Misplaced Pages

Adult Swim: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 19:36, 19 January 2007 editJeff Silvers (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers8,134 edits Reverting edits by Kataraisdabest to last version by 172.206.175.210.← Previous edit Revision as of 20:27, 19 January 2007 edit undoRickythesk8r (talk | contribs)79 editsm comparative in -er should be preferred for one-syllable adjectivesNext edit →
Line 1: Line 1:
]]] ]]]
] ]
'''Adult Swim''', usually rendered '''''' based on its logo, is the name for the adult-oriented ] block on ] in the ] and ], and ] in the ], featuring ] and often ] comedy in contrast to the more tame daytime Cartoon Network. It premiered on ], ]. On ], ], ]-based ], who runs the channel, split the network from Cartoon Network so that ] could treat Adult Swim as a separate channel from Cartoon Network for ratings purposes.<ref name=as_split>. ICv2. ], ].</ref> '''Adult Swim''', usually rendered '''''' based on its logo, is the name for the adult-oriented ] block on ] in the ] and ], and ] in the ], featuring ] and often ] comedy in contrast to the tamer daytime Cartoon Network. It premiered on ], ]. On ], ], ]-based ], who runs the channel, split the network from Cartoon Network so that ] could treat Adult Swim as a separate channel from Cartoon Network for ratings purposes.<ref name=as_split>. ICv2. ], ].</ref>


Originally a Sunday-only block (that also re-ran on Thursdays), Adult Swim now airs (United States only:) Originally a Sunday-only block (that also re-ran on Thursdays), Adult Swim now airs (United States only:)

Revision as of 20:27, 19 January 2007

File:AdultSwim.jpg
The Adult Swim logo
File:Parental Advisory label.png
The Parental Advisory warning that appears every hour before and during each showing of the Adult Swim block.

Adult Swim, usually rendered based on its logo, is the name for the adult-oriented television programming block on Cartoon Network in the United States and Australia, and Bravo in the United Kingdom, featuring absurdist and often ribald comedy in contrast to the tamer daytime Cartoon Network. It premiered on September 2, 2001. On March 28, 2005, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, who runs the channel, split the network from Cartoon Network so that Nielsen Media Research could treat Adult Swim as a separate channel from Cartoon Network for ratings purposes.

Originally a Sunday-only block (that also re-ran on Thursdays), Adult Swim now airs (United States only:)

  • Mondays-Thursdays at 10:30 p.m (9:30 Central.) The encore starts at 2:00 a.m. (1:00 Central) and at 5:30 a.m. (4:30 Central,) there is half an hour of older shows.
  • Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. (10:00 Central.) The encore starts at 2:00 a.m. (1:00 Central) and at 5:00 a.m. (4:00 Central,) there is an hour of older shows.
  • Sundays at 10:00 p.m. (9:00 Central.) The encore starts at 2:00 a.m. (1:00 Central.) This means it ends at 6:00 a.m. (5:00 Central,) leaving no time for older shows.

In the United States, Adult Swim programming may also be viewed online via Adult Swim Fix on adultswim.com.

The block, programmed by Williams Street Studios, the same group that created Toonami and Miguzi, plays American animated series and shorts geared towards adults, and a wide variety of Japanese anime series and OVAs. Promotions for Adult Swim have been targeted towards the college age group, which constitutes 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.

Stylistic history

File:Swim-old.JPG
The original Adult Swim logo

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 a lifeguard shouting the words "all kids out of the pool" through a megaphone. The logo at that time was the words "adult swim" in red in a black circle with a yellow penumbra. The shows were announced by a computer generated voice. When the Saturday night block started in 2002, it originally featured clips from the various anime programs displayed on the block.

The original theme music for Adult Swim was D-Code by Dust Devil.

On January 12, 2003, the senior citizens were replaced by animated safety manuals featuring Adult Swim characters.

The current bumpers debuted on May 25, 2003 and feature black intertitle "cards" with white text on them, which discuss everything from news about the programming, to personal staff opinions on unrelated subjects. Fans get involved too as they've been asked to design their own cards and to submit questions for answering. In addition, the bumpers for the action shows are simply pictures of Japan and a carnival-esque side show style.

