Neely, who had done I Am Baby Cakes and The Professor Brothers shorts for Super Deluxe in 2006, envisioned the characters in each series to coexist in the same universe.

With the relationship in mind, he produced a four-part internet series entitled China, IL, which was published on Super Deluxe in 2008.

Neely stated that a major inspiration behind the premise of the series derives from his lack of college experiences and his Arkansan upbringing.

[1] The series takes place at the "Worst College in America", located at the edge of the fictional town of China, Illinois.

[2] Neely, who had produced I Am Baby Cakes and The Professor Brothers shorts for Super Deluxe in 2006,[3] envisioned the characters in each series to coexist in the same universe.

[4] With this relationship in mind, he produced a four-part online series entitled China, IL, hand-drawn by him in his apartment in Austin, Texas.

[2] Intended for online consumption, he considered the web series independent from China, IL, due to the differences in format and structure that he stated he feels his work should be dictated by.

[6] Executive producer Daniel Weidenfeld stated in an interview with The Huffington Post that before they knew Super Deluxe would be folded into Adult Swim Video, he talked to senior executive vice president of Adult Swim, Mike Lazzo, about translating the online series to a television special.

Shortly before Super Deluxe ceased operations, Weidenfeld moved to Los Angeles,[12] while Neely started working as a story consultant for South Park in 2007, during the show's eleventh season.

Club interview also has Neely describe aspects of the series inspired by his Arkansan upbringing; he admits that he "talk[s] about [Arkansas] all the time, it turns out.

[25] When asked about the network's Standards and Practices, Weidenfeld stated that "I find when something comes back that you can't say, we're able to skirt around it and make something funnier.

[26] Neely revealed that his team try to incorporate some of the "hallmark components" of his shorts (e.g. first-person narrative and flashbacks), but find their audience not "really have the patience for that sort of thing".

[30] When asked about the slideshow presentation of his animated shorts in an interview with The College Hill Independent, Neely felt that the approach was not "an aesthetic choice, it was sort of the only thing I was able to do.

"[31] He stated that, out of "ignorance and not having a whole lot of options", he hand-drew each frame on paper and scanned them into a computer; he felt the restrictions "really paid off and I enjoyed the form.

[37] For the recurring cast: Tommy Blacha plays The Mayor, the Dean's long-time nemesis; Dave Coulier portrays Ronald Reagan; Chelsea Peretti voices Crystal Peppers (and Kim among other various characters), Steve's competitor and a professor of Spanish and History;[38] Jeffrey Tambor voices the father of Baby Cakes and professor of "super science", Leonard Cakes; Jason Walden plays Sammy Davis, a history professor, and Gary Anthony Williams portrays Dr. Jack Falgot, who runs the campus health center.

[3] Neely, who started recording songs at age 14, drew musical inspiration from improvisational sessions between him and his friends as teenagers.

Weidenfeld stated that producing one "would be a difficult thing to write up front, but a Music Man style episode would just be incredible to do.

Club stated that "Neely's talent is still most evident in the strange twists and turns of his imagination and odd spurts of verbal surrealism".

"[50] Charles Webb of MTV Geek summarized the first season as "one of the most enjoyably demented shows to make its debut in the Adult Swim lineup this year".

in terms of reaching the aforementioned series' "sweet spot of animated mayhem for me while merrily bouncing along with its boozed-up, sexed-up, lazy, spiteful, underdog faculty all under the employ of a dean voiced by Hulk Hogan.

[52] He summarized the first season as a "fast-paced 11-minute animated series ... worthy of catching up on", and praised it for retaining "[Neely's] sensibilities that made him an Internet sensation".