Flying Rhino Junior High

Flying Rhino Junior High is a French-Canadian animated television series produced by Neurones Animation, Nelvana Limited, and Scottish Television Enterprises.[1] It originally aired from October 3, 1998, to January 22, 2000, on CBS in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, and TF1 and Télétoon+ in France.[2]

Flying Rhino Junior High
Created by	Ray Nelson, Jr.
Starring	Ashley Brown Tracey Moore Terri Hawkes Tracy Ryan Richard Binsley Ron Rubin Paul Haddad Len Carlson Lindsay Leese Catherine Gallant Eddie Glen
Theme music composer	Pure West
Opening theme	"Anything is Possible at Flying Rhino Junior High"
Ending theme	Anything is Possible at Flying Rhino Junior High" (instrumental)
Composer	Pure West
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Big Daddy Productions Flying Rhinoceros, Inc. Neurones Animation Scottish Television Enterprises Nelvana Limited CBS Productions
Release
Original network	CBS (U.S.) Teletoon (Canada)
Original release	October 3, 1998 – January 22, 2000

Plot

The series revolves around four children: Billy O' Toole, Marcus and Ruby Snarkis, and Lydia Lopez. The series' main antagonists are Earl P. Sidebottom, a.k.a. The Phantom, and his rat sidekick, Ratticus. Earl is a boy genius who, sometime before the series' beginning, got a "D" grade in shop class and retreated to the school's sub-basement boiler room in shame. There, he built a supercomputer capable of altering reality, which he uses to cause chaos in the school as revenge, leaving the protagonists to stop him.

Characters

• Ashley Brown as Billy O'Toole – One of the main protagonists. He wears a red baseball cap with a B logo on it because he plays baseball. He dislikes taking baths because he thinks they are boring without his imagination.
• Tracey Moore as Marcus Snarkis – An African-Canadian boy who is Billy's best friend and classmate. Marcus has a great knowledge of computers and carries around a mini-computer called a Megamind, which helps him solve problems. He is Ruby's younger brother.
• Tracy Ryan as Ruby Snarkis – Marcus's older sister. She is sometimes hot-headed, but still cares for her friends and Marcus. Her goal in life is to become an actress.
• Terri Hawkes as Lydia Lopez – A girl of Hispanic descent who is one of Billy's classmates. She is often shown wearing a green dress with purple and blue tights and her hair is tied into pigtails. She is considered the smartest girl in her grade level, even going by Earl's standards. Lydia is one of the brains of the protagonists as her knowledge helps them get out of traps.
• Richard Binsley as The Phantom/Earl P. Sidebottom – Earl is the antagonist of the show. He is the boy genius who, in his past, got a bad grade in shop class and went to the boiler-room in shame. His personality is that of an evil genius; however, the downside is that he is also very childish. He builds a giant super-computer which alters reality and depending on the theme of each episode, the computer can alter the appearance of the school. However, most of Earl's schemes usually backfire mainly thanks to the kids, and mostly ends with the destruction of the computer. He prefers being called "the Phantom," but he doesn't mind having the protagonists call him by his real name.
• Ron Rubin as Raticus – The Phantom's bumbling pet rat who carries out his schemes. Raticus is not very bright as he is often insulted and treated badly by Earl due to his lack of intelligence.
• Eddie Glen as Fred Spurtz – The school pig. He likes eating bugs and fish. He usually hangs out with the other protagonists.
• Lindsay Leese as Mrs. Snodgrass – The children's class teacher. She is very caring about the students in her class and always makes sure they follow her rules. She often uses The Phantom's school transforming schemes to help teach the class.
• Len Carlson as Principal Buzz Mulligan – The principal of Flying Rhino Junior High, in which he is in fact an anthropomorphic rhinoceros. He is usually oblivious to anything odd going on in the school; however, he is portrayed as a caring, respectable administrator. He also appears to be a retired ace pilot. Hence, the school's name.
• Paul Haddad as Buford – The janitor of Flying Rhino Junior High. He is an anthropomorphic pig, similar to how Principal Mulligan is an anthropomorphic rhino. He sees himself as a secret agent and sometimes helps the protagonists through situations, whether or not they're made by Earl.
• Eddie Glen as Johnny Descunk – A troubled classmate of the protagonists who sometimes gets sent to detention, and hangs out with the other kids.
• Ron Rubin as Rod Hargrove – Rod is Johnny's best friend. He happens to have the same intelligence level as Raticus.
• Catherine Gallant (Season 1) and Julie Lemieux (Season 2) as Nurse Cutlip - Flying Rhino Junior High's school nurse.
• Paul Haddad as Mr. Needlenose - The Drama teacher and former shop teacher who gave Earl his failing grade.

