A new Regular Program is officially happening, and the fact that the beloved cartoon will return in some form seven years after its final season makes the finale’s meta jokes even better. Regular Program was one of Cartoon Network’s wildest and most creative series in eight years. From the great characters to the bizarre plots, Regular Program didn’t fit into a specific genre and always delivered something unique every week. This includes the Regular Program series finale, which was as smart and self-aware as you’d expect.
Regular Program Season 8, Episode 27, “A Regular Epic Final Battle” was a three-part episode that wrapped up the show with an epic battle for the fate of the universe and a thrilling look at the future of the park crew. Given that we’ve seen Mordecai, Rigby, and the others grow old and build families, it seemed like there wasn’t room for Regular Program to return. However, the announcement of a new Regular Program project recontextualizes the endingespecially if the rumors Regular Program: The Lost Tapes title turns out to be true.
Regular show’s final episodes joke about how good it is for a TV show to end
The regular show’s new project is very exciting, but almost ironic
“A Regular Epic Final Battle” was the culmination of a multi-episode arc about Pops’ origin story and the secrets it entailed. THE Regular Program the finale was also a meta celebration of what the series had accomplished and even included jokes about the state of television. The final three episodes – as well as the rest of season 8 – made several cheeky references about how difficult it is for a show to last this long and how good it is for a series to end when there are no more stories to tell.
That’s why Regular ProgramHer return is quite surprising and almost ironic. One of the enemies that the park team faced in the end was Streaming, which has become more powerful than Blu-Ray and DVD. One of the park staff’s plans to survive the battle against the Anti-Pops was to save their adventures on Blu-Ray discs so they could eventually review their history and remember all their adventures together. To make things even more meta, one of the planets the crew visited in Season 8 was called Nielsen.
The new regular show may have to include some self-aware jokes after Season 8
The regular show’s finale was about not getting stuck in the past
Given how much Regular Program season 8 joked about the state of television and the streaming era, plus how the finale made a point of pointing out that it’s okay to let things slide, the new series may have to have self-awareness to justify its existence. We still don’t know what’s new Regular Program will be, but Mark Hamill’s return as Skips suggests it will bring back elements from the original series. The supposed title of “Lost Tapes” sparked theories about the show being an anthology with “untold stories” from before season 8.
Still, with the same creative team involved, it’s hard not to be excited about this new Regular Program project, despite how satisfying the Season 8 finale was. Regular Program was one of Cartoon Network’s flagship titles for nearly a decade, so the fact that the IP is returning in some form isn’t surprising. Hopefully this new series will live up to the original without affecting the legacy of Regular Programend of the series.