Beetlejuice (TV series)

Beetlejuice is an American-Canadian animated television series which ran from September 9, 1989 to October 26, 1991 on ABC and, on Fox from September 9, 1991 to December 6, 1991. Loosely based on the 1988 film of the same name, it was developed and executive-produced by the film's director, Tim Burton. The series focus on the life of Goth girl Lydia Deetz and her undead friend Beetlejuice as they explore The Neitherworld, a wacky afterlife realm inhabited by monsters, ghosts, ghouls and zombies. Danny Elfman's theme for the film was arranged for the cartoon by Elfman himself.

Episode formula
Episodes generally centered on the ghostly con-man Beetlejuice, his best (and only true) friend Lydia, and their adventures together in both the Neitherworld and the "real world", a fictional New England town called Peaceful Pines ("Winter River" in the film). As in the film, Lydia could summon Beetlejuice out of the Neitherworld (or go there herself) by calling his name three times, sometimes as part of a set chant:


 * "Though I know I should be wary,
 * Still I venture someplace scary;
 * Ghostly hauntings I turn loose ...
 * Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

Occasionally, there are other effects from that chant, such as Lydia's room changing to a gothic castle. On a few occasions, other people and ghosts went to the Neitherworld or the living world, either when Lydia takes them with her by chanting Beetlejuice's name, or presumably through a door that connects Lydia's and Beetlejuice's homes.

In only a very few episodes is Lydia not present, those being wholly escapades of Beetlejuice in the Neitherworld.

The series' humor relied heavily on sight gags, wordplay, and allusiveness. Many episodes, especially towards the end of the run, were parodies of famous films (such as Brigadoon, Shane, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Wizard of Oz, It's A Wonderful Life and Moby Dick), books, and TV shows (such as Masterpiece Theatre, Pee-Wee's Playhouse and The Twilight Zone). The episode "Brides of Funkenstein" was based on an idea submitted by a then-teenage girl, who was a fan of the show.

Throughout the series, Beetlejuice would often try to scam residents of the Neitherworld—and, sometimes, the "real world" as well (Lydia's parents were occasional unwitting victims of his pranks) – by various means, from "baby-sitting" (in which he literally sits on the grotesque Neitherworld babies) to trying to beat them in an auto race.

Differences between the animated series and live-action film
The premise of the animated series was changed from the film to the point where one only superficially resembled the other since the film was PG-rated intended for adult audience while the TV series was aimed towards children. The main characters had their personality traits toned down with some even being completely reinvented to remove all black comedy and explicit adult themes. The main plot of the film the story of the Maitlands trying to gain control of their house from the Deetzs is removed entirely rather the focus is on Lydia's adventures in the netherworld (afterlife) and occasionally Beetlejuice's solo adventures, in the film Lydia never enters the afterlife and Beetlejuice spends much of his on-screen time in the miniature model town that Adam creatured or wrecking havoc in the Maitlands house.

Beetlejuice's character was completely altered to the point where neither version resembled the other each version having completely different personalities and motives. In the film, Beetlejuice is an evil spirit and was the antagonist of the story, trying to evict Lydia's family from the Maitlands' home. It has been shown that he is perfectly willing to harm and even murder people while continuing on with laughter and jokes. In the TV series Beetlejuice is no longer a malevolent extremely dark, morbid villain who enjoys torturing Lydia "exorcising the living" but rather presented as the secondary protagonist who is an obnoxious yet well-meaning prankster/con artist with whom Lydia loves to adventure the netherworld with. In the series, Beetlejuice is Lydia's best friend who inspires her to find confidence in herself while in the film Lydia is an abused victim of Beetlejuice who he gleefully harasses and annoys. These darker aspects are replaced with heroic aspects and Beetlejuice has a vastly contrasting personality to the film such as showing to deeply care for Lydia's well being and feelings. Unlike his movie counterpart he is not rampantly lecherous and shows no desire to have any type of relationship with Lydia that goes beyond simple friendship. In the cartoon Beetlejuice takes on a relationship similar to what the Maitlands had with Lydia in the original film. His powers in the film are demonic in nature and the TV series draws his power from his "Juice" but essentially they both are able to shape shift, teleport objects, people and themselves and alter reality to some extent with seemingly no limitation. Beetlejuice in both versions often references pop culture while routinely employing slap stick comedy the portrayal by Michael Keaton in the film is much more sinister with his references often revolving around death and the adult genre.

