In September of 2001, Cartoon Network took a risk and launched a lineup, called Adult Swim, geared toward an older audience.
The lineup started in a weekly syndicated format and slowly began to take over Cartoon Network's nightlife. Now, it runs every night of the week except Friday.
Out of the original lineup, one of the most witty and whimsical cartoons was given a whole new life: "Home Movies." The show was alive until 2004, lasting four seasons.
"Home Movies" gave audiences a look into the life of a child by the name of Brendon Small.
Small created homemade films with his two friends, Jason and Melissa, while dealing with his overstressed, neurotic mother, his surly, drunk soccer coach and his anal retentive schoolteacher.
The films showcased Small's greater intellect and wisdom over the adults in his life.
The show was filled with dry and subtle humor that required an adapted taste. Once the taste was acquired, viewers couldn't get enough of the cartoon. "Home Movies" originally aired on UPN in 1999 but was dropped after only showing five episodes.
"I was a huge fan of the show and wouldn't shut up about it," said Khaki Jones, Cartoon Network's Vice President of Original Series.
"It was smart television and smart television shouldn't die."
Jones, who used to work for Adult Swim and has now moved on to the kids' side of the network, said the show seemed very relevant in that TV never seemed to get children right.
"Brendon (Small) and Loren (Bouchard) ("Home Movies" creators) had a wonderful way of showing the innocence of childhood," Jones said.
"It was, to us, a perfect show."
Since the advent of TV shows coming out on DVD, many shows are beginning to resurrect themselves in the DVD format.
The third season of "Home Movies" came out on DVD last week.
"The third season of 'Home Movies' was one of my favorites," said "Home Movies" co-creator and lead voiceover, Brendon Small. "The third season was when the pace really started happening."
Small said that as he was working on the show he would try to forget episodes he had written and only concentrate on where he was taking the show from there.
"The art and animation continues to improve, and with the third season the show began to feel much tighter and really started to look like a professional television show," Small said.
"When I would finish an episode, I would just abandon it. When we were doing the commentaries for the DVD I really began to feel it was a TV show; it no longer had that sloppy garage band feel to it."
Small said it is a rare occasion when you can stay on TV long enough to fix what you hate about what you're doing.
"TV is like a really awesome temp job, It has a 'you don't know when you're not working again' (mentality)" Small said.
"Our show never got good ratings at all; while we were in production, I didn't think anyone was watching it at all."
Small said that while the show's employees were working on the cartoon, they weren't paying attention to any Web sites or chat rooms.
"I knew some people were watching it; but it was one of those shows that you really have to learn how to watch," Small said.
"I love subtle humor and 'Home Movies' was a great place to have subtlety."
The show follows the similar subtle humor that gave way to "Home Movies" most comparable cartoon, "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist," which spanned from 1995 to 2000 and aired on Comedy Central.
"Dr. Katz" was a cartoon for adults about a therapist and his celebrity patients that included Conan O'Brien, Ray Romano and Janeane Garofalo.
Small was a big fan of "Dr. Katz" when he was attending school at the Berklee College in Boston, Mass., and "Home Movies" started around the time "Dr. Katz" was wrapping up.
Along with the cameo celebrity cast of voiceovers that graced "Dr. Katz" was Jon Benjamin who provided the voice of Katz's son Ben.
Benjamin loaned his talent to "Home Movies" as the most celebrated character by the show's cultic fan base. He is the voice of the soberly challenged, foul mouthed, lazy soccer coach, John McGuirk.
The show's highlights often included the dialogue between Small and Benjamin's characters.
"I knew who he was, and after he and I did the first episode we had beer and went to a concert; (we) wound up mildly hung over the next day really figuring out the dynamic between McGuirk and Brendon," Small said.
"He is the best guy I've ever seen in front of a recording studio microphone; watching him work is inspiring in itself."
Another thing that makes the show so original is the amount of improvisation that goes on throughout the series.
"The first five episodes were completely improvisational and after the first five we thought our show was canceled," Small said.
"I thought if the show came back I wanted to make the pacing faster and give us more places to hang our hats, humor wise."
Small said the group of voiceovers would work through the scripts a couple of times until he would feel comfortable and then the cast would fit it into their own words.
Interactions between two high voiced ADHD kids, Walter and Perry (read by Small and Benjamin, respectively), became an ongoing feature in the show creating a reoccurring joke within the series' time span.
"Both John and I like to do something until it is driving people absolutely insane. Together, we could be the most annoying entity ever," Small said. "There is nothing like being horribly annoying."
Since the disbanding of the "Home Movies" Small has created a new cartoon.
Small, as a music college graduate and guitar enthusiast, created the music for "Home Movies" and for his latest project, a cartoon about a metal band named "Deathclock," he is getting to use his degree even more than the loose, sporadic interludes in "Home Movies."
Small just got an order for 20 episodes of "Deathclock."
"We shot our mouths off and now we've got to do it," Small said.
"I'm all about (Deathclock) now. I just bring my dog and Gibson guitar into the office and pound out new riffs and think of little absurd ideas for the show that make me giggle."
Small said that for his newest creation, he hopes to recruit some unknown Swedes and Norwegians to create cliched metal band voices.
"The thing is that I will still use my friends, but I don't want too many people to recognize the characters' voices," Small said.
The show is said to have a more realistic look to it than "Home Movies" and is going to have an entirely different approach, too.
"There is a demo on my Web site from Deathclock and is designed to not be understood," Small said.
"We're treating the marketing of this show like you would a band, it's like we're a band with a record deal all of a sudden. I want to try and get a five-song EP put out."
Small said the music is going to be a lot of fun and that even people who don't like death and black metal will be able to appreciate its humor and catchiness.
"Deathclock" is being endorsed by major companies like Gibson Guitars, Krank Amplifiers, Dunlop Products and Cry Baby Wah-Wah Pedals.
"Deathclock" has yet to be issued an airdate, but the first three seasons of "Home Movies" can be found where DVDs are normally sold and its fourth season is due this spring.
"'Home Movies' is an anomaly in that I think the audiences really started with the release of the DVDs, and that audience is growing now more than ever," Small said.
"The biggest critic of the show was me. I'm my own worst critic, but looking back, I'm very proud of 'Home Movies.'"
