Regular Show: The Lost Tapes is an American animated sitcom created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon Network. A revival of Quintel's series Regular Show (2010–2017), the series premiered globally on May 11, 2026.
Similar to the original series, it follows the daily adventures of blue jay Mordecai and raccoon Rigby, who work as groundskeepers at a local park. Other members of the park include their grumpy, austere, no-nonsense but well-meaning boss Benson (a gumball machine), the childlike lollipop-shaped owner of the park Pops, and their coworkers, Skips (a yeti), Muscle Man, and Hi-Five Ghost.
Contents
Premise
The series follows the lives of Mordecai (J. G. Quintel) and Rigby (William Salyers), two best friends and groundskeepers at a park where they often avoid work to have fun, much to the annoyance of their boss Benson (Sam Marin) and to the delight of Pops (Marin), the owner of the park. Other characters include their coworkers Skips (Mark Hamill), Muscle Man (Marin) and Hi-Five Ghost (Quintel). In every episode, Mordecai and Rigby face a new set of surreal situations at the park.
Every episode (as revealed in the first episode) is told under the framing device of Pops in the afterlife following the events of the series finale of the original series, in which each untold adventure is played out through footage from a box of VHS tapes Pops found, aptly titled "The Lost Tapes". As a result, any episode can theoretically take place in different time periods of the original series instead of following a linear timeline.
Production
On June 12, 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that a new Regular Show series titled Regular Show: The Lost Tapes had been greenlit for two seasons, with J. G. Quintel returning as showrunner. On September 30, 2024, Mark Hamill confirmed that he would reprise his role as Skips. Later it was unveiled that much of the original cast—including Quintel, William Salyers, Sam Marin, and Minty Lewis—were returning. The series is produced by Cartoon Network Studios, with Quintel and Sean Szeles returning as executive producers alongside studio president Sam Register.
Release
Regular Show: The Lost Tapes officially premiered on Cartoon Network feeds worldwide on May 11, 2026. In Canada, the series aired on YTV the same day. The series is also streaming on HBO Max and Hulu, starting in the United States on June 8, 2026. Internationally, the series is streaming on StackTV and Teletoon+ in Canada, Neon in New Zealand, Now in Italy, and Movistar Plus+ in Spain.
Critical reception
Chris Gallardo of Tell-Tale TV gave the series a positive review, assuring that the humor of the series is "still as absurd as ever, blending its off-beat, surreal humor with the fast-paced energy" and that "the comedy still hits relatively the same". Sean Isaacs of The Fanboy Factor praises the series for retaining its original format and "presenting the episodes as stories that could have existed alongside the original run rather than continuing it."
Guy Dolbey of DiscussingFilm rated the series 2 out of 5 stars; he critiqued the material as too familiar to the original series, lacking in surprises, and deemed the humor as "not very funny", while comparing to the perceived decline in quality of The Simpsons. Wilson Chapman of IndieWire criticized the series for "failing to stack up to the original run at its best" and being "a bit frantic and poorly paced, lacking the contrast between the chill, down-to-earth characters and the absurdity surrounding them that gave the series its initial hook".
