Little Shop

{{About||other uses|Little Shop of Horrors (disambiguation){{!}}Little Shop of Horrors}}

{{Infobox television

| image = Little Shop Title Card.jpg

| runtime = 20 minutes

| creator =

| based_on = The Little Shop of Horrors by
Charles B. Griffith

| developer = Mark Edward Edens
Ellen Levy

| composer = Haim Saban
Shuki Levy

| executive_producer = Haim Saban
Joe Taritero

| starring = {{ubl|Marlow Vella|Tamar Lee|Harvey Atkin|Buddy Lewis|David Huband}}

| country = {{ubl|United States|France}}

| producer = Tom Tataranowicz

| company = {{ubl|Marvel Productions|Saban Entertainment|Saban International N.V.|BIL Participations S.A.|Gorfy Corporation N.V.|Fox Children's Productions|Créativité et Développement}}

| network = {{ubl|Fox Kids (United States)|La Cinq (France)}}

| first_aired = {{start date|1991|9|7}}

| last_aired = {{end date|1991|11|30}}

| num_seasons = 1

| num_episodes = 13

| list_episodes =

}}

Little Shop is a 1991 animated fantasy comedy television series that aired on Saturday mornings on the Fox Kids TV network, about a teenage boy and his giant talking plant.{{cite book |last1=Perlmutter |first1=David |title=The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows |date=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1538103739 |page=367}} Based on Roger Corman's 1960 comedy horror film The Little Shop of Horrors as well as incorporating elements of the Off-Broadway musical of the same name, the concept is credited to Ellen Levy and Mark Edward Edens, and the series was produced by Tom Tataranowicz, with Corman as a consultant. The horror elements in previous versions of the story, in which characters are eaten by the plant, are toned down for children in this series.{{cite book |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 |date=2005 |edition=2nd |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-1476665993 |pages=511–512}}

Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also includes Marvel Productions.{{cite web | url=https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/advanced-search?records_per_page=10&subquery=%7B%22queryTerm%22%3A%22Little%20Shop%22%2C%22operatorType%22%3A%22%22%2C%22fieldHeading%22%3A%22Title%22%2C%22searchType%22%3A%22As%20a%20Phrase%22%2C%22searchTypeReverseLookup%22%3A%7B%22exact%22%3A%22Is%20%28exact%29%22%2C%22starts_with%22%3A%22Starts%20with%22%2C%22contains%22%3A%22Contains%22%2C%22phrase%22%3A%22As%20a%20Phrase%22%7D%7D&subquery=%7B%22queryTerm%22%3A%22saban%22%2C%22operatorType%22%3A%22AND%22%2C%22fieldHeading%22%3A%22Claimants%22%2C%22searchType%22%3A%22As%20a%20Phrase%22%2C%22searchTypeReverseLookup%22%3A%7B%22exact%22%3A%22Is%20%28exact%29%22%2C%22starts_with%22%3A%22Starts%20with%22%2C%22contains%22%3A%22Contains%22%2C%22phrase%22%3A%22As%20a%20Phrase%22%7D%7D&page_number=0&date_field=representative_date&sort_field=representative_date&sort_order=asc&type_of_work=all%20records&type_of_record=motion_picture | title=U.S. Copyright Public Records System }}{{cite web | url=https://streamclues.com/disney-and-missing-saban-entertainment-fox-kids-jetix-worldwide-library/ | title=Disney+ and Missing Saban Entertainment & Fox Kids-Jetix Worldwide Library - StreamClues | date=14 September 2022 | access-date=24 February 2023 | archive-date=26 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226042740/https://streamclues.com/disney-and-missing-saban-entertainment-fox-kids-jetix-worldwide-library/ | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | url=https://www.chroniquedisney.fr/fil-01-ABC/serie-bvs-entertainment.htm | title=Liste - BVS Entertainment | Séries }}

Synopsis

Self-proclaimed nerd Seymour Krelborn, an adolescent boy who works in a flower shop, is friends with a talking Venus flytrap named Junior.{{cite book |last1=Hyatt |first1=Wesley |title=The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television |date=1997 |publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications |isbn=978-0823083152 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofda00hyat/page/263/mode/2up|access-date=19 March 2020|page=263}} Junior sprouts from a 200-million-year-old seed and has the ability to talk and hypnotize people. Only Seymour is aware of Junior's abilities. The flower shop is owned by stodgy Mr. Mushnik, whose daughter Audrey is the object of Seymour's affections. Audrey, however, is unaware of Seymour's feelings towards her. Buck-toothed Paine Driller, a neighborhood bully, continuously targets Seymour.

Episodes focus on the pubescent exploits of the leads and frequently feature a moral. They also feature a couple of musical numbers per episode. Consistent with the "urban" persona of the plant in the musical, Audrey Junior raps in the series during his numbers, and speaks in a hip-hop dialect. Also featured are a trio of singing flowers reminiscent of Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon (the three chorus girls in the musical).

