FishCenter Live (also shortened to FishCenter or FC Live[1] or just FCL) is a discontinued American talk show created by Mike Lazzo and hosted by Dave Bonawits, Andrew Choe, Matt Harrigan, Christina Loranger, and Max Simonet. It premiered on the official website of Adult Swim in September 2014 and started airing on television in February 2015. The series ended on November 25, 2020, following the shutdown of Adult Swim's livestream division.
| FishCenter Live | |
|---|---|
 The logo from an episode broadcast Thursday, 19 November 2020, featuring cartoon depictions of the five hosts and the 2019 "Galaxy King" Th'Lump | |
| Genre | Comedy Talk show Fish Entertainment |
| Presented by |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 1400+ (as of November 2020[update]) |
| Production | |
| Running time |
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| Production company | Williams Street |
| Original release | |
| Network | adultswim.com (online) Adult Swim (television) |
| Release | September 16, 2014 – November 25, 2020 |
Summary and production
FishCenter Live was presented as a weekday call-in talk show narrating over footage of tropical fish swimming around in a fish tank.[2][1][3][4][5][6] The fish are ranked according to their points, which are awarded when the fish complete a number of challenges.[5][7] These challenges include "Coin Quest," floating over coins that are superimposed on the video feed.[8][9]
The show was hosted by Dave Bonawits,[1][10] Andrew Choe,[1][10] Matt Harrigan,[1][a][10] Christina Loranger (since 2019),[12] and Max Simonet,[1][13][10] employees from the digital department room of Adult Swim. An original incarnation of the show involved a straight video feed of the fish tank, without narration. Commentary and a phone number for call-in segments were later added. Initially, callers were mostly other Adult Swim employees; when the competition portion was added, the hosts saw an increase of outside callers.[14]
Starting in 2015, both Dave Bonawits and Max Simonet began hosting another show for the streams, a New York Times crossword solving show initially called Crossword. The series was re-titled Bloodfeast in 2016, and later received two television spin-offs: Tender Touches[15] and Gēmusetto Machu Picchu.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was done remotely starting in March 2020, with the hosts talking through Zoom. During this time, two hosts left for extended hiatuses: Dave Bonawits left from late April to early June for parental leave, while Andrew Choe left in late July after feeling burnt out,[16] returning for the show's final two weeks in November. The show was reduced to just three days a week in September, running two hours every Tuesday through Thursday, while also being simulcasted to YouTube and Twitch.
On November 10, 2020, parent company WarnerMedia announced a large round of layoffs, with Adult Swim being affected.[17] Among the laid off staff were all of the FishCenter Live hosts, except for Max Simonet, and the layoffs ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the Adult Swim streams. Following two more weeks of programming, FishCenter Live, and the Adult Swim streams as a whole, ended on November 25, 2020, with a two-part finale declaring TZ2 as the last Galaxy King. The live stream then became a silent feed of the fish tank until its eventual removal in January 2021.
Final animal cast
| Name | Species | Tank |
|---|---|---|
| Bijou | Marine betta grouper | One tank |
| Green Chicken formerly Midoritori or Gunboat Diplomat | Bird wrasse | |
| Hamburger[18][19] or Eel Hamburger[10] | Zebra moray[10] | |
| Hot Steve[2][20] formerly Lupin the Third[20] | Foxface rabbitfish | |
| Mimosa[2][10] | Queen coris | |
| Promises | Wolf eel | |
| Slider | Sailfin tang | |
| Tabitha Pillows | Short-nosed unicornfish | |
| Th'Lump[2][20][19][10] | White-spotted puffer | |
| Wei | Emperor angelfish | |
| Ed Keshem | Bird wrasse | Quarantine tank |
| TZ2 | Pinktail triggerfish | |
| [unnamed] | Crayfish | Crawfish tank |
Former animal cast
| Name | Species | Reason for departure |
|---|---|---|
| Dottie[10][13] | Clown triggerfish | Death[13] (February 19, 2016) |
| Long Donovan | Yellow-brown wrasse | Death (August 26, 2016) |
| Mammoth[10] | Harlequin tuskfish | Death (September 6, 2016) |
| Ronside | Majestic angelfish | Death (September 21, 2016) |
