Williams Street Productions, LLC

Logo used from 1999 to present
Headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia photographed in 2011
Trade name	Williams Street
Formerly	Ghost Planet Industries, LLC(1994–1999)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Film Television
Genre	Animation Live action
Founded	1994; 31 years ago (1994)
Founders	Mike Lazzo Keith Crofford Andy Merrill
Headquarters	1065 Williams Street NW,Atlanta,Georgia, U.S.
Key people	Michael Ouweleen(President,The Cartoon Network, Inc.) Jason DeMarco(SVP, action/anime) Michael Cahill(VP, on-air/social media) Chris Hartley(VP, on-air production) Kim Manning(VP, programming) Cameron Tang(VP, development)
Products	Television series Television specials Feature films
Parent	The Cartoon Network, Inc. (1994–2019) Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics (2019–2022) Warner Bros. Television Group (2022–present)
Subsidiaries	Williams Street Records Williams Street West Williams Street East Williams Street DVDs Adult Swim Games

Williams Street Productions, LLC,^[1] formerly known asGhost Planet Industries, LLC, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by theWarner Bros. Television Group division ofWarner Bros., a unit ofWarner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the in-house production arm ofCartoon Network's nighttimeprogramming blockAdult Swim.Mike Lazzo andKeith Crofford ofThe Cartoon Network, Inc. oversaw operations for the building for most of its existence.

On December 16, 2019, co-founder Lazzo retired from the company,^[2] with business partner and co-founder Crofford retiring the following year.^[3]Michael Ouweleen was named president of Adult Swim on April 29, 2020 as well as The Cartoon Network, Inc. from November 27, 2019 to July 1, 2020 and since May 13, 2022.^[4][5]

In 1976,Ted Turner bought the building and used it for his own television station, WTCG. This new channel was the result of a recent UHF takeover. In December 1976, the first WTCG signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems located aroundGeorgia. This broadcast was the first use of non-pay-service satellite transmission, an innovation that would come to revolutionize basic cable nationwide.

Starting out as a minor local channel, the station grew into success and was re-launched asWTBS in 1979, Turner having bought thecall sign fromMIT's low-power student-run Technology Broadcasting System FM station. Then, after a five-year period, WTBS was renamedTBS Superstation. During this time, Turner also createdCNN, 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 launchedCartoon Network to showcase their recent acquisitions of the vastMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) andHanna-Barbera library of cartoons, operated by newly formed divisionThe 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. Appointed to run the building were veteran Turner employees such asKeith Crofford,Andy Merrill, and former mail-room employeeMike Lazzo. Certain duties were eventually controlled by the trio at Williams Street. One of their most important early tasks was producing host segments forThe Moxy Pirate Show (laterThe Moxy Show).

From 1990 to 1993, TBS had started its own original animated programming such asCaptain Planet and2 Stupid Dogs. This interested the team at Williams Street, and they all wished to create their own series. Towards the end of 1993, the three mustered up courage to approach Ted Turner with their ideas for Cartoon Network original programming. Turner turned them away, instead emphasizing they needed to prioritize using the corporate archive of animation he recently acquired, such as theHanna-Barbera library.^[6] As Lazzo recounts, “Ted has said, ‘I bought you a library, now utilize it.'"^[7] It was from this library that the Cartoon Network programmers created the channel's first fully original series,Space Ghost Coast to Coast.^[8]

They decided to produce their own series pilot. On a shoestring budget, they tried to come up with compatible ideas. During brainstorming, they realized they could simply re-use footage of any series in the Turner library. They eventually settled onSpace Ghost and Dino Boy. Because they felt it would fit, they paired it with Mike Lazzo's idea of a satirical talk show with a clueless host asking guests a stream of stupid questions. The final pilot featured rotoscoped animation superimposed on a simple background and usedCNN interview footage for the live-action interview.

The pilot was completed and presented to Cartoon Network, andSpace Ghost Coast to Coast was then greenlit for a ten-episode season. Soon the series was acquiring its first C and D-list celebrity guests, small animation and writing crew, and voice actors. The voice actor forSpace Ghost was local voice actorGeorge Lowe; all other roles were done by the GPI crew. The series eventually premiered on April 14, 1994. This marked Cartoon Network's first original series and the first animated talk show in history.

Due to its more mature surreal humor, the series attracted a devoted cult audience. Its success led to a special that was simulcast on TBS, a special short for VHS release of blockbusterThe Mask, and guests who were more well-known. In the height of popularity, it was awarded its own spin-off. Turner commissioned GPI to produce some sort of lighter version for TBS, due to a need for children's programming.Cartoon Planet premiered on TBS in 1995 and later moved to Cartoon Network in 1996. The studio eventually split from Cartoon Network's programming department to form Ghost Planet Industries, whileCartoon Network Studios was formed to produce daytime programming for the network.^[9] The series featured Space Ghost hosting segments and cartoons for young viewers. After two seasons, TBS decided to cancel all kids' programming, following the trend ofTNT andUSA.

The current name of the company originates from the location of its headquarters building (which is also the home office forCartoon Network andAdult Swim) at 1065 Williams Street NW inAtlanta,Georgia near the current offices ofTBS andTNT on Techwood Drive.^[10] The facility began as a carpet factory and was purchased by Turner as overflow offices for, among other things, set building and woodworking facilities, as well as CNN Field Engineering. Soon after CNN moved into theCNN Center in downtown Atlanta in the early 1980s, other Turner operations moved into the Techwood campus, an old country club which became the first headquarters forCNN.^[10] The street is named for early Atlanta settlerAmmi Williams.

The company's original name, Ghost Planet Industries, LLC, came fromSpace Ghost's fictional planet, where the animatedtalk showSpace Ghost Coast to Coast was purportedly filmed.^[11]

The studio'sproduction logo features a wavy, blurred gray image of Space Ghost's fictional studio, with the words "Williams Street" beneath it. The soundtrack ofJack Webb'sMark VII Limited's production logo (a rumbling drum roll and two clinks of ahammer) is used while the GPI/Williams Street production card is shown.^[12]

This list is only for video games licensed by Williams Street Games; seeAdult Swim Games for other video games produced after the label's dissolution.

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (2007)
• Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (2008)

Williams Street formed their own music label,Williams Street Records. The label was created after Jason DeMarco, Adult Swim's vice president of strategic marketing and promotions, worked onDanger Doom, a project withDanger Mouse andMF Doom in 2005. Danger Mouse had previously worked on the music forToonami and wanted to do an album that sampled that work. The group suggested the idea to Mike Lazzo; the project was successful. Williams Street Records now releases a majority of the music related to their shows. The label is managed by DeMarco.^[46]

1065, the street number for Williams Street, is also the hull number forFishCenter Live's USSFishCenterprise (a parody of theoriginalStar Trek'sUSSEnterprise).^[47]

• List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim
• Adult animation
• Cartoon Network Studios
• List of animation studios owned by Warner Bros. Discovery

Informational notes

Citations

• Adult Swim official website

• Williams Street
• 1995 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
• American companies established in 1995
• Adult animation studios
• American animation studios
• Adult Swim
• Cartoon Network
• Companies based in Atlanta
• Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries
• Television production companies of the United States
• Film production companies of the United States
• Warner Bros. Television Studios
• Warner Bros. divisions
• Mass media companies established in 1995

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