- The game follows you for one month, as you leer at women and fantasize about the possibilities. Of course, some of the girls actually do like you. Can you successfully navigate the game and end up.
- Dec 10, 2014 18. Microsoft Office. You probably associate Microsoft Office with your '90s PC, but the program was actually first released in 1989 for Apple Macintosh computers.
Real talk: I think learning is always fun. (Yes, I am absolutely a Ravenclaw. Why do you ask?) But when it’s a literal game? Then it’s even better, especially when you’re a kid. This is probably why there were so dang many fantastic educational '90s computer games — the rise of home computing (and, by extension, the rise of computing in the classroom) during the 1990s opened up a whole world of possibilities, including tons of ways to make learning a blast for the up-and-coming generations. And you know what? These games are still fun. And yes, I say that as a fully grown adult; don't knock going back and replaying the games you loved when you were 10 until you've tried it. Seriously.
As is often the case with the things we remember from the '90s, a lot of the games those of us who grew up during the decade filled our days with were originally developed and released long before the ‘90s. That's perhaps the reason '80s babies also have a certain degree of fondness for them; many of them actually dated back to the decade in which we were born. Some were part of long-running series, while still more of them received a number of remakes and reboots as technology improved. Though the graphics may be laughable now, just remember — once upon a time, they were the pinnacle of technological achievement.
Jan 03, 2019 the game literally turns off after those final moments soooooooo im not really sure what to call this ending. Could call it like 'The Henry ending' or something. Now i just have to find out how to.
So, in the spirit of nostalgia, here are 15 computer games from the ‘90s that made learning incredibly fun. Most of them are available to play on the internet now, so in these cases, I’ve also included links to where they can be found — frequently either an app store or the Internet Archive’s glorious collection of browser-based, emulated DOS games.
Have fun, kids!
1. Number Munchers and Word Munchers
The Munchers series was created by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium — or, under a name with which you might be more familiar, MECC. I don’t know about you, but I have vivid memories of seeing those four letters scrawled across a huge number of the educational games I played at school; the company dated back to 1973 and was also responsible for games like the business simulator Lemonade Stand and the storytelling game Storybook Weaver.
The Munchers series' conceit was simple: They taught kids the basics of math and grammar. Number Munchers was originally released in 1990 for the Apple II, while Word Munchers had arrived a few years earlier in 1985. Gameplay-wise, both series functioned kind of like a turn-based version of Pacman; the object WAS to “eat” all of the numbers or words that correspond to the instructions on the screen (multiples of five, etc.) without getting caught by a Troggle.
What exactly are Troggles? No idea, but they're insatiable.
2. Math Blaster!
The original Math Blaster! was released in 1983 by the now-defunct developer Davidson & Associates, but it wasn’t until the ‘90s rolled around that the series really hit its stride. Between 1990 and 1999, a whopping 20 games were released in the Blaster Learning System — and somewhat astonishingly, a few more follow-ups trickled out between 2000 and 2008. Math wasn't the only subject addressed by the series; Reading Blaster!, for example,taught language arts. A Science Blaster! Jr. was also released at one point, but due to lack of popularity, it was the only entry in the series to tackle science-based topics.
Math Blaster! is available to play online now; additionally, a bunch of ports of the math-teaching game arrived as Android apps in October of 2013, so the series appears to be alive and well (if somewhat frozen in time).
3. Scooter’s Magic Castle
Like many early computer games, Scooter’s Magic Castle consisted of a relatively large environment full of what we now call mini-games. Released under Electronic Arts’ EA*Kids umbrella in 1993, the game involved players either assuming the role of or simply helping out an elf-like creature wearing a blue tunic, red sneakers, and a red baseball cap turned backwards (the '90s!) as they worked their way through a variety of activities. These activities were designed to teach everything from problem-solving to typing; you could even make terrible MIDI music by jumping up and down a set of colorful stairs.
Scooter's Magic Castle also has a super earworm-y theme song, so if you now have it stuck in your head for the rest of the day… sorry. My bad.
