Christian J. Simon

The Amazing World of Gumball (also known simply as Gumball or by its abbreviation TAWOG) is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network.

The series concerns the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, an anthropomorphic blue cat, and adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, who attend middle school in the fictional city of Elmore, California.

They often find themselves in various shenanigans around the city, during which they interact with fellow family members—younger sister Anais, mother Nicole, and father Richard—along with an extended supporting cast of characters.

Bocquelet based several of the series' characters on rejected characters from his previous commercial work while making its premise a mixture of "family shows and school shows", which Cartoon Network was heavily interested in.

After Bocquelet pitched The Amazing World of Gumball to the network, Turner Broadcasting executive Daniel Lennard green-lit the production of the series.

The show was produced by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, in association with Boulder Media (Ireland; season 1) and Studio Soi (Germany; seasons 2–6).

Gumball is noted for its intentional stylistic disunity, with characters designed, filmed, and animated using various styles and techniques, oftentimes within the same scene (stylized traditional animation, puppetry, CGI, stop motion, Flash animation, live-action, etc.).

Although it is a children's series, Gumball comments on topics that are often considered serious or mature, including philosophy, marriage, cyberbullying, political intolerance, mental illness, and the human condition.

The series has received critical acclaim and developed a cult following, with particular praises for its extensive references to popular culture and internet culture, sarcasm, subtle innuendos, dark humor, and metahumor.

When Cartoon Network Studios Europe was created in 2007, Ben Bocquelet was hired to help people pitch their projects to the network.

However, when the studio decided to have its employees all pitch their own ideas, he decided to take some rejected characters he had created for commercials and put them together in one series set inside of a school.

Daniel Lennard, vice president of Original Series and Development at Turner Broadcasting System Europe, was impressed by the premise and approved production of the series in 2009.

The first series to be produced by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, making the show a British production, thirty-six episodes were produced for its first season in collaboration with Studio Soi, Dublin-based Boulder Media Limited, and Dandelion Studios.

On February 17, 2021, the Cartoon Network Twitter account confirmed that a film based on the series is currently in development.

On September 17, 2015, series creator Ben Bocquelet announced on his Twitter page that a crossover episode with an unknown show would air as part of the fifth season.

This turned out to be the episodes, "The Puppets", which features characters and settings from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.

Additionally, "The Copycats" featured the characters interacting with ones similar to those from Miracle Star, a Chinese clone of the show.

"The Boredom" featured characters from Clarence, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa making cameo appearances.

Gumball made a cameo appearance on the Uncle Grandpa episode "Pizza Eve", along with other Cartoon Network characters from currently running and ended cartoons.

Gumball made a cameo appearance on the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode and Cartoon Network special "Crossover Nexus", along with other Cartoon Network characters from currently running and ended cartoons.

Waiting for Gumball is a series of thirteen shorts based on The Amazing World of Gumball, or more specifically, "The Puppets".

On 6 September 2016, Bocquelet announced the series would end after season 6; he reaffirmed his position on Twitter in October 2018.

However, Turner Northern Europe was unable to confirm at the time whether the sixth season would be the show's last.

Following the season 6 finale, two miniseries were released: the six-episode Darwin's Yearbook in November 2019 and The Gumball Chronicles in October 2020.

On 15 June 2023, it was confirmed at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival that the seventh season of the show was in the works, though a release date has not been announced yet.

On 17 February 2021, Cartoon Network revealed that a television film based on the series was in development.

On 21 September 2021, it was announced that a new spin-off series, to be a follow-up for both the show and the movie, had been greenlit for Cartoon Network and HBO Max alongside the film.

On 22 August 2022, it was reported that the film would no longer be heading to HBO Max, but would be shopped to other outlets instead.

The series revolves around the life of a 12-year-old cat named Gumball Watterson and his frequent shenanigans in the fictional American city of Elmore, accompanied by his adopted goldfish brother and best friend Darwin.

Gumball's other family members—his intellectual sister Anais and stay-at-home father Richard, both rabbits, and workaholic mother Nicole, a cat—often find themselves involved in Gumball's exploits.

Gumball attends school with his siblings at Elmore Junior High, where throughout the series he interacts with his various middle school classmates, most prominently his love interest Penny Fitzgerald.

One prominent feature of the series since its third season is "The Void", a dimension inside of Elmore where all the universe's mistakes reside.

This includes references to aspects of reality as well as in-series elements.

Rob is a background character from the first two seasons who became trapped in The Void after becoming "irrelevant".

He later escapes in season 3, after which he becomes Gumball's nemesis and main antagonist.

He is shown to be aware of his fictional existence in the season 4 episode "The Disaster", and his hatred towards Gumball is a result of his role as the protagonist.

A six-episode miniseries called Darwin's Yearbook aired on Cartoon Network from December 14 to December 28, 2019.

The miniseries features Darwin attempting to complete Elmore Junior High's yearbook by examining who he thinks should fill up the best spot.

The miniseries predominantly consists of recycled clips from previous episodes of the original series presented in a clip show style.

Another series of clip show episodes titled, The Gumball Chronicles, premiered on October 5, 2020, with The Curse of Elmore.