In my senior year of high school, I took a web design class where we mainly learned how to use Adobe Golive, which isn’t particularly user friendly as far as web design programs go. While most of my friends finished their web pages, I struggled to the very end to do simple things and never did finish my magnum opus: a fake fan site by a fictional person, for a canceled children’s TV show that never existed. I spent way too much time doing art and creating the lore of this fictitious show and way too little actually working on the web site. I don't know what I was thinking. I was a weird kid.

The cast:

Danny Rabbit: Arguably the lead protagonist of the show. He’s energetic and athletic, often drumming up impromptu games with friends. He’s a good, kind friend to have on your side, but he can be a little clique-ish and isn’t necessarily the kindest to everyone he meets right off the bat. Beneath his jock exterior lies a certain amount of comic book geek. He has a superhero alter ego named Captain Rabbit, who makes occasional appearances in the show as part of imaginary sequences. Occasionally, the “reality” of the Captain Rabbit persona is left a little ambiguous, hinting that there might be more to it than just Danny’s imagination.

Oswald Octopus: The show’s token nerd. He was the “new kid in town” in the first episode and was initially not accepted very well by Danny and his friend Banton, who were his “buddies” assigned with the task of showing him around the school. They failed to be very good buddies and poked fun at Oswald behind his back. Eventually, Oswald helped Danny pass an important test and they grew to understand each other and become friends, helping each other out with their different strengths.
Oswald’s academic fortes are math and literature, and he would occasionally make clever literary allusions on the show that its main audience of children (not to mention other characters) probably couldn’t understand. In the show’s later seasons, the writers were pressured to make the show more “educational,” and Oswald was used for short segments to teach basic math and reading skills. The creators of the show took liberties with Oswald’s species, allowing him to live in freshwater and walk about on dry land. He had a shy personality that contrasted with the bolder personalities of Danny and Penelope. Early on in the show, he had a stuttering problem, but that disappeared without much explanation when the show was criticized for making fun of stutterers.

Banton Barker: Danny’s close friend. He enjoys participating in athletic activities, but at heart he’s more of an artist type who likes to draw and paint and is learning to play the guitar. He and Oswald had a somewhat tense friendship for a while because they saw each other as rivals for Danny’s friendship. His initial accent, hat, and some cultural references identify him as being from Jamaica or perhaps another Afro-Caribbean country, but his exact heritage was never specified, which is kind of odd considering that the show tried to be more “culturally literate” in its later years. Banton is usually laid-back, but he has a sharp wit and can be aggressive in subtle ways. In the early seasons of the show, Banton had a pleasant, slightly lilting Jamaican accent but in the third season the voice actor mysteriously changed and he spoke with a more generic Midwestern American voice, leaving many fans irritated and/or perplexed. The most popular rumor is that the change was made because the show was accused of somehow depicting “negative ethnic stereotypes.”

Penelope Pussycat: Like an adorable little niece or cousin who nearly reduces you to baby talk around her, despite the fact that she is about eight or nine years old. She is materialistic, and has learned at a frighteningly early age how to get what she wants through charm and subtle manipulation. She will be very polite and sweet to your face, but just might stab you in the back later. This moral ambiguity, as well as her sometimes very-stereotypical ultra-femininity concerned some parents and ultimately led to the addition of another lead female to the show, the more kindhearted and tomboyish Patty Platypus.

Patty Platypus: A later addition to the show and was chiefly introduced to add balance to the female representation. She spoke with a gentle Australian accent (which, unlike Banton’s accent, stayed consistent) and was an outdoorsy sort of girl fascinated with nature. Her aquatic species, scientific interests, and intelligence made her a good match for Oswald, and they became close friends. Her more outgoing personality complemented his shyer, more introverted one, and she helped him to emerge from his shell somewhat.