Strangers with Candy is an American television sitcom created by Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Amy Sedaris, and Mitch Rouse that originally aired on Comedy Central from April 7, 1999, to October 2, 2000.

The series stars Sedaris, Colbert, Dinello and Greg Hollimon with a supporting cast that includes Roberto Gari, Deborah Rush, Larc Spies, Maria Thayer, Orlando Patoboy, Sarah Thyre and David Pasquesi.

Tonally, Strangers with Candy uses surreal humor to satirize after school specials and the sanitized, saccharine advice those shows would give to kids.

Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny.

[4] Although it lasted only 12 episodes, the show received favorable reviews[5][6] and was nominated for five CableACE Awards in 1995, in categories including best writing, performance, and comedy series.

Colbert was reticent after hearing her idea because he knew it was better than theirs; he was right, and Comedy Central's Kent Alterman chose her show instead.

"[10][11] Rouse, Colbert, and Dinello went to the Museum Of Television and found several after-school specials starring Scott Baio, which they used as reference.

"[3][12][1][13] Rouse noted Strangers was a combination of Fisher's tape, the Baio specials, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, and Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies.

"[12] Alterman said of the show's structure "The way we approached [it] was to present each one as a morality play where in the third act the protagonist, Jerri Blank, would always, without fail, make the wrong choice.

[4] The show was originally entitled The Way After School Special,[22] but later was changed to Strangers With Candy, which was just a name they had come up with years earlier, and had been wanting to use for one of their projects.

Doug Herzog, who was at the time, president of Comedy Central's parent company Viacom, also noted his influence, "Kent recognized the brilliance and genius of Strangers With Candy really early on.

Jerri would often wear high-waisted pants and snakeskin ankle boots, as well as turtlenecks because Comedy Central did not want track marks or tattoos to be visible.

[15] Sedaris wore a wig and fake lashes, and told the hair and makeup department she wanted Jerri to look like a professional golfer.

[25] When writing the pilot, the writers would perform the characters, and realized that they were imitating Greg Hollimon when they read Principal Blackman's lines.

Roberto Gari was chosen for the role of Jerri's father Guy as he was the only actor who was able to do the character's poses and keep still for a long period of time.

[1] The show was filmed between Westchester County, New York and New Jersey, with two different abandoned schools in the Rutherford area being used as the set for Flatpoint High.

"[9] In an early review, Joyce Millman of Salon, said: "Strangers With Candy" is one of the most inventively bizarre shows in a long time –right up there with HBO's recent trial run of the mock-rock duo sitcom "Tenacious D"–.

It manages to sustain the "Afterschool Special" joke with its smudged, '70s neo-realistic look, generic pseudo-pop background music and Jerri's throwback wardrobe.

"[22] Rolling Stone was also complimentary of the show, "Strangers With Candy is gleefully absurdist stuff that is clearly not factory-made to suit all tastes, but it's certainly a brave if willfully fucked-up piece of work.

"[28] Pete Schulberg at The Oregonian, commented on the show's uncompromising humour, "In its own twisted and taboo-bashing way, the series proves to be as outrageous as anything you'll see on TV.

[29] The New York Post's Michelle Greppi, compared the show unfavourably to similar media, "Strangers With Candy" aspires to be the anti-after-school special.

Instead, it's just a flat and unfunny rip-off of "South Park" refracted through a prison prism and executed in a style that makes cable access look Oscar-ready and all of the "Heathers" ready for sainthood".

Further adding, "Yet for all the richness of its targets, the show is curiously flat -- a broad parody whose sharpest moments stem from social non-sequitors and squeamishly inappropriate one-liners, as when Jerri announces: "I have to leave class early -- I'm getting my uterus scraped."

Perhaps flatness is to be expected, as the show's creators [...] are veterans of "alternative comedy," a genre whose distinguishing characteristic is that it is rarely, you know, funny.

[32] In a review of the second season, Tom Conroy of US Weekly called the show, "A tart satiric confection with a hard center", and rated it three of four stars.

"[34] On another positive review, Kinney Littlefield of The Orange County Register said, "Like great chocolate, Strangers With Candy has proved to be an addictive substance over its past two seasons".

I would say the same thing about Strangers With Candy.” Although the series had low ratings during its emission, it became a cult classic, and served as inspiration for other comedians and screenwriters.

[57] Other fans of the show include Dan Levy,[21] RuPaul,[58] John Mulaney,[59] Dave Atell,[9] Justin Theroux,[60] Kevyn Aucoin,[61][62] Sharon van Etten,[63] Jack Antonoff,[18] Danny DeVito,[64] and Natalie Wynn.

"[14] In a panel with Levy, when asked about why they think the show had such a dedicated fanbase, Dinello and Sedaris said, "We embrace losers, misfits and outcasts."

Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello reprised their roles for the film; several other characters were recast because the actors who played them now looked too old to be in high school.