25 Years Ago Today, Cartoon Network Premiered One of the Best Adult Swim Shows Ever (A Year Before Adult Swim Even Launched)

25 years ago today, Cartoon Network debuted one of Adult Swim‘s best shows ever before Adult Swim was even officially a thing! Adult Swim might be a bigger brand within Cartoon Network than Cartoon Network itself these days, but it wasn’t always that way. Before Adult Swim began as a late night block with the network, Cartoon Network had been experimenting with the kinds of programming they could fill their late night hours with. Hoping to tap into the rise of adult animation’s popularity, those at Cartoon Network began producing original shows.

Williams Street produced four originals at the time that helped to form the base of what would eventually be known as the Adult Swim late night programming block. And 25 years ago today, on December 21, 2000, Sealab 2021 made its debut and became one of the most notable releases of that early era. In fact when Adult Swim became official in the next year, Sealab 2021 was right there airing its episodes alongside of it and ushered in a whole new era for the wider network.

Sealab 2021 Premiered 25 Years Ago Today

If you were around 25 years ago, then you’re likely to remember Adult Swim’s earliest broadcasts. Announced with special promos telling kids to get out of the pool because it was time for adults to jump in (and thus coining the “Adult Swim” name for the block itself), and it really meant it as fans were then introduced to wild new kinds of shows. Adult Swim’s earliest incarnation, as spearheaded by then Cartoon Network’s head programmer Mike Lazzo, saw the Williams Street offshoot production company make original, but very cheap shows in order to fill that late night block.

This resulted in the first major experiment with great success, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which saw the Hanna-Barbera archive superhero interacting with live-action guests in a whole new kind of format. Characters would be ripped straight out of their initial incarnations, and be animated with limited movement to hilarious success. This was especially seen with Sealab 2021, which made its stealth premiere on December 21 with other major hits in the same evening as part of a special event, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and The Brak Show. Inspired by the Sealab 2020 original, Sealab 2021 was much different than fans had ever even dreamed of.

Using stock animations from that series much like Space Ghost Coast to Coast before it, Sealab 2021 offered an entirely different take on all of the characters seen in the original. It was not only a parody of that short lived series from the 1970s, but also just was pure chaos. Each ten minute entry had some kind of wild thing happening, and usually ended with the whole base exploding in some fashion. Characters would die all the time only to come back the next episode, and the most iconic character, Captain Murphy (the late Harry Goz), was often driven insane by how long he had been underwater.

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Why Sealab 2021 Is Important 25 Years Later

Sealab 2021 ran for a very respectful four seasons with Adult Swim, and helped cement the live-action block as the place to find wacky and unique adult animation programming. When highly sought after reruns got picked up for shows like Family Guy, Futurama and more in the coming years, Adult Swim was able to become the juggernaut of a brand it is within Cartoon Network to this day. And that success has allowed Adult Swim to continue that legacy of delivering fresh, offbeat shows from different creators.

But what’s most important about Sealab 2021 is what it did for the future of animation. The series was originally created by Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, who animation fans will likely recognize from their successes later with shows like Frisky Dingo and Archer. In fact, Sealab 2021 ended up returning as part of a cool crossover together with Archer in the years that followed in the episode, “Sea Tunt,” which brought in a new (yet still insane) version of Captain Murphy to cause chaos in a whole new era.

Sealab 2021 was one of the first Adult Swim shows to air before Adult Swim was even officially a thing, and 25 years later it has helped to spark a legacy that continues to unfold with each new wacky series Adult Swim airs each year. The experimentation found in these early shows capture an energy and drive that really suited Adult Swim at the time, and is even more fitting all these years later despite how notable of a piece the block has become within Cartoon Network.

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