Gravity Falls

Gravity Falls is an American animated television series created by Alex Hirsch (former writer for The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Fish Hooks). The first episode aired as a preview on June 15, 2012 and the series officially debuted on June 29, 2012.

Plot
Twin brother and sister Dipper and Mabel Pines are in for a very unexpected adventure when they spend the summer with their great uncle in the mysterious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, in the Disney Channel animated comedy "Gravity Falls." Upon their arrival, Dipper and Mabel's huckster great uncle, also known as Grunkle Stan, enlists the siblings' help in running The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap he owns that overcharges unsuspecting customers. Although Dipper and Mabel quickly discover The Mystery Shack itself is a hoax, they sense there is something strange about their new town and together they begin to unlock the secrets of Gravity Falls.

Thrust into their new summer home, the fish-out-of-water twins try to adapt to their weird surroundings, especially Grunkle Stan, whose insatiable appetite for money drives him to spin every opportunity into a financial advantage. While Dipper grumbles about the prospect of the same boring routine of working at Grunkle Stan's hokey shop, his extremely optimistic sister seizes the chance to seek out an epic summer romance.

However, summer becomes much more interesting for the siblings after Dipper inadvertently uncovers a cryptic journal that offers insight into the strange and wondrous mysteries of Gravity Falls. Before long, Dipper begins noticing the town's idiosyncrasies, and with the book in tow and his enthusiastic desire to vanquish evil, he sets out to investigate the village secrets. Trapped together in the small isolated town, the siblings quickly realize they need each other to battle the imminent mysteries lurking in Gravity Falls. Meanwhile, when he isn't busy trying to make a quick buck from his unsuspecting customers, Grunkle Stan guards his own secret that might hold the key to unlocking the mystery of Gravity Falls.

Production
The series, created, directed and executive-produced by 2007 California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) graduate Alex Hirsch (Fish Hooks, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack), is a production of Disney Television Animation. Set in the Pacific Northwest woods, the animated series features supernatural elements of adventure and mystery, inspired by the real-life summer trips shared by Hirsch and his twin sister while visiting relatives as kids.

"Mabel is going to be one of the breakout characters of the show. I really owe it to my sister and her many quirks. When we were growing up, my sister was obsessed with the boy band ’N Sync. She even broke her toe jumping up and down during one of their concerts. So, we did a show about a boy band, and of course, I had to get Lance Bass to do the voice of the singer. I had my sister fly down to meet him. She also always wanted to have a pet pig when we were kids, so I gave Mabel a pet pig on the show and she can live vicariously through her. She owes me big!"

The town of Gravity Falls was inspired by various towns and national parks Alex Hirsch has spent time in, but particualry one town, Boring, Oregon. As Hirsch has commented "We passed a sign for Boring, Oregon. We never went there, but I was positively enchanted with the idea that there was a town called Boring, Gravity Falls is partially from what I imagine Boring might be like. Or maybe the opposite of Boring, Oregon, would be Gravity Falls."

