Interested in Answering a Few Questions About Adult Swim?

[moncayk1]

Hey I'm working on an adult swim preservation project and I was wondering if you wanted to answer a few questions for our oral history/interview portion? You can either post your answers here or send them to me privately. Thanks!

When did you start watching Adult Swim and what are some of your favorite shows from throughout the years (favorite overall?)?

What show(s) or aspects of Adult Swim initially caught your eye when you started watching and why?

What are your overall feelings, positive or negative, towards Adult Swim?

What are your thoughts on Bumpworthy? How else do you participate in the AS community?

What do you think these sites contribute to the fan community? Your overall thoughts on them? Anything else you do for or in the AS community?

Thoughts on the overall Adult Swim community? Thoughts on how AS has changed from when you started watching to now? Outlook on the future of Adult Swim?

Anything else you want to add about Adult Swim?

[smooooth]

I started watching adult swim around 2004 or 2005 when I stayed up past my bedtime after watching Cartoon Network - so you can tell I was a kid at the time. A smooooth with only two os if you will. My favorite show has always been ATHF, with the Eric Andre show and the Boondocks coming in second.

The black and white cards really caught my eye. The idea of the tv casually talking to me was really interesting and blew my mind initially. Also, as a child, the forbidden nature of AS made me wanna keep watching.

I like adult swims connection with their viewers and I think it's one of their strongest strongest qualities along with experimenting. On the other hand I think both of those come to their detriment sometimes.

I love bumpworthy. It's a website that now that I have found, I can't imagine myself living without. The thought of having all the classic bumps in one place and a forum to see other people that enjoy them is very special to me. Watching bumps calms me down when surrounded by stress and bring me nostalgia. Other than this, I sometimes lurk in the adult swim subreddit, and make conversation with other adult swim watchers I run into around the internet.

I think the community is a lot more warm and casual than other communities. Of course fan bases of certain shows can be pretty annoying, but compared to other fan communities, adult swims isn't horrible per se. There are pockets.

AS isn't as lofi and small-feeling as it was at first, for good reason. Like a mom-and-pop channel. I think AS will keep getting more and more corporate as it gets bigger, and will probably rely on Seth McFarlane shows less as Rick and Morty becomes a giant.

[moncayk1]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

[atombomb horse]

I started watching in 2005 because I would sleep with the TV on at night with Cartoon Network on. I was about 8 or 9 & I was NOT allowed to watch it. I remember the first thing I saw was Family Guy or Futurama on it. I'd also wake up when Case Closed would end sometimes so I vaguely remember that, but the first show I sat through was Gigantor (remember the cheesy shows they'd air at 5 am when that was an addition to [as]?) I love ATHF, Boondocks, Rick & Morty, the FOX stuff, Robot Chicken, Moral Orel, Home Movies, & more. I do miss Shin Chan, Inuyasha, Eureka 7, Voltron, and other animes I would watch when getting up really early before school.

The bumps were what I remember about it the most when I first watched it. The one in my profile pic was my favorite, the Fun 4 Adults Pac Man was another. Something about the beats and images to see at 5 am every morning that made it cool. I always remember the Advisory logos. My brother and I always laughed at the awkward silence during them.

I like [as] & it still is my go to channel every night. Idk what I'd do w/o it.

I like bumpworthy to see all the bumps that I would see if I woke up too early for school. I remember finding it 10 years ago one night in Dec 2007. I didn't know they were called bumps, I always thought they were just little commercials so I would previously search adult swim commercial on youtube. I find old tapes online and post the bump listings here, or on a youtube channel called John Grungis.

I like these sites because I know there are others who also have a fascination for this stuff. I'm not the only one. I can share what I remember, as well as stuff that the now defunct ASMB used to have. Like bump listings during the weekday animes. To mark when I may have seen them and how far back I remember.

[as] was not much different in 2005 compared to now. Sure there was anime on weekdays, Fridsys were non existant, shorter timeslot of 11 pm to 6 am, bumps were the same daily, etc. But it seems much of the same. Fox shows taking the lead, then some [as] originals. I'm glad that the push of live action stuff as was in 2009 to 2013 or so, is gone. Anime seems to be cared about more with Toonami compared to the way it was in 2008-2012. Since 2014, it has been nearly the same though. I fon't think it'll change much in the future.

[Beefy]

When did you start watching Adult Swim and what are some of your favorite shows from throughout the years (favorite overall?)?

I started watching Adult Swim back when it premiered in 2001.
I had already seen Home Movies on UPN, and it did so poorly that it was cancelled after two or three episodes.  I didn't know why Adult Swim would want it since it crashed and burned on another channel.
I remember Cowboy Bebop used to finish up the block on Sundays.

Favorite shows throughout the years: The Brak Show, Sealab 2021, ATHF, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Robot Chicken, Venture Bros., Frisky Dingo, Superjail, The Boondocks, Black Dynamite, Rick and Morty.

What show(s) or aspects of Adult Swim initially caught your eye when you started watching and why?

I liked how the initial shows reused characters from older shows like Space Ghost, Sealab, and Harvey Birdman. 
On the anime side, getting to see shows that were too violent for Toonami was a nice bonus: Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, Trigun, etc.

What are your overall feelings, positive or negative, towards Adult Swim?

Ten hours of Adult Swim every night is too much.  It was better with eight or less.
Started relying too heavily on FOX shows, but whatever brings in the ratings...

What are your thoughts on Bumpworthy? How else do you participate in the AS community?

It's nice to have an archive of Adult Swim bumps like BumpWorthy.

What do you think these sites contribute to the fan community? Your overall thoughts on them? Anything else you do for or in the AS community?

Sites like this are helping to preserve history.

Thoughts on the overall Adult Swim community? Thoughts on how AS has changed from when you started watching to now? Outlook on the future of Adult Swim?

I don't really follow the Adult Swim community.
Back when Adult Swim first started I didn't really care for the pool bumps.  Especially that one with "Betty, Betty, Betty!"  I enjoyed the Adult Swim Action bumps starting in 2002 and the First Aid era bumps from 2003.
The black and white cards are OK, but there's too many of them.  I liked when the bumps had more pictures.

Anything else you want to add about Adult Swim?

Adult Swim needs to steal Futurama back, and don't get eaten by AT&T.