The Strangerhood

*The Strangerhood*
The Strangerhood
Created by	Burnie Burns; Matt Hullum
Starring	Matt Hullum; Lindsey Griffith; Brooke Hattabaugh; Geoff Fink; Gus Sorola
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	8
Production
Running time	5 minutes
Original release
Network	http://sh.roosterteeth.com/, Rooster Teeth Productions
Release	October 18, 2004 –; currently running

The Strangerhood is a machinima video web comic series made by Rooster Teeth Productions. The animation is made using the computer game The Sims 2 and is a parody of sitcoms and reality television. The series details the lives of eight archetypes who wake up living in a neighbourhood (called "Strangerhood Lane") with no memory of who they are, where they are, or how they got there. The episodes are on average about five minutes long. Template:Spoiler

Characters

Sam is the kind of person who likes to write his own name in his underwear. He is a little assertive and whiney at times, especially when he doesn't know what is going on, but for the most part he is friendly. He seems to be the only person in the group who is "normal" and aware of what is going on around them. Sam is 26.
Wade is not the brightest penny in the fountain. He likes to party and believes his name is Durrnt. He appears to be the stereotypical depiction of either a hippie and/or a "party dude", and it always sounds as if he is perpetually stoned.
Dr. Chalmers is intelligent but gets easily irritated at people. He often finds many things to complain about, such as modern technology, and the other people in the group as well. Dr. Chalmers likes to play chess, sometimes against himself.
Tovar is the token ethnic minority of the group. He has a very strong and silly accent, and tends to be absent minded, which leads to things like leaving the stove on and having it catch on fire. Like Wade, Tovar isn't exactly the most intelligent member of the group. Tovar tends to refer to himself in the third person.
Dutchmiller is very excited and enthusiastic about everything (like the mail box or trash can). He is not quite the smartest guy on the block, but has a very charismatic charm and demeanor. He appears to be a Yuppie stereotype. Dutchmiller enjoys Japanese cuisine and culture; he answers the phone with "konnichi wa" and makes sushi for dinner.
Catherine is superficial and judges people by their physical appearance. She is basically the stereotypical "dumb blonde", and likes to talk to herself in the mirror. It was revealed in episode 6 that she had a secret, although the secret itself was not revealed. She appears to be interested in Dutchmiller.
Nikki (deceased) was mostly reserved and showed few personality quirks, though she did dislike Catherine and might have been agnostic. The exact cause of her dislike for Catherine is never explained, and she seems to lose her temper quite a bit, as witnessed in Episode 6. She is primarily stuck on herself and is known for little else.
Griggs has a "tough guy" attitude, and wears jungle camoflauge paint on his face. It's possible that he is a war veteran, and it is evident that he's slightly insane, as he can see an (imaginary?) garden gnome, which he called a "stupid leprechaun", and talks with it.
Omnipotent voice is a voice that first appeared in the second episode and appears to be responsible for bringing the eight people together in this neighborhood. The voice orders these people around. The omnipotent voice sometimes refers to itself in the first person plural so might be controlled by more than one person. The omnipotent voice can project itself with a television or computer and controls the images on the television screen or computer monitor when it does this. The voice also appears to be able to project through the other characters (as seen in episode five when Chalmers spoke with the omnipotent's voice). The voice seems at times to want to befriend the cast ("Ha ha..Good one, Wade!"), while at other times, seeking only to boss them around for fun ("Silence, assorted stereotypes!").

Cast

David Zellner as Sam
Dan Godwin as Dr. Chalmers
Lindsey Griffith as Catherine
Matt Hullum as Dutchmiller
Brooke Hattabaugh as Nikki
Joel Heyman as Wade
Mike 'Burnie' Burns as Griggs and Tovar
Geoff Fink and Gus Sorola as Mister Mystery

Production

The animation was recorded on three separate computers. Owing to the limitations of the simulation engine it was necessary to create a number of clones of each character, each with a different expression (happy, sad, angry, etc.). The unused versions are herded into an out-of-viewpoint room and exchanged as necessary to obtain the various facial expressions. Lines are used that best match the mouth movements and gestures of the characters.

