Let's Watch This - An Episode of "Fillmore!"

During the 2000s, Disney's Television Division was in a strange place. It was slowly shifting away from cartoons and focusing more on the infamous "tweencoms" that plagued Disney Channel's airwaves for years. You know, stuff like this...

And this, too...

And everybody's favorite anime...

Oh, sure, they were still making cartoons during this time, but alas, these cartoons are for the most part pretty obscure. The only exceptions to this seem to be Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, and MAYBE The Proud Family. We also got shows like Dave the Barbarian, The Replacements, The Buzz on Maggie... I'm not saying these are bad shows, but you don't see people talk about them as much as Disney's cartoons from the 1990s like Darkwing Duck and Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers. Today, we'll be looking at one of those "Cult Classic" cartoons Disney gave us in the 2000s. Specifically, this one.

Fillmore! was created by Scott M. Gimple. It premiered on ABC in 2002, then reruns aired on Toon Disney. It focused on reformed delinquent named Cornelius Fillmore (voiced by Orlando Brown) who works as a member of his middle school's safety patrol. His partner is Ingrid Third, a goth girl voiced by Tara Strong. They fight crime. And every episode has announcements by Don LaFontaine. Only two seasons of the show were produced, making for a total of twenty-six episodes. Why didn't the show catch on? Well, let's watch an episode and see if we can figure that out. Today's episode... "To Mar a Stall".

ACT ONE: FLUSHED INNOCENCE

A bunch of students are gathered at the grand opening of... one of the school's newly-remodeled bathrooms. They really hype it up, too - now their bathrooms have heated toilet seats and automatic toilet paper dispensers and crap (no pun intended) like that. Why such a fuss over a bathroom? I mean, the bathrooms at ninety-five percent of the schools I've been to are usually pretty dirty and gross. The reason, I guess, being that the school doesn't think it's worth the effort to make them less dirty and gross because, come on, it's a BATHROOM.

But when the girl who's apparently in charge of the bathroom-remodeling committee (Mae Whitman) opens the door to one stall, everyone is shocked... it's been graffiti-ed! And so have all the OTHER stalls! "Someone call the safety patrol... NOW!" Principal Wendie Malick exclaims.

Pictured: the work of a graffiti artist with way too much free time on their hands.

Fillmore and Ingrid arrive with the other safety patrol officers to do a little investigating. Vallejo (Horatio Sanz), who speaks with a really bad accent that I'm guessing is supposed to be Brooklyn, complains that he's going fishing this weekend and he doesn't want this work of a "Mr. Stainless" messing up his concentration while he's trying to reel in a trout. One safety patrol member says that Mr. Stainless' weapons of choice are permanent markers. Really? What kind of pathetic graffiti artist can't even get their hands on some quality spray paint? And it's the same brand of marker supplied to the school, so they can't trace the orders or anything like that. Ingrid suggests that they show the photos to someone who can trace the penmanship or something. Going off that, Fillmore suggests they show it to somebody named Randall Julian. Presumably, he means this guy:

My apologies for my really lousy PhotoShopping skills...

Well, no, actually Fillmore's referring to somebody who, according to other safety patrol members, is known as "Randall the Vandal" and is currently serving "infinite detention". Everyone's skeptical that he would help them, but Fillmore says, "You guys got a better lead?"

Ingrid, who's a new student at their school, asks for some exposition as to who this "Randall the Vandal" is. Fillmore explains that he was once one of the best art students at their school, but then he randomly decided to start graffiti-ing everything with permanent marker. He became the tagger - not just A tagger, THE tagger.

"Man, the WiFi in this school STINKS!"

He apparently decorated every bathroom in the school except one - the bathroom in the teacher's lounge - with his permanent markers. "You were the one that caught him, weren't you?" Ingrid guesses. "Well, he should be thrilled to see YOU again..."

After checking in with this guy...

Who reminds me of a celebrity, but I can't pinpoint which one...

We finally get to meet this Randall the Vandal (according to the credits, he's voiced by a young Josh Peck). "Cornelius Fillmore. You have a new partner," he says, back turned to Fillmore and Ingrid. Ingrid shows him the photos, and he dubs the new vandal's work bland and uninspired. Then he asks just why, exactly, he should help them find out who the new vandal is. "We could talk to the higher-ups. Knock some time off your detention," Ingrid suggests.

"Get the camera out of my face, Fillmore. I'm feeling claustrophobic."

