Breadwinners is an American animated comedy television series created by Gary "Doodles" DiRaffaele and Steve Borst and developed by Bill Braudis for Nickelodeon.

The series was originally conceived as an animated short from DiRaffaele's efficiency apartment in Studio City, Los Angeles, along with Borst.

It was conceived as a four-and-a-half-minute animated short from DiRaffaele's efficiency apartment in Studio City, Los Angeles (dubbed the "Doodle Chamber").

[13]: 2  Originally a one-off, Breadwinners premiered at the Midsummer Night Toons short film festival in New York City,[a] where they wanted to entertain their colleagues.

[16][b] A cartoony look was explicitly chosen as the art style, DiRaffaele noted, which gave way to elements such as dark, heavy outlines around the characters.

In addition, retro-style video games were the inspiration for the art direction, with a pixel texture applied to backgrounds and the character's shadows.

[19] Its original broadcast garnered roughly 2.8 million viewers, ranking 81st of the top 100 cable shows for adults aged 18 to 49.

[26] Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media assessed its reliance on toilet humor as questionable while giving credit to the strength of the protagonists' friendship.

"[8] New York Daily News writer David Hinckley linked its style of humor as enticing to its target demographic.

"[27] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd found its visual style oddly pleasant and identified a slew of potential influences and references.