I Am Weasel

I Are Weasel is an American animated slapstick comedy television series created by David Feiss. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network. It is a spin-off from Cow and Chicken, where it was a secondary segment during its run from 1997 to 1999, airing 52 episodes. When it became its own independent series in 1999, those segments were packaged together along with 27 new ones.

The series chronicles the random adventures of I.M. Weasel, an animal who is praised and worshipped as a hero by everyone all around the world, except for the jealous I.R. Baboon. I.R. constantly tries to one-up I.M., but always manages to fail and cause some catastrophe due to his own stupidity, which has to be cleaned up by I.M., further enraging his foil.

Development
After David Feiss created the pilot for Cow and Chicken, Cartoon Network demanded it to be a half-hour series with a second cartoon segment as something different in the middle of two 7-minute Cow and Chicken shorts. The title of I Am Weasel loosely came from one of Feiss's favorite books growing up, I Am Legend. I.M. was chosen to be a weasel to play with the idea of him being a hero instead of the traits usually associated with a weasel, which are being sneaky and bad. The enemy to the weasel was I.R., the baboon with the funny red butt, patterned after the second verse in the song "Pop Goes the Weasel:" Every night when I go out, the monkey's on the table."

Casting
Feiss originally wanted James Earl Jones for the voice of I.M., but instead went with Michael Dorn, at the recommendation of Van Partible, the creator of another Johnny Bravo, which spun-off from What a Cartoon! just as Cow and Chicken did. Charlie Adler was cast as I.R., after having already been the voices of the titular Cow and Chicken.

Music
The theme song was composed by Bill Fulton, with lyrics written by Richard Pursel, which were performed by April March. Fulton also composed the score for each episode. Bodie Chandler was the director of music production.

The lyrics of the theme song were patterned after "Pop Goes the Weasel."

You don't need pants for the victory dance Cuz Baboon's better than Weasel I.R. Baboon big star of cartoon
 * Theme song lyrics:

I.M. Weasel: I am Weasel!

I.R. Baboon reigns king in his mind He's just as good as the weaselly kind But 'round every corner he's likely to find

I.M. Weasel: I am Weasel [repeat 2x]

Cast

 * Michael Dorn as I.M. Weasel
 * Charlie Adler as I.R. Baboon and the Red Guy

In popular culture

 * In the OK KO Let's be Heroes special "Crossover Nexus", I.M. Weasel is one of the Cartoon Network characters turned into stone.