Controversy has swirled around the project since ABC moved the premiere date from February or March to May 31 after Michael J. Fox announced May 24’s Spin City season finale would be his last show. Clerks would take over in Spin City’s time slot after Spin’s season finale.

The move didn’t sit well with Smith, who was very vocal about his displeasure in being scheduled during the “dry gulch that is the summer,” a move that, Smith says in a post to his official Website, will ensure the show’s failure.

More recently, Smith has been telling fans at his public-speaking appearances that he doubts the show will ever make it on air at all, and he’s investigating the possibility of Miramax (another ABC/Disney affiliate) purchasing the six episodes of the cartoon and releasing them theatrically.

But here’s the official word from an ABC rep: Plans for the May 31 premiere are still a go. All I know is that I’m dying to see the episodes–the sooner, the better.

Smith screened a couple of them during the aforementioned speaking engagements, including a “flashback” installment that has Dante and Randal riffing on everything from Saturday-morning cartoons to how much The Phantom Menace sucked.

Patrick Swayze Has No Sense of Humor One more note about the Clerks ‘toon: Episode three of the show features Randal freaking out about a new pet store that opens in town. And the pet shop is manned by “down on his luck” actor Patrick Swayze, who eventually leaves his job after telling Randal and Dante that he’s gotten a part in the latest Adam Sandler movie. The really funny part, though, is that, according to the News Askew Website, the show originally had the Swayze character admit that he had been fired from the pet store, but it was changed when Swayze threatened to sue. Apparently, his reps, who did not return phone calls to comment, were concerned that the suggestion that he was fired from a pet store would be damaging to his career. Two words: Father Hood.