I used to have my evenings set: from 7pm to 1am, I could leave the TV on the Cartoon Network and watch both airings Adult Swim. A couple of episodes of the Family Guy, a few brilliant deconstructions of cartoon tropes in 15 minute shorts like Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and then the best Japanese anime had to offer in Inuyasha, Case Closed, or Ghost in the Shell.
They had some stinkers along the way (Brak Show), but for years, Adult Swim was the place to go to watch the best adult comedy around.
So what happened?
My theory: Williams Street Studios, the folks that produce the original cartoons, after some initial success from the Hannah Barbara properties and the Aqua Teens, decided to take some chances with the extra cash, moving away from the 15 minute, no commercial format that brought them so much success. Their experiment was initially successful with the Venture Brothers, so they decided to take a chance with longer, half hour productions like Metalocalypse, Squidbillies, and Moral Orel. When these were moderately successful, they totaly went for the gusto with the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which is a horrible, horrible, sad show that appears to be nothing more than navel gazing and back patting for the “brilliant” minds behind “Tom Goes to the Mayor” and “Saul of the Mole Men,” other terrible shows. Having a black hole sucking all the development dollars, they had to cancel Harvey Birdman, Moral Orel, and rights to rebroadcast Japanese anime.
Overall, to me, it looks like the live action shows destroyed Adult Swim, as they keep continuing, but the great animated shows are slowly petering out.
?Those are all 11 minute (15 w/ commercials) shows. It looks like Metalocalypse is 1/2 hour in its third season only.
I know people who like Tim & Eric. It’s not my cup of tea, but there’s something for everyone. There has got to be a reason that they keep making buttered popcorn jellybeans. I don’t know if I’ve noticed that their output has changed, they have always put out gems mixed with crap.
And they’ve made a pretty frequent habit of putting down anime in the bumps, and in the original shows themselves. I don’t know how much of that was real, and how much was schtick, though. But I have heard that Mike Lazzo, president of Adult Swim, threatened to quit a few years back if they renewed Big O for a third season, for what that’s worth.
I can’t help but wonder how much of their perceived programming problems are the result of incompetance and malicious ego, or just their brass realizing they could make just about as much money airing mostly reruns and stoner crap.
Though I admit, I’ve actually been working saturdays for the last few months, so I’ve been missing a lot of the weekend programming, where more of the anime is aired (checking their site, it looks like they’re still running Moribito, which was good when I first caught it…before they went on a ten month hiatus four episodes in, apparently because of rights problems :smack:). And there are still some gems—Robot Chicken, Venture Brothers, and Metalocalypse are back, for example.
I don’t have any problems with Adult Swim. Perhaps it’s because I watch it often enough to realize that Squidbillies, Metalocalypse, and Morel Oral are 11 minute shows, they still air anime on Saturday nights (and since anime is consistently the lowest rated on the channel, I’m not sure why they should be obligated to air more), and Tim & Eric weren’t the brains behind Saul and the Moleman. I personally think Awesome Show, Great Job has some genuinely hilarious moments.
Plus, AS brought us the completely awesome Look Around You, The Mighty Boosh and The Office (not edited all to hell like BBC America tends to do). True, some of their shows are really strange (Superjail, Xavier: Renegade Angel) but I’m glad there’s a channel that is willing to air some rather experimental and downright weird shit. It keeps things interesting (and even Superjail and Xavier can be pretty funny too). The only complaint I have is that they still air Family Guy.
Is it just me, or is Adult Swim coming on later and later? I’d guess they were trying to put in a teen/tween section, but I can’t really believe that since their afternoon-evening schedule basically looks completely schizo. There’s no pattern to it: kiddie shows, annoying kiddie shows, teen/tween shows, Total … Island (which is surprisingly adult). Then, at 10:00, Adult Swim starts with King of the Hill, which is a good show but a little bit of a stretch compared to what they have before it.
I don’t know abut you guys, but I don’t really have an easy time staying up past midnight to catch neat shows, and most of their stuff looks awful past that anyhow.