Episodes

Season 1 (1998)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Written by	Original CBS air date
1	1	"Prehysterical"	J.D. Smith	October 3, 1998
Earl transforms the school into a prehistoric jungle with dinosaurs after "answering" questions to Mrs. Snodgrass's dinosaur edition of Jeopardy!. Billy, Lydia, Marcus and Ruby must wipe out the dinosaurs while dodging them.
2	2	"Phantu's Curse"	Story by : David Finley Teleplay by : Erika Strobel	October 10, 1998
After last night's movie of Pharaoh Phinster, Mrs. Snodgrass teaches Egyptian history in class, but Earl transforms the school into a pyramid. Billy, Lydia, Ruby and Marcus must get out of the pyramid before it seals itself, but Lydia takes the golden scarab and unleashes the mummy's curse.
3	3	"Underwaterworld"	David Finley	October 17, 1998
During a lesson on undersea environment, Mrs. Snodgrass gives everyone a fish to place in an aquarium tank, when Earl transforms the school into an ocean environment. To reach the drainage pipes to drain the water Billy, Lydia, Ruby and Marcus use a high pressure cooking tank for a sub.
4	4	"Solar Flexus"	Story by : Kathy Slevin Teleplay by : Brent Piaskoski	October 24, 1998
Mrs. Snodgrass is teaching astronomy today. As Marcus and Billy present their science project in class, Earl brings out his project and transforms the school into the solar system. Marcus observes that the planets are orbiting all wrong which would result in the Earth going into the sun. Marcus, Billy, Ruby and Lydia travel in their space shuttle to correctly position the planets.
5	5	"Frankensidebottom"	Story by : J.D. Smith Teleplay by : Kenn Scott & John Pellatt	October 31, 1998
Mrs. Snodgrass teaches Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in class, when Lydia comes in late wearing a large pair of braces. Earl sends Ratticus to procure ingredients for his own incarnation of the Frankenstein's monster, but gets a wad of bubble gum instead of a brain. Earl activates and sends the creature (called Milton by Ratticus) and transforms the school into a town out of a horror Movie. While everyone runs away, Lydia who is mocked for her braces befriends Milton.
6	6	"Comic Book Chaos"	Story by : David Finley Teleplay by : Joseph Mallozzi	November 7, 1998
Mrs. Snodgrass is teaching about famous historical villains (excluding comic book ones), but Earl unleashses four comic book villains called Gravity Girl, Wedgie Woman, Magnet Maestro and the Living Vapour. Lydia leads the others to beat them taking advantage of their weak spots. After disposing of three of the villains, they become superheroes to face the newest comic book villain Gravity Girl.
7	7	"A Star Is Boring"	David Finley	November 14, 1998
Ruby stars as the lead female role in the school musical, becoming standoffish in front of her friends. Earl multiplies Ruby into hundreds of self multiplying clones, causing chaos throughout the school and scaring the original Ruby. Billy, Marcus and Lydia go to the Janitor to find the real Ruby and erase the clones before everyone in the school "drowns in Rubies".
