On Feb. 26, creators of the show “Smiling Friends,” Zach Hadel and Micheal Cusack, made a shocking announcement. “Smiling Friends” is set to end after three seasons with two more episodes that aren’t supposed to be seen as a finale releasing on April 12. This comes as a shock because the show was seemingly renewed for a fourth and fifth season not too long ago. The show follows five characters: Pim a small, big-eyed, pink guy whose optimistic outlook and overall appearance is the opposite of his best friend Charlie; Allan, who is a tall, red bird creature; Glep, who is a small green creature that speaks his own language and their boss simply named “Mr. Boss.” They all go around and make people smile while ending up in weird situations. The characters have this great bond between them that makes them seem like more than just coworkers and their boss. Like how Mr. Boss calls them “my boys,” showing that he cares for them.
The creators’ reason as to why they’re ending the show is that, “After we finished season 3, Zach and I just both had the same feeling where we felt pretty burnt out after putting years and years into his, but also pretty accomplished. Like we just came to this feeling where we’re like, I think that could just be it after season 3,” said Cusack.
Hadel also expressed how they wanted to put all their effort into it and end on top, rather than dragging it out and “making slop.” They added that they didn’t want to hand the show off to other writers. Although there is hope, as both Hadel and Cusack agreed that they’re open to coming back in the future for a special or maybe new episodes, along with them making more content not related to “Smiling Friends.”
Some fans have criticized Hadel and Cusack though, saying that making 10 episodes a season that are around 11-12 minutes long can’t be hard and cause burnout. Along with that, fans are still holding out hope that the creators are lying and that this announcement is just a hoax, but the longer it gets, the more unlikely it becomes. As a fan of this show I’m sad to see it go, but I agree that I wouldn’t want the show to become like “The Simpsons” or “Family Guy” or even “South Park” in which all of those shows got worse and worse as the years went by. Although other shows will not come close to the random humor, 100% energy that doesn’t slow down and the very awkward yet extremely accurate conversations that “Smiling Friends” is known for.
In the end, as the great Dr. Seuss said, “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” The Smiling Friends did their job at the end of the day: Pim, Charlie, Allan, Glep and Mr. Boss made us smile.
