The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Reaper, beaten at limbo by a dim kid and his terrifying friend, becomes their best friend forever. Maxwell Atoms' Cartoon Network series ran from 2001 to 2007, first as half of Grim & Evil and then on its own, with Grim's put-upon drawl and Mandy's scowl carrying six seasons.
The show's bones go back to 1995, when Maxwell Atoms made a two-minute thesis short called Billy and Mandy in: The Trepanation of the Skull and You. Cartoon Network approved the pilot "Meet the Reaper" and entered it in the Big Pick, a viewer poll that ran from June 16 to August 25, 2000, and viewers chose it for full production. It premiered August 24, 2001, as one half of Grim & Evil, sharing the half hour with Atoms' Evil Con Carne, and got its own show on June 13, 2003.
The setup never changed. Grim (Greg Eagles) comes to Endsville for Billy's hamster; Billy (Richard Steven Horvitz) and Mandy (Grey DeLisle) challenge him to a limbo match, cheat, win, and leave him stuck as their "best friend forever" by obligation. Billy is a fool, Mandy is a tyrant, and Grim gets dragged into whatever they are doing. Common Sense Media gave it three stars out of five and summed it up as "goofy punchlines and obscure cultural references."
The run ended November 9, 2007, after six seasons, 84 episodes, and 160 segments, plus three TV movies: Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure and Wrath of the Spider Queen in 2007 and Underfist: Halloween Bash in 2008. It picked up two Emmys, including one for Phil Rynda's work on Big Boogey Adventure, and an Annie Award for "Attack of the Clowns" in 2005. Entertainment Weekly ranked it ninth among the ten best Cartoon Network shows in 2012.
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