Remember When Adult Swim Was Cool?
Nobody even talks about Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim anymore.
When Adult Swim first came out, it was a rebellious revolution against bland, predictable television. Years later, Adult Swim has become a shell of itself. Adult Swim was so successful at one point that it inspired other networks such as Spike TV, G4TV, and MTV to have their own animation blocks. All three failed at recreating what Adult Swim had. Adult Swim had something unique and special. No network could copy what Adult Swim had at the time. Between low budget 11 minute animated comedies and half hour anime programs, the block was hit among anyone in high school or college.
Adult Swim was the “punk rock” of television at one point. It broke all the rules, and it captured the attention of a young generation because of this.
But something happened. That magic began to disappear. At this point I just don’t see how Adult Swim still has fans. It is obvious that the fans on the Adult Swim message boards could run things better than Mike Lazzo. Mike Lazzo was a high school dropout. What does Lazzo know about running anything? This is the same guy who gave a ”series development” job to a magazine editor just because he “understood” Adult Swim’s philosophy. Lazzo, there are plenty of people who understand that Adult Swim loves making 11 minute shows of nonsense and random humor with no plot. There’s plenty of talented people who could sit there like a monkey and pick crappy shows that fit well with Adult Swim’s crappy lineup. Adult Swim barely cares about creative shows anymore because they are cheap and running out of money. They count on their Fox shows to bring all the big money because the writers at William Street can’t write worth a damn anymore. Jim Samples stepped down from his executive position at Cartoon Network after the Boston Bomb scare in 2007. Maybe Lazzo and Keith Crofford should step down since all the new pilots they are greenlighting are all bombs.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone give’s a damn about Adult Swim anymore. Nobody talks about their shows in conversations anymore. Nobody says, “hey did you see that show on tv” like they did back in 2003 or 2004. Adult Swim killed their own popularity by bombarding their lineup with terribly written shows, schedules that didn’t make any sense, and abandoning shows that had major cult followings. Adult Swim killed most of the good comedies off their block. They got rid of all the good comedies like Futurama, Mission Hill, Shin-Chan, Home Movies, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and Morel Orel. They abandoned the rights to most of their awesome anime shows like Samurai Champloo, s-CRY-ed, Paranoia Agent, Trigun, Lupid the 3rd, Case Closed, Eureka Seven, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Wolf’s Rain? Adult Swim is cancelling comedies left and right, they are self destructing their anime block, and their only crutch is their fox shows to get them ratings. Did I mention that their live action shows are extremely unfunny?
Adult Swim, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t act like you are anti television, but also try to act like you care about the business side of things. If you create anti-television shows, expect low ratings. Your fans are abandoning you one by one. If you continue to destroy the anime block and continue to cancel funny comedy shows in favor of live action garbage, expect your ratings to get cut in half.
Now look Williams Street. I know you guys know exactly what Adult Swim viewers want. Because you guys are geniuses. But then again, if you guys were geniuses, you wouldn’t be D list writers who couldn’t hack it in Hollywood so you formed your little circle jerk in Atlanta to write epic shows like 12 Oz Mouse. Trust me though, I think the manatees on South Park can run your network better than you bozos can. Lazzo and Crofford are out of touch with reality. There are tons of artists who can draw and write better than any of the losers at Williams Street. You can find plenty of these artists on Deviantart.com.
Sooner or later Adult Swim will just turn into the Fox re-run block, and we’ll be forced to watch three Seth Macfarlane created shows airing one after another. It’s a depressing future if you ask me. They should go find MC Chris and give him a live action tv show. I’m sure MC Chris is hiding in a dumpster somewhere after his failed music career doing nerd rap when even nerds, the bottom barrel of society, wouldn’t even hang with him.
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23 Responses to “Remember When Adult Swim Was Cool?”
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I complete agree with this article.
Adult Swim went downhill really, really fast. All their good comedies are either cancelled or they lost the rights to them. They lost the rights to most of their good animes, and they rarely even show Cowboy Bebop. Seriously, Adult Swim sucks.
Anyone with decent knowledge in marketing would know how to run AS’s programming than the morons in charge.
The problem with Adult Swim is they think randomness automatically constitutes as good writing. Throwing any crap on a piece of paper and throwing cheap animation on it doesn’t make it funny. It seems like Adult Swim comes up with any stupid random idea, then they think “Oh this is so anti-television, lets make this” when really it’s just badly written garbage.
