The first season of American

animated sitcom An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animated instead of live action and is generally made or created for adult audiences in most cases. ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Simpsons'', ''South Park'', and ''Family Guy'' are four of ...

'' Regular Show'', created by J. G. Quintel, originally aired on Cartoon Network in the United States. Quintel created the series' pilot using characters from his comedy shorts for the canceled anthology series ''

The Cartoonstitute ''The Cartoonstitute'' was a planned Cartoon Network project created by Cartoon Network's executive Rob Sorcher that would have been a showcase for animated shorts created without the interference of network executives and focus testing. It was he ...

''. He developed ''Regular Show'' from his own experiences in college. Simultaneously, several of the show's main characters originated from his animated shorts "2 in the AM PM" and "The Naïve Man from Lolliland." The season was produced by Cartoon Network Studios, and ran from September 6 to November 22, 2010. ''Regular Shows first season was storyboarded and written by Quintel, Sean Szeles, Shion Takeuchi, Mike Roth, Jake Armstrong, Benton Connor, Kat Morris, Paul Scarlata, and

Kent Osborne Kent Matthew Osborne (born August 30, 1969) is an American screenwriter, actor, animator, producer, and director. He has worked for such animated television shows as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''Camp Lazlo'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', ''The Marvelou ...

Development

Concept

Two 23-year-old friends, a blue jay named Mordecai and a

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

named Rigby, are employed as groundskeepers at a park and spend their days trying to slack off and entertain themselves by any means. This is much to the chagrin of their boss Benson and their coworker Skips, but the delight of Pops. Their other coworkers, Muscle Man (an overweight green man) and Hi-Five Ghost (a ghost with a hand extending from the top of his head), serve as their rivals.

Production

Many of the characters are loosely based on those developed for Quintel's student films at

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

: ''The Naive Man From Lolliland'' and ''2 in the AM PM''. Quintel pitched ''Regular Show'' for Cartoon Network's Cartoonstitute project, in which the network allowed artists to create pilots with no notes to be optioned as a show possibly. After being green-lit, Quintel recruited several indie comic book artists to compose the show's staff, as their style matched close to what he desired for the series. The season was storyboarded and written by Quintel, Sean Szeles, Shion Takeuchi, Mike Roth, Jake Armstrong, Benton Connor, Kat Morris, Paul Scarlata, and

while being produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Roth is the creative director and Janet Dimon is the producer. The first season of Regular Show was produced with heavy use of double entendres and mild language. Quintel stated that, although the network wanted to step up from the more child-oriented fare, some restrictions came along with this switch. The whole season aired in the same time slot on Mondays at 8:15 p.m. on Cartoon Network.

Cast

The voice actors include Quintel (as Mordecai) and

William Salyers William Lewis Salyers (born August 16, 1964) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his vocal performances, such as Reverend Putty on ''Moral Orel'', List of Regular Show characters#Rigby, Rigby on ''Regular Show'' and Doctor Octop ...

(as Rigby). Quintel states that the writing crew tries to "come up with dialogue that sounds conversational and not too cartoony so that the characters are more relatable." In addition, Sam Marin voices Pops, Benson, and Muscle Man, Mark Hamill voices Skips, a yeti, and Jeff Bennett voices Hi-Five Ghost in this season only; starting with season 2 to 8, Quintel takes over the role. The character of Mordecai embodies Quintel during his college years, specifically at CalArts: "That's that time when you're hanging out with your friends and getting into stupid situations, but you're also taking it seriously enough." The character of Rigby developed randomly when Quintel drew a raccoon hula-hooping on a

Post-It A Post-it Note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easil ...

. He liked the design and developed the character of Rigby to be a jerk character who is far more irresponsible than his companion.

Reception

The season generally received positive reviews from most critics, gaining a

Metascore Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

—a weighted average based on the impression of critical reviews—of 76 percent. Critics enjoyed the risque and adult innuendos and humor, the animation style, and the voice acting.

Episodes

Home media

Warner Home Video released multiple DVDs, consisting of region 1 formats. ''Slack Pack'', ''Party Pack'', ''Fright Pack'', ''Mordecai & Margaret Pack'' and ''Rigby Pack'' were created for Region 1 markets containing episodes from the first season.

Full season release

''The Complete First & Second Seasons'' was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 16. 2013.

References

{{Regular Show, state=autocollapse 2010 American television seasons Regular Show seasons