Stressed Eric – Nostalgia Central

1 9 9 8 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
2 0 0 0 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

“Double arseburgers, Eric!”

Eric Feeble is a 40-year-old divorcee and single father living in London, struggling to bring up two children, hold down a job and cope with a crippling mortgage. His ex-wife, Liz (Rebecca Front), had gone off with a Buddhist to find herself – or as she called it, take “a swim in the lake of me”.

His frail six-year-old daughter Claire (Morwenna Banks) is allergic to almost everything and needs a special diet to keep her from swelling up in all manner of ways.

The food is so bland, though, that she regularly sneaks food she shouldn’t have and swells up like a puffer fish.

His dim ten-year-old son Brian (Gábor Csupó), on the other hand, eats anything and everything – with the possible exception of food. If Eric has lost keys, wallet, or papers, the first place to look is Brian’s mouth.

To help hold down his job, Eric has hired a live-in Portuguese au pair, Maria (voiced by Doon Mackichan) – who unfortunately has no childcare skills to speak of, and whose primary focus in life is self-pleasure – via drinking, drugs and rampant sex.

Eric is invariably running late for everything and forgetting or losing things.

In contrast, his unbearably smug and wealthy neighbours are Perfect –  in name and nature. Ray Perfect (Alexander Armstrong) works at the same company as Eric, but is revered as the ultimate employee.

Everything he does is better, faster, funnier, and smarter than Eric, and his wife, Sue (Alison Steadman) and daughter, Heather (also voiced by Morwenna Banks), also excel in their own way.

Eric’s angry and nagging boss, Paul Power – known as “PP” (Geoffrey McGivern) – is intolerant of Eric’s failings. Eric’s office is immediately next door to the men’s toilets, his computer is held together with masking tape, and he has a dreadful secretary, named Alison (Doon Mackichan), who arrives late, leaves early and is permanently gossiping on the phone to her friends.

Eric’s stress mounts throughout each episode, always culminating with the vein on his head strangling him.

Creator Carl Gorham teamed up with BBC Worldwide and Klasky-Csupo, the Hollywood-based studio that produced The Simpsons, Rugrats and Duckman, to create Britain’s first-ever animated sitcom. North American rights were sold to NBC.

For the US broadcast, the character of Eric was changed to an American expatriate, and Hank Azaria re-dubbed his voice. Only three episodes were aired by NBC before the show was pulled due to low ratings.

Variety noted that the character of Eric “is so unfathomably pathetic that he makes Homer Simpson look like Bill Gates”.

Eric Feeble
Mark Heap
Eric Feeble (US version)
Hank Azaria
Claire Feeble/Heather Perfect
Morwenna Banks
Brian Feeble
Gábor Csupó
Ray Perfect
Alexander Armstrong
Mrs Perfect
Alison Steadman
Liz
Rebecca Front
Maria Gonzalez/Alison Scabie
Doon Mackichan
Paul Power/Caleb
Geoffrey McGivern
Doc
Paul Shearer
Mrs Wilson
Hayley Mills

Episodes

Nativity | Sex | Pony | Hospital | Potato | Tidy || Cricket | Bursting | Team | Tent | Crush | Au Pair | Drool