Unnatural History



A 2010 live action show on Cartoon Network about a globe-trotting teen named Henry Griffin who must now adjust to living in Washington, D.C. and attend Smithson High School, which is connected to a museum. Along with his cousin Jasper and their schoolfriend Maggie, they solve history's mysteries. As of 11/20/2010, the show has been cancelled.

"Matt: Huh, weird. Houdini's real name was Erik Weisz."
 * Just a Kid: In "The Griffin Gang".
 * Playing Against Type: Before Unnatural History Kevin G. Schmidt (Henry) had a recurring role in The Young And The Restless and a minor part Disney Channel Original Movie. Meanwhile Italia Ricci (Maggie) was cast in the likes of How I Met Your Mother and Secret Girlfriend.
 * Three Amigos
 * Bound and Gagged: The Villains Of The Week in this show employ this relatively often, one example being in "Maximum Insecurity" when Jasper is tied to a chair and gagged with his own sock while being held hostage.
 * Nerds Are Sexy: Jasper.
 * To Be Continued: Strangely, the season finale ended with a (literal) stamp of this, even though the plot of the episode wrapped up. It's questionable if the second season would actually start with
 * So much for season 2...
 * Brainy Brunette: Maggie.
 * Heroic BSOD: Maggie in "Maximum Insecurity". Henry makes her feel better about it.
 * Dawson Casting: Italia Ricci (Maggie) is 24. A bit of a stretch for someone playing a high schooler, but she makes it work.
 * The Cheerleader: Subverted when.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jasper's known Maggie almost all his life. When he asks her out, she just stares at him and walks away.
 * Ceiling Cling: Henry does this in "The Fountain of Truth".
 * Going Commando: It's been hinted that Henry does this. See Female Gaze.
 * What Could Have Been: Canned after its first season.
 * And the second season and beyond sounds so much interesting. The whole first season sounds like exposition Filler compared to it.
 * Kissing Cousins: Henry/Jasper is the most popular pairing in the fandom. It's not exactly unwarranted.
 * The Cracker: Part of the Five-Bad Band in "Maximum Insecurity".
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Has its own page.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Henry is scared of driving after crashing a jeep in his childhood.
 * Sailor Earth: When they're not writing Jasper/Henry slash, fanfic authors enjoy pairing up the already hinted Maggie/Jasper relationship, and writing in an OC (usually very well-travelled as well) to act as a Love Interest to Henry. These can stray into Mary Sue territory.
 * Book Ends: Shown in "The Liberian Candidate".
 * Green-Eyed Epiphany: Jasper spends most of one episode in a jealous sulking when he suspects that Henry's taking Maggie to the eclipse viewing. What happens is much worse.
 * Potty Failure: Jasper. Justfied in that he was six and hanging in a net from a tree.
 * Slash Fic: Henry/Jasper (Hesper/Jasry). It should be noted that this started after only three episodes aired.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Anyone who's ever been to Washington, D.C. knows that it's not the National Museum Complex but the Smithsonian or the National Mall.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: Completely and utterly averted!
 * Perpetual Frowner: Professor Morneau.
 * Deadly Gas: A bordeline case used in Professor Morneau's greenhouse.
 * Female Gaze: After it's mentioned in a roundabout way that Henry goes commando ("It's a formal dance Henry, so wear underwear!"), the camera follows his bum as it walks upstairs for a little longer than necessary.
 * Action Girl: Maggie, if the Fight Scene in "Thor's Slammer" was any indication of where her character is going.
 * Granola Girl: Maggie, to an extent.
 * Designated Girl Fight: Maggie and the female professor/scientist in "Thor's Slammer".
 * My Greatest Failure: Working on the rocket with Jasper, according to Maggie.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Or more precisely,
 * Two Guys and a Girl
 * Hollywood Hacking
 * Lampshade Hanging: "Henry, please tell me you've been in the exact same situation before and have some kind of astounding escape plan."
 * Nobody Here But Us Birds: Played straight to lure the bad guys around the museum in "Maximum Insecurity".
 * Would Hit a Girl:
 * Haunted House: E.W.'s definitely felt like one at first, minus the run down look.
 * Toilet Humor: Occasionally.
 * Occasionally?
 * Occasionally.
 * Samus Is a Girl: Hoshi's introduction.
 * Jerk Jock: Hunter
 * Wham! Line: From "Now You See Me", after E.W. leaves:


