The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police

Sam and Max in the animated series.

"Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!!" redirects here. For other uses, see Sam & Max: Freelance Police.

The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, also known as Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!!, is an American animated television series. The series first aired in October 1997 on the FOX television network By Nelvana Limited, producing 24 episodes and winning the 1998 Gemini Award for "Best Animated Series" before being canceled in April 1998. With the exception of the first and last episodes, which each had a running time of about 20 minutes, each episode was approximately 10 minutes in length, excluding commercials, and the episodes were usually aired in pairs.

Mainly because the show was aimed at children, it differs from other Sam & Max incarnations in a number of ways:

• The violence is somewhat toned down, and throughout the series nobody dies or is seen to suffer horrific injury. In Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Sam & Max make the fairly uncharacteristic move of actually helping the villain's lackeys escape when her secret base is about to explode.
• Sam & Max's guns never appear and are never even brought up (except for a single shot of Sam filling his with rubber bullets, which he still doesn't use). They do have an arsenal of flamethrowers, bazookas and the like. In a similar vein, when the Rubber Pants Commandos show up they bring milk-loaded squirt guns instead of the pistol and shotgun they're seen with in Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark.
• There are somewhat less profane and suggestive jokes, though many people have told Steve Purcell they were surprised how much the show was able to get away with.
• The show introduces a new character in the form of girl genius The Geek. Her part is mostly to serve as a more visible Commissioner, but there are times when she is almost a third main character, especially in Sam & Max vs. the Uglions. The Geek was originally envisioned as a boy, but changed to a girl at the network's insistence.
• There are a bit more fourth wall breaks, often to comment on what they can and cannot get away with in a kid's show.
• General zaniness is increased. The Glazed McGuffin Affair and The Invaders in particular are more of a Sam & Max version of classic screwball cartoons than a regular Sam & Max story.
• While the default costumes still consist of Sam wearing his suit and Max wearing nothing, the two often briefly change outfits for comic purposes (and only for comic purposes).

Executive Producers: Patrick Loubert, Michael Hirsh (producer), Clive A. Smith, Robert Ross, and Gwenn Saunders Ecke

Plot

As in all Sam & Max stories, the series revolves around the Freelance Police accepting missions from the mysterious Commissioner, whom they have never seen. The assignments usually lead them into far-off and exotic locales such as the Moon, Mount Olympus, the center of the Earth or the mutant inhabited waters of Bohunk lagoon. In between these official adventures, the pair also manage to squeeze in fridge-spelunking, time-travelling, Bigfoot-hunting and numerous other escapades. Holiday episodes, such as visiting Blood Island on Christmas and delivering an artificial heart on Valentine's Day, were also included.

