Celebrity Deathmatch

Celebrity Deathmatch
The logo for Celebrity Deathmatch
Format	Sports Entertainment Claymation
Created by	Eric Fogel
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	103 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	21 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV (1998-2002) MTV2 (2006-present)
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Celebrity Deathmatch is a claymation parody television show that pits celebrities against each other in a wrestling ring, almost always ending in the loser's gruesome death. It is known for its excessive amount of blood used in every match and exaggerated physical injuries (e.g., one person pulls off a participant's foot, living through decapitations, impalements, etc.). The series was created by Eric Fogel. It aired on MTV from May 14, 1998 to October 20, 2002, and lasted for a 75 episode run. There was one special that didn't contribute to the final episode total, entitled Celebrity Deathmatch Hits Germany, which aired on June 21, 2001. Professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin gave voice to his animated form as the guest commentator. Early in 2003, a movie was announced by MTV to be in the making, but the project was canceled by the end of that very same year. In 2005, MTV2 announced the revival of the show as part of their Sic 'Em Friday programming block. Originally set to return in November 2005, the premiere was pushed back to June 10, 2006 as part of a new Sic'emation block with two other animated shows, Where My Dogs At and The Adventures of Chico and Guapo. The show's fifth season was produced by Cuppa Coffee Studios and the premiere drew over 2.5 million viewers becoming MTV2's highest rated season premiere ever.

Main characters (voice actors)

List of characters in Celebrity Deathmatch

History

Celebrity Deathmatch started as a short that featured serial killer Charles Manson and shock rocker Marilyn Manson fighting to the death. Deathmatch was brought back in 1998 for MTV's Super Bowl XXXII halftime special, which became the most highly rated special in the history of MTV. Just three months later, Celebrity Deathmatch had entered MTV's main lineup. The show was popular enough for show creator Eric Fogel to be named one of the most creative people in the TV industry by Entertainment Weekly. During the next four seasons, Celebrity Deathmatch became more popular in other countries and gained viewers from all over the world, but four seasons and 75 episodes later, MTV decided to cancel the show. According to Eric Fogel, MTV thought that Deathmatch was becoming too expensive and too violent for the network, and that its ratings did not justify keeping the show on the air. In 2002, the show was canceled. In 2006, the show was revived in MTV2.

Revival

Nick and Johnny in the 2006 version of the show.

New episodes of the show, which began production in 2005, are being produced by Cuppa Coffee Studio as opposed to MTV's now-defunct animation department. The show now features an all-new voice cast and a new look. Johnny, Nick and Mills Lane have all returned, though all with new voices. Mills Lane, who used to be played by himself, is now played by Chris Edgerly due to the real Mills Lane's 2002 stroke. Debbie Matenopoulos has been replaced by Tally Wong. Eric Fogel chose not to get very involved with the new seasons due to his involvement on his new show Starveillance for the E! network. The show is currently directed by Jack Fletcher and Dave 'Canadian' Thomas. Clips of the new Celebrity Deathmatch are available at Cuppa Coffee Animation's official web site at Cuppacoffee.com, as well as at MTV2.com. It can be seen that some of the audience members are celebrities used in the older seasons of Celebrity Deathmatch. In one fight, you can see in the audience Macaulay Culkin from his fight against Haley Joel Osment. Other noticeable celebrities are Ozzy Osbourne, Whitney Houston, Farrah Fawcett, 'N Sync's Chris Kirkpatrick, Eriq La Salle, Mr. T, Ricky Martin, Nick Nolte, Dana Carvey as Garth Algar and The Church Lady one of the Olsen twins, Ben Affleck, Billy Blanks, Daniel Baldwin, Rob Zombie, and Rob Schneider. During the 2006 season, fans were able to vote on MTV2.com for future matches by choosing one of three matches and by sending a write-in request. The following are the winners of the polls:

• Week 1 Winners - Poll: Daddy Yankee vs. Sean Paul
  • #1 Write-In - The Game vs. 50 Cent
• Week 2 Winners - Poll: Nas vs. Jay-Z
  • #1 Write-In - Anthony Kiedis vs. Tom Petty
• Week 3 Winners - Poll: Hilary Duff vs. Lindsay Lohan
  • #1 Write-In - Hugh Jackman vs. Tobey Maguire
• Week 4 Winners - Poll: Nelly Furtado vs. Christina Aguilera
  • #1 Write-In - Dave Chappelle vs. Carlos Mencia
• Week 5 Winners - Poll: Vida Guerra vs. Heidi Klum

Criticism

Since the beginning of its run, Celebrity Deathmatch has been criticized for being too violent and ridiculing celebrities. In the early beginnings of the show, Kathie Lee Gifford made a complaint to the show creator Eric Fogel saying that the show was "inhuman" (rumors spread saying that she was just unhappy about the way she was defeated in the show by Howard Stern). In one clip show episode that aired, Janeane Garofalo was also unhappy with the show when they showed her in claymation-form how she would look if she lost fifty pounds. During the same episode, Tommy Lee expressed his gratitude for the show's portrayl of him by imitating the special move he used to defeat Ron Jeremy with. The show was labeled insensitive when Compton rapper The Game told Playahata.com in late March 2007 he was not happy with Celebrity Deathmatch showing his son being killed by bullets. The Game said he was thinking of writing a protest letter to the network because the episode hit very close to home since the rapper's older brother, Jevon Taylor, a Crip gang member, was shot and killed at a gas station.^[1]

See also

• List of Celebrity Deathmatch episodes
• Celebrity Deathmatch (video game)

References

External links

• Celebrity Deathmatchat MTV2
• Celebrity Deathmatch at the Internet Movie Database
• Johnny Gomez's MySpace
• Nick Diamond's MySpace