Original series
Bee and PuppyCat originated as a two-part eleven minute pilot, which was uploaded to Frederator Studios' YouTube channel Cartoon Hangover as part of Too Cool! Cartoons, a project Frederator referred to as a "big idea cartoon incubator".[8] Part one went online on July 11, 2013, while part two went online on August 6, 2013, followed by a video with both parts together on August 7, 2013. The shorts also aired on Nintendo Video on November 1, 2013, and had a rerun on January 14, 2014,[9] while part two aired on January 20, 2014, as a supposed rerun.[10] 4 episodes from season 1 also released on the platform.
After gaining popularity online, Cartoon Hangover started its first Kickstarter project to fund additional episodes. The Kickstarter started on October 15, 2013, and achieved its 600,000 goal with six days left; by the end, it had raised $872,133, funding ten 6-minute episodes, the first of which would air in the summer of 2014.[11] At that time, Bee and PuppyCat became the most successful animation Kickstarter in history, #4 in the film/video category (behind only three Hollywood-based projects), and the #1 Kickstarter based on a YouTube video.[12] Bee and PuppyCat: The Series premiered November 6, 2014, with a second two-part episode.[13] While a few episodes were released early to Kickstarter backers in 2015, the majority of the season was released through 2016, with production concluding in March that year.[14] The second half of the season was planned for a YouTube release in late Spring/early Summer 2016 but were released November 11, 2016, on VRV instead.[15][16] The complete first series was eventually uploaded in full to the Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel on December 1, 2018.[17]
Lazy in Space
In March 2017, Frederator announced that new episodes of Bee and PuppyCat were being written, initially earmarked for release on VRV. VRV at the time included Cartoon Hangover.[18] In June 2018, the trailer for the continuation was released under the title Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space, which would have aired sometime in 2019.[19] An episode was screened in September 2019 at the Ottawa International Animation Festival,[20] but did not release on VRV as planned. By 2019 VRV was suffering from several departing channels, and parent AT&T was more focused on HBO Max than VRV.[21] In 2020, the 13 then-produced episodes were leaked onto Fred Seibert's Vimeo channel.[22][3]
