Hiatuses

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 05:20, 3 March 2022

This is not intended to be an official wiki article, simply a service to our users who wish to know more about hiatuses within the body of work.

The Brothers Chaps have sometimes put the Homestar Runner body of work on hiatus, especially in recent years.

Minor hiatuses occurred occasionally between 2005 and 2009, with the first major hiatus starting in 2010 and continuing until 2014. Since then, homestarrunner.com has still been on hiatus, but now with several toons released a year.

Minor Hiatuses

Toons

"What is it, like, mid-May or something?"

With the exception of Homestar Runner's early years, the first hiatus to last over a month was from December 5, 2005 to January 8, 2006, between the releases of the Strong Bad Emails portrait and high school, 34 days in total— the longest hiatus at the time. That record was broken by the 48-day hiatus from May 16 to July 3, 2006, between the releases of the email isp and Weclome Back, the latter of which explained what the characters were up to during that time. This was due to the birth of a baby to Mike Chapman and Missy Palmer.

The next hiatus was from December 18, 2006 to January 22, 2007, between the releases of Decemberween Short Shorts and looking old, a total of 35 days. There was later a 45-day hiatus from June 26 to August 7, 2007, between Ever and More and Quality Time with Cardboard Homestar (during which Where's an Egg? and Main Page 24 were released), which was announced in a main page pop-up as a result of Matt and Jackie Chapman having also given birth to a baby. The next hiatus, as well as the first without minor updates, was from December 23, 2008 to January 26, 2009, with 34 days between the releases of A Death-Defying Decemberween and Hremail 62.

Strong Bad Emails

A comeback... or was it?

The first major Strong Bad Email hiatus was after the release of email thunder on September 23, 2008. In its DVD commentary, the Brothers Chaps had stated that they "haven't really decided" if they wanted to create more emails; in a May 2009 interview, Matt elaborated that "200 was just a nice round number to take a break" and remained ambivalent about the potential for new sbemails. This hiatus ended on June 30, 2009 with the release of hremail 3184; having lasting 280 days (nine months and one week), it was the longest Strong Bad Email gap at the time. Strong Bad Emails were then released on a monthly schedule through videography on October 5, 2009; after this began the longest Strong Bad Email gap in the history of the site - over five years.

During this hiatus, The Brothers Chaps released drafts for an email that eventually became geddup noise, as well as a calendar that documented the release dates of all Strong Bad Emails. In addition, Matt Chapman revealed on his former Twitter page a partial image of scripting for the 206th Strong Bad Email, which he claimed would be released "someday, when you least expect it".

On April 1, 2015, sbemail 206 broke the five-and-a-half-year hiatus, but there would be no further emails until too cool's release in August 2017. On April 1, 2018, the 208th Strong Bad Email was hidden inside the holiday toon The Next April Fools Thing. The @StrongBadActual Twitter account and Trogdor!! The Board Game Kickstarter have since hinted at a 209th Strong Bad Email from one of the board game's backers.

Major Hiatuses

2010 - 2013

The original reason for the hiatus

After the release of Punkin Show in November 2009, the first major hiatus in the site's history began, with barely any material produced for nearly five months. In interviews from 2014 and 2015, The Brothers Chaps attributed this to the birth of Matt and Jackie's second baby, side projects, and creative burnout. In the 2015 Vox interview, they stated that they only expected the hiatus to last one to six months, and still wanted to make new content during that time. Matt eventually moved to Los Angeles to work on TV shows, making it difficult to make toons with Mike in Georgia.

MATT: I just had my second daughter, and then it was right at the ten-year mark which, you know, if you're gonna take a break ten years felt like a nice time to take a breather. And then during that time we decided, "Hey, let's start talking to some of the people who we've heard from over the years in the industry, and see if there's something there to work on or try to grow." And so we started talking to people out in Los Angeles, and then some of that stuff started to actually move forward. So we were like, okay, if we want to keep pursuing this we kind of need to put Homestar on hold to try to put all our weight behind that stuff. And so that's what we started doing, and I ended up actually moving out to Los Angeles for a few years and we got to do a bunch of cool stuff and work with a bunch of cool people and work on a bunch of cool shows.

MIKE: When we stopped doing stuff, we didn't know if we were stopping for two months, or six months, or one year, or four years. We just knew that we couldn't make a cartoon in the next couple weeks. So all of a sudden, "We're really trying to!" turned into this multiyear hiatus. Matt was moving back to Atlanta from LA, and we had over the years been talking about the characters more, and situations would come up, and we'd say, "Oh, Strong Bad should say this!" Once we decided that we had some ideas, the fact that people still cared was fantastic.

This hiatus ended for a short time with the release of the April Fools' Day toon Xeriouxly Forxe in 2010, with a Xeriouxly Forxe-themed main page shortly thereafter. The hiatus continued again after that, and most of the main page messages that year were Store offers. For the first time in the site's history, no major Halloween cartoon was produced in 2010. Strong Bad was later featured as one of the characters in the Telltale game Poker Night at the Inventory, released November 22. The first major update in over eight months, A Decemberween Mackerel, was released on December 14, shortly followed by Which Ween Costumes? on December 22 — a Decemberween-themed Halloween toon.

Following the holiday break into the new year, the site was back on hiatus. The only character appearance during 2011 was Puppet Strong Bad appearing at an Aquabats concert in January. 2011 was the first year in the site's history to pass without any content; the site was only updated with store offers.

In September 2011, Matt created the Twitter account @ronginald in which he hinted that Homestar Runner would be updated "sporadically and without warning". During this time, he also shared that he was working for the Nickelodeon program Yo Gabba Gabba!, for which he had previously created an animated segment, as well as The Aquabats! Super Show! and the Disney cartoon Gravity Falls. On February 27, 2012, Matt posted an out-of-focus image of the apparent script for Strong Bad Email 206, with the message "Someday, when you least expect it...". He deleted this Twitter account in January 2013.

