Adult Swim The First 13 Shows To Air On Cartoon Network’s LateNight Program Block

Adult Swim: The First 13 Shows To Air On Cartoon Network’s Late-Night Program Block

These are the first shows that made Adult Swim the phenomenon it is today, airing on Cartoon Network’s late-night program block.

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Since children often go to sleep on the earlier side, channels targeting them needed to find something else to air late at night. Nickelodeon had Nick at Nite and Disney had Vault Disney which aired both adult content and vintage programming. In 2001, competing children’s channel, Cartoon Network, decided to enter into the late-night programming game with Adult Swim, which kicked-off each night saying “All kids out of the pool”. However, unlike its competitors, Adult Swim aired mostly original shows and like its home-network, only offered animated series. Many of their shows were parodies based on the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Space Ghost including Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, all of which are currently available for streaming on HBOMax.

In addition, Adult Swim became home to Japanese Anime for the North American audience with additions like Cowboy Bebop and Yu Yu Hakusho, which were able to be less censored than previous attempts made by channels like Fox Kids and Kid’s WB. 19 years later, Adult Swim has become more than just an adult block on Cartoon Network and has grown to include syndicated shows like Family Guy and Futurama as well as be the home to the Toonami. It’s been praised for being creator-driven with programs that are experimental and often ridiculous in nature.

13 Home Movies

Home Movies was the show to officially kick off Adult Swim’s first night. The animated show followed Brendon Small, an eight-year-old, aspiring filmmaker, as he creates home movies alongside his friends Melissa and Jason. The show originally aired on UPN but was canceled after 5 episodes.

After Adult Swim picked it up, the show had a total of 52 episodes over 4 seasons. The show’s short-tempered soccer coach, John McGuirk, was voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, who went on to voice popular characters Sterling Archer (Archer) and Bob Belcher (Bob’s Burgers).

12 Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Space Ghost Coast to Coast was the first original series fully produced by Cartoon Network. The show was an adult reboot of the 1960s series, Space Ghost, and reimagined the title character as a talk show host. The show ran on Cartoon Network from 1994-1999 but was revived in 2001 after its success on Adult Swim.

While the show’s final two seasons were released on GameTap, the show had 11 seasons consisting of 108 episodes. Space Ghost Coast to Coast inspired many parody talk shows such as Comedy Bang! Bang!, Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, and most recently The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo an HBOMax original series.

11 The Brak Show

Similar to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show helped usher in Adult Swim and centered around another character from Space Ghost. However, instead of a talk show, The Brak Show was an animated sitcom parody.

It followed Space Ghost’s archnemesis, Brak, who lived with his parents and featured his friend was Zorak, another villain from the original cartoon. The show aired a total of 28 episodes over 3 seasons.

10 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

Like the other shows, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law featured past Hanna-Barbera characters, notably Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. The show follows Harvey T. Birdman is an attorney working for the law firm, Sebben & Sebben.

The series was known for its hilarious cameos by popular cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Johnny Quest, and Barney Rubble from The Flintstones.

9 Sealab 2021

Sealab 2021 was a parody show that like Space Ghost Coast to Coast used stock footage from its original series in the 1970s, Sealab 2020. The original series was a short-lived environmentally-themed children’s show that took place in an underwater research base on the ocean floor.

The creators of Sealab 2021 thought of the show when they stumbled upon the original 1970’s series footage when working as production assistants for Cartoon Network. The two decided to write new dialogue and dub over the scenes. The two would later pitch the series but Cartoon Network passed. Five years later, the network bought it around the time Adult Swim was created and ended up airing the series had a total of 4 seasons consisting of 52 episodes.

8 Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop originally aired in Japan from 1997 to 1998 and was the first anime title to broadcast on Adult Swim. The critically acclaimed show centered around a bounty hunter and his team in the futuristic landscape of 2071. Cowboy Bebop has been praised for its hybrid of genres including western, sci-fi, and pulp fiction.

While the show only had one season, its popularity has only grown and Netflix is currently producing a live-action series that stars John Cho as the main character, Spike Spiegel.

7 Aqua Teen Hunger Force

The Adult Swim original series starred three anthropomorphic fast food items; a milkshake named Master Shake, a basket of fries named Frylock, and a meatball named Meatwad. The characters were actually created for an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast where they were corporate mascots for a fictional restaurant chain called “Burger Trench”.

Instead, the network decided to spin the characters out into their own show before ever airing the episode. Aqua Teen Hunger Force went on to become the longest-running series on Adult Swim until it was surpassed by Robot Chicken.

6 Baby Blues

Based on the comic strip of the same name, Baby Blues was one of the first shows to air on Adult Swim after being canceled by The WB.

The show focused on parents, Darryl, and Wanda while they raise their infant daughter Zoe. While a second season was produced, the 13 episodes never aired.

5 Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files

The second anime to air on Adult Swim and the one to kick off the first Adult Swim Action Saturday was Yu Yu Hakusho. The series followed a 14-year-old boy who becomes a spirit detective after getting killed while saving a young boy. Yusuke along with his team takes on demons and other enemies that threaten both the spirit and human world.

While the show consists of 112 episodes only the first 21 aired on Adult Swim both dubbed and uncut. The show was later moved to Cartoon Network’s Toonami block where it was edited for a younger audience. The shonen style anime has gone on to be featured in many top 10 lists with characters even appearing in the Jump Force video game alongside legends like Goku and Naruto.

4 Pilot Candidate

Pilot Candidate known to Japanese audiences as The Candidate for Goddess takes place in the distant future where humans live in space colonies. The main protagonists train to pilot giant weapons known as “Goddesses” in order to defeat alien threats.

International distributor, Bandai Entertainment, planned to air the series on Cartoon Network and changed the name to avoid the term “Goddess” and to make the show more appealing to western audiences. The show ended up airing on Adult Swim but was actually censored since it was originally slated for Toonami and removed any nudity, violence, tobacco use, and religious references.

3 Mobile Suit Gundam 0083

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 is the 8th installment in the long-running Gundam franchise. The franchise went on to have other seasons air on both Adult Swim and later Toonami. Gundam is a military science fiction anime that usually takes place in space with pilots of giant mechs called Gundams.

While this installment was short-lived, the franchise as a whole is the 16th highest-grossing media franchise of all time behind giants like Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and Star Wars.

2 Outlaw Star

Like both Pilot Candidate and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083, the series takes place in space and follows the crew of the Outlaw Star as they search for the legendary treasure called the “Galactic Leyline”.

The show was heavily edited to remove adult content, with episode 23 unaired all together due to its nudity and suggestive themes. However, the series went on to be known for its arms dealer, Fred Luo, who is one of the first anime characters to be openly gay and debuted in 1998.

1 Tenchi Muyo!

Though Tenchi Muyo! was based on the manga of the same name, the anime premiered with a 6 episode OVA (Original Video Animation), a story made specifically for TV or Movies and not adapted from any original source material.

The series centers around Tenchi Masaki who is spending the summer with his grandfather and accidentally releases a demon space pirate named Ryoko from his family shrine.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/adult-swim-cartoon-network-first-shows-late-night-block/

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