Differences between the film and series

Each episode features a musical segment. The young human characters are thirteen years old and in junior high. Junior is a kind-hearted plant, rather than a man-eating alien; and hatched from a prehistoric Earth plant that has been dormant for over 200 million years. Although Junior does maintain a voracious appetite, this iteration would very rarely (and only offscreen) feast on human blood. The plant retains its ability to hypnotize people, as was in the film, as well as the ability to telekinetically manipulate plants and objects made from plant-based materials. Junior sometimes aids Seymour without his knowledge, sometimes by using his hypnotic abilities, and will occasionally insult Seymour.

Audrey, Seymour's love interest, is a bow-wearing brunette who is always thinking about what job she wants when she grows up. She is Mr. Mushnik's daughter in this version. Brace-faced neighborhood bully Paine Driller replaces the character of Orin Scrivello, the dentist. (Paine's name alludes to the dentist's sadistic tendencies.)

Episodes

{{Episode table |background=#006400 |overall=6 |title=30 |writer=20 |airdate=18 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 1

| Title = Bad Seed

| WrittenBy = Mark Edward Edens

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|9|7}}

| ShortSummary = Seymour finds a seed from 200 million years in the past and helps it grow into the plant known as Junior. The plant tries to return home but, upon finding that he cannot, chooses to stay with Seymour and helps Mr. Mushnik's flowers grow.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 2

| Title = Real Men Aren't Made of Quiche

| WrittenBy = Mark Edward Edens

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|9|14}}

| ShortSummary = Seymour joins a home economics class where he and Junior conspire to make a human–plant hybrid a la Frankenstein. Meanwhile, Audrey decides she wants to be a refrigerator repairman.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 3

| Title = Back to the Fuchsia

| WrittenBy = Mel Gilden

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|9|21}}

| ShortSummary = A trip to the Skid Row Museum of Uninteresting History inspires Junior to travel back in time to warn plants about the rise of the dinosaurs and keep his place in the food chain.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 4

| Title = Unfair Science

| WrittenBy = Mark Edward Edens

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|9|28}}

| ShortSummary = Seymour's science project, made by Junior, wins a science fair and attention from Seymour's favorite celebrity. However, the scientist wants to steal Seymour's project and use it for himself.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 5

| Title = Stage Blight

| WrittenBy = Robert Tarlow

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|10|5}}

| ShortSummary = Failed playwright Thespian Chinless produces Junior's play Flower Town and Seymour finds himself as the romantic lead. Meanwhile, Mr. Mushnik becomes a stage-dad.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 6

| Title = I Loathe a Parade

| WrittenBy = Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|10|12}}

| ShortSummary = Seymour brings home a female Venus flytrap, which Junior falls in love with.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 7

| Title = Air Junior

| WrittenBy = Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|10|19}}

| ShortSummary = Junior persuades Seymour to buy a new pair of shoes and makes them fly.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 8

| Title = Untitled Halloween Story

| WrittenBy = Steve Cuden

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|10|26}}

| ShortSummary = Infuriated by the tradition of jack-o-lantern carving, Junior joins Seymour and Audrey's trick-or-treating to steal them back via his vegetable magnetism abilities.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 9

| Title = It's a Wonderful Leaf

| WrittenBy = Jean Chalopin

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|11|2}}

| ShortSummary = A reaper shows Seymour a future where the Mushniks own a yogurt shop, Paine is winning awards, and Seymour is a politician. Meanwhile, Junior dreams that he runs a hotel for flowers.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 10

| Title = Tooth or Consequences

| WrittenBy = Barbara Slade

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|11|9}}

| ShortSummary = Seymour and Junior learn the hard way about lies when Mrs. Krelborn's low-fat ice cream disappears.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 11

| Title = Walk Like a Nerd

| WrittenBy = Barbara Slade

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|11|16}}

| ShortSummary = Weary of the limitations that come with having roots, Junior tries to give himself legs and inadvertently winds up sharing a body with Seymour.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 12

| Title = Pulp Fiction

| WrittenBy = Matthew Malach

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|11|23}}

| ShortSummary = Junior watches in horror as the oldest tree in the world is turned into paper, and leads a revolt composed of used paper products that swamps Skid Row.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 13

| Title = Married to the Mush

| WrittenBy = Hope Juber

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1991|11|30}}

| ShortSummary = Paine's aunt starts to date Mr. Mushnik under the delusion that he is wealthy. Dismayed, the usually career-oriented Audrey expresses a desire to become a housewife.

| LineColor = 006400

}}

Cast

Marlow Vella as Seymour Krelborn
Lisa Paulette{{efn|First three episodes}} and Jana Lexxa{{efn|Rest of series}} as Seymour's singing voice
Tamar Lee as Audrey Mushnik
Jennie Kwan as Audrey's singing voice
Harvey Atkin as Mr. Mushnik
Michael Rawl as Mr. Mushnik's singing voice
Buddy Lewis as Junior
Terry "Proffet" McGee as Junior's singing voice
David Huband as Paine Driller
Mark Ryan-Martin as Paine's singing voice