wait remember totally spies it was france and canada's action-packed girl power show
that starred teenage girls sam clover and alex and they're like it totally spies
and you may know about this show but i don't know if you understand just how big this show
was how long it ran for and oh boy a surprise because the spies may be returning once more
it's both a french and canadian show despite the fact that it's set in the united states
beverly hills to be exact and the three spies are stereotypical california girls they're undeniable
with the typical valley girl dialect and the deep love for all things material they are assigned
missions by the very serious and very british the og bruv jerry lewis leader of whoop the world
organization of human protection whoop there it is the girls travel across the globe constantly
getting into various predicaments but in the end are able to save countless civilian lives
and each other while still having time for their own lives as typical high school teenagers while
each episode follows a very cohesive and somewhat predictable pattern there are specific reasons it
ran for as long as it did and why it was such a huge phenomenon so suit up spies together we'll
uncover the secret to why i'd had such a strong chokehold on an entire generation of young kids
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spies were no doubt a hot topic with the first movie of the spy kids franchise releasing in
2001 and kim possible making her debut in 2002 inspired by both clueless and james bond the
creators david michael and vincent calvin damier say wanted to fuse the two concepts
and make a show for girls they noticed the trend of pop culture being overtaken in a
wave of femininity through pop sensations like britney spears and the spice girls female artists
were dominating the market but there were no shows on television to really reflect that
it was over saturated with shows marketed towards boys instead in michael's words there were
just princesses and ponies initially inspired by the concept of a girl band like the spice girls
similar to the concept of haihai puffy amiyumi which later premiered in 2004 the creator saw
a very promising market and decided to pitch the idea for totally spies initially no one was
fully on board with networks predicting that it wouldn't be popular enough with male audiences to
justify the investment but soon after in october of 2000 charlie's angels premiered in theaters and
suddenly boom kick butt female groups on the big screen were all the rage we can really only thank
great timing for giving us the show we have today they really uncovered a gold mine of an untapped
market with easily mass-produced goods coupled with the mcdonald's happy meals toy phenomenon spy
gadgets branded clothing makeup comic books and all types of computer and console get like so many
games they made a killing as a result this show was further marketed so it spread internationally
like wildfire it was a smashing success and ran for a total of six seasons with 156
episodes and one movie released in 2009 and yes you did hear me correctly 156 episodes in addition
there was also a crossover episode with the tv show martin mystery a show that i will probably
cover soon if you want to see that as well as a spin-off show called the amazing spies which
ran from 2009 to 2012 in which the girls make an appearance there creator david michaels said that
he wasn't necessarily surprised by its success but of the success with a male audience as the
show's popularity was pretty evenly split between both demographics if you're wondering why that may
be in order to answer that question we'll have to take a look at the darker side of totally spies
totally spies we'll be right back
totally spies ever on cartoon network now this is a more delicate subject but it's an important
conversation to have nonetheless so i'll try to intellectualize this phenomenon to the best of
my ability which means i'll be using big science words in the 2010s with the rise of the internet
fan forums like reddit tumblr and all those quirky community driven online spaces were growing even
bigger than ever before so naturally many began to get together to discuss the shows that we all
grew up watching sharing fan art fan fiction and just in general bonding over our own experiences
there was a common trope that arose within the discussion of totally spies a lot of people had
started to bond over their attraction to these three girls once you have a seat right over
there please hopefully meaning from when they were young themselves there was a reason why the show
was just as popular with young men many people online having these discussions realize that
a lot of awakenings happened thanks to the show and its themes for me it was shigo but we'll save
that for my kim possible video later this year but everyone was struck by the consistency and variety
of circumstances that resulted in a multitude of very specific situations visualized many believe
that it's not purely coincidental that michael and calvon de merced knew what kind of content
they were creating when they constantly put these three girls in these unique circumstances but
watching the entire show it became very obvious that because it's marketed towards young girls
the methods of superheroing aren't like what you would see in shows marketed to boys other
shows would use explosions nunchucks car chases laser guns instead we are given fun and creative
villains like ones that want to destroy shopping malls create dolls that control people's minds or
use bubble gum as a weapon among other things like hair brushes lipsticks and mirrors rather things
that are associated with young femininity are used to tell the story and make it more marketable to
young girls similar to selling toys to boys for action cartoons it's unfortunate the suspicion of
an ulterior motive severely discredited the show because it did play an incredibly important role
in the portrayal of femininity in mainstream media although there are clear arguments to be
made about the ridiculous amount of situations and suggestive themes that may point to other things
the girls are never forced to change the way they speak or dress after becoming spies though in fact
these aspects are embraced and thematically leaned into quite heavily their knowledge on fashion
makeup and interpersonal skills is what ends up saving the day and on many occasions all of
humanity like mentioned earlier this show was a massive hit not just in a few places but in
roughly 160 territories around the world literally a global phenomenon and in the show they go on
missions to stop new weird or maniacal evil-doers who want to destroy or take over the world some
form of revenge yadda yadda but the girls always find a way to take them down with an arsenal of
gadgets that in most cases theoretically couldn't work but in the world of cartoons they sure do
personally i really enjoyed this show growing up shocker to be fair i also grew up with the
powerpuff girls another kickbutt trio and i always looked at this as the slightly more grown-up
version because it looks like this rather than this and please don't take that statement as me
dissing on this i think this is still pretty rad it was just a weird brain association thing three
