The first season of Smiling Friends was ordered in May 2021 after the success of the series pilot "Desmond's Big Day Out", which stealth premiered on Adult Swim on April 1, 2020.[1] The season officially premiered on January 9, 2022 and the entire season was aired throughout the night on Adult Swim.
A special episode "The Smiling Friends Go Brazil" was aired on August 6, 2022.[2]
A Blu-ray and DVD set of the first season was released in 2023.
Plot[]
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 star employee 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.
Season Overview[]
Episodes[]
| No.
in season |
No..
overall |
Title | Synopsis | Airdate | Production code | Viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Desmond's Big Day Out" | A small company dedicated to bringing happiness to the world receives a simple request to help a woman's unhappy son smile again, but the job turns out to be more complicated than it seems. | April 1, 2020 (sneak peek)
January 9, 2022 (premiere) |
To be added | 0.310 |
| 2 | 2 | "Mr. Frog" | After beloved frog celebrity Mr. Frog gets into hot frog water, Pim and Charlie are tasked with helping the frog get things back on frog track; Glep has a crazy side adventure that has the critics going wild. | January 9, 2022 | To be added | 0.310 |
| 3 | 3 | "Shrimp's Odyssey" | When a shrimp calls the hotline after being dumped by his true love, Shrimpina, Pim and Charlie have very different ideas about how to handle the situation. | January 9, 2022 | To be added | 0.300 |
| 4 | 4 | "A Silly Halloween Special" | Pim ventures into the forest across the road to fetch firewood for the office Halloween party. | January 9, 2022 | To be announced | 0.253 |
| 5 | 5 | "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" | The life of famous food tycoon Simon S. Salty and investigating why he was brutally murdered in his own restaurant. | January 9, 2022 | To be announced | 0.228 |
| 6 | 6 | "Enchanted Forest" | Pim and Charlie are beckoned into the mysterious enchanted forest by a princess and encounter all sorts of insane toon characters along their journey. | January 9, 2022 | To be announced | 0.207 |
| 7 | 7 | "Frowning Friends" | A rival business moves across the street, much to the boss's dismay. | January 9, 2022 | To be announced | 0.211 |
| 8 | 8 | "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back" | Charlie actually dies for real. | January 9, 2022 | To be announced | 0.217 |
| 9 | 9 | "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!" | The "Smiling Friends" finally get to relax in a beautiful Brazilian beach town; Pim works on his novel; Charlie binges a load of torrent shows on his portable hard drive; Allan and Glep enjoy some long-awaited chill out time at the beach. | August 6, 2022 | To be announced | 0.217 |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The pilot episode "Desmond's Big Day Out" was greenlit in 2018 before the first season was ordered. It was retroactively made to be the first episode of Season One when the series was greenlit by Adult Swim for eight more episodes, only 7 of these episodes would be produced officially as the first season, with the last episode of the order being saved for the special "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!".
- "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil" was intended to be an April Fool's episode but was delayed for unknown reasons.
- This is the only season of the series to be animated primarily on Adobe Animate, a drawing tool of the program that is. From the second season onwards, it transitioned to being hand-drawn on paper with digital ink-and-paint.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9SS8hMOF4k
- ↑ PsychicPebbles on Making Smiling Friends, by The Create Unknown