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Adult Swim

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Image:Adultswim-logo1.png
The Adult Swim logo

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Adult Swim, usually rendered [adult swim] on bumps, is the name for the adult-oriented television programming block on Cartoon Network in the United States and Australia, and Bravo in the United Kingdom, featuring absurdist and often ribald comedy in contrast to the more tame daytime Cartoon Network. It premiered on September 2, 2001. On March 28, 2005, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, who runs the channel, split the network from Cartoon Network so that Nielsen Media Research could treat Adult Swim as a separate channel from Cartoon Network for ratings purposes.<ref name=as_split>Adult Swim/CN Split Cements Strategy. ICv2. March 3, 2005.</ref>

Originally a Sunday-only block (that also re-ran on Thursdays), Adult Swim now airs Mondays-Thursdays at 10:30 p.m., Sundays at 10:00 p.m., and Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. (all times Eastern), with an encore airing at 2 a.m. and then ending with older shows (depending if there is any time left, as on Sundays the programing encore ends at 6:00 a.m., leaving no time for old shows). Adult Swim programming may also be viewed online (only within the United States) via Adult Swim Fix on adultswim.com. Despite being aimed at an adult audience the block has attracted quite a large youth fanbase.

The block, programmed by Williams Street Studios, the same group that created Toonami and Miguzi, plays American animated series and shorts geared towards adults, and a wide variety of Japanese anime series and OVAs. Promotions for Adult Swim have been targeted towards the college age group (18-24), which constitutes the majority of their viewers. According to a September 1, 2004 article in Promo magazine, representatives travel to 30 universities across the U.S. to promote the Adult Swim lineup, including handing out posters for students' dorm rooms.

Contents

[edit] Stylistic history

Image:Swim-old.JPG

Originally, all of the bumps shown in between shows featured footage of senior citizens swimming in public pools with a lifeguard shouting through a megaphone. The logo at that time was the words "adult swim" in red in a black circle with a yellow penumbra. The shows were announced by a rather primitive computer generated voice, which would return years later to read some of the text on the bumps.

The current bumps feature black intertitle "cards" with white text on them, which discuss everything from news about the programming, to personal staff opinions on unrelated subjects. On Sundays (originally, Thursdays), Adult Swim airs cards spread across the block which they pull from the Adult Swim message board and respond with their characteristic banter. The current bumps also use a "slide show" of pictures of Japan. There are also carnival side show-style bumps used as well, especially during the "action block".

[edit] Coming Soon

Adult Swim's website has announced returning series for 2007.

Returning series:

New series:

Movies:

[edit] Current Schedule

All times are US Eastern (UTC -5) and Pacific (UTC -8). The programming block's encore begins at 2:00 a.m. Premiere episodes in bold.

[edit] Sunday

New episodes of some shows premiere on Sunday.

As of November 26, 2006:

[edit] Monday-Thursday

As of November 13, 2006:

[edit] Saturday

As of November 4, 2006:

[edit] Adult Swim Fix

Main article: Adult Swim Fix
Image:Asf2.jpg

AdultSwim.com launched Friday Night Fix on Friday, September 16, 2005, as a way for Adult Swim fans to view programming on the one day of the week that the programming block does not currently air (the airtime currently being occupied by a rebroadcast of Cartoon Network's Fridays programming block), and was originally available only on Fridays during the hours that Adult Swim normally aired on weeknights. On March 27, 2006, Adult Swim changed Friday Night Fix into the Adult Swim Fix. Adult Swim Fix runs every hour of every day, with content ranging from older and current shows to premiere episodes of new shows from both the Comedy and Action blocks, updated every Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. With the exception of anime premieres, which are removed 12 hours later (at 6 a.m. Saturday EST), every show is available until the next Friday update. Adult Swim Fix is presented in a streaming browser applet requiring Windows Media Player and is available only for the continental United States.

Most recently, Samurai Champloo began airing on Adult Swim Fix; other anime titles that have appeared on the fix include The Big O, Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, Paranoia Agent, and Trinity Blood.

