And Toonami came out in 1997 but was discontinued until 2012 and as far as I know (I took a long break from Adult Swim) Adult Swim has continued without a hitch and to be honest, I’m surprised.
So lets share memories.
I remember when the ads actually had old people swimming and the bump would yell “All kids out of the pool!” I remember the commercial with the Gorillaz not even knowing it was a band. I do remember Inuyasha but it was so-so.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force was really where it was at for me, even though the first shows I saw on Adult Swim were Cowboy Bebop and Trigun.
Those were the first anime I saw that weren’t Dragonball Z, Pokémon or Sailor Moon. Haha that actually reminds me of Cardcaptors…man.
Even older was Cartoon Planet and Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
14 and still kicking ass. Rick and Morty is the best thing they’ve done yet, for my money. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an insane combination of very typically Adult Swim-style lowbrow humor and some of the brainiest high-concept sci-fi out there in any medium.
I don’t remember how I became aware of it, but somehow I started watching it pretty soon after it first started. I was pretty much the prime target as a high schooler. I realize everyone always says thing were better back in the day, but I really do think that Adult Swim was at it’s strongest on the whole at the very beginning. The first seasons of Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force were the best, in my opinion. It felt like the channel would go on to embrace surreal, incoherent anti-humor without understanding why the early weirdness worked.
Plus, it started out with Cowboy Bebop, which is by far the best anime ever.
Venture Bros. and Rick and Morty were definitely better than those early shows, but they’ve been surrounded by such junk.
Man, I miss Cartoon Planet and SG:C2C. I remember first happening upon them in my stoner days in the '90s and just loving it.
I was a pretty avid [AS] viewer for the first few years. I’m pretty much agreed with Garula on the channel’s early high points, along with Home Movies (actually the first Adult Swim program ever broadcast). My personal blue-ribbon winner for best Adult Swim series is The Venture Bros. It staggers me how good it is.
I remember it came on when my brother and I were both in our 20s and still living with our parents. I didn’t watch it nearly as much as he did but we had a great time hanging out together watching Space Ghost, Aqua Teen, Sealab and Harvey Birdman together. And of course The Venture Brothers!
I neeeeeed to watch Rick & Morty. I’m late to the party and episodes are piling up behind me. As soon as baseball season is over, I’m gonna rock that bitch!
I have to echo the gratitude to [AS] for bringing the best Anime I’ve ever seen in Cowboy Bebop and The Ghost in the Shell series. Their original programming has been some of the best animated shows brought into existence. Sealab 2021, ATHF, Harvey Birdman, Squidbillies, and Metalocalypse are all great shows, while Moral Orel and Rick and Morty are even a step above that. They both strike a beautiful mark between humor and heart wrenching sadness. And if that wasn’t enough, The Venture Bros. is the best thing they’ve ever done.
Off the Air will often leave me completely stunned, even upon repeated viewings. If they decided to only release it in theaters, I’d happily pay to watch it.
If I have a complaint about the last few years, it’s that if I wanted to watch Family Guy and American Dad a couple of hours a night, I could buy the DVDs or stream it.
If i have a choice of:
A) Watching something that’s in the umpteenth rerun, that wasn’t that great to begin with.
B) Catching say, a new Lucas Bros. Moving Company episode.
What do you think I’m going to do? (yes, I know that I can turn off the TV or do something else, but I’m complaining to [AS] here). Gimme some more original programming guys, I’ll even watch Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell if it’s new.
I had thought about starting a thread asking if anyone knew how Atlanta became a hotbed of animated shows. Anyone know the saga, beyond “Cartoon Network is there”? As far as I can tell, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a hit, and they spawned a bunch of offshoots.
Adult Swim is what got me into anime, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Full Metal Alchemist, FLCL, Big O, Death Note, One Piece, and so many more I can’t think of off the top of my head.
I’m not too jazzed about the current line up. It seems to be mostly Family Guy and American Dad the last couple of weeks.
I honestly don’t see many non-documentary* short features** that measure up to the animated fare that I’ve consumed in my lifetime. If I were limited to fiction, and ranking TV shows: Breaking Bad would be the only one in the top 10, and the top 50 might have 10 shows populated by live persons. But that might be because I’m especially forgiving of animated shows due to their graphic merits, and still haven’t watched The Wire.
Good god, how could I have forgotten FLCL. I caught an episode one night, and after watching it, I thought: Wow, there must be a lot of episodes before this that I missed, because that made absolutely no sense.
Nope, that was episode 1, and there are only six, which themselves only raise more questions which make you think that there’s even more crazy back story that you aren’t being told. However, it does kind of provide its own answer, in it’s own convoluted logic.
It’s an amazing work of something like Pop Art that is presented in the guise of a cartoon. One of the best things that’s ever radiated from a box in my living room. Thankya again, [AS] for doing that, and thankya Drunky (can I call ya Drunky? Ya know, when I’m drunk?), for reminding me that they did that thing.
*Most of my life, we were a one TV household. If dad was in the house, we watched what he watched. If football or auto racing wasn’t on, we were watching PBS. Except for Saturday morning, when cartoons were on, he watched those up to the point where they starting to become the toy commercials that made me stop. I am certain this has warped my taste in video.
**Since we’re talking [AS], which has a short format, and my introduction to a great deal of the classic cartoons was on TV, can we agree that we’re talking about the 10min-1hr per episode format range?
I also remember the Pool bumpers. They also had ones with Aquaman doing a little dance.
I loved Adult Swim when it started. I recently rewatched some Harvey Birdman and Sealab 2021 episodes. They lost a little of their magic for me. Sealab held up better I think.
I’ve been watching it for over half of my life. Yeesh.
I’m huge Sealab and Harvey Birdman fan. YuYu Hakusho (initially on Toonami I believe) was probably my first “serious” anime and really got me into anime beyond the Saturday morning shows we got at the time. I can’t stand the live action or Tim and Eric stuff. I also feel bad knowing how much I enjoy Moral Orel. I grew up with this stuff so I still feel obligated to watch, especially Toonami. I wish they got some new Bob’s Burgers though.
Always loved the early episodes of Aqua Teen as well as Venture Bros. Loved Cartoon Planet as well with Space Ghost, Zorak and Brak. Loved Brak, he was just so damn stupid!
Ask and ye shall receive. They just added Season 5 episodes this past Monday. They’re rolling them out one per week on Mondays.
Rick & Morty are great; Venture Brothers was great. On the Toonami side, I’m currently digging Akame ga Kill. On the other hand, I have no use for the live-action stuff like Tim & Eric or Children’s Hospital.
And there really wasn’t any point to expanding the block to take over prime time if all they’re going to do with it is show endless Fox reruns. Seriously, 7.5 out of 10 hours on weeknights is Fox reruns, and 5 of those are Seth MacFarland shows.
