Tripping the Rift
Tripping the Rift is the continuing comic saga of five misfits who live, work and play on the starship Jupiter 42, which is controlled by a neurotic A.I. known as Spaceship Bob. Bob's neuroses are kept in check by the verbally abusive pilot T'Nuk, and the ship's inner workings are tended by Gus, the depressive robotic chief engineer. No one's really sure what job, if any, is performed by teen slacker Whip, but everyone knows what kinds of jobs sexy android Six specializes in.
The captain, a walking purple blob of rancor named Chode, hates his crew and they hate him back, but they have bigger problems to worry about — namely, the corporate-minded Dark Clowns, who are bent on dominating the galaxy, and the hopelessly conformist Confederation, which will stop at nothing to bring our bumbling antiheroes to injustice.
The Dark Clowns and the Confederation, despite being more alike than different, clash constantly in their cold war to determine whose brand of oppression will dominate the universe. Each insists the other is the cause of all problems great and small, and their power struggle is basically a huge pain in the ass for sentient beings everywhere.
Chode and his crew — motivated by greed and survival instinct — have no desire to take sides in this pointless conflict, and so spend their time traveling (a.k.a. "tripping") the rift that separates the two great rivals.
Produced by CineGroupe (Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat), in association with Film Roman (The Simpsons, King of the Hill), Tripping the Rift is an edgy, half-hour CGI-animated series based on the award-winning short film of the same name. This new weekly comedy is an irreverent and lusty send-up of space adventure, shredding pop culture and science-fiction cliches as only SCI FI can.
The production team marshals the comic talents of creators Chuck Austen and Chris Moeller, and combines it with the raucous humor of head writers Lanier Laney & Terry Sweeney (Saturday Night Live, MadTV). Writers Bill Rosenthal (The Single Guy, The John Larroquette Show) and Andrew Borakove (South Park, Dilbert) oversaw the first episode, "God Is Our Pilot."
Directed by
Bernie Denk
Cast
Stephen Root - Chode
Maurice LaMarche - Gus
John Melendez - Bob
Gayle Garfinkle - T'nuk
Rick Jones - Whip
Terrence Scammell - Darph Bobo
John Stocker - Additional Voices
Pauline Little - Additional Voices
Harry Standjofski - Additional Voices
Susan Glover - Additional Voices
Richard Dumont - Additional Voices
Ellen David - Additional Voices
Carmen Electra - Six
Jenny McCarthy - Six
Gina Gershon - Six
Production Co.
Space: The Imagination Station
New Arc Entertainment
Produced by
Jacques Pettigrew
Michel Lemire
John W. Hyde
Andrew Makarewicz
Firdaus Kharas
Daniele Joubert
Peter Schankowitz
Studio
Film Roman Productions
Writer
Chuck Austen
Chris Moeller
Mark Amato
Ken Goin
Lanier Laney
Terry Sweeney
Dode B. Levenson
John Minnis
Music
Mario Sevigny
