Sealab 2021

Normally I'm not really a big Adult Swim fan. There's gotta be some head writer over at the Cartoon Network that is totally convinced that the words annoying and funny are interchangeable. It's not that I don't get the jokes, I do, but to borrow from the wisdom of Zorak on Space Ghost Coast to Coast (incidentally another Adult Swim production) it's just that the jokes aren't worth getting. Get it?

There is an exception to every rule, or so they say, and that exception is Sealab 2021. The animation for Sealab 2021 was copied off a 70's Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Sealab 2020 and was re-edited and re-voiced. The real difference between Sealab 2021 and most of the other shows on Adult Swim is that Sealab 2021 is funny.

Enough about that, the cartoon is 15 minutes long, and the characters are all scientists in an underwater laboratory. Captain Murphy is an idiot, but is one of the most enjoyable characters on the show. He's constantly doing stupid things and getting the lab blown up and is just plain nuts. Actually, all the characters have these serious mental flaws that would keep a flock of psychiatrists solvent for all of eternity. I was going to say that there was one straight character, but I'd be wrong if I did, so I won't.

After about a season, there was more original animation as it just wasn't possible to keep re-editing and re-voicing the same clips without someone noticing. At the end of Season 3, the voice actor who did Captain Murphy died, so Murphy was replaced with Captain Shanks. The episodes in the last couple of seasons were some of the best, though I think most people would have liked it better if Captain Murphy had still been around, and the series might have made it into a 6th season if he had still been around.