4. The Carmen Sandiego Series
No list of educational ‘90s computer games would be complete without an appearance by this mysterious, trench-coated criminal mastermind. The four major entries in the series — Where in the World, Where in the U.S.A., Where in Europe, and Where in Time — were all first released by Broderbund between 1985 and 1989; the deluxe versions of Where in the World and Where in the U.S.A., however, came along in 1992 and 1993, and as a result, it’s those versions that most ’90s kids remember so fondly. There was no better way to learn geography — and hey, Where in the World deluxe is playable at the Internet Archive, so it looks like I just figured out what I’m doing with myself this weekend.
Fun fact: A Facebook version of Where in the World was available to play in 2011; I’m not sure how I missed it, but it stuck around until 2012.
5. Kindercomp
I’m really dating myself here, but Kindercomp is probably the first computer game I remember playing. Initially released in 1983 by Spinnaker Software Corporation, it was exactly the kind of game that appealed to very young children: It consisted of six mini-games that taught kids their way around a keyboard by having them draw pictures, match pairs, and other simple activities. The one I remember is the 1984 version, but the Internet Archive has a whole bunch of ‘em available, so knock yourselves out. If you have a kid in your life who's around 3 years old, it might be a fun time to play with them!
6. Mario Teaches Typing
As a child in a house full of gamers, naturally I adored Mario Teaches Typing, which first hit the scene in the early '90s. One of a number of educational Mario games released between 1988 and 1996, it put the pixelated plumber to good work teaching us how to type. Hitting the correct key would prompt Mario to hit blocks, jump on Koopa Troopas, and more. Nintendo had almost no hand in the development of these games (a far cry from the tight hold the company tends to keep on the reigns of its properties nowadays), but they proved popular all the same.
I’ll be honest, though: I actually learned how to type by frequenting chat rooms. As a result, I can type an impressive number of words per minute; however, I definitely don’t use the “correct” fingers. Ah well. Whatever works, right?
7. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Mario was second perhaps only to Mavis Beacon in the world of beloved typing programs — and what’s more, it’s still around: The first version debuted in 1987, and it has remained in production, continuing to get new and improved updates, pretty much ever since. You can download it for free right now if you like.
I was, by the way, absolutely devastated to learn recently that Mavis Beacon isn’t a real person. She was invented to give a face to the program in an era when human people weren't regularly associated with computer and video games (everything is a lie). 1985's The Chessmaster 2000had shown how effective putting a real person on the cover of a computer game could be; the wizard on the box was played by actor Will Hare, reported Vice in 2015. Mavis became the next incarnation of this strategy, as depicted by Renee L'Esperance.
8. 3D Dinosaur Adventure
Launched by Knowledge Adventure in 1993, 3D Dinosaur Adventure was little more than a glorified encyclopedia specializing in what we knew about dinosaurs at the time (much of which has since been determined to have been terribly, terribly wrong, even if the brontosaurus did make a triumphant comeback in 2015). That didn’t matter, though, because dinosaurs.
Also contained within 3D Dinosaur Adventure was a mini-game called 'Save The Dinosaurs' — which, to be perfectly honest, was downright terrifying. It required players to make their way through a series of maze-like hallways to find and rescue 15 types of dinosaurs before time ran out — and by 'before time ran out,' I mean 'before the comet that wiped out all of the dinosaurs crashed into the Earth, while you and the dinos were still on the planet.'
No pressure.
9. Odell Lake
Like the Munchers series, Odell Lake was created by MECC and therefore a fixture for many an elementary school computer lab. It debuted in the early 1980s, but it stuck around for long after that; it’s why so many of us ‘90s kids remember playing it when we were young.
In all honesty, it wasn’t really that exciting — all you did was swim around as a fish, trying to figure out whether you should eat, ignore, or run away from every other fish you encountered. I’m also not totally clear on why this was classified as an educational activity; Giant Bomb suggests it taught kids about food chains and predator/prey relationships, but I... clearly did not get that takeaway from it. But hey, I suppose survival skills are important, too, right?
Odell Lake is a real place, by the way; it’s in Oregon. Just, y’know, FYI.
10. Reader Rabbit
You know the old saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? That’s pretty much the Reader Rabbit series in a proverbial nutshell: It’s so effective at teaching kids to read and write that it’s survived all the way since the first game launched in 1984. There's a huge list of Reader Rabbit titles scattered throughout educational computing history; at the series' height in the late '90s, six to seven titles in the line were being released each year. The output has since tapered off, of course, but the remarkable thing is that it's still around.
