Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island (or simply Coconut Fred) is an American-Canadian animated comedy television series that aired on Kids' WB[1] in the United States, from September 17, 2005 to May 27, 2006. It continued in reruns until July 1, 2006. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation with animation provided by Dong Yang Animation.

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island
GenreComedy
Created bySammy Oriti
Don Oriolo
Written byRay DeLaurentis & William Schifrin
Directed byMatt Danner & Michael Hack
Voices ofRob Paulsen
Michael Donovan
Eric Bauza
Tracey Moore (first two episodes)
Britt McKillip (rest of series)
Brian Drummond
David Kaye
Country of originUnited States
Canada
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes13 (25 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)Sander Schwartz
Producer(s)Aaron Simpson & Margaret Dean
Kathy Page (associate)
Running time21 minutes (whole)
10 minutes (segments)
Production company(s)Warner Bros. Animation
DistributorWarner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original networkKids' WB
Original releaseSeptember 17, 2005 (2005-09-17) 
May 27, 2006 (2006-05-27)
External links
Website

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island takes place on an island inhabited exclusively by fruit. The residents enjoy their own tropical paradise without a care in the world; they must share their peaceful utopia with the joyfully strange Coconut Fred, a whimsical, blissfully foolish coconut with the special ability to materialize anything he thinks about. The plot revolves around the adventures of Fred and his friends, as his boundless imagination springs to life while his friends struggle to cover up the collateral. Any conflict could range from getting a “fruit canal”, to sailing off the island only to find themselves in a humongous storm.

Main characters

Main characters of the series.
  • Coconut Fred (voiced by Rob Paulsen): A happy-go-lucky coconut with a strange imagination. Fred has the special ability to turn whatever he imagines into reality. He can often be heard saying his trademark catchphrases, "Yay me!" and "Now you're talking, coconut!"
  • Bingo Cherry (voiced by Tracey Moore for the first two episodes and by Britt McKillip for the remainder of the series): A shy and timid cherry. Bingo usually hangs out with Fred, Slip and Slide, and Bunga Berry. Bingo is easily terrified, something that Fred doesn't know and usually provokes.
  • Slip & Slide D'Peel (both voiced by Eric Bauza): 'Country' banana brothers. They are less intelligent than the rest of the cast, and often take things a little too seriously. There is no clear way of telling them apart unless Fred or another character identifies just one of them. They're in a band with Fred called "Coconut Fred's All-Body Sound Band", and their music consists mainly of bodily sounds (burping, rude armpit noises, gargling, etc.).
  • Mr. Mel Greenrind (voiced by Michael Donovan): A watermelon. Most commonly assisted by Bingo, Mr. Greenrind routinely attempts to keep everything and everyone in order on the island with his chart of rules known as the squeaky board. A lot of the rules on the squeaky board are really nonsensical, but all of which can be applied to Coconut Fred and his friends. Fred has a tendency to get on Mr. Greenrind's nerves, and sometimes stress him out from all of his antics, though as the series progresses, he was able to show friendliness towards Fred (which usually wouldn't last long).
  • Wedgie (voiced by Brian Drummond): A lemon who works as a sailor. He ended up on Fruit Salad Island due to Fred's intervention. Wedgie spends a great deal of time talking to "Betty", the wooden figurehead. He often fabricates plans to escape from the island, all of which are foiled by Fred's antics, either directly or indirectly.
  • Bunga Berry (Voiced by David Kaye): A mute wild strawberry. Bunga communicates exclusively in grunts and growls. Despite this, everyone is still able to understand what he is saying, and is docile enough to interact with other islanders calmly.