Lydia's character like Beetlejuice was also revamped for the show in order to provide the show with a rendition appropriate for children, Lydia's personality is changed quite a bit for the show but her character is the most similar between the two portrayals when compared to the changes made to other characters. In the cartoon, Lydia is depicted as a tween and later a young teen, similar to her appearance in the movie. She is very pretty as her physical appearance is based off Winona Ryder the actress who portrayed the original Lydia in the film. Lydia also dresses the same in the film and cartoon, usually wearing a black dress, with her hair usually worn in a bushy ponytail with long parted bangs. Lydia sports a red dress when she enters the netherrealm in the cartoon which has some similarity to the red wedding dress that she wore at the climax of the film. Both versions of Lydia are protagonists who function as the voice of reason, the character being the most sensible one throughout the plot. They are also shown to be conscientious and caring. However the cartoon version does not carry the darker gloomy personality traits that the original movie Lydia had. In the film she is moody, angst ridden and depressed because she feels that no one cares about her; despite being referred to as a stereotypical 'goth girl' the film version can be a tremendous coward, being easily frightened and is usually seen whimpering and cowering while hiding from threats, with her only truly standing up for herself when trying to save the Maitlands at the climax of the film. In the original film she is shown with several intense dark scenes such as writing out a detailed suicide note resulting from her hurt feelings due to the fact that she was psychologically tortured by constantly being neglected and undermined. The character's darker aspects are removed for the cartoon; she is also toned down to be less feminine, as there had been complaints on other shows about the stereotypical portrayal of female protagonist being too often a damsel in distress. The television series has a different interpretation of the character, portraying Lydia Deetz as a very upbeat, cheerful, happy-go lucky goth girl who is a bit eccentric but always up for an adventure. Unlike the original the animated Lydia is for the most part unafraid of the netherworld, the times that animated Lydia does get frightened in the afterlife are usually short-lived as she quickly faces her fears. Strangely enough one episode in the tv series that took place in an altered timeline where Lydia never met Beetlejuice showed her acting slightly similar to her movie counterpart. This alternate reality version of her is a loner, moping and complaining about how nobody ever truly cares about her interests, let alone her and how she wouldn't mind not being popular if she at least had just one friend. At the end of the episode Beetlejuice manages to convince her to cheer up restoring her confidence. This episode was somewhat similar to the progression of the original film character in which she went from miserable to being more happy by the end though alternate reality Lydia is nowhere near as dark or depressed. The relationship with Beetlejuice and vice versa is also a huge difference between the show and movie. Lydia in the film is utterly terrified of Beetlejuice and is bullied into releasing and marrying him only as a last resort to save the Maitlands. In stark contrast the animated Lydia is his best friend and happily summons him to go on adventures in the afterlife.

In the film, the afterlife is portrayed as an otherworldly bureaucratic social service office, and for the series, the afterlife was changed to "The Neitherworld," an alternate reality that parodies the living world, with the fact of it being the afterlife only rarely mentioned. "The Handbook For The Recently Deceased" a prominent aspect of the film is not shown in the cartoon. The film's black comedy and darker aspects such as the room of lost souls or that people who commit suicide become civil servants in the afterlife are removed. There are jokes about ghouls, ghosts and monsters in the show though these are strictly light hearted and for a younger audience. Overall the netherworld is reinvented to be more of a fun place where Lydia enjoys touring with Beetlejuice rather than a satirical take on death. Peaceful Pines is the town where the plot takes place in the animated series rather than being set in Winter River, Connecticut. The film Lydia also comes from New York City where she lived prior to coming to Winter River. A Winter River bridge is also mentioned which is the location where Lydia in the film was going to end her life.

For the cartoon series, many character roles from the film were reassigned while other characters were removed. Characters such as Juno, Maxie and Otho as well as many undead characters in the movie such as Ms. Argentina or the horned harlots never appear in the series. The Maitlands, the central characters in the film, are not present in the series. Lydia's father, in the film a businessman of questionable ethics, and her mother, an eccentric, self-centered avant garde artist, are presented in a more domesticated fashion, more resembling the Maitlands of the film. While her parents in the film were aware of Beetlejuice's existence, they are not aware of his presence in the cartoon. Her parents in the film also tend to ignore Lydia in order to further their own selfish pursuits, they are more attentive in the show. Several characters were exclusively made for the TV series like Bertha, Prudence, Claire and several monsters from the Netherworld only being created long after the original movie script.

