Kevin Smith Reminisces About the Short-Lived Clerks Cartoon

Back in 1994, Kevin Smith's directorial debut, Clerks, was released and became a cult classic. The film even sparked Clerks: The Animated Series, which premiered on ABC on May 31st, 2000. Unfortunately, the series was short-lived, but Smith has taken to Instagram today to honor the 19th anniversary of the show and the crew that made it possible.

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“BEAR IS DRIVING! HOW CAN THAT BE?” The ill-fated, quickly canceled CLERKS cartoon I made with later @kimpossible director #chrisbailey and later @veephbo genius @davidhmandel debuted 19 yrs ago on @abcnetwork! (For you kids, a network was a thing on which we watched shows before @netflix.) The fact that a l’il black & white indie film from #newjersey became a bonafide prime time cartoon seemed like a miracle - until the network cancelled us after airing only 2 of our 6 episodes (out of order, mind you). But those 6 eps have really stood the test of time! @dinipaul came up with the idea of a clip show for episode 2, so we could flashback to shit that never happened. @briancohalloran and #jeffanderson were fantastic as a far more animated Dante & Randal, and living cartoon @jaymewes matched his two dimensional counterpart perfectly. The late, great #lisaspoonauer, who played Caitlin in Clerks, also came back to reprise her role in a vocal cameo in ep 6. A pre-Pepper @gwynethpaltrow played herself and @realgilbert played Patrick Swayze. @danetheridge, who would later produce @thecwizombie and @veronicamars, played OddJob-ish publicist Mr. Plug. But @alecbaldwininsta playing our bad guy Leonardo Leonardo came from mad genius Mandel, who’d gotten to know Alec when Dave was a writer on @nbcsnl. Alec was not only a big catch for me and @samosier (as massive #glengaryglenross fans) he was a miraculous last minute save: Leonardo Leonardo looks like Hans Gruber because #alanrickman was originally going to voice the part. This all happened in 1999/2000, right on the heels of Dogma and 2 years before #jayandsilentbobstrikeback (in which Mandel makes a cameo double-fists coffee - a gag we repeat in the forthcoming #jayandsilentbobreboot). As per the description in the review attached, we did a Judge Reinhold as actual judge joke in our pilot. A decade later, when @arresteddevelopment did the same exact joke, we all felt a little vindicated. But not as vindicated as we’d all feel if the show came back to life for its 20th anniversary next year... #KevinSmith #clerks #cartoon #animation

A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Jun 1, 2019 at 10:04am PDT

"'BEAR IS DRIVING! HOW CAN THAT BE?' The ill-fated, quickly canceled CLERKS cartoon I made with later @kimpossible director #chrisbailey and later @veephbo genius @davidhmandel debuted 19 yrs ago on @abcnetwork! (For you kids, a network was a thing on which we watched shows before @netflix.)," Smith wrote.

He added, "The fact that a l'il black & white indie film from #newjersey became a bonafide prime time cartoon seemed like a miracle - until the network cancelled us after airing only 2 of our 6 episodes (out of order, mind you). But those 6 eps have really stood the test of time! @dinipaul came up with the idea of a clip show for episode 2, so we could flashback to shit that never happened."

"@briancohalloran and #jeffanderson were fantastic as a far more animated Dante & Randal, and living cartoon @jaymewes matched his two dimensional counterpart perfectly. The late, great #lisaspoonauer, who played Caitlin in Clerks, also came back to reprise her role in a vocal cameo in ep 6. A pre-Pepper @gwynethpaltrow played herself and @realgilbert played Patrick Swayze. @danetheridge, who would later produce @thecwizombie and @veronicamars, played OddJob-ish publicist Mr. Plug. But @alecbaldwininsta playing our bad guy Leonardo Leonardo came from mad genius Mandel, who'd gotten to know Alec when Dave was a writer on @nbcsnl. Alec was not only a big catch for me and @samosier (as massive #glengaryglenross fans) he was a miraculous last minute save: Leonardo Leonardo looks like Hans Gruber because #alanrickman was originally going to voice the part," he shared.

"This all happened in 1999/2000, right on the heels of Dogma and 2 years before #jayandsilentbobstrikeback (in which Mandel makes a cameo double-fists coffee - a gag we repeat in the forthcoming #jayandsilentbobreboot). As per the description in the review attached, we did a Judge Reinhold as actual judge joke in our pilot. A decade later, when @arresteddevelopment did the same exact joke, we all felt a little vindicated. But not as vindicated as we'd all feel if the show came back to life for its 20th anniversary next year... #KevinSmith #clerks #cartoon #animation," he concluded.

There may not be any plans to revive the Clerks cartoon, but Smith is working on his latest project, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. According to the IMDB plot description, the new film follows Jay and Silent Bob as they "return to Hollywood to stop a reboot of 'Bluntman and Chronic' movie from getting made."

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is expected to be released in the fall.