Comedy Central is trying to recapture the success of South Park (left) with its highly touted new series, Kid Notorious. © Comedy Central.

Forty-three years ago, the sight of two cavemen sneaking out for a night of bowling behind their wives’ backs via a foot-powered helicopter was considered a breakthrough in adult animation. Then again, no one had ever programmed a primetime cartoon before, and third-place ABC didn’t have much to lose by airing The Flintstones.

Four decades and several seismic cultural shifts later, things are somewhat different; perhaps only some prehistoric spouse swapping (or an episode exploring Bedrock’s version of ‘a gay old time’) could help Fred and Barney capture an adult audience today.

Pebbles or Bamm Bamm certainly wouldn’t know what to make of their successors, specifically the foul-mouthed moppets of Comedy Central’s South Park. The show that didn’t just push, but shredded the animation envelope and gave the rest of the industry permission to follow suit now boasts more than100 episodes in the can and another 15 set to roll out in March and October of next year. Comedy Central recently began stripping reruns of the show weeknights at 9:30 pm while airing new episodes through the end of the year in the show’s regular Wednesday 10:00 pm slot. “The Strip is doing extremely well,” according to the channel’s Lisa Chader. “South Park is still the number one show on Comedy Central; the Wednesday night first-run episodes have been averaging 2 million viewers, which for us is fantastic.”

Repeating that trick can be a little trickier the second time around. Kid Notorious, Comedy Central’s high-profile Hollywood satire starring Robert Evans as a cartoon version of himself recently premiered in the post-South Park 10:30 pm Wednesday spot, hoping to inherit that show’s audience. “The ratings were good, but we lost some of the lead-in audience,” admits Chader. “We’d like to see it perform a little better.” Then again, following Comedy Central’s best-known, most successful series might prove daunting for any new show. Hedging its bets, the channel relocated Kid Notorious to Tuesdays at 10:30, where it hopes it will prove more compatible with Crank Yanker’s rude puppets.

In the meantime, Comedy Central continues to air a floating, late-night block of animated reruns that at any time may feature Dr. Katz, the channel’s first animated series Dilbert, The Critic, Duckman, UPN’s short-lived clay-animated Gary and Mike series or the legendary and hysterically funny cartoon version of Kevin Smith’s Clerks that was given the hot-potato treatment by a seriously-freaked ABC after two episodes. The channel also has several new animated series in development. Furthest along is House Arrest, wherein recorded stand-up routines are transformed into animated vignettes; a Dennis Leary-starring pilot is targeted for airing in 2004.

Stripperella, Ren & Stimpy’s Adult Cartoon Party and Gary the Rat all provided Spike TV with an entrée into the cable big leagues. But where are these series now? © Spike TV.

The former TNN Network, now rechristened Spike TV, set out this past June to make a splash (and attract young male viewers) with The Strip — its very own block of first run animation. With great fanfare the Channel revived John Kricfalusi’s Ren & Stimpy’s Adult Party Cartoon, introduced a Stan Lee-created, Pamela Anderson-voiced Stripperella and brought Kelsey Grammar’s Internet toon, Gary the Rat, up to the cable big leagues.