The last major PC release for a Reader Rabbit game was in 2010, but a number of titles have debuted since then as iOS apps. Many of the games are also, of course, available to play online courtesy of the Internet Archive.
11. Mixed-Up Mother Goose
Mixed-Up Mother Goose didn't have a ton of replay value; the point was to sort out all of the nursery rhymes that had gotten 'mixed up' and put them back in order, so after you did that once, your work there was done. However, the world in which the game existed was so delightful that I played it over and over again as a small child. Released by Sierra in 1987, with a handful of remakes appearing at regular intervals throughout the ‘90s, it was a point-and click adventure game that encourage problem-solving; it also gets bonus points for having tons of relatively diverse avatar options — something which was even rarer back then than it is now. (And, y'know, it's still a problem decades later, so that's... really saying something.)
12. Super Solvers: Treasure Mountain
I’ll be honest: I actually have no recollection of playing 1990’s Treasure Mountain, Treasure Cove, or any of the other Treasure titles in this series. Many other people seem to remember these games fondly, though, so I think they deserve an inclusion here. Like many educational games, 1990's Treasure Mountain — a creation of The Learning Company, like the Reader Rabbit series — involved solving riddles that led you to keys that unlocked each successive level. You also collected treasure as you went, returning it to the chest at the top of the titular mountain once you got there. A prize was awarded for depositing the treasure back into the chest.
Treasure Mountain and Treasure Cove both focused on general reading comprehension and basic math skills; however, other entries in the Super Solvers series tackled more specialized skill sets, including deductive reasoning and logic.
13. The Dr. Brain Series
Admittedly, I never played the fourth game in Sierra On-Line's long-running Dr. Brain series, and I wasn’t a big fan of the third — but the first two? Classic. The Castle of Dr. Brain, released in 1991, and the follow-up, 1992’s The Island of Dr. Brain, were a step up from a lot of the other puzzle-solving games out there; they were geared towards slightly older kids, so there was more to each puzzle than simply picking a matching shape or selecting the next number in a sequence. We’re talking intense logic puzzles that might stump even some adults.
Sierra merged with another educational game company, Bright Star Technology, following the release of The Island of Dr. Brain; the franchise was then handed over to a team from Bright Star, which might explain why 1995's The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain and 1996's The Time Warp of Dr. Brain were so different from the first two entries in the series.
14. Eagle Eye Mysteries
Like Scooter’s Magic Castle,1993’s Eagle Eye Mysteries and 1994’s Eagle Eyes Mysteries in London came to us courtesy of the now sadly defunct EA* Kids division of Electronic Arts. Unlike Scooter’s Magic Castle, though, they were meant for an older crowd. The games followed siblings Jake and Jennifer Eagle as they solved mysteries throughout first their hometown, then in London not — unlike a modernized, digital version of Encyclopedia Brown. If you were a pint-sized fan of whodunnits, this was the game for you; it helped you learn how to piece together different pieces of information until a complete picture emerged. A valuable skill to have, I feel.
15. Oregon Trail
Ah, yes: Oregon Trail, the game responsible for countless deaths by dysentery, many drownings of oxen who tried and failed to ford the river, and a plethora of memes. For anyone who grew up playing it, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaking of people who grew up playing it, perhaps unexpectedly large swathe of the population falls into this category. Originally developed in 1971 and launched by MECC in 1974, roughly 20 versions of the game have been released since then — the most of which, believed it or not, arrived in 2018 as a handheld game similar to the Tiger Electronics games a lot of '80s kids grew up playing. Ostensibly, it taught kids what it was like to travel the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon in 1848; practically speaking, though, it mostly taught us about frustration.
Also: Never ford the river. Always caulk your wagon and float it.
Your oxen will thank you.
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DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story taught us all that if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball, with the classic sports film reaching almost Mean Girls-levels of quote-ability over the years through its many sayings of wisdom and hilarity. While it's hard to believe that the movie came out nearly 15 years ago, it's been a long, long time since the Average Joe's team first hit the big screen in 2004. As we ponder just how, exactly, we got this old, let's take a second to see where the movie's main players find themselves nowadays.
