Gravity Falls

Gravity Falls is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation for Disney Channel and Disney XD from June 15, 2012, to February 15, 2016.

Created by Alex Hirsch, the series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) who are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle (or "Grunkle") Stan (voiced by Hirsch) in Gravity Falls, a mysterious town full of paranormal forces and supernatural creatures. The kids help Stan run "The Mystery Shack", the tourist trap that he owns, while also investigating the local mysteries.

In 2015, Hirsch announced that the series would finish with its second season, stating that he chose to do it for the show to end with "a real conclusion for the characters". He later stated that he remains open to continuing the series with additional episodes or specials. The show culminated with a one-hour finale, "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls", airing on February 15, 2016.

In February 2018, on the second anniversary of the final episode of the show, Hirsch used a cipher to announce Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, a continuation of the Gravity Falls story in a new graphic novel that was later released on July 24, 2018.

Plot summary
For their summer vacation, 12-year-old Dipper Pines and his twin sister Mabel are dropped off from their home in Piedmont, California, to the fictitious town of Gravity Falls, Roadkill County, Oregon to spend the summer with their Great Uncle Stan Pines (often shortened to Grunkle Stan), who runs a tourist trap called the "Mystery Shack". Things are not what they seem in this small town, and with the help of a mysterious journal that Dipper finds in the forest, they begin unraveling the local mysteries. With appearances from Wendy Corduroy, Mystery Shack cashier; Soos Ramirez, a friend of Dipper and Mabel and handyman to Grunkle Stan; plus an assortment of other characters, Dipper and Mabel always have an intriguing day to look forward to.

Main

 * Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) – The 12-year-old twin brother of Mabel Pines.
 * Mabel Pines (voiced by Kristen Schaal) – The 12-year-old twin sister of Dipper Pines who wears various sweaters.
 * Grunkle Stan (voiced by Alex Hirsch) – The greedy, grumpy, yet loving great-uncle of Dipper and Mabel Pines.
 * Soos Ramirez (voiced by Hirsch) – The 22-year-old handyman at the Mystery Shack who mostly says "dude(s)" whenever he begins or ends a sentence.
 * Wendy Corduroy (voiced by Linda Cardellini) – A 15-year-old part-time employee at the Mystery Shack, on whom Dipper has a crush.