| Sir Squirt[14][10] | Lagoon triggerfish | Death (October 3, 2016) |
| "Yo Hal Look At That Tang" Tang[14][10] | Sohal surgeonfish | Removed from tank due to size and aggression |
| Ol' Blue[10] | King angelfish | Removed from tank due to size and aggression, sold at fish store |
| David Anderson[10] | Crayfish | Death (May 15, 2015) Live food fed to Hamburger[10] |
| Hoagie Kush[21] | Sea urchin | Death (June 28, 2016) eaten by Th'lump |
| Ale | Squirrelfish | Death (July 16, 2018) |
| Styletoy | Flame angelfish | Death (October 29, 2018) |
| Mom[20][19][22] | Arothron meleagris[22] (or "Golden Puffer") | Death (February 3, 2019) |
| Greenbird (or "Greenberg"[10]) | Bird wrasse | Death (February 11, 2019) |
| Tan | Fake plant | Removed due to aggression (August 26, 2019) |
| Top Xander Cupper | Pinktail triggerfish | Death (September 3, 2019) |
| Lady | White Cloud Mountain minnow | Death (March 30, 2020) |
| Lucky | White Cloud Mountain minnow | Death (May 18, 2020) |
| Jeremy Legg | Cuban hogfish | Declared missing (October 2020) |
Super and Galaxy Kings
| Year | Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall | Galaxy King |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Tang | Hamburger | Mammoth | Sir Squirt | Mammoth |
| 2016 | Sir Squirt* | Hamburger | Greenbird | Mimosa | Greenbird |
| 2017 | Th'Lump | TX Cupper | Greenbird | Greenbird | Greenbird |
| 2018 | Hot Steve | Ale† | Mimosa | Hamburger | TX Cupper |
| 2019 | Th'Lump | Mimosa | Bijou | Hamburger | Th'Lump |
| 2020 | Ed Keshem | Th'Lump | TZ2 | Tabitha Pillows | TZ2 |
^* Sir Squirt was represented by Hamburger in the 2016 Galaxy series. Due to Sir Squirt's death the second place fish for the Winter season, being Hamburger, was declared the Super King representative.
^† Ale was represented by TX Cupper in the 2018 Galaxy series due to Ale's untimely death earlier in the year.
Games
The callers, fish, and guests compete for points in various games:
- Coin Quest: fish swim into the coins superimposed over the tank to collect points.[2] A live-version sponsored by Snickers was played at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con where the fish swim into the Snickers chocolate bars to "eat" them.[9] Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe", The New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral", and the theme song to Family Feud are commonly played during this game.[10]
Games created for guests have included:
- Alvuvuzelays Noise Game: the band Alvvays competed in a vuvuzela impersonation game. They also did a quiz on Canadian Thanksgiving.[23][18]
- Guess This Gourd: a game with Post Malone.[18]
- More-Bid-Angel: someone had to choose the highest-priced angel figurine.[2]
- Truth or Se-Dare-Is: Truth or dare? with author David Sedaris. The caller dared Sedaris to wear socks on his hands for the rest of the show.[2]
- What's Your Fetus?: made for death metal band Dying Fetus, someone had to guess what was hidden in a person's pelvic region based on a X-ray photograph.[2]
Guests
100 gecs, Alvvays, George Clinton, Carach Angren, Consider the Source, Dinosaur Jr., John Maus, Dying Fetus, Billie Eilish, Yung Lean, Daughters, Hard Working Americans (HWA), Colin Hay, Le Butcherettes, Los Lobos, Morbid Angel, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, David Sedaris, Tower of Power, Trampled by Turtles, and Turkuaz played on FishCenter Live.[2][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][23][32] Alvvays' played the song "Not My Baby" from their sophomore album Antisocialites. HWA played the songs "Burn Out Shoes" and "Half Ass Moses".[6] HWA was on tour promoting their live album We're All In This Together.[6] Post Malone was also a guest[2] twice and did Trivia on frequent FishCenter guest Kelvin Taylor (actor),[33] along with being bitten by Mom after drinking 9 beers on his first appearance.[34] Waka Flocka Flame and DJ Whoo Kid played on FCL as well.[19] Fish-themed Joy Division cover band, Koi Division, said their dream is to appear on FishCenter Live.[7] George Clanton and Nick Hexum played the song "Aurora Summer".[35] 100 Gecs later included their performances on the show in the digital version of 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues, released on July 10, 2020. The final band to play on the show was Dawes, who appeared on the November 12, 2020 episode.