Vince Vaughn - Peter
Vince Vaughn may have already been well-known for Swingers, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Psycho when he starred in DodgeBall, but the film seems to have marked the beginning of a new phase in Vaughn's career: that of big budget, big screen comedies. The next year, he appeared in Wedding Crashers, which solidified his status as a comedy leading man.
Vaughn's next movies included a number of films that he also helped to write and produce, including The Break-Up, Couples Retreat, and The Internship. Outside of projects he had multiple roles in, he also reunited with his DodgeBall co-star Ben Stiller in The Watch and appeared in The Dilemma and Delivery Man.
Including a starring role as a crooked casino owner on the second season of True Detective, Vaughn departed from his fast-talking comedy roots with an appearance in the war drama Hacksaw Ridge, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. His most recent roles veer toward 'family' entertainment — literally. He nabbed a recurring role as Chet Stevenson on the Netflix animated comedy F is for Family, and he played Hutch in Fighting with My Family, a movie about the rise of WWE star Paige.
Ben Stiller - White
Ben Stiller has had a varied career as an actor, writer, and director, and it seems like it was really launched in 2004, the year DodgeBall was released. While Stiller was already famous for Meet the Parents and Zoolander, 2004 saw him starring in Meet the Fockers, Starsky & Hutch, and Along Came Polly, some of his most popular films.
That was just the start for Stiller, though, and he has continued to be hugely successful since, lending his voice to the Madagascar series, appearing in the Night at the Museum franchise, and writing, directing, and starring in Tropic Thunder. More recently, he appeared in Zoolander 2 (earning him a few Razzie nominations, but hey, we all make mistakes sometimes). He also appeared in 2017's The Meyerowitz Stories opposite Adam Sandler, which made its debut at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival with a standing ovation. Plus, he's moved behind the camera and into more dramatic work as of late, producing and directing the based-on-a-true-story prison break miniseries Escape at Dannemora, which earned 12 nominations at the 2019 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited Series.
Stiller hasn't forgotten his DodgeBall days though, as he recently organized a charity competition for his Ben Stiller Foundation focused around the film. Stiller was able to reunite quite a few of his co-stars for the video, which gave fans the chance to play dodgeball with him and some of his famous friends. (Hopefully not in character, for their sake.)
Christine Taylor - Kate
Christine Taylor was already known for being a (movie) Brady when she signed on to DodgeBall, and she had a lot of other memorable roles before the film as well, including parts in The Wedding Singer, Zoolander, and The Craft. Following the film, she has kept mostly off the screen, appearing in films like License to Wed and Little Boxes and in TV shows like Burning Love, Search Party, and Elementary.
Taylor has appeared in a number of projects with Stiller over the years, including Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and Arrested Development, and there's a good reason for their frequent positioning as co-stars. The two were married in 2000 after meeting on the unaired pilot Heat Vision and Jack, and had one of the most stable relationships in Hollywood—for a while.
The pair unfortunately announced their separation in May 2017, with sources close to the couple saying that Stiller spent a lot of time focusing on his career, while Taylor was focused on being a mother to their two children. Luckily, their split was amicable, so the two could potentially work together again some day in the future.
Rip Torn - Patches O'Houlihan
Rip Torn had a not so great fate as the Average Joe's team mentor Patches O'Houlihan in DodgeBall, a role that came far into an already successful career. Torn later took on roles in films like Yours, Mine, and Ours and Bee Movie, along with appearances on TV shows like 30 Rock.
Torn's successful career hit a snag in 2010, in which he was arrested and charged with drunkenly breaking into a Connecticut bank. Among the charges were allegations that he was carrying a 'loaded revolver' and was 'highly intoxicated' when he was found; he was officially charged with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and weapons charges.
Torn eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a two-and-a-half year suspended jail sentence and three years of probation. The arrest came right around the time that his 30 Rock character was killed off, and since then his career hasn't been the same, with the veteran actor only signing on to a few smaller films since. He did, however, reprise his Men in Black role in an Air New Zealand safety video in 2015.
On July 9, 2019, the veteran actor died at his home, surrounded by family. Rip Torn was 88 years old.
