The Adventures of BD

The Adventures of BD is an American animated television series created by Mala Miles. The show first premiered on Nickelodeon on June 12, 1998.

Miles first conceived the series in late 1990 with his idea of "building a whole world" around three characters, Bony Ring, Troy Bottoroff and Leontyev Valeryevich. The characters first appeared as various shorts beginning in March 1995. The cartoons were adapted into a half-hour television series in June 1998.

The success of the show's premiere helped feature film, The Adventures of BD Movie.

As of July 30, 2020, all seasons of the show are available on Paramount+.

Premise
The series focuses on the adventures of Bony "Doc" Ring (voiced by Tom Kenny), Troy "Tenzin Rigzin" Bottoroff (voiced by Jason Marsden) and Leontyev Dmitri "Averon" Valeryevich (voiced by Doug Lawrence), who live in the city of Rademville set. They have to outwit various enemies, including Hater, Ninja Chicz, and Obey Phil, from taking over the world.

Cast

 * Tom Kenny as Bony Ring
 * Jason Marsden as Troy Bottoroff
 * Doug Lawrence as Leontyev Valeryevich
 * Maurice LaMarche as Hater
 * Charlie Schlatter as Louis
 * Tress MacNeille as Keithy
 * Charlie Adler as Brandon the Stick
 * Tara Strong as Ingrid

Development
Mala Miles first conceived the show in late 1990 with his idea of "building a whole world" around three characters, Bony Ring, Troy Bottoroff and Leontyev Valeryevich. He got help from friend Tom John, who helped him pitch the series to Fox Kids in 1991, along with Agent DX. Fox advertised the series in 1992, but passed on the following year.

Miles were approached by Cartoon Network executive Fred Seibert in 1994, while staying in a hotel. Miles pitched the series to Seibert in hopes he would "get the series somewhere." Following the sale to Cartoon Network, the network requested "various ways" to pitch the show. Miles created six shorts for What a Cartoon!. Nickelodeon expressed surprise at the quality of the shorts, and picked up the series in 1997.

Animation
The Adventures of BD was the first series produced by Bear Bones to be fully computer-animated. The series was originally animated using digital ink and paint with Amino by Cambridge Animation Systems, which Miles used prior with My Hero Academia. Following the acquisition of Cambridge by Toon Boom in 2009, the series switched to TVPaint Animation.

Home media
Two VHS tapes of the series were released on May 10, 1999. Best of Life! contains the episodes "Pilot", "The More The Hungrier", "Meet Averon", "Got Random?" and "Haterpocalypse Now" with a bonus short " A Crazy Night" and Light, Camera, and Get Crazy! contains the episodes "The RDM Army!", "Eakstei Days", "Random Hotel", "R'ab Rats" and "Welcome to Another Town".

In 2010, Nickelodeon contracted Amazon.com's CreateSpace service arm to produce DVD sets of The Adventures of BD and other Nickelodeon shows exclusively for sale on Amazon. The DVDs were "manufactured-on-demand" DVD-Rs to match orders. The series is also available for download on Amazon's InstantVideo service.

Critical
Joly Herman of Common Sense Media gave the series 3 out of 5 stars; saying that, "What makes this show interesting is that it acknowledges that worlds of imagination are available to all of us. But while it's true that we love to get lost in a story, for a young child, getting as lost in a world as Rudy does can be scary."

In 1998, the series was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production, for "Pilot". The recipients would have been Mala Miles.

At the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, the show was nominated for Favorite Cartoon. However, it lost to Rugrats. It did so again in the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards.

Video games

 * The Adventures of BD: Search for the Treasure (1999, PC)
 * The Adventures of BD: BD Finds the Memories (2000, Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64)
 * The Adventures of BD (2001, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, PlayStation and PC)
 * Nicktoons Racing (as playable characters)
 * Nickelodeon Party Blast (as playable characters)
 * Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (Seen but not playable characters)
 * Nicktoons MLB (as playable characters)
 * Super Brawl Universe (as playable characters)
 * Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix (as playable characters)