‘Smiling Friends’ Creators Spill the Beans on the Wild Third Season of Their Adult Swim Show

When their pilot for Adult Swim’s Smiling Friends premiered on April 1, 2020, show creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel introduced the world to a wild and wacky adult animated show where four odd characters try to spread happiness. The show was lauded for its eccentric and unpredictable humor and storylines, and for the creative way it mixes a wide variety of animation formats (traditional, CG, rotoscope, stop motion, retro Flash inspiration and even live action).

The third season debuted last month on Adult Swim, and its off-the-wall Halloween episode “The Curse of the Green Halloween Witch” scared the heck out of us a couple of nights ago. Lucky for us, Cusack and Hadel were kind enough to chat with Animation Magazine about their popular show and share some of their thoughts about Pim, Charlie, Mr. Boss, Mr. Frog and the wild, wild west of adult animation in a brief interview yesterday:

Animation Magazine: Gentlemen, congrats on another unpredictable new season of your show, which comes after many months of hard work. What is exciting about this third outing of our Smiling Friends?

Zach Hadel: I’m just really proud of it as a whole. It’s still a comedy show at the end of the day, but I am happy with the more ambitious stuff, and really glad about how it all turned out. I’m just really proud of the fact that it’s very entertaining. That’s kind of a non-answer! Michael?

Michael Cusack: No, that’s a real answer!

Zach: Oh, thank you.

I love the fact that you are continuing to throw stop motion in the mix and experiment with different visuals. Will we see more experimentation in the episodes that are coming?

Michael: That’s the flavor we’ve built. We try to do fun, interesting, different animation. We don’t try to rely on it too much, where it becomes too much of a formula — like, oh, what’s the new animation of the week? But we always try to keep it surprising, and that doesn’t have to be animation, that could also be in the writing, like, just new places or weird things that pop up, even if they’re micro things. We always want to keep it interesting and perhaps shocking for people.

Well, you still manage to do that! The Halloween episode really made me jump out of my seat at some point. What was the most challenge aspect of the third season? How long did it take to make?

Zach: I mean, getting it done, I guess. That’s always the hard part, is the … just making it and getting it done.

Michael: It took about a year and a half, probably. When we’re writing it, we can’t wait for the writing to be done so we can start boarding it, and then, during that time, it’s also difficult too because the workload gets quite big. The fun part is when it’s all done, and we can now watch everyone enjoying it.

I’m sure that makes it all worthwhile. You must get all kinds of insane feedback from the fans.

Zach: You know, different people want all sorts of different things. There’s a contingent on Twitter [X] that wants some crazy stuff between the characters. Now that ain’t gonna happen. (Just Google “Pim and Charlie,” turn Safe Search off and look for images, and you will see what comes up! It’s scarier than any Halloween episode … or you might find it beautiful, depending on who you are!) I think it’s kind of cool to give people what they don’t know they wanted. You don’t want a show to become formulaic. I’m sure a version of Smiling Friends, if we completely handed it off, would be like, “Who are they helping this week?”

I want people to be surprised, and that’s the fun part for Michael and I. Take the “Mr. Frog” episode [Season 3, Episode 2, “Le Voyage Incroyable de Monsieur Grenouille,” a subversive outing in which our Frog friend faces the fact that his psychotic behavior is a way for him to avoid failure]. If you told people about that before they saw it, they would have been like, “Wait, that’s not a good idea!” So it’s fun to just kind of give people what they didn’t know they wanted.

Last time we spoke, you were also working on other projects. Is that still happening?

Michael: We work on projects, kind of, at the same time. The priority, though, I especially over the last few months, has been Smiling Friends. That has been our main focus. This is a very difficult show to make, so you’re spreading yourself too thin. I’ve made this mistake, too, when you try to do multiple things at the same time. Smiling Friends really requires a lot of attention and focus to get it right. But when are doing one thing forever, sometimes you need to go off and do other projects and come back to make it more interesting.