8	8	"Inverted and Unglued"	Story by : David Finley Teleplay by : Brent Piaskoski	November 21, 1998
Marcus shows a complete collection of America's stamps to a friend of his called Larry. Marcus has a rare stamp called Jenny Inverted worth a million Canadian dollars that arouses greed amongst the class. To complete his own stamp collection, Earl sends Ratticus disguised as Larry to swipe the stamp, but Ratticus loses it. Earl transforms the school into a Victorian era stamp factory to get all the Jenny Inverteds the day they were manufactured.
9	9	"The Game"	Story by : J.D. Smith Teleplay by : Ian Corlett	November 28, 1998
Marcus is intent on finishing designing his video game "Wolf Castle 3d" (based on Wolfenstein 3D) but loses his computer to Billy. Earl remembers how he lost his video game "Pongo Bongo" to the Confiscated Items Room and transforms the school into "Wolf Castle 3d". Billy and Marcus must survive through the castle and its passages, enemies and traps if they want to undo Earl's doings.
10	10	"Quit Buggin' Me"	Story by : Erika Strobel Teleplay by : Gary Wheeler	December 5, 1998
Everyone has brought a arthropod into class, but Ruby who hates bugs brought what she thought was an inamimate crystallis. Earl remembers a hornet called Hornicus he once had as a good friend but had to cryogenically freeze him after he stung a bully and got squashed. Earl magnifies every bug in the school to a giant size. After that Earl revives, magnifies and unleashes Hornicus. Billy, Lydia and Marcus attempt to stop the bugs while Ruby tries overcome her fear for bugs.
11	11	"Phantom Christmas"	David Finley	December 12, 1998
The Christmas holidays have begun. Earl is hating every bit of Christmas and refusing Ratticus' very kind offers until finally he leaves unhappy. The next morning Earl finds Ratticus as the Phantom. To punish him for rejecting Christmas, Ratticus sends Earl into the school where he suffers humiliation and eventually all the previous chaos and terrors he once created until he gets eaten by a big fish. He wakes up from this nightmare with Christmas spirit in him, but his evil days continue.
12	12	"Weather Waterloo"	Joseph Mallozzi	December 19, 1998
Everyone in class has a project related to weather effects, especially Billy with his Weather Nullifier, which is mail order. When Earl's Atmospheric Generator is rejected from the class, he activates it and sends a twister, a mudslide and a nimbostratus cloud to storm the school. The Weather Nullifier doesn't work and totals, so Billy, Lydia, Ruby and Marcus attempt to nullify the bad weather themselves.
13	13	"Pal 9000"	David Finley	December 26, 1998
Marcus has created his very own artificial intelligent friend on his Mini Mega Mind called Pal 9000, for the main purpose of running a futuristic school. Envious Earl turns the school into the very one Marcus designed for Pal and proceeds to implant a virus in Pal when his guard is down, which turns Pal against his creator and former friends. Marcus and Billy head to the Main Computer System to restore Pal and get into Earl's mainframe.