Main

 * Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter), the 12-year-old twin brother of Mabel Pines. Intelligent, he is armed with the book marked 3 he found which helps him with the mystery of the day. An adventurer, Dipper has trouble sitting still and is always looking for the next riddle to solve. His attention to detail seems to be helpful when solving mysteries, but others question his credibility because of his zealousness. He is considered to be intelligent beyond his years and cannot wait to grow up and become a man. His refusal to sit still when there are puzzles to be solved leaves him restless in everyday situations. As someone who is portrayed as goal-oriented and rooted in the details, he sometimes over thinks situations and obsessively makes lists. It is revealed in one of the episodes that Dipper has a crush on Wendy; it is also revealed that he likes "girly" pop music. He got his name from a birthmark on his forehead that is shaped like the Big Dipper. He secretly wishes he had the name "Tyrone."
 * Mabel Pines (Kristen Schaal), the 12-year-old twin sister of Dipper Pines. Based on the postcard she sent to her parents she seems to be a girly girl. Mabel Pines is a buoyant and energetic optimist who skips through life with a braces-filled smile and an assortment of extremely colorful knit sweaters. It is her outgoing personality and fearless curiosity that come in handy when Dipper needs help solving a mystery, even if she isn't always aware of it. Mabel lives in a world of pre-teen novels, and her fixation on finding her one true love occasionally lands her in sticky situations which ultimately require her brother's help. Still, despite the weirdness in Gravity Falls, Mabel is always a "glass half-full" kind of girl.
 * Grunkle Stan (Alex Hirsch), the great uncle of Dipper and Mabel Pines. He runs and lives in The Mystery Shack which is the world's most bizarre museum. Grunkle Stan is a gruff and miserly salesman who has finally managed to set up shop in a town with enough unsuspecting customers to sell his worthless knickknacks. His flair for showmanship is oddly hypnotizing, and thus he is able to make money by peddling the bogus trinkets and baubles in his store. His work ethic is mainly driven by his desire to make money, so when he's not generating an income, he's usually at home watching television, although he has sometimes counterfeited and stole money. Stan almost always wears a fez similar to that worn by Shriners and often speaks of the "boys from the lodge", who he claims "mistrust" him. Even though he sends the twins on unpredictable and outrageous errands, he always has their best interests at heart and loves them unconditionally. Despite his apparent 'Used car salesman' demeanor, he appears to have a few secrets of his own, including a hidden staircase to an unknown location hidden behind his vending machine.
 * Soos (Alex Hirsch), the handyman at the Mystery Shack. A friend of Dipper and Mabel Pines, Soos is a portly and lovable man-child whose desire to be where the action is makes him an excellent resource for the twins when they need a ride about town. He seems to have a wide variety of talents, specifically DJing, and enjoys bonding with Dipper, doing "boy stuff" such as heating hot dogs in a microwave until they explode. He says "dude" after almost every sentence.
 * Wendy Corduroy (Linda Cardellini), a cool, mellow fifteen-year-old girl who works as a part-time employee at The Mystery Shack. She is also Dipper's crush, who usually tries to impress Wendy in various episodes. It was revealed that Wendy has had many boyfriends in the past, although she broke up with almost every single one of them. Wendy is the oldest child in her family, and her father is Manly Dan, the lumberjack of Gravity Falls. She is also very sociable, having many friends who are around her age, one notably being Robbie, who Dipper despises due to his effort of getting Wendy for himself and his cold attitude towards Dipper and Mabel.

Recurring

 * Waddles (Dee Bradley Baker), is Mabel's pet pig. She won Waddles at the fair and ever since then, the two are inseparable. It is shown that Waddles enjoys spending time with Mabel just as much as she enjoys spending time with him.
 * Old Man McGucket (Alex Hirsch), the "local kook" of Gravity Falls. Despite his apparent insanity and stereotypically hill-billy demeanor, Old Man McGucket is a technical mastermind, capable of creating massive, complex animatronics. His son works at the lake, but the two seem to have a strained relationship, adding to McGucket's insanity and need for attention.
 * Robbie (T.J. Miller), a local teenage goth boy, who is Dipper's primary rival for Wendy's affections. He has a bad attitude and it is not unusual for him to mock others, especially Dipper. He has been shown to be skilled in playing guitar, a quality that Wendy finds attractive. Despite his hostile attitude toward most characters, he has been shown to be genuinely caring for Wendy. Robbie and Wendy are dating, much to Dipper's chagrin.
 * 'Lil Gideon (Thurop Van Orman), a young boy who owns the "Tent of Telepathy", a successful competitor of the Mystery Shack. He has an unhealthy obsession with Mabel, and thinks Dipper and Grunkle Stan are the only things keeping them apart, when in actuality she has no interest in him. He previously had an amulet that gave him telekinesis, but it was destroyed by Mabel after he attempted to use it to kill Dipper. It is shown that he owns the book marked 2, the previous volume of the book Dipper owns marked 3. His new mission is to gain possession of the Mystery Shack.
 * Sheriff Blubs  (Kevin Michael Richardson), the Gravity Falls sheriff. He is shown to be rather lazy, often choosing to sit around and drink coffee instead of pursuing a case. Despite his apparent lack of police skills, he has a superiority complex, and often looks down on Dipper and Mabel, undermining their mystery solving abilities. This lazy personality seems to stem from the extremely low amount of crime in Gravity Falls, which is evidenced when Deputy Durland once comments on how unused their equipment is.
 * Deputy Durland (Keith Ferguson), a policeman who is also Sheriff Blubs' partner and right-hand man. He is shown to be very unintelligent and childlike, shown when Mabel comments that she doesn't even think he can read. Sheriff Blubs seems to find these qualities endearing, and refers to him as a "diamond in the rough".
 * Pacifica Northwest (Jackie Buscarino), the most popular girl in Gravity Falls. She comes from a wealthy family, and is the great-great-granddaughter of the supposed founder of Gravity Falls, Nathaniel Northwest (the real founder of Gravity Falls is Quentin Trembly). Pacifica is an unfriendly, spoiled school diva and is Mabel's primary antagonist. Pacifica looks down on Mabel and thinks her eccentric personality is annoying and immature. She uses people's insecurities to manipulate them into doing whatever she wants and despises Mabel for standing up to her. Her name is a pun on Pacific Northwest, the region of the United States, comprised mostly of Washington, Northern California, and Oregon, where the town of Gravity Falls is located.
 * Toby Determined (Gregg Turkington), a journalist for the Gravity Falls Gossiper. He is a stereotypical, hard-hitting journalist, but is shown to be terrible at his job. He has a huge crush on local news reporter Shandra Jimenez to the extent that he has a cardboard-cutout of her in his closet and flirts with it when alone.
 * Lazy Susan (Jennifer Coolidge), the sluggish woman who works as a waitress in the local diner. She is shown to love fixing things, despite not being very good at it. She has a lazy eye, and has at least three cats, which are named Donald, Sandy, and Mr. Cat-Face. Grunkle Stan had a crush on her and later gets the guts to win her over, although he later regrets it after she calls him repeatedly, leaving unusual voice messages. Her name is a pun on her lazy eye, as well as the Lazy Susan kitchen device.
 * Manly Dan (John DiMaggio), the strong lumberjack and Wendy's father. He also has three sons. Manly Dan is unstable and has serious anger issues, often punching or destroying random things when angry.
 * Tyler, A.K.A. Cute Biker (Will Forte), a scatterbrained biker who always seems to follow Manly Dan. The biker acts in a rather unusual, feminine way, and could be seen as a nuisance to other people.