Others

  • Butchy (voiced by Eric Bauza): A gravenstein apple. He is well known as the island's troublemaking bully. He enjoys frightening others, like Bingo.
  • Black Berry: Butchy's secretary. As his name describes, he's a blackberry. Butchy keeps him in his pocket. A parody of the BlackBerry Personal digital assistant.
  • Tiffany Pears (voiced by Britt McKillip): A famous singer on Fruit Salad Island. Everybody likes her music except for Mr. Greenrind. In the episode "The Ripley Van Ripend Book of World Records" she had the record for most off-key singer ever to perform in public. Her name is a parody of Britney Spears.
  • B.L. Tomato (voiced by Ashleigh Ball): An outcast tomato that is trying to find out if he's a fruit or a vegetable (although, a tomato is actually a fruit). In the Season 2 episode "Captain Nut and the Power Fruits", he joined Blendark, Captain Nut's arch-enemy, and turned to the dark side with a new name, the Tomatonator. Aside from the title song, he never starred in any other episode.
  • Rusty Candoo: Fred's friend. He's a can of fruit. His only appearances are the title song and the episodes: "Hocus Pocus Lack of Focus" and "Amuse-Otel". After Amuse-Otel, he never appeared again (except still for the title song and a cameo in "Fred Rules").
  • Slurpy (voiced by Eddie Deezen): A fruit bat who is bent on eating Fruit Salad Island inhabitants. He is afraid of the light.
  • Melanie Greenrind (voiced by Maria Bamford): Mr. Greenrind's perky niece. She likes to enforce rules even more than her uncle, and carries around a very noisy chalkboard.
  • Vic the Alien: An alien from Loft Lost 57 in the Sasaft Quadrant in the depths of other space. After being mistaken as a tourist to Fred and the island, he was actually planning to invade the island with his spaceship fleet, but because of Fred and his friends playing in his ship and almost destroying them by going into black holes and ramming into asteroids, he aborted the invasion and Fred crashed the ship into Mr. Greenrind's sand castle cabana. They all survived the crash. This was the only appearance of Vic on the show. The episode he was in was the second season "Turn On Your Nut Light".
  • Mrs. Plumcott (voiced by Kathleen Barr): The token little old plum lady of the island. She hates Mr. Greenrind. Her favorite line is, "Oh dear."
  • Dr. Bartlett (voiced by Brian Drummond): Dr. Bartlett is a pear dentist on Fruit Salad Island.

Reception

Despite some critics praising the animation and creativity, as well as some elements of the comedy, the series has been panned for its often loud, over-the-top humor.[2] Joly Herman of Common Sense Media posted a review of Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island on Go.com. The review describes the show as "the TV equivalent of sugary cereal, and nothing more", and proceeded to give the show two stars out of five.[3]

Rob Paulsen, who voiced the main character Coconut Fred, stated that he does not like to remember voicing the character, and said that it was nothing more than a shameless SpongeBob SquarePants knockoff.[2]

Due to the poor feedback that the show received, the originally 13-episode first season was cut short to nine episodes, and the show went on a 5-month hiatus. The final four episodes were branded as Season Two, and the extremely short second season aired throughout May 2006, after which the series was cancelled.

Series overview

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 9 September 17, 2005 (2005-09-17) November 26, 2005 (2005-11-26)
2 4 May 6, 2006 (2006-05-06) May 27, 2006 (2006-05-27)

Episodes

Season 1 (2005)