[edit] Shows: Past, present, and future

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim

[edit] Video on Demand

In mid-2004, Adult Swim launched a video on demand channel on various cable TV providers. The comedy section features several episodes from various Adult Swim original series, while the action section only anime series and movies licensed by Bandai Entertainment, some of which have never been broadcast on Adult Swim or CN. The anime series s-CRY-ed initially premiered on demand before debuting on the regular block in May 2005.

[edit] Podcast

Adult Swim announced on March 21 2006, a video podcast that they are offering on Apple's iTunes. The podcasts start off by featuring Behind the Scenes segments of shows, and they are working their way to new and exclusive content, like a look at Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha's new show Metalocalypse. iTunes is required. [1]

The Adult Swim iTunes Podcast reached number two in iTunes' ranking of most commonly downloaded Podcasts, but never number one to the dismay of Adult Swim administrators and employees.

[edit] Forum

Adult Swim has an active message board at its official Web site. Some quotes from the forum are used on the channel in weekly bumps aired Thursdays, including the widely popular phrase "cus anime is teh s uck." Williams Street Studios staff also frequents the board to answer viewer questions and address comments about Adult Swim programming. There are ten folders and two archive folders on the forum, which are as follows:

  • Williams Street Culture - Pertains to all things Williams Street--the B&W bumps, music used in the B&W bumps, show talent, staff members, Adult Swim merchandise, owls, etc.
  • AdultSwim.com - Talk about clips, games, message boards and anything current on the site.
  • Action Discussion - Topics concerning the shows in the Action block.
  • Action Show Suggestions - Topics concerning Action shows you would like to see on Adult Swim in the future.
  • Other Anime - This is the place for threads concerning any anime outside of Adult Swim.
  • Comedy Discussion - Topics concerning the shows in the Comedy block.
  • Comedy Show Suggestions - Topics concerning Comedy shows you would like to see on Adult Swim in the future.
  • Babbling - General discussion about life, music and video games.
  • Incoherent Babbling - A forum for complete nonsense. It is described as "Babbling minus intelligence".
  • Rants - Tirades from angry people.
  • The Swim Archive - An archive of worthy threads from the Adult Swim Message Boards.
  • The Hockey Chicken Archive - An archive of threads from the Free Hockey Chicken stunt, which occurred July 19-30, 2004.

As of July 2006, the administrators of the forum released information that the current layout of the message boards for the site will be changed due to lack of new user traffic. The change is aimed to bring new users to the message board and provide a much friendlier atmosphere to the message board as a whole. It has also been mentioned by the administrators that it will cut down on user elitism. The change, expected July 2006, has been indefinitely delayed. The new layout will be as follows:

  • Adult Swim - will be a general discussion of all things Adult Swim that are NOT shows.
  • .com - will be a discussion of all site-related things, including games and technical issues.
  • Fan Reviews - will be a place for fans to post reviews of shows. A user can only post a thread there, not reply. Other users will be able to rate each review.
  • User-Generated - is the place for fan-made stuff. You know, whatever.
  • Anime - is the discussion of anime.
  • Comedy - is discussion of Adult Swim comedy.
  • Show Suggestions - is where you suggest shows for us to air.
  • General - will be where everything else goes. This will not just be Noise in one folder. It will be a entirely different type of general discussion, the vast majority of which will not be nonsensical.
  • Insider Boards - will be a category set aside for Insiders. If they want one, we'll give an Insider their own board to rule as they wish, and to engender discussion of their shows. We don't know if many (or any) will really want to take advantage of this, but we hope they will

[edit] Adult Swim Worldwide

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[edit] Australia and New Zealand

  • In Australia and New Zealand, Adult Swim airs Monday to Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday feature an hour of anime. Friday and Saturday nights feature 90 minutes of comedy (formerly 60 minutes.) Before an improvement in the local Cartoon Network feed on June 1, 2006, Adult Swim started at 12:30am in New Zealand.

[edit] Monday-Thursday

InuYasha, Initial D and Fullmetal Alchemist alternate with the current line-up.

