The Secret Saturdays

The Secret Saturdays
File:SecretSat logo.jpg The Secret Saturdays logo
Genre	Animated Action/Adventure
Created by	Jay Stephens
Directed by	Scott Jeralds
Starring	Phil Morris Nicole Sullivan Sam Lerner Diedrich Bader Fred Tatasciore Will Friedle Corey Burton
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer	Fred Schaefer Scott Jeralds
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Production company	Porchlight Entertainment
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	October 3, 2008 – present

Template:FixBunching Template:FixBunching The Secret Saturdays is an American animated television series created by Canadian cartoonist Jay Stephens (creator of the Emmy-winning cartoon Tutenstein) for Cartoon Network. It debuted on October 3, 2008 in the United States. The series follows the adventures of the Saturdays, a family of cryptozoologists that work to keep the truth about cryptids from getting out, in order to protect both the human race and the creatures themselves. The Saturdays travel the world searching for cryptids to study and battling twisted villains like the megalomaniac V.V. Argost. The series is influenced by the style of 60s-era Hanna-Barbara action series (such as Jonny Quest), and is combined with Jay Stephens' own personal interest in cryptozoology. The series also airs on Teletoon in Canada.

History

When Stephens first pitched the show, it was called cryptids, after the monsters undiscovered by science. It involved a crack team of globe-trotting cryptozoologists that were uniquely qualified for the job because they were once cryptids themselves. Okapi, Komodo, and Megamouth, along with their nine-year-old human mascot, Francis, served as a sort of anti-detective team. They scooted across land, sea, and air in what Stephens called a Campercopter, and their goal was to preserve the mystery of the world’s strangest creatures before they were exposed by humans or destroyed by the cryptids' nemesis, Monsieur Dodo. This version got him nowhere with many networks, though they all did show interest for some time.

Months later, the show was picked up by Cartoon Network, due to the network (at the time) wanting more action shows due to the success of Ben 10. Nine-year-old Francis became 11-year-old Zak Saturday, and many of the original characters were canned. For a time, the network wanted the show's name to be The Secret Adventures Of Zak Saturday, but it was later changed. Unlike most mystery shows, the goal of the heroes of The Secret Saturdays is not to reveal the existence of cryptids, but to hide it. The art style of the show was influenced by the artwork of Alex Toth and 1960s Hanna-Barbara action cartoons, such as Jonny Quest and The Herculoids.

In July 2008, Cartoon Network started a viral campaign for the show. Several commercials for a website called CryptidsAreReal.com aired on Cartoon Network. Each commercial featured a pet of the Saturday family: one showed Komodo, another Fiskerton, and a final one showed Zon. One area of the program's website also held a "secret" document; while most of the words on it were blacked-out, the names of Drew and Doc (two of the main characters) were revealed. The document also talked about a creature discovered outside of Nottinghamshire, England. Though the first word was blacked-out, the paper said a "phantom" had been the newly-discovered creature. It was implied that the creature was the Fiskerton Phantom, a cryptid reported to have lived outside of Nottinghamshire, and commonly done by this website, would be Fiskerton, a main character in the show. To back this conclusion up, Zak stated in one episode that Fiskerton was lucky because he was saved by Doc and Drew, also stated in the document. Typed at the bottom of the document was the name "Agent Epsilon". This is a character in the show. The website also showed a blueprint of the Saturdays family's airship. Another site was linked to CryptidsAreReal.com: the page for an organization called Ten Hero Tusk, which states that its explorers are "D. Blackwell, B. Finster, and L. Van Rook", the latter and former being characters in in the show. During San Diego Comic-Con 2008, booklets about a show called Weirdworld (the show-within-a-show) were given out, with the website for it on the back of them. Unlike CryptidsAreReal.com, this one couldn't be traced back to Cartoon Network. Later, commercials for Weirdworld aired on Cartoon Network for a few weeks before a commercial for The Secret Saturdays itself was aired on August 14, 2008.

In July 2008, it was speculated that the "Montauk Monster" that washed ashore in Long Island could have been a viral campaign for The Secret Saturdays.

Plot

Main article: List of The Secret Saturdays episodes

Zak Saturday and his parents, Doc and Drew, are a family of world-saving scientists called "The Secret Saturdays." Living in a hidden base, they are part of a secret organization of scientists known as The Secret Scientists who protect mankind against the hidden and terrifying things of the world. In the series, folktales aren't just legends, but actual mysteries that the Saturday family must solve. Traveling all over the world, the Saturdays explore ancient temples and bottomless caves, and battle with villains which includes the evil V.V. Argost (who hides his evil plans under his TV show Weird World) and rival cryptozoologist Van Rook. Scouring the globe in search of cryptids, the Saturdays attempt to keep the existence of these unusual beasts secret, to protect both mankind and the creatures themselves. The Saturdays and their exotic cryptid pets are a loving bunch, trying to work through everyday family matters and squabbles in-between their adventures.

