To be clear, “Fairview” is not based on creator and executive producer R.J. Fried’s experiences growing up in Indiana, Pennsylvania. But his western Pennsylvania roots did provide perspective for a show about how national topics can become local headaches.

“It’s small-town America,” Fried said of Indiana. “It’s Jimmy Stewart’s hometown. It felt like everything that’s good and right in this country.”

Fried hopes his love for small-town America comes across in “Fairview,” an adult animated series that recently premiered on “Comedy Central.”

“Fairview” airs Wednesdays directly after “South Park,” a show it shares a lot of DNA with in terms of how it tackles hot button issues with irreverence and the occasional gross-out humor. Among the show’s executive producers is Comedy Central alum Stephen Colbert.

With a voice cast led by Aparna Nancherla, Lisa Gilroy and James Austin Johnson of “Saturday Night Live,” the show follows town leaders as they try to make responsible decisions for residents who don’t seem particularly interested in doing so for themselves.

It takes a few weeks to make an episode of “Fairview,” Fried said. That quick turnaround allows for highly topical installments like the premiere that largely dealt with the pandemic. Fried said upcoming episodes will examine cancel culture, crime, critical race theory and “the state of work.”

Many “Fairview” storylines explore how issues of national importance tend to trickle down to smaller places and cause big problems there.

“Let’s explore what it would be like for a small town that’s politically volatile and how they deal with those emotional issues and still come out the other side feeling like a town,” he said.

“Fairview” is the third animated series Fried has worked on with Colbert following collaborations on Showtime’s “Our Cartoon President” and the CBS All Access and Paramount+ show “Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News.”

“Fairview” was in development for about a year before the first episode premiered on Comedy Central.

The show has a distinct animation style — characters have expressive faces, round bodies and no hands or legs. Fried said that animating extremities takes a long time and shaping the characters this way cuts down on production time and maintains the immediacy of each episode’s plot.

There’s a certain thrill to working on such tight deadlines, he said, describing the quick turnarounds for each episode as “pencils down, this is what you got.”

“I enjoy it because probably like most writers, I tend to overthink things,” he said. “When you’re bumping up against these deadlines, it’s good to not overthink something and go with your instincts and something that’s raw.”

“Fairview” airing right after “South Park,” among the longest running adult animated shows ever, is “very cool and very nerve-wracking,” Fried said.

But he isn’t allowing himself to worry about how audiences will receive his creation. “Fairview” is a solid companion piece to “South Park” in the way that each show strives to lampoon both sides of the political aisle.

“They all take their hits, and I think that’s important to make sure we’re not being partisan about this,” he said. “At the end of the day, these characters love each other and are doing their best.”