Description
Written and edited by Cohlman from @AandKGames
Characters that existed as Prototypes:
Starting off we have the South Park Squad who trace all the way back to series creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone’s 1992 student film Jesus vs. Frosty. This short film features early versions of the characters with mixed up traits such as Cartman being named Kenny and the actual Kenny not dying. These would eventually lead to South Park’s creation in 1997.
Up next is Peter & Brian Griffin from Family Guy, or should I say, Larry & Steve from Seth MacFarlane’s 1995 short film ‘The Life of Larry’. The character design and vocal DNA of Peter & Brian are unmistakable in these two. Larry is a heavy-set, incredibly dim-witted, middle-aged man whereas Steve is a cynical, highly intellectual talking dog whom Larry adopts from the pound.
Next up is Charlie and Pim from Smiling Friends who go back to Zach Hadel’s psychicpebbles YouTube series Hellbenders as Chris and Zach, fictionalized versions of him and Chris O'Neill. In fact, the ‘straight man vs. manic optimist’ dynamic between Chris and his co-star Zach directly laid the blueprint for the comedic interplay between Charlie and Pim.
Moving on we have The Simpsons. Before the full series debuted in 1989, we had the bumper segments on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Here the characters are animated with incredibly jagged and erratic lines and had vastly different personalities. For instance Homer was much angrier and deeply unsympathetic rather than the bumbling but fun-loving father he turned out to be.
Lastly we have probably the most iconic, Mario, famously prototyped as Jumpman in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong before becoming Mario in 1983’s Mario Bros arcade game.