While HBO produced one of the best adult animated shows of the 2000s and 2010s, this series still hasn’t received a revival in the 14 years since its finale. The success of The Simpsons opened the floodgates for adult animation to flourish as a TV staple, and it wasn’t long before a string of shows capitalised on the show’s popularity by offering different spins on the format. Family Guy, King of the Hill, American Dad, South Park, and Bob’s Burgers all owe a portion of their success to the series, but there were other shows that took more experimental approaches to adult animation.
HBO’s three-season classic The Ricky Gervais Show was one such series. Where most adult animated comedies had a recurring cast of fictional characters and a specific setting, this unique series was adapted from the podcast of the same name and consisted almost exclusively of real-life friends Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington embarking on ludicrous, random conversations as their thoughts were animated in the style of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Their many digressions formed the show’s loosely defined “Story,” and most episodes were constructed of diatribes between the trio.
Originally a conversational comedy radio show that began in the UK back in 1998, HBO’s animated take on The Ricky Gervais Show pulled its material from existing podcast episodes. This meant the show, which lasted for 39 episodes over three seasons, already had a lot of material to explore before the series had even begun. In 2026, The Ricky Gervais Show is now truly primed for a revival since there is now a treasure trove of unanimated material with Pilkington, Merchant, and Gervais, who have continued to collaborate over the years.
When HBO renewed The Ricky Gervais Show for season 3, there was talk of a fourth outing for the animated comedy, but Gervais later stated in June 2012 that the show had reached its conclusion. While the many iconic characters of The Simpsons and other, more conventional animated comedy shows gave viewers more to get emotionally invested in, The Ricky Gervais Show lacked a recurring cast of reliable characters outside its real-life hosts. Still, the show deserves to return to screens since the series was an inspired experiment, and some of its funniest cartoon conversations can go toe to toe with any other animated comedy as a classic of the genre.
Too often, the term adult animated comedy ends up translating to a ribald series about a slacker protagonist that is filled with off-colour jokes and endless riffing. While the modern, surprisingly sharp episodes of The Simpsons and the best shows that the animated sitcom inspired buck this trend, there is still a dispiriting number of adult animated comedies that fit this predictable bill. Thus, The Ricky Gervais Show needs a revival, if only because the show’s original premise inadvertently helped inspire an entire online video genre.
In the 14 years since The Ricky Gervais Show went off the air, it has become increasingly common for independent animators to create whimsical animations to accompany clips from their favourite popular podcasts. Some bigger shows even commission videos like this, proving that The Ricky Gervais Show was a more influential series than it might have seemed, and an animated comedy that is overdue for a comeback.
