Moral Orel. Holy Crap.

[MHR]

I think the number of episodes is absolutely perfect. It didn't even feel like we were left on a cliffhanger or subplots left unexplored or anything. All the interesting characters were explored and depressed upon, even the pretty and ugly ladies in the church that appeared for just a couple seconds in the first season. Adding more characters seems a bit unnecessary.

 

[Schadrach]

I think the number of episodes is absolutely perfect. It didn't even feel like we were left on a cliffhanger or subplots left unexplored or anything. All the interesting characters were explored and depressed upon, even the pretty and ugly ladies in the church that appeared for just a couple seconds in the first season. Adding more characters seems a bit unnecessary.

To quote wikipedia about what was originally intended:

Had the show not been cancelled and cut down to 13 episodes, the show's second half would have played out quite differently: Orel's paternal grandfather would have joined the cast, having shown up in an episode that takes place following the events of "Sacrifice", while Clay went to retrieve the body of the dead bear Orel shot. Most of the latter half of the season would focus on Orel's relationship with his dying grandfather, who would help further Orel's emotional growth into adulthood and help Orel reconcile his faith with the realities of life. Other aborted plotlines would involve Orel's father's affair with Miss Censordoll and Bloberta's affair with Officer Papermouth, culminating in the death of Orel's grandfather and Orel's transformation into a goth-type figure in the wake of the death of the only good parental figure in his life.

Some of the aborted episodes involve:
[ul]
[li]Clay Puppington's father, after finding out that he was terminally ill, moved in with the Puppingtons and was forced to share a room and bed with Orel.[/li]
[li]Bloberta and Officer Papermouth becoming lovers, with Bloberta finally achieving happiness through her relationship with the divorced police officer.[/li]
[li]A second episode involving Orel and Christina's relationship.[/li]
[li]Reverend Putty becoming cold and distant towards women following the events of "Sunday"/"Sacrifice", resulting in him finally gaining dates with women of Moralton, while Florence loses her weight and becomes slim and thin; Reverend Putty ironically finds himself attracted to the now-thin Florence but ultimately comes around to winning her heart.[/li]
[li]Miss Sculptham's further attempts to find love, including a lesbian relationship and one with a prisoner, both of which end badly due to Moralton society frowning upon each relationship and refusing to allow the teacher to marry either lover (a denial that she compares to having been raped); Miss Sculptham also discovers that she was actually pregnant with twins due to her rape and that her coathanger abortion only killed one of the two unborn children within her.[/li]
[li]An episode focusing on Shapey and Block, where the two unruly kids bond with each other and as a result, become less hellion-like.[/li]
[li]Orel becoming a Christian Goth following the death of his grandfather.[/li]
[/ul]
There is also another lost episode titled "Abstinence", animated entirely by David Tuber and Mick Ignis, two of the production staff of Moral Orel, that was finished after they learned the show had been canceled. The episode is rendered in a somewhat cruder than normal style using clay figures since the animators did not have access to the puppets normally used to create each episode. The episode centers around Doughy instead of Orel, and was only screened once at a special live event, "Sunday with Moral Orel" in San Francisco on January 18, 2009.

 

[Starbird]

I think the number of episodes is absolutely perfect. It didn't even feel like we were left on a cliffhanger or subplots left unexplored or anything. All the interesting characters were explored and depressed upon, even the pretty and ugly ladies in the church that appeared for just a couple seconds in the first season. Adding more characters seems a bit unnecessary.

To quote wikipedia about what was originally intended:

Had the show not been cancelled and cut down to 13 episodes, the show's second half would have played out quite differently: Orel's paternal grandfather would have joined the cast, having shown up in an episode that takes place following the events of "Sacrifice", while Clay went to retrieve the body of the dead bear Orel shot. Most of the latter half of the season would focus on Orel's relationship with his dying grandfather, who would help further Orel's emotional growth into adulthood and help Orel reconcile his faith with the realities of life. Other aborted plotlines would involve Orel's father's affair with Miss Censordoll and Bloberta's affair with Officer Papermouth, culminating in the death of Orel's grandfather and Orel's transformation into a goth-type figure in the wake of the death of the only good parental figure in his life.

