Crashbox

Crashbox is a stop-motion animated children's show that blends education with entertainment. It was co-created by Eamon Harrington and John Watkin for HBO Family, where it originally aired from 1999 to 2000. The series marked HBO's second foray into educational sketch programming, following *Braingames* by about fifteen years. It debuted as part of the initial lineup when the HBO Family channel relaunched in February 1999.

The show has never been released on DVD or VHS. Despite this, it remained a regular feature on HBO Family through reruns for many years after its original run. It is currently available on several streaming services.

**Production** Planet Grande Pictures—the production company run by Harrington and Watkin—created the series. Animation was handled by Cuppa Coffee Studios, led by Adam Shaheen. Planet Grande contracted the studio for eight months to produce thirteen hours of programming. Segments from the first season were reused for the first half of the second season, while the remaining episodes for season two were produced starting in late 1999.

Only 52 episodes were ever produced and aired, as confirmed by reliable sources including the Library of Congress.

**Premise** The show is set inside a game computer, where rusty tin robots create and load green clay game cartridges. Occasionally, brief sketches show the robots "repairing" damaged games. Like *The Electric Company*, the episodes lack a continuous plot; each half-hour installment contains seven or eight short educational games, each running one to five minutes and covering topics such as history, math, and science.

**Segments** The following games appear in the show, listed alphabetically:

**Captain Bones:** A pirate skeleton named Captain Bones challenges viewers to solve math problems, picture puzzles, and riddles by rearranging a limited number of his bones. He mocks and insults the audience throughout, eventually losing his temper and blurting out the answer.

**Dirty Pictures:** In a closed art museum, a maid dusts a painting while an "Old Fossil" guard holds up clue cards about the person depicted. Once the painting and nameplate are fully cleaned, the guard offers a final comment before the museum doors close.