Squidbillies

**Squidbillies** is an American adult animated television series created by American television and *Space Ghost*: *Coast to Coast* writers, Jim Fortier and Dave Willis for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, premiering with an unofficial pilot on April 1, 2005, later making its official debut on October 16, 2005.

The series wasn't available at launch, but was prominetly featured in assorted promos airing on [adult swim].

## **Premise**

*Squidbillies* follows the exploits of the Cuylers, an impoverished and dysfunctional family of anthropomorphic, air-breathing, redneck squids who live in a rural Appalachian community in the state of Georgia, often interacting with the local populace which usually results in a fair amount of destruction, mutilation, and death.

## **Production**

### Development

*Squidbillies* is produced in-house by Williams Street Productions; it is written by Dave Willis, co-creator of *Aqua Teen Hunger Force*, and Jim Fortier, previously of *The Brak Show*, both of whom worked on the first Adult Swim original series. *Space Ghost Coast to Coast*, citing the series as inspiration and providing the crew groundwork and style to go off of. The show is animated by Awesome Incorporated and, later on, Radical Axis, with background design provided by Ben Prisk.

### Release

On January 2012, a free tounge-in-cheek, 35-track soundtrack was released on the Adult Swim music site entitled The Squidbillies Present: "Music for Americans Only Made by Americans in China for Americans Only God Bless America, U.S.A''.

Another album, entitled Squidbillies Double Platinum Gold was released on vinyl in July of 2019.

In Canada, *Squidbillies* previously aired on Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block since September 2006, and later G4 Canada’s ADd (Adult Digital Distraction) block since June 2009. The series currently airs on the Canadian version of Adult Swim since July 2012.

## **Reception**

### Critical

In the words of *The New York Times*, the show takes "backwoods stereotypes" and turns them into "a cudgel with which to pound maniacally on all manner of topical subjects.

## **Trivia**

* This show was heavily promoted on Cartoon Network for months and was set to premiere on November 7, 2004. That night, the network announced the premiere of the show. But instead of the pilot, the network aired the pilot for Perfect Hair Forever (2004).
	+ Following that was a "special presentation" hosted by Space Ghost of *Space Ghost Coast to Coast* (1993) in which a panel discussed "Perfect Hair Forever". The panel included Meatwad of *Aqua Teen Hunger Force* (2000), Sharko of *Sealab 2021* (2000) and Earlie Cuyler of "***Squidbillies***".
	+ Viewers thought that it had all been an elaborate prank by The Cartoon Network and that "Squidbillies" did not really exist. But it was later reported that the script had gone through numerous rewrites throughout 2004 and the writers became unsure about the pilot. Just a few weeks before the premiere date, the pilot was scrapped.
	+ The "talk show" segment was hastily put together just days before the premiere date to fill out the time slot. The show was retooled and finally premiered in 2005.