Stroker and Hoop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stroker and Hoop | |
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Genre | Action Comedy |
Running time | 0:30 (per episode, including commercial break) |
Creator(s) | Chris 'Casper' Kelly Jeff Olsen |
Starring | Jon Glaser Timothy "Speed" Levitch Paul Christie |
Country of origin | United States |
Original channel | Cartoon Network |
Original run | August 1, 2004–December 25, 2005 |
No. of episodes | 13 |
IMDb profile |
Stroker and Hoop (also Stroker & Hoop) is an American Flash animated television series on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. The series is a parody of buddy cop films and television series such as Starsky and Hutch.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Stroker is a bumbling detective, and his partner Hoop is a self-proclaimed master of disguise who isn't that smart. Together with the aid of their talking car, C.A.R.R., they attempt to solve crimes and pick up chicks.
[edit] Characters
John Strockmeyer, aka Stroker (voiced by Jon Glaser): An ex-mattress salesman turned private investigator, Stroker would much rather spend his time, and his customers' money, trying to seduce any lady that catches his eye. He's been married at least once before, with a son, Keith who lives with his ex-wife. He also has a brother, Steve, who is an attorney whom Stroker has extorted repeatedly in the past. His first partner was Jermaine Washington until he was killed seven years ago thanks in large part to Stroker's negligence.
Hoop Schwartz (voiced by Speed Levitch): Stroker's ever-optimistic partner, Hoop, won't hesitate to don any disguise necessary to help solve the crime. He still lives with his overprotective mom, Rose, a recently retired receptionist for an advertising agency. Unlike Stroker, he is more suave with the ladies, though not by much.
C.A.R.R. (voiced by Paul Christie): Stroker and Hoop's primary mode of transportation, C.A.R.R. is a talking car that was state-of-the-art twenty years ago. He enjoys talk radio and car washes, perhaps a little too much. Years of nothing but AM right wing talk radio have left C.A.R.R. with a racist attitude towards Mexicans. He is a parody of David Hasselhoff's car KITT from Knight Rider and the name "C.A.R.R." may be a spoof of "K.A.R.R.", KITT's "evil" prototype. C.A.R.R. very strongly resembles an AMC Pacer that is painted to somewhat resemble the Ford Torino from Starsky & Hutch.
Double Wide (voiced by Curtis Armstrong): Ostensibly C.A.R.R.'s creator. A mechanic who spends his copious free time inventing bizarre things. He is a pornography connoisseur, and a furry. Can speak Spanish. He is loyal to Stroker and Hoop, though they both owe him a ton of money.
Coroner Rick (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams): The county coroner on the show, likely a parody of the coroner character on most buddy-cop shows who often serves as a source of information for the main characters. Coroner Rick is a good friend of Stroker and Hoop, and even willing to hide evidence that would get them tried for murder. He has a knack for making crude jokes from an otherwise unfortunate and tragic event, sometimes with the victim still conscious. Rick occasionally solves the actual crime in the episode, but is generally fine with Stroker and Hoop taking the credit.
Keith (voiced by Paul Rugg): Stroker's 10 year old son. Lives with his mother, Angel Jimenez and has a strained relationship with Stroker who mixes attention with sheer neglect.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1: 2004-2005
- 101. (Pilot) C.A.R.R. Trouble (a.k.a. Feelin' Dirty): Stroker and Hoop start off trying to talk to a possessed teenager Megan and after a series events go horribly wrong, they leave Megan behind in favor of a new case: a high school charity car wash has been threatened and hire Stroker and Hoop for protection.
- 102. The Five Diamonds (a.k.a. A Hard Act to Follow): At Keith's birthday party, magician David Copperfield makes ten-year old Danny Diamond-Schmiggler disappear leading to Stroker taking the case after shooting Copperfield. The trail of clues leads them to the ultimate boy-band: The Five Diamonds (Neil Diamond, Dustin Diamond, Mike Diamond, Lou Diamond Phillips, and a talking diamond). In the mean time, Hoop is trying to patch his relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa who is fed up with Hoop's life style.
- 103. Tinfoiled Again (a.k.a. Star Crossed Livers): A desperate client requests Stroker and Hoop's aid in stopping Ron Howard from entering his mind. In the meantime, Stroker tries to help out his son who has been the victim of bullying and takes an active role on Keith's tee-ball team. Things are turned upside down though when Stroker and Hoop are seduced by two hot ladies who steal their vestigial organs and Ron Howard ends up focusing on Stroker.
- 104. The Rube Job (a.k.a. Revenge is a Dish Best Served Fried): After getting on the bad side of notorius Columbian drug lord Tio the Terrible, Stroker and Hoop retreat down to Vidalutha, Mississippi where Hoop's cousin, Mumu is the town sheriff and requests the duo's aid in catching a serial killer who is hunting down contestants in a beauty pagent. To make things worse, a disgrunteled Double-Wide helps lead Tio to their location.
- 105. XXX Wife (a.k.a. Stroke Her and Boob): Stroker and Hoop are hired by pornography mogul, Judd Winner to spy on his wife whom he suspects is cheating on him. His wife does cheat, with Hoop. In revenge, Stroker and Hoop are hypnotized into appearing in several porn videos, from straight to bizarre. As a result, Stroker and Hoop become adult film celebrities (with Stroker winning the "Best Cleveland Steamer" award]]},which leads them to make several (failed) attempts of revenge against Winner.
