The main character is Andy Larkin, a mischievous teen and the self-proclaimed "world's greatest prankster".
The show follows him as he tries to perform elaborate practical jokes, or pranks, on people in the fictional town of East Gackle, as his best friend, Danny Pickett, helps him out with almost every prank; his antagonists include: his older sister, Jen Larkin; and the bullies Peter Lik and Andrew Leech.
The first season features an American cast of voice actors (with the exception of Canadian-born Ian James Corlett) and takes place in the United States.
Throughout the series, Andy often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience, with the screen freezing in black and white in the first season – a distinctive feature of the show referred to as "Doodle Vision".
[8] Andy is a teenager who loves to prank and joke people as well as annoy his friends and family (especially his sister), but often gets into trouble.
[6] It was originally an interactive Flash movie with completely different voice actors and a promotion for Fox Kids.
[citation needed] A TV adaptation was announced by CinéGroupe on March 23, 2001 for broadcast on Teletoon and Fox Family later on in the year.
[5] The main production of the series moved to Canada in season 2, which was co-produced with the French studio SIP Animation (itself split from Saban Entertainment) and in association with German channel Super RTL.
In September 2003, the voice of Lori in Season 2, Jaclyn Linetsky, who also played the title character on Caillou, Meg in Mega Babies, and Megan O’ Connor in 15/Love, died in a traffic collision during production.
[21] On April 8, 2003, CinéGroupe Star released a set of three VHS tapes called "Double Trouble"/"Sacré Délire", which featured an episode each from this show and The Kids from Room 402, alongside a music video from the Pig City tie-in album "Reggie and the Rashers".
[30] The show was also released on DVD in other European countries, but only in the respective languages (i.e. without the original English audio).
[39] The soundtrack (including themes) from the first two seasons is distributed as production music by Red Brick Songs (formerly Casablanca Media Publishing) in Canada.
[19] The show won a fall 2002 Super RTL cartoon election poll with 60% of the vote,[19] and obtained the second-highest ratings on the channel in July 2006.