Adult Swim Fix

Main article: Adult Swim Fix
File:Asf2.jpg
The Adult Swim Fix logo

AdultSwim.com launched Friday Night Fix on Friday, September 16, 2005, as a way for Adult Swim fans to view programming on the one day of the week that the programming block does not currently air (the airtime currently being occupied by a rebroadcast of Cartoon Network's Fridays programming block), and was originally available only on Fridays during the hours that Adult Swim normally aired on weeknights. On March 27, 2006, Adult Swim changed Friday Night Fix into the Adult Swim Fix. Adult Swim Fix runs every hour of every day, with content ranging from older and current shows to premiere episodes of new shows from both the Comedy and Action blocks, updated every Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. With the exception of anime premieres, which are removed 12 hours later (at 6 a.m. Saturday EST), every show is available until the next Friday update. Adult Swim Fix is presented in a streaming browser applet requiring Windows Media Player and is available only for the continental United States.

List of Adult Swim programs

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim

Video on demand

In mid-2004, Adult Swim launched a video on demand channel on various cable TV providers. The comedy section features several episodes from various Adult Swim original series, while the action section shows only anime series and movies licensed by Bandai Entertainment, some of which have never been broadcast on Adult Swim or CN. 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.

TV content ratings

The start of each hour of Adult Swim programming is easily identified by the "Parental Advisory: Mature Content" logo (which resembles the warning seen on explicit CDs though this says Parental Advisory:Mature Content not Parental Advisory:Explicit Content) followed by a warning that the shows contain material that may not be appropriate for viewers under the age of 17. The age "limit" was 14 until June 2006. Originally, there was no warning, but as the programming became more popular, a message was put up to alert parents. It stated that the appropriate age for viewers was 18 and older. It then went on to say that the viewer could expect intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language, and suggestive dialogue (similar to the one still used in Australia and New Zealand.) When Adult Swim changed to its current format, the description was dropped to shorten the message. Soon after, the warning logo was added and the age was changed to 14. Many saw this as more appropriate since nothing had been shown on the network higher than a TV-14 rating. Now Adult Swim has indeed changed the warning to the age of 17 because of the airing of shows rated TV-MA. Sometimes it will say "Inappropriate for under 14" or "Inappropriate for under 17" after midnight. In addition, on Adult Swim's first night on September 2, 2001, the "TV-14" bug was left on the screen for the entire duration of the block, excluding commercials and promos.

To date, Adult Swim has deemed episodes of three shows to contain levels of violence and graphic content necessitating their own disclaimer, above and beyond the disclaimer used for the block which states, "Just in case that last disclaimer wasn't enough, this episode contains extreme violence. We would rather run this than cut the violence from the episode because we are American Cowboys." This disclaimer appears before episode 10 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Jungle Cruise and episode 51 of Fullmetal Alchemist, Laws and Promises; recently, it has also appeared before Eureka Seven, beginning with episode 26, Morning Glory. The appearance of the disclaimer before Eureka Seven marks the first time that any show on Adult Swim has had more than one episode necessitating the additional violence disclaimer.

It should be noticed that since its broadcast began in late 2006, the anime series Trinity Blood has been branded with a TV-MA rating on every episode due to its extreme graphic violence, with the exception of episode 9, "The Overcount I, The Belfry of Downfall", which has a TV-14 rating.

Podcast

Adult Swim announced on March 21, 2006, a video podcast that they are offering on Apple's iTunes. The podcasts start off by featuring Behind the Scenes segments of shows, and they are working their way to new and exclusive content, like a look at Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha's new show Metalocalypse. iTunes is required.

The Adult Swim iTunes Podcast reached number two in iTunes' ranking of most commonly downloaded Podcasts.

The podcast appears to have been canceled, the last episode was released on September 19 2006.

Forum

Adult Swim has an active message board at its official Web site. Williams Street Studios staff frequents the board to answer viewer questions and address comments about Adult Swim programming.

