Adult Swim’s “Smiling Friends” is ending its run after three seasons.
Adult Swim/Warner Bros. Discovery/TNS
For the past four years, people all over the world have loved and adored Adult Swim’s wacky colorful show “Smiling Friends.” People found the show to be genuinely funny and a breath of fresh air from the overused formula that most adult animated shows use.
Unfortunately on Wednesday, Feb. 25, creators of “Smiling Friends,” Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, announced that the show would be ending.
In 2022, Adult Swim launched “Smiling Friends,” which follows main characters Pim and Charlie, who work for the title charity organization, Smiling Friends, whose goal is to make people smile.
The show was an immediate success, with people loving the mixed media art style, the crazy unhinged-ness of it all, and how realistic the dialogue was. Fans of the show also loved how reminiscent it was of the creators’ previous work.
Hadel and Cusack were very famous on the internet for working on multiple animation projects as animators, voice actors, co-creators, etc. It was safe to say that they had an established fanbase over the years, so the success of “Smiling Friends” was inevitable.
The show ran for three seasons, with Season 3 being released only a couple of months ago, before Adult Swim and the creators released a six minute video stating that the show would be ending.
“To be honest, after Season 3, Zach and I both had the same feeling where we felt pretty burnt out after putting years and years into this, but also pretty accomplished,” said co-creator Cusack in the video.
They go on to explain that they felt the show should be put to rest before it started to become half-hearted slop that the audiences would slowly resent.
There were many mixed emotions amongst fans of the show. Lots of people agreed it was fair to end the show before it became something that audiences would grow tired of. Others didn’t understand how the creators could possibly be “burnt out” when they’re not the ones animating or doing the hard labor for the show.
I too feel a mix of emotions when it comes to the ending of “Smiling Friends.” I absolutely love the show, and am disappointed and sad that it’s ending so early. I also understand how time-consuming animating and writing is and why they would want to end it before it becomes something they end up hating.
I think of shows like “Family Guy,” “The Simpsons,” “Futurama” and “Rick and Morty,” which have all gone on for way too long. You can tell from recent episodes just how lifeless and stale they’ve become compared to earlier seasons and episodes. They’re all just cash grabs masked as keeping your favorite show alive.
The creator of “Family Guy,” Seth MacFarlane, doesn’t even write for “Family Guy” anymore; he just shows up to do the voices. Futurama has been cancelled more than once, and every time they came back, the episodes and plot felt weaker.
Zach and Michael’s choice of ending “Smiling Friends” might be sad and out of the blue, but they confirmed two new episodes will be releasing soon before it is finally over. Smiling Friends will make us smile one more time.
“Smiling Friends” can be streamed on HBO Max.