Segments
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The segment is centered around the exploits of two young children—the optimistic, dim-witted, and kindhearted Billy, and the dark, ill-tempered, and sinister Mandy. After cheating at a limbo match against the Grim Reaper, he is enslaved in a perpetual, unwanted friendship with the children, who use his magical abilities and supernatural powers to venture into supernatural locations or environments, such as the underworld, inhabited by an assortment of grotesque monstrous beasts. The pair also may use Grim's enormously strong supernatural abilities or ties with a number of beastly characters to achieve goals or desires for themselves with grotesque, altered, or twisted end results.
This is the main segment, as two The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episodes are wrapped around an episode of Evil Con Carne (or, on rare episodes, vice versa).
Evil Con Carne
Hector Con Carne was a "jillionaire playboy" crime lord and evil genius bent on taking over the world. Eventually, he was caught in an explosion initiated by his archnemesis, Cod Commando, a soldier for the Secret Paramilitary Organized Response Kommand (SPORK). The explosion scattered most of his body across the world. He was rescued by a scientist, the curvaceous Major Dr. Ghastly, who placed his living remains into two containment units: one for his brain, and the other for his stomach. These two units were later installed into Boskov, a purple circus bear, giving Con Carne's brain control over (almost) all of the bear's actions and movements.
Hector, Dr. Ghastly and his military leader, General Skarr, then created a secret laboratory on an island with a bunny-shaped mountain known as "Bunny Island" (a parody of Blofeld's lair in the James Bond movies). Gathering an army, Con Carne resumed his quest for world domination and made a new goal: to find his missing body parts.
History
The series' existence is largely the result of a viewer poll. An Internet and call-in event called the Big Pick was held from June 16 to August 25, 2000. The three final choices were Grim & Evil, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome. Out of the three, Grim & Evil won the poll with 57% of the vote and became its own series. The first season appeared on Cartoon Network in 2001. Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? would later be made into a full (though short-lived) series despite losing; Longhair and Doubledome would reappear with another pilot episode in another Big Pick-style show later on, only to fall short once again.
In 2003, the network separated the series into The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne, effectively giving both a full-length series. The short-lived Evil Con Carne series was cancelled once all the already-made episodes were aired. In 2004, Evil Con Carne was given another short-lived run with the newly created intro and end credits, only to be canceled again. Grim & Evil, in its original form, has not been seen on TV since 2003 (although the theme song has been seen on The Cartoon Cartoon Show and reruns appear on Cartoon Planet). Some characters from Evil Con Carne, usually Skarr, occasionally appeared on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Skarr was a co-star in Underfist, the TV film set in the shared universe of the programs.
Characters
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
- The Grim Reaper (voiced by Greg Eagles): The Grim Reaper is over 137,000 years old (as his early childhood took place during the Stone Age) and speaks with a Jamaican accent. The continuity of how Grim got his reaper status and powers jumps around quite a few times and it is unknown which way he really got his powers. His scythe is the source of his powers and possesses many magical qualities; although he is still capable of using magic without it, these instances are quite rare.
- Billy (voiced by Richard Horvitz): Billy is a young 9-11 year old happy-go-lucky child with an extremely low IQ of -5. He was outperformed by a shovel and a candy necklace on an IQ test. He has an extremely large, pink nose, wears a blue and white striped shirt, and covers his orange hair with a red hat. His main affiliations are Grim and Mandy. Mandy is Billy's best friend, though she treats him more like a servant than a friend. It has been hinted several times that Billy may have underlying feelings for Mandy that even he (in his stupidity) may not fully realize. Billy is definitely kinder to Grim than Mandy is, and while he may go against the Reaper's advice and use him as a plaything, he appears to genuinely like him. Of the two children, Billy is the one who most often tells Grim that he's his "best friend".
- Mandy (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Mandy is a 10-11 year old girl who has (mostly) a morbid attitude. However, unlike Billy, she is more stable, sane, and intelligent. She'll punch or otherwise injure (physically, emotionally, mentally, or any combination of the three) anyone who gets in her way. She is Billy's "best friend" regardless of the awful way she treats him. She is known for rarely smiling; the one occasion on which this happens, it causes reality to fall apart. She orders Grim and Billy to do chores for her, among a slough of other grunt work. She is naturally hostile and cynical, and is shown in one episode to have physical difficulty saying the word "please". She never smiles, except in "Meet the Reaper", "Opposite Day", "Look Alive!", "A Dumb Wish", and "Something Stupid This Way Comes".
Evil Con Carne
- Hector Con Carne (voiced by Phil LaMarr): Hector is a dynamic, evil playboy type, reduced to an anthropomorphic brain and a stomach after a gigantic explosion. Somehow, the stomach has taken on a life of its own and can talk. He is often frustrated by the difficulty of taking over the world in its current state.
- Major Dr. Ghastly (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Dr. Ghastly is a mad scientist, Ghastly is the brains behind all Hector's plans. Ghastly does not really seem to be intent on taking over the world; she is more interested in inventing things and getting closer to Hector.
- General Skarr (voiced by Lance Henriksen, then by Armin Shimerman): Skarr is Con Carne's paramilitary leader. He is a cold-hearted, hateful and harsh man, with a scar on his face, and one eye. He tends to be more evil than Con Carne himself, many times trying to overthrow his leader.
- Boskov (voiced by Frank Welker): Boskov is a former Russian circus bear, whom carries Con Carne's brain and stomach on his body, via metal plates on said spots. He is usually controlled by Con Carne and seems to care for everyone around him. He is sometimes difficult to control due to his animal instincts and lack of intelligence.
