Squidbillies is an American adult animated sitcom created by Jim Fortier and Dave Willis for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim. An unofficial pilot for the series aired on April 1, 2005. The series later made its official debut on October 16, 2005, and ended on December 12, 2021, with a total of 132 episodes over the course of 13 seasons.
The series follows the Cuylers, an impoverished family of anthropomorphic hillbilly "mud squids" living in the Georgia region of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The series revolves around the exploits of Early, a lazy, ornery alcoholic and frequent criminal. Early's son, Rusty, is good-natured and eager for his father's approval. The eldest Cuyler, Granny, is very old and has many health problems, but nevertheless is quite resilient. Lil, Early's sister, is a hairdresser, sex worker, and meth cook who is often found unconscious in a pool of her own vomit. Early's friend, Sheriff, is the friendly, incompetent sheriff, often tasked with arresting Early. Early's employer, Dan Halen, is an evil exploitative robber baron.
The series also airs in syndication in other countries and has been released on various DVD sets and other forms of home media.
Setting and premise Squidbillies follows the exploits of the Cuyler family and their interactions with the local populace, which usually results in a fair amount of destruction, mutilation, and death. Despite their many crimes, the Cuylers often go unpunished by their friend, Sheriff (born Sharif), as they are the last individuals of a federally protected endangered species, the "Appalachian mud squid". They live in the fictional Dougal County in the North Georgia mountains. Dougal County is impoverished, with little amenities or industry, save for the exploitative Dan Halen Sheetrock International. The show often satirizes the history and culture of the American South, including the Lost Cause, slavery, religious fundamentalism, segregation, political conservatism, bigotry, racism, and poverty. In the words of The New York Times, the show takes "backwoods stereotypes" and turns them into "a cudgel with which to pound maniacally on all manner of topical subjects."
Production Squidbillies was created by Dave Willis, co-creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Jim Fortier, previously of The Brak Show, both of whom worked on the Adult Swim series Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The show was animated by Radical Axis until 2012, with Awesome Inc taking on animation duties until the show's conclusion.
Concept and development
The series has its origins in 2003, when Mike Lazzo, former vice president of Adult Swim, asked to develop a project around the title Squidbilly's, about which he speculated during a conversation with his colleagues about Hanna-Barbera's Squiddly Diddly character. In July of the same year, Matt Maiellaro and Pete Smith produced the first script of the pilot episode, but it was scrapped, and over 35 scripts were written by Maiellaro, Smith, Dave Willis, Jim Fortier, Matt Harrigan, and Mike Lazzo over the course of a year. Later, Lazzo approved and commissioned a screenplay by Dave Willis and Jim Fortier, who decided to base the plot and related characters on the stories of the two creators who both grew up in Conyers, Georgia. According to vice president Keith Crofford, development of the first season was delayed due to a lack of ideas, revealing that the pilot episode was scheduled to air in December 2004. The original budget of the pilot episode was about $1100.
On March 25, 2004, the series was announced to be in production with a first season consisting of seven episodes planned. Adult Swim later showed short clips from the first episode during San Diego Comic-Con and Dragon Con in 2004. The series was announced as in development with as many as 96 episodes, that the pilot episode would air on November 7, 2004, and that the official broadcast would take place in January 2005. On November 4, 2004, three days before the pilot episode was scheduled to air, the animated special Anime Talk Show aired, featuring future Squidbillies star Early Cuyler, along with Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sharko from Sealab 2021, who are interviewed by Space Ghost. The special was later placed as a bonus feature on the first DVD volume of Squidbillies.Squidbillies, Vol. 1 DVD commentary The pilot episode was heavily promoted to air on November 7, 2004. On that date, however, Adult Swim decided to air the first episode of Perfect Hair Forever unannounced due to the incompleteness of the Squidbillies episode.
In March 2005, Adult Swim announced that a six-episode first season would air from September of that year alongside 12 oz. Mouse and Perfect Hair Forever. An unfinished version of the pilot episode aired on April Fool's Day, later revealed by a bumper that it would be completed in five weeks. On October 16, 2005, after being posted on the official website two days earlier, the episode aired alongside the rest of the season.
Writing
The series was written primarily and entirely by Jim Fortier and Dave Willis, who are sometimes aided by other writers such as Casper Kelly and Will Shepard, who send their scripts to the creators. Other producers or animators occasionally took part and wrote additional story elements, including Matt Harrigan, Matt Maiellaro, Pete Smith, and Lear Bunda.
The delay in production of the pilot episode was partly the result of a lack of ideas on the part of the writers, who had subjected it to multiple rewrites between the commission of the series and its actual scheduled debut. Over 35 screenplays were written by Maiellaro, Smith, Willis, Fortier, Harrigan, and Mike Lazzo in the course of a year. Originally, the names of the protagonists Early and Rusty were to be Arvee and Donny, respectively, but they were changed by Smith and Fortier in an attempt to renew the creators' original ideas. During the development of Squidbillies, the creators also working on the development of Perfect Hair Forever, inserting and moving some concepts and characters between the two animated series.
Animation
The series' animation, described by Willis as Beavis and Butt-Head style, is based on Adobe Flash and takes a week to complete. The main software adopted for the series' animation is Macromedia Shockwave Flash, which allowed in later seasons to more easily change the resolution format to render the broadcast in high definition. An average episode took about 700 working hours to complete.
