I'm fifteen and I miss watching this show. I loved it as a little kid.

I happen to LIKE the Butt Ugly Martians. I understand the low quality animation, it's because the creators have to use it to stay on budget. The dialouge is SIMPLE, not LAME or STUPID. It's like a show for kids under 7 who are too young for the other Y7 shows on tv. I like the idea of the good Martians, I think the names are great, the characters ROCK, and Dog's name is understandable. I mean, the Martians are from....well, Mars. How would they know about the 'traditional' doggie names like 'Fido' and 'Spot' and 'Rover' and stuff like that. Besides, it doesn't seem right to give a robotic dog a name like 'Fluffie' or whatever. It doesn't fit the character. Plus, it's not just the main characters that are good, it's the extras as well! Stoat Muldoon has the GREATEST dialouge on the whole show! Stuff like 'Semi-sweet mother of mercy!' and 'Die, Alien Scum!' are funny enough to make an adult laugh! I don't see why everyone hates the BUM's so much. It probably has it's not-so-great points, but I have yet to see ONE. So, give it a chance. Some like it right away, and some need to grow into it. Just try.

Does anyone know what the recent ratings have been?

It seems a dead giveaway that almost all the responses posted so far have been from people associated with the production of BUTT UGLY MARTIANS. This gives an impression of frantic damage-control propaganda. Publicly questioning Jerry Beck's objectivity is injudicious and petty. I have watched the show, and it is indefensible. I showed a tape of the show to two nephews, aged 8 and 10. Both immediately noticed the very poor quality of the animation and design, and the numerous technical deficits, although neither has any knowledge of animation production technique. The kids were bored and thought the script was "stupid". Other comments were "their elbows bend funny" and "why do they go through the ground and furniture?". The extensive merchandising effort seems to be ill-advised. The corporations involved may have hitched their wagon to a dog.

Now that the Butt Ugly Martian show has aired some genuine episodes in the USA, any follow-up comments from the original reviewer Mr. Beck? I am a parent of young children, and I have heard of rave reviews and lots of excitement from their friends and their classmates. Boys 2 Martians??? That is just too funny!!!! (I might have the spelling wrong). As posted here earlier, the kids will be the ultimate reviewers........and their voices are beginning to be heard.

I felt compelled to respond to Rich Harbert posting. Our colleagues at DCDC have recently appointed Mr. Harbert as their publicist. Most people in the animation industry would have understood my comments and differentiated between a show completely produced overseas and a US based production. Butt Ugly Martians was pre-produced in the USA. This included all CGI designs, models, all set’s, props, major lighting states, (all designed by Matt Macdonald at VSI), main title animation together with other inspirational animation. My comments were in no way meant to overlook co-production partner DCDC’s, input to the show. This has been well documented many many times before. At the time I composed my posting it was just after reading Jerry Beck’s swinging criticism of the animation quality of the show. This was also before I had found out who the hell had supplied an unfinished episode for criticism. I therefore felt it best not to mention our co-production partner’s names and was taking the cutting edge of the criticism myself. For the record, DCDC’s studio is a state of the art delight. It is probably, in terms of working conditions, the best I have ever worked with overseas. How many studios can claim a full sized skating rink on their ground floor. The staff there are also a delight, all being English speakers thus they get the gags first hand! Mr. Harbert, you should read Butt Ugly Martian creator Gary Selvaggio’s measured posting on the subject of the production. In no way would we claim that the show contains “superb animation”. It is professional, competent, produced squarely aimed at its intended audience and made for a budget similar to the one Pixar sets aside for tea and coffee expenses. Luckily children and many adults, (including many great professionals in the business) watch and love animated shows, less for esoteric or animation values, but more for entertainment. The Butt Ugly Martians provides this in abundance, look at the ratings overseas and in the coming months on Nickelodeon. At the opposite end of the animation spectrum there have been many examples recently (and over the years), of magnificently animated productions that leave their audiences stone cold. Back on the subject of production. We in the US have entered the worst recession in this regard since Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera were let go from MGM several decades ago. Many of the slots on US television are used up by productions wholly produced overseas. Often the business playing fields there are not remotely even for US producers with Government imposed quotas, tax breaks, grants, subsidies, working practices and conditions all legislating against US productions. My independent studio can count itself lucky to have ongoing work at this time as many others do not. Obviously we would have preferred the recent criticism to be based on a finished episode rather than the one mysteriously sent to the Animation World Magazine critic, but enough on that subject, as I am content to let the kids out there have the last word. Mike Young.

