Prickled is a first of its kind animated pickleball sitcom that is guaranteed to make you smile.

Executive producer Chris Muller shared some behind the scenes info about the making of this 30-minute new hilarious pilot episode.

“The series follows a guy named Harry who gets fired and divorced within 24 hours, so he moves to Arizona. There, he finds the pickleball community and the HOA gets involved, and it’s just an incredible cast of characters from all different walks of life. He arrived for the sport, but found a community instead,” described Muller. “This isn’t about technical pickleball play. It’s about the culture surrounding the game because it’s so rich with opportunities for stories to tell.”

Muller and the creators were intentional about making sure the pickleball scenes were technically accurate. In nearly every pickleball film, there are obvious mistakes in court positioning or scoring that any player would catch immediately. Prickled stands out as being authentically built by experienced players.

“It’s a comedy, but we wanted to be more intelligent with our humor. I love Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ted Lasso. We want to tell good jokes, but we were not trying to do the obvious,” he explained. “We want to do something different that still relates, but it’s not the expected layup jokes.”

One of Muller’s favorite characters is Roxy.

“She’s a woman from South Philly, and I just love her sharp tongue and attitude. And of course I see a lot of myself in Harry at times,” he mentioned. “But there’s other characters we have planned that are going to be so much fun.”

Creating an animated series is no small feat, especially for an independent animation studio. Even in pre-production alone, the process took about a year.

“Once we started production, it took about three months for us to get everything together, but it always takes longer than you think it will,” noted Muller. “In animation, you need to create the world, rig the characters, you need to find voices, write the script, and rewrite the script and rewrite the script.”

But the final product is certainly something to be proud of.

Rather than pitching the series to a major studio, they chose to release it on YouTube, prioritizing accessibility.

“YouTube is free to anyone who wants to post, and it allows creative people to get their ideas from their mind to the public and see what happens. The cool thing about platforms like YouTube or TikTok is that now the barrier to entry has dropped and it allows creative people to put their work out there,” said Muller. “If you’re a creative person and you want to get something out, you can do it now. And I encourage everybody to do that. That’s what I did.”

Currently, they’re working on episode two and already have plenty of exciting ideas for where the story goes next. Muller teased that Harry could soon find himself in the all-too-familiar search for a mixed doubles partner, one that feels less like strategy and more like a dating game.

To keep up to date on all things pickleball, follow us on Instagram.