Richie Skinny

Richie Skinny is an American adult animated comedy-drama television series created by Webster Gordon for 's block. The series depicts the misadventures of titular character Richie Skinny, a pessimistic teenager and diagnosed psychopath who often finds himself in a variety of bizarre and often life-threatening situations while pondering philosophical questions. The series also depicts his awkward interactions and frequent miscommunication with his overbearing mother, irresponsible father , and bossy sister. The series has been noted for its realistic takes on topics such as, , , , and the.

The series originated from a webcomic of the same name Gordon published on Luxpad in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He brought a pitch for an animated television series adaptation to Adult Swim in 2012, and after a series of changes to the premise and characters, Cartoon Network greenlighted a 10-episode first season. Gordon voices the title character, while Andrea Daymond, Gio Ferraro, Logan Geoffrey, and Steven Mendoza voice various others. Richie Skinny is a joint production of and.

The series premiered on March 28, 2015. It has developed a large and received critical acclaim for its social commentary, dark sense of humor, unique visual style and animation,  soundtrack, and overall originality, with ACG magazine hailing the show as the best animated series of the 2010s and Gen En ranking it in the top 5 on the 2015, 2017, and 2022 editions of its year-end Top 20 Best TV Series list. Among other accolades, the series won six, four , three , three , and two Jupiter Awards. Its seventh season premiered on October 6, 2023, and an eighth and final season has been announced.

Premise
The show focuses on titular character Richie Skinny, a 17-year-old boy living in the fictional city of Bayview,. The Skinny family itself consists of Richie; his mother, an obsessive and overbearing fiction writer; his father , an alcoholic in denial who works an office job; and sister , Richie's bossy 21-year-old sister looking for a way into college.

Richie is a pessimistic misanthrope and diagnosed, and most episodes follow his misadventures—often including adult situations—and his interactions with equally eccentric townspeople, all while his thoughts and serve as the series' narration. However, some episodes also have two simultaneous plot lines where one is about Richie and the other is about someone else in the Skinny family. In a few cases, though, both Richie and another Skinny family member are in the main plot.

Development
Richie Skinny began as a webcomic written and illustrated by Webster Gordon which he published on his Luxpad account @WebsterG from 2007 to 2013. The comic was very similar to the animated series in that it features the main Skinny family, though there were a few differences: Kinney was a stay-at-home father, Minnie was a graphic designer instead of a fiction writer, and the story took place in a more urban setting. The comic developed a significant the website and even caught the attention of the site's upper management, leading to it consistently being featured in Luxpad Showcase, the Luxpad staff's year-end collection of the best webcomics.

Gordon has said in interviews that he frequently received comments from fans asking him to turn the webcomic into an animated television series, leading to him developing a pilot episode. Shortly beforehand, Gordon had developed a pitch for another animated series, an animated sitcom titled These Four which followed a differently dysfunctional family of four living in. Though the series was "shot down" by TBS,, and RKOx, expressed interest in the project. However, Adult Swim development executive sought major changes to the premise and characters of These Four in order for the series to be less generic. Gordon says he initially decided to "just rewrite the entire show"—including the premise, characters, and even the setting—before randomly asking Weidenfeld, "Are you familiar with a webcomic called Richie Skinny?" Afterward, Gordon introduced Weidenfeld to the comic and hurriedly started a discussion about an animated adaptation of Richie Skinny in place of These Four.

Weidenfeld requested a few minor changes which Gordon happily agreed to, including making Kinney an office worker, making Minnie novelist, moving the setting to the suburbs, and adding new side characters such as and. Gordon wrote the first draft of the pilot episode at his home in within eight hours. Rather than writing a first draft and rewriting it over and over, Gordon chose to write multiple drafts at once and ask Weidenfeld which draft he liked most, often telling him beforehand what was different about each script. "I think the one Weidenfeld chose was like the fourth or fifth," Gordon told XYZ News. "I was such a nervous trainwreck. Honestly, I didn't even know which direction I really wanted to take Richie Skinny in." Gordon has also said that the draft he chose focused more on dialogue, characters, and story than "usual adult cartoon antics like shock humor and improbable, -like situations". Gordon approached his friend Mark Beasley, a fellow webcomic artist and animator, about assisting with designing secondary characters.

In December 2013, Adult Swim officially greenlighted a 10-episode first season, opting for it to be completed in time for a spring 2015 premiere. The company placed a rating on Richie Skinny so that it could air in prime time and compete with other cable shows in the same time slot, though uncut  episodes began airing later that year.