Dear Editor. Please do me the service of forwarding this mail to your critic Mr. Beck. Mr. Beck. I, with my partner Bill Schutz (a five year producer veteran of "The Simpsons" and the first two seasons of "King of the Hill" and my wife, Producer Liz Young own and operate Mike Young Productions, the Producers of "Butt Ugly Martians." I completely understand your role as a critic in a trade publication and would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to you to visit our studio in Woodland Hills. Please come and see who we are and how and what we are producing. The "Butt Ugly Martians" is currently the number one children's show in five major Western countries and one Asian country and I thus rest on that particular laurel. Creative excuses to one side, I would be obliged if you could let me know who mailed you the particular episode you reviewed, as much of what you said about it was accurate. You see, it is neither number one or indeed currently a part of the series as it was abandoned in a relatively unfinished state with a rough mix and no retakes. Even though I do not expect to actually win you over with this series, I would have preferred that you review any one of the other shows and would like the opportunity of shipping you a couple of finished episodes for your interest. My multi award winning studio is one of the few survivors in the independent sector. Klasky and Film Roman are the largest and we a distant third. We produce "Clifford: The Big Red Dog," which won this years Humanitas Award, was nominated for five Emmy's, and has won several other awards at home and abroad. I am the creator/author/producer of the British Academy Award winning, "SuperTed", "Fantastic Max", and "Fireman Sam." Since coming to the US ten years ago we produced "The Little Engine That Could," "The Secret Garden," "Nickelodeon's Face","Once Upon a Forest" "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus", "Voltron", "Horrible Histories" (a current British Acadamy contender), and recently I completed the writing of one of Dreamworks future major animated feature film's (the title of which I am bound by contract not to reveal as yet). So we are not quite as described by one of your reader/commentors who, I think, wrote for Toon Magazine. Also I am not the person he quoted as talking about "marketing synergy" or some such claptrap.However as much as I would have liked to have I did not receive an Oscar for Nick Park's "Creature Comfort" as credited elsewhere on this list. The Martian series was produced for a grimly low budget which we painstakingly raised by as usual, giving up most of the rights in the copyright to the distributors. The show was actually produced and built in California rather than by way of Canadian and French subsidies or in studios in the Orient some of which have working conditions which would make Nike seem like model employers. The local industry is such a parlous state that we were pleased to have the opportunity to produce it. By the way, we are proud of the series, of selling it (after they had completed rigorous focus group testing) to Nickelodeon, CITV, Super RTL and many other networks. What is interesting is that children's tastes often do not extend in great numbers to excellent animated shows such as "Pinky and The Brain," "Invader Zim" and "Justice League"? These audiences are made up by teens, college kids and older viewers. However, "Pokemon" and "Power Rangers," well that's another story. Please ask around artists and writers about our company and the creative and working atmosphere there. I will stand by their judgments. Please come and see us soon,

A quick addendum to our earlier letter regarding the Jerry Beck "review" of BUTT UGLY MARTIANS. The chant is NOT "BKN" as Jerry so desperately wanted it to be so he could make his vague reference to Bohbot Kids Network (which, in case he hasn't heard the news, no longer exits). The chant is BKM! which, as any kid in the U.K. can tell you, stands for BUTT-KICKING MODE. This is described in all the press packages -- which Jerry Beck admitted to having.

Did this reviewer even watch the program? Making a pretty simple basic mistake regarding BKN,(should be BKM - Butt Kicking Mode) suggests he did not and shows some poor quality research in my opinion. Did you show the program to any of its target market to see if they found it effective? No, I didn't think he did. Did he bother to see if the quality of the program improved over the series? Yes it sucks so much that Universal have done a deal to develop it further. Wonder why Burger King and Scholastic to name but a few also have an interest? Yes its a vehicle for merchandising, well show me one sucessful childrens series which isn't. Get a life its only a cartoon and speak to some kids about their enjoyment watching the program before comdemning it and try and do balanced reviews.

Mr. Beck, you missed one of the elements that is sure to indicate the approaching tragic end of this series - and it's located here on AWN. The article by Mr. Younghusband that describes the (excuse me while I choke out this word) "marketing synergy" between the show and the web site. It reads like the kind of delusional pumping-up that was common during the rise of the dot-coms. This is what happens when marketing people and executive suits pretend they are writers - while they pay the actual writers dirt. They plan these series with visions of truckloads of plastic action figures going out of the warehouses, novelizations and theatrical movies based on their "great" creations. The ruins of series like "Bucky O'Hare" and "Mutant League," all marketing-driven, don't dissuade these people. And unfortunately, a percentage of people enter animation with the stated career goal of creating characters that will make them a whole lotta money. If that's why they're in the business, I'd rather they sell drugs in a schoolyard to achieve their goal; they'll probably do less harm than they will with their awful series.