Season Review: Royal Crackers Season One

Adult Swim needs more half-hour series like it’s nobody’s business. After having announced the extension of the network’s allotted time from 8pm to 7pm earlier this month, the network found the move so well-received (thanks to constant syndicated reruns of 20th Century FOX classic series like Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill, and others) that the network has announced that in Fall 2023 they plan to extend the Adult Swim network an additional hour to kick off at 6 pm ET everyday thereby taking away more time away from Cartoon Network which has lost most of it’s target audience to YouTube. Now, the problem with having most of your network reliant on Disney-owned primetime animated franchises, those exact series are airing on FXX all-day every day as well. Moreover, Hulu is the place to go if you are going to want new episodes of Futurama and King of the Hill, two classic series that also air on the Warner-owned Adult Swim. So, it would be wise for WB Discovery to continue to invest in this area.

With the company having already screwed up on Final Space and potentially doing the same thing if Justin Roiland isn’t returning to the network’s flagship Rick and Morty, the network would be wise to mine the IP both coming from HBO MAX as well as the legacy and new IP that Adult Swim features (not counting Toonami which has been having problems securing original IP of its own as of late) to really bulk up its offerings and really make Adult Swim a destination spot for original adult animation again. Enter, Royal Crackers. 

The idea of bringing this series to Adult Swim is actually rather brilliant. Let’s get ANOTHER alumni from FOX’s Inkubation program (of which Justin Roiland also hails from), this time in the form of Jason Ruiz and see what he does. The result, the excellent new half-hour animated sitcom Royal Crackers. The half-hour series also stars Andrew Santino (“Dave”), Jessica St. Clair (“Veep,” “American Housewife,” “The Deep Dive” podcast), and David Gborie (“Exploding Kittens,” “All Fantasy Everything” podcast). “Royal Crackers” also stars Emmy winner Maile Flanagan (“Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks,” “Naruto,” “Not Dead Yet”) and Fred Tatasciore (“Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal”).

Royal Crackers was once the king of snacks, but the empire is crumbling. When the family patriarch, tyrannical company founder Theodore Hornsby Sr. ends up in a “super coma,” the rest of the Hornsbys will take their lack of talent and business acumen and try to make Royal Crackers the success it once was.

The result is a laugh-riotous outing that features Santino (as Theo), Ruiz (as Steve) and St. Clair (as Deb) all taking turns delivering absurd dialogue set against a dank Mr. Pickles-like setting featuring mutated chickens, battles with animatronic dinosaurs, and the mother-fucking Dennisons with Mr. Dennison being voiced by none other than the iconic Andy Daly in the most Andy Daly-like character of all-time. Some like to point to this series and give it a Succession-like review, but for my money, Royal Crackers is by a far better bet.

Are there flaws? Yes, but few. Really they aren’t even worth mentioning if only for the fact that the basic premise makes for limitless opportunities and the genres really start to mix in by way of that of horror, movie references, and A-list guest spots from the likes of Fred Armisen, Stephanie Sheh, and Gilbert Gottfried. But really, the principle cast I would put up against anybody with Andrew Santino’s “Theo” being the first real shot at the early ‘oughties lifestyle for kids that, even to this day, some haven’t grown from, Ruiz’s “Stebe” being the dorkiest character written for an animated series since Frank Grimes, and the rest of the Hornsby ranging from creepy to downright evil (I’m looking at you, Mr. Hornsby).

Comedy Central has Adult Swim biting at its heels for the best new animated sitcom of 2023. There are quite a few yet that still need to have a debut, but this one’s going to be near the top of our best new series of the year list for this year.