Until the sixth season, the task of animating the various scripts and characters was entrusted to Radical Axis, while from the seventh onwards to Awesome Inc. The reason why the characters are drawn so crudely was not due to the budget, which was still substantial compared to that of their previous work Space Ghost Coast to Coast, but was by design; in fact, according to Jim Fortier, if the series had been drawn differently, therefore cleaner and sharper, it would not have been fun.
Production times for animation and various changes made to episodes could take up to eight weeks. Unlike traditional series, no storyboards or particular animations were produced, and the preproduction product was not sent abroad to be further modified; in fact, the production took place exclusively in Atlanta, with between five and seven animators. According to animator Alex Barrella, by the 12th season, animations and episode designs were generally completed in a few weeks to a maximum of a month, before being revisited and saved. After being animated, the episodes were edited with Adobe After Effects for the final composition. Regarding subsequent seasons, Barrella stated that he wanted to resume the style of "the first three seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force", to increase the irreverent tone of the series.
Wallpapers The series' backgrounds and colors were created by artist Ben Prisk at Primal Screen in Atlanta. According to Mike Lazzo, who supervised Prisk's work, he wanted to base his backgrounds on folk art. Together with Fortier and Willis, Prisk worked about a year and a half to develop the animation style of the backgrounds, trying to adapt them to the previously designed characters according to line widths, layers, and texture complexity. The backgrounds were characterized by the lack of right angles and confusing perspectives. Prisk's works were created in acrylic, revisited with gouache and spray paint, and finally composed on Adobe Photoshop. Each wallpaper took around 12–15 hours to process and complete.
Voice cast Unknown Hinson (2005–2019) and Tracy Morgan (2021) as Early Cuyler Daniel McDevitt as Rusty Cuyler Dana Snyder as Granny Patricia French as Aunt Lil Charles Napier (2005–2006) and Bobby Ellerbee (2006–2021) as Sheriff Todd Hanson as Dan Halen Scott Hilley (2005–2014) as Reverend Elizabeth Cook (2011–2014; 2017–2021) and Faye Otto (2016) as Tammi Jason Isbell as Reverend Nubbins Dave Willis as Deputy Denny and Glenn Pete Smith (2005–2016) as Boyd
Dismissal of Unknown Hinson
On August 16, 2020, Unknown Hinson was fired from the series for controversial comments towards the Black Lives Matter movement and country singer Dolly Parton. A response was posted on Facebook by Baker, claiming that being fired from Squidbillies ruined his life. The response was later deleted. The 13th and final season of Squidbillies premiered on November 7, 2021, with Baker being replaced by comedian Tracy Morgan.
Episodes
International broadcast In Canada, Squidbillies previously aired on Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block and later G4's Adult Digital Distraction block. The series currently airs on the Canadian version of Adult Swim.
Guest appearances Jason "Wee Man" Acuña voiced himself in "The Guzzle Bumpkin" (Season 11, Episode 2) "Action Plan" Tim Andrews voiced the homicidal GPS in "Fatal Distraction" (Season 5, Episode 7) Fred Armisen voiced Miguel in "Take This Job and Love It" (Season 1, Episode 2) and Office Politics Trouble" (Season 1, Episode 6), Jesus in "Giant Foam Dickhat Trouble" (Season 2, Episode 5) and Hippie Killed With Chainsaw in "Earth Worst" (Season 3, Episode 6). Don Barnes, Danny Chauncey, and Larry Junstrom of 38 Special voiced themselves, and their band's song "Caught Up in You" is featured in "Burned and Reburned Again" (Season 2, Episode 10) Todd Barry voiced Glenn in "Office Politics Trouble" (Season 1, Episode 6) and Dr. Bug in "Family Trouble" (Season 1, Episode 5). Vernon Chatman (as Clarence Towelstein) voiced Shuckey the Corn Mascot in "Mud Days and Cornfused" (Season 3, Episode 18)In the newest episode... *OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS* – Squidbillies – Adult Swim David Allan Coe is uncredited for voicing himself in "Okaleechee Dam Jam" (Season 3, Episode 17) Elizabeth Cook performed the theme song and voiced Tammi in "Keeping It In The Family Way" (Season 6). Coolio voiced himself in "The Guzzle Bumpkin" (Season 11, Episode 2) Bradford Cox voiced himself in "Granite Caverns" (Season 8, Episode 1) Lavell Crawford voiced Judge Jammer in "Stop. Jammertime!" (Season 8, Episode 6) Rachel Dratch voiced a Hippie Woman in "Earth Worst" (Season 3, Episode 6) Eric "Butterbean" Esch voiced himself and sang the national anthem in "Condition: Demolition" (Season 3, Episode 9) Mick Foley is uncredited for voicing Thunder Clap in "Anabolic-holic" (Season 4, Episode 4) Kevin Gillespie voiced himself in "Asbestos I Can" (Season 6, Episode 1) Phil Hendrie guest-starred in "Lean Green Touchdown Makifying Machine" (Season 5, Episode 9) Jason Isbell performed the theme song in "The Pharaoh's Wad" (Season 6, Episode 8) and voiced the new reverend Kyle Nubbins in "Greener Pastor" (Season 10, Episode 7), later going on to be his official V.A. David Jackson of the Japanese country group Western Crooners voiced a Japanese war veteran and a documentary narrator in "The Appalachian Mud Squid: Darwin's Dilemma" (Season 3, Episode 10)