Episode list

#	Title	Original Airdate(s)	Summary
01	The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It	October 4, 1997	A strange monster living inside The Geek's fridge is attacking people. Sam & Max must find a way to stop it!
02	The Second Show Ever	October 11, 1997	Sam & Max show up at the school's Career Day and take them to space, where they meet an alien who is plotting to destroy Earth. Can they stop him and look good for the kids?
03	Max's Big Day	October 11, 1997	Sam & Max are dropped on an island and the New Guinea Pigs think Max is their 'chosen one'. But Max must say goodbye to Sam... can he really do it?
04	Bad Day on the Moon	October 18, 1997	Taken from the comic, Sam and Max travel to the moon to help rat people handle their roach problem.
05	They Came From Down There	October 25, 1997	A town has now become fish-like zombies, thanks to Mack Salmon's plan of Sea Chimp food products.
06	The Friend for Life	November 1, 1997	Lorne, The Friend for Life, accidentally lets 'The Mad Thespian' get away. So, Lorne takes him hostage to try and force Sam & Max to hang out with him at his twisted fun house.
07	The Dysfunction of the Gods	October 18, 1997	Zeus & Hera are angry at each other and if Sam & Max don't rekindle their love of each other, Sam & Max will age rapidly.
08	Big Trouble at the Earth's Core	October 25, 1997	Sam & Max must go to the center of the Earth to stop the mole-men from blowing up the Earth by lowering the core temperature and help them find dates.
09	A Glitch in Time	November 1, 1997	Max obtains a time traveling watch which he and Sam use to alter their own history (back when they were children), causing Sam to have never become a member of the Freelance Police.
10	That Darn Gator	November 8, 1997	Sam & Max try and raise a baby alligator in their deranged life style.
11	We Drop at Dawn	December 20, 1997	Sam & Max drop into the jungle (Central Park) to look for the Commissioner's keys.
12	Christmas Bloody Christmas	December 20, 1997	Sam & Max spend Christmas with Sam's grandma at her maximum prison on Blood Island. But the criminals attempt a jailbreak and the Freelance Police must round them up.
13	It's Dangly Deever Time	February 6, 1998	After their TV goes out, they try to watch a show on The Geek's antique TV and bring a Howdy Doody-like character to life. But while they are gone, Dangly Deever's evil twin attempts to take over the city.
14	Aaiiieee Robot	February 27, 1998	After stopping a meteor from hitting Earth with the Mega Max 3000 robot; it sits and rusts away. So, they send it to Japan, where it battles a giant baby.
15	The Glazed McGuffin Affair	February 13, 1998	Sam & Max try to get Kent Standit, who has banned the Freelance Police's favorite snack 'Glazed McGuffins', to change his mind, by forcing him to at least try it out.
16	The Tell Tale Tail	February 20, 1998	A Sam & Max version of Frankenstein. Max's tail has come off in an accident and they reanimate it while the doctor also creates a monster!
17	The Trouble with Gary	February 20, 1998	Sam & Max help babysit the child who changes things with his mind, who helps the Freelance Police with stopping crime and learn how to have fun (Sam & Max style).
18	Tonight We Love	February 13, 1998	Sam & Max must deliver an artificial heart to the President on Valentine's Day; but the DeSoto is stolen by a loving couple.
19	The Invaders	February 27, 1998	Two tiny aliens are constantly trying to eliminate Sam & Max (and no matter what they do, the Freelance Police can not stop the Invaders).
20	Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang	February 6, 1998	Sam & Max must play 007 to stop T.R.U.S.S. leader 'Larvo' and her fast-food minions from releasing an obnoxious tourist virus.
21	Little Bigfoot	April 4, 1998	The Freelance Police save a kid sasquatch from being a bus boy and try to send it into the wild with its own kind.
22	Fools Die on Friday	?	Sam & Max attempt to foil a blimp hijacking aimed to crash into The Statue of Liberty, only to find the demented terrorist is Lorne, The Friend for Life.
23	Sam & Max vs. the Uglions	April 4, 1998	Aliens open a new restaurant, "The Frying Saucer", that serves people (no really, it's people!). Sam & Max must stop the aliens before the US government launch a nuclear holocaust to try and stop the aliens.
24	The Final Episode	April 25, 1998	Mack Salmon and most of the villains from the season try to kill Sam & Max by strapping them to a bomb and dropping them into a volcano. Can they get free and subdue the bad guys, all while reliving flashbacks from their early life?
--	Vice Squad	November 8, 1997	Short episode featuring Sam & Max showing what fun it is to put junk in your dad's vice.
--	Our Bewildering Universe! 'Chock Full O Guts'	April 13, 1998	Short episode, starring Sam & Max describing the human body, featuring The Pancreas!
--	Artsy Craftsy Bit Of Time-Wasting Nonsense	?	Short episode featuring Sam & Max showing how to make a Max paper bag puppet. The script and images are from the comics and have been reprinted several times since its original publication.

Tie-in comics

Totally Fox Kids Magazine issue introducing the series.

Alongside the animated series, several short comics were made for Totally Fox Kids Magazine in the same style. These include The Kids Take Over!, Something's Not Right Here and Action Figure Surgery.

Series Bible

In order to help pitch the show to the network, Steve Purcell created a series bible in 1995. This 24-page document reveals interesting things such as that The Geek was originally male and that there were several envisioned recurring characters that never made it into the show. The series bible is included as one of the bonus features on the DVD.

Commercial availability

VHS

Selected episodes from the series had been released in three separate compilations on VHS by Sullivan Entertainment. The episodes included in the VHS compilations are as follows:

The Y Files	All Creatures Great and Small	Come Fly With Me
"Sam & Max vs. the Uglions" "The Invaders" "They Came From Down There" "The Trouble with Gary"	"The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It" "The Second Show Ever" "The Tell Tale Tail" "Big Trouble at the Earth's Core" "That Darn Gator" "Little Bigfoot"	"Max's Big Day" "Dysfunction of the Gods" "We Drop at Dawn" "Bad Day on the Moon" "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" "Aaiiieee Robot"

DVD

A DVD box set for the show, released by Shout! Factory at March 11 2008. This 3 disc set contains all episodes and includes original box art by Steve Purcell, an interview with Steve Purcell, various concept art, a pdf file of the series bible and a playable demo of Ice Station Santa. It is region free and available from Shout! Factory's store and Amazon, among other places.

Web release

GameTap announced on October 11, 2006 that they would shortly be releasing one episode from the series each week on GameTap TV, as a promotion for Telltale Games' Sam & Max episodic games. Their schedule included a release of every episode, appearing out of order, until eventually all episodes except Fools Die on Friday were available to watch online at GameTap for free. This situation came to an end in July 2008, when Gametap TV was closed down indefinitely.

External links

• The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police synopsis and episode listing at Nelvana

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Sam & Max Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.