If you grew up in the 2010s, you remember the weird, wonderful era when Cartoon Network took risks. Shows like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Regular Show pushed boundaries, told complex stories, and occasionally snuck in jokes that made you wonder how they got past the network censors.
J.G. Quintel, creator of Regular Show, is now reflecting on that golden age—and revealing just how hard he had to fight to make his show as gloriously strange as it was. In a new interview with Variety about Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, Quintel recalls the network telling him repeatedly: "We need you guys to tone it down."
For those who never watched Regular Show, here's the premise: a blue jay and a raccoon work as groundskeepers at a park and regularly (see what they did there?) encounter supernatural threats, existential crises, and deeply weird adventures. The show was ostensibly for kids but included references to death, relationships, and the mundane horror of service industry jobs. It was Clerks meets The Twilight Zone, with anthropomorphic animals.
The TV-PG rating was both Regular Show's shield and its constraint. PG means "parental guidance suggested"—theoretically appropriate for kids but with content that might require context. Quintel pushed that rating to its absolute limit, sneaking in innuendo, dark themes, and occasionally disturbing imagery. The network kept pulling him back, but he kept finding new ways to be weird.
What made this era of Cartoon Network special was that the network was willing to let creators experiment. Adventure Time dealt with post-apocalyptic trauma and complex emotional arcs. Steven Universe featured LGBTQ+ representation years before it was common. was about twenty-somethings dealing with ennui and existential dread, disguised as a kids' cartoon.
