Gogs

Gogs!, or simply Gogs, is a claymation-style animated television series which takes the form of a sitcom, originally aired on Welsh television in 1993, and aired to the rest of the United Kingdom on the BBC in 1996. Gogs has since been aired internationally, and still enjoys re-runs on occasion. Gogs revolves around a family clan of dumb, primitive and socially inept cavemen in a fantasy prehistoric Stone Age setting, and contained much dark comedy, various toilet humour-based gags and gross out situations; for example the cavemen losing control of their bodily functions. It also featured their often comedic daily struggle for survival, and attempts to advance their technology and society, such as creating fire, and often failing miserably, comically and absurdly in the act. In the Welsh language, the term 'Gogs' is slang for 'Gogledd' which translates as 'North' and 'gogs' as 'Northerners', the animation may have been a joke / play on the animators view of the North as being savage. The show was more oriented towards an adult audience than other claymation television series such as The Trap Door or Wallace and Gromit, which were more child-friendly than Gogs. Although often called a children's television program, the "grungy" Gogs with its adult humor-based gags tended to be shown after the watershed, and so was often referred to as "claymation for the post-pub generation". Later VHS and DVD releases carried a parental guidance rating. The original series contained only five episodes each of around five to six minutes long. After winning numerous awards a second series was commissioned with episodes running at a similar length, bringing the total number of episodes of the two series to thirteen in number. In 1998 the last installment of Gogs, a 30-minute-long special, Gogwana, was aired, which was also critically well received and won numerous awards.