Always had a soft spot for Home Movies.
I’m a bit older, so my introduction to anime was mostly as a kid in the 80s through Robotech, Voltron, Speed Racer, G-Force and my uber-comic nerd neighbor and his scratchy bootleg VHS tapes of Akira, Yamamoto, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and god knows what else.
But my memories of Adult Swim consist of mostly coming home after a hard night of drinking in my late 20s and having my mind blown by shows like Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, FLCL some of the Gundam series and whatnot.
Truth be told, I was flipping through on-demand cable and AS got me sucked into Attack on Titan. It’s like Game of Thrones meets Walking Dead meets All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
I love King of the Hill and BB so I’m fine with those shows, but the McFarland stuff is really too much. I feel like they could show the Boondocks, Venture Bros, and Rick and Morty before Toonami on Saturdays and I’d be way more willing to watch [as] before midnight instead of Lockup reruns or whatever, than having to deal with endless Family Guy. But I know what gets them the ratings. I miss when they’d show Sym-Bionic Titan and Thundercats in those slots, too. Oh well.
I had been a big fan of Space Ghost Coast to Coast so when I first saw they were devoting a whole block of programming to that kind of stuff in the fall of 2001 I was really looking forward to it, and they did not disappoint! I posted right here on The Straight Dope board that it was the funniest thing on TV. I remember the old people swimming / jazz music commercials well (“No eating in the pool! What is that? Pimento cheese? No eating in the pool!”).
Pretty sure the shows that premiered that first night were Aqua Teen, Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show and Home Movies (I never cared for the anime stuff). I remembered the original Sealab 2020 as a kid so I loved the basic idea that one year later after being cooped up down there it had driven everyone crazy. Harvey Birdman premiered with the episode about Johnny Quest’s dad & Race Bannon being homos and fighting for custody of Johnny & Haji.* Home Movies *wasn’t as absurdist and crazy as the others, but it turned out to be one of their best shows (Bob’s Burgers is a direct descendant of it). I loved The Brak Show, particularly George Lowe’s demented Ricky Richardo dad, and I never understood why it was the only one to get cancelled early (I thought the whole ‘being cancelled’ thing was just a joke!) And I am proud to say I ‘got’ ATHF from the get-go! They weren’t crime fighting detectives, they were just roommates who hated each other!
I also remember Adult Swim premiered only days before 9/11…
Hm, I didn’t realize that.
I liked Harvey Birdman, but Sealab was always better. Neither came close to Space Ghost C2C though. That’s one of the all time greats.
I remember discovering Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1998 and I was hooked. Loved that show. Did not, however, care much for the Brak Show.
I loved Home Movies and Sealab 2021, but not a huge fan of ATHF. Co-creator of Home Movies, Lauren Bouchard, went on to create Bob’s Burgers. You can definitely see some similarities.
You might be confusing AS with “Toonami” (as I did).
I remember it blew my mind when it started, and I was probably only 14 at the time.
Not only do I remember the first pool bumps and the original shows…I remember the programming order
Home Movies (never cared for it but thought it was ok)
Space Ghost C2C (I remember CN showing it at like 2AM before AS was a thing)
Brak Show (LOOOOVED this show)
Sealap 2021 (even better than Brak! My favorite to this day)
ATHF (not my cup o tea either, but early stuff wasn’t bad)
Back when Napster and Limewire were things I downloaded almost all of the Sealabs and quoted them on the reg. I still say “ha cha cha cha cha…delicous”. ATHF’s Ghost of Christmas Past…from the Future is their best episode ever. Brak’s musical episode with the rap battle at the end of it was classic.
I miss those shows. AS needs a throwback week…I would watch the shit out of that
As for Toonami: That got me into DBZ and Gundam like most 90s kids, so I’m not original in that regard, but I do love me some Anime because of it. Does anyone remember Zoids? They were animal-based mechs and they had some competition and I remember thinking that was the best show back in the day. Was that a Toonami one? or am I confused?
I remember when I could stay awake late enough to regularly watch Adult Swim.
(My favorite parts of AS have always been the American/semi-insane side - Sealab and Harvey Birdman probably being tops.)
Squidbillies!
Man I loved Venture Brothers, after their long break I kind of forgot to keep up with the show. Now, AS seems like it’s mostly reruns of King of the Hill.
Adult Swim promoted Squidbillies for like a year, and then the night it was supposed to premiere they made no mention of it and instead showed something else! I started to think it was some kind of long-con mind fuck, but turned out they weren’t happy with the original production and basically had to start over from scratch.
I remember watching the original 15-minute pilot where they travel to the UN and Dr. Venture obliviously demos what is essentially a ‘death ray’ to the outrage of the delegates. In the text ‘bumpers’ that Adult Swim showed before it aired they announced it as just being a pilot that wasn’t picked up as a series. After watching it several times on my TiVo I thought, “Why the hell not?!? It was awesome!!” I guess they got enough similar fan feedback that they changed their minds.