Adult Swim

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Adult Swim
The current Adult Swim logo since 2003.
Launched	September 2, 2001
Owned by	Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Sister channel(s)	Cartoon Network, Boomerang
Website	adultswim.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 296 (east) Channel 297 (west) Channel 1886 (VOD)
Dish Network	Channel 176 (east) Channel 177 (west) [1]
Cable
Comcast	Varies by market
Other cable companies	same as Cartoon Network

Adult Swim is an adult-oriented cable television network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network in the United States and broadcasting in countries such as Australia and Japan.^[2] The network features animated shows, including original programming, syndicated shows, and Japanese anime, generally with minimal or no editing for content. The shows are geared toward a 18+ audience, in contrast to the child and pre-teen daytime programming on Cartoon Network. The shows and commercial breaks are usually interrupted by "bumps", or moments where short jokes or Internet fan feedback (in which negative feedback is sometimes responded to in a sarcastic manner) are broadcast in simple white letters over a black screen.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Stylistic history 1.2 Adult Swim Video 1.3 Ratings 1.4 Ad campaign bomb scare 2 Programming 3 Merchandise and media offerings 3.1 Video games 3.2 Music 3.3 Video on demand 3.4 Podcast 4 International 4.1 Australia and New Zealand 4.2 United Kingdom and Ireland 4.3 Canada 4.4 Latin America 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

Adult Swim began as a "spin-off" programming block of Cartoon Network, premiering on September 2, 2001 with the airing of Home Movies. It originally aired Sunday night with reruns on Thursdays. The name comes from a phrase used by public swimming pools to label designated times when children are restricted from using the facilities in favor of adults; "adult swim". On March 28, 2005, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting split Adult Swim from Cartoon Network so Nielsen Media Research could treat it as a separate channel for ratings purposes.^[2]

The first anime broadcast on Adult Swim was Cowboy Bebop. Other early shows included Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Brak Show and a revival of The WB's Mission Hill.

The network is programmed by Williams Street Studios, a division of Turner Broadcast Network, which has created Toonami and Miguzi. It plays American animated series and shorts geared towards adults. They also play a wide variety of Japanese anime series, OVAs, and movies. Promotions for Adult Swim are targeted towards the college age and those in their twenties and thirties, constituting 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.^[3]

[edit] Stylistic history

Originally, all of the bumpers shown in between shows featured footage of senior citizens swimming in public pools, eating, exercising, and doing other pool-related activities, with audio of a lifeguard shouting "all kids out of the pool" through a megaphone. The logo was the words "ADULT SWIM" in all capital letters, shown after a freeze frame of the footage. The shows were announced by a computer generated voice on Saturdays.

When the Saturday night block started in 2002, it featured clips from the various anime programs displayed on the block. The original theme music for Adult Swim, titled "D-Code," was a remix of "Mambo Gallego" done by the Melbourne musician Dust Devil, originally played by Latin jazz musician Tito Puente, Sr. ^[4]

On January 12, 2003, the senior citizens were replaced by animated safety manuals featuring Adult Swim characters. The logo changed to the words "adult swim" in red and a black circle with a yellow penumbra.

The current bumps debuted on May 25, 2003 and feature black intertitle "cards" in white Helvetica Neue Condensed Black type.^{[citation needed]} The cards discuss everything from programming news to personal staff opinions on unrelated subjects. In addition, the bumpers for the action shows include tilt-shift miniature and other abstract photos of Japan, often accompanied by clips of various Yesterdays New Quintet songs. The most recent bumper cards have the "[adult swim]" caption somewhere within photographs of places—often with roads or road signs—in and around Atlanta . The bumps occasionally pay tribute to a recent death, in which there is no music or sound effects, but only a fade in, showing the person's name, along with the year of his/her birth and the year of his/her death, followed by a fade out. Aired tribute bumps include those for Skip Caray, Bernie Mac, Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Hayes, Dom Deluise, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett. In 2009, King of the Hill was aired with unique bumpers mentioning fictional Arlen, Texas companies e.g. "King of the Hill....brought to you by Alamo Beer" and "King of the Hill....brought to you by Strickland Propane". This is meant as a response to syndicated airings of King of the Hill on other networks that have sponsorship bumpers during King of the Hill by actual companies.^{[citation needed]} These real sponsorship bumpers are also shown by Adult Swim, but less frequently.

[edit] Adult Swim Video

AdultSwim.com launched a web-based video distribution service on September 16, 2005. Known as the "Friday Night Fix", the service provided a way for fans to view programming when the programming block did not air. It was originally available only on Fridays during the hours that Adult Swim normally aired on the other weeknights. On March 27, 2006, Adult Swim changed "Friday Night Fix" into "Adult Swim Video."

[edit] Ratings

Adult Swim has repeatedly set and broken viewership records for ad-supported basic cable channels, ranked #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.^[5][6] As of August, 2008, Adult Swim continues to be one of the most visited standard cable channel for adults 18 - 34. ^[7]

[edit] Ad campaign bomb scare

Turner Broadcasting issued an apology for an ad campaign causing a series of bomb scares throughout Boston on January 31, 2007. A statement emailed to The Boston Globe from Turner Broadcasting said:

"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim's animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."

On January 31, Boston and Massachusetts State Police were dispatched to various places in Boston after reports of suspicious packages were sighted. On February 1, 2007, Boston authorities arrested two men involved with the incident. Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, and Sean Stevens, 28, were facing charges of placing a hoax device to incite panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, according to CNN.

On February 5, Turner Broadcasting and marketer Interference Inc. announced that they will pay two million dollars in amends: one million to the city of Boston, and one million in goodwill funds.^[8] Four days later, on February 9, Jim Samples, then-general manager and executive vice president of Cartoon Network, resigned.^[9]

[edit] Programming

[edit] Merchandise and media offerings

[edit] Video games

Adult Swim partnered with Midway Games in 2005 to begin development on video games based on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast (soon to come), The Brak Show, and Sealab 2021. The game based on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am, was released on November 5, 2007 for PlayStation 2.^[10] The game is a golf game with fighting and racing levels. A video game based on Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law has been released by Capcom for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii.

Various third-party, Macromedia Flash-based games are also available for free play on the Adult Swim website.

[edit] Music

Adult Swim has a partnership with independent music label Stones Throw Records. Many of Adult Swim's bumps and packaging have used music from artists such as Madlib, Oh No, J Dilla, and Psyche Origami. In 2006, both Stones Throw and Adult Swim created a co-production album entitled Chrome Children. When the "black card" bump format was first introduced in mid-2003, block first switched to its now 5 year standing text-bump format, the bumps would often be accompanied by the instrumental music of producers like Fat Jon and J Dilla. Various electronic music is also often borrowed from artists on the label Warp Records, such as Boards of Canada, Chris Clark, Jackson and his Computer Band, and Flying Lotus. Additionally, music is featured from artist Machinedrum of the Normrex label in New York. Recent Adult Swim bumps have used instrumental music from T-Pain's album Thr33 Ringz.

The network has had various other musical endeavors including

• The Mouse and the Mask, an earlier studio LP with DANGERDOOM, a musical collaboration between music producer Danger Mouse and rapper MF DOOM.
• Occult Hymn, an online, follow-up EP by DANGERDOOM released on May 30, 2006 by Adult Swim
• Chocolate Swim, a free, online download released in 2006 by Adult Swim and Chocolate Industries
• Warm & Scratchy, a free, online album released in May 2006 by Adult Swim and Esurance, focusing on indie rock bands^[11]
• Definitive Swim, a free, online EP released in February 2007 by Adult Swim and Definitive Jux
• Ghostly Swim, a free, online album of indie electronic music, released by Adult Swim and Ghostly International and featuring artist from the label such as Matthew Dear and Dabrye
• World Wide Renewal Program, a free, online album released in June 2008. It was advertised in ads sponsored by Sonic and it features hip hop—by artists including Hollywood Holt, Kovas, and the Cool Kids—and some experimental beat tracks.
• African Swim, a free, online album released to coincide with Ubisoft's release of Far Cry 2.

[edit] Video on demand

In mid-2004, Adult Swim launched a video on demand channel on cable TV providers. The comedy section features several episodes from various Adult Swim original series, while the action section shows anime series and movies licensed by Bandai Entertainment, Geneon Entertainment, and Viz Media, some of which that were never broadcast. 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. Furthermore, as of November 22, 2006, some Adult Swim shows can be bought and accessed from the Xbox Live Video Marketplace and the PlayStation Video Store.

[edit] Podcast

Adult Swim offered a video podcast on Apple's 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.

[edit] International

Adult Swim has been actively expanding its reach across the world since 2005. New Zealand, Australia, and Latin America air the block on the Cartoon Network, just like in the United States. However, some international Cartoon Networks do not desire Adult Swim to air on their 24-hour children's network. In those markets, the block is licensed to other networks or Television stations instead—such as Ofcom in the United Kingdom—where regulation issues arise.^[12][13] Some networks enter into an agreement giving the rights to the entire block, including branding and all owned programming, whereas others such as Teletoon in Canada sign a first-right-of-refusal deal and do not choose to use the branding.^{[citation needed]}

Adult Swim blocks outside of the United States are not obligated to remain identical in scheduling to the U.S. equivalent.^{[citation needed]} They are permitted to acquire other programs for the block, and even create their own original programming; a move recently exercised by Adult Swim UK.^{[citation needed]}

A common occurrence throughout the world is that of Adult Swim's popular program The Boondocks airing on a different network than the rest of the programming.^{[citation needed]} While it is an Adult Swim original, Sony Pictures Television owns and operates the show and distribution must be dealt through them instead of Turner Broadcasting. For example, Sony's Animax owns the broadcasting rights to the show throughout Asia.

[edit] Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand, Adult Swim was broadcast on Cartoon Network from 2002 until December 31, 2007. The block is no longer seen on Cartoon Network but the comedy shows are now airing on The Comedy Channel. The block returned with Robot Chicken and Harvey Birdman, in March 2008, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force joining the programming on July 1.^[14] The Boondocks also air on the same channel although it's not under the Adult Swim banner and instead airs separately.The 2nd Season is currently premiering.

Most of the anime shows have not returned back to television, however a new anime block on the Australian Sci-Fi Channel airs shows previously aired on both Adult Swim USA and Australia.The block features Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Cowboy Bebop, Blood+ and Black Lagoon. Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Rebellion airs on the digital free-to-view ABC2 channel.

Some series that aired on Adult Swim have been released to Region 4 DVD by Madman Entertainment, including shows that have never been shown on Australian television before, such as Metalocalypse, Moral Orel, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and Frisky Dingo. The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters has also been quietly released to DVD.^[15]

[edit] United Kingdom and Ireland

Launched on July 7, 2006, the UK network Bravo used to air an Adult Swim block nightly, generally starting at midnight each night. The UK's Bravo channel is owned by Virgin Media Television, although in other parts of the world Adult Swim is a block on Time Warner-owned Cartoon Network. Shows that were previously 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., Moral Orel, and Metalocalypse,^[16] Non-Williams Street shows on the block include Stripperella and Kid Notorious. The first "action" series was the anime Afro Samurai, which aired on May 4, 2007 alongside a new UK animated show Modern Toss. On July 7, 2008, Adult Swim ceased to broadcast on Bravo, and its future remains uncertain. ^[17]

The UK Adult Swim website, like its American counterpart, offers free access to full episodes of shows including Squidbillies, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Minoriteam, Stroker and Hoop, Moral Orel, 12 oz. Mouse, Perfect Hair Forever, Metalocalypse, and Frisky Dingo. Unlike Adult Swim on Bravo UK, the website service is owned by Time Warner. Adult Swim programming can also be ordered through various "on demand" and mobile TV services.^{[citation needed]}

Revolver Entertainment recently began distributing original Adult Swim series on DVD in the UK and Ireland.^[18]

[edit] Canada

Teletoon's English-language service in Canada has a teen/adult-oriented block called "Teletoon Detour" that airs programming similar to Adult Swim every night. Adult Swim programs that aired on the Detour include 12 oz. Mouse, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, Futurama, Harvey Birdman, American Dad!, Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, Squidbillies, Stroker and Hoop, The Boondocks, The Venture Bros., Home Movies, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is the only Adult Swim original not to air on Teletoon in Canada, and instead airs on CTVglobemedia's The Comedy Network. Since July 2007, seven of the fourteen Adult Swim programs airing on The Detour were canceled and replaced by Canadian-produced adult cartoon shows.

Teletoon's French-language service in Canada also has an adult-oriented block called "Le Détour sur Télétoon" that airs shows like The Boondocks, Family Guy, Home Movies, American Dad!, and Futurama. Similarly, YTV airs some anime originally broadcast on Adult Swim in its "Bionix" block. ^[19]

In June 2009, G4 in Canada launched "Adult Digital Distraction", a programing block featuring many Adult Swim shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Delocated, Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, Superjail, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and The Venture Bros.

[edit] Latin America

In Latin America, it was aired in the nights of Cartoon Network. For unknown reasons it was changed from Cartoon Network to I.Sat, where currently is aired at night. I.Sat is also owned by Turner Broadcasting System/Time Warner.

[edit] References

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

[edit] External links

• AdultSwim.com – Official website
• AdultSwim.co.uk – Official UK website

v • d • e Williams Street Studios / Ghost Planet Industries Vice presidents Mike Lazzo • Keith Crofford Divisions Toonami (Toonami Jetstream) • Adult Swim (Adult Swim Video, AS shows, Super Deluxe) • GameTap Current productions Aqua Teen Hunger Force (film) • Delocated • Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil • Metalocalypse • The Rising Son • Robot Chicken • Squidbillies • Superjail! • The Venture Bros. • Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! • Xavier: Renegade Angel • Freaknik • Frankenhole • Southies • Tight Bros. • Titan Maximum • Snake N' Bacon • Past productions 12 oz. Mouse • Assy McGee • The Brak Show • Cartoon Planet • The Drinky Crow Show • Fat Guy Stuck in Internet • Frisky Dingo • Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law • Immortal Grand Prix • Korgoth of Barbaria • Let's Fish • Minoriteam • Moral Orel • Perfect Hair Forever • Saul of the Mole Men • Sealab 2021 • Space Ghost Coast to Coast • Spacecataz • Stroker and Hoop • Tom Goes to the Mayor • The Xtacles • Young Person's Guide to HistoryThat Crook'd 'Sipp • Williams Street Records ATHF:MFFT: the Soundtrack (Various artists) • African Swim (Various Artists) • Awesome Record, Great Songs! (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) • Definitive Swim (Various Artists) • The Dethalbum (Dethklok) • The Dethalbum II (Dethklok) • The Diary of an American Witchdoctor (Witchdoctor) • Ghostly Swim (Various Artists) • The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell (J. G. Thirlwell) • Warm & Scratchy (Various Artists) • World Wide Renewal Program (Various Artists) Miscellaneous Williams Street West

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