Creator Jay Stephens has stated that the first 26 episodes will have a story arc, most likely based on the Kur Stone first mentioned in the pilot. The series was later picked up for an additional 10 episodes in January 2009.

Characters

Saturday family

File:Saturdays.jpg

Promotional image released for the series when it was first announced at the CN Upfront 2007. From left to right, top to bottom: Doyle, Zon, Fiskerton, Zak, Doc, Drew, and Komodo. Doyle and Doc look slightly different in the actual series.

• Zak Saturday (Sam Lerner) - Zak Saturday is the 11-year-old son of Doc and Drew Saturday who jumps right away into every adventure. Zak has an unorthodox upbringing that has taken him around the world and placed him in the face of danger since the day he was born. Since Zak was born the same year the Kur Stone was found, he has a special bond with cryptids, which allows him to calm weaker ones. He may hold the power to stop the cryptid Kur, if it is ever unleashed. Tamer cryptids seem to trust him instinctively, and even fiercer ones can tell that Zak is different from other humans. Despite the fact that madman V.V. Argost is his enemy, he seems to be a fan of his show Weird World. Ancient artifacts seem to respond to Zak and allow him to amplify his ability. Zak's primary weapon is the Claw, a combination staff/grappling hook. The hook is a three-fingered claw called the Hand of Tsul 'Kalu, which acts as a focusing device for Zak's powers. He's of mixed-race heritage (having a Black father and a White mother) and has some appearance of both, like dark skin from his father and caucasian features and a white streak of hair like his mother. Zak also seems stronger than a normal child his age, as he was able to climb a radio tower carrying a full grown man in one episode.

• Solomon "Doc" Saturday (Phil Morris) - Solomon Saturday, or "Doc" for short, is the patriarch and the "Indiana Jones"-like character who has spent his whole life studying cryptids. His appearance is reminiscent of Doc Savage. His right eye is blue with a scar over it and he has a broad white streak in the middle of his hair, though he didn't have these traits before Zak was born. He is a genius, having built many of the gadgets the family uses. A man who takes science very seriously, Doc is one of the world's leading experts in the field of cryptozoology. A loving father, he often tries to teach his son Zak responsibility. Doc is trained in fourteen different forms of martial arts. He fights with the Battle Glove, which is able to channel power into his right fist. The four crystals on the knuckles also have individual powers: freezing, heating, shocking, and sonic vibrations.

• Drew Saturday (Nicole Sullivan) - Drew Saturday is the matriach and the one who "believes in the magic," being more prone to accepting things on faith rather than empirical evidence. Drew was born to a family of adventurer-scientists and raised by monks after her family was scattered during a severe blizzard in the Himalayas. Drew is always encouraging Zak to try new things like tribal dancing or sand painting, but when there's a risk of danger, Drew gets a little over-protective of her only son. She's a mystic who is well-versed in the world's cultures and can blend in anywhere her travels may take her. Like Doc, she is a skilled fighter. Her preferred weapon is the Tibetan Fire Sword given to her by the monks, which absorbs light and channels it into potent bursts of flame.

• Fiskerton (Diedrich Bader) - Fiskerton is a seven-foot-tall "gorilla-cat" with glowing red eyes. He is one of the last of a legendary race of cryptids called "Fiskerton Phantoms" that was adopted by the Saturday family when he lost his home in Nottinghamshire, England. Although he is the oldest and largest member of the family, Fiskerton is like an innocent brother to Zak. He may be a coward at times, but he is proven to be a great and strong ally to have, willing to risk his life for his new family. He mostly talks in grunts and mumbling which occasionally mimic human speech, though the family is able to understand him regardless. He has great strength as well, showing himself capable of ripping apart metal bare handed and hold his own in a fight against larger cryptids.

• Komodo (Fred Tatasciore) - Komodo is a 250-pound, genetically-altered komodo dragon with a voracious appetite. Komodo has a chameleon-like ability to blend in with his surroundings, something that comes in handy for stealth missions. Despite being as loyal as man's best friend, Komodo is quite willful and disobedient, often ignoring Zak and the rest of the family when it suits him. Like a rivalry between a cat and dog, Komodo often fights with Fiskerton. He seems to have a feud with Zon as well, as he attacks her at least twice. Like Fiskerton, Zak sees him as a brother.