Justin Long - Justin
Justin Long earned himself a concussion from his character's bad ball dodging on the set of DodgeBall, but he also earned himself a pretty lofty status in Hollywood for someone who was just 26 years old. The movie marked one of his earliest roles following appearances in Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, and Crossroads, but it was just the start for the young star, who would go on to star opposite Lindsay Lohan in Herbie: Fully Loaded the following year.
From there, he starred in a number of comedies including The Break-Up and Accepted. He moved into action territory with Live Free or Die Hard and went back to horror with Drag Me to Hell. He later had memorable parts in Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Funny People. He also loaned his voice to the Alvin and the Chipmunks film trilogy series as the titular troublemaking rodent. In 2018, Long enjoyed a two-episode stint on The Conners as Neil, a potential love interest for Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and he was also cast as a fussy lawyer in Kevin Smith's hotly anticipated 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Long has had a number of high profile celebrity relationships, dating Drew Barrymore from 2007 to 2008 (the pair later starred in He's Just Not That Into You and Going the Distance together) and Amanda Seyfried from 2013 to 2015. However, the role he is perhaps most known for isn't as a celebrity or any of his film parts—it's playing the Mac in Apple's 'Get a Mac' campaigns, which ran from 2006 to 2009.
Stephen Root - Gordon
Stephen Root unleashed his inner Hulk for his role as Gordon in DodgeBall, but the rest of his roles have been much more tame. Shortly after the film was released, Root appeared in the romantic comedy Just Friends, and then lent his distinctive voice to Ice Age: The Meltdown. He later went on to have small roles in No Country For Old Men and Over Her Dead Body before booking appearances in Drillbit Taylor and Leatherheads.
Root has found himself in small parts in many a high profile film, and you'd be surprised to hear how many things you may recognize him from. The actor has appeared in The Men Who Stare at Goats, J. Edgar, The Lone Ranger, Selma, Trumbo, and more. He even had a part in the recent hit Get Out, playing one of the film's predatory villains Jim Hudson.
Root has also had an extensive career in television, appearing on True Blood, 24, Boardwalk Empire, Pushing Daisies, Justified, The Newsroom, and Idiotsitter. Plus, back in the '90s, he gave life to two iconic TV roles: unpredictable boss Jimmy James on NewsRadio and sad sack Bill Dauterive on the long-running King of the Hill. In 2018, he landed the role of Monroe Fuches, handler and mentor of the titular character on Bill Hader's pitch-black hitman comedy Barry. For his work in the show's second season, Root received his first-ever Emmy nomination.
Joel David Moore - Owen
Joel David Moore had an adorable love affair with the other team in DodgeBall, and since then, he has continued to use his sweetness to charm audiences across the board. DodgeBall was one of Moore's earliest roles, but he quickly followed it up with an appearance in Hatchet and further roles in American Hustle, Gone, and CBGB.
Moore has also been a consistent television guest star, appearing on multiple episodes of Bones and Medium and starring in the short-lived ABC drama series Forever. He has also popped up on shows like Chuck, House, My Name is Earl, and Last Man Standing. You may also recognize him from some of his music video appearances, with the actor starring in videos from the likes of Fall Out Boy, Katherine McPhee, and Katy Perry.
Moore's most notable role to date, though, was in James Cameron's Avatar. Moore played Dr. Norm Spellman in the original 2009 hit. He'll be kept busy for the next few years continuing on with the role, with Moore set to play Spellman in all four of the Avatar sequels that Cameron has planned. The movies are set to shoot back-to-back, with release dates stretched out over the next few years, so get ready to see a lot more of Moore.
Candy World Store
Chris Williams - Dwight
Chris Williams was already an established actor when he took on the part of Dwight in DodgeBall, and he has continued to be a popular comedy star since the film was released. Williams followed up the film with guest starring appearances on shows like Reno 911!, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Monk, and Weeds, at the same time lending his voice to a number of video games, including Saints Row, Spider-Man 3, and Open Season.
Williams landed recurring roles on shows like Californication, One Big Happy, and Curb Your Enthusiasm (in the memorable part of rapper Krazee-Eyez Killa). He was among the regular cast of the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors, but it was canceled after just one season. But Williams still had that recurring role on HBO's popular and acclaimed Silicon Valley as Hoover, the loyal and sycophantic assistant to evil tech boss Gavin Belson (Matt Ross).
