Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures
| Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures | |
|---|---|
 Title card. | |
| Network | CBS |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Orion Television Entertainment Nelson Entertainment |
| Distributor | MGM Television PolyGram Entertainment |
| Original release | September 15—December 22, 1990 |
| Run time | 23 minutes |
| Starring | Keanu Reeves Alex Winter George Carlin |
| Executive producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer(s) | Kay Wright |
| Music composed by | Chuck Leob |
| Writer(s) | John Ludin John Loy |
| Director(s) | Paul Sommer Don Lusk Robert Alvarez Carl Urbano |
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures is an American animated sci-fi comedy-adventure television series produced by Hanna-Barbera, in association with Orion Television Entertainment and Nelson Entertainment, for CBS' Saturday morning block. It is a continuation of the 1989 live-action film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, with the same actors reprising the titular characters. It ran in 1990, airing 13 episodes that spanned one season. It did technically receive a second season of eight episodes in 1991, but this was produced by DIC for Fox Kids, instead, who hired different actors to coincide with the replacements starring in a 1992 live-action TV series for Fox, as well. The lesser DiC incarnation won't be covered here.
Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted "Theodore" Logan are destined to one day bring the world together through their music which will bring about a utopian society, but only if they complete their high school education together in San Dimas. To ensure this great task, they are aided by Rufus, a visitor from the future, who supplies them with a time machine shaped like a common phone booth (stored at the back of their favorite convenient store), which they regularly use to go back in time to speak with historical figures of art, literature, music, etc. While we did not see them fulfill out this destiny in the cartoon (as if that was going to happen), the duo did graduate in live-action form by the time we see them again in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey in 1992, and then in 2020, they did finally fulfill their destinies in the third and final film, Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Production
Development
Ken Melton did the preliminary character designs of Bill and Ted, who looked quite different from the final version, which was more in line with Hanna-Barbera's usual designs.
Music
The theme song was performed by Randy Peterson and Kevin Quinn. The music was composed by Chuck Leob for Score Productions. Bodie Chandler was the director of music production.
Episodes
| Episode | Original air date |
|---|---|
| 1x01 | September 15, 1990 |
| 1x02 | September 22, 1990 |
| 1x03 | September 29, 1990 |
| 1x04 | October 6, 1990 |
| 1x05 | October 20, 1990 |
| 1x06 | October 27, 1990 |
| 1x07 | November 3, 1990 |
| 1x08 | November 10, 1990 |
| 1x09 | November 24, 1990 |
| 1x10 | December 1, 1990 |
| 1x11 | December 8, 1990 |
| 1x12 | December 15, 1990 |
| 1x13 | December 22, 1990 |
Cast
Special guests
Merchandise
Home media
On July 12, 2005, MGM Home Entertainment released Bill & Ted's Most Collection on DVD, which included the first episode on a bonus disc. The episode was also included on the Blu-ray Disc editions of the film by MGM Home Entertainment and Shout! Factory in 2012 and 2016, respectively, although the episode remained in standard definition.
Toys
In 2020, NECA released a two pack action figures set of Bill & Ted based on the designs of Hanna-Barbera's cartoon.
