[adult swim] wiki
Advertisement
Images

Adult Swim is a channel (formerly a block) of cartoons aimed toward adults that mainly airs on Cartoon Network, but has branched off into a separate network in countries like Australia and Japan. The programming is mainly oriented on humor, anime and action shows, usually with a small amount of editing for content. The block is said to be aimed towards people age 18+, a large contrast to the usual programming Cartoon Network airs, which is expected to be viewed by children, preteens, and "tweens". Right before and after each commercial break, they show jokes, fan feedback and info about Adult Swim.



History

Adult Swim started off as a spin-off block of Cartoon Network based on the success of an earlier show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The first show aired on this block was Home Movies on September 2, 2001. The name comes from a term for a lifeguard's break. The children can't be trusted to swim by themselves, so they are kicked out, and only the adults can swim, hence "adult swim". The first anime show broadcast was Cowboy Bebop. On March 28, 2005, TBS split Cartoon Network and Adult Swim to clarify the Nielsen Ratings System. Early shows from this period include Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show and a revival of Mission Hill, from the WB.

Adult Swim's production company is Williams Street Studios. William Street have also produced Cartoon Network's Toonami and Miguzi blocks. It usually plays American TV series and shorts aimed toward adults. They also air a wide variety of Japanese anime, original video animations, and movies. Adult Swim's promotions are targeted toward people who are college age, usually their 20s and 30s. Adult Swim has often been known send representatives to colleges around the US and hand out posters to promote the block.

Stylistic History

The first logo, shown next to some old dude



The bumpers, or "bumps" for short, which are shown before and after each commercial break, were originally shots of senior citizens swimming and doing random pool-related activities in public pools. The lifeguard is often heard talking through a megaphone and saying things such as "Adult Swim, all kids out of the pool!", and announcing the forthcoming TV show. The logo was, basically, "ADULT SWIM" written in large red capital letters. On Saturdays, the shows were announced by a computer generated voice. Adult Swim's theme music was "D-Code", performed by Melbourne artist Dust Devil. The song was a remix of "Mambo Gallego" by Tito Puente, Sr.



The second logo from the prepubescent years.

On January 12, 2003, they replaced the swimming old people with animated safety manuals demonstrating techniques with the characters of the upcoming show. The logo was also changed to "adult swim" in red letters in a black circle with a yellow penumbra.



On May 25, 2003, Adult Swim began showing black intertitle cards with white text. These cards would comment on current events, staff opinions and, most often, just random stuff. For the action/anime shows they use pictures of various outdoor scenes using tilt-shift photography, an example of which can be seen at right. The most recent ones contain a reference to Adult Swim or AcTN in the scene. The bumps can also commemorate a recent passing. The person's name fades in, along with his or her Date of birth and death, no music will be playing, and the words will fade out in a slower manner. Some tributes include Kurt Vonnegut, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes and Dom Deluise.

Tilt-shift as demonstrated in this bump.

Starting with the premiere of King of the Hill on January 1, 2009, Adult Swim began to air unique bumps parodying the bumpers some shows air sponsoring a show and it's closed captioning. These are often stated by the actors from the show itself (in King of the Hill's case, it was Mike Judge as Hank Hill). Acknowledging this, Adult Swim aired bumps with country music playing in the background as an announcer states "King of the Hill is brought to you by (Adult Swim/Strickland Propane/Sugarfoot's BBQ/etc.)." Actual sponsorship bumps play on Adult Swim much less frequently.

Adult Swim Video

ON September 16, 2005, Adult Swim


launched the Friday Night Fix, a web-only broadcaster that would let fans watch any show that Adult Swim selected to air online. The Friday Night Fix was named for the fact that it would let fans view shows on Friday nights, when the block did not air. The online system only aired when Adult Swim aired from 11:00 to 5:30. On March 27, 2006, the name was changed to "Adult Swim Video", and it was to be aired at all hours.

Ratings

Adult swim was rated #1 for Delivery of adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34, and men 18-24. According to Nielsen Media Research, Adult Swim set new viewership records among men over 18 in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The ratings are the same as stated on the Adultswim.com's message board.