• Zon (Fred Tatasciore) - Zon is a surviving member of a thought-to-be-extinct Pterosaur species (Ornithocheirus) that lives in a nest near the Saturday Headquarters, but isn't truly owned by them. The Saturdays anger her by crashing into her nest during the second episode, but she comes to appreciate them after Zak saves her life. She now uses the cliffs where the Saturdays live as her new hunting grounds. Unafraid of humans, she allows Zak to comb her mane and ride her, but she absolutely resists the family's domestication efforts and refuses to give up the great outdoors. She is rather hostile towards Komodo. In one episode, she is incorrectly referred to as a Pteranodon.

• Doyle Blackwell (Will Friedle) - Drew's long-lost younger brother, Doyle first appears as Van Rook's apprentice in "The Kur Stone". He helps Zak put a tribe of Amaroks back into hibernation, starting a stable relationship with him. In "Van Rook's Apprentice", he changes sides and joins the Saturdays after learning about V.V. Argost's true motives. Doc fires him two episodes later after his reckless behavior endangers Zak one too many times, paying him for his services as he does. Doyle leaves, but refuses to take the money. Though Doyle is admired by Zak, he and Drew have a small sibling rivalry, and Doc is annoyed by Doyle's tendency to show off. He is said to return in the episode Cryptid vs.Cryptid helping the Saturdays defeat Van Rook. Doyle is something of a jack of all trades, fighting using a combination of grenades, lasers, and hand-to-hand combat. He is strong enough to lift a grown man one-handed, and is able to wrestle with cryptids much larger than himself. There is some speculation that he will return, but nothing is for sure.

Allies

• Dr. Miranda Grey (Susan Blakeslee) - Miranda is a Secret Scientist who held a piece of the Kur Stone, until Munya stole it. She's an expert at quantum physics and works on particle acceleration in Antarctica with her robot sidekick Deadbolt.

• Dr. Henry Cheveyo (Diedrich Bader) - Henry is another Secret Scientist who held a piece of the Kur Stone. Argost stole it, then used a cryptid parasite to extract the location of the third piece from him. He works at the Mesa Observatory in Arizona. He was seriously wounded when he took the brunt of an explosion meant to kill the Saturdays although he (miraculously) survived.

• Dr. Odele (Phil Morris) - Odele is a friend of the Saturdays who lives near Manaus, Brazil.

• Professor Talu Mizuki (Jerry Tondo) - Talu is a scientist who has invented a mind-swapping device and has tested it on a white tiger and a dog. It was targeted by crime lord and philanthropist Shoji Fuzen. His mind was swapped with that of a Hibagon when Fuzen's plan was revealed to him in order to stop the crime lord's plan but during the battle his machine was ruined, trapping him in the Cryptid's body. He sought revenge against him but was convinced by Doc Saturday to let it go. He now lives in a cave lab alongside his white tiger working on a way to reverse the process and continue his research. Apparently, he has become a member of the Secret Scientists (as shown in "Eterno").

• Dr. Paul Cheechoo (Danny Cooksey) - A Secret Scientist that specializes in cold-climate research, he and a team of experts travel the world studying strange geological anomalies. He's currently stationed at Ellef Ringnes. In one episode he mentions he grew up in cold weather. Out of all of the Saturdays' fellow scientists he seems to be the most friendly with Zak as demonstrated by his first appearance ("Hey Zak! Still growing like a weed I see.")

• Dr. Arthur Beeman (Jeff Bennett) - A Secret Scientist who studies aliens and UFOs. He used the expression "Sweet Galvan Prime!" in "Guess Who's Going To Be Dinner?", a reference to the animated series Ben 10. He is said to have saved the world from invasion at one point in his career.

Villains

• V.V. Argost (Corey Burton) - The series' main villain, main archenemy of the Saturdays, and host of the popular show V.V. Argost's Weirdworld. His show has made him "the modern master of the bizarre" of the world. His museum of cryptid relics and trinkets is really an arsenal of magical objects he plans to use to get his hands on the most powerful cryptid of all, Kur, which he believes is a source of unlimited power and everlasting life for whoever can find and capture it. Argost peppers his speech with French words and phrases, and his most common greeting to others is "Greetings and bien venue (welcome)." He uses a number of cryptids as weapons, and wears a Megatooth shark skin cape that shields him from any attack. In one episode his stregnth is shown to rival that of Fiskerton.
  • Munya (Fred Tatasciore) - V.V. Argost's silent yet mysterious manservant. He has been injected with the DNA of a Papuan Giant Spider enabling him to transform into a half-human/half-spider monster in battles.

• Leonidas Van Rook (Corey Burton) - A ruthless cryptozoologist who is the ally of V.V. Argost and rival of Doc Saturday. However, Van Rook is solely interested in proving the existence of cryptids just for money. Similar to Doc, he is an inventor and has many high-tech gadgets. It's implied that he and Drew had a relationship in the past.

