The Inevitable Downfall Of Workaholics

Boss lady looking large and in charge, minus the large plus points for being cool

Shut up, Adam. Workaholics was a Comedy Central sitcom about three best friends who are unable or unwilling

to face the challenges of adulthood and instead find joy in juvenile behavior and living their

lives like they're still in college. The trio of besties spend their days doing the bare minimum

to get by at their jobs and live like man-children in the shared suburban home

drinking, and partying. It's a celebration of joyful ineptitude and carefree crassness that

all came together, iconically, through the hard work of its small group of creators

You guys ready to get weird tonight or what? For sure. The cold classic comedy series was created by a real-life group of close-knit friends

like Anderson, Adam Devine, and Anders Holm, who played fictionalized and elevated versions

of themselves. The series was also co-created by Kyle Newacek, who directed many of the episodes

during its lengthy run. Anderson and Niewiczek were friends since third grade

and wound up going to college together in Orange County, where they met Divine. During their time doing sketch comedies

they befriended home and their fates were inevitably intertwined. Like several iconic shows

that mine the rocky depths of friendship and idiosyncrasy for comedic gold

Workaholics isn't necessarily about anything specific and largely tells stories about the awkward daily trials and tribulations

of its central trio of offbeat weirdos. They are employed together as telemarketers sharing a single cubicle

And outside of working hours, they share a rank bachelor pad where they drink and smoke to their heart's content

Looking to their own lives for inspiration, the series is semi-autobiographical in a way

As the fictional Blake, Adam, and Anders work for the bland and unrewarding Teleamericorp

in real life, Divine and Holm worked for a telemarketing company as well, which led to them pursuing their comedic dreams instead and forming a sketch comedy group known as Mail Order Comedy

This is actually where the story of Workaholics began, with mail order comedy and the gang's persistent effort

to make good content and get seen The group began making videos in 2006 just a year after the birth of YouTube and together they began pumping out quality sketches for the platform as well as Facebook Anderson explained in a podcast interview

after the first season aired that they weren't getting a ton of views on their videos

but they knew they had something good with their group chemistry and dynamic. So even though they weren't getting the traffic

they hoped for, they kept working hard and eventually came up with the web series Fifth Year

The series only had a handful of short episodes, but watching it now, it's clear that it was perfect proof of concept for what would become Workaholics

In five years, I see myself as, I don't know, the president of this company

The web series follows a trio of college friends who have to move into the real world

but don't want to give up their hard partying slacker ways. It is essentially a short form version of the full length episodes that would make up the first season of Workaholics

With this project in their pocket and a healthy dose of both determination and good fortune

they managed to attract the attention of a Comedy Central exec, who messaged them on YouTube about the possibility of working on a pilot

And the boys got their big shot. They were given a small budget to create a pilot

Off the strength of that pilot, Comedy Central ordered 10 episodes and unknowingly paved the way for a future hit show

Before its big premiere, the network gave fans a special sneak peek on March 15, 2011

The sneak peek aired directly after the Comedy Central roast of Donald Trump

giving the special a solid lead-in and adding some heat for the impending series premiere

The show officially kicked off on April 6, 2011 to respectable ratings

particularly for an original Comedy Central series that did not cost much to produce

And the reviews were surprisingly solid from critics and audiences alike, with many reviewers noting, with surprise

just how often they found themselves laughing at the show's juvenile humor

Hey! Oh, nope. Sorry. I get that too. That's my tip. Great

All right. Enjoy that. I will. And praising the easy chemistry between the stars

One reason the chemistry came so easily for the central trio, especially when it came to being roommates

is that the actors were actually roommates. What more they all lived together in the actual house that their characters lived in on the show and where the first season was shot They were all convinced that the series had no chance of staying around long term so to save money for inevitable unemployment they decided to shoot where they lived

Ultimately, after the success of the show, it built a proper set that was a reconstruction of their shared home

Well, I think we can officially say this house is now a home, and stopped filming at their actual residence

The first season, while popular, didn't manage to remain untarnished by controversy

despite its positive reception by fans. In fact, one particularly controversial fan-favorite episode has all but been scrubbed from existence

for anyone who doesn't own the show on DVD. The eighth episode of season one, To Friend a Predator, pushed the envelope of good taste

when it premiered and revolved around the guys trying to go full on Chris Hansen and

catch a pedophile, only to wind up kind of becoming friends with the guy

Kofor is the man, and he's pissing off our roof right now

That is bawling. He's the bawler I was supposed to be. The first season was a sleeper hit for the network, so Comedy Central immediately ordered a second 10-episode season

The ratings increased significantly, and Comedy Central knew they had something special

The network was quick to renew the show for a third season before the second had even finished airing

and they decided to increase the number of episodes they would order from 10 to 20

The dramatic increase in the number of episodes proved to be a big task for the show's writers and stars

The 20-episode season pulled in fairly big numbers consistently, but took a toll on the show's quality

The season took longer to shoot and produce than both of their first two seasons combined

and had to be split up into two 10-episode halves. This meant the season premiere aired in May 2012

and the series finale didn't air until March 2013, nearly a full year later

However, with the show pulling in viewers, there was no chance Comedy Central was going to let it get away

and they renewed the series yet again, this time locking them in for a fourth and fifth season all at once. However, these seasons would

only include 13 episodes, further proving to fans that a massive 20-episode single season

might have simply been stretching the creators and the show's premise just a bit too thin

I can't remember what I ate for breakfast. I can't remember, like, my social security number which is an issue sometimes During this time in an effort to avoid repetitive jokes or retreading old territory the writers began filling up a whiteboard with overused jokes and phrases that needed to be retired from their comedy rotation Executive producer John Quaintance once took to

Twitter to share a snapshot from the writer's room and revealed a few of the jokes that had

made it to the band board. The list included such cliche catchphrases as

Can you not? Vajayjay? Wait for it. Just threw up in my mouth. Stay classy. And white people

problems, among countless others. Despite the creative team's best efforts to keep the series

fresh and original, many fans felt there were only so many ways you could watch three best

friends drink, smoke, and try to avoid working before things began to drag on

No, I think we're cool. While their fictional counterparts did everything they could to party down, Divine, Holm, and

Anderson were bringing an ironic sort of truth to the title of their show with the amount of

effort they were pouring into the series to try and keep it revitalized. Amid season five

ratings began to dip a bit, but not so much that Comedy Central didn't want to bring them back

The network ordered only 10 episodes for the sixth and seventh seasons, which is often a sign of decreasing confidence

Eventually, it was the creators themselves who decided to pull the plug on the series

announcing in November 2016 that the seventh season would be the show's last

A joint statement from the show's main trio read, we would like to thank Comedy Central

and all the fans for turning us from boys to men. It was an incredible run

but we've decided to leave on a high note. The final episode of Workaholics, titled Party Gods

aired on March 15th, 2017. However, their friendship remained strong even after the series came to an end

As Anderson said in an interview with podcaster Ross Carey early in the show's run

getting to make a TV series with his best friends was absolutely 100% the dream come true

To this end, Anderson, Divine, Holm, and Newacek teamed up once again for the action comedy Game Over Man

where they got to live out their diehard dreams with a stunt-filled extravaganza of over-the-top action

Unfortunately, their film didn't bring the same sort of magic the guys managed to tap into with Workaholics

and it was almost universally panned by critics and audiences alike. However, for those who missed the irreverent slacker sitcom

there's still seven seasons of gold ready and waiting to be streamed