Actor Joe Faherty is father Fred, a peculiar scientist. Fred’s wife is named Casey and she is portrayed by actress Deborah Theaker. Together they have three children, Tina played by actress Kathleen Robertson, Ike portrayed by actor Avi Phillips and George Buza is toddler Turner. The family has opened their home to Casey’s brother Harry along with his wife Idella.

Fred’s father left him the mansion when he died and the residence came with an extraterrestrial meteor that brings strange occurrences to the manors inhabitants. During one episode Turner becomes a grown man and in another Harry has the body of a fly. Fred attempts to fix his family using his experiments.

The creators occasionally mix in imitations of other television shows, movies and commercials. Also, the show breaks the fourth wall, which is when one of the characters addresses viewers directly. Another fun twist is when the show goes behind the scenes and viewers see that the family is portraying their own lives. The series finale depicted Turner in the future as a television creator of the show “Maniac Mansion.”The information doesn’t stop now. Keep looking: Somebody is Remaking Maniac Mansion Video

My most favorite episode has to be the second season’s premier, “Luck Be a Lady This Season”. It kicked the season off with a retrospective bang, while delivering hilarious send ups of Home Alone, Married…With Children, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

What surprised the heck out of me, however, was the pitch PERFECT parody of cult television show Twin Peaks! This brief spot showed Maniac Mansion totally understood David Lynch’s iconic weirdness/style: quirky dialogue with odd deliveries, flashes to tangentially related images (At one point, Tina asks, “Who?” and suddenly we flash to an obviously stuffed owl in “flight” making “who-who-o-o” noises!), and an almost paranoiac attention to details (the sound of a faucet’s dripping grows so loud, it drowns out the dialogue.). I have never geeked out so fast over anything in my life. In that brief parody, I became not just a fan for life, but a fan FOREVER!

I think favorite characters both on the big screen and television become the most memorable because of the actors who played them. Peter Falk for instance, no matter what other screen appearances he’s made, will always be Columbo – the fumbling, disheveled L.A. Homicide Detective who almost always cracked the case by merely irritating the perpetrator. If the character was played by any other thespian, it just wouldn’t have been the same.

And who could forget Robin Williams as Mork, the alien who shacked up with Mindy? Regardless of Williams’ on screen success, any scene that shows him rambling on in a variation of voices is hard not to compare with the alien he portrayed that greeted people with “Nanu-nanu.”

Not every character relies on the actor who plays them to become a viewers favorite but if you think about it, they’re probably cartoons.