Episodes

Template:Spoiler

Season 1

Why are you here? (premiered October 18, 2004) In the first episode the main characters wake up in houses that are not their own and had no memory of who they are or how they got there.
The one with the premise (premiered November 10, 2004) Everyone (except Sam and Wade) find notes telling them to go to the house Wade and Sam appeared in. They were all (vaguely) informed about their situation by the omnipotent voice. The voice also told them that cookies and tang were forbidden.
We have a floater (premiered December 2, 2004) The house gets a new goldfish in addition to the ones already in the tank to replace the recently deceased goldfish. Sam names them, but Tovar objects, saying that it is an insult to humans and goldfish to give them a name. Chalmers agrees with Sam, but only because he thought they needed names to indicate which one they wanted to eat in case of an emergency (since they couldn't say "I want to eat Anonymous.").
Sublimination Round (premiered February 5, 2005) The omnipotent voice orders Sam, Wade and Tovar to compete in a contest against Catherine, Dr. Chalmers and Dutchmiller to cook and eat grilled cheese sandwhiches. Not knowing the names of the members of the second team yet, the voice just labelled them as "Gold Digger", "Curmudgeon" and "Weirdo" respectively. Both teams lost because Sam, Tovar, and Wade's oven caught fire and Catherine, Dutchmiller and Dr. Chalmers had dietary restrictions/preferences that prevented them eating cheese. Griggs was separated from the others and being stalked by a mysterious gnome or leprechaun. Nikki did not appear in this episode.
Things Misremembered (premiered March 31, 2005) Wade and Tovar report that Nikki was murdered while they were swimming in the pool. They recall various versions of how Nikki was killed, such as being electrocuted, drowning in the pool, drowning in the cement, etc., until they remember that they didn't actually see how it happened, as they were playing Marco Polo so both had their eyes closed. Wade and Tovar then learn that only one person is supposed to close their eyes or wear a blindfold in the game. Griggs, Dutchmiller, and Catherine did not appear in this episode.
Idol Desperation (premiered April 26, 2005) The episode begins with a narrative introduction by Nikki's voice-over in a Deperate Housewives parody. Wade and the omnipotent voice seems to be the only ones aware of her voice. Sam, Wade, and Chalmers are then seen calling everyone else to tell the news of Nikki's death. Wade "remembers" an incident when he was performing in an American Idol parody, with Sam as Simon Cowell, Nikki as Paula Abdul, Chalmers as Randy Jackson, and Dutchmiller as Ryan Seacrest.

Special episodes

Seasons Greetings from The Strangerhood (premiered December 23, 2004) Although the eight residents lost their memory and don't know what the date is, the omnipotent voice told them in this episode that it is the holiday season, and ordered them to celebrate the twenty days of "Christmanukkah", which would combine the twelve days of Christmas and eight of Hanukkah. Most of them liked the idea but Sam thought it was just stupid.
Bye Nikki Bye (premiered April 12, 2005) Music video commemorating Nikki's short time in the series. The song is presumably played by the "House Band," which includes Sam on guitar, Dr. Chalmers on drums, and Tovar on bass. Currently only available to sponsors.

Strangerhood Studios

Strangerhood Studios is a series of shorts about one minute long each, featuring some of the characters of The Strangerhood. The story, however, departs from the traditional plot of The Strangerhood. For example, the characters are back in the outside world, rather than being trapped in the Strangerhood Lane. Only Sam, Dutchmiller, and Catherine starred from the original cast. Nikki had been mentioned once in a phone conversation.

The Pitch
Statistically Speaking
Punk 'Til You Puke

Theories

There are numerous theories surrounding the nature of Strangerhood Lane and the omnipotent voice and the origin of the inhabitants of the Strangerhood.

Several of them are listed here:

The omnipotent voice is a proxy for a group of highly-intelligent extraterrestrials, as it once said that they studied the human specie. If they were human, there would be no need to study themselves.
- Alternative theory: The omnipotent voice is a proxy for a group of artificial intelligence, as demonstrated when it said, "Silence, organic creature."
- Alternative theory: The omnipotent voice is a god, or a group of beings with power on par to those of a god. This can explain some oddities such as "fish delivery" which is impossible because the eight main characters are the only residents of the Strangerhood.

Catherine will tell Dutchmiller in the seventh episode that she knows something about the Strangerhood.
- Alternative theory: Catherine will tell Dutchmiller that she loves him.
- Alternative theory: (from roosterteeth message boards) Catherine will tell Dutchmiller that she's pregnant with his child.
  - This would explain why they are both absent in Episode 5. They might be having affiars. This would make sense with Catherine's apparent money lust when seeing Dutchmiller's well-dressed appearance in Episode 2.

Griggs murdered Nikki on the order of the Garden Gnome.
- Alternative theory: Either Tovar or Wade (Or both) murdered Nikki for unknown reasons, and are merely pretending not to know what happened.
  - However, the fact that Nikki's voice appears in episode 6 and does not berate Wade for the crime, suggests that neither theory is correct.
- Alternative theory: Nikki choked on something or had a stroke or heart attack.
  - This also seems perfectly logical, since there's no blood or bruises on her to indicate violence from an outside threat. Wade and Tovar would be just stupid enough to believe it was a bloody murder with no blood present. Wade would just be stoned enough to have (LSD?) flashbacks that all the bizarre things had killed her. This also seems logical in that she was living on the huge property all by herself. Nobody would have taken immediate notice or been able to call for help.
- Alternative theory: The flamingo, social bunny, or reaper might have played a role, and Griggs was only a distraction.
  - The introduction of any of these in the Episode 6 montage implies that they might know something.

Everyone on the Strangerhood is being put there as a punishment for something they did wrong before their memories were erased.
- This seems logical in the fact that the characters of ABC's show Lost feel they are being punished by some unknown being for their past lives, and many prime time shows in Lost's relative time slot (prime time to late night) are spoofed throughout the Strangerhood, including Desperate Housewives, American Idol, Fear Factor (implied with the darts picture on the computer screen in Epidode 4), and possibly Extreme Makeover, given Dutchmiller's sudden interest in Episode 6 with Japanese clothing. The one problem with this theory is that while the Lost characters are tortured by their memories, the Strangerhood characters don't have memories from which to draw either grief or inspiration, defeating the purpose of the "Purgatory Complex."

External links