Alan Tudyk - Steve
You'll recognize Steve the Pirate if you're a fan of sci-fi, as actor Alan Tudyk was already well-established as Wash in Joss Whedon's cult hit Firefly. A sequel to Firefly provided one of Tudyk's early DodgeBall follow-ups, with the actor coming back to tear everyone's hearts out in the Firefly big screen movie Serenity.
Tudyk has had a number of other very high profile roles as well, though, with the versatile actor appearing in films like I, Robot, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, 42, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, and Trumbo. You also heard (but didn't see) Tudyk as the droid K-2SO in the recent big screen hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
90s Computer Game Candy World Tough Guy Machines
Rogue One isn't the only time Tudyk has lent his star power to a film off screen, either. The actor has some prolific pipes, lending his voice to huge films like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana. He is also a popular voice actor on TV, appearing in episodes of Young Justice, American Dad!, and TripTank. On the small screen, Tudyk also had a main role on the ABC cult hit Suburgatory and appeared in the one season wonder Powerless, which was recently canceled by NBC despite its lofty status as DC's first televised comedy. And in the final season of the Netflix zombie comedy Santa Clarita Diet, Tudyk replaced his Firefly costar Nathan Fillion in the role of Gary, a decomposing, disembodied head.
Gary Cole - Cotton
Gary Cole played the straight man of the DodgeBall commentating duo as Cotton McKnight, giving a good enough performance to submit for any sports commentating reel. Cole decided not to go that route, though, sticking to acting and appearing in films like Pineapple Express, Tammy,Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and The Bronze.
While you've almost definitely seen Cole elsewhere on the big screen, you're more likely to have seen him on the small screen, where he's had a prolific career as a guest star on TV shows like Supernatural, Psych, Chuck, and 30 Rock. He's also had recurring roles on Entourage, The Good Wife, Suits, and Veep, for which Cole earned an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy nomination in 2014 for his role as inscrutable presidential strategist Kent Davison.
Cole is also a well-known voice actor who has lent his pipes to properties like Family Guy, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Kim Possible, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, and F is For Family. His upcoming projects include the crisis-themed romantic drama Under the Eiffel Tower and the comedy Married Young.
Jason Bateman - Pepper
Jason Bateman got the chance to deliver some of DodgeBall's most memorable lines in his role as the commentator Pepper, an outlandish part that was a huge departure from his most notable role at that point as the straight man Michael Bluth on Arrested Development. The part of Michael Bluth remains to date Bateman's most famous, and he reprised it when Netflix resurrected the show for a fourth and fifth season.
Bateman hasn't just stuck to the model home, though. The actor has also had a lengthy on-screen career, appearing in films like Juno, Hancock, Up in the Air, Couples Retreat, The Switch, Horrible Bosses, The Change-Up, Identity Thief,This Is Where I Leave You, Zootopia, Office Christmas Party, and Game Night.
Despite the movies, few actors have racked up as lengthy a TV resume as Bateman has, who landed his first small screen role in 1981, as James Cooper Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. He earned two Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe for Arrested Development, but the TV stalwart finally got his Emmy in 2019 for the extremely stark Netflix crime drama Ozark. But while Bateman stars on the show, he won his Emmy for directing an episode.
Hank Azaria - Young Patches O'Houlihan
The late Rip Torn portrayed old, crotchety, slightly mad dodgeball coach Patches O'Hoolihan in DodgeBall, but Hank Azaria played the character as a younger man, back in the good old days and in a dodgeball training video. Azaria is a comedy journeyman and gifted actor who's been a major part of some of the biggest and funniest shows and movies of the past three decades. Since the series' inception, he's been a utility voice actor on The Simpsons, portraying, among others, Chief Wiggum, bartender Moe, Carl Carlson, Superintendent Chalmers, Comic Book Guy, and Kwik-E-Mart proprietor Apu (although, because he's a Caucasian man, not without some controversy).