Randall points out that this "Mr. Stainless" writes from right to left as opposed to from left to right like everyone else does. He's figured out why, but he's not going to tell Fillmore and Ingrid that - according to him, that would be too easy.

Ingrid and Fillmore leave and meet back up with Vallejo, who's still excited about his fishing trip. "Do some digging. Maybe this whole thing isn't about tagging. Maybe someone has a grudge against this whole bathroom renovation project," he says in that awful Brooklyn accent of his. Then Robin, that girl from before who's the head of the bathroom-renovating committee, pops in and says that she BEGGED the committee to use brushed steel for the stalls, as apparently brushed steel is almost impossible to deface. But they didn't listen!

Ingrid finds a file that includes information about the bathroom-renovating project - when it was approved, the steering committee was moved to the very same office that she and Fillmore are in right now, and as a result, a small club was thrown out of said office... specifically, an alternative art club called "the Starving Renoirs". So clearly Mr. Stainless must actually be...

For those of you that don't get the joke, please watch The Great Muppet
Caper.

"Disco!" Fillmore exclaims, which is apparently what he says whenever they find a clue (and let me tell you, it's no "Jinkies"). "The club only has three members," Ingrid tells him. And one of them is Frankie Polk (Lukas Behnken), the founder and president. So they talk to him first.

As it turns out, Frankie didn't really mind when they got kicked out of that office - he finds them to be "creatively confining". "The only thing that truly upsets me is the lack of beauty around us," he admits... right before, uh, drenching himself with pink paint.

Apparently, the "a unicorn just threw up on me" look is IN this season.

So then they visit the club's treasurer, Tommy Howard (Josh Uhler). He's miffed that everyone's talking about this Stainless guy and not HIS work. Also, his shtick is that he says "Know what I'm sayin'?!" a lot.

Next they have Jean Grace (Shanie Calahan), the club's recording secretary. She tells them that she's never set foot in a school bathroom because she doesn't believe in indoor plumbing. Apparently, she prefers to either use a port-a-potty (the one thing even MORE disgusting than a public bathroom) or just take a dump in the bushes.

Then they're summoned by one of the other safety patrol members. She points out to them that the ink flow on one section of the tag drops off seventy-two percent. Only one thing could've caused that - his red marker must've sprung a leak. Probably from the rear of the pen. So in order to find Mr. Stainless, Fillmore and Ingrid need to find somebody with a red ink stain on them somewhere. Fillmore then says that maybe this Mr. Stainless is gonna need a refill, so they wait in the school supply room.

And lo and behold, somebody DOES sneak into the supply room and swipe some markers, meaning that it's CHASE SCENE TIME!

I hope his grip is good, because methinks that if he fell he could break something...

Ingrid catches the marker thief using some bulk rubber cement. "Let's see who we got here!" Fillmore announces as he channels Fred Jones, walks over to the thief and yanks off their hood to reveal... like, ZOINKS! It's Tommy Howard!

ACT TWO: A SMEARING OF JUSTICE

So Stainless - or rather, Tommy - has been caught. Except that no he hasn't, because the episode isn't over yet, so clearly he's just claiming to be Stainless in order to get some of that guy's fame. Robin wants to order new stalls from the bathroom, but Principal Wendie Malick says that there's no need for 'em.

Meanwhile, Vallejo has a package, which upon opening he discovers to be one of those singing mounted fish.

Vallejo really hated that McDonald's commercial where the mounted fish sings
"Give me back the fillet-o-fish! Give me that fish!"

But then Fillmore notices something about the markers Tommy was stealing... they're BLACK, not RED. If Tommy were Stainless, he would've been trying to steal RED markers. Plus, there weren't any red stains on Tommy's hands or wrists. Then Ingrid says exactly what I said before - Tommy claimed to be Stainless because he wanted attention. Vallejo says that it's hard to believe somebody would smear their own name just to get attention. Hearing the word "smear" plants an idea in Ingrid's head. "Crackers! That's it!" she tells Fillmore.

With a whiteboard, Ingrid explains that a marker leaves a wet residue. "Right-handed people don't have to worry about smearing it. But a left-handed person has a tendency to drag their hand over the area they just wrote," she says... unless, of course, that person writes backwards! Stainless must be left-handed!