Some of the aborted episodes involve:
[ul]
[li]Clay Puppington's father, after finding out that he was terminally ill, moved in with the Puppingtons and was forced to share a room and bed with Orel.[/li]
[li]Bloberta and Officer Papermouth becoming lovers, with Bloberta finally achieving happiness through her relationship with the divorced police officer.[/li]
[li]A second episode involving Orel and Christina's relationship.[/li]
[li]Reverend Putty becoming cold and distant towards women following the events of "Sunday"/"Sacrifice", resulting in him finally gaining dates with women of Moralton, while Florence loses her weight and becomes slim and thin; Reverend Putty ironically finds himself attracted to the now-thin Florence but ultimately comes around to winning her heart.[/li]
[li]Miss Sculptham's further attempts to find love, including a lesbian relationship and one with a prisoner, both of which end badly due to Moralton society frowning upon each relationship and refusing to allow the teacher to marry either lover (a denial that she compares to having been raped); Miss Sculptham also discovers that she was actually pregnant with twins due to her rape and that her coathanger abortion only killed one of the two unborn children within her.[/li]
[li]An episode focusing on Shapey and Block, where the two unruly kids bond with each other and as a result, become less hellion-like.[/li]
[li]Orel becoming a Christian Goth following the death of his grandfather.[/li]
[/ul]
There is also another lost episode titled "Abstinence", animated entirely by David Tuber and Mick Ignis, two of the production staff of Moral Orel, that was finished after they learned the show had been canceled. The episode is rendered in a somewhat cruder than normal style using clay figures since the animators did not have access to the puppets normally used to create each episode. The episode centers around Doughy instead of Orel, and was only screened once at a special live event, "Sunday with Moral Orel" in San Francisco on January 18, 2009.

Actually...damn. I would have loved to see this.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

I love, LOVE this show, I still have and frequently revisit episodes. The dark places season 3 goes to was a huge kick in the teeth and i LOVED IT.

I would pledge money to a season 4 kickstarter for sure, and yes the song choice for the intro to the first episode of season 3 is brilliant spot on.

My favorite part is clay puffington's rant in the bar..... no wait my favorite part is when clay realized there is a child living in his house that is not his, and gives no fucks...... no wait my favorite part is when orel gets addicted to crack...... no wait......

 

[Schadrach]

*snip*

The bit about Miss Sculptham actually had a script released online, it was supposed to be immediately after "Alone" in the episode order.

http://moralorel.wikia.com/wiki/Raped

My favorite part is clay puffington's rant in the bar..... no wait my favorite part is when clay realized there is a child living in his house that is not his, and gives no fucks...... no wait my favorite part is when orel gets addicted to crack...... no wait......

I'm personally fond of Clay's rant, or when he goes to Coach Stopframe with the bear in the last episode.

 

[Starbird]

I love, LOVE this show, I still have and frequently revisit episodes. The dark places season 3 goes to was a huge kick in the teeth and i LOVED IT.

I would pledge money to a season 4 kickstarter for sure, and yes the song choice for the intro to the first episode of season 3 is brilliant spot on.

My favorite part is clay puffington's rant in the bar..... no wait my favorite part is when clay realized there is a child living in his house that is not his, and gives no fucks...... no wait my favorite part is when orel gets addicted to crack...... no wait......

That rant may be one of the best written things in any film medium, ever.

 

[MeatMachine]

Huh. Just watched all of Season 2 and 3.

A long time ago, I remember watching one or two episodes from the first season. I was excited, because I thought that it would basically be Robot Chicken, but with consistent characters, settings, and themes. My first impression was that it was a 1-joke series about "Gee, isn't Christianity stupid?".

As an Athiest, this didn't particularly offend me, but it came across as pandering, condescending, and wholly uninspired.

...

Holy damn, was I wrong...

 

[Starbird]

Huh. Just watched all of Season 2 and 3.

A long time ago, I remember watching one or two episodes from the first season. I was excited, because I thought that it would basically be Robot Chicken, but with consistent characters, settings, and themes. My first impression was that it was a 1-joke series about "Gee, isn't Christianity stupid?".

As an Athiest, this didn't particularly offend me, but it came across as pandering, condescending, and wholly uninspired.

...

Holy damn, was I wrong...

I am still a Christian, oddly enough (by belief, not as much by practice) and while I found some stuff challenging (in that it was spot bloody on) it never really offended me.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I haven't seen too many episodes, but the two episodes I do remember are wildly different from one another, so I'll just do mini-reviews on both of them:

The first Episode I saw involved Oral and his brother (Forgot his name) learning in church that death (dying? One of those two) was a sin, or was a punishment for sin. So Moral and his brother decide to resurrect everyone who died. They find a book on necromancy, go to the cemetery, dig up as many corpses as they can, take off the clothes on the corpses and then resurrect them. They then go on a rampage, which causes Oral to be in trouble with his dad (Don't know his name either). But he isn't in trouble for causing a Zombie Apocalypse, he's in trouble for making all of the Zombies naked before their resurrected, and the towns people are only angry at the Zombies for being nude. Moral resolves to resurrect more people, but this time with clothes, and all the people in town are happy as the zombies eat their flesh and kill them all.

Now personally, I found this episode really funny. As a Catholic myself, I love funny portrayals of Christianity and Christians (Which is why I really like South Park). The premise was ridiculous, the conclusion was ridiculous, it was all around perfectly ridiculous and funny.

