed by the campaign's press releases to act as executive producer for the series' return.[7]
Along with their Kickstarter, the band began releasing a series ofSuper Show! "mini-episodes", depicting the MC Bat Commander'smetafictional quest to reunite the estranged Aquabats following the series' cancellation. The band confirmed that as the Kickstarter progresses, further "mini-episodes" will be released to both promote the campaign as well as act as a continuation ofSuper Show!.
By August 28, mere days before the campaign's end date of September 1, The Aquabats' Kickstarter had raised only $601,629 of its projected $1.1 million goal. The funding was subsequently cancelled and the campaign was rebooted the same day with a smaller goal of $100,000 to instead finance one new album and the continued production of theSuper Show!! "mini-episodes". The project's goal was met within minutes.
Original music forThe Aquabats! Super Show! was primarily composed and performed by The Aquabats themselves, with additional scoring on most episodes provided by Matthew Gorney,Warren Fitzgerald or individual credits for Aquabats members James R. Briggs, Jr., Richard Falomir and Ian Fowles. Fitzgerald, guitarist for punk rock bandThe Vandals and former member ofOingo Boingo, acted as the series'music supervisor. Thetheme song toSuper Show!, "Super Show Theme Song!", was co-written by The Aquabats and Fitzgerald.[52]
Whereas most musically oriented shows likeThe Monkees typically break the narrative of an episode for a music video performance of a standalone song, each episode ofSuper Show! typically features one or two unique songs that tied directly into the plot, usually about and performed during the events of a particular scene. Most of these songs are rather brief, averaging a running time of just under a minute; Jacobs stated that many of the show's original songs were recorded as full-length pieces but trimmed down for inclusion in an episode, simply due to the show "trying to pack so much into 22 minutes".[12][18]
Shortly afterSuper Show!'s premiere, Jacobs confirmed plans to eventually release the series' original full-length songs as a soundtrack album.[24] However, these plans wouldn't fully come to fruition until 2019; in a 2018 interview, Jacobs retrospectively revealed that the album had been long completed but the band "hadn't had all the rights tied up" until then.[53] The first original and full-length recordings from the series' first season debuted in July 2017, when "Burger Rain" and "Beat Fishin'" were released as a tour-exclusive7" single. Songs from the series' first season were eventually compiled asThe Aquabats! Super Show! Television Soundtrack: Volume One, which was released digitally in March 2019 and then onto physical media the following June, where it became The Aquabats' highest-charting album to date, debuting at the top ofBillboard'sTop Heatseekers chart and at 165 on theBillboard 200.[54][55]
The Aquabats! Super Show! stars and is based upon fictionalized versions of the then-current (since 2006) line-up of the California comedy rock bandThe Aquabats. Adapting the backstory the band has used for the entirety of their professional career,Super Show! depicts The Aquabats as a group of bumbling, out-of-shape superheroes on a self-appointed mission to fight the forces of evil, presented in both live-action and animated segments. The five members of The Aquabats are:
Voice actor and writerMr. Lawrence provided the minimal narration for both seasons ofSuper Show!'s live-action segments, while staff writerKyle McCulloch narrated the first season's animated segments.
Though each episode of the series introduced a new villain, ally and/or celebritycameo,Super Show! never featured any majorrecurring characters throughout its run. However, every episode of the show included a very brief appearance by a character fans dubbed the "Fox Man", a man in a cheap-looking fox costume played by visual effects supervisor Joel Fox, who would appear hidden in the background of a random scene as anEaster egg for viewers to spot, although his character was never explained within the context of the series.
Comedy musician"Weird Al" Yankovic and comedianPaul Rust were the only two guest actors to appear in two episodes: Yankovic played two different roles as the President of the United States and superhero SuperMagic PowerMan! (in a 2012 interview, Jacobs alluded to the two possibly being the same character,[20] though this isn't implied within the series), while Rust played a boorish slacker named Ronmark, first appearing in live-action in a first-season episode and subsequently lending his voice to a mutated monster version of the character in part of a second-season episode.
Matt Chapman ofThe Brothers Chaps plays the villain Carl in the episode “CobraMan!”. Carl’s voice andluchador styled mask are very similar to that ofStrong Bad from the animatedWeb SeriesHomestar Runner Matt co-created with his brother, Mike Chapman. While it’s never explicitly stated Strong Bad and Carl are the same person, Strong Bad has made guest appearance in a Aquabats concert.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| Pilot | July 25, 2008 | |||
| 1 | 13 | March 3, 2012 (2012-03-03) | June 16, 2012 (2012-06-16) | |
| 2 | 8 | June 1, 2013 (2013-06-01) | January 18, 2014 (2014-01-18) | |
Outside of North America,The Aquabats! Super Show! broadcast in Australia on the children'spublic broadcasting channelABC3[56] and in the United Kingdom on the children's networkCITV.
