New show on CN: Adult Swim

[laugh4me]

From Foxnews

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Cartoons Get Grown-Up Plotlines

Ever wonder why Scooby Doo and his hapless hippie companion Shaggy always craved those Scooby snacks so much?

Or precisely what the relationship was between Johnny Quest's father and his bosom buddy Race Bannon, the strapping bodyguard?

A new line of shows starring old cartoon favorites such as Scooby Doo, Johnny Quest and Yogi Bear may just answer those questions that have been nagging you since school let out.

Starting Sept. 2, the Cartoon Network will unveil "Adult Swim," a late-night block of animated programming aimed at adults, which will bring old characters back to life and show now-grown cartoon fans what they could never find out on Saturday mornings.
Most of the characters will be brought back as guest stars on Harvey Birdman, a courtroom drama that revives the little-known Hanna-Barbera superhero Birdman and casts him as a lawyer. His courtroom opponents will be the evil Reducto and his arch-nemesis Vulturro, as a blue-blooded but sleazy attorney.

In one episode, Shaggy is driving the Mystery Machine when he's pulled over for "possession" — although it's never made explicit what he's accused of possessing. Another proposed plotline sees Yogi Bear's pal Boo Boo facing charges of being the Una Boo Boo, who sends corporate heads picnic baskets packed with bombs.

And in what is slated to be the pilot, world-renowned Dr. Benton Quest and his frequent companion, former government agent Bannon, fight over who gets custody of Johnny Quest. Although it's not spelled out, the implication is that Race and Dr. Quest are more than just friends.

"Now why was Dr. Benton Quest and Race Bannon like that?" Cartoon Network spokesman Jim Babcock said from the company's Atlanta offices. "The show plays with things that we grew up with in a mature context. It's very funny."

It also makes a lot of business sense. One of the most popular cable channels on the boob tube, the Cartoon Network reaches more than 73 million homes in the U.S. and 145 other countries. Nearly one-third of that audience is adult, tuning in both for animated oldies and new material like the adult-oriented Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the cult show where the cantankerous death ray-wielding superhero has for years been airing his neuroses on a talk show with real-life guests.

"From a programming perspective, we wanted to expand our line-up to offer some innovative new shows for our adult fans," Mike Lazzo, senior vice president of programming and production, said in a press release. "Animation has never been an art that was geared solely toward kids. … Now we've created a group of shows that we think will become appointment viewing for fans of smart, funny television."

Besides Harvey Birdman and Space Ghost, other Adult Swim shows will include Home Movies, an original series about a socially outcast third grader; Sealab 2021, starring Erik Estrada in a kitschy take on an old Hanna-Barbera undersea series; Aqua Teen Hunger Force, about crime-fighting food; and Leave It to Brak, in which the screechy-voiced Space Ghost regular tries his hand at a sitcom.

The shows will be prefaced with warnings of adult content and will be rated TV-PG or TV-14.

But don't expect anything too outrageous or wildly inappropriate.

"The creative people have an interest in these characters, they grew up with them," Babcock said. "They're still pretty respectful and don't want to do anything that would harm the property."

[DR. BELCH]

LOL! Borderline cartoon porn! Dr. Quest and Race Bannon...[makes back-and-forth motion with hand]! Personally, I'm wondering about Fred and Daphne--just what were they doing after Fred said, "Daph and I'll go that way! Shaggy, you take Velma and Scoob and head down there!" Maybe we'll finally see Scoob raise his leg...or worse.
I wonder if just the classics get this treatment? There's a whole thread about the Power Puff Girls as adults elsewhere--and there was that very suggestive scene after they first ate jawbreakers in "Candy is Dandy". Excuse me while I take a cold shower or three....

[The Dork Knight]

This is gonna be sweeeet.

[Patrick McCart]

I take it that no one sees what's wrong with this picture.

CN has a TON of classic cartoons that are never aired, yet they make more new shows.

If they really want to please the adults, they need to show sophisticated stuff like Bosko, Buddy, and the zillion cartoons they keep off the air for being racist or B&W.

Or maybe there is more to animation than the classic cartoons. I guess I'm narrow-minded, but you can't change me!

