Ahead of the January Gym Rush, a Free Animated Sitcom Goes Behind the Front Desk of a Struggling Boston-Suburb Gym

As gyms across the country get ready for the January rush of new members and New Year's resolutions, a free animated sitcom offers a look at the other side of the front desk. SQUAT! follows the staff of Squat Spot Fitness, a fictional, mid-sized and badly run gym in the Boston suburbs. All ten episodes of its first season, released in 2023 and each about 22 minutes long, are free to watch on YouTube and at squatspotfitness.com.

The series follows Scott Carter, a former big-shot marketing executive who has been out of work for more than a year and takes a job at the gym out of desperation. He soon learns that the owner, Jack Pemberton, is an ethically questionable lottery winner who bought the gym and does not care about running it, and that the general manager is endearing but does not know squat about running a fitness centre. With the help of a freakishly wise janitor and a bright fitness director, Scott keeps the doors open for at least a little longer.

Anyone who has worked in or belonged to a gym will recognise the regulars. There is the 1980s guy in the overly revealing shorts and the mom in the background doing some very strange exercise. The staff fight over the prestigious Fitness Trainer of the Year award. The owner turns membership into a multi-level marketing scheme. Each episode hides one of the day's social and political issues inside a seemingly petty argument among the staff, and part of the fun is working out what the episode is really about.

"A gym in January is a workplace with a deadline," said Bo Bennett, PhD, who created, wrote and produced the series. "Everyone walks in with a promise to keep, and the staff are the ones who have to keep the place running while they do. That is a lot of material for a sitcom."

SQUAT! began life as a sitcom screenplay, which was a semi-finalist in the Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition in 2021. The animated first season shows the characters, the tone and the comedy at full length, and the show is available for live-action development. Producers, studios and networks can request the series bible, the scripts or a conversation with the creator through squatspotfitness.com/producers.

The full first season, starting with the pilot, "The New Job," is free at squatspotfitness.com and on YouTube at @SQUATSITCOM.

About SQUAT!

SQUAT! is a single-location animated workplace comedy with a large recurring ensemble. Season 1 has ten episodes of about 22 minutes each. SQUAT! is © 2023 Archieboy Holdings, LLC. Squat Spot Fitness is a fictional gym.

About Bo Bennett, PhD

Bo Bennett, PhD, created, wrote and produced SQUAT! He is the founder of Archieboy Holdings, LLC, of Marlborough, Massachusetts.