A plethora of new information about Smiling Friends was revealed during the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, ranging from trivia about season one to intriguing details about the upcoming second season.
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Pertaining to season one, fans learned a few neat tidbits about planned guest stars and scrapped concepts. Read all the details below:
- Kirk Douglas and Norm Macdonald were wanted guest stars.
- Originally Pim was the one who died in the finale, but Charlie having more of a lesson to learn made more sense. The episode’s pitch even had a drawing of a dead Pim on it.
- Mr. Frog was the first character made for the show, and isn’t based on any one celebrity. He is mostly based on writer Hunter S. Thompson’s daily schedule, which was filled with drug use and wild activities.
- The Boss is partially based on John McAfee of McAfee Antivirus.
- Glep’s wife is named Marge Simpson canonically, even in the pitch bible, and the red-haired woman who dressed as a mouse in the Halloween episode is Charlie’s girlfriend.
- The town in Smiling Friends is an amalgamation of Philadelphia, Kansas, and Australia, where Zach and Michael grew up and lived.
- There was originally another member of the main group who can be seen in the pilot. He was a blue janitor whose gimmick was making things dirtier. He was dropped due to the lack of ideas the staff had for him, and because his lack of speech made him similar to Glep.
- There was a longer theme song that series co-creator Michael Cusack wrote, but despite being fully composed, it was cut to allow for more time to be spent on the stories of the episodes themselves.
Some additional details involving the upcoming second season were also revealed, which you can read below:
- It is unlikely that past clients of the Smiling Friends will return, and if they do, it would be with new problems. Smiling Friends co-creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack prefer to work on new characters and ideas.
- One of the characters could potentially become the President in a season two episode.
- The Boss’ house will be featured in season two.
RELATED: Why You Should Watch Smiling Friends, Which is Now on HBO Max
“Smiling Friends follows the employees of a small company dedicated to bringing happiness to a bizarre yet colorful world,” reads the official series synopsis. The series was created by Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, two popular internet animators who also voice Pim and Charlie, respectively. Prior to Smiling Friends, Cusack also created the adult swim series YOLO: Crystal Fantasy.
