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. 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. 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. Among the first productions by the network were anthology series such as
ToonHeads. As Lazzo recounts, “Ted has said, ‘I bought you a library, now utilize it.'" 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. the official schedules listed the shows as "Special Programming". 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. In a 1999 interview, the indie
pop rock band Calamine stated they had recorded the theme song for
Sealab 2021. 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. 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 ==