Last year, Aaron McGruder, the creator of ''The Boondocks,'' a popular comic strip about two black kids in a white suburb, sat down with a top executive of the Cartoon Network to discuss turning the strip into a television series. One of his first questions: Would he be able to use the ''N" word on TV?
Mike Lazzo, the network's senior vice president, said yes. Recalls McGruder: ''I just wanted to be able to write the way people genuinely talk and feel.'' An African-American, McGruder can't get away in print with language sometimes used ironically in the black community. Earlier this year, the Miami Herald and Boston Globe were among papers that dropped the strip for a couple of days because it suggested the word without actually spelling it out.
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McGruder's strip has taken on everyone from the Bush White House and Oprah Winfrey to Black Entertainment Television and rhythm-and-blues singer R. Kelly, embroiled in a scandal involving an underage girl. The strip has drawn controversy in many of the 350 papers that carry it, and some have moved it to their editorial pages. Now, the question is whether it will translate to television.
The cost and marketing of ''The Boondocks'' makes it the most expensive show Cartoon Network, a unit of Time Warner, has made. The network is paying Sony Pictures Television, which produces ''The Boondocks,'' a license fee in the neighborhood of $400,000 per episode and is spending millions more on promotion, people close to the show said. In New York and Los Angeles, ads for ''The Boondocks'' seem to be on every bus, hyping its Nov. 6 premiere in Cartoon Network's mega-popular, late-night ''Adult Swim'' programming block.
''The Boondocks'' follows the adventures of Huey Freeman, a 10-year-old who sees himself as a modern-day version of Black Panthers co-founder Huey Newton, and his younger brother, Riley, who is obsessed with gangster rappers. They live in the suburbs with their grandfather, who isn't afraid to take off the belt when his boys get out of line.
The transition from print to the small screen may be a hard one for McGruder and fans of his strip. For starters, the animation process for ''The Boondocks'' is painstakingly slow - the 15 episodes Cartoon Network has ordered took 18 months to complete - and McGruder has been known for being very topical. Most recently in the comic strip, the Freemans are dealing with relatives displaced by Hurricane Katrina. But McGruder promises to still find ways to make people squirm. In one episode, the grandfather starts dating a young woman, oblivious to the fact that she is a prostitute until Huey videotapes her at work. McGruder, who began ''The Boondocks'' while majoring in Afro-American studies at the University of Maryland, has kept the strip edgy. Two years ago, the Washington Post pulled a week's worth of strips in which Huey and a friend tried to find a man for Condoleezza Rice. ''Maybe if there was man in the world that Condoleezza truly loved, she wouldn't be so hell-bent to destroy the planet,'' remarked Huey's friend Caesar.
Though some fans have told McGruder of fears that the TV ''Boondocks'' will lose its edge, he vows that won't happen. ''People have no idea how many restrictions there are in the comics. I have to censor myself all the time,'' he says. Is he selling out? '''The Boondocks,' is not the revolution. It is seen because white corporations allow you to see it,'' he says. ''This isn't a political movement; this is a piece of entertainment.'' McGruder has tried to get a television version of ''The Boondocks'' off the ground for the past few years. Two years ago, Fox made a pilot for ''The Boondocks,'' but McGruder says the network ''had a lot of opinions and wanted a lot of changes, and things got watered down and muddy.'' A Fox spokesman declined to comment.
Lazzo, the architect of ''Adult Swim,'' says he signed off on the use of the racial epithet, adding he doesn't believe in nitpicking. ''Instead of nibbling Aaron to death with a lot of network notes,'' he says, ''it's up to him.''
Cartoon Network is making ''The Boondocks'' the centerpiece of ''Adult Swim,'' which has become so popular among young viewers that it is beating the old masters of late night. The three-hour block, launched in 2001, is a mix of popular reruns including ''Family Guy'' and original series such as ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (about human-size food products that share a house in New Jersey who do battle with aliens and thieves) and the superhero saga ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.'' According to Nielsen Media Research, ''Adult Swim'' attracts more men aged 18 to 34 - a favorite demographic of advertisers - than Jay Leno, David Letterman or Jon Stewart.
''Adult Swim'' ad revenue is expected to top $100 million this year from $30 million three years ago, says David Levy, president, Turner Entertainment ad sales. Cartoon Network won't disclose who is advertising on ''The Boondocks,'' but says the show is selling well. Advertisers in the ''Adult Swim'' block include movie studios and technology companies as well as auto manufacturers.
While McGruder has lots of editorial freedom on his new TV show, there's still a line he can't cross. In one episode, Riley tries to kidnap Ms. Winfrey. Sony Pictures Television, which is making the show for Cartoon Network, would not allow the animators to portray the actress and talk-show host as an on-screen character. ''We do talk about her,'' McGruder says. He adds that he could live with the decision: ''I'm not stupid. We're all scared of Oprah.'' 152ee80cbc
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