Free for All (TV series)

Free For All
The main cast of Free for All. From left to right: Angus, Sylvia Jenkins, Douglas Jenkins, Johnny Jenkins, Clay Zeeman, and Paula Wisconsin.
Genre	Animation Sitcom Off-color humor Comedy Satire
Created by	Brett Merhar
Developed by	Merriwether Williams
Written by	Merriwether Williams (all episodes; also head writer) & Jeff Poliquin (episodes 2-7) Gilbert Ferro (episodes 2-7) Brett Merhar ("The Deal" only; co-written with Merriweather Williams)
Directed by	Dave Marshall
Voices of	Jonathan Silverman Brett Merhar Sam McMurray Mitzi McCall Juliette Lewis Dee Bradley Baker
Opening theme	Free for All (by Felix the Cat)
Ending theme	Free for All (instrumental)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producer(s)	Merriwether Williams and Brett Merhar
Editor(s)	Gil Ferro
Running time	24-26 minutes
Production company(s)	Film Roman
Release
Original network	Showtime
Original release	July 11 – September 12, 2003

Free for All is a 2003 animated series that aired on Showtime. The series was created by Brett Merhar. Set in Colorado, It followed the day-to-day life of Johnny Jenkins, an innocent 19-year-old college kid who has to deal with a bitter, cigarette smoking grandmother and a coarse, sometimes-violent, alcoholic father, in a rather dysfunctional family while his friend, Clay, is living large with the settlement money he got from suing a taco restaurant for personal injuries. In America, the series was rated TV-MA for explicit sexual content, including nudity and scenes of sexual intercourse (S), extremely offensive language (L), and adult content (AD on Showtime's content warning screen).

The show was developed for television by Merriwether Williams, the head writer for the first four seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants. The show lasted for only seven episodes that aired over the summer of 2003, the last ending on a cliff-hanger. Despite favorable to mixed reviews from critics, the show had very low ratings, due to poor promotion and basing the series on an already-unsuccessful property. Showtime cancelled the animated series shortly after the last episode aired. Though the series is now considered "obscure" and no DVD release has been planned for it, the entire series is legally available on iTunes and Amazon.com.

In Germany, the series was aired on MTV Germany.

In 1992, Free For All began life as an alternative comic strip published in college newspapers. The comic became nationally syndicated shortly afterwards, but eventually ended in 1998. A short pilot for the series - which was never aired on television - was made in 2001. Brett Merhar pitched the show to Showtime in 2001 as an animated series, wanting to do edgier jokes than what he could do in the comic. He brought in a friend of his, Merriwether Williams, who was, at the time, the head writer for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. She worked on Free For All as showrunner and head writer alongside her duties as writer for SpongeBob SquarePants.

The show had three writers: Jeff Poliquin (future writer for Comedy Central's short-lived animated sitcom Ugly Americans, and former writer for The Simpsons video games), Gil Ferro (who also served as the show's editor), and Williams herself; Brett Merhar also co-wrote the first episode, "The Deal", with Williams.