Adult Swim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article contains unencyclopedic lists that may require cleanup. To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, please help improve this article by: removing items which are not notable, encyclopedic, or helpful from embedded lists; incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article; and discussing this issue on the talk page. |
|
This article or section reads like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view per Wikipedia policy. Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. (help, talk) |
Adult Swim, usually rendered [adult swim] based on its logo, 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.[1]
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. Adult Swim programming may also be viewed online (only within the United States) via Adult Swim Fix on adultswim.com.
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
Originally, all of the bumps shown in between shows featured footage of senior citizens swimming in public pools with a lifeguard shouting the words "All kids out of the pool" 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.
On January 12, 2003, the senior citizens were replaced by animated safety manuals featuring Adult Swim characters.
The current bumps debuted on May 25, 2003 and feature black intertitle "cards" with white text on them, which discuss everything from news about the programming, to personal staff opinions on unrelated subjects. Fans get involved too as they've been asked to design their own cards and to submit questions for answering.
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] Adult Swim Fix
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.
[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 shows 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.
Select series, including Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Venture Brothers, are also available for purchase on iTunes.
[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.
[edit] Forum
Adult Swim has an active message board at its official Web site. Williams Street Studios staff frequents the board to answer viewer questions and address comments about Adult Swim programming. The widely popular phrase "cus anime is teh s uck" originated from this forum.
[edit] Adult Swim Worldwide
[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.
- 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
- The UK network Bravo airs an Adult Swim block nightly, generally from midnight each night. It should be noted that UK's Bravo channel is owned by Flextech, unlike other parts of the world where Adult Swim is seen as a block on Time Warner-owned Cartoon Network. Shows that are a part of the UK's Adult Swim block are Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Space Ghost Coast to Coast & The Venture Bros.[2] Non-Williams Street shows on the block include Stripperella and Kid Notorious.
- In addition to this, an online service, AdultSwim.co.uk, offers 24 hour access to about 4 episodes of various Adult Swim shows per month including (besides what is already available on Bravo, bar Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Non-Williams Street Shows) Squidbillies, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Minoriteam, Stroker and Hoop, Moral Orel, 12 Oz. Mouse and Perfect Hair Forever. Curently, a Year Long subscription to this service costs £9.99 as part of the promotional opening of the service. The cost will go up to £19.99 after the end of September. Unlike adult swim on Bravo UK the website service is owned by Time Warner.
- Currently, the only Adult Swim action show airing in the UK is Fullmetal Alchemist on Rapture TV on Tuesdays. Previously, Wolf's Rain aired every Thursday but was replaced with Mezzo DSA. There are no content edits for any show aired on Rapture. However Bravo have not ruled out an action block shows such as Spawn have been touted.
[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" (Do not disturb) 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
- While they do not use the Adult Swim branding, Canada's Teletoon has a teen/adult oriented block called The Detour that airs very similar programming. Adult Swim programs that are airing currently on The Detour include 12 oz. Mouse, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, Futurama, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Robot Chicken, Squidbillies, Stroker and Hoop, The Boondocks, The Venture Bros., and Tom Goes to the Mayor.
[edit] The Philippines
- The Philippines is the only country in Asia that airs Adult Swim.
- Adult Swim airs every night between 10:30 to 10:30pm, shown right after The Simpsons. In the past, Adult Swim in the Philippine feed during late weekends night and only shows CN-made cartoons such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and The Brak Show. Gundam Seed has later been inserted into the Adult Swim block.
[edit] Trivia
- The start of each hour of Adult Swim programming is easily identified by the "Parental Advisory: Mature Content" logo (which resembles the warning seen on explicit CDs though this says Parental Advisory:Mature Content not Parental Advisory:Explicit Content) 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[3]; 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.[4]
- 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 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, the lineup was changed, unannounced, to include retro shows such as Chuck Norris' Karate Kommandos while regular shows such as Fullmetal Alchemist were intercut with fart sounds.
- 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.[5]
- 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
- ^ Adult Swim/CN Split Cements Strategy. ICv2. March 3, 2005.
- ^ Adult Swim Show Profiles. Bravo (UK). Retrieved July 19, 2006.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Sorry, Screech — 'Saved By The Bell' Isn't Coming Back. MTV. April 26, 2006.
[edit] External links
- AdultSwim.com - Official website
- AdultSwim.co.uk - Broadband VOD website for Adult Swim UK
- BRAVO.co.uk - Adult Swim - Official website of the UK Adult Swim
- Adult Swim Headquarters - Unofficial Adult Swim information and news website
- ASF - Adult Swim promo and intro archive
- BumpWorthy.com - Adult Swim's commercial bumps, including some from the pre-"card" era.
| Flextech Television | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bravo | Bravo 2 | LIVINGtv | LIVINGtv2 | Challenge | Ftn | Trouble | UKTV Adult Swim | The Children's Channel |
|||||||||
