When did all the various cartoons come together as the Adult Swim programming block?
Crofford: Adult Swim premiered in September of 2001. We created this midnight destination of offbeat shows that you don’t see anywhere else. Thompson: They definitely belong at midnight. All of them are so strange — especially Adult Swim’s original shows. Ouweleen: I keep trying to write a mainstream episode, and it keeps ending up fucked up. I don’t know if it’s Eric’s fault or what. “OK, that one’s kind of weird, too! There’s a lot of men-on-men kissing! What’s going on?” When I show these cartoons to my friends, the first thing they say is, “Are these guys on drugs?” Do you get that a lot? Do people say, “Were you high when you wrote that?” Reed: Yeah. They don’t believe you when you say “No.” Thompson: It’s just coffee. Willis: They’re like, “No, you’re totally on acid.” Reed: If I’ve had, like, four beers, I can’t sit down and type. Ouweleen: I just started drinking red wine a couple of years ago, because I have too many kids and it freaks me out. But I lived my life totally stra
