Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Aqua Teen Hunger Force (also known as ATHF or simply Aqua Teen) is an American animated television series shown on Cartoon Network as part of its Adult Swim late-night programming block. It premiered on December 30, 2000.

The show is about three anthropomorphic fast food items and their life together in New Jersey. The Aqua Teens were originally detectives; as the series progressed, however, the crime-solving aspect of the show was quickly abandoned. There is very little continuity between episodes; all but one of the recurring cast members have died at least once.

The focus is instead on character interaction and a pervasive form of brutal, sarcastic, and often surreal humor.

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The Aqua Teens were originally created for an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The episode, "Baffler Meal" (a parody of McDonald's Happy Meal), featured a prototypical version of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force that resembled the future characters but differed in appearance, personality, and voice. "Baffler Meal" did not air for several years (it was not even animated or produced until after ATHF became popular); instead, the Space Ghost episode was re-written as "Kentucky Nightmare," while the Aqua Teens debuted in "Rabbot," the pilot episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

A full first season of ATHF was put into production shortly thereafter; its first regular episode was shown on September 16, 2001. According to the DVD commentary on the original pilot episode, Williams Street only picked up the show out of desperation for programming. Four seasons have been produced to date; the fourth season began on December 4, 2005 and finishes on January 7, 2007. A fifth season of 15 episodes is expected to air in the second half of 2007.

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During the first two seasons, episodes cold opened with a glimpse into the laboratory of Dr. Weird (within the Belle Isle Asylum, located on the perpetually stormy South Jersey shore and taken from an episode of Johnny Quest). The criminally insane Dr. Weird and his baffled assistant Steve use the first several seconds of the show to create monsters, disasters, and random silliness, generally accompanied by the phrase "Gentlemen, behold!" as Dr. Weird unveils his latest accomplishment.

In earlier episodes of the first season, the monsters formed the basis for the plot. As the crime-fighting element of the program quickly became less prominent, the Dr. Weird segment became a non sequitur opening gag.

In the third season, Dr. Weird was dropped in favor of segments from a pilot episode of Spacecataz, an un-aired series made by the creators of Aqua Teen. These segments featured the Mooninites (Ignignokt and Err) and the Plutonians (Emory and Oglethorpe) clashing with each other; trading insults, gestures, and practical jokes. The full Spacecataz episode is on the Volume 4 DVD as a bonus feature.

Cold openings have been dropped altogether in the fourth season.

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Aqua Teen Hunger Force is written and directed by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro. Much of the dialogue is supplemented with adlibs and improvisation by the voice talent. The show is edited and animated to include this improvisation. The show is produced by Williams Street Studios. Noted 1980s rapper Schoolly D performs the theme song and provided periodic running commentaries on early episodes. Many, if not all, of the crew and cast members formerly worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The show costs only around $60,000 per episode.

A mobile game "Aqua Teen Destruct-o-Thon" was developed by Glu Mobile featuring characters from the series.

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The title of the show is largely a misnomer: the characters have no major affiliation with water (though many episodes involve their neighbor's pool), they are not teenagers per se, (Shake claims he's an adult) and they are rarely shown as any kind of a force. They do display ravenous hunger on occasion, however.

In early episodes (particularly the first season), the trio were identified by Master Shake as the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," solving crimes for money. Shortly into its run, the premise and the use of the name by the characters was dropped. According to DVD commentary, the premise was originally added to appease Cartoon Network network heads, who "didn't want to air a show about food just going around and doing random stuff."

The title originally had more meaning, in the episode "Baffler Meal," which was made from the script for Space Ghost Coast to Coast in which the characters were originally to appear, Meatwad, Master Shake and Frylock supposedly battle hunger for teenagers whilst grotesquely promoting their fast food company, Burger Trench.

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