 * Linked-List Clue Methodology: Episodes that focus on Henry's godfather Dante tend to involve this.
 * No MacGuffin, No Winner:
 * Actually,
 * X Meets Y: National Treasure meets Harry Potter, minus the magic.
 * Scooby Doo meets National Treasure meets Harry Potter?
 * Plus a little Martin Mystery for the inappropriate UST between Henry and Jasper.
 * One of the commercials for the show calls it "a cross between The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with National Treasure thrown in for good measure".
 * IN HIGH SCHOOL! IN A MUSEUM!
 * Slow Motion: Just for Rule of Cool.
 * However, the slow motion used in the show lacks quality. It's choppy instead of smoothly flowing.
 * Meaningful Name: An Adventurer Archaeologist named Henry. Where have I heard of this before... Also, Smithson High is named after the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, which, as every good Indy fanboy knows, keeps the dangerous magical artifacts out of the hands of the crazies. In real life, the Smithsonian is simply the largest museum in America; pious skeptic Ales Hrdlicka's been dead longer than most people here have been alive.
 * There's Sven Erickson who studied the impact of vikings on American history. Considering the most well known viking is Leif Ericson...
 * I Need No Ladders: Henry all the way. The other two of the trio get into it too, although Jasper is less than pleased.
 * Continuity Nod: There was a lot of this in "Past, Presidents, and Future".
 * Did Not Do the Research : An in-universe example. In the pilot, Henry promises to follow the "Five" Noble Truths, while training in martial arts at a Buddhist monastary. So much for knowledge of foreign cultures....
 * Justifiable due to the fact that its played for comedy.
 * To be fair, maybe this is a case of Never Say "Die".
 * Academy of Adventure
 * Hair of Gold: Henry.
 * Out of Order: Subtle hints of this.
 * Girl of the Week: Two is a pattern, by the way.
 * One of Us: One of the producers of the show posts on this site's forums!
 * Mike Werb posts on it too!
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Henry is obsessed with figuring things out and steadfastly refusing to be tied down by convention, while Jasper is preoccupied with fitting in and doing what his father tells him (for the things his father pays attention to, at least).
 * Fish Out of Water: Henry lived in pretty much everywhere on Earth except in urban society.
 * Even though traveling the world would make avoiding urban society completely impossible.
 * They never said he didn't travel through urban society, just that he didn't live there.
 * Le Parkour: Part of Henry's basic skillset. This does beg the question of how he knows it if he's never really lived in a city, but let's chalk it up to Rule of Cool.
 * It's more of a case of All There in the Manual. On the website it explains that Henry learned parkour in Paris, probably only visiting.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * And Chekhov's Houdini's.
 * Shirtless Scene: Henry gets a lot of them, being a Mighty Whitey and all.
 * Screwed By Being On The Network: It's not a bad show, and if it were on almost any other network, it could be well-received. But because it's airing on Cartoon Network, no matter how much they promote the show a lot of viewers aren't willing to give it a chance.
 * Animation Age Ghetto, for live-action.
 * My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Upon being introduced to Maggie by Jasper the first thing Henry asks him afterwards is if he's asked her out yet.
 * Fan Service: Seeing Maggie wearing an old west showgirl dress in "The Griffin Gang". Until Jasper makes her show those ugly teeth dentures...
 * The show seems to find any excuse it can to get Henry shirtless.
 * Not that anyone minds...
 * Even when he's not shirtless, we still get plenty of glimpses of tummy due to the fact that pretty much every acrobatic move Henry does culminates in his shirt riding up - usually quite a bit higher than the move would normally result in, but hey, I don't hear anyone complaining.
 * Henry and Jasper in suits.
 * Cut Short: The Season Finale had set up What Could Have Been the start of season two. Then came the announcement on November 20th...
 * Edutainment Show: Sometimes, such as in "Griffin Gang" and "Sleeper in the Box," which were based on the Pony express and Sputnik, respectively. Other episodes... not so much.
 * Playing Sick: Henry does this in "The Griffin Gang" to this to.
 * Ship Sinking: Maggie has said that "boyfriend land" is the one place she will not go with Henry.
 * One of the two places. The other was the boys' locker room.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: See The Cheerleader.
 * Beneath Suspicion: Ambassador Tolo's PR representative.
 * Ship Tease: Hints of this, alternating between Henry/Maggie, Jasper/Maggie, and Henry/Jasper.
 * Cannot Tell a Joke: Henry in spades.
 * Take That: To The Jonas Brothers. The only time they're mentioned, they're hiding from a group of mice, and one of them can clearly be heard yelling "Mommy!"
 * Faking the Dead: Henry does this in.
 * Verbal Tic: Henry does not really use contractions.
 * Talking to Himself: Henry is a big offender. Lampshaded by Jasper.
 * Freudian Trio: Henry (id), Jasper (superego), and Maggie (ego).
 * Elaborate University High: Surprisingly averted. Smithson High is reasonably sized (Your Mileage May Vary), considering the fact that it's connected to a museum.
 * The Un-Reveal: "Maximum Insecurity" started off with Jasper and Henry making a deal that whoever got the better exam scores would plan their weekend. After an offer from Mr. Bartlett to excuse them from taking the test so they could fit in both plans, Henry refuses because he'd already studied so hard. We never see how the boys do. Most assume Henry got the better score.
 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
 * Air Vent Passageway: Used by Henry, Jasper, and  in Past, Presidents and Future
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jasper.
 * "What Do They Fear?" Episode: "Public School Enemies". See Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?.
 * Mighty Whitey: Henry has apparently lived with members of every African and Asian culture and excelled at all their skills, though we don't know how good he was in comparison to the natives. Of course, this does leave him with problems being a standard North American teenage boy. It's not clear if this is supposed to be a Deconstructed Trope or not.
 * Fun with Acronyms: Inverted with the DOUM Room.
 * You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Said word-for-word by Henry to Dean Bartlett after the outbreak is cured in "The Griffin Gang."
 * Ho Yay: Henry and Jasper. Jasper calls Henry his "butt posse" and "someone to cover his rear end" before explaining that "girls call them bff's" and hurrying away.
 * And Jasper always seems very...worried whenever Henry is in even the slightest amount of danger. (Which wouldn't be so obvious, except often he's the only one who reacts in these situations.)
 * In "Maximum Insecurity", after the scuff marks he and Maggie have been following to find Jasper disappear, Henry reveals that he knows Jasper's scent well enough to follow it. Fridge Brilliance also brings up the point that Henry not only managed to pick out the scent as Jasper's, he was able to distinguish it from the scent of the thieves who've been running up and down the hall and several hours after Jasper had been there. It's a bit interesting, to say the least.
 * In "Maximum Insecurity", after the scuff marks he and Maggie have been following to find Jasper disappear, Henry reveals that he knows Jasper's scent well enough to follow it. Fridge Brilliance also brings up the point that Henry not only managed to pick out the scent as Jasper's, he was able to distinguish it from the scent of the thieves who've been running up and down the hall and several hours after Jasper had been there. It's a bit interesting, to say the least.