Series run
The series was a breakout hit for ABC in its initial season, and later became one of the first animated series to air on FOX's weekday afternoon children's lineup. This led to a situation whereby Beetlejuice was being seen Monday through Friday on FOX while still remaining on ABC's Saturday morning schedule, making it one of the few shows in American television history to be aired concurrently on two different broadcast networks. Beetlejuice has aired in re-runs on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (where the movie aired), and will air on Warner Bros. and AOL's new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV. The series aired on Teletoon Retro in Canada from fall 2009 until June 2011, but came back in April 2013.

Home video releases
Warner Bros. released most of the first season of the show on 6 video-cassettes by December 21, 1993. On September 16, 2008, 3 episodes ("A-ha", "Skeletons in the Closet", and "Spooky Boo-Tique") were released serving as bonus features on the Beetlejuice 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition DVD.

On November 5, 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series and plan to release it on DVD in 2013. On May 28, 2013, Shout! Factory released Beetlejuice- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time as an Amazon exclusive. They also released season 1 on the same day to retail stores. Seasons 2 & 3 was released on March 18, 2014.

Beetlejuice
A Ghost and the main and title character of the show. His name-proper is "Beetle Juice Jr.", but is known better throughout the Neitherworld as "Beetlejuice", (all one word). He is the son of Gnat and Bee Juice (who nag him to get a job and to keep clean), and he has a "disgustingly cheerful" younger brother, called Donny Juice, who whether he realizes it or not gets on his older brother's nerves. Beetlejuice takes more after his mother in looks, (but he is taller than her), and inherits his crooked teeth from his father. Beetlejuice's usual attire consists of a matching suit with vertical black-&-white stripes, a magenta-colored shirt and a black tie, and a pair of beatle boots.

Beetlejuice, (often addressed as just "Beej" or "BJ" by Lydia), is able to change shape, transform and conjure objects, teleport, and perform other feats of magic, although his powers can be reduced by various circumstances, such as encounters with Sandworms (despite the fact that he has enough power to subdue or repel them with ease) or when his head becomes separated from his body. At times, he must pause to think of exactly how to use his powers to escape a precarious situation unscathed. His name derives from the star, Betelgeuse, which – coincidentally, given Beetlejuice's love of foul odors and "armpit music" – is the armpit of the constellation Orion.

Due to what is later described in the series as his "juice" (his inborn source of magic), whenever Beetlejuice utters aloud a figure of speech, he or his surroundings change to act on the pun (for example, if he says he is tired, he will transform into a tire; if he says he is flat broke, he transforms into a flat disc that falls to the ground and shatters; on one occasion, in reference to his own power, he declares "This literal translation stuff slays me!" and giant letters reading "Literal Translation Stuff" then fall from the sky to crush him). Almost all of his transformations maintain the black-and-white striped pattern he wears on his suit, although sometimes the stripes are coloured depending on the transformation.

Though many Neitherworld denizens have some magic, it is Beetlejuice's greatly superior power (no real cause for it is ever given) that affords him the title—albeit mostly self-asserted—of "The Ghost With The Most" (another line borrowed from the movie); in fact, on multiple occasions Beetlejuice was able to effortlessly subdue a number of supernatural beings, and his dis-corporeal, self-sentient brain once claims that Beetlejuice's power is more than enough to conquer the whole Neitherworld. Because of that power, almost everyone in the Neitherworld is fair game for his pranks, though no more so than he himself, since he is not immune to careless use of his power; for example, he was once tricked by his enemies into saying "I'm coming apart at the seams!" which caused him to break into several pieces, which his enemies then stole and scattered to different places in the Neitherworld rendering him helpless (as Beetlejuice can only use his powers when all of his body parts are together). Also, if all of his body parts are not reassembled by sundown, he will "melt away". Thankfully, with Lydia's help, he soon gathered all of his body parts and was able to "pull himself together". Sometimes Beetlejuice will mix up one of his transformations, due to homophone-based confusion (when Lydia told him to turn into a stake to fight off Count Me-In, he turned into a flank steak).

