Aquabats band together with fans to try to get show’s second season on TV
For the past year, the Aquabats, a Huntington Beach-based ska band costumed as crime fighters, has been in a different kind of fight — to get the second season of its TV show, “The Aquabats! Super Show!” to its fans.
After success on The Hub, the show found itself homeless when the cable network was renamed Discovery Family in 2014.
The band is working to get the new season aired on a different outlet. But in the meantime, the group has set up an event for Saturday at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana to “keep people’s spirits up,” said lead vocalist Christian Jacobs, who in the band goes by the moniker The MC Bat Commander.
The event will feature a screening of all 13 episodes of Season 1, Q&A sessions with the band, exclusive merchandise, guest appearances and a live performance by the Aquabats.
“It’s something that we thought of long ago, like ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do that someday?’ It kind of just turned into that,” Jacobs said.
“Super Show!” co-creator Jason deVilliers said he considers 2015 the do-or-die year for the show.
Season 1 has been renewed several times for viewing on Netflix, but Season 2, which has already been filmed, hasn’t been shown widely because of The Hub’s rebranding.
“It’s a harder process than people may think, and not everyone gets the show,” deVilliers said. “That’s probably what it boils down to. There are people at Netflix who really like the show, but there are others who think it’s weird. Season 1 does really well on there, and if it wasn’t performing well, they wouldn’t keep renewing the license.
“There are a lot of complications with what happened with the show on the network, so there’s a lot of red tape and different parties to deal with. Just like with anything else, when there’s a little bit of work involved, people have a tendency to just say, ‘Oh, well, it would be easier just to not try.’”
The Aquabats hope that the event at The Frida Cinema will boost fan support and inspire future events, including a possible Season 2 screening, Jacobs said. The event is almost at capacity, with premium-level tickets selling out shortly after it was announced.
“We make these episodes, and we think they’re funny and awesome, but we don’t ever get to watch them with our fans,” deVilliers said. “There’s so much energy when you’re watching it with your audience. A lot of people have seen Season 1 episodes over and over, so we’re hoping people will be singing along to the songs and quoting stuff in the theater and just having a real interactive experience with the Aquabats themselves.”
Since the band’s involvement with the tyke-friendly program “Yo Gabba Gabba!,” the Aquabats have become popular with children — as well as adults who have loved the group since the early 1990s.
Because of this, Jacobs in recent years has often had to urge fans to be cautious while dancing at concerts to avoid harming younger fans.
“We have to do things a little differently now as a band,” Jacobs said. “We’ve been getting offers to do more festivals and punk shows, and we’ve been turning them down because we realize that we have to create something unique that can cater to all of our fans and all ages. I think this thing at The Frida is something that can cater to everyone.”
Jacobs said he hopes the growing fan base will help the band’s show get back on a network, or get the second season on Netflix.
Fans have started online petitions to try to ensure that they see more episodes.
Jacobs said he welcomes that support but isn’t sure it will be enough.
“We’ve got these fierce proponents of the show, but there’s just not enough for it to make a huge difference,” he said. “I don’t know if we have a million people who are fighting to get the ‘Super Show!’ back on, so that just makes things a little bit tricky. After 20 years of doing this, we’re still very do-it-yourself people. We’ve gone from being this punk garage band who dresses up in costumes to now being a TV show, which is really weird, but we’re stoked.
“It was a dream to even make 13 episodes, but we have 22. Sometimes I look back and I can’t believe we actually stuck it out and did it.”
Jacobs said he believes there’s a place for the Aquabats.
“Superheroes are the biggest thing in the world nowadays,” he said. “The biggest movies are all superhero movies. We’ve been doing this thing for more than 20 years, and making fun of superheroes all along but also having fun with it. Being superheroes who play music, I feel like we have a seat at the table in a way, even if it’s a booster seat in the corner.”
If you go
What: Season 1 screening of “The Aquabats! Super Show!”
Where: The Frida Cinema, 305 E. Fourth St., Santa Ana
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $25 general admission
Information: thefridacinema.org