‘Garbage Pail Kids’ Animated Series Coming to HBO Max
Every child of the 1980s remembers Garbage Pail Kids, the gross, hilarious trading cards that became as ubiquitous on school playgrounds as freeze tag and conversations about whether square or round cafeteria pizza was the superior lunch food. (By the way: Square, obviously.) The collectible cards and their colorful (and slightly horrifying) characters have made a comeback in recent years, with new annual series of cards from Topps. The next step for the kids of the garbage pail: An animated TV series on HBO Max.
That show is currently under development from Rough House Pictures, Danny McBride’s production company. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is inspired by McBride and collaborator David Gordon Green’s “love for Garbage Pail Kids and Saturday morning cartoons” and “will be family-friendly and appeal to audiences of all ages.” The series will be created by McBride, Green, and Josh Bycel.
The Garbage Pail Kids concept was created by Art Spiegelman, the celebrated cartoonist behind the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus. (Yes, the same guy made one of the most infamous kids fads in history and the classiest and most critically acclaimed comic book ever.) Of course, others have tried to adapt the Garbage Pail Kids before, with let’s say limited success. When The Garbage Pail Kids Movie came out in 1987, it looked like this.
A potential remake was discussed several years ago, but nothing every came of it. Truth be told, the wacky features of the Kids is probably better suited to animation than live-action anyway. And Green and McBride — the guys behind Eastbound and Down and The Righteous Gemstones — seem like the right guys to turn the cards’ irreverent sensibility into a cartoon series. They just better include Hot Head Harvey. He was always the best card.