“hey.” is the misadventures of a young black couple (Marcus Showers and Shania “Nae” Young) navigating their mid-20s after moving in with each other and how their individual relationships with their friends bring them closer together. Think of it as a mix between Bob’s Burgers and HBO’s Insecure, with animation inspired by classic era Simpsons.

Created in loving response to every classic black sitcom that came before it, the mission with hey. is to create a black led sitcom that prioritizes love and optimism just as much as it prioritizes comedy and engaging character animation.

A few reasons! I’ve always felt like the black men characters have one specific personality trait: stubbornness. I wanted to create a sitcom where the two character’s love isn’t hindered by childish pride or one trying to belittle the other. Bob and Linda can have it. Why can’t we?

Also! While I love so much of the incredible indie animated projects we’ve seen over the years, there’s a surprisingly low amount of sitcoms (let alone any with black leads). Sitcoms are my favorite form of narrative storytelling. There’s nothing quite like hanging out with a group of characters that you enjoy watching every week and becoming so familiar with them that they become family. From King of the Hill and Family Guy to All in the Family or Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, these are characters that I know better than some of my family. That’s the goal with hey.

Original concept sketches by Al-Tariq Harris (2021)

Shania “Nae” Young (24) is a really thoughtful, optimistic and sweet character. She’s also very sentimental, finding value in things that others may think are small. The people that she loves are very important to her and she also cares if someone that she doesn't know likes her too. While she cares about the people around her and would do anything to keep them happy, she couldn't also care less about things that she’s not fully interested in. If someone is in a play that she doesn’t care for, she’ll sit in the front row but will let you know every hole she found in the plot.

Marcus Showers (25) can be a really nonchalant guy but also has a tendency to get really anxious and awkward in otherwise normal situations. He loves his friends but if one of them gets a little too overly emotional, he gets extremely uncomfortable. Marcus also has a hard time understanding social cues sometimes. If someone told him it was raining cats and dogs outside, he’d ask “why would somebody throw animals from the sky?” A little sweaty, but you get it. He’s a stoner and typically hangs out with his two best friends, Kiona Dean and Blu, when he’s not working his corporate graphic design job.

Meliyah “Mel” Young (22) is Nae’s younger cousin, they’re so close that they practically grew up as siblings. She’s really dry and deadpan, a real Daria type but she’s not disinterested with the world and people around her. She just sounds that way. Definitely the most laid back and reserved of the girls. She’s the kind of character that you'd think wouldn’t care for most things, but once you get to know her, you find out that she’s really compassionate. Mel never yells or emotes too much. She’s a realist, especially in comparison to her optimistic cousin, and never sugarcoats how she feels.

Breana “Bre” Leonardo (24) is Nae’s best friend from art college. Her and Mel are also close, it’s not rare to see the two of them together without Nae. Bre is a freelance painter, who’s a perfectionist and always has a batch of soul-crushing commissions lined up. She’s a really big personality, expressing all of her emotions in very extreme ways. She’s extremely dramatic and compassionate. She’s really into anime, manga, K-Pop and other things you could probably find merch for in Hot Topic. Much like Mel, she’s also really competitive. Bre also has pretty bad eyesight, which she refuses to get looked at.

Kiona Dean (25) has been Marcus' best friend since eighth grade. They’re very nonchalant and easy-going, a real “go with the flow” type (to their detriment) just like your average stoner. While they don’t have a steady job, they always find a way to get to that bag somehow. They’re always looking for a new hustle and dragging both Marcus and Blu into their schemes — the Eddy to their Ed, Edd n Eddy. Kiona Dean’s name is always said together (think Charlie Brown or A Pimp Named Slickback), never “Kiona” but sometimes “KD.”

Blu (24) is best friends with Kiona Dean and Marcus. He shares an apartment with KD. Blu isn’t stupid by any means, but let’s just say there’s some gaps in his knowledge sometimes. Blu is very timid and anxious, trying to avoid trouble and confrontation at all costs. He’s a really big cinephile, he surfs Letterboxd often, judges people on their favorite movies and can recite full filmographies. Blu sells weed but is oblivious to it being illegal. He’s really gullible but also emotionally driven and none of his friends know his real name. He has a hard time sticking up for himself and typically goes along with what Kiona Dean wants to do. His friends typically gaslight him for fun, as his crashouts are quite hilarious.

Cheran Carr (26) is Nae’s new friend and co-worker at the recreational center. That isn’t her only job though, you can find Cheran working in practically every single establishment that the characters walk into. It’s almost like she physically grows a uniform when she walks in a building. She works because she likes to, not necessarily because she needs to. Cheran is very welcoming, chill and sweet. For someone who has to deal with customers all day, she’s extremely down to Earth. She loves to laugh and dance, she’s the perfect light for Nae whenever she’s feeling down at work. She also has not seen much media past 2005 so, most of her references are pretty limited.

So, I’m Al-Tariq Harris! Known affectionately(?) as ToonrificTariq on YouTube and across the internet. I’m an animator, a storyboard artist, a writer and a film school graduate. Since I was fourteen, I’ve been doing video essays on cartoons to varying degrees of quality (the new ones are pretty good, though!) and have been animating most of my life. Through my videos over the past fourteen (lmfao damn) years, I have not only made so many creative friends both in and adjacent to the animation industry but have garnered enough knowledge to know exactly how to lead a project of this size.

This campaign is to cover the cost of pretty much everything that I cannot do myself. This is for rough animators, clean up artists, musicians, voice actors, background artists and many other individuals that’ll help mold this thing into something special. While I can do a lot of this myself (and plan to), artists are stronger together and the best art is born through collaboration. Also! I have to keep the video essays going on YouTube so having a budget will make sure that I don’t have to split my time as much.

I just want to create a black cartoon that provokes joy just from the thought of it. I want to create a show about a beautiful dark skin couple that have a healthy, wholesome, real love. I want to create characters that black people dress as for Halloween, like Proud Family or Boondocks. I want to create a show that the culture is proud to call its own. I want to create hey.

And I want you to help.

If you’re reading this after watching the campaign video, just know that I wrote the ending here first.

… I don’t know why I lied to you just then.

about tha show.

why this story?

tha characters.

tha creator.

other crew members.

why kickstarter?

tha rewards.

stretch goals.

thank you for reading!

"hey.": an adult-animated sitcom pilot

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