Clarence

Premise

The series focuses on the daily life of Clarence Wendle, a fun-loving and spirited boy, and his best friends: Jeff, who is the more intellectual type, and Sumo, who often uses drastic measures when solving problems.

Clarence lives with his divorced mother Mary and her boyfriend Chad in the fictional town of Aberdale, Arizona. Each episode focuses on the daily-life situations and problems that Clarence and his friends encounter, and their everyday adventures and life experiences as kids.

Other characters include students and faculty at Aberdale Elementary, Clarence's school. Certain episodes focus on the life of supporting characters, like the citizens of Aberdale and Clarence's classmates.

Characters

Main

Clarence Wendle (voiced by Skyler Page in the pilot and early-mid season 1 and Spencer Rothbell in mid season 1-onwards) is the main protagonist of the series. He is an extroverted, optimistic, and wide-eyed boy who wants to bring out the best in everything and everyone. In the pilot episode, he was the "new kid" in Aberdale and could not wait to make friends. He often follows his heart, reacting towards life with unfailing excitement and enthusiasm. A "nice guy" at heart, Clarence aspires to help people, especially his fellow kids, have fun and live freely, often by using unorthodox methods to do so. He can, however, occasionally let his imagination get the better of him, and has a bad habit of meddling into people's personal lives, unintentionally making their troubles worse. Clarence has a wide range of interests and hobbies, and despite sometimes coming off as a goofball, he more often than not displays an underlying intelligence. Nick Pitera provides Clarence's singing voice in "Jeff Wins".

Jeffrey "Jeff" Randell (voiced by Sean Giambrone) is Clarence's best friend who is the most intelligent, levelheaded, and morally inclined of the trio and tries his best to prevent Clarence from going down a bad road. Jeff's most well-known trait is that he has a cube-shaped head which represents his "square" personality. He is an avid fan of game shows and enjoys playing along with them.

Ryan "Sumo" Sumouski (voiced by Tom Kenny) is Clarence's best friend, who is fearless, unpredictable, and often takes drastic and crude measures when trying to solve problems. Despite this often being a drawback, Sumo is loyal to Jeff and Clarence and available when they need support. He and Jeff tend to quarrel with each other due to their opposing personalities, but Clarence acts as the glue that holds the boys' friendships together. In the third season, Sumo was transferred to the new school called West Aberdale. Jason Marsden voiced Sumo in the pilot.

Mary Wendle (voiced by Katie Crown) is Clarence's 38-year-old mother who is always there to support her son no matter the difficulty. She lives with her boyfriend Chad and her son Clarence. It is revealed In "Hurricane Dilliss" she has an overbearing mother which makes her very annoyed by her taking over her life, and that she has been seeing a therapist for 15 years.

Charles "Chad" Caswell (voiced by Eric Edelstein) is Mary's 37-year-old boyfriend who works at various odd-jobs and acts as Clarence's father figure (although Clarence mostly calls him Chad). Also has a fondness for guitar playing and rock music that is shown in the pilot.

Aberdale Elementary students

Alison (voiced by Grace Kaufman) is a girl who is friends with Clarence, Chelsea and Clarence's friends. She is usually perky, and in the episode "Clarence's Millions" she has a high pitched cheerful voice. Alison is a thin girl with fair skin and a small pointy nose. She keeps her long maroon hair up in a high ponytail using a black hairband. Alison wears a short sleeved orange dress with a white collar, yellow leggings, and purple boots.

Amy Shutzger (voiced by Skyler Page, later voiced by Damien Haas) is a big girl who, along with Mavis, is the only recurring female character to be voiced by a man. She wears her hair in a ponytail and is taller than most of her classmates. She used to have a crush on Jeff.

Ashley (voiced by Anastasia James) is a girl who was once the girlfriend of Clarence. They have since ended their relationship, though they remain friends. She likes looking for frogs and attending art class. she has ponytail hair, a pink shirt, and blue overalls.

Belson Noles (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) is a 10-year-old bully who is more likely to use insults, quips, and pranks rather than physical violence. Selfish, inconsiderate, spoiled, obese, lazy, a show-off, no respect to his teachers or mother and very superficial, Belson is very unpopular among his peers because of this, yet Clarence is the only one that sees the good in him, though the same can't be said for him. He is also named after Nelson Boles, who helped create the series. He likely takes after his father, who appears in "Company Man" because they both show a desire for complete control over others. The same voice actor who played Sumo in the pilot, Jason Marsden, voiced Belson as well.

