What's with Andy? (French: Sacré Andy!) is an animated children's television series loosely based on the semi-autobiographical Just! book series by Australian author Andy Griffiths. The series is produced by CinéGroupe and aired on Teletoon, with various Disney-affiliated foreign studios and networks involved throughout the production of the series. The main character is Andy Larkin, a mischievous teen and the self-proclaimed "world's greatest prankster". The show follows him as he tries to perform elaborate practical jokes, or pranks, on people in the fictional town of East Gackle, as his best friend, Danny Pickett, helps him out with almost every prank; his antagonists include: his older sister, Jen Larkin; and the bullies Peter Lik and Andrew Leech. He has a crush on a girl named Lori Mackney, whom he usually tries to impress. The first season features an American cast of voice actors (with the exception of Canadian-born Ian James Corlett) and takes place in the United States. However, starting with the second season, all voice actors and screenwriters are Canadians and the show is set in the Canadian Prairies. Throughout the series, Andy often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience, with the screen freezing in black and white in the first season – a distinctive feature of the show referred to as "Doodle Vision".

Characters

Andrew "Andy" Larkin

Andy is a teenager who loves to prank and joke people as well as annoy his friends and family (especially his sister), but often gets into trouble. His best friend is Danny and he has a crush on Lori. His catchphrase is "Cheque, please!" His name comes from Andy Griffiths, whom he is based on.

Daniel "Danny" Tadeus Pickett

Andy's best friend and right-hand man, helping him out with countless pranks and jokes. His last name has always been Pickett. The name "Danny Pickett is taken directly from the Just books. It's revealed in The Unfortunate One, that Danny is an Aries.

Lori Mackney

Andy's crush but she is dismayed by his childishness due to his pranking. It is hinted that she returns Andy's feelings and dislikes Jen because she thinks that Jen abuses Andy. She wears a cropped green tank top, blue skirt and slide sandals. She is known as "Lisa" in the books.

The Larkin family

Recurring/minor characters

Voice actors

Additional voices (first season only)

Episodes

Production

The show is based on Andy Griffiths' children's series of Just! books (which were illustrated by Terry Denton), although many episodes are not directly based on the books. Changes from the books to the TV series include Andy's last name, which was originally that of his creator, and other minor name changes, such as Lori's name being Lisa in the books. The book series was based on the early life of Andy Griffiths. It was originally an interactive Flash movie with completely different voice actors and a promotion for Fox Kids. A TV adaptation was announced by CinéGroupe on March 23, 2001 for broadcast on Teletoon and Fox Family later on in the year. Saban Entertainment participated in production and held distribution rights (Saban International). The main production of the series moved to Canada in season 2, which was co-produced with the French studio SIP Animation (itself split from Saban Entertainment) and in association with German channel Super RTL. All the voice cast had to be replaced with this move with the exception of Andy Larkin's voice actor Ian James Corlett, as he was Canadian himself. As Saban Entertainment had by then been acquired by Disney, distribution of this season was handled by Disney subsidiary Buena Vista International Television. In September 2003, the voice of Lori in Season 2, Jaclyn Linetsky, who also played the title character on Caillou, Meg in Mega Babies, and Megan O’ Connor in 15/Love, died in a traffic collision during production. She had managed to finish all of Season 2 prior to her death, but for the following season she was replaced by Eleanor Noble. The episode "Nurse Jen" was dedicated in her memory. Season 3 was a collaboration between CinéGroupe and Super RTL, and distributed by the production company directly. The whole series was later added to CinéGroupe distribution partner HG Distribution's catalogue.

Release

Broadcast

What's with Andy? originally aired on Teletoon in Canada. In Australia, where the books originated, it was broadcast on Fox Kids.

United States

In the United States, the series was first shown on September 22, 2001 on Fox Family Channel, later ABC Family. On January 17, 2005, it premiered on Toon Disney, which also had rights to the second but not the third season.

Europe

In Europe, the series was licensed to Fox Kids Europe, with television distribution serviced by Buena Vista International Television. The show aired on Fox Kids networks in the UK, France and Greece, with Super RTL in Germany and TF1 in France having free-TV rights at the time. By June 2003, plans for the series to air on Fox Kids in Central and Eastern Europe were announced, along with plans for a free-TV expansion for the series, with plans to pre-sell the series to Fox Kids in the Netherlands, Mediatrade in Italy, Antena 3 in Spain, SIC in Portugal and RTE in Ireland. The show continued to air on the network after the rebranding as Jetix.

Home media

VHS

On April 8, 2003, CinéGroupe Star released a set of three VHS tapes called "Double Trouble"/"Sacré Délire", which featured an episode each from this show and The Kids from Room 402, alongside a music video from the Pig City tie-in album "Reggie and the Rashers". Volume 1 featured the episode "It Came from East Gackle", Volume 2 featured the episode "Just Stuffing", and Volume 3 featured the episode "Rhyme Time". The releases were sold in separate English and French versions, respectively.

DVD

All 26 episodes from season 1, as well as the first 7 episodes of season 2, were released on 10 DVD volumes with English audio in the Czech Republic in 2010. The show was also released on DVD in other European countries, but only in the respective languages (i.e. without the original English audio). All of season 2 (and most of season 1) was released on DVD in Germany, and the entirety of season 1 was released on 5 DVD volumes in Russia.

Streaming

Season 3 was available on the Canadian YouTube channel Encore+ in both English and French until its shutdown in November 2022. This season was previously available in German on Kividoo.

Music

The three German-language theme songs for each season were released on Toggo music CDs volumes 4, 7, and 17 respectively by Sony Music, with the first and third-season songs being extended versions. The original English-language theme was also released on volume 2. The soundtrack (including themes) from the first two seasons is distributed as production music by Red Brick Songs (formerly Casablanca Media Publishing) in Canada.

Reception

What's with Andy? received very high ratings in a number of countries. On Teletoon in Canada, it was reported to be the second highest-rated original production as of October 2007. It also had about 40% market share in France (Fox Kids/TF1) and Germany as of 2003. The show won a fall 2002 Super RTL cartoon election poll with 60% of the vote, and obtained the second-highest ratings on the channel in July 2006.