Ed, Edd n' Eddy has always had a decent crop of mysteries. What's under Edd's hat? What the hell is Keenan Christensen doing these days? Can Danny Antonucci's politics be justified over his Canadian roots? But, there is one mystery that is rarely ever discussed, if at all. Ladies and gentlemen, the end credit mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp7N00MuU4c
The show's first season is a peculiar case, beyond it finding its footing. The title cards featured listed credits in the same font as the actual title, but in the first season, they are presented through a basic font. But, what makes it weird is that the latter half of the first season went for conventions to be followed in ensuing seasons. But, one thing that has always been consistent was the closing credits, logos aside. At least, for the most part.
The second batch of episodes were similar, yet different, from the pitch of the closing theme to the alternate font, and no other episode was like it. It also carried over to the title cards in that batch, which were played in a higher pitch.
Now, for a time, Pop Goes the Ed and Over Your Ed were claimed to be the first episodes of Ed, Edd n Eddy, but that's not the case, as The Ed-Touchables and Nagged to Ed were. Ed-Touchables and Nagged had the standard closing credits, and tone for the title cards, and you can kinda see the confusion in the second episodes featuring a rare instance of a tone up and an alternative credit font. Adding onto this, the upload of the alternate credits are claimed to be a prototype, and from 1998. Promos for the show had occurred late into that year so Cartoon Network had access by that point.
Let's go into some theories.
First theory is that Pop Goes the Ed was the actual first episode, not in a literal sense, but in terms of production order. Can you guess what the first episode of Rocko's Modern Life was? Was it No Pain, No Gain? Nope, it was the ninth, Carnival Knowledge. It was the first episode produced. Ergo, it's likely Pop Goes the Ed was the first episode completed. However, it was deemed to not be so, and wrought through a misunderstanding. During the Best Day Edder marathon in 2007, Cartoon Network slated this as the show's first episode, and that carried on to the show's season 1 DVD. However, the only evidence stated to the contrary was that The Ed-Touchables was aired first.
Refer back to production order on that, but the production codes may dispel that theory somewhat.
Second theory was that the episodes were switched. Pop Goes the Ed was in production first, but somewhere along the lines the writers deemed Ed-Touchables to be a better introduction to the series and switched the episodes, Ed-Touchables being listed first because it was completed entirely before Pop Goes the Ed.
A third theory would suggest that the writers were unsure about sticking with what they had. What I mean by that is that maybe they decided to pitch up the episode themes and closing theme, and change up the credit font, changing it back when they felt what they had first was the best. Okay maybe.
But then there's my personal theory. Pop Goes the Ed was an early test pilot completed in 1998, a mentioned year for the end credits. The Ed-Touchables was the first episode aired, but there is a possibility Pop Goes the Ed initially existed as an early pilot, and it was put into the series proper later on once the characters were properly introduced, to wit, Ed-Touchables introducing the main characters and its B-segment introducing the Kankers.
Referring back to Rocko's Modern Life, we have a similar situation with the episode Trash-o-Madness, where it was the pilot of that series, but was held over into the B-segment of episode six. There may be a similar situation here. Pop Goes the Ed was made earlier on, but technically wasn't the first episode as we can see. As for why the tones are different, chances are Pop Goes the Ed was the only segment to have that, and the credits and B-segment were tweaked to match for consistency.
But then there's the matter of Lee, Marie and May getting credited, and they weren't in Pop Goes the Ed. With that in mind it's likely Over Your Ed was also an early episode produced, but Nagged to Ed was completed first in order to properly introduce them.
But that's my theory, the case is open to anyone who has an idea.
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