The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police facts for kids

The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police
The title screen for The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police
Created by	Steve Purcell
Developed by	J.D Smith
Directed by	Steve Whitehouse
Voices of	Harvey Atkin Robert Tinkler Tracey Moore Tony Rosato Patrick McKenna Dan Hennessey Ron Rubin Aron Tager Catherine Disher John Stocker Tony Daniels Rick Jones Keith Knight Peter Wildman Stuart Stone Jim Millington
Composer(s)	John Tucker
Country of origin	United States Canada
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (24 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Patrick Loubert Michael Hirsh Clive A. Smith Robert Ross Gwenn Saunders Eckel
Producer(s)	J.D. Smith Jocelyn Hamilton
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Nelvana
Release
Original network	Fox Kids (USA) YTV (Canada)
Original release	October 4, 1997 (1997-10-04) – April 25, 1998 (1998-04-25)

The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police is a fun animated TV show from America and Canada. It's based on the Sam & Max comic books by Steve Purcell. The series follows two very unusual private detectives: Sam, a talking dog, and Max, a super energetic rabbit-like creature. They are known as the "Freelance Police."

Sam and Max solve strange and wild cases, always trying to catch the bad guys. The show first aired in October 1997 on Fox Kids in the United States and YTV in Canada. It had 13 episodes (which were split into 24 shorter stories). The show even won a Gemini Award in 1998 for "Best Animated Series" before it ended in April 1998.

What Is the Show About?

The show is all about Sam and Max, the freelance police. They get their missions from a mysterious boss called "The Commissioner," whom they've never actually met! Their jobs often take them to really weird and exciting places. Imagine going to the Moon, Mount Olympus (where Greek gods live), or even the center of the Earth! They also visit places like the Bohunk Lagoon, which is full of strange mutant creatures.

When they're not on official missions, Sam and Max find other adventures. They might go caving in a fridge, travel through time, or even hunt for Bigfoot. Some episodes are even themed around holidays, like visiting a prison at Christmas or delivering an artificial heart on Valentine's Day.

Meet the Characters

• Sam: He's a 6-foot-tall dog who acts like a detective from an old movie. He always wears a cool suit and hat. Harvey Atkin is the voice of Sam.
• Max: This character is a 3-foot-tall "hyperkinetic rabbity thing." He's super excited about everything! Robert Tinkler voices Max.
• The Commissioner: This is Sam and Max's secret boss. He's their only connection to any official government group. Dan Hennessey provides his voice.
• Darla "The Geek" Gugenheek: Darla is a smart 12-year-old scientist and technician. She works in Sam and Max's "Sub-Basement of Solitude." She often invents new gadgets to help them on their missions. Darla is the only main character who wasn't in the original comics. Tracey Moore is her voice actress.
• Lorne, The Friend For Life: Lorne is a huge fan of Sam and Max. He calls himself their "friend for life." But he usually just annoys them and gets in the way of their work. Patrick McKenna voices Lorne.

Episode Adventures

The show had one season with 13 episodes, many of which were split into two shorter stories. Each episode brought a new, wacky adventure for Sam and Max.

• In one episode, they had to stop a monster living in The Geek's fridge!
• They even went to space for a school's Career Day and met an alien trying to destroy Earth.
• Another time, they traveled to the moon to help rat people with a bug problem.
• They faced fish-like zombies and tried to help Zeus and Hera stop fighting.
• Sam and Max also went to the center of the Earth to stop mole-men from blowing up the planet.
• Max once found a time-traveling watch, which led to some crazy changes in their past!
• They even tried to raise a baby alligator and searched for the Commissioner's keys in a jungle (which was actually Central Park!).
• For Christmas, they spent time at Sam's grandma's maximum security prison, where they had to stop a jailbreak.
• They brought a puppet-like character to life from an old TV, who then had an evil twin trying to take over the city.
• They battled a giant baby with a robot and tried to convince a politician to unban their favorite snack, "Glazed McGuffins."
• In a Frankenstein-like story, Max's tail came to life as a monster!
• They babysat a child who could change things with his mind.
• On Valentine's Day, they had to deliver an artificial heart to the President, but their car was stolen.
• Tiny aliens constantly tried to get rid of Sam and Max, but the Freelance Police just couldn't stop them.
• They played secret agents to stop a villain from releasing an annoying tourist virus.
• They saved a young sasquatch and tried to help it find its family in the wild.
• Lorne, the Friend for Life, even tried to crash a blimp into the Statue of Liberty!
• They discovered aliens running a restaurant that served people and had to stop them.
• The final episode brought back many villains from past adventures who tried to get rid of Sam and Max for good.

How to Watch the Show

Over the years, The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police has been available in different ways.

DVD Release

On March 11, 2008, the complete series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory. This DVD set included cool extras like original artwork by Steve Purcell, short educational cartoons, an interview with Steve Purcell, and a look at Telltale Games (who made Sam & Max video games). It also had an art gallery and a playable demo of a game called Ice Station Santa.

Online Streaming

For a while, you could watch episodes online for free on GameTap TV. This was part of a promotion for the Sam & Max: Season One video game series. Most episodes were available to stream until the GameTap TV section closed down in 2008.