The first and only season of Spicy City debuted on HBO in 1997.
Spicy City was basically Tales From The Crypt…only animated!
Sspicy town is an animated series that is almost forgotten today. Indeed, it has never had any sort of physical release on home media on VHS or DVD and it is STILL not released anywhere (legally) in the United States today. Which is weird for a lot of reasons.
First of all, Spicy City has the distinction of being the very first animated series rated TV-MA to be broadcast on the airwaves – beating South Park to the punch a few weeks in the late summer of 1997. Second, this was a series that did the whole cyber-punk shtick YEARS before it became a common trope in Western animation. In reality, it was the closest thing American viewers had to a truly “national” anime, and it would remain that way for quite a while.
The series was created by Ralph Bakshi, who is pretty much the father of “adult” American animation (whatever that term is worth to you.) He gave us Fritz the Cat And Wizards in the 1970s before hitting a creative speed bump in the 1980s (which arguably he never really recovered from.) Looking back, it’s pretty amazing that HBO even gave the guy the keys to the premium cable kingdom, so to speak; I mean, late night sci-fi and erotica cartoons are pretty much a niche product.
Overall, Bakshi’s career was “killed” in the 1992s. cool world — an ambitious Roger Rabbit clone that was supposed to be an explicitly adult horror film until studio executives neutered it into a PG-13 mess that wouldn’t satisfy kids OR adults. Spicy City This was somewhat of a redemption opportunity for Bakshi, and surprise, surprise, he missed the punt a bit again. Apparently, the series got very good ratings and HBO even wanted to produce a second season. Alas, Bakshi wasn’t a fan of the idea of having a new team of writers on board and the entire series was axed after just six episodes.
But the six episodes we have Spicy City are quite interesting. Maybe not always good, in the traditional sense, but certainly interesting.
I guess the simplest way to describe the series is “an erotic sci-fi horror version of Tales from the Crypt …and everything is animated. For example, we even have a Crypt Keeper replacement in the form of Raven, the show’s hostess, who introduces the story at the start of each episode. Oh, and if you REALLY want to blow your mind, guess who they chose to voice it: none other than Michelle Phillips, of ’60s hippie supergroup The Mamas and the Papas.
The show doesn’t just look like Tales from the Crypt structurally; HBO may have tried to market the series as science fiction, but most of the stories presented here are pure horror, or at the very least great dark comedy. And the same Tales from the Cryptalmost every episode has some sort of “poetic justice” ending, with deserving evildoers getting what’s coming to them through some sort of ironic, macabre twist of fate. Concrete example? The episode “An Eye for an Eye”, where an evil and corrupt cop ends up sentenced to death… and whose entire body is cut up and practically sold to the highest bidder.
Some episodes are clearly better than others. My favorite has to be “Mano’s Hands,” which tells the story of a talented bongo player who runs into a crowd and has his hands chopped off as punishment. Of course, being a horror series and all, the hands gain sentience and start running around seeking revenge, much like Ash’s severed hand. Evil death II. It’s immensely morbid and entertaining stuff, filled with a bizarre ending beyond words that I won’t even think about spoiling for you here.
At the time, the series was controversial due to its sexual content. Remember, this was 1997, where the idea of animated nudity and hardcore profanity was a very new thing for American television. Today, however, I have a feeling the show would be much more controversial due to its…questionable…portrayal of minority characters. There’s no way to sugarcoat it; some of the ethnic characters in the series look like This close to minstrel caricatures. There’s a fine line between “stylized” and racially insensitive, and Spicy City is a series that makes it VERY uncomfortable. Of course, I’m not implying that the people who made the show are racist, but at the end of the day, optics ARE what they are. So don’t do it, I didn’t warn you in advance.
this interview from a few years ago Bakshi says the writing team assembled for Spicy City consisted of “Asians, blacks, transvestites (and) guys out of prison.” So make of it what you will. Back to today’s show Spicy City was REALLY prescient on a lot of issues. The very first episode focused on online trolls and cyber identity theft, with later episodes dealing with surveillance states, authoritarian responses to pandemics, and, yes, AI gone rogue. There’s a whole episode about “biological” prostitutes being bankrupted by android prostitutes – something that seemed comically impossible in the late 90s but terrifyingly feasible in 2026. Science fiction was always science reality 50 years ago; and see so many grandiose elements of
There is a LOT of poetic justice in Spicy City. There is a LOT of poetic justice in Spicy City.You’ll recognize a lot of the voices on the show. Tuesday Knight of Rue de l’Orme 4 EG Daily Rugrats fame, even a few
The Simpsons voice actors appear from time to time. And the animation style is quite inventive, with classic ’40s animation meeting a contemporary anime look that hasn’t really been replicated by any subsequent series. Animation enthusiasts will surely want to check out the series, just to see what Bakshi and his friends could cook up with a relatively large budget and virtually zero censorship. Of course, the whole show doesn’t hold up today. But there are enough interesting and avant-garde aspects of Spicy City to make it worth going out of your way to see if you’re a sci-fi/horror enthusiast. It’s a shame we never got a second season, because the show definitely had a lot of promise. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to find
out there in the waters of YouTube and DailyMotion. And since you can watch the entire series in about two and a half hours, you won’t have to worry about wasting too much time here. Do you like real-life ghost hunting shows? CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE! You might like
Spicy City or you might hate it. But one thing is certain: you won’t get bored watching it.
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