Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager
Encyclopedia
Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager is an American comedy
web series
created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan
, who are also credited as actors, directors, editors and writers of the program. The show's central character is Chad Vader, the day-shift manager at the fictional supermarket
Empire Market, who clashes with his customers and employees. Initially produced for Channel 101
, the project was canceled
after only two episodes were released. However, Yonda and Sloan decided to continue the story and the project achieved significant popularity following its airing on YouTube
. It incorporates dialogue and concepts from Star Wars
, and is largely filmed in Madison, Wisconsin
at Willy Street Cooperative
.
The show has received several awards, including an Official Star Wars Fan Film Award
.
.
In the second season, Empire Market is bought out by Red Leader Foods, a large corporation. Maggie McCall arrives as the corporate liaison for the new owners. After failure on the new laser checkout system, Randy is demoted to night shift manager, where he becomes mentally unstable, and Maggie becomes the acting general manager. The series also introduces another love interest for Chad, Maggie's assistant Libby and a minor antagonist, Sean Banditson. The season focuses on Chad's misuse of Jeremy and Maggie's attempts to ally with Jeremy. Afterward, Jeremy and Chad duel, leading to the accidental death of Weird Jimmy.
The third season begins with the trial promotion of employees to general manager for a day. After the employees' failures, Maggie trials Clint as manager-for-a-day, where he pressures Randy to ally with him. New employee Damien Nightshayde allies with Chad and Jeremy, while a dead Jimmy, in Jeremy's visions, tells Jeremy a prophecy. Randy claims an unspecified plan is in motion. Later, former store owner Champion J. Pepper returns to the store and is the manager-for-a-day. He appears to do nothing, although a bit more than Tony. Later, Randy is seen crazier than ever. In the ending of the episode, Baby Cookie is seen ticking behind products. Soon, it is finally Chad's turn to be manager-for-a-day although Maggie has already decided that the best manager is Clint. To compensate, Chad goes to challenge Clint for a duel to the death and they initially duel in the back room, before moving towards the front of the store due to product damage to continue their duel. Soon, Chad surrenders and Jeremy and Damien throw a small net at Clint. Clint is irritated. However, soon after, Jeremy found a Baby Cookie bomb behind the shelf, and the timer indicates six minutes until detonation. Clint, Chad, Jeremy, and Damien race to find the other five bombs before the store blows up. When the sixth and final bomb is found, it turns out to be in the surveillance assailant. Damien grabs the bomb and is killed when it blows up in the parking lot. Seeing the explosion, Champion J. Pepper comes in and exercises a clause in the original sales agreement with Red Leader Foods that allows him to reacquire the store. He hires Maggie as the night manager, and promotes Chad to general manager. Jeremy, however, feels guilty about causing the death of Jimmy and Damien, and goes on leave.
) is the show's central character. He is the day shift manager of Empire Market. Sometimes using lines lifted from the Star Wars
films, Chad's main goal is to crush Empire Market's competition and help make the store dominate the food retailing industry. However, as Season 2 progresses along and Chad follows Randy's orders to "ditch" the Star Wars attitude and become more normal and the new leader announces that everyone has a chance to be General Manager, his main goal morphs into a great ambition to become General Manager(which he succeeds in the end of Season 3). While he has inappropriate and rocky relationships with most of his co-workers, most notably Clintfield Chadton, he has better ones with others, such as Jeremy, whom he adopts as his apprentice. Chad implies in the second episode that his older brother is Darth Vader
, and that Darth gave Chad a life support suit and helmet similar to his own after Chad accidentally rode his bicycle into a volcano. This fact is mentioned explicitly on the Blame Society website (www.blamesociety.net). Though he uses a red Sith
lightsaber as a weapon to threaten opponents and shoplifters (mostly old ladies), he may not be a Sith; he is never referred to as "Darth", the title given to all members of the Sith order. He is, however, referred to as "Lord Vader" by some characters. Chad had lost touch with his family when they moved to Tatooine
without him. LucasArts was impressed by Sloan, and eventually this led to him becoming the new voice actor for Darth Vader. His voice appears in the games Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, Soulcalibur IV
, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
. It is also noted that in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
, if the player kills 12 storm troopers, they will receive an achievement entitled "Worst Day Shift Manager Ever".
The series also has a DVD, which contains all 8 of the first season episodes, and one for season 2's ten episodes. Released on DVD in Fall 2008, Season 1.5 features the collection of "Chad Vader Training Videos" and other material created after the release of the Season 1 DVD. Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager has been translated into at least 6 languages, including Portuguese
, Spanish
, French
, Chinese
, Hebrew
and Lingua Franca Nova
.
A spin-off web series, Empire Market Training Videos was produced in 2008. In the webisodes, Chad covers issues of customer satisfaction, custodial duties, the importance of the dress code, the perils of shoplifting and patrolling in a series of in-universe training videos teaching the potential employee of Empire Market. It retained many characters from the main series.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
web series
Web series
A web series is a series of episodes released on the Internet or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode .While the popularity of web series is continuing to rise, the concept...
created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan
Matt Sloan (Director)
Matt Sloan is an American director and comedian from Madison, Wisconsin. He and his friend Aaron Yonda are notable as the co-creators of Chad Vader, who he also voices in both series and 'spin-off' episodes...
