Mission Hill is one of those shows that should have found an audience from the beginning. It was an animated show created by Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley, two former showrunners of The Simpsons who wrote and/or produced some of the series’ most brilliant episodes. (Full disclosure: Josh is my brother, so I’m probably pretty biased. On the other hand, I doubt that calling The Simpsons “brilliant” is going to be particularly controversial.) Originally aired on the WB, Mission Hill was very smart and very funny–and it was canceled very quickly.
It later went on to acquire something of a cult fanbase through late-night airings on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and via various file-swapping networks, but it was otherwise damned hard to find. Fortunately, in further proof that DVD is becoming a refuge for brilliant-but-underappreciated shows, all 13 episodes of Mission Hill are coming out on DVD in November. I don’t know about you, but I’m ordering me a copy.