Programming

List Of Shows

Merchendise and Media Offerings

Video Games

Adult swim has joined with Midway games and created video games for many of the shows. For Aqua Teen Hunger Force, there is a video game called Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am which came out for the Playstation 2 console on November 5, 2007. For Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law there is a game Named after it for the Playstation 2, Playstation Portable and Nintendo Wii.

Other various games can be found on Adultswim.com.

Music

Adult Swim is partners with the record label Stones Throw Records. The bumpers and other media use the artists Madlib, Oh No, and J Dilla. In 2006, both Stones Throw and Adult Swim created a co-production album entitled Chrome Children. Other various Electronic music have used artists on Warp Record. They used the artists Boards of Canada, Chris Clark, Jackson and his Computer Band, and Flying Lotus. Additionally, from the Normrex label in New York is featured music of artist Machinedrum.

During the bumpers they would have music playing as accompaniment with the music would be by Fat Jon and J Dilla.

The network was also part of an earlier studio LP with DANGERDOOM, a musical collaboration between music producer Danger Mouse and rapper MF DOOM, entitled The Mouse and the Mask.

In February 2007 Adult Swim and Definitive Jux created an EP online called Definitive Swim. In 2006 Adult Swim and Chocolate industries created an online download called Chocolate Swim.

In April 2008, Adult Swim and Ghostly International released an indie electronic album Ghostly Swim, featuring artist from the label such as Matthew Dear and Dabrye.

In 2006 Adult swim was sponsoring Sonic for their new downloadable album called World Wide Renewal Program. The album features hip hop by artists like Hollywood Holt, Kovas, and the Cool Kids, among others; and some experimental beat tracks without vocals. In October 2008, Adult Swim took the album off line. In the same month, Adult Swim released African Swim to coincide with Ubisoft's release of Far Cry 2.

Video On Demand

In the early 2004 era some of Adult Swim's original series have been shown in the comedy section of any digital cable provider. In the action section their are anime's from adult swim.

Series including Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Venture Brothers. These series' are available on itunes. On November 22, 2006 the Adult Swim shows are able to be watched on an Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

Podcasts

Adult Swim used to offer podcasts on itunes from March 21, 2006 to September 19, 2006. The podcasts featured behind-the-scenes segments of shows and exclusive content; such as an interview with Saved by the Bell's Dennis Haskins and a look at Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha's Metalocalypse. The podcast reached number two in iTunes' ranking of most downloaded podcasts.

Website [Adult Swim]

Adult Swim runs a website that holds news about the programming. The webstite is called Adultswim.com. Adultswim.com has an active message board where people can ask questions and the Williams Street Studio's crew answers them.

Significant Schedule Changes

WARNING!!!

In the start of each 9:00 PM, Adult Swim has always shown a parental advisory sign with a message saying "Adult Swim may contain material that parents might not find suitable for viewers under the age of fourteen/seventeen". The way the message is said has often varied, but states the same.

In its earlier years, Adult Swim aired exclusively on Thursdays and Sundays. Sundays were used for premieres, Thursdays for reruns. Originally beginning on December 28, 2008, all programming started at 10:00 every night. This began with The PJs kicking off every day until King of the Hill took over New Year's Day 2009.

On August 1, 2008, Adult Swim started a lineup called "Old School Night", which aired on Fridays due to the success of the first one. The regular lineup started August 22, 2008. They showed, among others, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, Home Movies, Cowboy Bebop, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the first shows to air on the block. In addition to that they added the old-school "swimming pool" bumps before and after commercial breaks.

On August 22, 2008 Adult Swim also started to make Saturday and Sunday an all-anime block produced by Williams Street. After that, they got incredibly bad ratings so they brought back the older (and arguably better) Sundays. Adult Swim still mentions this snarkily whenever a viewer tries to suggest a large anime schedule change. For example, when Adult swim began trying to air movies on Friday, the bumps preceding it would say not to suggest anime, stating "You guys don't watch it anyway".

On October 20, 2008 [adult swim] started the Adult Swim "Bug". That was when they changed the old logo to the sleeker, website version, or the screenbug.

On December 27, 2010, the starting time was changed to 9/8c, with American Dad! using King of The Hill's original time slot.

Recently, the starting time was changed to 8/7c.

Advertisement