Even ordinary Cartoon Network sucks. They keep replacing all the animated jokes with live action junk. Sorry CN, you’re not Disney or Nickelodeon. You don’t know how to make live action shows that people will care about.
Adult Swim is the King of the Hill/Family Guy rerun block anyways. Most of their original programming and anime has gone down the drain.
Wow.. great article.. I haven’t watched AS in years but when I switched the channel to see what was going on last week it wasn’t the AD I recognized years ago. Something had happened. Now I know what.
The Boondocks and The Venture Bros are the only things worth watching on Adult Swim since everything else has either been cancelled or discontinued.
The downfall of Adult Swim began as soon as they hired that Nick Weidenfeld guy.
You don’t have to even write this article.
Their poor ratings speak for themselves.
Have to disagree with a lot of what you say.
Shows like Futurama, Mission Hill, and Home Movies were produced by other networks and had ended their runs by the time AS got their rerun rights. Yes, AS lost the rights to Futurama to Comedy Central, but I doubt we’d be getting new Futurama if the show had stayed with AS. CC at least has the money to make new episodes.
I have a feeling a lot of the anime was lost because whoever was putting the rights up for sale priced them too high for the returns AS gets on them. If the shows don’t get the ratings, they don’t attract the advertisers.
Me, I still watch Adult Swim most nights. For Metalocalypse, Venture Brothers, Squidbillies, and sometimes even Robot Chicken. A roommate watchs Bleach. And we are still waiting on the new Boondocks season.
Article Rename:
Waaa, Remember When the Shows that I Liked Were on Adult Swim but Now it Sucks Because the Demographic Preferences Have Shifted Away from my Personal Taste?
Sorry K, but you’re dead wrong there – with the exception of the admittedly brilliant Venture Bros., it IS that [as] is churning out incredibly badly written garbage. And as far as lost rights to various anime series, it’s not the high cost of them, but the absolute disdain that Lazzo has expressed for anime in general. They’ve screwed up so badly at this point that I don’t believe there’s any chance of redemption.
Sounds like someone’s pissed they didn’t get the job at Williams Street.
Poor article from someone who never really understood AS in the first place. Cites Mission Hill as good comedy and s-CRY-ed as good anime… is this guy serious? Those shows got cut for a reason. But thats not really the point. AS is about taking chances, and I still see them doing that, while continuing to put out quality content. Sure they might let Seth Green and his buddies make some shitty pilot series (Titan Maximum), but tell me with a straight face that Venture Bros., Metalocalypse and Squidbillies haven’t been top notch. If you can, then I don’t even wanna know you.
Whoever wrote this has little to no knowledge of the television industry let alone Adult Swim’s history. It is teeming with factual errors, personal opinion, and a complete disregard for journalistic integrity.
For example, half the shows you mentioned Adult Swim didn’t “get rid of;” they lost the rights or the show creators wanted to move on to a different project. Also, aside from Wednesday night new South Parks on Comedy Central, Adult Swim consistently is the highest rated network six nights a week. Please son, fact check before you shoot your mouth off.
Lastly, there is no such thing as punk rock television. Everyone in media has to answer to a bureaucrat that is knee deep in their bank account and fifteen levels removed from passion and creativity of show making.
Well there are some things I can agree with you here on, mon ami. I’m certainly not in tune with Mike Lazzo’s train of thought, nor the addition with any of the live action shows. The latter all of which having been just god awful in every respect (except for the British “Office” which is at least coherent and slightly clever if not a bit boring), and they’ve all appropriately bombed (except for the Tim and Eric show. Although I don’t believe fared much better than the others, it still has it’s own dvd release. And that is a travesty in and of itself). And I’m a little bummed that shows that are terrible 85% of the time, like Robot Chicken, seem to be doing well. But all in all I’m going to have to agree with your dissenters.
I admit there’s something powerful about the nostalgia factor. When I was young, the good shows left a very endearing mark on me. But if they didn’t eventually go away, they wouldn’t be remembered so fondly. Home Movies falls into that category; though not being a bad show, still watching it after all this time has pretty much worn out it’s appeal. While other shows simply aren’t as good as people remember them. Mission Hill, Shin-Chan, s-CRY-ed, and N.G.E. fall into that description, methinks. People just have to accept the fact that television in general is an endless cycle of death and rebirth. I love being told an interesting story or watching something funny, but the story has to end and comedy has to evolve. Otherwise those qualities will not exist.
