This is a work in progress for my AU of the Smiling Critters. It's an idea I work on for fun so I don't want to be rushed in a couple of places. This AU is meant to be a more slice of life kind of series, with some surprises down the road. Hopefully I'll be able to make this work out.
After the Hour of Joy, Playtime Co. seemed to disappear as nobody knew what happened. Because of this, all of Playtime Co's assets were auctioned off, this included the Smiling Critters. Most people weren't keen on them after the recall incident, but a company known as Emotional Entertain. They saw potential in the critters and worked for three years to give their series a proper time to shine.
They had a couple of changes to the show's formula, these included two 11-minute episodes, with special ones being 22 minutes, some episodes having musical numbers and one of the major changes was the critters' new families and their home known as Smileville. Instead of just the eight critters and their homes in the middle of nowhere, they now lived with their families in a new town. The new show would debut in 1998 and this time it was shown to be a huge success. The reputation of the critters had been restored, especially with the overhaul of Catnap, who was now allowed to talk and very different from his original counterpart.
Emotional Entertainment even toyed with the idea of having Catnap keep his sleeping gas by explaining it in one of their special episodes, but that's a story for another day.