Bertie is a small child who first appears in the episode "Fun Dungeon Face Off". He constantly keeps bumping into Jeff while going through tunnels and slides.

Blaide (voiced by Skyler Page, later voiced by Spencer Rothbell) is a 10-year-old boy who is friends with Breehn, Guyler and Clarence. Blaide seems to be a foreigner by the way he talks, shown in "Dollar Hunt", where he told Clarence that he needs a city bus home. Blaide has fair skin, short black hair, and a bean shaped head. He wears a black and yellow striped T shirt, blue shorts, and brown cowboy shoes, he has long arms, with his hands curved outwards.

Aberdale Elementary staff

Ms. Melanie Baker (voiced by Katie Crown) is the 4th-grade teacher at Aberdale Elementary who is shown to be helpful and caring, yet easily overwhelmed.

Mr. Jim Reese (voiced by Skyler Page, later voiced by Donovan Patton) is the gruff yet dimwitted, vice-principal of the school. He is a former police officer with a voracious appetite.

Ms. Brenda Shoop (voiced by Katie Crown) is the inattentive, irresponsible, possible guidance counselor who cares little about the students. This is seen in "Freedom Cactus", where she thought Clarence's harmless comic was offensive, but when no parents said it was, she pretended to be an offended parent to cancel it. She has been working at the school for 30 years, as revealed in "The Substitute", but in " Lost Playground" her mother stated that she wasn't allowed to play on the playground 49 years prior.

Ms. Meg Julep (voiced by Kate Berlant) is a substitute teacher who is extremely nervous and gullible and is unable to assert herself.

Sumouski family

Mel Sumouski (voiced by John DiMaggio) is Sumo's strict 45 year old father, a hillbilly who is extremely rough around the edges and has a tough personality, but is very understanding with his kids.

Tinona Sumouski (voiced by Christine Lakin) is Sumo's extremely protective Southern-accented mother, with a tough and kind personality.

Brandi Sumouski (voiced by Mckenna Grace) is Sumo's cherish, good, confident 8-year-old sister who gave Clarence a wrench to fight for self-defense, she loves looking through the aquarium and being a mermaid, she has a hillbilly like accent. Although Sumo and Brandi do not get along, Brandi also loves watching wrestling and is quiet. She wears a pink skirt, a pink shirt, and a pink bow on her head.

Tanner Sumouski (voiced by Ari Rubin) is Sumo's muscular, dimwitted, older brother who frequently bullies Sumo.

Noles family

Cynthia Noles (voiced by Mena Suvari) is Belson's kind mother who does not stand up to anyone and usually does not notice her son's mean behavior. This is until she sees how he acts to Clarence in the episode "Dust Buddies" and punishes him by not only making him do the chores he called their maid to do because of his laziness, but also ruining his game save files and avatars. She resembles him down to their noses. Jeff is implied to have a crush on her.

Mr. Noles (voiced by Rick Zieff) is Belson's greedy, workaholic father who never spends any time with his son, to the point that he does not recognize the boy. He has a very aggressive and violent personality.

Randell family

EJ (voiced by Lea DeLaria) and Sue Randell (voiced by Tig Notaro) are Jeff's mothers who are free-spirited and always patient with their son.

Rosie Randell (voiced by June Squibb) is EJ's mother and Jeff's grandmother. She is extremely overbearing.

Extended Wendle family

Dilliss Wendle (voiced by Maria Bamford) is Mary's fast-talking, scatterbrained, extremely selfish, overbearing, 68-year-old mother who has dementia and insists that she do everything for everyone. In "Plane Excited", she is revealed to have died, although it is never specified how.

Seymour Wendle (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is Mary's 68-year-old father. He calls Clarence "Creedence", implying that he may be suffering from dementia just like his wife.

Fern (voiced by Eric Edelstein) and Star Caswell (voiced by Cree Summer) are Chad's calm, laid-back hippie parents who live in a dome-shaped house and have pet emus.

Extended Shoop family

Millie Shoop (voiced by Katie Crown) is Ms. Shoop's extremely protective mother who would never let her play outside as a child. She very much resembles an elderly version of her daughter.