At times, various of his body parts (including his feet and his entire torso) manifested minds of their own, independent of Beetlejuice's control, with his brain and even his entire skeletal system having abandoning him once. Beetlejuice's main pastime is pulling various pranks on the other denizens of the Neitherworld such as Jacques, Ginger, The Monster Across the Street, Poopsie, the Mayor and in the Living World it is Lydia's rival Claire Brewster, Lydia's parents or sometimes Lydia herself. In the episode "Scary Fools Day", Beetlejuice and Lydia had a Scare War with each of them playing pranks on each other throughout the episode. Lydia only succeeded in scaring Beetlejuice once with the prank that his mother was coming to stay with him for a month, but Beetlejuice successfully pranked Lydia at least four times using his much more effective powers. These pranks included popping out of her desk drawer as a jack-in-the-box, pretending to shred her school essay, disguising himself as Claire Brewster who would be staying with her while her parents were on a six month holiday and using a sock puppet and a lamp to create the illusion of a Sandworm. Beetlejuice's pranks on many seem to cause them great embarrassment or damage, but for Lydia however, his pranks are only done to tease her, not to cause harm which shows his care for her. Lydia in fact, seems to be the only person who has any control over Beetlejuice. He even said in one episode he would do anything for her, and she in turn reciprocates his feelings.

Beetlejuice is also constantly coming up with get-rich-quick con schemes to get money, as he dreads having to get a job, and in later episodes (particularly in the second half of the fourth season), Beetlejuice greediness becomes so intense that he starts to overlook his friends and family, and even when Lydia openly scolds him, Beetlejuice shows unbelievable reluctance or unwillingness to give up of his schemes. His favourite foods are insects of various types, especially beetles, and worms. In one episode however, he gets a job as a scarecrow on a beetle farm. When he finally gets his chance to eat the beetles one is cheering his name in admiration and Beetlejuice, overcome with guilt finds he cannot eat them. Acts like this prove that Beetlejuice has more of a heart than he likes to think. Beetlejuice also loves causing mayhem in the Neitherworld and being filthy, and this last makes Beetlejuice have a pathological and psychotic hatred of baths (at one point, when Poopsie once waters him (Beetlejuice) with a hose, Beetlejuice went berserk with fury and was nearly going to eat Poopsie). Despite this cynical and childish attitude, Beetlejuice prove to be a profound and insightful person, frequently reciting quotes of philosophical and humanitarian importance (but of course, Beetlejuice rarely follow his own lessons and lectures).

The things he hates include Sandworms, cleanliness, and anything "cute". He expresses his likes and dislikes via variations on a single catchphrase, as in "Nerd humour...you know I love it!" or "Sandworms...you know I hate 'em!"

Beetlejuice's origins are rather fuzzy. On one hand, he frequently claims to be dead, a ghost, (having died centuries before—though his references are often hundreds of years apart), which implies a prior life in the "real world". Yet some episodes show his parents residing in the Neitherworld, and it is apparently there that he was born to and raised by them: there are, for example, photos of him in the Neitherworld as a baby—-showing him with his stock ghostly complexion and bizarre snake-like tongue—-and tales of his youth already manifesting his trademark personality. One possible explanation may relate to his saying something about his parents "making him feel like a kid again" and being unsure how to fix it without his growing up all over again; another is that continuity was not a key importance in the series. He have in fact have been 'reborn' in the Neitherworld after his death in the real world. More likely, the creators probably changed it to avoid scaring off viewers; (in later airings, he is shown in new animation in the opening leaving his grave as a corpse; the original opening for the first three seasons featured him producing stripes on his clothes), or the writers simply were not keeping track of plot details.

A number of times, Beetlejuice interacted with Lydia's parents in the "real world" of Peaceful Pines, always under the name of "Mr. Beetleman", and in a couple of instances, he performed a gender change on himself to become a teenage girl about Lydia's age at Lydia's school as "Mr. Beetleman's" younger female relative "Betty Juice", along with once or twice appearing as the male gender "Cousin BJ" claiming to be on Delia's side of the family. In "Out of My Mind" it's revealed that Beetlejuice loves to pull pranks with spaghetti. In one fourth-season episode ("Substitute Creature"), he appeared at Lydia's school as visiting teacher "Professor Beetleberg".

