What A Cartoon! - Sealab 2021 "Bizarro"
Added 2021-08-16 04:01:01 +0000 UTCAdam Reed and Matt Thompson have been living large thanks to 11 seasons of Archer, but it all started nearly a decade before that with their inaugural Adult Swim show, Sealab 2021. With its absurdist, Gen X remix of a "classic" Hanna-Barbera series, Sealab fit perfectly into the original lineup of Adult Swim, entertaining both stoned and non-stoned college students alike for 52 episodes. On this installment of What A Cartoon, we examine one of the most popular and self-indulgent episodes of Sealab ever made. So sit back and enjoy this week's BIZARRO podcast!
Comments
Yes! I can confirm it was Aisha Tyler's "Girl on Guy" Podcast. Adam Reed was on the 4th Episode. Sadly the episodes are behind a Patreon paywall but there's some really fun stories in there. The episode from the podcast just became a decade old so they were recording just as Archer was kicked off. He had to watch every single episode of the Flintstones to edit those dinosaurs out. XD
SilkiePJ
2021-08-24 03:57:53 +0000 UTCPlease do The Brak Show! Still one of my favorite shows ever.
Aaron Alcott
2021-08-19 18:48:39 +0000 UTCThis was so funny. Thanks guys!!
Michael Branson
2021-08-18 16:46:13 +0000 UTCThis and the Happy Cake Oven episode are my favourites... So many student nights watching odd torrents of episodes well until the morning here in the UK.. and we still repeat "I'm helping!" To this day...
James Reichelt
2021-08-18 06:44:07 +0000 UTCI forgot how great the Sealab theme song is
Patrick
2021-08-17 19:03:59 +0000 UTCMan, Bob was right in that the clip he played of Henican really does just sound like Stormy having a debate. Gave me a good chuckle. I feel cleansed.
Jonathon
2021-08-17 18:45:17 +0000 UTCYou can’t have laser vision, but you can have X-ray
Michael Branson
2021-08-17 17:26:27 +0000 UTCBizarro.
Kewl0210
2021-08-17 10:34:59 +0000 UTCJellystone rules
Dylan
2021-08-17 01:32:18 +0000 UTCWatching most of the Adult Swim shows in Canada was an ordeal for a while—I don't think Teletoon was airing them regularly until around 2004/2005. So, for me, the experience of watching Sealab 2021 consisted of borrowing a burned DVD, with custom-made menus, that had most of the first season on it, and then special ordering the official first season DVD from a comic/video game store at an inflated price. Of course, the reason I went to all that trouble was because I thought the show was absolutely hysterical, and it and Harvey Birdman are still my favorites of the original Adult Swim line-up.
Christmas Ape
2021-08-16 19:58:53 +0000 UTCI work in an electronics testing lab in Seattle, so naturally internally it's called the "SEALab". I came in on the ground floor so I got put in charge of naming all the devices, so of course they are things like murphy, Marco & Stormy, to more obscure stuff like Peachmo, Stimutac and Tigerbot. It makes me happy to see this stuff on a regular basis, and even internal documentation where these devices names on them. Thanks for the great pod guys, and keep up the awesome work.
DrKarate
2021-08-16 19:07:24 +0000 UTCThat must be the anecdote I was thinking of. - Bob
Talking Simpsons
2021-08-16 18:03:29 +0000 UTCI remember hearing a different version of the Dino footage story on a podcast, maybe Aisha Tyler's?... Adam Reed was asked to watch Flinstones and flag footage whenever ANY dinosaur was on screen. He asked his supervisor why and was told that there'd be a presentation of Turner or Cartoon Network material to a Christian group, and they wanted to know what episodes had the least or no amount amount of dinosaurs, so as not to offend their creationist sensibilities.
Robert Denby
2021-08-16 17:47:33 +0000 UTCI kind of wish that Cartoon Network had relegated Sealab 2020 to 3 AM, but I can recall when it was not. For a long time, Cartoon Network was the channel that showed up in TV Guide that I couldn't watch even though it had really intriguing programs like Fantastic Four. Obviously, I didn't know what I was missing, but right in time for Summer of 1994 my local provider made it part of basic cable and I watched so much Cartoon Network that year. And it was almost exclusively old Hanna-Barbera junk with some MGM and Looney Tunes. I saw the original Sealab, Space Ghost, Birdman, The Thing, and many other terrible shows and I would watch them just because they were different, even though there was far better available in 1994. Cartoon Network would also hype up the reintroduction of other bad, old, cartoons and I'm embarrassed to say that hype worked on me so when Challenge of the Super Friends and Laugh-A-Lympics came back I was there! My only other memory of Sealab 2020 is it being the thing that would confound you if you fell asleep watching Adult Swim. I know it happened more than once where I would wake up around 3 or 4 and Sealab 2020 would be on and that momentary confusion (is this 2021?!) would cause me to stare at the screen until the realization set in that this wasn't the show I liked set in and I finally just turned the TV off. Sealab 2021 was great though for its time as was pretty much the whole of Adult Swim. I fell off around 2006 when I had a job that forced me to leave my house at quarter of 6 in the morning so I just didn't have the stamina to stay up that late anymore. I've never really fallen back into it, but would get a taste here and there in the same manner Henry did as I always came back for Venture Bros. And now it's just the channel I turn on when nothing else is appealing to me to watch endless reruns of American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, and Rick and Morty. And to make a long comment already longer, that talk about Carrot Top's AM Mayhem and other wrap-around cartoon shows reminded me that those shows are actually still alive. ME TV started airing a show called Toon in With Me this year and I'm rather proud of myself for getting my kids into it. It's just a simple sketch show with a real DIY vibe. The cast is basically four people: a host, a puppet (Toony the Tuna), and two others who play various characters and are stretched really thin. That part of the show is fine, but it's a vehicle to show old cartoons ME TV has broadcast licenses for such as Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, MGM, Popeye, and The Pink Panther. The Warner license seems really similar to the one Nickelodeon had back in the day as they show cartoons I haven't seen since then, some of them (looking at you Cool Cat) I didn't really want to see again, but there is some nostalgic value at least. Sorry Bosko fans, he's still on the outside looking in. I'm just glad though that my little kids are now very much in love with Bugs Bunny, Daffy, and others and it wasn't the result of Space Jam!
Joe Hodgson
2021-08-16 13:49:22 +0000 UTC
