The Drizzle - Production

Production

Every episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force is written and directed by series creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, and animated by Radical Axis and produced by Williams Street. Much of the dialogue is supplemented with ad libs and improvisation by the voice talent. The show is fully scripted but ad libs are included in the final voice recordings and the shows are animated to include this improvisation. Many, if not all, of the crew and cast members formerly worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Rapper Schoolly D performed the theme song for the first seven seasons, and in early episodes also provided periodic commentary. As of season eight, the theme song was performed by Josh Homme.

The series was originally pitched as a parody of detective series that would have found the "Hunger Force" fighting crime and solving mysteries. Once the series was established, the creators quickly dropped the idea and instead turned the show into a surreal sitcom, with humor derived from intentionally incoherent plots and absurd visual gags. The show has little continuity, and episodes often end with one or more of the main characters dying. Situations often involve the Aqua Teens being visited by strange monsters and extraterrestrial beings, most of whom are of little power or consequence. An initially structured plot is often abandoned as characters' actions take the story far afield.

The three main characters—Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad—were originally created for an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast called "Baffler Meal", where they were the corporate mascots for a fictional fast-food chain called "Burger Trench". The original versions of the trio were prototypes which resembled the future characters, but both Master Shake and Frylock differed in appearance, personality, and voice from their ultimate design. The original name "Teen Hunger Force" refers to the squad's mission to conquer hunger in teens.

"Baffler Meal" did not air for several years, and was not even animated or produced until after the series became popular. Instead, the Space Ghost episode was rewritten as "Kentucky Nightmare", while the trio, along with Carl Brutananadilewski, debuted in "Rabbot", the pilot episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. A full season consisting of sixteen episodes, including "Rabbot", was put into production shortly thereafter. The series is now one of Adult Swim's most popular shows, and is the only show from the original Adult Swim line-up to still be in production.

In early episodes, the trio were identified by Master Shake as the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", which solved crimes for money. After a few episodes, this premise and the use of the name by the characters were dropped. The premise was a trick that had been added to appease Cartoon Network executives, who "didn't want to air a show about food just going around and doing random things." In the show itself, Frylock mentions that they stopped fighting crime because "that wasn't making us a whole lot of money".

A full length episode satirizing the 2007 Boston bomb scare entitled "Boston" was produced and finished in its entirety. The episode was intended to be aired in 2008 as part of the fifth season, however, Adult Swim was forced by Turner Legal to pull the episode to avoid further controversy surrounding the incident. As a result "Boston" has never aired on television and has never been released to the public in any format. When asked Dave Willis has stated three alternative versions do exist but indirectly stated that there is no chance of a release at any time in the foreseeable future. This marks the first time an episode of the series was pulled no other episodes have been pulled since.

The show has been rated TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-MA in the United States. In Canada, some episodes of the first four seasons were rated 14+ and the rest 18+.