Smiling Friends

Come on everybody, smile smile smile!

***Smiling Friends*** is an adult animated television series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack for Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim, which revolves around a small charity dedicated to making people smile.

The pilot episode aired April 1, 2020 unannounced as part of Adult Swim's annual April Fools' Day event alongside the premiere of Cusack's other series, *YOLO: Crystal Fantasy*. On May 19, 2021, Adult Swim ordered a full season that was initially set to premiere in late 2021. A panel dedicated to the series was held during the Adult Swim Festival on November 12, 2021, where co-creator Zach Hadel mentioned the show will premiere "within a few months", pushing the release schedule ahead to 2022. The first season contains 8 episodes, including the pilot. The first season eventually premiered on January 10, 2022, with Adult Swim airing all episodes of the season in one night despite initial plans for a weekly release.

*Smiling Friends* has received acclaim from both audiences and critics for its characterization, humor, writing, and integration of mixed media including 2D animation, 3D animation, stop motion, and live action. The series was renewed for a second season on February 9, 2022.

Smiling Friends Inc. is a small charity, headquartered in a city resembling Philadelphia, whose mission is to bring happiness to the world. The series follows the day-to-day lives and misadventures of its representatives—cynical Charlie and cheerful, optimistic Pim—as they try to help out the troubled people who call their charity's hotline, though this task usually proves to be more challenging than anticipated due to the often deep-seated nature of their clients' problems.

## Cast

### Main

* Michael Cusack as Pim / Alan / Various
* Zach Hadel as Charlie Dompler / Glep / Various
* Marc M. as Mr. Boss

### Recurring

* David Dore as Party Bro / Forest Demon
* Mick Lauer as Bug / Guy at the Gym / Crazy Cup / Elf / additional voices
* Erica Lindbeck as Assistant / Jennifer "Shrimpina" the Barista / Mustard / The Princess
* Chris O'Neill as Smormu / additional voices
* Hans van Harken as Jimmy Fallon / Priest / Hell Faces / additional voices
* Rodrigo Huerta as Guy In Line / Jacob the Goblin / additional voices
* Joshua Tomar as Centaur / Grandpa Glep / Cop / additional voices
* Harry Partridge as Smormu Announcer / Grease / 3D Squelton

### Guest

* Mike Stoklasa as Desmond / Himself
* Finn Wolfhard as Man Living in Wall / various Bliblies
* Nick Wolfhard as Graham Nelly / various Bliblies
* Tom Fulp as Alpha
* Jane Badler as Celebrity Show Host
* David Firth as Shrimp
* Dylan "Chills" as Patron
* Perry Caravello as Simon S. Salty
* Monica Franco as Charlie's girlfriend
* Jim Knobeloch as Mystery Show Host
* Clyde Boraine as Policeman
* Lyle Burruss as Mr. Man
* Gilbert Gottfried as God
* James Rolfe as Himself

### Guest Animators

* Chris O'Neill - 3D modeler/animator for TV Character / Forest Demon / 3D Squelton / Satan
* Harry Partridge - Animator for Mip

## Production

*Smiling Friends* was created by animators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, noted for their individual successes as content creators for Newgrounds and YouTube. Already well-acquainted with each other online, the pair conceived the idea for the show in 2017 whilst dining at Gus's Chicken in Burbank, California, where Cusack, who is based in Melbourne, Australia, was visiting at the time. Hadel stated in an interview that the pair's goal for the show was to base it around "a group of loveable characters, with a simple kind of concept, which we could take anywhere we wanted to." They settled upon the premise of a hotline for people who were unhappy, which became "the connective tissue that made it all click together." However, Hadel stated that although "the company is an important aspect of the show, it’s really the springboard. We have episodes where it’s not even about the job at all." The pair singled out *South Park* and *Seinfeld* as amongst the show's biggest influences. For the show's art style, the duo described it as a blend of their own individual styles, though Cusack noted that his own drawings tend to go through a "final Zach gloss".

Hadel and Cusack pitched the series to Adult Swim which subsequently greenlit production on the pilot in 2018. Hadel had previously attempted to sell his and Chris O'Neill's webseries *Hellbenders* to the network, but the project was not picked up while an independently produced pilot was shelved during production. Meanwhile, Cusack created the Rick and Morty short *Bushworld Adventures* which premiered during an April Fools stunt on the network in 2018, and also created the series *YOLO: Crystal Fantasy* which premiered on August 10, 2020.

The *Smiling Friends* pilot, which the pair consider the first official episode, aired on Adult Swim on April 1, 2020, to critical acclaim and became the most viewed episode of any show on the network's website. The network subsequently ordered seven additional episodes in May 2021. Serving as showrunners, Hadel and Cusack were hands on in all aspects of production, from writing, storyboards, character designs, final animation and sound design, which the duo considered unusual for an adult animated series. According to Hadel, the budget for the entire first season was equivalent to that of a single episode of *Family Guy* (an estimated US$2,000,000.)

Adult Swim renewed the series for a second season on February 9, 2022.

## Broadcast

The pilot initially premiered on Adult Swim in the United States and Canada on April 1, 2020, during the network's April Fools premiere event.

The series officially premiered on January 10, 2022, at 12:00 a.m. with the episodes "Mr. Frog" and "Shrimp's Odyssey". The rest of the series was then broadcast in an unannounced premiere marathon in its entirety starting from 12:30 a.m. followed by a repeat at 3:00 a.m. The episodes would re-air with two separate episodes airing in the intended premiere slots for the following 4 weeks afterwards, including another marathon on the night of February 13, most likely to pick up viewers tuning away from the end of Super Bowl LVI, as well as to promote the series' availability through HBO Max and the recent news of renewal for the series.

In Canada, the series premiered simultaneously on Adult Swim with new episodes airing weekly. The series later premiered on E4 in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2022, and Adult Swim in France on January 24, 2022.

The series was made available to stream on HBO Max in the United States and StackTV in Canada on February 9th

## Trivia

* In an episode of The Create Unknown podcast, Zach Hadel admitted that the role of Grease was originally written to be played by Chris Chan, but due to budgetary reasons the network wouldn't allow them to bring on another surprise guest since they already got Chills to do a surprise voice on the show.
* Zach sacrificed four children in order for the show to be greenlit. He only had to sacrifice two, but the third was just for good luck. The fourth one was just for fun.