Strong Bad and Homestar Runner made a surprise appearance at W00tstock 5.0 in July 2013, marking the first on-screen appearance of the characters in two-and-a-half years. The store was updated with the re-release of Decemberween cards around November 23, 2013.

2014 - present

"You got this, Homestar. This is nothin'."

Matt decided to move back to the Atlanta region, and The Brothers Chaps finally had the chance to make new content. For the first time in over three years, the hiatus was briefly interrupted on April 1, 2014, with April Fool 2014, the first toon since 2010. The toon acknowledges the length between updates by making the index page look dilapidated, and centers around Homestar and Strong Bad attempting to update "the website's best feature". At the end of that toon, Strong Bad and Homestar Runner discuss the possibility of there being a substantial amount of time before the next update. This toon replaced the normal index page until July.

JEFF RUBIN: This year, April, first cartoon in a while — it sounded like you were testing the waters a bit to find out if there was still interest?
MATT: Sort of. We had heard from people that were like, "Hey, where did it go? We wanted more," which is always super cool to hear.
JEFF RUBIN: I bet you get that on a daily basis, whether you know it or not, like in your email or somewhere. That must happen all the time, right?
MATT: Well, I hope it does, 'cause that would be very encouraging. I feel like the consensus is that we stopped because we didn't want to do it, and I hate for people to think that we've been sitting in a pool with a martini sort of laughing at the Internet, like, "What fools! We'll never make you a Strong Bad Email again!" It's very much the opposite. My brother and I have lived the last three or four years still thinking in our brains that we're gonna be making a new cartoon next week, and we would routinely text each other dumb jokes from a Homestar line or a Strong Bad line that will probably never happen. So, we've been wanting to do this stuff. [...] It's not that we were like, "We hated it, we wanted to take a break." No, the rest of the world has influenced us in a way where we have to take a little time off, and there literally hasn't been time to do them. So that's why the April Fools' thing was definitely like, "All right, we've got the time. We're gonna do it. We're gonna see if anybody gives a crap anymore. And if they do then the goal will be to start making more stuff, hopefully on a more frequent basis."
JEFF RUBIN: And I think we can conclude people still gave a crap, right?
MATT: It seemed like it. Maybe it was a fluke just because it was the first one we've done. I don't know if there will be diminishing returns or not, but just based on that alone it's enough to make us want to give it a try again.

In the July 7, 2014 Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show interview, Matt stated he planned to update the website again in summer or fall. He said to have plans for a new Strong Bad Email, a more accessible website redesign, and possibly a Homestar Runner-related social media account. This proved to be true with the release of Fish Eye Lens in October and the first posts from the @StrongBadActual Twitter account. In the October 3, 2014 Rolling Stone interview, Matt stated that they were doing it for fun, and not full-time, due to the stress and deadlines of the website's former weekly schedule, and that they would only release a toon every couple of months. I Killed Pom Pom, the first full-length Halloween toon since 2009, was also released at the end of the month.

In 2015, the Store was redesigned and switched to a different website, and the NavBar was updated with "youtube" replacing "subscribe". The first major update was in April 2015, when sbemail 206 was released after a five-year wait. It was around this time that the Chaps started working on their Disney web series Two More Eggs, which was originally updated with a frequency equivalent to Homestar Runner in its heyday. After that, toons started to come out semi-regularly, with new content every second month. Record Store Day, Flash is Dead!, Strong Bad Classics!, and The House That Gave Sucky Tricks were released during this time, followed by Fan Costumes 2015, the first Fan Costumes toon since 2009.

In 2016, the first major update was Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2 on April Fools' Day, the first true Marzipan's Answering Machine since 2009. On September 2nd, 2016, the Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show was performed, with a second show on October 7th. A new toon, Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold, was shown at both shows, and would be released on the website later in the year, as well as Later That Night... and Fan Costumes 2016.

In 2017, the site was first visibly updated in August with the release of too cool, the 207th Strong Bad Email; combined with the subsequent release of Skills of an Artist, along with monthly toons, it has been updated weekly for the first time since 2009. @StrongBadActual (and to a lesser extent, his Instagram account) has been highly active during this time, with new posts nearly every day; arguably even more so than the website in its heyday.

2018 saw the introduction of The Deleteheads Download, an updates newsletter not unlike the one used in 2001-2003. It has showcased a preview of the long-awaited tenth level of Stinkoman 20X6, as well as a Trogdor-themed board game, Trogdor!! The Board Game. A new version of the website that doesn't use Flash was launched on July 17, 2018. However, the only major toon releases in 2018 were the next april fools thing, Trogdor Was A Man, the Halloween toon Mr. Poofers Must Die, and Fan Costumes 2018, with additional promotional material being made for Trogdor!! The Board Game.

In 2019, more Trogdor!! promotional material was released, including a rulebook EP, with music videos being made for some of the songs. Additionally, the tenth level of Stinkoman 20X6 was planned to come out later in the year. There were no major updates until the Halloween toon, The Homestar Runner Enters the Spooky Woods.

In 2020, a soundtrack consisting of music, both background and vocal, from various Homestar Runner toons was released. Once again, the only major toon update was the holiday toon Halloween Hijinks. The final level of Stinkoman 20X6 was released in December. A merchandise collaboration with Fangamer was launched and promoted, and the Strong Bad Email DVDs were re-released in new packaging.

2021 saw the release of Main Page 27, the first new main page since 2010.

See Also

• Acknowledged Update Delays
• The Brothers Chaps' Side Projects