Recurring

 * Stanford Pines, also known as The Author, Ford and Grunkle Ford (voiced by J. K. Simmons) – Grunkle Stan's six-fingered long-lost twin brother. He is introduced in the eleventh episode of season 2, having briefly appeared in a silent capacity in previous episodes.
 * Waddles (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker; Neil deGrasse Tyson as guest) – Mabel's pet pig.
 * Candy Chiu and Grenda (voiced by Niki Yang and Carl Faruolo, respectively) – Mabel's best friends.
 * Fiddleford Hadron "Old Man" McGucket (voiced by Hirsch) – A one-time genius inventor turned crazed hillbilly and former friend of Stanford's.
 * Bill Cipher (voiced by Hirsch) – A powerful dream demon from another plane of existence that can influence or control citizens of Gravity Falls through a trans-dimensional mindscape.
 * "Li'l" Gideon Gleeful (voiced by Thurop Van Orman) – A young con artist and rival of Grunkle Stan.
 * Toby Determined (voiced by Gregg Turkington) – Homely proprietor of and sole editor for the Gravity Falls' Gossiper.
 * The Northwests (voiced by Jackie Buscarino [Pacifica], Chris Parnell and later Nathan Fillion [Preston], and Kari Wahlgren [Priscilla]) – The most popular and wealthy family in Gravity Falls. The family consists of Preston, his wife Priscilla, and their daughter Pacifica.
 * Robert "Robbie" Stacy Valentino (voiced by T.J. Miller) – A local teenage Emo boy and Dipper's primary rival for Wendy's affections.
 * Tambry, (voiced by Jessica DiCicco), Leon Thompson (voiced by Michael Rianda), Nate (voiced by Scott Menville in season 1 and by Hirsch in season 2), and Lee (voiced by Rianda) – Wendy's four friends.
 * Manly Dan (voiced by John DiMaggio) – A lumberjack and Wendy's father.
 * Lazy Susan (voiced by Jennifer Coolidge) – The owner of Greasy's Diner who always has one eye closed, and is Stan's crush.
 * Tyler Cutebiker (voiced by Will Forte) – A childlike, effeminate biker and a "Local Enthusiasm Enthusiast". After the death of the ancient Mayor Befufftlefumpter (voiced by Hirsch), he is elected mayor of the town.
 * Shandra Jimenez (voiced by Wahlgren) – The reporter of Gravity Falls.
 * Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Keith Ferguson) – The two police officers of Gravity Falls.
 * Bud Gleeful (voiced by Stephen Root) – Stan's rival, Gideon's father, and a car dealer.
 * Abuelita (voiced by Matt Chapman) – Soos's grandmother, who lives with Soos.
 * Gnomes (voiced by Hirsch) – Living garden gnomes that wanted Mabel to be their queen.
 * Gompers (voiced by Frank Welker) – A goat who lives on the Mystery Shacks's property.
 * Blendin Blenjamin Blandin (voiced by Justin Roiland) – a worker at the Time Anomaly Correction Unit who has frequent encounters with Dipper and Mabel.
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger (voiced by Nick Offerman and Brad Abrell) – Two government agents that investigated Stan's portal and the town itself.
 * Ghost-Eyes (voiced by Richardson) – An inmate at the Gravity Falls Prison who is friends with Gideon.
 * Xyler and Craz (voiced by John Roberts and Greg Cipes) – The two main characters of Mabel's favorite movie, "Dream Boy High", who often appear in her daydreams.
 * Time Baby (voiced by Dave Wittenberg) – A time giant and the last of his kind, Time Baby serves as leader of the Time Anomaly Correction Unit until he is vaporized by Bill Cipher. According to a cryptogram, it will take Time Baby 1,000 years to re-assemble his molecules, and when he returns, he will be very cranky.

Concept
Prior to working on the series, series creator Alex Hirsch's primary inspiration growing up was the popular animated sitcom The Simpsons, where he observed that "animation could be funnier than live-action. That animation didn't have to just be for kids. That it could be satirical and observational and grounded in a sense of character interaction". Hirsch graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, and was hired to work as writer and storyboard artist for the Cartoon Network series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, where he was paired up with Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. Afterwards, he moved on to co-develop the Disney Channel animated series Fish Hooks; shortly before he pitched (and was subsequently green-lit) Gravity Falls.

Hirsch says he was at the California Institute of the Arts when he turned down DreamWorks Animation executive Jeffrey Katzenberg out of a desire to work for Disney. He first coined the concept for the show in an 11-minute low-budget student film which he made at the Institute. Hirsch was called in to do a pitch for Disney Channel for a show based on the short pilot. Disney Channel bought the idea and started airing the series in the summer of 2012. The series was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences with his twin sister during their summer vacations, while Stan was based on his own grandfather of the same name.

Production
Hirsch explained in an interview with The A.V. Club during production of season 1, that a typical episode is conceived in a room reserved for writers, where a simple synopsis is presented, and from then on dramatic structure is defined, and the plot is modified to include a character-driven subplot, which Hirsch expresses as "the hardest thing ... to find a character story that actually uncovers, explores, or pushes tension—on something our characters care about—that is properly explored via the magic or monster or impossibility of the week."

B- and A-stories are created, and are given to a writer to produce an outline, which is then subsequently checked-off by Hirsch for feedback. The writer produces a draft from these edits, where more notes may be given. Hirsch states that he and creative director Mike Rianda may personally create a draft for themselves before a final script is produced, in which the dialogue from the draft received from the writer is majorly revised; Hirsch states that the revising process "is not a discredit to our writers—it's just we have a very particular vision. In particular, I usually rewrite almost all of Dipper's dialogue and most of Mabel's dialogue, just because I have them in my head. Me and Mike will stay up for about 24 hours prior to the delivery of every script. We'll take the weekend, we'll work all night, we'll drink Red Bull, we'll sleep on the couch in shifts like maniacs, we'll slap each other in the face."