In 2017, he turned Jim Brockmire, a baseball announcer he played in a Funny or Die sketch, into a full-length sitcom called Brockmire for IFC. Azaria also portrayed Gargamel in two big-screen Smurfs movies, while enjoying a recurring role on Showtime's Ray Donovan and two brief appearances in Netflix's Maniac.
Al Kaplon - Tournament Referee
While dodgeball isn't a real professional sport (or at least it wasn't when DodgeBall hit theaters in 2004; some leagues have popped up since then), filmmakers managed to keep the playing sequences as realistic and above board as possible. Portraying 'Tournament Referee' in the film's climactic showdown between Globo Gym and the Regular Joes, we've got Al Kaplon, an actor and real-life minor league baseball umpire. Kaplon called strikes, balls, safes and outs for a decade as an official in the Pacific Coast League. Upon his release in 1986, he moved into acting, sort of, portraying an umpire in the baseball movie Talent for the Game. He followed that up with small parts on episodes of The X-Files and the sports-themed sitcom Inside Schwartz, as well as appearances in commercials for Toyota, Nike, and Viagra. He played an umpire in all three of those campaigns, so at least he got to call something other than baseball when he was cast in DodgeBall.
Following that high-profile gig, he was named the head referee on NBC's short-lived, 2008 primetime revival of American Gladiators. That's his most recent credit, so Kaplon seems to have retired from his second-act career as a fake referee.
Jamal Duff - Me'Shell Jones
Following small roles in the action movies S.W.A.T. and The Rundown, DodgeBall was Jamal Duff's third movie, and the actor portrayed Me'Shell Jones, dodgeball monster and loyal second-in-command to White Goodman. Duff strikes an imposing figure in real life, too. The 6'7' actor played as a defensive end and defensive tackle for three years in the NFL in the 1990s. And in the 2000s, he decided to give acting a shot.
After DodgeBall, Duff booked dozens of roles in movies and TV shows, often playing large and in charge characters such as a bouncer on This Is Us, security guards on Future Man and Raven's Home, and 'Tough Guy #1' on an episode of Fresh Off the Boat. Probably his most high-profile work to date is a recurring role as Zeke on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Fellow burly football player-turned-actor Terry Crews co-stars on the show as Terry Jeffords, and Duff plays Zeke, Terry's bullying, belittling, and much bigger brother-in-law.
Julie Gonzalo - Amber
Like her on-screen DodgeBall love interest Justin Long, Julie Gonzalo was well into her 20s when she portrayed a teenager, specifically a cheerleader named Amber who needed the help of Justin (Long) for her important cheerleading routine, but at the expense of the Average Joe's dodgeball squad. Around the time of DodgeBall's release in 2004, Gonzalo played a lot of teens, such as in Freaky Friday and A Cinderella Story. In 2006, Gonzalo scored her biggest early career role, as the outgoing Hearst College student Parker Lee on the third and final season of the cult classic Veronica Mars. Gonzalo reprised the role for an installment of the 2019 Veronica Mars revival.
And speaking of reboots, Gonzalo is also well-known for her role as Pamela Rebecca Barnes on TNT's 2012-2014 Dallas sequel series. Along with guest star gigs on series ranging from Castle to CSI: Miami to Grey's Anatomy, Gonzalo landed one other major role on a short-lived show, playing attorney Maggie Dekker on the fantastical legal dramedy Eli Stone.
Missi Pyle - Fran
Even if you've seen DodgeBall hundreds of times, you probably wouldn't be able to pick Missi Pyle out of a line-up. The gorgeous actress made a huge transformation for the part of Globo Gym player Fran, going from blonde to dark brunette and adding in a unibrow and an intense glare for good measure. (The actress says she was uncomfortable being around set in the extreme outfit, although she still says the process was 'a ton of fun.')
Since DodgeBall, Pyle has gone back to her normal self, but she's had good luck as a character actress throughout her career. Shortly after DodgeBall, Pyle played Violet's overbearing mother in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She later appeared in Captain Fantastic, Gone Girl, Just My Luck, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
In addition to dominating the big screen, Pyle has popped up all over the small screen, amassing dozens of guest starring credits to her name, including appearances on Inside Amy Schumer, Lady Dynamite, One Mississippi, Major Crimes, The Catch, Two and a Half Men, Mom, Another Period, and Bob Hearts Abishola.
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