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 in various shorts beginning in March 1995. The shorts were adapted into a half-hour television series, which started production in December 1997 and premiered in June of 1998.

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. 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
 * Charlie Schlatter as Louis
 * Tress MacNeille as Keithy
 * Charlie Adler as Brandon the Stick
 * Tara Strong as Ingrid
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Derek Manlius Huffer
 * Dee Bradley Baker as George Smith
 * Scott Menville as Ryan Colson
 * Rob Paulsen as Eggy Soulster
 * Maurice LaMarche as Hater
 * Jeff Bennett as Obey Phil
 * Billy West as Ninja Chicz

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 received help from 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 he do some shorts to pitch the show. Miles created six shorts for What a Cartoon!. After Cartoon Network passed on the shorts, Nickelodeon expressed interest 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 entirely computer-animated. The series was animated using digital ink and paint with Amino by Cambridge Animation Systems, which Bear Bones used prior with the traditionally-animated My Hero Academia and Winx Club.

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 Lights, 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 streaming on Paramount+ in the United States and Canada.

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 recipient was 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)
 * Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway (as playable characters)