Cartoon Network announced it was adding two new series, THE BOONDOCKS and ROBOT CHICKEN, to its 2005 lineup during the annual Television Critics Assoc. meeting in Los Angeles. ROBOT CHICKEN is the previously untitled stop-motion comedy from Seth Green due to start airing in the Adult Swim block Feb. 20 while THE BOONDOCKS is a 2D show based on the syndicated comicstrip by the same name from Aaron McGruder, which make its splash in Adult Swim during the fall.
ROBOT CHICKEN is a stop-motion sketch show skewering popular entertainment, politics and celebrity culture. Producers Green and Matthew Senreich offer up legions of action figures and custom-created dolls spoofing everything from Quentin Tarantinos blood-spattered action epics to The Real World, in which a cast of superheroes takes the place of drunken 20-somethings. The 20x30 series will air Sundays at 11:30 pm.
Green voiced the Brian Griffin character in Seth McFarlanes FAMILY GUY, which re-runs on CN. Adult Swim will also feature the new McFarlane series, AMERICAN DAD, beginning Feb. 13, just a week after its sneek peek on FOX.
Cartoon Network has ordered 15 half-hour episodes of THE BOONDOCKS, a provocative family-based comedy brimming with social relevance and satire. McGruder and partner Reggie Hudlin steer the show that humorously takes on cultural and political issues, through the eyes of Huey, an African-American, 10-year-old left wing revolutionary, determined not to enjoy the affluence of suburbia, and his 8-year-old brother, Riley, a proud product of contemporary rap culture, under the legal guardianship of When Robert Granddad Freeman, their eccentric grandfather who would just like to live quietly on the south side of Chicago. The series is produced by Rebel Base and Hudlin Ent. in association with Sony Pictures Television.
TOM GOES TO THE MAYOR, which made its debut in November 2004 with five episodes returns with new episodes on April 17. From creators Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim and exec producer Bob Odenkirk, the extremely limited, photo cutout animation series features Tom Peters a would-be entrepreneur in the eccentric small town of Jefferton who constantly brings his crackpot ideas to The Mayor, who invariably endorses them. In its laid-back fashion, TOM GOES TO THE MAYOR satirizes government machinations, provincial thinking and tragically misguided civic pride.
Critically acclaimed SEALAB 2021, the foul-mouthed spawn of the Hanna-Barbera series from the 70s, returns with a new season on March 6 while HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW returns on June 12, with another season of modern anxiety disguised as a workplace comedy starring a B-list superhero-turned-attorney.
FAMILY GUY returns to Adult Swim in July with new episodes under a unique arrangement in which Adult Swim and FOX share telecast rights. FOX will air premieres of the Emmy-winning series in primetime. That same week, Adult Swim will telecast new episodes at 11:00 pm on Sunday evenings. FAMILY GUY, the 30-minute animated series about a tense but loving Rhode Island family, has become a sensation since its revival on Adult Swim in April 2003 and has had a series of successful DVD releases.
Animated series FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST returns with a new season beginning Feb. 12 at 11:30 pm. The 30-minute action-adventure series from Japan tells the story of two brothers who have mastered the art of alchemy and set forth on an adventurous quest to find the fabled Philosophers Stone to restore their bodies to their natural state.
Anime series GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX returns on Feb. 12, at 12:00 am/midnight with its second season following the adventures of female cyborg, Maj. Motoko Kusanagi, and her fellow police officers of Section 9 who hunt down criminals in both the real and online world.
Adult Swim is Cartoon Networks late-night block of animation aimed at adults airing Saturday-Thursday from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am with a replay from 2-5:00 am. Tops amongst its cable competitors with adults 18-24 and men 18-24, it regularly beats its network late-night competitors among young adult viewers. Adult Swims programming is a mix of quirky original comedies that also includes AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE, FUTURAMA, INUYASHA, COWBOY BEBOP and THE VENTURE BROS.
