Top Ten Most Iconic Adult Swim Series of All Time
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Adult Swim is known for their unique and unusual shows, and these are the ones that everyone remembers.
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Debuting in 1996, Adult Swim has long served as a source of a wide variety of adult-targeted animation that has been home to a myriad of original series. Ranging from bizarre, to grotesque, to dadaist, to even profound, no other network in history is quite like Adult Swim. Numerous series had their origins on the network across its nearly twenty years on the air, with numerous unforgettable and iconic series within the Adult Swim library.
So today, we’re going to look back at the most iconic and influential series that have been brought to us by Adult Swim.
10 Squidbillies
While this series hasn’t enjoyed the same mainstream appeal as numerous other entries on this list, few shows are as deeply rooted in Adult Swim as Squidbillies. A bizarre satire that follows a family of hillbilly squids residing in Georgia, the show has been quite polarizing to audiences across its run. Squidbillies is notably one of the longest running series on Adult Swim, debuting in 2005 and staying on air to this very day.
9 Metalocalypse
Debuting in 2006, Metalocalypse is simultaneously a parody and love letter to the entire musical genre of metal. Toting four seasons across seven years on the network, the show featured an exceptional amount of guest stars from numerous noteworthy metal bands.
Metalocalypse authentically encapsulates everything metal, from its sound track, to blend of comedy and violence that is rife with countless genre-related references.
8 The Boondocks
An incredibly unique series unlike anything else on television at the time of its release. Based off a comic of the same name, The Boondocks follows the Freeman family living in the fictional suburbs of Woodcrest.
The series is notable for its use of visuals, which are heavily anime-inspired. Rather than focusing entirely on comedy and satire like other series on the network, The Boondocks utilizes its art direction and animation to pair its comedy with a great deal of action and fight scenes that have since become synonymous with the series.
7 Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
As Adult Swim is a branch of Cartoon Network, a large percentage of the programming it hosts is animated. However, there are many notable live action series the network has hosted. Of these live action series, few were as impactful on the future of the network as the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Starring Time Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the series employed a sketch comedy format, heavily drawing upon cringe-humor and surrealism. Over the show’s run, it featured numerous celebrity guests such as Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller. Tim and Eric helped pave the way for countless other live action series on the network and helped to spawn a spin off in the form of Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule
6 The Venture Bros.
One of the longest running series on Adult Swim, The Venture Bothers has been on the network since 2004.
Modeled after adventure series such as Johnny Quest, the series follows the adventures of the Venture family, including brothers, Hank and Dean Venture, their father Ruster Venture, and their bodyguard Brock Sampson. The show serves as an in depth parody of numerous tropes that are found within many Saturday-Morning television series as well as science fiction.
5 Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Running from 2000 to 2015, Aqua Teen Hunger Force was one of the longest original series on Adult Swim and was long considered to be a staple of the network. A spin-off of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the show was a surreal sitcom that followed Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad, each of which are sentient food items living in New Jersey.
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While the show changed its title numerous times over the course of its run, the content remained largely the same, following its protagonists through scenarios that were often simultaneously absurd and mundane.
4 The Eric Andre Show
Of the live action series to get their start on Adult Swim, few have been able to break into the modern cultural zeitgeist like The Eric Andre Show.
Hosted by comedian, Eric Andre and co-host Hannibal Buress, the show is a absurdist parody of traditional late night talk shows, utilizing heavy amounts of cringe humor and “anti-comedy.” The contents of episodes vary heavily, often including pranks at the expense of celebrity guests, strangers in public, and even the hosts themselves.
3 Robot Chicken
The stop-motion brain-child of Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Robot Chicken and Adult Swim go hand in hand. A sketch comedy show comprised of numerous brief scenarios, Robot Chicken has remained largely relevant on the network for the entirety of its run through its use of integrating modern themes, people, and events into its episodes.
The show has produced numerous specials such as numerous dedicated Star Wars specials and DC Comics specials.
2 Rick And Morty
By and large one of the most popular cultural phenomena to get its start on Adult Swim is Rick and Morty.
Created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, Rick and Morty is an animated science fiction comedy series that often integrates complex interdimensional science fiction, blending it with suburban settings and themes one would find in a series like The Simpsons. The series has a reputation for not just subverting one’s expectations, but backflipping over them, and has been lauded for it’s strong blend of theming and comedy.
1 Space Ghost Coast To Coast
Space Ghost Coast To Coast is the grandfather of all other Adult Swim series. The first original series to be created for the network, the show repurposed animation from the 1960’s Space Ghost cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera.
Structured as a late-night talk show with the namesake Space Ghost serving as the host, the show blends animated segments with prerecorded live action interview segments with celebrities to create an experience that was revolutionary for the time. The show popularized the use of cringe humor that would later would be employed by other Adult Swim series such as the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and The Eric Andre Show. Furthermore, Space Ghost Coast to Coast resulted in numerous spin offs such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.
It’s impossible to imagine what the landscape of Adult Swim would’ve looked like without the creation of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.