Zombie Hotel  

 ran for one season in 2006. And although itΓÇÖs been aired in many countries, and dubbed into many languages, it doesnΓÇÖt appear to have ever been considered for the United States.

This is all the more tragic considering the fact that it is, in fact, both highly watchable childrenΓÇÖs programming AND Zombie-Friendly entertainment.

ΓÇÿZombie HotelΓÇÖ is, as outlined above, primarily about the Unlives of two Zombie children, a Zombie girl named Maggot and a Zomboy named Fungus. Yes, those are really their names. In Addams Family-esque fashion, the Undead in this series tend to have outrageous names but be perfectly friendly to outsiders. Likewise, their father is named Rictus and their mother Funerella. Which, really, I think is stretching even this joke a bit far.

This nuclear family runs a small hotel on the outskirts of a cheery nondescript town in a thoroughly unidentifiable region of the world, as suits a program meant to be localized all over the place, I suppose. Again like the Addamses, their home and only their home is surrounded by perpetual gloom and dark clouds, with some sort of dimensional rift open in the sky above. Also like the Addams Family, their neighboring conventionally animated citizens completely gloss over the obvious bizarreness of this situation; perhaps an example of what Douglas Adams characterized as a ΓÇÿSomebody ElseΓÇÖs Problem FieldΓÇÖ.

The first episode sets up the show, as the Zombie family has decided to send Maggot and Fungus to what they characterize as ΓÇÿHuman schoolΓÇÖ. That brings us to my one real objection to ΓÇÿZombie HotelΓÇÖ; the Zombies donΓÇÖt think of themselves as human, exactly. They definitely donΓÇÖt feel inferior to Living people, aka Humans, but they donΓÇÖt see themselves as part of the community either. ThatΓÇÖs a shame, and even if itΓÇÖs just imprecise language, not something IΓÇÖd want put in the malleable minds of the young. Zombies are people too, as we often say. No more and no less.

That aside, Maggot and Fungus are apparently the driving force in this decision, as their father is supportive but their mother is driven to distraction with worry about how the kids will fare in Human company. She makes them swear to keep their Zombie natures a secret, which the children reluctantly agree to. The main characters are Fungus and Maggot, two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school, and their family and boarders at the hotel run by their parents. They make friends with Sam, a human boy whose mother is away most of the time. Sam soon finds out about their zombie powers and all three make a team of friends. Sam uses an old railway carriage as his haunt. The plot often involves a risk of the discovery of Maggot and Fungus' zombie nature and the three trying to prevent this. The hotel itself is one of several main locations used in the show. Others include the school and Sam's railway carriage

Only one season was made with 26 episodes.