Lydia Deetz
A Goth girl in her preteens at the start of the series, (she was in the seventh grade, as mentioned in "The Big Face Off", and Lydia's sixth grade graduation speech is mentioned in "Laugh of the Party") and early teens later in the series, (at one point she expressly states that she is 14). Lydia is established as being a creative, bright, sharp, yet eccentric young girl, but otherwise Lydia's unique outlook on life makes her stand out from most of the other school-girls, which leaves her feeling out of place and alone in the real world, finding it difficult to fit in well with most of her classmates—leading her to frequently visit and seek out reassurance with her closest best friend, Beetlejuice, in the Neitherworld, where she is accepted and loved for who she is as a person. Her regular outfit at home is a long dark purple top, a pair of black leggings, a light purple and pink sash tied around her waist and black slipper-shoes. Her Neitherworld attire consists of a large spiderweb pattern red poncho, over a full-body black leotard, (the ends of the sleeves are like finger-less gloves, and the bottom of the legs double as footwear).

Lydia is an amateur but nonetheless talented photographer, entomologist, seamstress, and sketch artist with an innate affinity and love for all things gross, scary, weird, surreal and macabre, and who celebrates all that is (in the words of her film incarnation) 'strange and unusual'. Despite her love of all things 'strange and unusual', Lydia is also a positive, well-mannered, friendly and patient girl (being best friends with Beetlejuice is a testament towards Lydia's saint-like patience), and aside from also being emotionally mature for her age (given what her best friend and her parents are like), Lydia can be accredited as being very responsible for a girl in her age group. Lydia is also shown to be a naturalist, shown to feel very strongly about environmental issues (in Spooky Tree Lydia cut school and chained herself to a tree in protest of the workmen who were about to chop it down). She has also shown that she is extremely gifted with anything mechanical and understands a lot about cars (she knew what to do to build Doomie, while "Bee-gor" Beetlejuice did not know very much, such as what a carburetor is).

In the series, Lydia attends "Miss Shannon's School for Girls" and is in seventh grade. Lydia is Beetlejuice's best friend; in the events of the pilot episode, Critter Sitters, both she and Beetlejuice have already known each other for a year, as they are celebrating their first anniversary of friendship. Beetlejuice frequently addresses her as "Lyds" or "Babes" rather than "Lydia" though he does use her full name from time to time, like when he is scared, amused, or worried about her; for example: in "Worm Welcome" when Beetlejuice found out that "Worm Your Way" deodorant, causes baby Sandworms to go crazy, he was scared Lydia would be eaten by the baby Sandworm thus in turn, makes himself shout her name. Lydia knows how to summon Beetlejuice to her presence or make her own way to his: by calling his name aloud three times. Occasionally she is shown making use of a longer, more elaborate ritual using the aforementioned four-line chant to bring him out of the Neitherworld or send herself into it, but that seems not to be a necessity.) Unlike Beetlejuice himself, Lydia is almost universally loved by the Neitherworld cast of the show (although some of them are amazed that she hangs out with Beetlejuice of her own free will), and she once won a Neitherworld award for Cutest Mortal to Ever Visit the Neitherworld.

In the pilot episode, Critter Sitters, she is shown summoning him through the longer ritual; as part of the ritual, the colour of her clothing changes, possibly merely by her choice. (Her invariable Neitherworld costume—unless she is in disguise—is a full-length red spiderweb-patterned poncho worn over a black, form-fitting body suit). She is not the only person capable of summoning Beetlejuice — apparently the calling of his name would work for anyone (in one episode, Claire Brewster summons him accidentally) - but Lydia is the only person he will heed (because she is his friend, not because she summons him). Having found herself a kindred spirit in Beetlejuice, Lydia looks up to Beetlejuice in certain ways, admiring his outrageous sense of humour (as she would constantly be seen laughing at his jokes or gags). In one episode, Beetlejuice lent Lydia his funny bone so she could be funny as part of a school show, but without his funny bone Beetlejuice became much more serious and normal; this change in him even disappoints Jacques and Ginger. When Beetlejuice gets his funny bone back however, he becomes his abnormal self again much to Lydia's delight as she hugs him.