different colorfully themed crime fighters and three different colorfully themed crime fighters
it just made sense for my brain back then okay so much outside media was generated from this
franchise literally a grocery store list of games a mcdonald's cd-rom game a mobile game back in
2005 a game boy advance game a bunch of regular pc games this one totally party also came out on the
ps2 and the wii the nintendo ds had a handful of games as well but you can't forget totally spies
spy chess now this is epic there were comics and books and oh my god look at all this stuff clothes
shampoo bags the gadgets from the show except they now function as their original function as
a mirror and stuff of that nature and what is that a whole bike i can make a whole video on just the
merch for this show alone are you seeing all this stuff no wonder it lasted so long as a show there
was so much merch that was flying off the shelves not just here in the u.s where i'm at but all over
the world with different territories licensing out large arrays of vastly different items
alright before i get lost in even more of the world of toys let's get back on track with the
show in the series the spies are never taken less seriously on missions because of their
girly habits and ways of speaking even the title totally spies not only embraces this
aspect of their personalities but fuses it with the traditional opposing darker themes associated
with masculine action hero subjects i would argue that this show is similar to clueless
and legally blonde in terms of the impact it had on societal expectations of young women by being
an open door for them to find power in embracing feminine deemed aspects of their personality
totally spies starting next week totally spies or disney xd femininity is a vast concept explored in
all three of our main characters they all fall under that girly girls category but bring
different things to the table completely and complement each other very well we have sam
voiced by jennifer hale the iconic redhead with a green suit she is acknowledged as the mom of the
group out of the three she seems to keep a clear head-on most of the time which lets her fall into
the position as unofficial leader of the group she's incredibly loyal but also has faults which
is important when we're realistically talking about teenagers although she is more mature
than clover and alex she's still prone to jealousy clover voiced by andrea baker is the flirty blonde
who wears a red suit out of the three of them she seems to have the most passion and enthusiasm for
style appearance and of course boys clover is more prone to evil villainous attacks constantly being
the one separated from the group or targeted but despite her preoccupation with the things
important to her high school life like future dates and her nemesis mandy she proves time and
time again that she is dedicated to her missions and her friends she makes room for both lives
and juggles them as well as she can alex voiced by katie lay in seasons one and two and then by
katie griffin for the rest of the series is the most athletic of the group who sports a black bob
hairstyle and a yellow suit despite her childish nature she serves as a really valuable peacekeeper
of the group she has some perceived masculine aspects to her personality but still much like
clover she does tend to develop crushes and fawn over boys quite a lot jerry well he does his best
to keep up with the girls in their lives as he makes sure they're focused for their missions
that he hands out to them he is voiced by jeff harnell in the first two seasons and adrian tross
for the rest of the series the spy's personalities really shine through the choice of outfits that
the girls get to express themselves with and of course the two male creators had to outsource
some help in this subject french fashion consultant promo still was paid a whopping
80 000 us dollars to design over 1 000 outfits for the girls they sometimes have multiple wardrobe
changes per episode which is unusual for a cartoon but shows the production team's dedication to the
typical teen girl mentality this is something that is utilized later in cartoons like the winx club
in 2004 and bratz in 2005. but just to emphasize that point again every episode they had different
clothes for 156 episodes that is single-handedly one of the most impressive feats i've ever seen in
the animation space while the visual concept for sam clover and alex is inspired by japanese anime
and resulting in a general look that is a fusion with western animation the visuals and design of
the show itself is heavily stylized the animation team frequents the 1970s counterculture flower
power era a style that was making a resurgence in the early 2000s with young girls flowery pink and
glittery married with futuristic yet organic mid-century modern architectural accents are
both tributes to the ginormous socal villas that they would be living in and a rejection
of highbrow classical european architecture or cold and lifeless minimalism it's just so fun
think alec russo's furry hot pink wallpaper or carly's flammable gummy bear lamp yeah that vibe
it captured the style and design that every tween girl in the world craved at that time
or at least what was marketed that they should want i mean i still wouldn't say no to a gummy
bear lamp myself i mean how could that go wrong this bedside table lamp started the fire ah yeah
that's how i think there are so many interesting ways the creators could adapt these styles to our
modern 2020s aesthetics embracing the campiness of the previous design but with a new flare would
be so interesting and it's just something we may get to see lucky for us on the beautiful beautiful
day of january 8th 2022 past storyboard artist for the show thomas strzok broke the news on twitter
that the show will be returning for a seventh season sometime in 2023 revived by discovery
kids and gully a french broadcaster we'll get to see our three favorite spies back in action and
i'm not talking looney tunes while the show sees production for no particular reason other than
its long run of six seasons the reason for the revival is not confirmed either when asked about
a possible show revival in a mega con panel in 2017 the voices of sam clover and alex all agreed
that they would be 100 down to do a revival but they had no power in whether or not it would get
a green light they advise the panel goers and any fans in general to email tweet and reach
out to their networks to let it be known that a reboot is something a lot of people want to see
then there is
scouring twitter i found so so so many popular tweets with thousands of likes and retweets
about the show so the pressure fans were applying must have been felt by someone so
are you excited for the reboot what would you like to see most in the coming season or series
also what are your thoughts on the main show itself in general
did you find yourself a fan of the original run of totally spies i'd love to hear what
you think about it in the comments thanks so much for watching and make sure to hit the
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party follow me on twitter and i'll be back with another video soon but until then later
you