[Matthew Hunter]

I like that idea! So THAT'S what the adult programming they've been planning is. I remember when they did what I guess was a pilot for this, and it came after a rare Bugs and Daffy in the middle of the night sometiome around the holidays this past year. What I always wondered about were the characters of one of my dad's favorite series growing up, Pixie and Dixie. I mean, they lived in the same hole together, had girlie names, wore bowties and liked to hold hands. Now, if that's not something to make fun of, I don't know what is. Also, maybe they'll finally explore why Yogi and Boo Boo live together, or what "Jinkies" actually means. How about why Johnny Bravo always wears sunglasses, even in the house? Is he trying to hide some sort of side effect from his mama? What about those bad 1960's things that H-B made up like "Dino Boy" or "Herculoids"? or what exactly IS Brak, an alien, a witch doctor, a cat, what? How can Quick Draw McGraw ride a horse-drawn stage coach when he, himself, is a horse?
-Matthew
(I'm going to watch this show.)

[Nelson]

What "Adult Swim" really needs, is a half hour show featuring PIC cartoons as the last part of this new programing schedule.Last week I said, how about putting a new verison of "Toonheads" that will show these PIC cartoons geared for ONLY adults. I think that would be an excellent idea.

[Pietro]

Yeah. That'd be cool. Uncensored Looney Tunes, Popeye, MGM cartoons, or maybe (hopefully) Felix the Cat and Flip the Frog cartoons.

-Pietro

[Nelson]

Speaking as an adult, I think it's a good thing (In a sense) that CN is starting to finally looking out for their adult audience, but as an adult, I personally would have loved to see some (very rare or PIC) classic cartoons be shown for the new set up. and what do we get??? more "new" crappy cartoons that might be just as bad as their "Garbage Garbage" toons.

What CN fails to realize on just what their adult viewers really want to see on their network, and I'm an adult and I want that CLASSICS...NOT ANY NEW CRAP "Please no more of this stuff" I'm getting pretty sick here. God, I'm so hard to please. I'm stuck in the past.

How does anyone else feel about this new adult programming?

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Nelson

How does anyone else feel about this new adult programming?

I think the Birdman idea sound hilarious, as does the Brak sitcom. While being able to see the old cartoons uncut is always desired, I want new shows!

Personally, I think another Scooby-Doo series is about due, given that H-B finds someone to replace Mary Kay Bergman. Scooby's an animation icon, albeit one that CN exploits (even Scooby gets the occasional episode compressed digitally). Last time I checked, they were *barely* showing Scrappy era stuff, and they'll never touch, say, 13 Ghosts again (which was pretty good compared to H-B's other output at the time).

Of course, CN doesn't touch most of the WB/H-B/Ruby-Spears library. They're dumb. I don't see why the Smurfs, the ultimate multi-level cartoon (i.e., it's fun on the kid level, and on the sick adult level), isn't shown daily. Plus, I want to see Thundarr the Barbarian, dammit! It was the first show Steve Gerber story edited, and Gerber was a writing GOD back in the 80s, and I'd like to see his first series. The *good* runs of Superfriends (which means all of the ones after the godawful Marvin and Wendy era) deserve to be shown, and God forbid that the Filmation-produced cartoons starring various DC Comics characters get any airplay (esp. since Filmation is 50 times the studio H-B ever was).

I'd like to see all those shows on TV, but to be honest, an uncut video and/or DVD release would be better. Granted, many of the Cartoon Cartoons suck, but most of Saturday morning sucked, too, back in the day. I say we let new shows develop, lest we see animation die because of stagnation (which is what was happening before He-Man and the Masters of he Universe and G.I. Joe premeired in 1983).

Garrett

[Sinople]

I hope CN picks up The Oblongs and shows it on Adult Swim. Teletoon in Canada picked up all 13 Oblong shows and is going to show it on their adult programing block.

[Jerome]

Personally, I love the description of some of these new shows. When it was shown more often, I thought "Space Ghost Coast To Coast" was the funniest show on TV. Now they're finally making new ones plus "Harvey Birdman" sounds like something very similar. Call me a heretic but if these shows live up to their billing, I'll take them over old unseen Looney Tunes (which, let's be realistic, will probably never see the light of day on TV again in our time).