Tag Archives: adult swim

Mar 04

Aquabats, let’s go!

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I am always a little hesitant to recommend shows on The Hub, a channel based on a questionable partnership between Discovery Communications (parent of the Discovery Channel) and Hasbro Toys, intended to move Hasbro product. But the people programming The Hub definitely have a sense of fun.

I found out about The Aquabats Super Show! from this review on the AV Club. It’s a parody of old Sid & Marty Krofft live-action Saturday morning TV shows from the creators of “Yo Gabba Gabba.” It’s intentionally super-silly and over-the-top, the type of thing that young kids might laugh at and that adults might enjoy ironically. (I actually think the latter is more likely than the former.) Kids in between may be left scratching their heads. (“That’s just stupid!”) The episode I saw even featured an appearance by Rip Taylor, who is apparently still alive. With all of the Davy Jones coverage this week, I’m reminded of the Monkees, and the silly humor of “The Aquabats Super Show!” is not far off from the humor of the Monkees’ TV show.

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The Aquabats have apparently been a comedy stage show, presumably aimed at adults, punk band with comedy elements to their stage show [Thanks to my sister-in-law for the clarification] for some time. They are a team of superheroes led by the somewhat-clueless MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs), second from left in the photo. The other members are, from left, Crash McLarson (Chad Larson), who grows to giant size when he becomes emotional; Jimmy The Robot (James R. Briggs, Jr.), Ricky Fitness (Richard Falomir) and EagleBones FalconHawk (Ian Fowles).

There’s also a little segment, done in anime style but with the same silly humor as the rest of the program, featuring an animated version of the team. And there’s a separate animated segment, in a different style, featuring the personification of the group’s logo.

At one point, there was a little parody ad – and while it was funny, it also reminded me that this is ostensibly a kids’ show, on a kids’ channel where the line between programming and advertising is already a little blurred.

Adult Swim, the late-night spinoff of Cartoon Network, had a similar Krofft parody, Saul of the Mole Men, but that one (like most of the programming on Adult Swim) was definitely not for children. The show is long since gone, although you can still watch it at the Adult Swim web site.

Jul 23

Strike force

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A lot of the shows on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” programming block are stupid for the sake of being stupid, and aimed primarily at teen and twenty-something males. But there are a few bright spots – I’m anxiously awaiting the return of my beloved “Venture Bros.”, a cartoon parody of Jonny Quest, the Hardy Boys and the world of superheroes in general.

This week saw the premiere of a wickedly-funny, 15-minute live action satire, “NTSF: SD: SUV::” (short for “National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle,” of course). It’s a parody of “24,” “NCIS” and its spinoff, and “CSI” and its various spinoffs. Comic Paul Scheer, as the main character, takes his sunglasses on and off even more than David Caruso.

And I have to chuckle at the sight of Kate “Captain Janeway” Mulgrew, wearing an eyepatch, as Scheer’s boss.

The first episode had a cameo by J.K. Simmons (the “Spider-Man” movies, “The Closer,” Farmer’s Insurance). Rob Riggle, although not in the first episode, is supposed to turn up in several episodes as the President of the Navy.

“NTSF” is paired on Thursday nights with another funny parody, “Children’s Hospital,” Rob Corddry’s 15-minute take on “E.R.” and “Gray’s Anatomy.” Megan Mullally (skewering Laura Innes’ character from “E.R.”) and Henry Winkler are also in the cast.

The first season of “Children’s Hospital,” a year or two ago, was actually composed of five-minute webisodes that had originally been posted online. For their Adult Swim airings, they were stitched together with fake commercials in between to make 15-minute episodes. One of those  commercials was a faux promo for “NTSF,” featuring a slightly different cast, before “NTSF” had actually been turned into a series.

“NTSF” and “Children’s Hospital” are worth checking out.

Nov 07

Not really live

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Rob Corddry’s “Childrens Hospital,” one of the funniest things on Adult Swim right now, did an episode tonight which was a very funny parody of the live “ER” episode from a few years back (and any other TV show that’s tried the stunt, with the possible exception of the hilariously-successful “30 Rock” from a few weeks back).

The episode’s climax also played very funny tribute to “Tootsie,” specifically the memorable scene from that movie which took place during a live soap opera telecast. There was an  unexpected and quite welcome guest star cameo – no, not anyone from “Tootsie.”

“Childrens Hospital” has an interesting history. It began life during the writer’s strike and originally ran as web episodes on TheWB.com. Adult Swim picked it up, ran the web episodes and then commissioned new episodes.

The lack of an apostrophe is intentional, by the way; one of the show’s standing jokes is that the hospital got its name because it was founded by a man named Arthur Childrens.

Mar 03

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace

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Over the past three weeks, I’ve become a fan of “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace,” a British TV series from 2003 or 2004 which I understand ran on SciFi at one point and which is now airing late Sunday night / early Monday morning on Cartoon Network as part of its “Adult Swim” lineup. You can also find it on YouTube — I have the first part of the first episode at the bottom of this post, after the jump.

This is a show almost impossible to describe. It’s actually sort of a show-within-a-show. In the meta-show, horror novelist Garth Marenghi (Matthew Holness) created “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” in the 1980s but was unable to get it on the air. Now, desperate for programming, the networks have begun airing it — interspersed with commentary from modern-day Marenghi and his publisher/co-star Dean Lerner (Richard Ayoade), in which they “remember” making the show way back when and comment on it. Marenghi’s physical appearance is obviously supposed to look like Stephen King. The show-within-a-show features Marenghi as Dr. Rick Dagless, a tempestuous surgeon working at a hospital with more than it’s share of supernatural goings-on.

So Holness plays Marenghi playing Dagless. See what I mean about it being hard to describe?
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