The Mantis-Eye Experiment

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/24/2005 2:19:00 PM

“Adult Swim,” Cartoon Network’s male-skewing late-night programming block, will debut five original series and four new pilots in 2005.

The block, which held its upfront at New York’s Altman Building on Thursday, March 24, will premiere 15 half-hour episodes of The Boondocks, a series based on Aaron McGruder’s well-known political comic strip, in October. Actors Regina King and John Witherspoon will lend their voices to star, with guest voices including Mos Def, Ed Asner and Charlie Murphy. Animated private-eye comedy Stroker & Hoop debuts with six episodes September 4, with six more to follow in November. American Dad joins the block in May; Squidbillies, 12oz Mouse and Perfect Hair Forever all enter the lineup in September.

Pilots for four shows in development will air in October—stop-motion series Moral Orel, live action Saul of the Mole People, CGI-animated Lucy: Daughter of the Devil and flash-animated Minori-Team. The block has also greenlighted 13 new episodes of The Venture Bros., along with a new season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

The block, which has posted a 42% jump season to date with viewers 18-34 (averaging 399,000 viewers in the demo between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.), will begin being tracked by Nielsen as an individual network starting March 28. Its newest performer, Robot Chicken, the Sunday-night stop-motion series from actor Seth Green, has averaged 602,000 adults 18-34 in its four episodes to date—a 91% increase in the demo over its 11:30 timeslot last year.

Hooray for The Toonzone forums! More news as it develops, if there is any more to be had.

• Creative director at CN, Ed Murrieta, has said VB will be renewed.
• Jackson Publick, on his livejournal, has said "Everyone wants it, it's just not official until it's official, hence no official announcement. All that is what's happening now, and as I mentioned last time, things are looking good."
• Adult Swim bumps have aired stating that they are "close to greenlighting season 2" followed by some of their wonderful humor about skipping season 2 and going right into season 3.
• A few other sources at Turner have heard inklings that the show is coming back for a second season.
• The ratings of the show have been very strong, including nearly 700k viewers on a recent Sunday 12:30am viewing. The show has also been on at least once a week (often two, and up to four times) since it premiered, and AS continues to advertise for it. All of those facts point to the show doing well at the very least.

So there you have it. I predict good news tonight, though I am fully prepared to eat my words if I'm wrong. Here's a recent Turner press release about AS. See you in a few hours!

I was actually going to write an update around two hours ago about how I had nothing to update about, but I thought that was kind of stupid, so I put it off. Turns out I did have something to update about all along. After over a month Mr. Publick hath updated:

I know, I know...there's a white elephant in the room that no one is talking about. The Adult Swim "Up-fronts"--a gala affair in which Adult Swim announces to potential advertisers and the world at large their upcoming scheduling and development plans for the next year--are in a couple of weeks. Expect official news then!

So hey, you've already waited this long, why not a few more weeks? Also I was slacking on the images for the last couple of days, but I do have up to Past Tense up, and the remaining three episodes will follow in the next couple of days.

One great thing about the SA Forums is that there's always somebody who has gone to some big and interesting thing. In this case the man only known as 'The Jizzer' attended the AS Q&A I mentioned in the last update; so here's some of the same Venture Bros. news:

• Coming out soon on DVD (1st 13 episodes)
  
• [AS] is still contemplating renewing the show -- so WRITE SOME GODDAMN LETTERS AND SUPPORT IT, ASSWADS.