No.TitleWritten byStoryboard byOriginal air dateProd.
code
1a"No News is Good News"Ray DeLaurentisEddie TriguerosSeptember 17, 2005 (2005-09-17)101
Coconut Fred becomes a news reporter.
1b"Master of Disaster"Ray DeLaurentisRicky GardunoSeptember 17, 2005 (2005-09-17)101
A new volcano is on the island and the gang must stop it before it erupts.
2a"Hocus Pocus Lack of Focus"Will SchifrinGabe SwarrSeptember 24, 2005 (2005-09-24)102
Fred tries to be a magician.
2b"Amuse-Otel"Ray DeLaurentisSandra FrameSeptember 24, 2005 (2005-09-24)102
Fred builds a cross between an amusement park and a hotel, and gets Mr. Greenrind to come along.
3a"Fruit Canal"Will SchifrinRicky GardunoOctober 1, 2005 (2005-10-01)103
Bingo Cherry needs to go to the dentist after he gets a toothache.
3b"Lemon Overboard"Ray DeLaurentisRob SchrabOctober 1, 2005 (2005-10-01)103
Fred tries to help out Wedgie.
4a"Fred Rules!"Ray DeLaurentis and Will SchifrinEddie TriguerosOctober 8, 2005 (2005-10-08)104
Mr. Greenrind leaves Fred in charge of the rules board.
4b"Monster Island"Eddie GuzelianSandra FrameOctober 8, 2005 (2005-10-08)104
Fred and the gang visit Monster Island.
5a"A Bad Case of The Fruitcups"Will SchifrinRay Morelli and Eddie TriguerosOctober 29, 2005 (2005-10-29)105
A certain fruit on the island catches the hiccups.
5b"Fruity Booty"Ray DeLaurentis
Story by: Steve Slavkin
Ray Morelli and Eddie TriguerosOctober 29, 2005 (2005-10-29)105
Fred and his friends go on a Treasure Hunt.
6a"Nutcase"Ray DeLaurentis and Will SchifrinRicky GardunoNovember 5, 2005 (2005-11-05)106
Fred becomes a detective.
6b"One Bad Apple"Ray DeLaurentis and Will SchifrinRob SchrabNovember 5, 2005 (2005-11-05)106
Butchy intimidates the island and especially Bingo Cherry.
7a"Bananas For Golf"Story by : Matt Danner
Teleplay by : Ray DeLaurentis
Eddie TriguerosNovember 12, 2005 (2005-11-12)107
Mr. Greenrind just wants to spend a peaceful day golfing, but Fred and the banana brothers ruin his plans.
7b"Fruitball Heroes"R.J. CollearyGabe SwarrNovember 12, 2005 (2005-11-12)107
The gang plays Fruitball at the Island Stadium.
8a"A Cold Day on Fruit Salad Island"Ray DeLaurentisRicky GardunoNovember 19, 2005 (2005-11-19)108
Fred gets sick during the Island Carnival, and has to find a cure before the carnival is over.
8b"Five Nuts and a Baby"Will SchifrinDave CunninghamNovember 19, 2005 (2005-11-19)108
The gang finds a Fruit Bat and tries to parent it.
9a"Banana Cabana"Will SchifrinKirk Van WormerNovember 26, 2005 (2005-11-26)109
The Banana Brothers are left to repair Mr. Greenrind's door after destroying it.
9b"Coconut Freds"Ray DeLaurentis and Phillip VaughnSandra FrameNovember 26, 2005 (2005-11-26)109
Coconut Fred finds a magical printer and makes duplicates of himself with it.

Season 2 (2006)

No.
overall
No. in
season
TitleWritten byStoryboard byOriginal air dateProd.
code
101"Captain Nut and the Power Fruits"Ray DeLaurentis and Will SchifrinRicky Garduno and Eddie TriguerosMay 6, 2006 (2006-05-06)110
Fred and the gang become Super Heroes to defeat Blendark.
11a2a"Monkey Business"Ray DeLaurentisDave CunninghamMay 13, 2006 (2006-05-13)111
A rude baboon upsets the Fruits of the island.
11b2b"Sir Nutalot"Will SchifrinSandra FrameMay 13, 2006 (2006-05-13)111
After Fred and the gang wish to be in a video game, they have to rescue Princess Greenrind (Mr. Greenrind as Princess Peach) from Butchy (as Sephiroth). Fred is dressed as Cloud, Slip & Slide as Mario and Luigi and Bingo is dressed as Navi.
12a3a"One Fruit's Trash is Another Fruit's Treasure"Ray DeLaurentisJay BakerMay 20, 2006 (2006-05-20)112
Mr. Greenrind forbids Fred from collecting bottle caps.
12b3b"Turn on Your Nut Light"Will SchifrinGabe SwarrMay 20, 2006 (2006-05-20)112
Fred summons an alien.
13a4a"The Ripley Van Ripend Book of World Records"Ray DeLaurentisRay Morelli and Eddie TriguerosMay 27, 2006 (2006-05-27)113
Sad that he is the only islander to not have broken a record, Fred tries to attain a world record.
13b4b"Frozen in Time"Dan Danko & Tom MasonRicky GardunoMay 27, 2006 (2006-05-27)113
The Fruits travel through time.

Awards and nominations

In 2006, the series was nominated for 2 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program and Outstanding Sound Editing - Live Action and Animation at the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards.

References

  1. "Kids’ WB! - 2005-2006 Schedule Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine," Animated Bliss
  2. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows (1st ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 131. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  3. "TV Review: Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island", Common Sense Media on Go.com
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