The Second Episode I saw involved Moral learning that the best way to avoid sexual temptations (or something like that) was by finding a hobby and protesting against sinners and sins. This leads Oral to a farm where he helps a farmer with various chores. This eventually leads Moral to finding out that Eggs come out of Chicken butts, to which the Farmer has a weird love of watching. This leads Oral to protest against stores from carrying eggs. The priest of the Church, however, loves eggs, and at first pleads with Oral and his protesting comrades to stop, but when Oral points out that Eggs are from butts, and that liking eggs was equal to liking sex or something weird like that, the Priest gives in and joins the protesters, only to arrive at the farm later and get eggs personally.

This episode was weird. It really wasn't all that funny. It had it's moments, sure, but it was more creepy then it was funny. Now I'm not against weird episodes or weird characters, when there is nothing that balances out the weirdness it just comes off as weird. I don't really like Just Weird Entertainment.

And I hear that since most of the episodes are Character Study Episodes instead of "Mocking Christianity" episodes, I just don't think this series is for me.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Moral Oral is my all-time favorite program Adult Swim ever aired. I loved the first season in high school because of how insanely off the wall it was but then...it just went in such an unexpected direction. Clay Puffington is probably one of the most reprehensible fictional characters on television but by the end of the series I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy.

 

[Starbird]

I haven't seen too many episodes, but the two episodes I do remember are wildly different from one another, so I'll just do mini-reviews on both of them:

The first Episode I saw involved Oral and his brother (Forgot his name) learning in church that death (dying? One of those two) was a sin, or was a punishment for sin. So Moral and his brother decide to resurrect everyone who died. They find a book on necromancy, go to the cemetery, dig up as many corpses as they can, take off the clothes on the corpses and then resurrect them. They then go on a rampage, which causes Oral to be in trouble with his dad (Don't know his name either). But he isn't in trouble for causing a Zombie Apocalypse, he's in trouble for making all of the Zombies naked before their resurrected, and the towns people are only angry at the Zombies for being nude. Moral resolves to resurrect more people, but this time with clothes, and all the people in town are happy as the zombies eat their flesh and kill them all.

Now personally, I found this episode really funny. As a Catholic myself, I love funny portrayals of Christianity and Christians (Which is why I really like South Park). The premise was ridiculous, the conclusion was ridiculous, it was all around perfectly ridiculous and funny.

The Second Episode I saw involved Moral learning that the best way to avoid sexual temptations (or something like that) was by finding a hobby and protesting against sinners and sins. This leads Oral to a farm where he helps a farmer with various chores. This eventually leads Moral to finding out that Eggs come out of Chicken butts, to which the Farmer has a weird love of watching. This leads Oral to protest against stores from carrying eggs. The priest of the Church, however, loves eggs, and at first pleads with Oral and his protesting comrades to stop, but when Oral points out that Eggs are from butts, and that liking eggs was equal to liking sex or something weird like that, the Priest gives in and joins the protesters, only to arrive at the farm later and get eggs personally.

This episode was weird. It really wasn't all that funny. It had it's moments, sure, but it was more creepy then it was funny. Now I'm not against weird episodes or weird characters, when there is nothing that balances out the weirdness it just comes off as weird. I don't really like Just Weird Entertainment.

And I hear that since most of the episodes are Character Study Episodes instead of "Mocking Christianity" episodes, I just don't think this series is for me.

I never really found it mocking Christianity overall - more poking a sharp stick at blind faith and giving an example of what the world would be like if everyone was 100% unquestioning, blind patriotic and religious.

Well...that's how it starts. The first season is honestly pretty much skippable - it's good, but the series takes a sharp left turn in it's second season into character building and the third season is an incredibly character study and example of how to take a single event/scene and span a massive intertwining story out from there. It has it's weird moments (mostly in the first and second season) and ...yeah.

If the third season has been a film it probably would be on nearly everyone's 'must watch' list. But it's a weird little animated program that nobody really cared about.

Seriously, give it a try.

Moral Oral is my all-time favorite program Adult Swim ever aired. I loved the first season in high school because of how insanely off the wall it was but then...it just went in such an unexpected direction. Clay Puffington is probably one of the most reprehensible fictional characters on television but by the end of the series I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy.

I never really felt sorry for him. Oh - I understood him, and his rant in the bar towards the end of the series is quite possibly the single best monologue I've heard in ages - but I felt a massive sense of schadenfreude at how he ended up.

 

[Mikeybb]

It's a wonderful show, if a little disturbing at times.

I'm glad to learn it's still finding a new audience even after all these years.
Certainly deserves it.

Moderator edit: Thread locked to avoid further necro-ness.