West Aberdale Elementary staff

Mr. Craig Mozer (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) is Sumo's relaxed teacher at West Aberdale Elementary who is involved with Ms. Baker.

Ms. Lofton (voiced by Jenelle Lynn Randall) is the principal of West Aberdale Elementary.

Breehn's family

Walt (voiced by Dave Wittenberg) and Tiffany (voiced by Abigail Revanch) are Breehn's parents who are emotionally abusive towards their son and believe themselves to be superior to everyone around them because of their vintage house. They constantly brag about their home. They try to control everything their son does, all to make him "perfect" in their eyes.

Others

Joshua "Josh" Maverick (voiced by Brent Popolizio) is a 27-year-old grumpy man who does not like children, especially Sumo, and later Clarence. He is shown to be very accident prone and constantly gets severe injuries during every one of his appearances, usually accidentally caused by Clarence's hijinks. In later episodes of the first season he went from a lanky young man to overweight, with no known reason.

Amy Gillis (voiced by Ava Acres) is a nice and kind 10-year-old girl who is a good friend to Clarence. However, she never appears after her debut in the second episode, "Pretty Great Day With a Girl", due to her moving away, save for a cameo in "Rough Riders Elementary" and a flashback in "Clarence For President".

Sandy (voiced by Katie Crown) is a stuffy, unsatisfiable, rude, irritable, morbidly obese woman who rides around on a scooter and speaks with an upper-class English accent. She is a frequent customer at Mary's hair parlor, where she often runs over employees and always demands that the most expensive shampoo be used for her.

Larry (voiced by Skyler Page, later voiced by Spencer Rothbell) is an odd 70-year-old man who goes on a date with Ms. Baker in "Neighborhood Grill". He is known for not being fazed by anything, as well as writing down every detail about the people he meets.

Cooter (voiced by Gunnar Sizemore) and Seabass (voiced by Atticus Shaffer) are a pair of bullies who are rivals of Sumo's.

Lauren (voiced by Rachel Eggleston) is an extremely smart girl who has been homeschooled since she was 6 years old and does not know much about the outside world.

Lauren's Dad (voiced by Jeff Witzke) is Lauren's dignified yet gentle and open-minded hippie father who encourages Lauren to talk about her feelings.

Jeremy (voiced by Henry Kaufman) is Clarence's zany doppelgänger who appears in his dreams, which he tries to trap Clarence in.

Production

At their 2013 upfront, Clarence was announced along with various other series. The series was created by Page, a former storyboard artist for Adventure Time and revisionist for Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. He is the fourth creator on the network who graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, and at age 24, he is also the youngest. As part of their shorts development program in 2012, the series was developed at Cartoon Network Studios; four others, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, We Bare Bears and Long Live the Royals also came from this initiative.

Page, together with creative director Nelson Boles, conceived the series at CalArts. It was further considered when Page became hired at Cartoon Network Studios. A crew of two or three polished the pilot episode; after it had been picked up, a crew of 30 to 35 writers, storyboard artists, revisionists, colorists and designers were employed. Meanwhile, animation is outsourced to South Korea through the Saerom Animation. Page explained that the hardest part of production was keeping pace, especially where once an episode is completed, one must start over. He called this "exciting", but "very challenging".

According to writer Spencer Rothbell, the series was created with a naturalistic tone, similar to cartoons of the 1990s, combined with a more modern feeling. Given this naturalism, writers can reference works that have inspired for them or fit the genre of an episode. He ultimately felt that it was about "empowering kids and having fun". Rothbell also avoids "pigeonholing" into one type of story, and that while some plots are mostly character-driven, others are "based on one idea that we think is really funny". Inspiration also came from the shows Page watched as a child, which invoked more poignant and relatable situations. Despite this, elements of fantasy are allowed, and that conveying both incongruous to one another was one technique he particularly enjoyed. Boles noted that the art direction called for inconsistent character design to avoid having to fit model sheet with the universe perfectly—a result of what he dubs The Simpsons effect. Attention is also paid to background characters in order to expand variety in its plot and universe.

Crossovers

In the end of the Steven Universe/Uncle Grandpa episode, "Say Uncle", UG looks over the list of characters from former and current Cartoon Network shows and saw Clarence is the last on his list.

Clarence, Jeff, Sumo, and Belson appeared in "The Grampies", the short accompanying the Uncle Grandpa episode "Pizza Eve", along with other Cartoon Network characters from currently running and ended cartoons. Belson had a speaking role in that short.

