A Failed Adult Swim Fantasy Show Directed By By Genndy Tartakovsky Could Have Been A Classic

"Korgoth of Barbaria" was the brainchild of Aaron Springer, the creator and star of the 2017 Disney XD series "Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer." Springer is a long-time veteran of the American animation industry, having come up through Spümcø ("The Ren & Stimpy Show"), and who went on to write for "SpongeBob SquarePants." In the early 2000s, he started working as a writer and storyboard artists on shows like "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Samurai Jack," both created by animation superstar Genndy Tartakovsky. He also had a stint on "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy," so he was clearly used to working with style and a great deal of visual wit. 

In 2006, Springer had his biggest job to date, creating a crass, violent fantasy series called "Korgoth of Barbaria," a show on which he served as creator, producer, writer, director, storyboard artist, character designer, and probably caterer. The hilarious Diedrich Bader played the title character, a grunting, hard-drinking, over-muscled beefcake a-hole who was, in the show's pilot episode, tasked with stealing something called Golden Goblin of the Fourth Age. Tom "SpongeBob" Kenny also appeared, as did John DiMaggio, star of "Futurama" and "Adventure Time."

"Korgoth of Barbaria" was sloppy and bloody and gross, by design. The first joke in the pilot was a peasant complaining that his local tavern, The Dragon's Kneecap, had a notable misspelling on its sign. The sign read "The Whore's Nipple." The series, despite the medieval trappings, actually took place in a very distant post-apocalyptic future, and all the characters had been turned gray and leprous by, presumably, lingering radiation. 

Only one episode ever aired, sadly, presented as a TV movie. It's a pity, as "Korgoth" had the makings of a long-running cult classic. It was just gloriously gross enough.

The show was clearly a spoof of the po-faced fantasy nonsense of "Conan the Barbarian," but also the absurdist genre mashups seen in "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." "Korgoth" took place in a fantasy world of giant monsters (well, giant pigeons), and was lousy with wizards, but there were also remnants of advanced technology at hand. Springer clearly grew up watching "He-Man" and "Conan" (he was born in 1973), and was merely acknowledging how silly and gross they were at their hearts. The show's style was off-putting and slimy, far closer to "The Brothers Grunt" than Filmation. Korgoth himself looked more like Frankenstein's monster than Conan.

The characters were all various renditions of stupid, unseemly, or horny. The climax of the episode saw Korgoth fighting a three-eyed boar monsters made out of chewed gum. "I've dated girls uglier than you for breakfast," he says. The monster eventually becomes a 10-foot-tall gum woman made of breasts. It's a good thing the episode aired so late; it was shown at 12:30 A.M. Genndy Tartakovsky directed the pilot episode, and it was far more beastly and primal than his own "Primal," not due on the airwaves for another 13 years. 

Bumpers on the Cartoon Network announced that "Korgoth" was supposed to be a regular series, and the series even had a push — as a TV series — at Comic-Con in 2006. Indeed, it seemed like the series fetched high ratings (for an ultra-violent, slimy, sexual cartoon show that aired in the middle of the night). But Springer only ever made the pilot. The Adult Swim website changed its status, declaring that "You couldn't handle more than one, anyway." Amusing, but it discounts those of us with strong stomachs and a propensity for goopy gore.

There was a petition to save "Korgoth," but it clearly didn't work. It wouldn't be until 2010 that Cartoon Network would explain — in a very snarky way — why the show wasn't picked up. In brief, their explanation was that it was "too expensive," something they breezed past in an irreverent press release. They also joked that the 11-minute pilot for "Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge," a series by the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" team, was remade as a Katy Perry music video. 

Although there was no series, the pilot episode of "Korgoth of Barbaria" did pop up from time to time as a TV special. It ran on Halloween in 2008, paired with John K.'s "Boo Boo Runs Wild" and Evan Dorkin's "Welcome to Eltingville." Dorkin had his own failed gross-out post-apocalypse comedy series in the form of "Kamandi." The Cartoon Network also aired it in 2013 as part of the Toonami block, and then again in 2019. Every five or six year, it seems that "Korgoth" can foul the air once more. Rare DVDs are also out there somewhere. 

There has been no talk of reviving "Korgoth" since, however. It seems that its brand of gross-out humor has fallen out of vogue, and it seems unlikely that it could come back in the 2020s. Springer's career, luckily, didn't suffer, and he went on to work on shows like "Gravity Falls" and "Mickey Mouse." He has also worked on the very, very good "Looney Tunes Cartoons," a was a storyboard artist for the movie "The Day the Earth Blew Up." He is currently a writer and storyboard artist on "The Patrick Star Show." All this in addition to "Billy Dilley." 

It's a pity that "Korgoth" got canned, though. The world could use more gross animation.