I have never met a woman who liked Tim and Eric. It had to join my boyfriend’s cigars as Activities Banned in the House - he has to go to the garage to watch it, at least when I’m home.
He twists my arm into watching some of that Adult Swim stuff still, but most of it’s just awful. Moral Orel was amazing though, if you watched it all the way to the end. I also liked Frisky Dingo and Metalocolypse.
Later and later? Nope, it’s actually starting an hour earlier than it used to. It was always 11 PM when it first started in the early 2000’s when I was in college, but the past year or so it’s been moved up to 10 POM for King of the Hill.
I hate a lot of the new shows. Tim and Eric is the focus of my hatred. I hated Tom Goes to the Mayor, and I hate **Tim and Eric[/]b even more. It’s funny maybe 5% of the time. The thing is, though, is that it’s not the writing. Both shows had jokes that could be so much funnier, but Tim and Eric insist on delivering every one of their lines in the same dead-pan, wait twenty seconds for awkward silence while one of us does a slow-motion laugh, way.
And The Mighty Boosh is terrible. I know it’s an import, not an [as] original, and I was actually excited when they first got it cause I had heard good things about it, but…nope, it sucks. The whole premise seems to be “look how bizarre and weird this is? It must be funny because it’s so weird, right? There’s this guy called Old Greg, and he’s green, has like a tutu thing, and a *glowing man-gina[/]! That HAS to be funny, cause it’s so weird, right?”
That’s funny, because the two people I know who can actually stand that crapfest are women.
I’m a big Adult Swim fan in general, but there are always shows I dislike. That’s just the nature of the beast. If I want interesting, mind blowing stuff like Superjail (lord, I love that show) and the Venture Brothers, I have to put up with Tom Poops on the Mayor or whatever.
I happened to catch an episode that featured a skit where a drama teacher was ranting about the time he spent at James Sprunt Community College. That part was funny to me – I won a small scholarship to that college when I was in the tenth or eleventh grade. They refused to allow me to put it toward the cost of books for the transfer courses I took during my senior year. Otherwise, I think the height of comedy on that show was the “Sit On You” song/dance.
I really enjoy Metalocalypse, The Venture Brothers, and Superjail.
I like Awesome Show, and I loved Tom Goes to the Mayor, though I guess I can understand why people wouldn’t like it. To me, Tim and Eric are a lot like Norm MacDonald: they don’t write jokes for you or me. They write jokes for other comedians. It’s why you see guys like Zach Galifianakis and Michael Ian Black and John C. Reilly on Awesome Show and TGTTM. They make each other laugh and are probably very fun to work with. The product may not be for public consumption, however (see Norm MacDonald’s turn on Comedy Central’s Bob Sagat Roast — most of the audience barely cracked a smile, but the other comedians on stage were in convulsions).
Per the OP, I haven’t noticed a swing in either direction good or bad. I do prefer the, I don’t know what to call it, non-anime animation, North American stuff, to the anime offerings though. Robot Chicken and Metalocalypse, etc. over any of the imports.
I’m sorry. I just don’t get Robot Chicken. Is the stop motion animation supposed to be funny because the humor is off color, or is the off color humor supposed to be funnier because of the stop motion animation?
Robot Chicken is funny (to some) because it skewers pop-culture, and does call backs to a lot of the pop-culture phenomena of the 80’s (when the average viewer was a child, I think).
Also, it does a lot of “blue” humor, and a lot of juxtiposition of things that are rather odd… like when the Mario Bro’s end up going to Vice City and experience the GTA games.
It seems like they’ve gone down hill, but maybe I’m just getting older. I hate King of the Hill. And with the amount that Family Guy is on TV, it’s not worth it to watch it. I do miss shin-chan, and I wish they had made more episodes of paranoid agent, and flcl.
I wish they’d stop shunting shows that I like in favor of live action dreck. I really liked Lucy the daughter of the devil and frisky dingo. Where have they gone? Well at least the frisky dingo types have a new show on FX starting in January; I can’t remember the name of it. There was a pilot for it after the premiere of Always Sunny.