Season 2 (1999–2000)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Written by	Original CBS air date
14	1	"Live and Let Spy"	Joseph Mallozzi	October 2, 1999
The class is learning forms of writing today. Lydia guards her secret journal closely, making the others mimic her privacy. Earl has a hunch they could be writing and gossiping about him. Earl sends spies to swipe the journals and transforms the school into a downtown. Billy, Ruby, Marcus and Lydia try hard to protect their journals and their contents with help from Buford as "009 and a half."
15	2	"Wag the Rat"	Joseph Mallozzi	October 9, 1999
Ruby and Billy are both candidates for election as class president. Earl decides to intervene in order to make up for his lost election and close down the school, by having Ratticus with a student identity named Hubert, which gets him a popular state. Meanwhile Ruby and Billy's competition for an election become fierce.
16	3	"It's Greek to Me"	Story by : Joseph Mallozzi Teleplay by : Michael Leo Donovan	October 16, 1999
After a Greek history lesson, the class head to the gym to practice for sports events, when Earl transforms the school into a Greek Era Olympics Theatre. Zeus and the other gods give them a challenge for glory against eternal slavery. The students are untrained in the Olympic events, so they challenge the gods to their own events. Before their glory can be granted, Marcus must beat Achilles in an obstacle course.
17	4	"Yo Ho Ho and the Phantom's a Bum"	Story by : Joseph Mallozzi Teleplay by : John Mein	October 23, 1999
Today Mrs. Snodgrass is teaching the class about pirates. Johnny and Rod decide to commit piracy. Earl transforms the school into a galleon in the ocean. Lydia, Ruby, Billy, Marcus, Johnny and Rod are put to work by the pirates, whilst trying to come up with a plan.
18	5	"Junior High Noon"	Paul Mullie	October 30, 1999
Lydia is made a prefect. As Earl turns the school into a Wild West town, Lydia becomes a sheriff and a mega control freak, jailing people (even her friends) for every offense taken. When the Harwood Gang advances, she releases everyone and gets help from her friends.
19	6	"Out of Time"	Paul Mullie	November 6, 1999
Earl completes his time machine to send Lydia, Marcus, Ruby and Billy to the prehistoric times. Instead he manages to send them back 20 years in the school, when Earl was a student. With his help they manage to get back to the present day.
20	7	"Career Day"	Story by : Joseph Mallozzi Teleplay by : Gary Wheeler	November 20, 1999
Today is career day at Flying Rhino. Insulted by Ruby's flippant remarks, Earl turns the school into a sewer complex. After braving the sewers of its dangers, Lydia, Ruby, Marcus and Billy engineer a dam to turn Earl's flooding against him.
21	8	"Daredevil O'Toole and the Amazon Adventure"	Joseph Mallozzi	November 27, 1999
Before Earl can transform the school, he gets trapped in the school's ground floor and takes the guise as a girl called Ursula. Ratticus turns the school into an Amazon jungle with Earl in it with apparent way out.
22	9	"Raging Rubbish"	Shelley Hoffman and Rob Pincombe	December 4, 1999
Today the school is learning about environmental preservation. Earl creates a monster out of a mound of garbage called Garbacus. Lydia, Billy, Ruby and Marcus take steps to biodegrade and melt Garbacus before they finish him off in the Recycletron 2000.
23	10	"Better Safe than Silly"	Story by : Joseph Mallozzi Teleplay by : John Mein	December 11, 1999
Today Firefighter Chief Don Sizzlestopper comes for a safety inspection around the school. Hoping the inspection will fail, Earl turns the school into a broken and unsafe place getting Sizzlestopper caught in multiple accidents. In addition Earl begins to set the school on fire.
24	11	"Phantomatic Voyage"	Joseph Mallozzi	December 18, 1999
Today Mrs. Snodgnass teaches about body works, and Nurse Cutlip informs Ruby about healthy diets to protect the immune system. Earl transports the school inside his body. First Ruby, Billy, Marcus and Lydia take care of Earl's unhealthy body before they change his mind in his brain.
25	12	"All Green Thumbs"	John Mein	January 15, 2000
Today the class is learning about plants and agriculture. Earl sends Ratticus to deliver a instanteous plant-mutating fertiliser, which causes the plants to grow fast and gigantic and spread like weeds. Marcus, Lydia, Ruby and Billy attempt to cut off the plants' light and water supply.
26	13	"Seeing Double"	Joseph Mallozzi	January 22, 2000
Today everyone's into the subject of appearances, while Johnny is trouble for a sink breakage Marcus accidentally caused. Tired of his failures, Earl sends Billy, Marcus, Lydia and Ruby to a parallel universe. The four attempt to avoid Buford's counterpart and seek parallel Earl's help, whilst their parallel selves cause riots in back in the first universe. Series Finale

Cancellation

On February 2, 2000, CBS announced that they had cancelled the series on January 22, 2000.

References

1. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 215. ISBN 978-1538103739.
2. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 344. ISBN 978-1476665993.

External links

• Flying Rhino Junior High at IMDb
• Flying Rhino Junior High on STV Player
• Flying Rhino Junior High at TV.com
• Official Nelvana site