Williams Street

Williams Street Productions, LLC,[1] formerly known as Cartoon Network Productions and Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by The Cartoon Network, Inc., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the in-house production arm of Cartoon Network and mainly produces content for its nighttime programming block Adult Swim. Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford oversaw operations for the building for most of its existence.

On December 16, 2019, co-founder Lazzo retired from the company,[2] with business partner and co-founder Crofford retiring the following year.[3] Michael Ouweleen was named president of Adult Swim on April 29, 2020 as well as The Cartoon Network, Inc. from November 27, 2019 to July 1, 2020 and since May 13, 2022.[4][5]

History

In 1976, Ted Turner bought a building at 1065 Williams Street NW in Atlanta, Georgia, using it for his own television station, WTCG. This new channel was the result of a recent UHF takeover. The facility began as a carpet factory and was purchased by Turner as overflow offices for, among other things, set building and woodworking facilities. In December 1976, the first WTCG signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems located around Georgia. Starting out as a minor local channel, the station grew into success and was re-launched as WTBS in 1979, Turner bought the call sign from MIT's low-power student-run Technology Broadcasting System FM station. Then, after a five-year period, WTBS was renamed TBS Superstation. During this time, Turner also created CNN, a 24-hour news network. Both became the standard for cable providers by the late 80s. Due to this success, the studio building became too small to operate as a headquarters. A new campus was built across the street for the expanding Turner empire. Upon completion, Turner launched Cartoon Network to showcase their recent acquisitions of the vast Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Hanna-Barbera library of cartoons, operated by newly formed division The Cartoon Network, Inc. When Cartoon Network moved out of the Williams Street building, they kept ownership, using it as a storage facility. Although no longer its main purpose, to this day, it houses all the show tapes for Turner Networks. The current name of the company originates from the location of its headquarters building.[6] The street is named for early Atlanta settler Ammi Williams. Cartoon Network Productions was formed in 1992 to produce the channel's programming, with its first programmers including Turner employee Mike Lazzo, CNN holdover Andy Merrill and executive Khaki Jones.[7] From 1990 to 1993, TBS started original animated programming from Hanna-Barbera such as Captain Planet and 2 Stupid Dogs. Turner refused to allow them to commission original programming, instead emphasizing they needed to prioritize using the corporate archive of animation he recently acquired, such as the Hanna-Barbera library.[8] Among the first productions by the network were anthology series such as ToonHeads.[9]

As Lazzo recounts, “Ted has said, ‘I bought you a library, now utilize it.'"[10] It was from this library that the Cartoon Network programmers created the channel's first fully original series, The Moxy Show. The series' failure was followed by Lazzo's desire to create an adult-oriented series for the network's late night block, leading to the creation of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.[11][7] They decided to produce their own series pilot. On a shoestring budget, they tried to come up with compatible ideas. During brainstorming, they realized they could simply re-use footage of any series in the Turner library. They eventually settled on Space Ghost and Dino Boy. Because they felt it would fit, they paired it with Mike Lazzo's idea of a satirical talk show with a clueless host asking guests a stream of stupid questions. The final pilot featured rotoscoped animation superimposed on a simple background and used CNN interview footage for the live-action interview. The pilot was completed and presented to Cartoon Network, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast was then greenlit for a ten-episode season. Soon the series was acquiring its first C and D-list celebrity guests, small animation and writing crew, and voice actors. Space Ghost was voiced by local voice actor George Lowe instead of Gary Owens to save costs, while C. Martin Croker, an animator poached from Designefx, performed other roles. Screenwriter Matt Maiellaro and editor Michael Cahill were brought on through connections to Lazzo, contributing to the series' unique surreal humor and rapid-fire editing. The series eventually premiered on April 14, 1994. Due to its more mature and surreal humor, the series attracted a devoted cult audience. Its success led to a special that was simulcast on TBS, a special short for VHS release of blockbuster The Mask, and guests who were more well-known.[7]

Jones and Merrill left the series to handle the network's children-focused programming, while Maiellaro and Cahill left with their own intentions.[7] In the height of its popularity, Turner commissioned Cartoon Network to produce a child-friendly version of the series for TBS, due to a need for children's programming. Cartoon Planet premiered on TBS in 1995 and later moved to Cartoon Network in 1996; Merrill returned to both series to provide Brak's voice. The studio eventually split from Cartoon Network's programming department to form Williams Street, while Hanna-Barbera, later Cartoon Network Studios, was commissioned to produce daytime programming for the network.[7] The series featured Space Ghost hosting segments and cartoons for young viewers. After two seasons, TBS decided to cancel all kids' programming, following the trend of TNT and USA Network, with its segments being repurposed for a variety show of the same name on Cartoon Network. "Ghost Planet Industries" was a label used by Cartoon Network exclusively for Space Ghost-related projects at the time.

Alongside Cartoon Network Studios' rapid expansion since What a Cartoon!s success, Williams Street started producing series for Cartoon Network's late night time slots, with Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis and former production assistants Adam Reed and Matt Thompson among those being contracted to develop new series. Between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. on December 21, and December 30, 2000 (while Space Ghost Coast to Coast was on hiatus), several new Williams Street series made unannounced "stealth" premieres. Sealab 2021; Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; Aqua Teen Hunger Force; and The Brak Show all premiered unannounced;[12] the official schedules listed the shows as "Special Programming".[13] Prior to that, in Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that Michael Ouweleen's next project was working on the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law Pilot with J. J. Sedelmaier.[14] In a 1999 interview, the indie pop rock band Calamine stated they had recorded the theme song for Sealab 2021.[15] While entertaining pitches for a variety of adult cartoons, Lazzo realized the potential for packaging them as a complete adult-focused block. Different names were considered, "Parental Warning" and "Parental Block" but he eventually settled on "Adult Swim".

Cartoon Network originally intended to launch the adult animation block on April 1, 2001, but it was delayed by five months. In June 2001, TV Guide had recorded an interview with Cartoon Network's former president, Betty Cohen. She stated there was a new programming block coming out in September that was aimed for an adult audience.[16] During this month at the Cartoon Network Confidential, "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" in New York City, an upcoming episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast titled "Kentucky Nightmare", the stealth pilots from December, Captain Linger, and an episode of Home Movies were screened for free. The screening was part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. On Saturday, July 21, 2001, the Space Ghost Coast to Coast panel at San Diego Comic-Con had a trivia game in which the winners won a promotional CD that had the theme songs to the upcoming Adult Swim Shows. Everybody who attended got a free Adult Swim t-shirt that was packaged to look like a roll of bandages that a lifeguard might carry.

Name and logo

The company's original name, Ghost Planet Industries, came from Space Ghost's fictional planet, where the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast was purportedly filmed.[17] The company's production logo features a wavy, blurred gray image of Space Ghost's fictional studio, with the words "Williams Street" or formerly "Ghost Planet Industries" beneath it. The soundtrack of Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited's production logo (a rumbling drum roll and two clinks of a hammer) is used while the GPI/Williams Street production card is shown.[18]

Filmography

Other

Homages

1065, the street number for Williams Street, is also the hull number for FishCenter Lives USS FishCenterprise (a parody of the original Star Treks USS Enterprise).[52]

See also

• List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim
• Adult animation
• Cartoon Network Studios
• List of animation studios owned by Warner Bros. Discovery

External links

• Adult Swim official website