, who are also credited as actors, directors, editors and writers of the program. The show's central character is Chad Vader, the day-shift manager at the fictional supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
Empire Market, who clashes with his customers and employees. Initially produced for Channel 101
Channel 101
Channel 101 is a non-profit short film festival in Los Angeles, which also has a sister festival in NYC, Channel 101: NY. Channel 101 is a creation of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab in which participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot under five minutes in length...
, the project was canceled
Cancellation (television)
In television, cancellation refers to the termination of a program by a network, typically because of low viewership and/or unfavourable critical reviews. Another reason why television programs can be cancelled is to make room for new television programs...
after only two episodes were released. However, Yonda and Sloan decided to continue the story and the project achieved significant popularity following its airing on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. It incorporates dialogue and concepts from Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, and is largely filmed in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
at Willy Street Cooperative
Willy Street Cooperative
The Willy Street Cooperative is a food cooperative located in Madison, Wisconsin that specializes in natural, organic and locally produced foods. The co-op offers products from over 180 local farmers and vendors...
.
The show has received several awards, including an Official Star Wars Fan Film Award
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards is an annual contest put forth by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms to showcase and acknowledge the growing genre of fan films made by, for, and about fans of the Star Wars saga. The inaugural contest in 2002 was the first time Lucasfilm had officially sanctioned the...
.
Filming style and locations
The "Empire Market" scenes were filmed on location at Willy Street Co-op, Madison, WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
.
Series overview
The first season follows Chad and his interactions with his co-workers. He admires his boss Randy, acquires Jeremy as an apprentice, hazes Lloyd and dates Clarissa. After troubles with Clint, Chad is moved to the night shift, where he meets Weird Jimmy, before quitting his job at Empire Market. After unsuccessfully working briefly at a number of jobs, he returns to Empire Market to re-ally with his coworkers and battle Clint to reclaim the day shift manager position.In the second season, Empire Market is bought out by Red Leader Foods, a large corporation. Maggie McCall arrives as the corporate liaison for the new owners. After failure on the new laser checkout system, Randy is demoted to night shift manager, where he becomes mentally unstable, and Maggie becomes the acting general manager. The series also introduces another love interest for Chad, Maggie's assistant Libby and a minor antagonist, Sean Banditson. The season focuses on Chad's misuse of Jeremy and Maggie's attempts to ally with Jeremy. Afterward, Jeremy and Chad duel, leading to the accidental death of Weird Jimmy.
The third season begins with the trial promotion of employees to general manager for a day. After the employees' failures, Maggie trials Clint as manager-for-a-day, where he pressures Randy to ally with him. New employee Damien Nightshayde allies with Chad and Jeremy, while a dead Jimmy, in Jeremy's visions, tells Jeremy a prophecy. Randy claims an unspecified plan is in motion. Later, former store owner Champion J. Pepper returns to the store and is the manager-for-a-day. He appears to do nothing, although a bit more than Tony. Later, Randy is seen crazier than ever. In the ending of the episode, Baby Cookie is seen ticking behind products. Soon, it is finally Chad's turn to be manager-for-a-day although Maggie has already decided that the best manager is Clint. To compensate, Chad goes to challenge Clint for a duel to the death and they initially duel in the back room, before moving towards the front of the store due to product damage to continue their duel. Soon, Chad surrenders and Jeremy and Damien throw a small net at Clint. Clint is irritated. However, soon after, Jeremy found a Baby Cookie bomb behind the shelf, and the timer indicates six minutes until detonation. Clint, Chad, Jeremy, and Damien race to find the other five bombs before the store blows up. When the sixth and final bomb is found, it turns out to be in the surveillance assailant. Damien grabs the bomb and is killed when it blows up in the parking lot. Seeing the explosion, Champion J. Pepper comes in and exercises a clause in the original sales agreement with Red Leader Foods that allows him to reacquire the store. He hires Maggie as the night manager, and promotes Chad to general manager. Jeremy, however, feels guilty about causing the death of Jimmy and Damien, and goes on leave.
Cast and characters
Chad Vader (Aaron Yonda/voiced by Matt SloanMatt Sloan (Director)
Matt Sloan is an American director and comedian from Madison, Wisconsin. He and his friend Aaron Yonda are notable as the co-creators of Chad Vader, who he also voices in both series and 'spin-off' episodes...