In The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Boredom", Clarence and Mary make an appearance, alongside Uncle Grandpa and Regular Show characters.

In the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Crossover Nexus", Jeff made an appearance, along with other Cartoon Network characters.

Sexual assault allegations against Page and firing from Cartoon Network

In July 2014, Skyler Page was fired from Cartoon Network Studios amid allegations that he had sexually assaulted a female coworker, Emily Partridge, (now Lyle Partridge), a former storyboard revisionist on Adventure Time. A Cartoon Network spokesperson confirmed that the series would continue despite his absence. Spencer Rothbell later became head of story and the voice of Clarence. Nelson Boles, who was previously the series creative director, served as series showrunner for the remainder of the first season. Stephen P. Neary, one of the storyboard artists for the series, took over as showrunner for the second season and onward after Boles left the series early in the second season.

In June 2021, Page admitted that the allegations were true and issued a public apology.

LGBT representation

In September 2014, Spencer Rothbell, a writer, head of storywriting, and voice actor of multiple characters for Clarence, said that they had to change a scene in the episode "Neighborhood Grill", which showed two gay characters after pushback from Cartoon Network executives. According to Rothbell, the original scene showed the two characters kissing on the lips, noting that "originally the guy had flowers and they kissed on the mouth." Later he lamented that the scene in the episode is "better than nothing", adding that "maybe one day the main character can be gay and it won't be a big deal." Despite this step back, there were some moves forward.

On December 4, 2014, EJ and Sue Randell were introduced as Jeff's mothers in the episode "Jeff Wins".

Cancellation

On April 4, 2017, Spencer Rothbell confirmed on his Twitter page that the series' third season would be its last as Cartoon Network did not renew the series for a fourth season, which ended on June 24, 2018.

Broadcast and reception

Clarence was originally previewed at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con. Cartoon Network had commissioned twelve quarter-hour episodes, with the pilot episode airing after the Hall of Game Awards show on February 17, 2014. The pilot was nominated for an "Outstanding Short-format Animated Program" at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2013. The first episode, aired on April 14, 2014, was met with an estimated 2.3 million viewers, outperforming shows in its same demographic in the time slot by double and triple-digit percentages. Meanwhile, preliminary data identified it as the most watched series premiere for the network that year. From September 7 to 30, 2020, reruns of the series aired on Boomerang.

In Canada, Clarence premiered on Cartoon Network on April 14 and on Teletoon on September 4, but it was later moved exclusively to Cartoon Network. The series premiered on October 6 on Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand and on November 3 on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In India, the series debuted on June 1, 2015 on Cartoon Network. The last 13 episodes of the series aired first in Germany before airing in the United States.

Critical response for Clarence was mixed, with Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media, in a three-star review, alerted parents of "a similar brand of absurdity and crudeness" as Adventure Time—though less severe—but praised the cast as "oddly likable". Nancy Basile of About.com applauded the dialogue for its lengthiness, and considered the relationships between the characters to be dynamic and genuine, with some comedy thrown in. Whitney Matheson of USA Today found Clarence to blend optimism and surreal humor in "just the right amount", and encouraged children and parents alike to watch its premiere. In Animation Magazine, Mercedes Milligan described it as "a breath of fresh suburban air" and a celebration of childhood. Nivea Serrao of TV Guide contrasted the show with most fantasy animated series. Brian Lowry of Variety called it "so quirky and idiosyncratic as to feel fresh", although it sometimes tread in "well-worn territory", but found the character designs unattractive.

The series gained considerable press after featuring a gay couple in the episode "Neighborhood Grill", with coverage in various tabloid and entertainment news sites, and in LGBT-oriented sites as well. The scene involves two male characters greeting each other with kisses on the cheek while at a restaurant. Rothbell originally had the couple kiss on the lips after receiving flowers from the other, but this went unapproved by the network. He added that the scene was a "minor throwaway moment", albeit "better than nothing", and anticipated that "one day the main character can be gay and it won't be a big deal". Joe Morgan of Gay Star News called the buildup to the scene "an old joke", a notion shared by Dan Tracer of Queerty, although he praised their portrayal "just as normal people".

Home media

The series was made available on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. It was later removed from the streaming service on December 6, 2022 in the US; it was later brought back on the service on December 20. The series was removed from it again on May 8, 2023.