The creator walks through his improbable journey from 40-second film to 1-minute shorts to network TV series; his show, about 3 doting teenagers and their tenderhearted dad, premiered October 19.
For animator and series creator Joe Cappa, it all started with a 40-second TikTok of mâché heads.Though it was rejected for a film grant, once it hit social media, certain people took notice.
Including Adult Swim SMALLS program creator Dave Hughes. In 2021, with Halloween fast approaching, Cappa decided to animate a parody episode of the family sitcom for his Instagram.His thinking was, wouldn’t it be funny if the three brothers in the show actually adored their dad.No angst.
Just pure love.Though that short ended up NSFW, the gist of the story resonated with Cappa so much that when Hughes came knocking, he had an idea to pitch. celebrates wholesome family programming; it follows the Campbell boys, three doting teenagers and their tenderhearted dad, as they learn to navigate life in the wake of their mother’s death, sensing her presence in everyday adventures.
The series premiered on October 19 on Adult Swim, the next day on Hulu.In a conversation with AWN about process, pragmatism, and voice, Cappa described how the series grew from lean, self‑made SMALLS shorts into a full season produced with Adult Swim.The path he outlines rather humbly is straightforward: make short videos quickly, hope they find an audience, respond to interest with more work, and then learn — intensively — how a show is built once a pilot is greenlit.
Throughout, he returns to two anchors: a simple premise about “three boys who just really loved their dad,” and a production approach shaped by time, budget, and creative restraints.Cappa explains, “I had made some videos that went viral on TikTok, and Adult Swim caught wind of one of them.They reached out to me telling me that they had ‘Off the Air,’ which is this really cool clip show with weird animation.
They also had a shorts show called SMALLS on YouTube, and they asked me if I had any ideas for that.And at the time, I was kicking around this idea about three boys who just really loved their dad, and that was the only pitch I gave them.But I thought, you know, there’s room to explore.
So, I made three episodes for the show.Small shorts.And that went well.
Then they asked for four more, and then after that they offered to do a TV development deal.I wrote a pilot script, and it got greenlit.We’ve been working on that series about a year and a half now.” Starting with the first short, he kept the tone and relationships consistent, explaining, “I remember when I finished the first episode and sent it to a trusted animator friend.
I was like, ‘Alright, this is what I’m going to send to Adult Swim.’ I remember saying, ‘It’s very uncompromising.I think this is funny.” You expect something really weird will happen at the end, and it kind of does, but it’s nothing that makes you question their loyalty to each other or the love in the household, you know? I mean, that part stays intact.A lot of people say that my stuff is wholesome.
I’ve kind of realized that it’s not that I’m trying to be wholesome, it’s just me reacting to a lot of crass, adult animated shows out there.To me, it’s, ‘Okay, we’ve done that.Now let’s try something different.” Asked about his animation style, Cappa traces it to time constraints and habit.
“I think it was me playing around with this style of trying to draw and animate efficiently because I do everything myself,” he shares. “Before that, I had made a short film called .I’m not going to say it was prestige, but I definitely was trying to be good at animating.
I was really teaching myself how to animate in the process, and it took me two years to make it.But then, no opportunities came from .So, I got on Instagram and started posting.
I set out to post one video.I had to do it.I gave myself two weeks.
I wasn’t going to waste my time on it.So, I think the style just kind of came from being lean.And once I sort of understood my voice using that sort of aesthetic, I thought it would be funny to have some really sweet characters that look a little bit clunky but would live in a Disney sort of world, that would be a little bit more polished.
But it’s so raw.I guess you could call that my style.I’m not sure.” Cappa’s goal was to contrast his sweet storytelling with a thick, almost gravelly look.
“I think there’s a fun juxtaposition,” he notes.“I mean, even in , even though it was really polished, it was a horror movie, so it looked like a kids’ cartoon, but went into a dark place.So, I like playing with that sort of juxtaposition of storytelling versus the style it’s being executed in.” He goes on to say that the voices developed the same way — by testing and revising during production of the shorts.
“Making my own stuff, I’ve learned that there are many animation processes to perfect and really convey the story, convey who these characters are, and punch up the humor.You go from storyboarding to designing the characters to animating them, then voicing them.And you can always go back and change one of the steps.
You have the time to go back and plus things up.And voicing is one of those things.The first three episodes of the SMALLS shorts I made, once I saw them moving, I went back and revoiced them, making sure that everything seemed to be working correctly.
Within that process, I discovered their voices and how they talked.I’ve voiced all the characters of all the shorts I made leading up to this series.It’s been fun experimenting with characters.” And serendipitously, one simple line became a touchstone.
When Cappa heard “Haha, you clowns” for the first time, he told himself, “OK, now I get it.In that one line, everything kind of came together.” He added, “I had a good time with it.” It was a bit challenging for Cappa to shift from a one‑person operation to a production with multiple artists.He had to develop new habits and learn quickly.
Regarding the show’s production, he admits, “I’ve learned so much.I mean, if anything, my experience working with Adult Swim has been so educational, seeing how a show is directed and produced from beginning to end.I have a great partner who has been helping me learn the ropes of making a TV show.
And it’s been a lot of people coaching me how to direct.We are very lean.The show is very lean.
I’ve had to direct designers, animators, and storyboard artists.I look at everything that’s coming by and give notes.It’s been a very, very hands on process.
But I know what I want and I know how it should look.So, it’s just a matter of getting everybody on board.” He acknowledged the need to scale beyond what the shorts could accomplish.According to Cappa, “There are limitations just because I’m not that talented of an animator and I don’t have the time to have all four characters do full walk cycles moving across a room.
I knew creating a show meant having animators that could tackle bigger ideas.And I knew with the way I animated, we had to be economical about stuff.We had to get stuff done on time.
It was a juggling act knowing that this was going to turn into a series and be mass produced in some way.We found a really happy compromise, I suppose.” Asked what were the key lessons he learned during the first season, he paused before describing the expansive scope.“Man, there’s just so much I’ve learned,” he says.
“It’s really hard for me to think of the most important thing to take away from this, because it’s just crazy how many steps there are to animating a show, with so many artists that come in and out as you’re creating it along the way.This whole process has been so eye-opening.I mean, the whole thing has truly been a blessing that I’ve been able to sit in on every aspect of the show.” What began for Cappa as a two‑week Instagram experiment — one video, done quickly in a minimalist style — became a set of Adult Swim shorts, then a pilot, and then a series with a lean team and a director learning each step by doing.
And it’s the sort of incredible path so many artists are hoping to stumble upon themselves.Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
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