) is the show's central character. He is the day shift manager of Empire Market. Sometimes using lines lifted from the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
films, Chad's main goal is to crush Empire Market's competition and help make the store dominate the food retailing industry. However, as Season 2 progresses along and Chad follows Randy's orders to "ditch" the Star Wars attitude and become more normal and the new leader announces that everyone has a chance to be General Manager, his main goal morphs into a great ambition to become General Manager(which he succeeds in the end of Season 3). While he has inappropriate and rocky relationships with most of his co-workers, most notably Clintfield Chadton, he has better ones with others, such as Jeremy, whom he adopts as his apprentice. Chad implies in the second episode that his older brother is Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
, and that Darth gave Chad a life support suit and helmet similar to his own after Chad accidentally rode his bicycle into a volcano. This fact is mentioned explicitly on the Blame Society website (www.blamesociety.net). Though he uses a red Sith
Sith
-Sith:The Sith is a name applied to certain characters in the Star Wars universe. In the films they are the central antagonists. They are capable of using the dark side of the Force.-The Invention of the Sith:...
lightsaber as a weapon to threaten opponents and shoplifters (mostly old ladies), he may not be a Sith; he is never referred to as "Darth", the title given to all members of the Sith order. He is, however, referred to as "Lord Vader" by some characters. Chad had lost touch with his family when they moved to Tatooine
Tatooine
Tatooine is a fictional planet and setting for many key scenes in the Star Wars saga, appearing in every Star Wars film except The Empire Strikes Back, although it is mentioned at the end of the movie...
without him. LucasArts was impressed by Sloan, and eventually this led to him becoming the new voice actor for Darth Vader. His voice appears in the games Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, Soulcalibur IV
Soulcalibur IV
is the fourth installment in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 29, 2008, in North America, on July 31, 2008, in Japan, Europe, and Australia, and on August 1, 2008, in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.The game is notable for...
, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
. It is also noted that in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
, if the player kills 12 storm troopers, they will receive an achievement entitled "Worst Day Shift Manager Ever".
Awards and honors
- Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda were awarded the George Lucas Selects award for The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards 2007, presented at Star Wars Celebration IV, for their work on Chad Vader. George LucasGeorge LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
personally selected the short movie as the best fan movie of the year. The annual competition is hosted by AtomFilms. - Chad Vader appeared on the cover of Isthmus Magazine, January 25, 2007.
- Clips from episodes 1 and 4 appeared on the October 11, 2006 episode of ABC's Good Morning America.
- Matt Sloan was selected to be the voice of Darth Vader in the video games Soul Calibur IV and Star Wars: The Force UnleashedStar Wars: The Force UnleashedStar Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
and its sequelStar Wars: The Force Unleashed IIStar Wars: The Force Unleashed II is LucasArts' sequel to 2008's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game. A trailer announcing the game was shown December 12, 2009, at the Spike Video Game Awards. The game was released across multiple platforms in October 2010, along with a collectors edition of...
.
Distribution
The first episode of Season 2 was released on the internet on February 1, 2009 and subsequent episodes have been periodically released. Season 3 started being released on the internet from early 2010.The series also has a DVD, which contains all 8 of the first season episodes, and one for season 2's ten episodes. Released on DVD in Fall 2008, Season 1.5 features the collection of "Chad Vader Training Videos" and other material created after the release of the Season 1 DVD. Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager has been translated into at least 6 languages, including Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and Lingua Franca Nova
Lingua Franca Nova
Lingua Franca Nova is an auxiliary constructed language created by Dr. C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. Its vocabulary is based on the Romance languages French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. The grammar is highly reduced and similar to the Romance creoles...
.
Other media
The titular character of Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager has appeared outside of the web series.- Chad Vader appeared on YouTube LiveYouTube LiveYouTube Live was a 2008 event streamed live on the Internet from San Francisco and Tokyo. It was hosted by a variety of YouTube celebrities, including The Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am, Tom Dickson of Will It Blend, Michael Buckley, The Happy Tree Friends, Fred, Smosh, Esmée Denters and singer...
on November 22, 2008 - The character appeared as a guest riffer on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the ClonesStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the ClonesStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes BackStar Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes BackStar Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...
for Michael J. NelsonMichael J. NelsonMichael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...
's RiffTraxRiffTraxRiffTrax are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax are sold online and delivered by digital...
service. Nelson and fellow riffer Kevin MurphyKevin Murphy (actor)Kevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Early career :...
also appeared in a special episode of the series. - Chad also appeared in an episode of a YouTube series called "Retarded Policeman" starring alongside the eponymous learning impaired policeman.
- Chad also appeared in an episode of a Youtube series called "The Key of Awesome", along side Amber Lee "Obama Girl" EttingerAmber Lee EttingerAmber Lee Ettinger is an American actress, internet celebrity, and model. She first rose to fame as Obama Girl in her Internet video "I Got a Crush... on Obama", in which she expressed her admiration of then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama...
A spin-off web series, Empire Market Training Videos was produced in 2008. In the webisodes, Chad covers issues of customer satisfaction, custodial duties, the importance of the dress code, the perils of shoplifting and patrolling in a series of in-universe training videos teaching the potential employee of Empire Market. It retained many characters from the main series.
External links
- Official site
- Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager at Atom.com
- Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- London Metro Article
- Lightsaber and Hologram FX by Saul Mandel