Adult Swim/Headscratchers

• Why does Adult Swim insist on pushing crappy flash-animated shows and *gulp* live-action comedies at the expense of Anime or their more popular shows ported from Fox? And why is there any censorship at all if it's an "adult" network?
  • Because it's apparently "cheaper" to produce flash-animated shows and live-action comedies than to gain licenses to show Anime and Fox animated imports (BTW, expect The Cleveland Show to premiere by Fall 2011 at the latest). It doesn't help that the powers-that-be has it in for Anime (They even post a disclaimer before the Saturday Anime block that rates it "M" for Mediocre, never mind that the majority of the shows are better than drivel like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!). As for censorship, while it is an "Adult" network, they still have to abide by the FCC guidelines apparently. But at least compared to the censorship at Fox, Adult Swim is more lenient.
    • The "M" for Mediocre bump also aired in front of Family Guy at least once, so I doubt it's just aimed at anime but the block in general.
  • Last time I checked the FCC doesn't regulate the content shown on cable networks so that's not the issue. Also I think their problem with anime might have to do with the the fact that while some of them are hugely popular, they don't bring in huge ratings compared to some of the other stuff they show that and the anime market has been in rough shape in America for awhile now.
  • It has been said around that anime is not getting much love because one of the people in charge of adult swim's programming doesn't like it. With the exceptions of Cowboy Bebop, FLCL and Inu Yasha, many Anime titles these days are given little chance. The Network Decay of Cartoon Network has made things much worse. The Big O for example. Despite that it was a popular show, the premiere of the second season was around the same time Adult Swim begun its Network Decay, and they ended up screwing up the airing of a couple episodes (including accidentally airing a repeat over the finale) and ended up canceling the show before a reportedly expected third season, despite it having paid off financially.
  • Judging by Comedy Central's uncensored late-night (or very early morning, whatever you wanna call it) broadcasts, it's safe to assume that it would be just fine to keep the later [adult swim] shows uncensored, but they deliberately choose to censor. The best reason I can think of is because it's a children's channel earlier in the day, so having all this uncensored swearing and nudity would incite complaints from parents.
  • It is probably censored on the orders of Turner Broadcasting. While it has a degree of autonomy, it is still one province in a great media empire.
• Why did they cut the end theme from Cowboy Bebop? (besides more commercial time of course) Plus, they never show the opening theme to Inu Yasha, besides that single episode from the Band of Seven Arc. Also, on Saturday, they cut out several bumps entirely, making it difficult to time dvr & DVD/R recording. Plus those horrid old people bumps. The text ones are far more entertaining! Then they don't show encores in the same order anymore. Then they let the rights to The Big O season one expire. I'm tired of watching the last 13 episodes! Plus they stopped showing Bleach reruns (Episodes 1-63 were the best since the censorship started during The Bount Arc from hell) And how did Childrens Hospital reruns get so many views?!
  • It's not so hard to figure out why the Childrens Hospital get so many reruns given that they promote the hell out of it (Which is more than I can say for Anime shows, which are only promoted on Saturdays).
  • As for editing or deleting anime opening and closing themes: You answered your own question. Anime series are one or two minutes longer than American series. They cut the anime themes (and, usually, the Next Episode Previews) to make time for more ads. Nobody's happy about it, but at least Adult Swim doesn't insert extra commercial breaks during the episodes the way Syfy did during Animondays.
  • CN has been doing this with a handful of the (un-adult swim related shows) with no reason being given.
• Why did Adult Swim have to take over Friday Nights? I mean, I like a few of their shows but I would like to be able to watch Cartoon Network shows all night occasionally.
  • They were probably getting better ratings. The Cartoon Network shows that air during the day are aimed at kids and most probably don't have a large enough Periphery Demographic to justify airing it in a timeslot when mostly older people will be awake. Even if it's not a school night, a lot of kids won't be allowed (or won't even be able to) stay up watching cartoons until three in the morning. An older person can generally do that.
• What is it with Adult Swim's grudge against anime? Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but they use to have a healthy balance between Anime and their Comedies. I understand licensing anime can be expensive, but they play Family Guy, American Dad, and King of the Hill back to back 4 days out of the week. Why is it that they can only find time for anime way back at 12AM on Saturdays?
  • Because even the most popular anime series don't get the ratings that the three shows you named have. At its best, Bleach draws about half the viewers of Family Guy. I don't think AS really has a grudge against anime--they've continued showing it and acquiring new series all these years--but I'll bet if one of their anime series got Family Guy-level ratings, they'd treat the shows with a little more respect.
    • They don't get very strong ratings for two reasons: Anime doesn't get as much marketing as the Adult Swim Comedy shows, and the anime boat has largely passed, becoming a niche thing again. On the other hand, comedic western animation has been getting bigger and bigger for the past 20 years and has become mainstream. Except for Code Geass and the series finale of Death Note, all of Adult Swim Action's top-rated shows--Anime/InuYasha, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist (the original one), Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, The Big O, FLCL, and Yu Yu Hakusho--were aired or began airing during the peak of anime popularity. However, the guy who dislikes anime has always disliked it; I strongly believe ratings have nothing to do with it--it's that he's into that silly, non-sequitur humor Williams Street Productions produces, and anime is practically its polar opposite in animation. Whatever you like watching best, you'd probably dislike something that it has nothing in common with too.
  • Ratings also has nothing to do with the fact that they seemed to have stopped making bumpers for their anime. That shows how little they actually care about it when they don't do anything after buying the airing rights.
• I wonder what the students at the University of California, Irvine think of China IL (there's no entry for that here and no mention on the Adult Swim entry). The show seems to like its acronym of "UCI." (That being said, shouldn't it be UIC, or The University of Illinois, China?)
  • UIC might result in confusion with the actual UIC (University of Illinois, Chicago)
• What's with all the hiphop/rap references in their shows. This is much more prominant in "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" since Meatwad is a fan of rap music and MC Chris is a rapper and he makes guest appearances on this show and "Sealab 2021". Then there's "Dat Crooked Sipp" which is full of "Crunk" music refernces and it's follow up "Freaknik the Musical". Also Williams Street teamed up with a Hip Hop Label Definitive Jux to make Williams Street Records. Plus the show "Loiter Squad" stars a Hip Hop group. Of course this question is coming from a troper who doesn't like Hip Hop nor understand Hip Hop.
  • Adult Swim's headquarters is located in Atlanta, GA and many of its shows are produced there. Atlanta is considered one of the birthplaces of rap and hip hop and is well known for its independent music scene.