The Familiar Hour

Enterprise, Smallville and �Adult Swim�

A A A Comments (0) By Robert Lloyd Wednesday, Oct 31 2001

”We are truly in a time where there is an unprecedented need for heroic figures right now,“ Schneider recently observed to our local Times, adding that Smallville was ”really about the raising and teaching of a true American fictional hero.“ (Love that fictional.) Having passed the age when I expect to be rescued by anyone at all, I am more disposed to the sorts of superheroes presently arrayed on Cartoon Network’s twice-weekly, late-night ”Adult Swim“ programming block -- not only have they feet of clay, but ankles, calves, knees, thighs, groins, butts, abs, pecs, arms, hands, fingers, necks, heads. They are petulant and self-involved, prone to pride, sloth, anger, envy, covetousness, lust and gluttony, and undoubtedly to additional sins available only to superheroes. They are like us, but more dangerous. The lineup, aimed at the grown-ups who constitute a third of the C.N. audience, also includes the very funny Home Movies and the anime serial Cowboy Bebop. But its revisionist heart comprises a couple of shows spun off from the animated talk show Space Ghost: Coast to Coast -- The Brak Show, a ‘50s-ish family sitcom with Space Ghost’s enslaved giant mantis bandleader Zorak in the Eddie Haskell position, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law -- along with the similarly warped Sealab 2021 (the old Sealab 2020 infected with sexual innuendo and megalomania); new Space Ghost episodes; and the wholly original, though retro-themed Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in which a meatball, a shake and a bag of fries fight crime, when they get around to it. The message here is clear: You had better look out for yourself.