In 2008, Quintel pitched Regular Show for the Cartoonstitute project at Cartoon Network by using a storyboard, with his reasoning that "I don't think me verbally pitching such an odd concept would have made any sense to anyone." In 2009, Cartoon Network ordered more episodes of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as well as greenlit Quintel's project, Regular Show. The agreement upon the premise of Regular Show was that the series would be about two park groundskeepers, Mordecai (a 6-foot blue jay) and Rigby (a hyperactive raccoon), who try to entertain themselves at their jobs while doing anything they can to avoid work and escape their everyday boredom. Along with his success at getting approval to develop Regular Show, in December 2009, Quintel and Director John Infantino were nominated for an ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award in the category of "Directing in a Television Production" for their directing work on the Candy Casanova episode in Season 2 of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. However, American animation Director and fellow CalArts graduate Bret Haaland subsequently took the Director Annie Award in February 2010 for Haaland's work on The Penguins of Madagascar – Launchtime. Nine months after Quintel was nominated for an Annie Award, Regular Show debuted in New York at 8:15 P.M. EST on September 6, 2010. In September 2011, while the first season of Regular Show was being aired, Quintel was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Short-format Animated Program category as executive Producer and creator of Regular Show. However, his Regular Show series was beat out for the award by the ABC animated special, Disney Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa.