How A Five-Minute Meeting Convinced Cartoon Network To Bring Back Samurai Jack

Rob Sorcher was the head of Cartoon Network at the time, and when Tartakovsky called him, Sorcher immediately began making calls. Sorcher put Tartakovsky in contact with Adult Swim. “Samurai Jack” might not have had an open spot on its schedule for “Samurai Jack,” but Adult Swim certainly did. Rolling Stone talked with Jason DeMarco, the vice president and on-air creative director at Adult Swim. DeMarco was quoted as saying: 

“Making the decision to bring it back was one of the easiest yes answers [we have ever] given a show creator. […] A phone call from Genndy saying, ‘What if I finished the story of Samurai Jack?,’ followed by about five minutes of everyone nodding our heads enthusiastically. Genndy is a genius, and ‘Jack’ was a great show. Bringing it back made all the sense in the world.” 

Tartakovsky might be credited for giving the Cartoon Network a firm foundation that allowed it to thrive in the 1990s. Cartoon Network was founded in 1992, but began to forge an identity a few years later with the release of Tartakovsky’s “Dexter’s Laboratory,” which debuted next to “Cow and Chicken,” “Johnny Bravo,” and Craig McCracken’s “The Powerpuff Girls,” which Tartakovsky worked extensively on. Thanks to the success of “Dexter’s” and “Powerpuff,” Tartakovsky became a major celebrity in the animation world, and the Cartoon Network took off in earnest. 

Luckily, the executives all remembered his contributions and were eager to help with the creator’s projects. When the call came to revive “Samurai Jack,” there were no questions. Since the fifth season of “Samurai Jack,” Tartakovsky has created the caveman series “Primal” and “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal.” Tartakovsky’s R-rated dog comedy film “Fixed” still had no release dat as of this writing.