And with that in mind, we have to accept the fact that for every good new show like Squidbillies (Which, for the record, I didn’t care for much at first. But it grew on me to be the most excellent of poorly drawn t.v. shows, and damned funny.) and Metalocalypse, there will be terrible shows like 12 oz. Mouse, Perfect Hair Forever, and Minoriteam.
And as for the anime’ and other more dramatic shows, just chillax me hearty. More is bound to come as soon as there are things that don’t suck. And if you see a new show that you like tell your friends about it. Because they may gloss over it out if disinterest. Take Code Geass; a fairly recent show with a rather boring and derivative base. But after actually watching it, I found it to be much more excellent a show than it sounded. Kind of like Case Closed. So long as good shows do well, you can expect to see more of them. But as far as plotted shows with a clear cut beginning and end, they’re not likely to be seen again regardless of whether they were good or not. I can only assume the one’s still being aired simply hold more appeal to people with short attention spans and a love of violence. I don’t see why Ghost in the Shell is still here though. I guess I just don’t “Get it”. But yeah, that’s my argument in a nutshell. <_<
Oh, and ending on a brighter note, I hear that a new season of Futurama is in the works now. Due out mid-2010, up to possibly 26 more half hour episodes. Good times.
There’s plenty of reasons why Adult Swim has gone downhill, I still watch it nightly and it is still roughly the only thing I watch on TV, but only because I really don’t watch too much tv. But there are things Lazzo and the rest are doing that is killing their ‘rebel’ feeling, and we’re getting something like a welfare Comedy Central out of it.
1. Over the last year they have gotten into the habit of cutting seasons in half, there’s plenty of prime examples of this going on. Basically they play 5 or 10 episodes, repeat them, and then shelve them for way too long. Squidbillies Season 4 lasted 5 episodes, and we won’t see them until probably spring though rumor has said January/Febuary, I haven’t seen anything advertised for it, so it’ll probably be May. Venture Brothers, we got roughly another 5 episodes, and we won’t see them until Spring or even Summer. Metalocalypse had 5 new episodes, and now we won’t see them until August 2010. I know Robot Chicken Season 4 was done in this same manor last year, played half of the season, repeated them over multiple times, then played the second half. I don’t know if its because they’re putting these seasons out before they are complete, but its called KEEPING OUR ATTENTION which isn’t being done by farting out 5 new episodes and then going “OH, sorry gotta wait 6 months for more”.
2. I think for the most part they may have learned their lesson on producing their own Live Action shows, as I have not heard anything on Sole of the Molemen, Fat Guy on the Internet or that horrid thing with the Historic people. Some live action is okay, I really hate Tim & Eric but I do think they fit well into the channel. The UK Office can go somewhere else, I hate the US Office more but I don’t find the UK version anymore entertaining, its on now and I have the TV muted cause there is nothing else on. Look Around You needs to go away, its almost painful to watch at times. The Mighty Boosh was good, and even that “Dark Places” show wasn’t bad. But these shows are not bad, because its not made by Williams Street. But enough with the British Comedy.
3. They really need to work on the schedules. Sundays are great but Fridays are painful, especially now that they’re going all live action with these british shows. They’re probably thinking well all these 18 to 24 people are out drinking and having fun, but there are still people who’d like to see some good programming and not crap. Saturday is almost as bad, the PJs are enjoyable enough but the Saturday block is basically horrid, except for the Boondocks. Monday thru Thursdays are not bad, I’ve enjoyed the fact they’ve been doing half an hour blocks of the 11 minute shows, its been a good choice.
4. Certain shows need to ‘fade to black’ because they are just no longer funny. I worshipped Aqua Teen Hunger Force for many years, but their last season made me want to blow my brains out with a nail gun. Robot Chicken was funny for the first few seasons, but the novelty of it all has worn thin along with the jokes. I know people love these shows but there comes a time and a place for a show to stop making new shows, like for example Roseanne, that was a great sitcom up until the last seasons where they won the lottery and became rich idiots, but after that at least they knew to STOP. But they keep making these shows because they were once popular, like Aqua Teen and Robot Chicken.
