John Callahan’s QUADS!
Directors: Chris LaBonte & Steve French
Writers: Various
Producers: Colin South, Stephen Hodgins, Patricia R. Burns & Marianne Culbert
Runtime: 26 x half hour episodes
Genre: Animated Comedy
2002
An official Canada/Australia co-production with Nelvana Ltd, QUADS! is a dark comedy from the twisted brain of the late and great, John Callahan, the infamous cartoonist whose controversial and often outrageous cartoons were syndicated across the USA.
QUADS! tells the story of Reilly O’Reilly, a foul mouthed drunk who gets run over by a millionaire and rendered a quadriplegic. The driver of the car, ridden by guilt and fearful of lawsuits, gives Reilly a mansion.
Reilly fills the mansion with people “less fortunate than himself” and together the handicapped anti-heroes form a dysfunctional family. Reilly’s housemates at Maimed Manor are the blind and black but-not-musical, Fontaine, the head-on-a-skateboard, Blazer, the former masseur with hooks for hands, Lefty, gay Australian physical therapist, Spalding, a hemp-wearing, VW minibus-driving, environmentalist girlfriend, Franny, and a belching, Irish barkeeper friend, Griz.
“US cartoonist John Callahan is the dark side to Larson’s Far Side. Defiant in the face of the politically correct, he’s gained a loyal audience for not pulling any punches…Horribly funny.”
— The West Australian
“In case you thought South Park had pushed television comedy too far, prepare to look back at its old-fashioned sentimentality after a few weeks of Callahan’s QUADS!” —The Age