A script is delivered, which then gets translated into a storyboard, where feedback is received from Hirsch to the board artists if a certain element, such as a gag, doesn't work. Afterwards, a pitch for the episode is given to the network, where they do a read-through, and then the episode is either checked out by the network, or retooled in the small amount of time allocated before an animation studio must receive something to work with. The series is animated by Rough Draft Korea, Digital eMation and Yearim Productions.

Initial broadcast
The first twelve episodes of Gravity Falls aired in a regular weekly slot on Disney Channel starting in mid-2012, but subsequent episodes were broadcast without similar regularity; it took until August 2013 to broadcast the remaining eight episodes of the first season. The second season began airing a year later in August 2014, transitioning over to Disney XD, but again without any regularity to when new episodes would be first broadcast. The first nine episodes aired from August to November 2014, the following two in February and March 2015, the next eight from July to November 2015, and the finale aired in February 2016. According to Disney XD, as each episode took about six months of work to complete, they opted against stockpiling episodes to show weekly but instead take advantage of the serial nature of the show, broadcasting each episode as it was completed and making an event out of it. On April 2, 2018, reruns of the show started airing on Disney Channel, although reruns of the show still air on Disney XD.

Disney Channel
The series began airing on Disney Channel Canada on September 1, 2015, following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada. In Canada the show began airing on Disney XD starting on December 1, 2015, following the launch of Disney XD. The show started broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 20, 2012, as a preview and officially premiered on September 7, 2012. In Australia and New Zealand it previewed on August 17, 2012, and premiered on September 24, 2012. It also premiered in Southeast Asia on October 27, 2012. In India it premiered on September 16, 2013. In the Middle East region, the series was previewed on October 19, 2012, and premiered on November 10, 2012.

Other
The series preview debuted in Canada on June 15, 2012, and premiered on July 6, 2012, on Family Channel, until January 2016 when it moved to the local Disney XD channel following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada from Family's owner DHX Media. In Australia, the show airs on Disney XD and 7mate while in Chile, the show was broadcast on Canal 13 on November 24, 2013, under its programming block CuBox. In the Philippines, the show was shown on TV5 beginning on May 4, 2014, while in Brazil, the show also began airing on Rede Globo on May 10, 2014. In Indonesia, the show premiered on RCTI on August 17, 2014.

Home media
On March 27, 2018, Shout! Factory announced that they would release the complete series as a box set on July 24, 2018, on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The box set is available in a "Collector's Edition" which includes an exclusive bonus features disc. The complete series has only been released in the United States and Canada.

Critical reception
Brian Lowry of Variety stated: "The show has a breezy quality that should play to kids, and tickle some twinges of nostalgia among their parents." Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd referred to the program as "...gently twisted, with some Disneyfied action and heart-warming folded in". In his review, David Hinckley of New York Daily News called Gravity Falls "quirky and endearing", and offered praise for the character of Mabel Pines. Matt Blum, writing for Wired, favorably compared the show to Cartoon Network's animated program Regular Show and Disney Channel's animated program Phineas and Ferb, hailing Gravity Falls as "clever, strange, and somewhat poignant". Erik Kain of Forbes called Gravity Falls "the best thing on TV at the moment". Kayla Cobb of Decider called Gravity Falls "one of the most structurally smart shows ever created". Both seasons of Gravity Falls hold a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critical consensus for season one reads: "Gravity Falls' warm humor and bright performances elevate this children's cartoon to a show for all ages."

Ratings
A special preview of the series following the Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine was watched by 3.4 million viewers. The series garnered high views on its fifth episode, which aired on July 13, 2012, and attracted 3.6 million viewers. On March 15, 2013, the episode "The Deep End" was watched by 4.5 million viewers after the premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, becoming the highest-rated episode of the series.

Later moving on to Disney XD, the episode "A Tale of Two Stans" became the highest-rated telecast ever on Disney XD, with 1.91 million viewers. The series finale "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls" beat that record, being watched by 2.47 million viewers in the United States.