Clerks: The Animated Series: The Short-Lived Animated Spinoff

Courtesy of Miramax

Back in 1994, Clerks came out to positive reviews and put Kevin Smith on the map as a director. Miramax distributed the movie after struggling to find a studio to distribute it. The characters of Dante, Randal, Jay, and Silent Bob have entertained audiences for years. Jay and Silent Bob became staples in Smith’s film universe called the View Askewinverse, where more movies like Dogma, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy came out. Clerks is considered the best of Smith’s movies, and two sequels to it, Clerks II and Clerks III, would come out years later. Before that, Clerks was meant to continue in another form, particularly animation. This would be called Clerks: The Animated Series. A cartoon series that was going to keep these characters going and possibly compete against other growing adult animated series in the early 2000s like Family Guy and South Park. Yet this show was canceled as it was only getting started. What went wrong, and why did it get canceled so early?

Back in 1995, Kevin Smith, with his longtime producer and friend Scott Mosier, already had the idea of doing a cartoon based on Clerks. At the time, interest in adult animation was minimal unless it was something like The Simpsons. Family Guy and South Park wouldn’t come out and make adult animation popular until a few years later. Smith pitched the idea to several networks but was rejected by many. UPN seemed interested and pitched a 12-episode first season. The president of UPN, Dean Valentine, wanted the show and reached out to then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner about having the rights. Disney owned Miramax, who owned Clerks. Eisner was curious about the idea of a Clerks cartoon and wanted to hear the pitch. Now disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was the co-founder of Miramax and who brought the distribution rights to Clerks back at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, pushed for Disney and ABC to make the cartoon and wanted Smith to take the offer ABC made. He believed ABC was a better network to air the cartoon than UPN. Bob Iger was also involved with hearing the pitch. Disney offered 6 episodes, less than what UPN offered. After feeling pressured by Weinstein, who claimed the show could get more episodes and last longer if successful on ABC, Smith and Mosier accepted the ABC deal, a decision they would later regret. ABC wanted to give this a shot as they were in third place among the major networks in ratings, so there was some hope that an adult cartoon based on a well-liked comedy movie could work.

Clerks: The Animated Series would be the second adult cartoon Disney would work on after The PJs. Along with Smith and Mosier working on the cartoon was Seinfeld writer David Mandel and character designer Stephen Silver, who would later work on Kim Possible and Danny Phantom. Art director Alan Bodman who was the Art Director for The Iron Giant and would later work on Kim Possible and Phineas and Ferb, was hired as the Art Director. Smith and the team were optimistic that this could work and felt this could be a long-lasting cartoon. Jason Mewes, who played Jay, said it was a lot of fun and thought the show could go as long as ten seasons.

Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, and Kevin Smith reprised their roles as Dante, Randal, Jay, and Silent Bob. They would be the four core characters. Alec Baldwin had a recurring role as the character Leonardo Leonardo, a billionaire villain, which Smith originally wanted voiced by Alan Rickman. Rickman turned down the role as Leonardo Leonardo was too similar to Hans Gruber, the villain from Die Hard that Rickman played. NBA star Charles Barkley had a recurring voice role as himself appearing towards the end of episodes, usually told off by Jay. Other famous guest voices included Judge Reinhold, Gilbert Gottfried, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The cartoon even secured a 15-second Super Bowl ad.

Clerks: The Animated Series would feature various gags and jokes related to pop culture at the time and of the past. One episode had Judge Reinhold play an actual judge in a case where Jay is suing Dante. The jury consists of NBA all-stars of the early 2000s like Grant Hill and Reggie Miller. The following episode would be a parody of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. One episode had the trope of a disease caused by lab monkeys being spread. The sixth episode was a parody of classic Looney Tunes episodes where one of the characters would draw another character in humiliating and bizarre costumes and situations.

As Clerks: The Animated Series was being sent overseas to finish being animated, ABC’s fortunes were improving. They became number one again due to the primetime hit Who Wants to be a Millionaire hosted by Regis Philbin. ABC was airing the game show on several nights instead of one now. Clerks: The Animated Series was supposed to premiere in March 2000, but got moved to May 31. This was a sign that ABC no longer needed Clerks: The Animated Series to succeed.

Another sign of trouble was the pushback Smith and his team were getting from ABC. ABC wasn’t thrilled with some of the jokes on the show. Jay and Silent Bob who are famous for selling weed in Smith’s movies, were now selling firecrackers on the show. Certain jokes were cut only to later be included when the show was released on home media. There was a joke where Randal wanted to watch a fictional movie called ‘Flintstones List’ made by Steven Spielberg, who in real life directed Schindler’s List and produced the 1994 live-action movie The Flintstones. Smith at first didn’t want to tell the joke, feeling uncomfortable using it but writer David Mandel, who was Jewish, created it and believed it was okay, which made Smith more comfortable in using it. ABC didn’t approve of the joke so it didn’t air despite Mandel arguing for it. ‘The Flintstones List’ joke would make it to home media. Test screening with older audiences also came out negative despite the target audience more so for young adults in their twenties to early thirties who spent their early adulthood watching Clerks and Smith’s other movies.

When Clerks: The Animated Series premiered, it was as good as dead. First of all, they started the series out of order, premiering with the fourth episode instead of the pilot that was developed. This episode got 5.2 million views. When the second episode came out, the show was canceled. In what should have been the show’s third week, instead of the third episode playing, a rerun of The Drew Carey Show was on instead. The following year, the show came out on DVD, and in 2002, Comedy Central aired the episodes ABC never aired. Adult Swim would also show it later on.

While Clerks: The Animated Series was short-lived, it became a cult classic. Fans of Clerks and Kevin Smith’s style of humor loved the show. As mentioned before, some of the artists and character designers for Clerks: The Animated Series got to work on Kim Possible for Disney after Clerks: The Animated Series got canceled, showing that Disney did like the art and animation styles. Kim Possible would become a huge success for Disney Channel. Smith still has an interest in bringing the cartoon back, teasing the idea back in 2020 for possibly Hulu to release. On May 31, 2024, Brian O’Halloran made an Instagram post celebrating the twenty-fourth anniversary of Clerks: The Animated Series tagging everyone who was involved in the cartoon and pushing Hulu to renew the series, claiming scripts for new episodes are ready to go. While the Clerks movies are likely done based on how Clerks III ended, there is still potential for animated adventures between the movies.

With Kevin Smith working on Jay and Silent Bob: Store Wars at some point this year, writing a story for a sequel to Dogma, bringing Dogma back to theaters this year, and still wanting to make Twilight of the Mallrats, it’s unknown if a revival of Clerks: The Animated Series is still in the cards with other projects on his mind.

Have you ever seen Clerks: The Animated Series? If so, what did you think of the cartoon? Would you like to see it come back one day? Let us know in the comments below.