B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping the history of Adult Swim into the ol’ VCR. 

Friends, it’s finally time for the second entry in our three-part Adult Swim series. If you missed the first entry about the Adult Swim Infomercials, you should check it out. We’ll wait. 

Ready? 

Alrighty, so we all know I love Adult Swim. They have some of the best marketing on the planet. Their social channels are golden. The billboards are *chef’s kiss.* I even got to go to the Adult Swim Drive-In back in the day, and it was a BLAST. 

I also, obviously, love a lot of their content. 

The big question is, how did it all start? How did Adult Swim evolve into what it is today? When will I stop using questions to make points? 

To answer the first two questions, we’re about to find out! And to answer the last question, never. 

In the early 1990s, Cartoon Network had been testing out some adult animation following the success of shows like The Simpsons. This is also how the early iteration of Toonami was born. 

Video source: DSxBullets

However, in 1994, the Adult Swim we would come to know and love started rearing its head with Mike Lazzo and co’s Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. 

If you’re an avid Space Ghost watcher like moi, you’re familiar with the Ghost Planet Industries title card at the end of the show. Ghost Planet Industries would later become William Street Productions, but the title card would remain the same, sans name. 

That white background with the fluttering building and sound effects is forever ingrained in my brain. I digress. 

Space Ghost led to the creation of other iconic shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which found its beginning in the “Baffler Meal” episode. Other shows like Sealab 2021 and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law also found their start during 2000/2001. 

Finally, on September 2, 2001, the first programming block of Adult Swim aired, after what seems like months of turmoil, with shows like Cowboy Bebop and Home Movies at the helm. 2001 also marked the beginning of the bumpers with footage of older people in a swimming pool to signify the transition from Cartoon Network to Adult Swim. 

Video source: zeronightroost

In the mid-2000s, Adult Swim would start airing ill-fated shows like The Oblongs and Family Guy (which is hard to believe now), along with their original series. 

Over the years, the original series we had come to know and love would be phased out to make room for new content and other syndicated shows. However, Adult Swim continued to be a hub for creative, surreal, and sometimes downright weird content like all of the Tim and Eric properties, The Eric Andre Show, Loiter Squad, The Heart, She Holler, and countless others. 

Adult Swim’s advertising would continue to dominate other programming blocks/networks, in my opinion, as well as performing annual April Fools’ pranks that oftentimes benefited viewers. 

In 2013, Adult Swim would also integrate infomercials into their regular programming to, once again, solidify their iconic status. 

While the lineup would continue to change, I would also tune in while I had cable. Then, I would later buy multiple DVD releases. And now, most of Adult Swim’s content is available on Max. 

Video source: Adult Swim 

I know that the future of Adult Swim, at least the iteration we all grew up with, is probably uncertain because of it being a programming block on a TV channel. But, I do fully believe Adult Swim has the power to stick around. Call it blind optimism if you’d like, but I don’t think we’ll get rid of them that easily. 

I also don’t think we should. Listen, I clearly don’t know what happens behind the scenes, so I can only speak from my side of the screen. But, it seems like Adult Swim gives creators a space to share their amazing content with the world that, oftentimes, other networks pass on. 

Do I love every single show they’ve ever created, distributed, or shown? Nope, but that’s not the point. The point is Adult Swim is a gloriously weird little piece of programming that shaped a lot of my humor. 

Additionally, Adult Swim runs the Adult Swim Mural Project that gives Black artists a space to share their art with the world. 

Again, I don’t know what the future holds, but I will say one thing… 

Thank you, Adult Swim.