In some respects, Lydia sometimes has been seen virtually parenting Beetlejuice. It is frequently made clear that Beetlejuice's dedication to her is a source of Lydia's own self-confidence. Although most of Beetlejuice's antics are motivated by self-amusement rather than malice, he can become genuinely hostile if Lydia is threatened, and any who might conceivably threaten their relationship (such as Prince Vince) are the objects of Beetlejuice's profound jealousy and resentment. In the episode "Out of My Mind", it is learned that Beetlejuice actually has a working shrine to Lydia in his mind. Lydia never shows any romantic interest in anyone else except Prince Vince, and that quickly turns into a straight-out friendship. She has hugged Beetlejuice a few times (if in a sisterly manner), and frequently goes on dates with him (such as to movies) --always, of course, in the Neitherworld (although they did spend Halloween together in the real world in one episode). Also, when she was inside Beetlejuice's head, she gave a donation towards the maintenance of his shrine to her. Her main hobbies, aside from photographing every sort of strange thing and hanging out with Beetlejuice, are drawing, customising dolls and reading literary classics such the collective works of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King and others.

Supporting characters

 * Charles Deetz – Lydia's father, a nervous man who likes quiet activity and calm.  One of his favourite hobbies is ornithology, which he seems to be very fond of, and he also likes baseball. He is closer to Lydia than Delia is, as they share a love of baseball. Charles is allergic to dogs. He is often the victim of Beetlejuice's continuous pranks and mischief. Despite this, Beetlejuice is oddly quite fond of him, probably because Charles is one of the few people who is always falling for his pranks, usually when Beetlejuice is in his "real-world" guise of "Mr. Beetleman". Charles' catch phrase is "Try to relax. Try to relax."


 * Delia Deetz – Charles Deetz's wife and Lydia's (step)mother. Delia is an eccentric, airheaded yuppie, who is also somewhat self-absorbed.  She deludes herself that she is both a great cook and a great artist ("[he/she/they/you] like it"), and hankers after new clients; however, both her cooking and her surreal art are not well received and Delia just cannot understand why her art is rejected or laughed at (paradoxically, while her weird art is rejected by living people, it is very popular in the Neitherworld).  Also, due to her eccentric/airheaded/yuppie nature, Delia is not easily frightened, unlike her husband; being a surrealistic artist, she mistakenly thinks that the frightening things she experiences are part of something else.  While she talks about wanting to express her creativity, she also tries to get Lydia to give up her love for scary stuff and focus on cute "normal" stuff (and doesn't notice the hypocrisy in her actions); this was emphasised briefly in the cartoon "Critter Sitters" and was the plot of one of the stories in the comic book ("This is Your Lice", where Delia hires a hypnotist to make Lydia conform to doing normal, girly things).  While in the film, the fact that Delia is Lydia's stepmother is made clear, in the cartoon this fact is never pressed upon; Lydia addresses/refers to her formally as "Mother", (and later also as "Mom"), instead of using her first name as in the film, (as it perhaps have been perceived that Lydia addressing Delia by name would have seen has her being disrespectful).  In both the short-lived Beetlejuice comicbook run, (released by Archie comics), and the six Beetlejuice books, ("By BJ Spectre", and published by Pocket Books), Delia's status as Lydia's stepmother was made clear.


 * Percy – The Deetz family's pet cat, an animal so high-strung that he makes Charles look relaxed. Considering the amount of torment that Beetlejuice puts Percy through, this is not really surprising. Although Percy is most times a victim of Beetlejuice's pranks, he sometimes manages to take revenge on him, in more than one way.


 * Bertha - Lydia's friend from school. She is tall, gangly and has an overbite. Bertha loves to swoon over teen boys, read teen magazines and eat chips. Like Lydia she too shares a passion for anything strange and unusual. Beetlejuice refers to her as Burp.


 * Prudence - Lydia's other friend from school who is a lot smaller than Bertha. Like Lydia and Bertha, Prudence is interested in anything strange and unusual, but Prudence doesn't like it if anything's too scary. Prudence is a straight A student and loves to read. Beetlejuice refers to her as Prune, but appears to get on well with both her and Bertha (always in the guise of Betty Juice). When Betty Juice was running for school president, he tried to get them on board supporting his campaign. Beetlejuice has also saved them and Lydia numerous times when they went camping.


