Production
Aqua Teen Hunger Force is directed by Jeremiah Mills and Matt Maiellaro, 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 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".
The show is rated TV-MA in the United States. In Canada, some episodes of the first four seasons were rated 14+ and the rest 18+.
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