5. Dial Back on Family Guy, holy crap, I swear to god I’m going to put my head through the TV next time I see Peter fall down and hurt his leg and spends another 10 minutes of a show sucking air through his teeth going OW. But a full hour every night is just way too much, or at least play more than the same 10 episodes because that is what it feels like. But in general its just Family Guy being overplayed too much, you got them on everynight for an hour except Friday & Saturday, then add into the factor TBS playing like 3 hours of them several times a week. Mix it up, hell put American Dad on the 2nd half an hour, at least its something different.
All in all things need to change, otherwise they are going to fade into the static of television just like every other channel, if they have not already. I’m not a fan of anime but maybe start playing more of it, it at least attrached people. I use to say I would love to have a dedicated Adult Swim channel that played all these shows 24/7/365, but with the way things have gone, no, stay like you are cause I’d probably just stop watching tv if I had to endure the crap that goes on now.
You’re all idiots if you even remotely agree with this article. [AS] has broken my heart with schedule changes many times, but guess what? [AS] makes me fall in love with it all over again before it can even sign off for the night. If it’s new line ups, shows, and general ways of doing things these days disappoint you, then good. It has successfully weeded out the bullshit, bitch boy, “well, SOME shows are kinda funny” fans that we die-hard fans just don’t have time for.
I rember way back when Toonami was on during the day and late at night then i happend to start seein this show called adult swim which the orginal aired on late saturday nights like it does now but that was the only time it aired and had a robot vice and said adult swim and all of of it was anime. This was before the no kids in the pool days that most people think is the orginal it was before all there stupid ass shows. Don’t get me wrong I like liked aquateen, and sealab 2021 and family guy which i’d say adultswim saved but king of hill you gotta be kiddin me. wtf what about beavis and butt head or somethin. Anyways Toonami was the real revolution back in its hayday like around 01 and 02.
cease i agree with you .right now theres a bunch of mentalally retarded kids out there like ages 7 to 14 that dont know good tv because of the shit on adultswim.but the old school adultswim made me wait for the weekend to come and when it got there i was like a kid in a candy shop all hopped up on candy like never missed a weekend. but then they dropped bleach thats when i quit watching the shows
ps pretty much every thing other than family guy,boondocks,cowboy bebop,flcl,big o,full metal,inuyasha and bleach is garbage and even im getting sick of watching those over and over again.
I agree with the author on this. Adult Swim has know idea what its viewers want anymore. They are putting on shows like The Mighty Boosh and the least funny show on television Tim and Eric. Their demographic shifted from high school and college students who want funny and inventive television to a bunch of pot head, high school dropouts who only watch adult swim because they don’t have to get up for work in the morning. Mike Lazzo is doing a horrible job and I would very much like to hear that he was crushed underneath a falling bag of crap, which his network adult swim lineup has become. Seriously, if you green lighted Tim and Eric you deserve to die so your don’t infect the gene pool.
thie guy/girl is bitching about anime and calling other people nerds? HA! Oh good for the over inflated sence of self-importance
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As the year is half over with June coming to a close, I would like to thank [AS] for a fun summer full of … not even 6 episodes of boondocks, a crappily written 6 episode series on dr. steve, and 6 episodes of squid billies, and removing one of the best features of their website: airing premiers online at the same time as on television.
Adult swim is fucking up. I used to like anime when I was in like 6th grade, which is how I heard about adult swim in the first place. I realized, holy shit, they can write their own wacky 11 minute cartoons as well, which can be disgusting and vapid but still have charm. Years went by and great shows like Aqua Teen, Metalocalypse, Morel Orel and Venture Bros made me rushing to adultswim.com on my computer ever weekend, watching all 6 premiers (ah the days when AS had the balls to premiere more then 2 cartoons in addition to whatever shit anime they were slowly churning out every week). Those days are gone.
That was before they realized they could make money by licensing weak Fox animated titles and mediocre British comedies, produce cheap live action shows literally 5 to 10 people in the world liked (total) and become hyper-aware of their network’s aesthetic, focusing more on making “edgy” games on their website that have no enjoyable aspect of gameplay at all.
Bottom line, AS sucks, yet I will still wait another 6 months to be dissapointed by a going-down-hill Venture Brothers, a dead in the water ATHF and all the vomit inducing filler (what the fuck is with those shitty chinese news reports they stitched togethor with whatever crappy version of Maya they made Xavier with?)
Fuck you adult swim. I can’t forgive you after Titan Maximum. Worst show ever.
And fuck all the haters, 95% Tim and Eric is brilliant and you’re missing out if you haven’t figured it out yet.