- 106. Ninja Worrier (a.k.a. Chopping Spree): The episode starts off with Stroker talking about why he was on his back, bleeding on the sidewalk. At their weekly karate class, Keith is entrusted with protecting the handle of the Fire Lotus Sword from a band of ninjas who take down their teacher. In the struggle, Hoop manages to kill a ninja, this experience shatters him and he quits. In the mean time, Stroker and Keith use a car-bomb to fake their deaths and escape the ninjas, taking C.A.R.R. with them after extracting his brain (his body was the car they used the car-bomb in to fake their deaths, so they think C.A.R.R. is dead as well) Thinking that Stroker has been murdered, Hoop ends up under the tutelage of a karoake singer, Suko who turns Hoop into a deadly assassin.
- 107. Quiller Instinct (a.k.a. Peeping Todd: Stroker is tricked into helping Double-Wide try to prove that his inventions have been stolen for years by his rival, Todd. Stroker works the case solo as Hoop behaves strangely after being pricked by a porcupine while protesting nuclear power, leading him to believe that he has super powers. To make things worse, all the Toddco appliances start to rebel against the humans.
- 108. Hip Hop Hooray (a.k.a. Gansta Sap): Branching out as body guards, Stroker and Hoop are hired to watch over a party thrown by gangsta rapper MC Homicidal Rapist. It all goes badly as Homicidal Rapist is beaten and robbed off his home movies by three men in presidential masks. The next day, Homicidal Rapist and his protoge, Li'l Rapist gives the duo a new assignment: retrieve his tapes and protect Homicidal Rapist's credibility or they will kill them. In the mean time, C.A.R.R. takes on a new job as a DJ on a "adult contemporary" station.
- 109. Just Voodoo It (a.k.a. For Whom the Bear Tolls): After an elderly billionare dies, Stroker and Hoop are hired by his young widow to find out what happened. They learn that a teddy bear found near the murder scene has the same injuries as the man, and Hoop suspects the bear's creators of using Voodoo. They travel to the company's headquarters in New Hampshire in order to learn more about the evil scheme, but they are captured by a witch doctor and forced to make teddy bears in a Haitian factory. The CEO reveals that his company uses zombies for cheap labor, but that some zombies occassionally make voodoo teddy bears.
- 110. I Saw Stroker Killing Santa (a.k.a. A Cold, Dead, White Christmas): While waiting in line with Keith to meet Santa Claus when an unknown assailant jabs Santa with a hypodermic needle. Stroker chases him but mall security interferes but not before grabbing the assailants lottery ticket. At Coroner Rick's, Rick gives Santa a grim prognosis: he has been poisoned with a slow-acting substance not recorded before. Stroker intially pledges to help Santa but changes plans when it turns out the lotto ticket the perp dropped is a winner. Stroker and Hoop end up leaving for the ski slopes, leaving Santa to suffer. C.A.R.R. later takes it on himself to save Santa and Christmas while a drunk Stroker is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, starting with his late partner, Jermaine Washington.
- 111. The Wrath of Khan'Ja (a.k.a. Dammit Mamet): Stroker comes upon a wrecked space ship with a beautiful space alien. He is entrusted with trying to retrieve the funds for a giant sapphire to save her and allow Stroker to be the leader of an enslaved human race. Meanwhile, Hoop is heavily involved starring in the new David Mamet play at the local theater.
- 112. How to Get Dead in Advertising (a.k.a. Caged Rose): Rose Schwartz is charged with the brutal murder of her former supervisor and Stroker and Hoop are entrusted to clear her name. To do so, they go undercover as advertising executives "Stroganoff and Hopowitz" where Hoop gets caught up trying to come up with a new ad campaign for Freshen Up Fabric Softeners. In the meantime, Rose has difficulty adjusting to prison where she gets on the wrong side of a hispanic senior citizen gang.
- 113. Three Cheats to the Wind (a.k.a. Putting the 'Ass' in Assassin): Stroker, Hoop, and Double-Wide wake up in C.A.R.R., who is suspended from a crane over a large canyon. The gang is taunted over the radio by the villain that has trapped them inside and is about to kill them, as they struggle to figure out who would have a past grudge against them. In the end it is revealed to be a minor backround character who has actually appeared in many episodes in the past, each time Stroker and Hoop horribly affecting his life: he wasn't noticeable each time because often he was left unrecognizable by his run ins with Stroker and Hoop, i.e. he was the office worker in "Ninja Worrier" who had cd disks impaled into his face like throwing stars by Hoop. He's also the mysterious assailant who killed Stroker's old partner Jermaine in a flashback in "I Saw Stroker Killing Santa". At the last minute, Coroner Rick stumbles upon the kidnapper as he gloats to Stroker and Hoop over the radio, and holds him at gunpoint. Unfortunately, he can't stop the kidnapper from hitting the remote control which releases the crane, and sends CARR and everyone inside him plummeting to the bottom of the canyon.
[edit] Trivia
- In the episode "Putting the 'Ass' in 'Assassin", Hoop mentions a villain named Beeffinger. The show then (as a joke) cuts to footage from the old cartoon Speed Buggy with the S&H cast dubbing in new lines over the original footage.
[edit] Cancellation
Les Harper, head animator on the show, recently announced via AdultSwim.com that the show has not been greenlit for a second season and will therefore not continue, leaving the show on a cliffhanger ending. It was stated by the creators both on the Adult Swim message board and the employee blog. The blog entry was on February 10 [1]. The creators will continue to work with Williams Street regardless of the cancellation. Reruns however, will start airing on Teletoon in the Fall.
[edit] External links
- Stroker and Hoop section at AdultSwim.com
- AdultSwim.co.uk - Stroker and Hoop on Adult Swim UK
- Stroker and Hoop at the Internet Movie Database
- Stroker and Hoop fan site
- Les Harper announcing the end of Stroker & Hoop (registration required)