Fall schedule news: Adult Swim announces three new shows as an excuse to throw a Jay-Z concert
Last night’s actual Adult Swim upfront presentation was pretty much an afterthought, as the main attraction was an hour-long concert from Jay-Z that featured appearances from Pharrell, Ne-Yo, Kid Cudi, and Fabolous, probably leaving CBS execs chagrinned that they couldn’t get their proposed Richard Marx set together. But it was also secondary in the sense that its programming lineup has been slowly leaking out for months now, with new seasons of Childrens Hospital, Delocated, Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, Eagleheart, Superjail, and Squidbillies already a given. Also coming back: Mongo Wrestling Alliance returns on June 19, while the Dino Stamatopoulos-created Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole will debut its second season in the spring of 2012. And of course, as previously reported, the recently debuted Aqua Teen Hunger Force will continue under its new name, Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, until its creators get bored and decide to do something else, as is their wont.
Other stuff we already knew about: The summer debut of the Childrens Hospital sort-of spinoff, National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle, the spring 2012 premiere of the Black Dynamite cartoon, and the upcoming The Venture Bros. special. However, we did learn that the lattermost now has a firm July 24 premiere date, synopsis, and title—From The Ladle To The Grave: The Story Of Shallow Gravy—exploring the rise and fall of Hank Venture, Dermott Fictel, and the H.E.L.P.eR.’s rock band in a 15-minute mockumentary-style format.
But it wasn’t all just stating the obvious. Adult Swim also revealed that it has picked up three new series, including The Heart, She Holler, a Patton Oswalt and Heather Lawless-starring “soap opera about folk who ain’t never used soap or seen an opera” set in a hillbilly town crippled by inbreeding; Tight Bros, about two douches who split their time evenly between spreading God’s word and talking chicks into spreading their legs at the club; and the Brad Neely-created China, IL, which adapts Neely's The Professor Brothers series about two fraternal university history professors who “often sacrifice facts, lessons and syllabi for the sake of being awesome" and sweet rhyme schemes.
And while there’s nothing concrete yet, AS also has several new pilots in development, including an untitled project from Community’s Dan Harmon; Rolling With Dad, a 30-minute animated sitcom from Pride And Prejudice And Zombies writer Seth Grahame-Smith and his Clark And Michael/The Hard Times Of RJ Berger producing partner David Katzenberg; the previously announced Bob Odenkirk project Regal Productions; and Nick Cannon’s The Dummiez, which should hopefully keep him busy in those rare interims between giving interviews about his sex life with Mariah.
And finally, as to why Jay-Z was there in the first place (besides the money): He’s reportedly signed a development deal that will likely find him expanding his media empire into producing an original animated series of his own, thereby joining the network’s other music-related projects like that Odd Future sketch show and a cartoon based on the Diplo/Switch project Major Lazer. Jay-Z was supposed to fill in some of the details of that new partnership at the party, but like everyone else in the room, it seems as though he got a little distracted.