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[via press release]

Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim Overflowing with New Programming
Late Night Block Airs Five Nights Per Week, Showcasing Irreverent Animated Comedies and Thrilling Action Series

Now airing five nights per week, Cartoon Network’s late night block of animation for grown-ups, Adult Swim, continues to greenlight additional episodes of its breakout original series and make strategic acquisitions of new programming.   Cartoon Network has begun production on new episodes of the following Adult Swim original series:

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force, has been given the greenlight for 26 additional episodes.  The show follows the absurd adventures of Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad, human-sized food products who live in a ranch house in New Jersey.  Sometimes they solve crimes.  Other times they just destroy their neighbor Carl’s property.
• Sealab 2021, an update of a long-forgotten Hanna-Barbera series, will be extended to 26 episodes, from 13.  The undersea laboratory is now run not by the world’s top scientists, but by a bunch of bickering idiots.
• The Brak Show, a sweet sitcom starring demented space alien Brak and his best pal, Zorak, has been given the greenlight for 13 additional episodes.  Brak lives on a distant planet that seems very much like the suburban heartland of America, circa 1962.

Two acclaimed series will each return with additional episodes in 2003.  Home Movies will return for its fourth season, taking it through episode 52.  Home Movies is a chatty comedy about a boy who deals with his many anxieties by making movies starring his friends and schoolmates.  Auteur Brendon Small often turns to a motley crew of adults, including his recently divorced mom and his soccer coach, for advice.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law returns with new episodes starting in April 2003.  Harvey Birdman is an aging superhero with bad knees and a bad attitude who is now the token cartoon lawyer at a top firm.  But once you’re a superhero, it stays in your blood.  Beneath his pinstriped gabardine suit, Harvey still wears his tights and cowl.  In prior episodes, Harvey has represented such animated luminaries as Scooby-Doo and Shaggy, Fred Flintstone and Dr. Benton Quest.  Next on his docket: Dynomutt.

Cartoon Network will also present the U.S. television debut of Trigun on March 31.  Trigun takes place in the distant future on a deserted planet.  Vash the Stampede is a gunfighter with a legend so ruthless he has a $60,000,000,000 bounty on his head.  Entire towns evacuate at the rumor of his arrival.  But the real Vash the Stampede, the enigmatic and conflicted lead character in Trigun, is more heroic, even though he usually acts like a complete idiot.

Trigun will join two recent action-adventure additions to the Adult Swim roster.  Lupin the Third, a comic spy caper that made its U.S. television debut in January, tells the story of a randy and cunning thief.  Reign: The Conqueror, a 21st century science-fiction retelling of the legend Alexander the Great, joined the Adult Swim lineup in February.  Additional specials and acquisitions for Adult Swim will be announced at a later date.

Adult Swim is Cartoon Network’s block of animated programming aimed at teens and young adults.   The block airs five nights a week (Sunday-Thursday) from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. (ET, PT). Sunday evenings are dedicated exclusively to comedy, including original series and popular acquisitions.  Monday-Thursday offers a mix of comedy series, including Emmy-winner Futurama and Home Movies, along with popular action/animé series.  Since its launch in September 2000, Adult Swim has been a strong performer, drawing mature viewers to Cartoon Network for an entertaining mix of unique original series, animated favorites and cutting-edge action.

Cartoon Network, currently seen in 82.1 million U.S. homes and 145 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s 24-hour, ad-supported cable service offering the best in animated entertainment.  Drawing from the world’s largest cartoon library, Cartoon Network also showcases unique original ventures such as The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ed, Edd n Eddy and other Cartoon Cartoons.  Since its launch in 1992, Cartoon Network has remained one of ad-supported cable’s highest-rated networks. Cartoon Network’s Web site is located at http://CartoonNetwork.com (AOL Keyword: Cartoon Network).

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., an AOL Time Warner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment product around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.