After 17 years, Adult Swim cancels The Venture Bros.

Adult Swim cancels one of the weirdest, longest-lived, and most wonderful shows in its lineup. Maybe HBO Max can do something about it…? #GoTeamVenture

The Venture Bros. began its life on Adult Swim 17 years ago, as an animated sendup of adventure shows like Johnny Quest. And it kept following the thread over the next 80+ episodes, but it quickly expanded to become something much bigger and weirder: an affectionate, irreverent exploration of masculinity, aging, and the beauty of failure…and also an excuse to pile on every weird pop culture reference creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer could think of, from Barbarella to Darkman to those weird malt liquor commercials Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) did in the ’80s, and that’s just from (what is now) the series finale.

The cast of characters started small, with the hapless superscientist Dr. Rusty Venture and his clueless twin sons, Hank and Dean. But by the end, the bench was so deep the lead characters could be out of the picture for long stretches without anyone complaining. That density could make the show hard to pick up, but if you got into it, The Venture Bros. was a rewarding watch.

Unfortunately, it’s all over, as Publick confirmed today that Adult Swim had cancelled the show:

The Venture Bros. has always had long hiatuses between seasons, but this last stretch was long even by its standards, and fans were getting worried. The show had a long life, but as someone who really loved it, this hurts, especially since the most recent season ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

James Urbaniak, who played Rusty Venture, also weighed in:

Naturally, fans are less than pleased.

The Venture Bros. is now streaming on Hulu.

I can see why The Venture Bros. might look like a good candidate for cancellation. It was expensive to produce, and it didn’t make apologies for how niche a lot of the humor was, which probably kept it from finding a huge audience despite how long it had been on the air.

But I don’t care, because it was full of heart and grace and deep, deep oddness. It got under my skin and I don’t want it out. There was nothing else on TV like it.

And who knows? We’re living in an age when cancelled shows are revived all the time. Clearly I’m not the only person who sees a way out of this:

I’d watch. Maybe Netflix could cancel that Last Airbender remake nobody wants anymore and give us a conclusion to The Venture Bros?

UPDATE: Or if not Netflix, maybe another streaming service. According to Variety, people within Adult Swim are considering the possibility of continuing the series on HBO Max, although it’s far from a reality as of yet. “We also want more Venture Bros. and have been working with Jackson [Publick] and Doc [Hammer] to find another way to continue the Venture Bros. story,” the network said in a statement.

The Venture Bros. marches so aggressively to the beat of its own drum that it’s hard to tell whether Publick or Hammer have a finish line in mind. Regardless, I would kill for at least one more season on HBO Max or elsewhere to at least wrap up the series. Here’s hoping something works out.

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