On Smiling Friends, you are not bound by some of the other restrictions of other regular animated shows. You can take it in very surreal and unusual directions.

Michael: Yes, it’s such a dream for us. Zach and I will get in a session, a Discord or Skype session. (Well, Skype’s dead, but we used to use it!) And we’d talk about whatever we’re feeling, what’s funny? Sometimes, we’d be in a shitty mood, because we had to work, but then we’d get in a good mood because we were making each other laugh. The episode would just get out naturally. That was a good process.

Now, please, give us a few words why people should tune in for the rest of the season. Give them something to look forward to.

Zach: You will walk away entertained.

Michael: You will see cool cartoons.

Zach: Cool cartoons, surprising characters, funny gags involving hammers … and hijinks!

Last month, you also launched a new animation studio named ZAM, based in LA. (with producer Aron Fromm), which is focusing on animation, VFX and production for TV, films, commercials, etc. Does ZAM also work on your show?

Michael: Yes, that’s our specialty studio that does special animation stuff. It’s all my friends, and we’re very happy to have a little hub that we can do fun, creative and weird stuff. But a lot of the work on Smiling Friends is done all over the world. William Street, Adult Swim’s animation studio in Atlanta, is the main hub for the show. We still have people that work from Australia, too. Smiling Friends is a project that happens all over the world remotely.

Of course, we all know that the animation landscape has changed drastically even in the last few years. What is your take on it?

Zach: It’s interesting, because we came from YouTube, and so, you know, we were part of the first wave of people who made that transition [from digital first to traditional cable or streamers] maybe the first wave of people.

You know, with other people as well — you got people like VivziePop [Vivienne Medrano, creator of Hazbin Hotel] who kind of rode this wave from YouTube to TV. I feel that today TV and streaming is kind of becoming like YouTube. I know it’s such an obvious observation, but it has all blended together. I feel now the stuff that’s getting picked up, and the way that they’re trying to do shows is right in our wheelhouse.

Michael: Yeah, the industry’s definitely going through a strange time right now. And I think also the addition of AI has shaken things up even more. So, I think it’s a very interesting time, but I will say that it has always been like this. People forget that. Everyone’s always like freaking out and saying, “Oh, that company’s going to buy this company, and this one’s merging with that. This is going to change everything…” But I think if you just stop paying attention to all that noise and just try to make stuff for a fanbase that has love in it, that has always been the way to do it. So, there is a lot of panic out there, but I think we try to tune that out as well.

Zach: You also have to remember that the only reason Smiling Friends ever got made is because we published our own stuff and found an audience before we were picked up. In other words, if we had just been two guys out of college, I really do not think that Smiling Friends would have even been greenlit. I’m not even saying it’s the weirdest show ever, but it’s like, it doesn’t look on the surface to be an appealing or a big show, but I think that’s an advantage now. And yes, I know people are freaking out about all the changes in the industry, but to Michael’s point, things are always changing. There’s always going to be a new technology, but the other advantage is that today anybody can put their stuff out online right now, which is how we got our start. You don’t need to pitch your show. You don’t need to get the approval of a network or a company. You could put your own stuff out and sell your own merch and make 10 times the money, and not have any of the stress!

Michael: Yes, actually, you raised a really good point there, Zach. I really wish I could get this through to people who ask, “How do you pitch,” or, “What’s a good show Bible?” I say, forget that. Forget pitching and just make stuff on your own. Get to a mindset where you don’t even need it. You don’t even need them. Try to build your own thing that’s self-sufficient, because that is so much more valuable. Then, if a TV show comes out of it, and you go down that path, it’s going to be so much easier, because you’ve created stuff and built leverage around you.

Zach: If you go right from college or whatever to TV, most people get their souls crushed, and they get bitter, and they go insane!

Smiling Friends airs new episodes of Season 3 on Adult Swim Sundays at 11:30 p.m. The episodes stream on HBO Max the next day.