Hey! So I want to talk about
Sealab 2021 for a bit. I was rewatching some episodes last night (whether or not I was high at the time is none of your business), and I think there's a number of things in this show worth talking about.
I've personally referenced Sealab 2021 in a number of different F Plus episodes, but the show orginally aired in the year 2000, and now that it's 2021, it seems appropriate to give an introduction to anyone who might be interested...
So our story actually starts in the Mid-90's, with
Space Ghost Coast To Coast, which in some ways wasn't a proper television show. Or at least, it didn't start as a regular television show. It was what happened when a group of guys who worked for the same company just started fucking around.
It aired on Cartoon Network, which is a channel that was owned by Ted Turner. But Ted Turner owned a number of different channels, and he didn't give a fuck about all of them. The general policy was: Kids like cartoons right? Well then, play some cartoons, just don't spend a lot of money on them. So, Cartoon Network was mainly just a channel that played reruns of old cartoons from the 60's. Cheap to buy, cheap to air. As such, Cartoon Network continued to earn a modest profit, and making a little money (but not too much money) is a really good way to get people to leave you alone. Including just making your own content.
The intricacies of the show Space Ghost Coast To Coast I won't go into here, but for two important facts:
- It was done visually by taking the stills for an existing cartoon (in this case a 1966 superhero cartoon called Space Ghost) and reusing them, over and over again.
- It was rather strange.
Anyway, I'll transition here, because while I could talk about that more,
that show led to four cartoons that would be the beginning of Adult Swim: One of them (The Brak Show) was a direct SGC2C spin off, one of them (Harvey Birdman) was a more polished J. J. Sedelmaier production, one of them (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) would be the break-out hit, and the other one was Sealab 2021.
Like Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Sealab 2021 was
also a reappropriation of a Hanna-Barbera Cartoon (a 1972 cartoon called Sealab 2020), and also would get weird. Like, impressively weird, right out of the gate.
The first episode of the show, you find out they're in an underwater building of some sort, and it's about to blow up. As soon as the group is presented with this news, everyone has a leisurely "what if" conversation about whether (if given the chance) they would put their brains in a robot body. Then Sealab blows up.
That's the first episode.
They continued on with this aesthetic. Existing as 11 minute episodes, more often than not Sealab would be following one single (usually very stupid) idea all the way through a rabbit hole and into the end credits.
- An episode that's almost entirely 1 establishing shot? Sure. They'll do that.
- An episode where they meet their bizarro counterparts, who just say "Bizarro" over and over again? Sounds good, they'll do it.
- An epsiode that's a Rube Goldberg chain of the same people saying "Uh oh" to each other? Yes, absolutely.
- How about we pretend we're making a movie, just as an excuse to interrupt our own promotion with commercials? Let's do exactly that.
- What about an epsiode where they just reproduce an episode of Sealab 2020, even though that show is very boring? Let's get started!
If you're curious and want a first episode to start from, I'd actually point you to an epsiode from the second season called "The Legend of Baggy Pants". There's no such thing as a typical epiosde, but this one has a lot of things I like about the show: A pointless plot, lingering shots, absurdism that's still motivated, and Captain Murphy being a psychopath.
There's five seasons of this, and yes, of course, it'll get less good over time. Part of this is because one of their main actors died, and part of that is that breaking reality every episode is not a formula for consistency. So yes, the episodes
definitely get worse over time.
However, I still personally think Sealab 2021 was good throughout its entire run, and even though I've seen it a number of times, I still laugh at it. Yesterday, I was talking to Jimmyfranks and he brought up "Zing of the Day" from Radio Free Sealab, and that just reminded me of all of this.
Sealab 2021 eventually led to Archer (after a brief stop at Frisky Dingo), and the four original Adult Swim shows eventually gave way to things like Robot Chicken and Squidbillies... but also some things that aren't completely awful, I guess.
Apparently the entire thing is on HBO Max & Hulu if you want to watch episodes there.
So, that's some words from me about Sealab 2021. Do you have favorite episodes? Things you remember about the show? People who quoted the show to you over and over and you fucking hated them so you can't look at it anymore? Let's talk Sealab! Pod 6 is jerks!