Coinciding with the run of the first season, each new episode ofThe Aquabats! Super Show! was released through theiTunes Store fordigital download. Prior to the series debut, a season pass was made available for purchase to enable viewers to automatically receive a download of each new episode on its airdate.[57] The first season ofSuper Show! was added to the video streaming serviceNetflix on December 1, 2012, later being added toHulu on December 21.
Unlike the first season, the series' second season was not made available for iTunes pre-order, nor were episodes released for purchase. Though each episode was briefly streamed on The Hub's official website, none of the seasons' episodes were made available on Hulu, Netflix or similar streaming services.
Shout! Factory had the DVD publishing rights forThe Aquabats! Super Show! withinRegion 1 for release of the first season. The company first announced their acquisition of the series and plans for a future DVD in a press release dated August 6, 2012, though did not initially confirm a set release date until several months later.[58] On May 21, 2013, the first season ofSuper Show! was released on a two-disc DVD set.
On November 22, 2017, in conjunction with their announcement of a season two theatrical screening, The Aquabats confirmed an independentBlu-ray release for season two, including the three specials often considered a "season three". On December 5, pre-orders were launched on The Aquabats' merchandising site for an official release date of December 22, though copies were first made for public sale at the second season theatrical screening on December 16.
Starting in December 2014, The Aquabats gradually began uploading the series' full episodes onto their officialYouTube channel. As of August 2019, all 21 episodes ofSuper Show! and its pilot episode have been publicly uploaded to their account.
| DVD name | Episodes | Release date | Special features |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Aquabats! Super Show! Season One! | 13 | May 21, 2013(NTSC) |
|
| The Aquabats! Super Show! Season Two! | 8 (including season three specials) | December 22, 2017(NTSC) |
|
Critical response toThe Aquabats! Super Show! was predominantly positive, with most reviewers praising the series' intentionallycampy tone and offbeat humor.The Onion'sThe A.V. Club gave the series premiere an A− rating, describing it as "a loving homage to basically everything ever done bythe brothers Krofft": "the show adeptly flips from humor to melodrama to action, providing some awesomely cheap special effects, goofy songs, and gags that range from slapstick to sublime", summarizing "there's so much here that both kids and parents will be able to enjoy the proceedings on their own respective levels and rarely find themselves bored".[59]
Brian Lowry ofVariety wrote "you don't have to laugh at everything to admire the effort and sheer silliness", calling the show a "goofy and nostalgic" throwback to the "children's TV of baby boomers' youth, down to crappy production values and awful-looking 'monsters' that work to its advantage". He summarized "Although this Hub series at times feels like anSNL skit stretched to a half-hour, its sly mix of music, live-action crime-fighting, cartoons and mock ads ought to develop acult following—and might be more popular with parents, at least those with the geek gene, than their kids".[60]
Technology magazineWired was consistently positive towards the series, calling it both "wonderfully strange" and "delightfully deranged", writing "[f]illed with self-deprecating music videos, toon interludes and ludicrous villains,The Aquabats! Super Show! has become one of television's strangely comforting finds".[61][62]
Common Sense Media, who review shows based on age-appropriate content, gaveSuper Show! a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "demented and manic...fun by sheer dint of how many jokes, visual and otherwise, are thrown at the screen, both those calculated to appeal to kids and adults". The site praised the series for its lighter and sillier tone in comparison to more violent live-action superhero fare, and considered the "kind-hearted" Aquabats to be relatively positive role models. However, the reviewer suggested the show's violence and creatures may be too intense for very young children, and pointed out a distinct lack of central female characters.[63]
Neil Genzlinger ofThe New York Times offered a more indifferent opinion, calling The Aquabats "indescribably odd" and the series "frenetic, semicoherent and generally harmless. Also somewhat hallucinogenic", notingSuper Show!'s writing "may be over the heads of the 2-to-12 set", suggesting its most receptive audience might be "the college drinking-game crowd".[10]
The Aquabats! Super Show! was nominated for the following awards:
| Year | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Outstanding Children's Series[64] | Nominated |
| 2014 | Writing for a Children's Series(Episode: "The AntiBats!" – Jason deVilliers,Christian Jacobs andGerard Way) | Nominated |
| Achievement in Lighting Direction | Nominated | |
| Achievement in Sound Mixing – Live Action | Nominated | |
| Stunt Coordination(Skip Carlson) | Won | |
| Stunt Coordination(Braxton McAllister) | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Sound Effects Mixing(Blaine Stewart) | Nominated |
| Stunt Coordination(Braxton McAllister) | Nominated |