Last week, just before the latest Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, the Adult Swim crew asked if anyone else had read the article on Salon about it.

You know which one.

Pillaging the cartoon universe
Fred Flintstone as a mob boss! Yogi's pal BooBoo as a terrorist! Jonny Quest as the subject of a gay child-custody battle! All these outrages and more can be found on Cartoon Network's hilarious, hallucinatory "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law."
By Scott Thill
May 29, 2003

They also asked what the hell was Mr. Thill talking about in that article. "Pomo-tonic?" As they said, they just think they make a funny show, "but what do we know?"

Well, it is funny, no doubt. Though they could try focusing a bit more. The first three shows set up a blueprint of cartoon spoofing that (for better or worse) they haven't kept up with. Consider the first show, "Bannon Custody Battle", which casted the adult leads of Jonny Quest as the gay couple on that "child-custody battle:" that seemed to come right out of the characters; after all, how often did we saw Dr. Quest and Race hitting on the ladies instead of chumming it out between them? Add a series of Jonny Quest bad guys at the witness stand and some made-up title cards for adventures that were never shown on TV, and you get a great parody. And great parodies are what the next episodes were, with a take on Apache Chief as a token ethnic character on the Super Friends ("Very Personal Injury") and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo arrested on possession charges ("Shaggy Busted"); as Daphne explains, they just act "that way" (you know, as if they were high) because they're stupid.

Every other show after those three just starts pulling stuff out of the blue, without attempting to parody the Hanna-Barbera characters or the shows they were on. Only the one with the Flintstones as a Sopranos-style family ("The Dabba Don") weaves some of that ol' magic, specially when the clips from old Flintsones' episodes roll.

With my opinion out of the way, it's still nice to see some movers and shakers like Salon pay attention to this show. About time! The NY Times had also added their own take just last year.

When Superheroes Sue: The Second Career of Birdman
July 7, 2002
By TED LOOS
Back with a degree and a suit, Birdman, a character from a short-lived cartoon in the 60's, now exercises his powers in court in a new show on Cartoon Network.

Right after Harvey Birdman, someone reached this weblog through a Google search on "salon adult swim" (if I had kept the link, I'd put it there). Nice try, chum. I hope you found the right page in the end.