Lately I’ve been really into the whole Clone Wars thing over on Cartoon Network, and in my surfings I ran across this article.
It’s a nice look behind the scenes at Adult Swim.
Hopeful writers often have no concept of what Adult Swim wants. Someone once pitched Weidenfeld a feature-film length script about a woman who discovers she has breast cancer, becomes a yoga instructor, finds love and recovers. In other words, the perfect Lifetime movie, but completely wrong for the fast-paced, “something different” comedy that the Adult Swim audience expects.
Many pitches are derivative twists on other Adult Swim shows, starring more defunct superheroes and classic cartoons. “People pour their hearts into these things, and they just aren’t funny,” says Weidenfeld. “It’s like I break 10 people’s hearts every day.”
But Adult Swim needs fresh ideas. The staff is stretched thin with many people working triple duty on multiple projects. “There’s like three people at [Atlanta’s] Williams Street [lab],” says Weidenfeld, exaggerating for effect. “They can’t produce any more shows.”
Maybe I’ll have to send them something. It’d be a nice change from syndicate rejection.
Vanity searching on google leads to strange places..
Hmm.. You don't want to get your show on [Adult Swim] you'll be in on all of those text-based inside jokes no one watching gets. Granted, if you made a show it'd do alright. I mean, they have milk-chan don't they? And that one is definitely not funny.
I actually used to work with two other Mark Andersons! We're everywhere!
To be honest I don't watch a lot of Cartoon Network, or, to be fair, a lot of TV. But it seems like it couldn't be that hard to write something decent.
So much of the comedy on TV is sooooo bad. You can hear the joke coming five minutes away.
I'd love to see a network give its audience some credit for once.
Adult Swim isn't a bad place. There are days when it seems like a delight to watch. When you get tired of all the big name celebrities and depressing news stations. Places like adult swim have a nice little niche for some more mature animation humor.