Guest stars

 * Coolio as Wax Coolio
 * Larry King as Wax Larry King
 * April Winchell as Ma
 * John Oliver as Wax Sherlock Holmes
 * Ken Jenkins as Pa
 * Jessica DiCicco as Tambry
 * Fred Tatasciore as Pituitaur
 * Michael Rianda as Lee and Thompson
 * Alfred Molina as Multi-Bear
 * Grey DeLisle as Woman
 * Carl Faruolo as Grenda
 * Niki Yang as Candy Chiu
 * Greg Ellis as William Shakespeare
 * Stephen Root as Bud Gleeful
 * Scott Menville as Nate
 * Justin Roiland as Blendin Blandin
 * Brian Bloom as Rumble McSkirmish
 * Jeff Bennett as the Summerween Trickster
 * Will Friedle
 * Horatio Sanz
 * Chris Parnell
 * Eric Bauza
 * Kari Wahlgren as Shandra Jimenez
 * Mikey Kelley
 * Tara Strong
 * Andrew Pifko
 * Diedrich Bader
 * Dave Wittenberg
 * Matt Chapman
 * Corey Burton

Secrets of the Show
In the end of each episode of Gravity Falls, in the credits, there is a jumble of letters, a cryptogram, that can be solved based on a hint given at the end of the show's opening theme. If you reverse the theme song the very end of the song whispers, "Three Letters Back" This is a Caesar cipher, which, in this case, uses a letter three places back from the letter it represents (e.g., A=X, Z=W, etc.). Episodes 1-6 are Caesar ciphers. Episodes 7 and up are Atbash ciphers, where the cryptogram must be solved using the Atbash substitution cypher, which reverses the alphabet (meaning that A=Z, B=Y, and so on). This is signaled by the message at the end of Dipper vs. Manliness, which states "MR. CAESARIAN WILL BE OUT NEXT WEEK. MR. ATBASH WILL SUBSTITUTE."

Trivia

 * Unlike recent Disney Channel cartoons, such as Phineas and Ferb and Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls does not have two episodes in one 30 minute time slot, but uses the entire 30 minute time slot for one episode.
 * Additionally, rather than starting with an opening theme, Gravity Falls starts with an opening scene and then has the opening theme song, similar to other Disney Channel live action shows and older Disney Channel cartoons.
 * Dipper and Mabel are based on the show's creator, Alex Hirsch, and his twin sister, Ariel Hirsch.
 * The first episode was available as a free HD/SD download off the US iTunes Store for a limited time.
 * Gravity Falls was mentioned on MAD, a series from Cartoon Network.

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 August 10, 2012, the episode "Double Dipper" was watched by 4.18 million viewers and recorded Disney Channel’s best ratings with regular programming in more than 6 months in Total Viewers, Kids 2-11 and Kids 6-11, and in more than 7 months in children and teens 9-14 – since 2/3/12 and 1/6/12, respectively. Gravity Falls became the highest-rated program in the ‘Night of Premieres’ lineup that night, finishing with a higher rating than Jessie, ANT Farm, My Babysitter's a Vampire, and Code: 9. The episode, 'Little Dipper', is the least watched episode in the series with only 2.6 million viewers.

Critical reception
The series has received universal acclaim. It currently holds a 8.7 rating on TV.com, and 8.8 rating from  1,343 users on IMDb.com. From critics, the show has received generally positive reviews. 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." While the 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".