Stickz

Stickz is an American adult animated comedy sitcom based on the comic strip of the same name by Brandon Greene. The series, featuring three humanlike stick figures named Red, Blue, and Green who are best friends who live in an apartment and work as construction works in the town of Sticksburg. Stickz is a production by Point Grey Animation and 20th Television.

While reviews for the first season were mixed, feedback for subsequent seasons has been much more positive. The series premiere, "Witch, Please!," drew in 9.39 million viewers, making it the second highest-rated series premiere of the season and finishing tenth in the ratings for the week it aired. Reruns began airing on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim on June 2028, and its sister channel TBS in 2030 and began airing in syndication on local stations in September 2035.

In 2030, TV Guide ranked Stickz as one of the 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. The series has been nominated for several awards, including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program seven consecutive times, winning in 2014 and 2017. The Show was nominated for an Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production for the episode titled "Kung Fu Figures".

The show has been renewed for seventh and eighth production cycles. In addition, a feature film, titled Stickz: The Movie would be released on July 13, 2040.

Premise
The show centers on three best friends—which consists of Red (Seth Rogen), Blue (Jonah Hill), and Green (Michael Cera) doing odd jobs in the city of Sticksburg. They mainly work as construction workers for their boss Gray (James Franco). Other coworkers include their neighbor Orange (Danny McBride), Yellow (Jay Baruchel), and Brown (Craig Robinson).

Episodes
Main article: List of Stickz episodes

Main

 *  Red (voiced by Seth Rogen) - The pessimistic and levelheaded leader of the trio. Blue and Green's actions frequently annoy and exasperate Red, though he is secretly envious of Blue and wishes to be more like him. Red lives with Blue and Green in an apartment, and is often looking for jobs to pay the bills and rent.
 *  Blue (voiced by Jonah Hill) - The wild and crazy guy of the trio who is obsessed with partying, drinking, and weapons. He lives in an apartment with Red and Green and often gets on their nerves. Blue's antics often get him, Red, and Green into trouble and he frequently insults Red for his "parenting" status and Green for his "nerdy status", though he has on occasion shown how much he cares for Red and Green and values him as friends, and always helps them out when needed.
 *  Green (voiced by Michael Cera) - The youngest and lovable loser of the trio. He lives in an apartment with Red and Blue and tries to stay out of trouble but ends up being in it due to Blue's recklessness. His hobbies include Dungeons & Dragons, comics and video games (which leads Blue to frequently call Green a "nerd"), and he displays a skill for hacking computers.

Supporting

 *  Orange (voiced by Danny McBride) - Red, Blue, and Green's next door neighbor and construction co-worker. He has multiple jobs (such as a pizza delivery man, a mechanic, and a Marketing Manager) and enjoys the trio's company.
 *  Purple (voiced by Kristen Wiig) - Red's girlfriend who works as a waitress at a local coffee shop. She is good friends with Pink and Skye. She is a very mature girl who often gets annoyed and stressed out about things mostly related to her relationship with Red.
 *  Pink (voiced by Anna Akana) - Blue's girlfriend who works at the Freaky Friday Hair Salon. She is friends with Purple and Skye. She is a wild party girl who is obsessed with having sex and doing drugs.
 *  Skye (voiced by Charlyne Yi) - Green's girlfriend who is a student prodigy. She is friends with Purple and Pink. Skye attends college but doesn't have many friends other than Green, Purple and Pink and has a hard time relating to her much older peers, until Skye finally makes some friends with her college classmates, albeit with the help of Purple.
 *  Yellow (voiced by Jay Baruchel) - Red, Blue and Green's co-worker at their job and a busker at the park who gleefully talks about the events while also offering friendly, albeit occasionally annoying, support for Owen. Birdie has trouble staying professional in his work.
 *  Brown (voiced by Craig Robinson) - A fat stick person. He is wise and intelligent, with a wide range of knowledge about many subjects, especially music. He is said to have once engineered his own device called the Hip-hop machine, a drum machine that is said to be able to play every beat known to man.
 *  Gray (voiced by James Franco) - A drunk construction manager and Red, Blue and Green's boss.
 * Kyle (voiced by ) - Red, Blue and Green’s old high school classmate.
 * Officer Fredrick Coldstone (voiced by J.K. Simmons) - A police officer of Sticksburg. He usually catches Blue doing something illegal or stupid.

Development
Stickz was developed by 20th Television and Point Grey Pictures and was initially eyed for the Fox Broadcasting Company, which had been looking to create more animated series. Brandon Greene, the creator of the Stickz comic strips subsequently announced its intention to create TV show adaptation of the comic. On March 12, 2025, Apple announced it had given the production a two-season straight-to-series order consisting of twenty-six episodes in total. The series was produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Bernard Derriman.