• Shoji Fuzen (James Sie) - Shoji Fuzen is a Japanese philanthropist who is also Japan's biggest crime lord. He seeked to obtain the mind-swapping device where an accident had Talu Mizuki's mind transferred into a frozen Hibagon. The Saturdays eventually find out the truth and destroy a ship carrying illegal merchandise for Fuzen to give to a mysterious client. Whilst Fuzen is discussing things with his client on his cell phone, he is attacked by Talu Mizuki. The Saturdays managed to dissuade Mizuki from killing Fuzen. He is then left tied up for the police to take into custody.

• Pietro Maltese (Jess Harnell) - Pietro Maltese (also known as Piecemeal) is an interpol criminal who is known for devouring rare animals, having had his jaws modified to split into 4 ways and reienforced to aid him in this and allow him to bite through steel. His file also states he has psychopathic tendencies. He attacks the Saturday household in order to devour Fiskerton something that Zak doesn't realize until Maltese already captures Fisk. When Zak tries to stop him Maltese does momentarily hesitate noticing their brotherly bond but ultimately tries to eat Fisk anyway, likely due to the aforementioned him being a psychopath. He is apparently killed when Zak blasts him with Drew's Fire Sword causing him to plummet off of the cliff beneath the Saturday household although the end of the episode shows he survived. Coinciding with with all this, Maltese seems to have many similarities to horror film villains such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Ben Willis and The Tall Man such as being a psychopath, having above-average strength (he knocked out Fisk by simply punching him in the back) and having super-human stamina. Throughout the episode he suffers falling down an elevator shaft, getting smashed into the concrete wall of the Saturdays' submarine pen by rushing water at breakneck speeds, is caught in the explosion of the sub at point-blank range, is thrown onto a burning stove, is shot in the chest with a gigantic flaming ball of electricity and fire, is smashed out of a concrete wall and plummets off of the cliff surrounding the Saturdays' household. At the end it's still shown that he's alive.

• Baron Finster (Rob Paulsen) - A half man/half robotic scorpion villain that Doyle once claimed to have fought. Doyle rescued a Nagni Vatu from him. Doyle later fought Baron Finster in the arctic and managed to defeat him and his henchmen.

• The Secret Mondays - Evil versions of the Secret Saturdays from a parallel reality, each one has a distinguishing feature that separates them from their good counterparts. They were brought to our reality via the Smoke Mirror of Tezcatlipoca. Their intention is to take over our world and send the Saturdays into theirs. Zak Monday indicates that they have committed some sort of crime in their homeworld as he warns the Saturdays that "they don't like us very much over there". The Mondays were eventually defeated when their infighting over who would control the mirror distracted them from the Saturdays plan. Leaving the shattered mirror in the temple the Saturdays leave and fail to notice that Zak Monday and Komodo Monday escape from the mirror, leaving the others behind. It is unknown what their real family name is, Monday was a name given to them by Zak Saturday, according to him his double was a "less fun version of a Saturday", hence a Monday.
  • Zak Monday - His hair colors are reversed from Zak Saturday, he fights with The Fang. He escaped from the parallel reality along with Komodo Monday.
  • Solomon "Doc" Monday - Wears an eye patch over his scarred eye. Usually speaks in incoherent babbling and has a much lower intellect than his counterpart.
  • Drew Monday - Has a prehensile tongue, her sword shoots a blue blast of energy instead of yellow. She does not have a difference in her appearance from Drew Saturday,though her tounge is super long like a whip. She also is more scientific than her counterpart. She also appears not to care about anyone except herself (or hot chocolate, as she mentions that they don't have it in their world).
  • Fiskerton Monday - Has horns in place of ears.
  • Komodo Monday - Possess black spots on his back which he can expand to cover his entire body and harden his skin. Possess the ability to speak and is apparently the leader of the group. He escaped from the parallel reality along with Zak Monday, referring to Zak Monday as his "most loyal servant".
  • Zon Monday - Has eye like patterns on her wings.

• Eterno (Fred Tatasciore) - According to legend, he was once a warrior king who desired the sap of the plant that was the source of all the water in the world. However, he was swallowed up by the sea and turned into a salt man. If he touches water or people, he can turn them into salt. When he did get the sap however, he turned into a lifeless pile of salt instead of a man.

External links

• Jay Stephens' Blog
• Advanced Review of "The Secret Saturdays" Review of the series at AnimationInsider.net
• The Secret Saturdays Wiki
• "The Secret Saturdays": An Uncertain Finding Review of the series at ToonZone.net
• The Secret Saturdays Coming To Cartoon Network Review of the series at ComicVine.com
• CN Upfront (Go to "New Shows", then click show's logo)
• Cryptids Are Real!, viral marketing website
• Weirdworld Show, website for the show within a show: Weirdworld
• The Secret Saturdays at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com