When it comes to children’s cartoons, especially those broadcast on Nickelodeon, there are a number that transcend generations. Regardless of how old you are, you’re probably familiar with animated series like SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents and Rugrats — at least to some extent. Conversely, there are also the cartoons that you “just had to be there” for. These are the series that fell into obscurity after being taken off the air, typically after very brief runs. As such, many of these shows are only really remembered by the kids who happened to catch them when they were originally airing. The X’s is one such show.
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Created by Carlos Ramos — who had previously worked on Nickelodeon’s ChalkZone — The X’s premiered on Nov. 25, 2005, and ran for a single season. Its initial run lasted exactly one year, concluding on Nov. 25, 2006. A total of 20 episodes were produced, though only 19 made it to air.
The X’s opening title sequence actually lays out its premise rather thoroughly. In short, The X’s follows a family of secret agents who are fairly capable of saving the world, though aren’t exactly great at fitting into suburban life. The family’s patriarch is Mr. X, first name Tucker (Patrick Warburton), who is joined by his combat specialist wife Mrs. X, first name Trudy (Wendie Malick). They have two children, 16-year-old team investigator Tuesday X (Lynsey Bartilson) and 10-year-old technology expert Truman X (Jansen Panettiere). The X’s live in a house operated by an A.I. named Home Base (Stephen Root) and, early in the series, add a dog named Rex X (Dee Bradley Baker) to the family.
The family works for a secret agency called SUPERIOR, and are sworn to battle the villain Glowface and his evil organization S.N.A.F.U. (Society of Nefarious and Felonious Undertakings). Other members of S.N.A.F.U. include Glowface’s butler Lorenzo Suave and the monstrous Sasquatch, the latter of whom was voiced by none other than the late, great “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
Upon its premiere in 2005, The X’s was compared to the 2004 Pixar film The Incredibles. It’s not exactly hard to see why, seeing as how its premise is very similar, albeit with a spy motif instead of a superhero one. Oddly enough, comparisons were also drawn between The X’s and J.J. Abrams’ ABC espionage drama Alias. That being said, series creator Ramos explained that his Nickelodeon show was actually inspired by James Bond films, Avengers comic books and the original Get Smart television series from the 1960s.
For what it was, The X’s was a funny and charming children’s spy series — and there’s definitely something to be said about its rather star-studded voice cast. But seeing as how it was canceled after one season and aired only 19 episodes, the show has mostly been lost to time. Following its conclusion on Nickelodeon in 2006, reruns of The X’s began airing on Nicktoons Network, but were taken off the air in October 2008.
Reruns briefly returned to the since-renamed Nicktoons seven years later in December 2015 as part of the week-long “Nicktoons Holladays” marathon. However, the show disappeared once again just as soon as the event was over, though a high-quality version of its opening theme was uploaded to the Nickelodeon Cartoon Universe YouTube channel in 2016 as part of Nick’s “25 Years of Animation” celebration.
Moreover, The X’s never got its own home video release, with only two episodes making their way to DVD as part of Nickelodeon’s Nick Picks compilation series. It can’t be streamed in the United States either, as it’s missing from the three major streaming platforms to feature Nickelodeon programming: Netflix, Hulu and Paramount+. The X’s is technically on Amazon, but is unavailable to U.S. viewers and, even then, is incomplete on the platform, with only 12 episodes listed. On top of that, save for the odd exception, Nickelodeon just doesn’t really acknowledge the show’s existence all that much.
The X’s was a peculiar cartoon that seemed to disappear from our screens just as soon as it arrived, a fate that unfortunately befell a number of fledgling Nickelodeon shows during the mid-2000s, such as Catscratch and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. But while it’s likely been forgotten my many, it certainly hasn’t been forgotten by all.
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