Adult Swim worldwide

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Adult Swim" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2006) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Australia and New Zealand

  • In Australia and New Zealand, Adult Swim airs Monday to Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday feature an hour of anime, which is repeated at 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights feature 90 minutes of comedy (formerly 60 minutes,) this is repeated at midnight.
    • Before an improvement in the local Cartoon Network feed on June 1, 2006, Adult Swim, just like other programs on Cartoon Network, was pushed back (in New Zealand only) two hours from the time advertised due to time zone differences, which meant that Adult Swim started at 12:30 a.m.
  • Adult Swim Australia also airs notices from their noticeboard on Comedy nights. They have a tendency to only air certain notices during certain shows.
  • The Adventures of Super Oil and High-Octane can be seen intermittently during breaks. They have access to five episodes (namely Bowlinger vs Bowlinger, Tube Panic, Climber's High, My True Blue Car, and Bottle Trouble) which they repeat each week, sometimes playing an episode more than once on a certain night. On occasion, they have been aired on an Anime night.
  • The Boondocks, another popular Adult Swim show, currently airs in Australia on The Comedy Channel on Fridays at 9:00 p.m., not on Adult Swim or Cartoon Network. Comedy Channel does not air in New Zealand, therefore, viewers in that country miss out.
  • In 2006, New Zealand channel C4 aired Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law on Wednesday nights at 9:30 p.m. Aqua Teen Hunger Force could also be seen on weeknights at 7:00 p.m.

United Kingdom

Main article: Adult Swim (UK)

Brazil and Latin America

In Brazil and Latin America, Adult Swim airs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, unlike Adult Swim USA, anime is not a part of the lineup. As of November 2006, all anime programming on Cartoon Network airs on the Toonami block. There's still much fan pressure to bring anime to Adult Swim in the region (pressure that is mocked constantly in Adult Swim's cards).

  • In Chile, the cable company VTR, the biggest company of cable television, decided to censor the adult swim block from transmission, and doesn't show it at all, instead replacing it with a relatively short recording of "children's" cartoon episodes which repeats over and over. For some time, users could pay an extra fee to be able to watch the transmission along with VTR's "premium" channels. This situation was not well received by users, who even started a petition (at http://www.queremosadultswim.tk/ ).

Canada

The Philippines

  • The Philippines is the only country in Asia that airs Adult Swim.

Trivia

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Adult Swim" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2006) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles.
  • Adult Swim is notorious for their April Fools pranks (this only applies in the United States.)
    • In 2004, every show that aired during the actual April 1 were shown with crudely drawn graffiti (moustaches, goatees, and glasses) on the characters' faces and other objects.
    • In 2005, the unfinished pilot of Squidbillies and a moustache-filled episode of Perfect Hair Forever were shown unannounced.
    • In 2006, the lineup was changed, unannounced, to include retro shows such as Chuck Norris' Karate Kommandos while regular shows such as Fullmetal Alchemist were intercut with fart sounds.
  • On April 16, 2006, Adult Swim aired an angry fan letter about the showing of Saved By The Bell. The fan letter stated that if they continue to air the program, they should change their name to "Crappy 1980's Live Action Television Show Network." Adult Swim complied and changed their logo to match the name with the formatting. All shows from that point on during the night aired with a logo in place of the regular one. From that moment on, nearly every showing of Saved By The Bell during the week aired with the changed station identification logo, while the other programming kept the regular one. Adult Swim went on to produce a rumor that the show was going back into production; unlike the airing, this was an actual hoax.
  • Adult Swim has been known to have a partnership with independent music label Stones Throw and a long-standing interest in the international televison series, Kung Faux, whom they followed to the BRAVO channel in the UK. Many of Adult Swim's bumps and packaging have used music from artists such as Madlib, Oh No, and J Dilla. In 2006, both Stones Throw and Adult Swim created a co-production album entitled Chrome Children. 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.

Notes

  1. Adult Swim/CN Split Cements Strategy. ICv2. March 3, 2005.
  2. This episode of Fullmetal Alchemist was originally untitled when broadcast in Japan; however, Funimation, the distributor of the English dub in the United States, gave it the name "Laws and Promises" for the U.S. broadcast.
  3. At present a total of seven Eureka Seven episodes have had the disclamier: Episode 26 (Morning Glory), Episode 27 (Helter Skelter), Episode 28 (Memento Mori), Episode 29 (Keep On Movin'), Episode 30 (Change Of Life), Episode 31 (Animal Attack), and Episode 32 (Start It Up). As the series has yet to conclude, more episodes may emerge with the additional violence disclaimer.
  4. Adult Swim Show Profiles. Bravo (UK). Retrieved July 19 2006.
  5. Sorry, Screech — 'Saved By The Bell' Isn't Coming Back. MTV. April 26 2006.

External links


AT&T
Board of
directors
Current
Former
Communications
Latin America
Buildings and
facilities
Current
Former
Other
Categories:
Adult Swim: Difference between revisions Add topic