Collaboration
On 24 October 2019, American rock band Cage the Elephant's released a music video for the song "Social Cues" from their album Social Cues. It was shot at FishCenter Live with additional direction from Matt Shultz.[32][36]
Homages
In the episode broadcast Thursday, 13 December 2018, a parody of the original Star Trek's USS Enterprise was featured called the "USS FishCenterprise NCC-1065." 1065 is a reference to the street number for Williams Street, which produces content for Adult Swim.[37]
Broadcast and reception
What is our version of a sports show? What is our version of a relationship Q&A show? You can test these things out, just as we did with FishCenter, in an office with a couple microphones.
—Mike Lazzo, Adult Swim executive[14]
FishCenter Live was originally released in September 2014 on Adult Swim's official website.[38] The show came about when staff decided to film the tropical fish swimming around their aquarium as an idea for developing content for the website's online streaming channels. New episodes were presented on weekdays. The show was added to the network proper in February 2015, broadcast at 4 a.m. These airings are condensed versions of the live version, consisting of 11-minute highlights from each day.[14][b]
In the first week of its televised broadcast, the show garnered 2.6 million viewers in total.[14] In a press release, the network ranked the program first place across all targeted demographics in its time slot during the second week of March 2015.[39] The network observed some of these viewers as confused Twitter users, wondering if the show was a prank. After these airings, live viewership rose from 120 to 5,000. The success led to the creation of a separate live stream dedicated to the network's Toonami block.[14]
In August 2017, a premiere of a Rick and Morty episode was delayed due to an episode of FishCenter Live on the same live stream.[22]
Critical reception has been positive. Adweek's Jason Lynch called FishCenter Live "its flagship livestreaming show."[9] The Comedy Bureau received the series favorably with "you'll find, while giggling the whole way through, that you do get sort of invested in the individual fish."[40] Decider's Kayla Cobb said "[i]t's weird, but it works."[20] Ranked sixth in their list of best "unknown" television series of 2015, Newsday's Verne Gay reviewed ""FC Live" is insane — as such, a perfect distillation of all that is Adult Swim."[1] The Outline's Samuel Argyle said "FishCenter border[s] on the avant-garde.[2] JamBase's Andy Kahn called it "wacky."[27] The Guardian's Mark Lawson critiqued "Ambitiously, this is a phone-in show, although disappointingly, the fish don't take the calls, but swim in tanks that surround the presenters."[41] The A.V. Club's Erik Lindvall said FishCenter "the latest weird thing" to come from the network "in a streak of really weird things", describing it as a "wonderful, web-based world of piscine sports".[5]
Live for Live Music's Ming Lee Newcomb described FishCenter Live as "eccentric" and "bizarre."[6] Ranked fourth in their list of "[t]he 26 Weirdest Adult Swim Shows Ever," Deadspin's Sheldon Pearce commented "Adult Swim employees came up with this one, which means it's definitely on-brand if nothing else."[42] In reviewing Tender Touches, Geek's Jose Rodriguez said the pilot had "more in common with Xavier: Renegade Angel or FishCenter."[43] Reviewing their Alvvays performance, Uproxx's Derrick Rossignol declared "every band should be on it, because at the very least, it's one of the most bizarre live internet shows you can possibly watch."[23] Later, while reviewing the Post Malone episode, Rossignol followed-up with "a totally bizarre, daytime, aquatic, call-in web show that doesn't make much sense, and that's what makes it great."[18] In an interview with host Max Simonet, Sonoma Index-Tribune's David Templeton remarked "[it's] a bizarrely simple cult-hit web-and-television show."[13]
Controversy
In 2016, two Dragon Con cosplayers, claiming an association with Adult Swim and Cartoon Network and wore "Make FishCenter Great Again" hats, dressed as the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks.[44][45][3][46] Images of the cosplay were widely shared on social media sites as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.[44][46] Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston speculated they were cosplaying as the game Rampage,[3] while Facebook commenters drew a connection with the anime Terror in Resonance.[45]
Australian Adaption
Australian channel 9Go! promoted their Australian adaption of FishCenter (known as FishCentre) airing at 12:00 on the channel, along with the Adult Swim block they have on the channel.[citation needed] Unlike the American version of FishCenter, FishCentre was not live and consisted of scripted shorts no longer than 2 minutes in length, with voices super-imposed onto the fish. It ran for 12 episodes.[47]
Notes
References
Further reading
- Kopcow, Chris (May 29, 2015). "Adult Swim's FishCenter: A Beginner's Guide". Splitsider. The Awl. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015.
- "Populist: Items of interest this week". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. May 29, 2015. Archived from the original on June 6, 2015.
- Franks, Nico (March 25, 2015). "Adult Swim floats new app". C21 Media. C21 Media Limited. Archived from the original on June 6, 2015.
