Uncle Grandpa

Uncle Grandpa is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network that ran from September 2, 2013, to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from The Cartoonstitute. Uncle Grandpa is also a spin-off of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which was in turn a spin-off of The Cartoonstitute short. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
The show is a surreal action-adventure comedy that relies extensively on visual gags and catchphrases. Creator Pete Browngardt has cited the work of cartoonists Virgil Partch, Don Martin, Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Larson and Robert Crumb, as well as Golden Age–era animators such as Tex Avery and Max Fleischer when it came to developing the style of the show. Each 11-minute episode is presented in a unique format, consisting of a main seven to nine-minute story, some short bumpers typically composed of a quick visual joke, and an original short that focuses on the show's side characters.
Cartoon Network renewed the series for the fourth and fifth seasons: first splitting the second season (of 52 episodes) into two halves, which respectively became the second and third season, then dividing in half the already announced third season into the fourth and fifth season (of 26 and 23 episodes, respectively), which served as the final seasons.
The series premiered on Cartoon Network on September 2, 2013. While the pilot was nominated in 2010 for a Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program, the show itself was awarded in 2014 for the work of Nick Edwards in the category of Outstanding Individual in Animation. Kevin Michael Richardson was also nominated for a Annie Award in 2016 in the category of Best Voice Acting for an Animated TV/Broadcast Production for his work as Mr. Gus in the show. The show on itself received mixed reviews from critics by the time of its release, with praise toward the show's animation and visual humor, while also receiving criticism for its pacing. Retrospective reviews have been more positive, especially after the release of Browngardt's Looney Tunes Cartoons (which he developed), with critics and viewers alike praising its concept, humor, deranged animation and overall tone.
Uncle Grandpa is a magical shapeshifting humanoid that stops by children's houses every day to see how they are doing. Each of the children which he visits have their own problems. Uncle Grandpa tries to help them through a series of chaotic and surreal misadventures. He is a clowny sort of person who sometimes eats inedible objects (paper, and mostly books). He drives/lives in a UG-2000 model robotic RV known as the Perpetual Persistence and is accompanied by a talking red fanny pack named Belly Bag, a green dinosauroid named Mr. Gus, a static photographic cutout of a tiger named Giant Realistic Flying Tiger, and an anthropomorphic pepperoni pizza slice named Pizza Steve. He greets everybody using “Good Morning.”
The first-season episode "Christmas Special" was aired in December 2014. A double-length Christmas special, it centers on Uncle Grandpa who reluctantly agrees to disguise himself as his brother Santa Claus, after the latter character injures a leg. The episode received mostly praise in international publications, and in the United States it was viewed by 1.5 million. Cartoon Network developed a browser game adaptation named Sneakin' Santa to promote the episode. The episode was well received by the critics during its respective Christmas season.
A crossover special between Uncle Grandpa and Steven Universe was aired as an episode of the latter series' second season in April 2015. Conceived of by the creator of the latter series, Rebecca Sugar, the episode has Uncle Grandpa teach Steven how to bear a shield from his gemstone. Nearly two million viewed the episode, which received acclaim from critics.
The second-season episode "Guest Directed Shorts" was aired in June 2015 and consists of three animated shorts. The first short, directed by M. Wartella, has Uncle Grandpa using time travel in order to find the best hamburger; the second, by Pendleton Ward, has Pizza Steve beatboxing with Uncle Grandpa in the park; and the third, by Max Winston, has the RV gang getting trapped in Uncle Grandpa's claymation mind after their television set breaks down. Wartella is known for his work on the animated series Superjail! and Mad, while Ward is the creator of Adventure Time; Winston is a professional stop-motion artist. The episode was viewed by 1.3 million. The episode was very well received by the critics, while Winston's short was nominated for best television production at the 2015 edition of the Annecy Film Festival.
Uncle Grandpa Babies first appeared as a short in the 2014 episode "Grounded" as a faux Cartoon Network ad that presents a series called "Uncle Grandpa Babies" and claims to be made by the same creators of Adventure Time (Pendleton Ward) and Steven Universe (Rebecca Sugar). One year later, a full episode based on the babies saving America from a foreign country's missile launch aired on August 20, 2015.
In light of the special premiering, reruns of Baby Looney Tunes returned to Cartoon Network.
The Uncle Grandpa pilot was created by former Chowder storyboard artist Peter Browngardt, who first pitched the idea to Cartoon Network in 2006. Browngardt, who grew up the youngest in a large family of eight children (his eldest brother Tom would go on to work as the show's film editor), based the character upon the various and often eccentric relatives who would often drop by and visit them, as well as aspects of his own personality. The style of the show was inspired by his love of comics and Warner Bros. Cartoons. The pilot was produced in 2008, then aired online in 2009 on Cartoon Network Video as part of The Cartoonstitute. Akin to the Regular Show pilot, the Uncle Grandpa pilot was successful, but it too have been green-lit into its own series.
In 2011, the TV series Secret Mountain Fort Awesome (based on the creatures that appear in the original short) aired on Cartoon Network, but was not as well-received as the other Cartoon Network shows at the time, and was eventually put on hiatus in February 2012. Despite the failure, Secret Mountain Fort Awesome went on to win several awards, including the coveted Crystal Award for "Best Television Production" at Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the first United States–based production to do so. This helped boost Browngardt's profile in getting Uncle Grandpa greenlit as a series. Another factor that contributed to the launch of the show was the redesign of the character by John Kricfalusi, The Ren & Stimpy Show's creator.
On July 27 and 28, 2013, Cartoon Network aired a sneak peek of the series as part of Big Fan Weekend, along with Clarence and Steven Universe.
On August 17, 2022, it was announced that HBO Max would be removing several series, including Uncle Grandpa.
In India, it aired in 2015 on Cartoon Network India and it airs still now on Cartoon Network HD+. In Canada, it premiered on September 2, 2013, on Cartoon Network. It also premiered on Cartoon Network channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland on April 14, 2014, and in Australia on May 5, 2014. In the Middle East, it premiered on July 6, 2014, on Cartoon Network Arabic.
On April 30, 2014, Kaboom! and Cartoon Network announced that Uncle Grandpa comics were in the works. Issue 1 was released on October 15, 2014.