NEW YORK – July 25, 2011 – Syfy’s hit series Eureka gets an animated makeover this December for a special holiday themed episode, proving that indeed anything is possible in the town of Eureka. In the first-of-its-kind episode, the quaint town of geniuses will be transformed into animated versions of themselves. The stand-alone holiday episode will also feature a stellar line up of guest stars lending their voices to a variety of characters – Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), Chris Parnell (SNL, Archer), Eureka alum Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica). The airdate for the holiday episode will be announced at a later date.
In the episode “Do You See What I See,” it’s Christmas again in Eureka, and Sheriff Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) are secretly planning the perfect holiday surprise for their kids. But something mysterious interferes with the super-photon generator designed to create a faux winter wonderland on Main Street, sending a kaleidoscopic wave of color crashing over Eureka, and leaving the entire town and its inhabitants animated. Adapting to the rules of their animated world, our cartoon heroes encounter talking creatures, anthropomorphized machines, and snowy foes as they race to find a solution before Christmas morning…or face potentially being a cartoon forever.
Jim Parsons is set to voice Carter’s long put-on Jeep, who’s had enough of his owner’s cavalier attitude towards him. Edward James Olmos will voice Rudy, the leader of a pack of sled dogs who befriends Deputy Andy (Kavan Smith). Chris Parnell also guest stars as Dr. Noah Drummer, reprising his role from last year’s Christmas special. Matt Frewer will be featured as an animated, altered version of himself, and helps Jo (Erica Cerra) make an important realization about her tough-girl personality.
Leading production and entertainment company Curious Pictures will produce the animation featured in the episode, which will be broken up into different styles including Anime, claymation, animation inspired by the Looney Tunes cartoons and modern cg.
Eureka continues with all-new episodes Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy. On tonight’s episode (July 25), Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as Dr. Lee, an expert in the effects of gamma radiation who is a candidate for the special mission that has been given to Global Dynamics and Wil Wheaton returns as Dr. Parrish.
Eureka seems like any other cozy, Pacific Northwest town, but is actually a secret community of geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research. What they’ve unwittingly created is a place where anything imaginable can happen… and does. Eureka stars Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston and Niall Matter. Co-creator Jaime Paglia and Bruce Miller are Executive Producers and the series is produced by Universal Cable Productions.
First of its kind? Well sure, if you forget that FarScape did it years ago, and then StarGate did it for their 200th episode.
Mitch, I think the Press Release is referring to the idea that in this episode they will be using a variety of animation methods in one show including “Anime, claymation, animation inspired by the Looney Tunes cartoons and modern cg.” I think that may have never been done on a scifi television show before.
Oh either way I can’t wait. If it’s half as good as the Farscape episode I’ll love it.