 * Claire Brewster – Lydia's upperclass rival and Beetlejuice's second rival from school. Claire is the epitome of the 'spoiled little rich girl' stereotype and a typical spoiled princess; being overindulged by her parents, Claire believes everything should go her way and because of that, she clashes with Lydia, serving as a personality foil for Lydia in the series.  Claire hates Lydia Deetz with a passion and swears to embarrass or outdo Lydia at every opportunity, (usually because Lydia stands up to her), but the one person she hates more than Lydia is Betty Juice.  For the most part, Lydia tries to ignore Claire's scathing remarks, comments and attempts to humiliate her, not wanting to validate any of Claire's actions, but nevertheless there is many a time when Claire gets under her skin, and Lydia dreads being humiliated in front of Claire, (see "Stage Fright", "Laugh of the Party", and "Caddy Shock").  Claire is a narcissist who believes she is the prettiest, beloved and most popular girl of all (though it is clear that nobody likes her), and abuses any power she's given (as seen in "Foreign Exchange").  Claire is not only egotistical and overtly vain, she is also cruel, unapologetic and incredibly obnoxious and shows no redeeming values whatsoever; she also reacts very badly to anyone who (by her own definitions) is prettier than her, as shown in "Foreign Exchange" when she deliberately embarrassed Alex Spenceten, a female foreign exchange student from Scandinavia (whose eyes were bluer and whose hair was blonder than Claire's).  In "Brides of Funkenstein", it is revealed that Claire is tone deaf.  In "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", it is revealed that, had Beetlejuice never met Lydia, Lydia would never had the confidence to stand up to Claire's antics.


 * Jacques LaLean – A French skeleton bodybuilder (a humorous reference to the fitness guru Jack LaLanne) and neighbor of Beetlejuice. A running gag in the series entails Jacques getting broken into multiple pieces, often thanks to Beetlejuice who will then proceed to call a number of random dogs upon him. In spite of such antics, Jacques actually likes Beetlejuice, and in one episode it is revealed that Beetlejuice likes Jacques despite his vehement pretensions to the contrary. He pursues a dream of becoming a great bodybuilder, a mostly comedic endeavor as he has no muscles nor a body to devote fitness to, a fact he is very aware of but regardless does not take into consideration, and once against all odds (and believability) won the Mr. Neitherworld bodybuilding title, defeating the reigning champion Armhold Musclehugger (albeit by default). According to "Highs-Ghoul Confidential", Jacques and Ginger attended the same high school as Beetlejuice, and went to the school prom together; and Jacques was on the school train track team and had an Overbite.


 * Ginger – A cute pink tap dancing spider of mediocre ability (another humorous allusion, this to Ginger Rogers). Another of Beetlejuice's neighbors, her act is often ruined by pranks of Beetlejuice. She dreams of someday being a famous tap dancer, and can be very sensitive to cruel pranks. Although she is one of the innocent creatures in the Neitherworld, she has admitted that she stole a few dance steps from other living and dead dancers. Ginger speaks with a New York accent. According to "Highs-Ghoul Confidential", Ginger and Jacques attended the same high school as Beetlejuice, and went to the school prom together; and Ginger was on the school Cheerleading squad and had magenta-colored hair in a fifties hairdo.


 * The Monster Across the Street – A tall, hairy monster from the West, who bears a slight resemblance to Gossamer from the Warner Brothers animation studio. He is another neighbor of Beetlejuice. It is no secret that he cannot stand Beetlejuice (although it is acknowledged by many that he does not really care for anyone), yet refers to Lydia politely as "Miss Lydia", often removing his Stetson hat in her presence. He speaks with an exaggerated western drawl. He resides in a house (suitably across the street from Beetlejuice's roadhouse) that looks like the skull of a giant-sized buffalo. He also has a little nephew called "The Little Monster from Around the Corner", as seen in Goody Two Shoes. He dates The Monstress Across the Street.


 * Poopsie – The Monster's beloved and talented pet dog, one of Beetlejuice's favorite prank victims, and because of this he strongly dislike of him, but he has the same affection towards Lydia that Beetlejuice shares with. Poopsie's girlfriend is The Monstress Across the Street's dog Poopette. Poopsie is also one of Doomie's favorite targets when the roadster undergoes his Jekyll/Hyde transformation (see below).


