Topic summary
Jim Fortier
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Squidbillies.
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.