So they pay Randall a visit again and point out to him that this does not make solving the case any easier - a large percentage of the students at their school is left-handed. Ingrid asks Randall which of the newly-renovated bathrooms this Stainless guy is going to graffiti next, only for him to reply that he can't read Stainless' mind. So then Fillmore is all, "Well, which one would YOU graffiti next?" and bribes him with access to art supplies (all under strict supervision, of course). "You can be a real artist again, Julian..." he says.

Randall explains that the reason he started doing graffiti was because he didn't think winning art contests with macaroni representations of countries or whatever would make him "immortal". But now hardly anyone remembers him for his graffiti work either, so he picks which stall he thinks Stainless will do.

So Fillmore and Ingrid wait by a staircase for Stainless to show up. Ingrid asks if Fillmore would rather eat a "two-month old mac and cheese" or a "spider-meringue pie". Thanks for making me nauseous, Ingrid. Then Fillmore asks if Ingrid would rather eat a "squirrel burger" or a pack of potting soil (he chose the mac and cheese, by the way). After choosing the potting soil, Ingrid and Fillmore spot Frankie Polk heading into the girl's bathroom... only to find out that the reason he went in was so he could sketch a toilet.

To Ingrid's shock, Frankie has been drawing... well, I want to keep this blog
PG, so make up your own punchline here.

But it turns out that Stainless has indeed struck again - in the BOYS' bathroom! Then the mystery graffiti artist drenches them with toilet water so they can make their getaway.

ACT THREE: CAUGHT RED-HANDED

Principal Wendie Malick tells Vallejo to get this Stainless guy in custody or she shall turn the safety patrol headquarters into a falculty yoga studio. After she leaves, Vallejo suggests that Fillmore and Ingrid go back and talk to Randall Julian. Upon arriving, they find out that Randall has escaped - and his cell now looks like this:

I guess all work and no play makes Randall Julian a dull boy.

I probably should have mentioned this before - while Fillmore and Ingrid were leaving Randall's cell earlier, a pencil fell out of Ingrid's backpack and caused the door to get stuck or something like that. That's how Randall escaped.

Randall then addresses Fillmore and Ingrid on the TVs. Ingrid points out that they had a deal, but Randall's all "So what? I'm gonna make sure everyone at this school remembers me!" Fortunately, he left them a parting gift - an old copy of the school newspaper. And on the cover is a photo of Robin, cutting a ribbon with her LEFT HAND. And she's also wearing A GLOVE. Looks like this mystery's just about wrapped up.

After some more investigating, Ingrid finds a book that tells her Robin put in a motion to install her brushed steel stalls FORTY-THREE TIMES. What better way to convince the committee that brushed steel was the way to go than by vandalizing the bathrooms herself? And those brushed steel stalls she wanted are arriving at the school loading dock RIGHT NOW!

And indeed, that's where they find her. Ingrid yanks off her glove to reveal that, indeed, she's got a red ink stain on her wrist. So Robin makes a run for it. Fillmore runs after her, and Ingrid calls for backup. As she evades Fillmore, Robin yammers about how being the student that put an end to graffiti will somehow cause her to become the student council president, then the valedictorian, then "Best Dressed" in the yearbook.

Long story short, Fillmore manages to catch Robin with Vallejo's fishing rod and some bubble wrap.

Those are some eyebrows that Fillmore has...

The day is saved, Vallejo needs to repair his fishing rod, and Robin would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids. But wait, Randall Julian is still loose, and no one knows where he'll strike next... well, except for Fillmore, who catches him in the act of trying to graffiti the bathroom in the teacher's lounge.

"I don't understand how someone with your talent can just flush it away!" he tells Randall (geddit? "Flush it away"? 'Cuz this episode is all about... yeah, okay). He tries to convince Randall that making art that moves people is much more important than drawing all over bathroom stalls with a red marker. When that fails, he suggests that Randall write his REAL name all over the stall as opposed to "Flava Sava" or whatever. Randall can't bring himself to do it. "Welcome back, Randall," Fillmore says before the two of them leave the bathroom. The end.

So, that was Fillmore!. And, honestly, I liked it. The mystery geniunely surprised me a couple times, the voice acting is good... my one complaint is that it wasn't very funny, but I guess it was more focused on telling a compelling mystery than making the audience laugh. That said, is it weird that I actually like Ingrid much more than Fillmore? I think it's mainly because she's voiced by Tara Strong...

Do I have any idea as to why the show didn't catch on? Honestly, no, I don't. Maybe kids were too busy watching Power Rangers and The Proud Family to give the show any mind. Ah well, maybe it'll eventually get rebooted...