Carpoolers

Creator Bruce McCulloch published a diary before the show aired detailing his frustrations with the industry over writing scripts that never made it to air, as well as the inspiration behind the series.

McCulloch conceived the idea for Carpoolers after driving with friends made him reflect on why male friendship (or 'male communion') is often portrayed negatively on television, prompting him to want to show it in a more positive light.

Joe and Anthony Russo, formerly of Arrested Development, served as executive producers and directed the pilot episode.

Unlike most TV shows, the Carpoolers theme song had no full-length version; it was only 10 seconds long, written and performed by Matt Pelham, lead singer of the band The Features.

Each episode opens with a cold open of the four carpoolers singing along to a past hit song in the car, except episode 6, in which Aubrey sings along to a commercial for women's pantyliners much to the others' disgust.

The series received largely negative reviews, with IGN writing that it was 'lacking in many laughs' and that viewers 'feel a bit bad for the cast'; it holds a 23% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 37% on Metacritic.

ABC declined to order additional episodes after the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike ended, effectively ending the series after its initial 13-episode order.