Smiling Friends, You Will Be Missed: Here's Our Series Finale Preview

Posted in: Adult Swim, TV | Tagged: smiling friends

Smiling Friends, You Will Be Missed: Here's Our Series Finale Preview

With the Adult Swim series wrapping up its run tonight, here's our preview for the finale of Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel's Smiling Friends.

Published Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:37:08 -0500
by Ray Flook
|
Comments

Article Summary

• Smiling Friends ends its acclaimed run tonight with a double-episode series finale on Adult Swim.
• Final episodes feature a surprising robot friendship and Charlie facing a family mystery.
• Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel explain why they chose to end Smiling Friends now.
• Relive top Smiling Shorts and see what the creators had to share last fall about the show's future.

If we're being honest, the fact that Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel's Smiling Friends would be wrapping up its series run tonight with S03E09: "Friend-Bot (Version 12589218731809213528796879521)" and S03E10: "Charlie's Uncle Dies and Doesn't Come Back" didn't really sink in until we were working up this preview. But after three masterful seasons, the animated series that we would easily call one of our favorites of all time is ending its run tonight, at 11 pm ET (and the following day on HBO Max). With that in mind, we have an updated preview for the final two episodes, along with a look back at several "Smiling Shorts" segments, Cusack and Hadel's audio message announcing the show's end, and their previous thoughts from Fall 2025 that offered some in-hindsight clues to where things could've been heading.

Smiling Friends Series Finale Preview: S03E09 & S03E10

Smiling Friends S03E09: "Friend-Bot (Version 12589218731809213528796879521)": The Smiling Friends befriend a helpful robot. What happens next will shock you.

Smiling Friends S03E10: "Charlie's Uncle Dies and Doesn't Come Back": Pim and Charlie meet Charlie's Uncle, who's full of mysteries and tricks alike. And then Allan goes gaga.

And here's a look back at the "Smiling Shorts" that were released over the past several months:

As for why they're ending the series, Cusack and Hadel shared that they've said all they wanted to say and that now was the time to wrap things up before the series became something less than what they envisioned. While they left the door slightly open to a special or something along those lines in the future, for now, the beloved animated series has wrapped. Here's a look back at what Cusack and Hadel had to share about ending the animated series:

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter shortly after the third season wrapped, Cusack and Handel were asked how long they could see the animated series running (Adult Swim picked up Smiling Friends for two additional seasons ahead of the Season 3 premiere). "We'll see how we feel after four and five, and then Zach and I will get into the war room and decide what the next plan is. We pretty much can guarantee it's not going to go on as much as these other shows," Cusack shared, Hadel added, "Even if we had a thousand ideas at the end of season five, we're not going to go on long. I will say that much. We're not going to put a number up, but five is getting close to probably where we'll want to wrap it up." That doesn't mean that Adult Swim and those close to them aren't pushing for more seasons.

"Even our agents think we're going to go to season 80 [laughs]," Cusack responded. "Our reps and Adult Swim are like, 'Surely, we'll go on forever.' But Zach and I know what's best for the show. The Beatles are so cool. They ended with 'Abbey Road' on a peak, and it's like this nice little discography you can go back to watch. Leaving the audience wanting more is the best." When the interview mentions that Paul McCartney's follow-up band, Wings, "had some good songs," Cusack added, "Yeah, but that was good because it was like a reset. If Zach and I made another show after 'Smiling Friends,' that would be an excuse to be refreshed again. That's why Wings were good because Paul McCartney was like, 'All right, now I can start again.'"

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!