Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World series

Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World is a series of brickfilms created by Q. Allan Brocka. It follows gay couple Rick and Steve as well as their friends, lesbian couple Dana and Kirsten who wish to have a baby, and gay couple Chuck and Evan who have a troubled relationship.

Rick & Steve are some of the earlier examples of treating brickfilming as more legitimate short filmmaking, finding success on the festival circuit and receiving funding from Hypnotic.com. The series was also highly controversial and eventually removed from the internet following The LEGO Group threatening legal action. It was later adapted into a television series with the same name and using original model designs, making it a rare example of a brickfilm adapted into a TV show.

Films
These films are presented for historical purposes only. Please note they are not suitable for people under 18.

Episode 1: Cum & Quiche (1999) Dana and Kirsten enlist the help of Rick and Steve in order to conceive a child.

Episode 2: Scary Straight People (2000) Steve's religious parents come to visit, and Rick and Steve pretend to be straight roommates.

Episode 3: Potty Mouth Training (2000) Dana and Kirsten come over with a baby they are looking after.

Episode 4: Menage a Twat (2000) Rick and Steve search for a participant for a threesome.

Cast

 * Terence McFarland as Rick
 * Christopher R. Joyce as Steve
 * Misti Chamkunthod as Dana
 * Adrienne Pearson as Kirsten
 * Shaughn Buchholz as Chuck
 * John-Scott Martinez as Evan
 * Jessica Erker as Pussy
 * as Chastity Bono, Echinacea, Camille Paglia
 * Charles as Daryl.com

Crew

 * Q. Allan Brocka - Creator, Writer, Director, Producer, Sets, Animator, Editor
 * Dominik Hauser - Original score
 * Astra Price - Digital camera
 * Sally Brockington - Editing facilities, Stills photographer
 * Aaron Johnson - Dialog recorder (Episode 1)
 * Four Media Company - Digital to film transfer
 * Hypnotic.com - Executive producer
 * Mike Enright - Animator
 * Nathan Crow - Dialog recorder
 * John Mark - "Love Theme for Three" vocals
 * Jonathan Covert, Nicole Panter, Dale Wilson, Thom Andersen, Nancy Buchanan, Wendy Apple, Victor Simpkins, Echo Post, Coral Susan Brocka, Cal Arts, Craig Martin, Lisa Lindo Lieblein, Rosita Brocka, Marsha Enright, World of Wonder, Jeremy Troy, Astra Price, Sally Brockington, Dustin Woehrmann, Jessica Erker, George Weatherford - Special thanks

Awards
The Rick & Steve films were selected for over 150 film festivals across many countries, including and. They received many awards, some of which include:


 * colspan="1" rowspan="1"|1999
 * colspan="1"|Outfest Los Angeles
 * Audience Award
 * Won
 * colspan="1" rowspan="6"|2000
 * colspan="1"|Boston Underground Film Festival
 * Best Animated Film
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Seattle International Film Festival
 * Best Short Film (Audience Choice)
 * Second place
 * colspan="1"|North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
 * Emerging Filmmaker Award
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
 * Short Film Audience Award
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Palm Springs International Short Film Festival
 * Audience Favorite
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Rhode Island International Film Festival
 * Grand Prize for Best Animation
 * Won
 * colspan="1" rowspan="2"|2001
 * colspan="1"|New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
 * Audience Award for Best Short
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Palm Springs International Short Film Festival
 * Jury Award
 * Won
 * colspan="1" rowspan="2"|2001
 * colspan="1"|New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
 * Audience Award for Best Short
 * Won
 * colspan="1"|Palm Springs International Short Film Festival
 * Jury Award
 * Won
 * Won

Controversy
Due to their very racy humor and adult subject matter depicted with LEGO, the Rick & Steve films became some of the most controversial brickfilms. With brickfilming being an emerging medium online at the start of the 2000s, a number of news reports were made on the medium, and it was common that they would make mention of Rick & Steve and its controversial content. The films were reported on in outlets such as The New York Times, Deutsche Welle, Spiegel Online, and on Danish TV news. With the films' profile rising through festival appearances and media attention, eventually The LEGO Group pursued Brocka and had him take the films and all images of them off the internet. Rick & Steve was also controversial in the early brickfilming community, with members disagreeing on whether or not it should be acceptable for its content to be depicted using LEGO. Jason Rowoldt ran a poll asking if Rick & Steve should be removed from the Brickfilms.com directory, which saw opinions split but did see more votes in favor of not removing them. Later, when the films had been removed from the internet, they became desirable rarities, and the film files were passed around semi-privately by community members.

Television series
Wikipedia article: 

Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World was adapted into a television show on the LGBT focused Logo network, a sister channel of MTV. The show replaced the LEGO with original articulated figure designs reminiscent of toys. It retained the main cast of characters and core plot points from the original brickfilm series. The TV show ran for 2 seasons for a total of 14 episodes aired from 2007 to 2009. It was animated in Canada and one of the animators was Marc Beurteaux, who is also known in brickfilming for creating the 2004 classic Robota.