Top 4: Adult Swim Originals

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim features a mix of syndicated network shows (Futurama, Family Guy), Anime (Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop), and offbeat, sometimes incredibly bizarre, original shows. Personally, the especially weird ones lose me. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, for example, has some truly great voice actors, but it makes too little sense for me to really follow.

#4. Frisky Dingo: Frisky Dingo, like a lot of Adult Swim originals, is very, very, very strange. It's a classic superhero/supervillain story, but the superhero is a self-centered idiot, and the supervillian (Killface, above), aside from his occasional homicidal outbursts and plans to destroy the world, is pretty likable. Unlike many Adult Swim shows, Frisky Dingo does a good job of maintaining continuity. The only times they cheat a little are in the "Previously on Frisky Dingo..." sections, where they will sometimes insert new plot points, or change scenes from previous episodes.

Created by the same folks who did Sealab 2021, a show I never really watched, Frisky Dingo is currently 8 episodes into it's second season, and in some kind of giant mid-season break, with no new episodes scheduled anytime soon, but season 2 not complete. It's currently airing late Sunday night on the Cartoon Network, and some episodes can be found on the adult swim site




#3. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law: One of the older Adult Swim shows, it somehow took six and a half years to air 37 fifteen minute episodes. But it was worth the wait, since they were packed full of laughs. The concept: a former superhero trades in his cape for a suit, and becomes a lawyer, defending classic (and not-so-classic) cartoon characters.

The Cartoon Network (or it's parent company or something) has the rights to all those old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, so Harvey was able to defend characters from Scooby-Doo (Shaggy is busted for pot), the Flintstones (Fred is a Sopranos-style mobster), the Jetsons (they come back from the "distant future" of 2002 to sue the present for wrecking the environment), and plenty of characters from cartoons we barely remember (or have forgotten entirely, or we never knew in the first place). Featuring the vocal talents of Gary Cole (Lumberg from Office Space), Stephen Colbert, Peter MacNicol (Ally McBeal, Numb3rs), and John Michael Higgins (that guy from all those Christopher Guest movies), Harvey Birdman's jokes were packed together so tightly, you could watch an episode several times and still be finding things you missed.

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is no more, but can be found on DVD


#2. Robot Chicken: At least in my geeky circles, this is the most talked about Adult Swim show, so I'm guessing anyone that's stumbled onto this site has already heard of it, but if not: stop motion animation, lots of references to 80s toys/cartoons, some pretty sick humor, random celebrity voices. It's like Family Guy if they stopped trying to come up with a plot (and if it was still funny).

Robot Chicken is airing new episodes Sunday nights on the Cartoon Network, and past seasons can be found on DVD


#1. The Venture Bros.: If you grew up in the 80s, if you love Star Wars, if you love David Bowie, if you love comic books, if you could in any way be considered geeky, The Venture Bros. is right up your alley. But even if none of those describe you, you might like it anyway. Because I'm pretty sure it's the greatest cartoon not named The Simpsons ever made. I can't really offer any description that will do it justice, so hunt down the reruns on Adult Swim, or check out the DVDs, because it's just that good.

The Venture Bros. has completed two seasons, and two more have been ordered. Season 3 is expected in the Spring of 2008.

Honorable Mention:: The Boondocks (which just barely missed the cut), Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.