[edit] Friday and Saturday

  • Adult Swim Australia also airs notices from their noticeboard on Comedy nights. They have a tendency to only air certain notices during certain shows.
  • "Super Oil" can be seen intermittently during breaks. They have access to five episodes (Bowlinger vs Bowlinger, Tube Panic, Climber's High, My True Blue Car, and Bottle Trouble) which they repeat each week, sometimes playing an episode more than once on a certain night. On occasion, they have been aired on an Anime night.
  • The Boondocks, another popular Adult Swim show, currently airs in Australia on The Comedy Channel on Fridays at 9:00 p.m., not on Adult Swim or Cartoon Network. The Comedy Channel does not air in New Zealand.

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] Brazil and Latin America

In Brazil and Latin America, Adult Swim airs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, unlike Adult Swim USA, anime is not a part of the lineup. As of November 2006, all anime programming on Cartoon Network airs on the Toonami block. There's still much fan pressure to bring anime to Adult Swim in the region (pressure that is mocked constantly in Adult Swim's cards).

  • 20th Century Fox-produced shows, such as Futurama, Family Guy, and American Dad!, all air on FOX in a similarly themed block called "No Molestar" on Mondays and Thursdays.
  • In Chile, the cable company VTR, having an almost complete monopoly of cable television, decided to censor the adult swim block from transmission, and doesn't show it at all, instead replacing it with a relatively short recording of "children's" cartoon episodes which repeats over and over. For some time, users could pay an extra fee to be able to watch the transmission along with VTR's "premium" channels. This situation was not well received by users, who even started a petition (at http://www.queremosadultswim.tk/ ). However, since VTR is the only alternative for cable television in most of the country, consumers don't really have a choice unless they can afford satellite TV.

[edit] Canada

[edit] The Philippines

  • The Philippines is the only country in Asia that airs Adult Swim.