 * Doomie – Beetlejuice and Lydia's convertible, neon-green-painted sentient car, (resembling a 1960's Plymouth Fury). The origin of his name is Lydia having desired to construct a "Dragster of Doom," though this title was only utilized in a single episode. Doomie is normally an affable and friendly creature, but due to the abnormal brain Beetlejuice gave him during his construction (ala Frankenstein's monster), Doomie transforms into a vicious "four-wheeled werewolf" type of monster in response to the presence of a Neitherworld dog near him, or to anger, fear, or the danger of his 'passengers', somewhat like a vehicular Jekyll and Hyde (correspondingly, even in his more sedate form he displays subtly dog-like traits such as panting, implying that he fills a pet-like role for Lydia and Beetlejuice). A recurring gag is for Doomie to turn into his "werewolf stage" to chase dogs around the Neitherworld, (a flip-switch to dogs chasing cars). In later episodes, he is known to "speak", which is given as the sound of an engine turning over in ignition. It is at these times, Lydia usually plays translator for him, as we understand a more complex, benevolent, and hopelessly romantic side to Doomie, such as when he began courting Mayor Maynot's convertible Pinky. Beetlejuice makes a point of claiming his ownership over Doomie and often demands his loyalty whenever Doomie should contradict him or is needed to aide in Beetlejuice's endeavors. However Beetlejuice can be greatly apathetic to any plight of Doomie's, necessitating Lydia's persuasion to help him.


 * Armhold Musclehugger - first appeared in the fourth season episode "Raging Skull"; a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger (even speaking on a parody of Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent) and the former Mr. Neitherworld body-building champion (until dethroned by Jacques, with some help from Beetlejuice). He is green-skinned with a blond crew-cut hair style and wears only body-builder briefs. As Mr. Neitherworld, he is extremely arrogant, but when he reappears in the episode "Goody Two-Shoes" he is more affable (while still proud of his physique). Later on, he becomes more toadying and goes to work for Chester Slime as his well-muscled right hand man.

Voice cast

 * Stephen Ouimette – Beetlejuice, Snugglejuice, Posijuice, Negajuice
 * Alyson Court – Lydia Deetz
 * Elizabeth Hanna – Delia Deetz
 * Roger Dunn – Charles Deetz
 * Harvey Atkin – Lipscum
 * Tara Strong (credited as Tara Charendoff) – Bertha, Claire Brewster, Little Miss Warden
 * Len Carlson – The Monster Across the Street, Judge Mental, Barf Birfman, Mayor Maynot, Mr. Juice, Uncle Clyde
 * Tabitha St. Germain (as Paulina Gillis ) as Prudence
 * Keith Knight – Flubbo, Armhold Musclehugger, Chester Slime, Dr. Zigmund Void
 * Ron Rubin – Germs Pondscum
 * Colin Fox – Dragster of Doom
 * Keith Hampshire – Doomie
 * Joseph Sherman – Scuzzo the Clown
 * David Goldberg – Fuzzo the Clown
 * Stuart Stone – Ramon
 * Dan Hennessey – Jesse Germs, Captain Kidder, Bully the Crud
 * Peggy Mahon – Mrs. Bugsley, Aunt May
 * Susan Roman – Miss Shapen, Percy, Poopsie, Poopette, The Monstress Across the Street, Mrs. Juice
 * Richard Binsley – Donnyjuice
 * Don Francks – Count Mein, Mr. Big
 * Michael Stark – Fleagor
 * Charles Kerr – Jacques
 * Allan Stewart Coates – Ed
 * John Stocker – Mr. Monitor, Bartholomew Batt
 * Hadley Kay – Prince Vince

Awards
Daytime Emmy Awards
 * 1990 – Outstanding Animated Program (Won) (Tied with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh)

Merchandise
Much as with the original 1988 film, various merchandise was released for the Beetlejuice animated series in 1990. This included trading cards by Dart, a sticker album and sticker/activity book by Panini, a jigsaw puzzle by Golden, a coloring book, a lunchbox and thermos set, Valentine's, a party centerpiece by Party Creations, a PC game by Hi-Tech Expressions, and six PVC figures available with Burger King Kids' Meals. Kenner, the company behind the Beetlejuice movie action figures, had begun developing figures for the animated series, but the project did not come to fruition (at least one prototype for that ill-fated collection has been showcased online).