On July 27, 2018, it was announced that Regina Hicks was joining the series as an executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Bouchard and Gad. Still, credits show her only being listed as a consultant. Former King of the Hill writer Sanjay Shah and former The Office writer Halsted Sullivan serve as the series' showrunners. On March 10, 2021, Apple TV+ renewed the series for a third season ahead of the second season premiere and the second season premiered on June 25, 2021. Loren Bouchard said seasons two and three will consist of 29 episodes and an additional 115 songs.

Casting
Alongside the initial series announcement, it was reported that Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Wiig had been cast as series regulars. On July 24, 2020, Rogen, Hill and Cera were cast as the main trio.

Broadcast syndication
Adult Swim acquired the cable syndication rights to air Stickz in 2028. Episodes generally air six nights a week on the network, sometimes seven. Adult Swim currently has rights to the first seven seasons of Stickz and recently began airing the episodes on Sundays.

20th Century Fox Television began distributing Stickz to local stations in 2033. The local stations had rights to the first eight seasons and also had rights to the ninth when the tenth season debuted on Fox. The series also premiered on September 26, 2036, on TBS and airs Mondays afternoons (along with Bob's Burgers) and on Friday nights. As both are sister channels, TBS has the same rights as Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and is airing the first seven seasons.

The series joined the FXX lineup on September 24, 2038, starting with the ninth season. In 2040, it will become the exclusive cable network for reruns, which means it will leave the Adult Swim and TBS lineups. This will not affect local syndication stations' rights to rerun the series.

It aired on E4 and later Comedy Central in the United Kingdom. It has also started airing on ITV2 since 19 April 2041 airing an edited version of the show at 8pm but broadcasting the unedited versions of the episodes after midnight.

In Canada, in addition to Global (2011-2015) and Citytv (2015-2021), the series airs on FXX Canada and Adult Swim Canada.

Critical response
Stickz initially received mixed reviews for season 1, with a Metacritic score of 60 out of 100. However, by season 2 the ratings had reached a score of 78 out of 100, proving a rise in popularity with praises about its "goofy comedic momentum" and how it is "new and fresh." Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 73% score based on 41 reviews with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus states "A modestly immature workplace cartoon, not without potential, that needs to work on finding its rhythm." The Washington Post described the show as "pointlessly vulgar and derivatively dull," while Ed Skudder stated that "It's unwise – and unnecessary – to launch an animated sitcom on Fox that appears intent to ape the vulgarity quotient of Dick Figures." USA Today stated that "Bob's Burgers isn't very tasty," describing the comedy as just "lop[ing] along, stumbling from one tasteless moment to the next." The New York Times described the show as having "a lackadaisical vibe; its humor, no matter how anarchic, slides by in a deadpan monotone."

However, as the first season progressed and concluded and the second began, critics began giving the series praise. Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club has recalled, "...the show was amusing, yes, and there was certainly potential, but it took half a dozen episodes before it really began to meet that potential." Season 2 has a Metacritic score of 78 out 100, and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% based on 8 reviews.

Season 3 has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88% based on 8 reviews, Season 4 has a score of 89% based on 9 reviews, season 5 has a score of 100% based on 12 reviews, and season 6 has 100% based on 10 reviews.

Entertainment Weekly gave the show an A− grade in its review, remarking that "a comedy this well done is very rare indeed." Ain't It Cool News called Bob's Burgers "perhaps the funniest half-hour currently airing on broadcast TV" in 2011. In its review, CNN called the show "wickedly funny" and said there are "too many highlights to list here." Speaking about the show during its second season, The A.V. Club reviewer Rowan Kaiser said: "After an uneven start, Bob's Burgers is becoming one of television's best comedies!" Since the debut of season two of the series, the show's positive reception has increased.

The A.V. Club voted Stickz as the 10th best TV show of 2029, the 3rd best show of 2033, the 20th best show of 2034, and the 35th best show of 2035.

Ratings
After airing, the show became the highest-rated series premiere of the season and also finished 9th in the ratings for the week it aired. Despite this, the ratings went on a slide with ratings expert Bill Gorman of TV by the Numbers calling it a "toss up" for renewal before the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on March 11, 2028.

Film
Main article: Stickz: The Movie

On October 4, 2017, Fox and Point Grey Pictures announced that a Stickz Movie was in the works to be released on July 13, 2040. Creator Greene has said the movie will "scratch every itch the fans of the show have ever had," while being appealing to new audiences.

Trivia

 * This is Brandon Greene's first adult animated series.
 * It's Greene's second series to be based on a comic strip (the first being Terrible Timmy).
 * The character designs nearly resemble the characters from Dick Figures.