Since children often go to sleep on the earlier side, channels targeting them needed to find something else to air late at night. HBOMax.
In addition, Adult Swim became home to Japanese Anime for the North American audience with additions like Futurama as well as be the home to the Toonami. It’s been praised for being creator-driven with programs that are experimental and often ridiculous in nature.
Home Movies
Home Movies was the show to officially kick off Adult Swim’s first night. The animated show followed Brendon Small, an eight-year-old, aspiring filmmaker, as he creates home movies alongside his friends Melissa and Jason. The show originally aired on UPN but was canceled after 5 episodes.
After Adult Swim picked it up, the show had a total of 52 episodes over 4 seasons. The show's short-tempered soccer coach, John McGuirk, Bob’s Burgers).
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast was the first original series fully produced by Cartoon Network. The show was an adult reboot of the 1960s series, Space Ghost, and reimagined the title character as a talk show host. The show ran on Cartoon Network from 1994-1999 but was revived in 2001 after its success on Adult Swim.
While the show’s final two seasons were released on GameTap, the show had 11 seasons consisting of 108 episodes. Space Ghost Coast to Coast inspired many parody talk shows such as Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, and most recently The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo an HBOMax original series.
The Brak Show
Similar to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show helped usher in Adult Swim and centered around another character from Space Ghost. However, instead of a talk show, The Brak Show was an animated sitcom parody.
It followed Space Ghost’s archnemesis, Brak, who lived with his parents and featured his friend was Zorak, another villain from the original cartoon. The show aired a total of 28 episodes over 3 seasons.
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Like the other shows, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law featured past Hanna-Barbera characters, notably Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. The show follows Harvey T. Birdman is an attorney working for the law firm, Sebben & Sebben.
The series was known for its hilarious cameos by popular cartoons like The Flintstones.
Sealab 2021
Sealab 2021 was a parody show that like Space Ghost Coast to Coast used stock footage from its original series in the 1970s, Sealab 2020. The original series was a short-lived environmentally-themed children's show that took place in an underwater research base on the ocean floor.
The creators of Sealab 2021 thought of the show when they stumbled upon the original 1970’s series footage when working as production assistants for Cartoon Network. The two decided to write new dialogue and dub over the scenes. The two would later pitch the series but Cartoon Network ed. Five years later, the network bought it around the time Adult Swim was created and ended up airing the series had a total of 4 seasons consisting of 52 episodes.
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop originally aired in Japan from 1997 to 1998 and was the first anime title to broadcast on Adult Swim. The critically acclaimed show centered around a bounty hunter and his team in the futuristic landscape of 2071. Cowboy Bebop has been praised for its hybrid of genres including western, sci-fi, and pulp fiction.
While the show only had one season, its popularity has only grown and live-action series that stars John Cho as the main character, Spike Spiegel.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
The Adult Swim original series starred three anthropomorphic fast food items; a milkshake named Master Shake, a basket of fries named Frylock, and a meatball named Meatwad. The characters were actually created for an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast where they were corporate mascots for a fictional restaurant chain called “Burger Trench”.
Instead, the network decided to Robot Chicken.
Baby Blues
Based on the comic strip of the same name, Baby Blues was one of the first shows to air on Adult Swim after being canceled by The WB.
The show focused on parents, Darryl, and Wanda while they raise their infant daughter Zoe. While a second season was produced, the 13 episodes never aired.
Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files
The second anime to air on Adult Swim and the one to kick off the first Adult Swim Action Saturday was Yu Yu Hakusho. The series followed a 14-year-old boy who becomes a spirit detective after getting killed while saving a young boy. Yusuke along with his team takes on demons and other enemies that threaten both the spirit and human world.
While the show consists of 112 episodes only the first 21 aired on Adult Swim both dubbed and uncut. The show was later moved to Cartoon Network’s Toonami block where it was edited for a younger audience. The shonen style anime has gone on to be featured in many top 10 lists with characters even appearing in the Jump Force video game alongside legends like Goku and Naruto.
Pilot Candidate
Pilot Candidate known to Japanese audiences as The Candidate for Goddess takes place in the distant future where humans live in space colonies. The main protagonists train to pilot giant weapons known as “Goddesses” in order to defeat alien threats.
International distributor, Bandai Entertainment, planned to air the series on Cartoon Network and changed the name to avoid the term “Goddess” and to make the show more appealing to western audiences. The show ended up airing on Adult Swim but was actually censored since it was originally slated for Toonami and removed any nudity, violence, tobacco use, and religious references.