Adult Swim is finally setting a premiere date for the long-awaited animated series Smiling Friends. New episodes will join the channel’s Sunday programming block, with three episodes set to premiere on January 9, 2022. Smiling Friends is the first new series that the network will introduce in 2022.
The pilot episode for the surreal comedy premiered April 1, 2020, as a part of Adult Swim’s April Fool’s Day event. The show was an immediate fan favorite, with fans loving the mix of unsettling animation style and the upbeat demeanors of the characters. Adult Swim officially greenlit the series in May 2021, with the intention of releasing the show later that year. For reasons undisclosed, the show was pushed to the new year instead.
Smiling Friends centers around a small company where employees strive to bring happiness to its clients, often those in deep depressions. The trailer, released with the premiere date, features Pim, a wildly optimistic employee who can find joy in anything, and Charlie, a slightly more cynical but still upbeat worker, out on their various adventures alongside their cast of bizarrely drawn coworkers.
Creator Zach Hadel leads the project, while also starring as Charlie while co-creator Michael Cusack stars as Pim. Both showrunners will also voice a variety of minor characters throughout the series. The first season will consist of eight episodes, including the pilot. The pilot will be one of the three episodes debuting on January 9 at midnight.
Smiling Friends is the newest series in Adult Swim’s growing backlog of original programming. Based on the trailer, the show matches the bizarre but fun-loving tone of the network, with its fun unexpected punchlines and hints of gross-out humor other network tentpoles like Ricky and Morty and Aqua Teen Hunger Force are known for. The 15-minute pilot episode is currently available on Adult Swim’s website. You can watch the new trailer for the series below: