Thought there should be a thread for general [Adult Swim] talk.

I'm wondering what impact the resignation of the Cartoon Network president will have on [AS]?

I'm just going to edit the subject to make it search-friendly.

Also, please remove all anime from AS and place it in a special mylar bag that can be shot into the sun.

Glark, you are horrible! Have you even watched a full episode of any anime that aired on [as]? Jesus, that was cruel. Do I fill TWoP with my hatred of Futurama needlessly? No... (J/K ;-))

And there probably won't be much of an impact (of a new CN president) on CN/[as]... Unless, you know, they actually enjoyed animation (period) and could provide a decent schedule without egregious reruns.

I can't imagine they'd do anything to improve/police [as], but Toonami (also by WS) is another story.

Huh? All anime? I mean they've had their dogs but I don't get the cool to hate on AS attitude. FMA, GitS:SAC, Bleach, and etc are good shows with strong followings and fine adaptations. Shin Chan and Milk Chan are not good. Neither was Pilot Canidate but Cowboy Bebop is gold, even if more antique than freshly minted nowadays, and sharing the joy of Lupin isn't a crime. There are some shows that just wouldn't help but suck if they weren't broadcasted as to requiring money to get at four. episodes. 25 dollars. a. disc. Plus no one is telling me Paranoia Agent belongs in the sun

Oh come on, not all Anime makes me want to rub glass into my eyes. Only most of it.

I do miss the 2004-2005(?) action bumps. Overall the quality of the bumps has been declining, I think.



Care to expound on that? I'm a geek for TV management gossip.

If you feel nostalgic, I recommend visiting BumpWorthy. They have a collection of [as] bumps, past and present.

Well, there's not much to say about it. Its just seems as though CN is in a position that exerts more control over Toonami (a block on CN) than [as] (a mini network that's on the same channel).

If WS/[as] got in trouble with CN, then CN couldn't do that much to [as], [as] is its own separate entity. But CN could certainly screw with Miguzi and Toonami behind the scenes, if need be. Both Toonami and Miguzi are apart of CN, and any events that occur with Toonami (it's tenth anniversary in March) could be axed or sabotoged.

As long as they never show me another live-action Pee Wee Playhouse or Saved by the Bell, we'll be cool.

That's funny, I feel the same way about all the non-anime shows on AS. Just a matter of preference for me though... :p

Praise Jebus! Anime is so 1990's.

HAhahahaha.... that being said... I do enjoy FMA a lot, and I've grown to like Bleach. The rest.... zippit and shipit!

OMG, from your keyboard to Mike Lazzo's eyes...

When Jebus was president he ate babies all the time!

Isn't that trolling?!? You were trying to make me cry, weren't you?

My problem with [adult swim] is not so much the programming, as the unprofessional and non-viewer-friendly way they go about their programming day. Starting shows anywhere from three minutes before or after the scheduled time, making it tough to properly record things? Changing the schedule haphazardly, and rarely getting the information to cable/satellite systems in time? Rerunning a series, and stopping it midway because they want to put something else on? All these things just make me want to pull my hair out and scream at the TV.

They have threatened before to do away with the bumps entirely. I think they're tired of the work involved. For me, that was one of the things I liked about the channel when I first started to watch. It seemed fresh, and a more intimate involvement with the viewer than is typical on a TV network.

And their ever-changing, never-improving crappy website? Don't get me started.

WHAT?! Thats insane. Man do I feel old.

Thanks Nagurikorosu, I didn't realize how much autonomy [AS] has.

And word to everything Orion 7 says. Seriously, how long has their web-store been down? Do they not like money?

Yep, I feel old too. But the 17th of March, Toonami is going to be doing something (if the 3.17.2007 promo is any indication).

The thread title is apt, because that is the attitude that oozes throughout their website, their scheduling, and their bumps. There's a "We're so cool, why are you losers watching us because you can't possibly understand what we're doing," tone to almost everything.

I kind of have a love hate relationship with Adult Swim. They experiment, but sometime they produce things I just don't like. I liked Venture Brothers, but I didn't like Tom goes to the mayor. Obviously the only answer to this problem is for Adult Swim to continue experimenting, but to only produce things that I enjoy.

I consider this a completely reasonable demand, and not crazy talk of epic proportions.

And, really, they're not that cool.

Their hostile attitude towards viewers is mindboggling. I can understand [as] being snarky with some of the idiot comments left on their website, but they seem to enjoy making fun of people who support them.

Don't get me started on the Big O finale fiasco, and the party [as] was throwing at the time. At least they seemed chagrinned in the aftermath.

Oh, and while we're talking about the crappy website, let's not forget The Fix. Old School Fix was awesome. You knew the shows would be up on schedule, and the player* actually worked. Now, we've got The Fix Beta, which may or may not work, and you don't know when they're going to pull down shows. Forget about any explanations as to why. The only good thing about the new Fix is that some primiering shows are up for the entire week. Oh, did I mention that when I switch to a full screen, it's not truly a full screen? In fact, it's so small that the top and bottom portions of the screen get cropped off.

*With apologies to Mac users, who only were able to use the Fix recently. You mean to tell me they didn't have web administrators smart enough to make the Fix Mac friendly? Oh, wait. There are [as] board users smarter than them, who can hack into [as's] parent site and get access to videos. I find that hilarious.

Despite all of my problems with the network, I'm extremely happy that it exists.

As long as they don't get rid of Bleach, they're cool with me.

I wonder if Betty the senior synchronized swimmer eventually got the routine right.

Shin Chan is hilarious. Really, it's as much as home among the comedy shows as it is the anime shows. (Considering some of the lesser comedy shows, that could be taken the wrong way.)

Oh, and considering the quality of the likes of Paranoia Agent and Cowboy Bebop, not to mention that there's nowhere else they'd be able to air outside of pay or digital cable, keep the guillotine away from the anime part of the block.

I was actually able to view the Fix on my Mac (with Firefox) before November. It didn't work very well, but still, I was glad that it worked. Imagine my shock and dismay when I went to the Fix one day and came upon that damn mini-Fix version. At least they finally fixed the compatibility issue, but I do miss the Old School version.

Seriously. Outside of ATHF and a few others, the anime (for the most part, definetely not counting Inuyasha) is a hell of a lot better than the other WS originals (How do Tim and Eric continue to get chances from Adult Swim?)

Dear [adult swim],

Yes, I'm sure you think you are cutting edge. Yes, you might not pander to what your faithful audience whats, but good for you! Way to stick it to those people who are willing to watch you every night, and who are responsible for the revival of two-canceled-before-their-time shows. Who do those punks think they are anyway? And we concede that you are far to hip and trendy to actually acturately tell us when our shows are airing.

But, oh dear [adult swim] the network that is so uncool it swings to cool, back to uncool and ends up right back at cool again, I was wondering, if you are not too busy mocking us scumfilled pussbags of fans, will you please, seeing as you are on Cartoon Network, make sure your shows are actually cartoons!? No matter how po-mo they are.

Thank you,

jedicaboose.

They'd probably respond to that with a bump of Inignot flipping the bird. That's probably one of their canned responses.


That would've been understandable as an April Fool's prank but someone at [as] must have thought it was funny enough to continue for weeks. Probably the same guy who wants to show Tim and Eric's Awesome Show.

Maybe not anymore, seeing how it bombed in Boston.

Sadly we might not see much more of Ignignokt shooting the bird, which makes me sad. But that flip-off cost them quite a bit of cash, and the head of the network his job, so probably not.

Adult Swim does seem to enjoy mocking their viewers for being dolts or just deliberately antagonizing them in their little promo talks, I don't know what that's about. I love almost all of their stuff, except Tom Goes to the freaking Mayor, which I did watch with an open mind. And, ah, anime, don't care for that, though seemingly I am in the minority on that.

I would say you're in the majority as for not caring for anime. I will never, for the life of me, understand why the shit and trash that makes up [as] comedies is so damn popular. Or funny.

Yeah, some of the Action and Comedy anime may not have been grade A material... But [as] Comedy is equally as crappy and boring as any of the "bad" anime. And a hell of a lot uglier....

There's no way to convince me anything outside of Venture Brothers or Futurama is entertaining or funny on [as] Comedy.

It's worked pretty well for the Carnegie Deli over the years.

But that's like street theater, with the audience/customers in on the joke. The [as] attitude seems to be to despise the hand that feeds them.

Oh, God, I'd forgotten that. Their response to that mistake showed a corporate culture that also surfaced during the ATHF promotion that just happened. They were smugly congratulating themselves with how funny it was to make such a mistake, and then scrambling to cover their asses once it sunk in that people were genuinely upset.

Another thing that puzzles me is their reluctance to cross-promote the Action/Anime offerings during the comedy block. Comedy gets plenty of exposure during the anime, but I almost never see a promo for anime air in the comedy time. Yet they complain about the ratings for the anime.

My main problem with [as] is that they over play their shows so much, and when they do get new shows they only play them one night a week until they're over. These days it feels like I just turn it on on weekdays because it's a habit. Let's see, the current schedule is episodes of Futurama, Family Guy, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force I've seen hundreds of time, then Morel Orel which I might pay attention to the TV for since I've only seen its episodes a couple of times, then right back to things I've seen hundreds of times until it's five-thirty and my childhood sits up and pays attention for Voltron. Weekends are slightly better, if only I liked more than a couple of their original comedies.

These days there are episodes of shows that I used to really like (Futurama, Cowboy Bebop, and Trigun stand out for me here) that I just can't stand to watch anymore because [as] has ground them into my head to the point that they've lost all entertainment value to me.

But, I know it's my own fault. One of these days I've really got to start trying to break the routine and start putting on movies for noise once The Daily Show and Colbert Report are over and there's nothing better to watch for the rest of the night than [as].

But...but... [as] are American Cowboys! They're just so terribly edgy and punk, showing blood and stabbing at midnight. You know, just ALL the basic cable networks can, only at 2:00 in the afternoon for CSI and Law & Order. Yeah, they're real mavericks.

Really, does anyone else see [as] and translate it to [ass]?


Heck, I almost never see ads for anime in the anime block.


I'm glad I missed that, but now I'm curious - what happened?


Hear, hear! I mean, on the plus side I only ran the risk of running into 12 oz Mouse once a week, if ever. On the other - oh look, stupid Peter/Fry's in trouble again! Let's watch the hi-jinks in Quahog/space again! Yaaaay!

Why don't they ever re-run their older, minor shows at times I can watch?

I think they are referring to the time they accidentally played the previous week's ep instead of the season finale.

There was a bump this week that said the post-Superbowl Family Guy Marathon had huge numbers. That doesn't bode well for people (myself included), that woul like something other then Family Guy, or Futurama in the earlier slots.

That's one of my problems with AS, they rarely promote their anime properties, they didn't start promoting Eureka Seven until the WEEK IT PREMIERED. There is absolutely no reason why they cannot show promos for the anime during the comedy block.



Law and Order and CSI aren't animated and there's still the mentality that animation is just kids' stuff, so cartoons are pretty squeaky clean, so AS is pretty important in trying to break the stupid stereotype.


I don't remember a huge fiasco, I seem to remember them reticfying this mistake pretty quickly, they even pushed back the premiere of "Wish upon a Weinerstein" IIRC.

As for AS's attitude, I'm not so easily offended, so I don't think it's not so much AS having an attitude as much as them trying to take their audience down a peg. Nerds are pretty elitist.

I actually think the animosity towards the viewers is intended as a bit of street theater of a sort. Part of it is an acknowledgement that you can't please everyone all of the time and they aren't eager to suffer fools because of that. But after making a few snarky remarks in the bumps, the fans ate it up and demanded more so its turned into a running joke.

Personally, I'm fine with them producing a lot of very unusual shows. No, I'm not going to like all of them. I hated 12-oz mouse and never fully got into Tom (though I think it got better over time as the idea of Tom as Sisyphus became more clear). Minorateam just bored me and I'm not even remotely interested in Assy McGee. But even among their recent shows, Metalocylpse is a a masterpiece, Morel Oral is viciously funny, and Squidbillies is probably the most underappreciated [as] show in history. Sure, I'm disappointed to see Harvey Birdman ride off into the Sunset, but change can be good. Venture Bros and Boondocks are probably the best half-hour cartoons on TV right now. Even if I don't quite get Tim and Eric, I'm happy that there is place willing to put stuff like theirs on the air.

Anime I can go either way on. Bebop and Champloo are brilliant. FLCL and Paranoia Agent are trippy. Everything else just doesn't impress me. No matter how much my sister insists its brilliant. Frankly, I'd like them to air some of the great American action cartoons like Bruce Timm's DC shows. That deserves repeat viewing at least as much as some of this anime stuff. Its not like they don't own it.

Has anyone here read the official Adult Swim boards? They're horrible, and possible composed completely of 13 year olds who are wondering why Family Guy isn't on more, and why they don't just run Inuyasha the rest of the time.

If that is the majority of their exposure to the viewers, then the bitterness is understandable.

That's kind of what I think about them as well. I think it's them poking fun at their own audience. They have a pretty well-defined audience, and I think they are probably of that peer group themselves... that is, if they weren't doing AS, they'd be the kind of people who would watch it and geek out over various aspects. They seem like a small and pretty insulated bunch at AS as well as Williams St, especially as far as tv networks or production companies go. Because of their size and focus, I can easily see a hive mind kind of thing going on... where someone cracks a joke or suggests a marketing/programming trend, and it sounds good to them at the time and they run with it, not fully realizing if it'll come off as stupid or patronizing. It's kind of like the creative part of the network has the main voice, without many checks on their actions, which is very weird for tv. And they would rather show a bunch of easy-money reruns of Family Guy and Futurama or show varous anime so they have more time to fuck around with Venture Brothers or the 10 minute shows that are really original. So there's Good and Bad to that. And that's also why to me they are so sloppy as programmers, thus all the weird programming goofs or decisions. It's easy to see why AS's actions can be interpreted as pretentious or insulting when they are 1) putting on fairly original stuff 2) constantly tweaking fun at their audience and 3) not paying much attention to the rest of their programming that is neither new nor original.

I'm grateful to [as] for preserving Futurama, but I absolutely loathe 99% of the network's own shows. Why? Because they're fucking ugly. Call me shallow, but in a visual medium I'm not interested in animation so horrifically ugly that it makes me want to stab my own eyes out. I don't care how smug and clever the writing is, if my intial impression is "Dear god, that's HIDEOUS", I'm not going to keep watching it.

Don't even get me started on those stupid god damn bumps.

A thousand times yes.



I think that they are banking on annoying little kids. Thats probably one of the problems, for me at least. I was that age when [as] got its start, and loved everything about it. Now though, I've grown up and want something more...but [as] hasn't.

I think that as much as they like to saying they're there for older audiences, its just really a lure to get those younger kids.

I don't mind the lack of visual prettiness. For one thing, its hardly a constant. Boondocks is gorgeous. The art design on that show is amazing. Venture Bros is also very well rendered with a distinct style and a definite appreciation for the medium. I'm stunned at what they do with flash animation in Metalocalypse. Beyond that, well, I'm not expecting the production values of top-shelf animation. This is shoe-string budget animation, and that's okay too. Not everything should be a visual feast. I look at it as the closest counterpart to indie films or music on TV.

I agree with that, which is why I qualified it with "99%".

And I don't really feel it's the production values that make the 'toons ugly--as you pointed out, not all of them are ugly. I think they're purposely drawn that way, and that irritates me on a whole 'nother level besides the aesthetic one. Look at us, our cartoons are ugly, we're so anti-establishment and PUNK RAWK!

Edited because I wasn't really getting my point across.

Re: The Big O Finale Fiasco

The night [as] was to air the series finale of Big O (ep. 26), they accidentally aired ep. 21 instead. That same night, [as] was having a Halloween party at Williams Street that was viewable live via webcam on the website. So, anyone could see them and hear a lot of conversation. When the wrong episode began to air, it was obvious that the people at the party knew about it. It was also obvious that they were reading the [as] boards. The majority of the responses was to shrug off the mistake and laugh about it, but that wasn't why a lot of viewers who accessed the website were upset.

A lot of people went to the website to find out what was going on (yeah, I was one of them), and they tuned into the party to see if anyone there was ever going to address it. Instead, a lot of the partygoers chose to make fun of the fans who were upset the finale wasn't airing. Well, they were upset because it was obvious that people at [as] were reading the boards, the people at [as] chose not to answer the fans, and then chose to make fun of the fans. Finally, MC Chris* and someone else (Dana Snyder or someone involved with The Brak Show, I believe?) addressed the fans, making it clear that they understood the fans' frustration. Even the [as] board moderators were completely out of the loop, and were just as confused as the fans. The fans fought back after they saw most of [as's] employees' response; they threatened to contact advertisers--and a lot of these people were over college aged. I don't know if that worked or not, but [as's] tone the following week was much different than it was at the live party.

*IIRC, MC Chris also came onto the boards along with some other actors and writers from other shows to chat with the fans.



I use the term "fiasco" mainly in describing the atmosphere and behavior at the party, where employees were antagonizing their viewership. There's another factor at play here. This was back when anime was played on Sundays. Big O was the lead show, and [as] was not only helping to fund it, but they were also actively seeking viewership and support in their bumps. And Big O was popular too; it reached over 500k viewers during its second season run. So, it would make no sense to antagonize viewers who had gotten on the bandwagon and supported the show. The majority of fans was't demanding that they air the correct episode right then and there. A simple "We're really sorry about this mistake, and we're going to try to find out what happened as soon as we can" would have sufficed. It was interesting that one of their own board moderators got rather annoyed with them.

Wow. That's pretty impressive. Nowadays, I'm relieved to see anime squeak by the 390-400K mark. (Yes, I wish that more people would watch Bleach, dammit.)

I think the general idea behind that though is that most anime fans know what shows are getting aired when from other sources. The comedy only fans aren't really going to check it out. While I don't think the AS consensus that the very image of Ichigo will cause viewers of Family Guy to burst into flames is very accurate, they might just be trying to avoid spending money and time on something that isn't really going to work very well.

With Shin Chan, as I recall, there were a lot of promos playing even outside the anime block. Part of that was probably because of the trial nature, but I think it was also because it was something that could appeal to the Sunday group as much as it could the Saturday group.

Agreed. That place is a mess. They'd probably be less bitter if they branched out more, or could manage to moderate it better.

I wish more people would watch Bleach too.

Well ,they can't be getting rid of anime completely....Blood+ is starting next month after Trinity Blood finishes. And on one of their bumps, they still have Bleach and Eureka 7 on the schedule.

Like I said, as long as they don't mess with Bleach and keep it on Saturdays, I'll be happy. That's the only show I enjoy anyway.

Though I can't wait for the Boondocks to start.

Has AS finally quit acting coy about that? I'll never understand why they didn't just come out and say it.

What always cracks me up when i see the viewer numbers in the bumps... frequently in between 350-450k... is that those numbers are better than the numbers for a number of prime time cable news magazine shows, like Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzers' shows and the like. I'm always amazed (not really surprised though) at how low those news shows numbers are, and to see that animation, especially some of the AS stuff that wouldn't find mass popularity, at 11-12 at night pulls in as many or more viewers. Always makes me chuckle. And those numbers... even those for anime... are actually really good numbers for a cable network at that time of night, especially when it occasionally happens on weekdays. Even 200-250k on a weekday at that time of night is pretty good by random cable standards.

One could make a case as to this being why AS can pretty much do whatever it wants, without much apparent interference from CN or TNT.

And total werd regarding those AS forums. Those forums are a friggin waste of gigabytes.

This is the one thing about [as] that has kinda ticked me off. Why can't they take the time to build some kind of viewer confidence?

Every time a new show debuts (original recipe or anime flavored), [as] eventually monkeys around with its timeslot and doesn't give it a chance to build an audience. That is, allowing the audience to associate a particular day and time with the show (i.e. '24' on Mondays). I realize that most of this programming is finite, short and that haitus are necessary for most anime to be dubbed. What I can't get is why [as] has to return a show, after its haitus, on a new day and time, and advertise the change at the very last minute? Then, they get pissy when the ratings take a hit. No? Really? I wonder why?

I haven't watched anything on [as], since Boondocks and FMA. I've completely gone over to the DVD-side; it's just more fun and less of a headache. Season 2 of Venture Bros. has a space waiting for it on my shelf. Heck, I'm not even watching Bleach, even though I'm reading [and kinda enjoying] the manga.





Really? Is [as] still being unnecessarily stupid about premiering new shows? When will they figure out that it's just not funny? Not even for tongue-in-cheek. Either say you have the show or don't. If you're still crossing t's and dotting i's, then quit screwing around with viewers.

Sometimes they do, most times they don't. Neon Genisis had it's first run on Thursday nights for the whole series. I never knew when Eureka 7 was on, and now that the show has pissed me off, I have no reason to watch Saturday at all.

Oh and I thought showing Pee Wee's Playhouse was inspired. But, your Nostalgia may vary.