[edit] Trivia

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  • The success of Adult Swim has inspired other cable networks, such as USA, Comedy Central, Spike TV and G4 to begin late-night programming blocks of their own.
  • After Fox cancelled Family Guy, Adult Swim began airing reruns of the show on April 20, 2003. Being on a cable network, Adult Swim's edition of Family Guy was less censored. Unlike its days on Fox, Family Guy has had consistent time slots since, at either 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, with Futurama at the other slot (Fox moved Family Guy around to as many as 28 different time slots before officially canceling the show in 2002). That, along with the show being released on DVD at the same time, brought unexpected popularity to the series and eventually ended up convincing Fox to bring back the show<ref>Netherby, Jennifer. "DVD keeps Family alive". Video Business. March 29, 2004.</ref><ref>Patrizio, Andy. The Family Guy To Return. IGN. February 27, 2004.</ref>, which began re-airing in May 2005. Under a special agreement with Fox, Adult Swim airs the new episodes at least two weeks after they debut on Fox, but Fox must have advertising for Adult Swim during the show's airing on its network. Included in the same deal was Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's new series, American Dad!
  • Futurama has also found new life in syndication on Adult Swim, enjoying high ratings as a benefit of also receiving a steady time slot. When it aired on Fox, Futurama was put in the virtually dead-air time of 7:00 p.m. The biggest drawback was that many televised sports (especially football) ran late into this programming block, so Futurama was constantly being pre-empted by sports; more often than not, the episode was completely skipped while other programming would air in their entirety later that night. The high ratings has also helped the show to get four direct-to-DVD movies greenlit and possibly new episodes<ref>Rabin, Nathan. Interview with Matt Groening. The Onion A.V. Club. April 26, 2006.</ref>. The show will move to Comedy Central once AS's rights to the show expire in 2008.
  • The start of each hour of Adult Swim programming is easily identified by the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" logo (which resembles the warning seen on explicit CDs) followed by a warning that the shows contain material that may not be appropriate for viewers under the age of 17. The age "limit" was 14 until June 2006. Originally, there was no warning, but as the programming became more popular, a message was put up to alert parents. It stated that the appropriate age for viewers was 18 and older. It then went on to say that the viewer could expect intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language, and suggestive dialogue. When Adult Swim changed to its current format, the description was dropped to shorten the message. Soon after, the warning logo was added and the age was changed to 14. Many saw this as more appropriate since nothing had been shown on the network higher than a TV-14 rating. Now Adult Swim has indeed changed the warning to the age of 17 because of the airing of shows rated TV-MA. Sometimes it will say "Inappropriate for under 14" or "Inappropriate for under 17" after midnight. In addition, on Adult Swim's first night on September 2, 2001, the "TV-14" bug was left on the screen for the entire duration of the block, excluding commercials and promos.
  • As of date, Adult Swim has deemed episodes of three shows to contain levels of violence and graphic content necessitating their own disclaimer, above and beyond the disclaimer used for the block which states, "Just in case that last disclaimer wasn't enough, this episode contains extreme violence. We would rather run this than cut the violence from the episode because we are American Cowboys." This disclaimer appears before episode 10 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Jungle Cruise and episode 51 of Fullmetal Alchemist, Laws and Promises<ref>This episode of Fullmetal Alchemist was originally untitled when broadcast in Japan; however, Funimation, the distributor of the English dub in the United States, gave it the name "Laws and Promises" for the U.S. broadcast.</ref>; recently, it has also appeared before Eureka Seven, beginning with episode 26, Morning Glory. The appearance of the disclaimer before Eureka Seven marks the first time that any show on Adult Swim has had more than one episode necessitating the additional violence disclaimer.<ref>At present a total of seven Eureka Seven Episodes have had the disclamier: Episode 26 (Morning Glory), Episode 27 (Helter Skelter), Episode 28 (Memento Mori), Episode 29 (Keep On Movin'), Episode 30 (Change Of Life), Episode 31 (Animal Attack), and Episode 32 (Start It Up) . As the series has yet to conclude, more episodes may emerge with the additional violence disclaimer.</ref>
  • In keeping with the pool theme, Adult Swim's original introduction showed several older men and women in a public swimming pool eating, exercising, and doing other pool-related activities. When the Saturday night block started in 2002, it originally featured clips from the various anime programs displayed on the block, and featured a computer-generated voice heard when the current show would break for a commercial.
  • The original theme music for Adult Swim was D-Code by Dust Devil. Adult Swim dropped the theme in January 2003 after switching to a "Safety Manual" format.
  • Adult Swim is notorious for their April Fools pranks.
    • In 2004, every show that aired during the actual April 1st were shown with crudely drawn graffiti (moustaches, goatees, and glasses) on the characters' faces and other objects.
    • In 2005, the unfinished pilot of Squidbillies and a moustache-filled episode of Perfect Hair Forever were shown unannounced.
    • In 2006, Adult Swim ran their Saturday schedule out of order. This included Chuck Norris' Karate Kommandos being run at 11 p.m. in place of InuYasha, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG at 11:30, which was edited with fart sound effects in unexpected moments, and Fullmetal Alchemist at its normal time of midnight, also intercut with fart sounds. The 12:30 encore presentation of 2nd GIG ran unaltered. At 1:00 a.m., in place of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Adult Swim ran Boo Boo Runs Wild, a special that was run every Sunday throughout January and February. Cowboy Bebop's run at 1:30 was replaced with the Ruby-Spears cartoon Mr. T. All the intro bumps ran normally as if the schedule was unchanged.
  • On April 16, 2006, Adult Swim aired an angry fan letter about the showing of Saved By The Bell. The fan letter stated that if they continue to air the program, they should change their name to "Crappy 1980's Live Action Television Show Network." Adult Swim complied and changed their logo to match the name with the [adult swim] formatting. All shows from that point on during the night aired with a [crappy 1980's live action tv show network] logo in place of the regular [adult swim] one. From that moment on, nearly every showing of Saved By The Bell during the week aired with the changed station identification logo, while the other programming kept the regular one. Adult Swim went on to produce a rumor that the show was going back into production; unlike the airing, this was an actual hoax.<ref name=bell_return>Sorry, Screech — 'Saved By The Bell' Isn't Coming Back. MTV. April 26, 2006.</ref>
  • When airing bumps outlining the upcoming weekend's lineup, episode and series premiers are set apart from repeat episodes using different colors. Initially, traditional color names were used, but now they are referred to by Pantone color numbers.
  • Adult Swim has been known to have a partnership with independent music label Stones Throw. Many of Adult Swim's bumps and packaging have used music from artists such as Madlib, Oh No and J Dilla. In 2006, both Stones Throw and Adult Swim created a co-production album entitled Chrome Children.

[edit] Notes

<references />

[edit] External links

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