Mike Lazzo

When Mike Lazzo was 15, he came home from school every day, made popcorn and watched "Speed Racer." One afternoon, in the middle of some epic tussle between Speed and Racer X, his mother told him to mow the lawn. He said no. He had to finish watching the show. "And she said, 'You know, son, these cartoons are not going to do you any good when you need to go out and find a job,' " Lazzo recalls. How wrong she was.

A masked man in the witness protection program fights for the future of his family. A band of unorthodox physicians works tirelessly to save sick children. A cabal of forensic ninjas solves crimes while refusing to play by the rules. And, finally, a vengeful U.S. marshal exercises a predilection for hard justice and cowboy hats. This is not a list of pitches for pilot season. No, these are the premises of four live-action programs currently active or in production on the Cartoon Network's nightly Adult Swim block.

A masked man in the witness protection program fights for the future of his family. A band of unorthodox physicians works tirelessly to save sick children. A cabal of forensic ninjas solves crimes while refusing to play by the rules. And, finally, a vengeful U.S. marshal exercises a predilection for hard justice and cowboy hats. This is not a list of pitches for pilot season. No, these are the premises of four live-action programs currently active or in production on the Cartoon Network's nightly Adult Swim block.

What's up, doc? "June Bugs 2001," a 49-hour marathon of Bugs Bunny cartoons airing on the Cartoon Network. The marathon, which kicks off today and continues until midnight Sunday, will run the cartoons in chronological order, from Bugs' first appearance in 1938's "Porky's Hare Hunt" to his most recent starring vehicle, 1997's "From Hare to Eternity." These cartoons highlight the talents of such legendary Warner Bros.

What's up, doc? "June Bugs 2001," a 49-hour marathon of Bugs Bunny cartoons airing on the Cartoon Network. The marathon, which kicks off today and continues until midnight Sunday, will run the cartoons in chronological order, from Bugs' first appearance in 1938's "Porky's Hare Hunt" to his most recent starring vehicle, 1997's "From Hare to Eternity." These cartoons highlight the talents of such legendary Warner Bros.

Hey, there! It's Yogi Bear--in an art film, no less. Cartoon Network revives Jellystone Park's animated denizens Friday in a prime-time two-part special, "Boo Boo Runs Wild" and "A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith," that's as audacious as it is genuinely riveting. The show corrals the cartoon icons created by the late William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and now owned by Time Warner into the oeuvre of eccentric animator John Kricfalusi and his Spumco Studio.

Get set for the return of Hanna Barbera's super hero Space Ghost. This time around, however, instead of leading an all-cartoon adventure show, the intrepid adventurer hosts an irreverent talk fest a la "The Tonight Show." Space Ghost: Coast to Coast combines live-action and animation, with real celebrity guests taped at a location convenient to them. Atlanta-based Ghost George Lowe (taking over for Gary Owens) phones his questions in to them. Space Ghost animation is added to the mix later.

It's not exactly the highest-rated show on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block. It airs at such a wee hour, even its creators admit they don't stay up to watch it. And its visual style is so unusual that purists say it doesn't even qualify as animation. But "Tom Goes to the Mayor," one of the most inventive shows on a channel that prides itself on unusual late-night programming, returns for a second season late Sunday night (actually 12:30 a.m.

Animation pioneer and legend William Hanna, who revolutionized television animation along with his partner Joseph Barbera, creating hundreds of enduring characters such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, the Flintstones, Scooby Doo, the Jetsons and numerous others, died Thursday at his North Hollywood home. He was 90.

When the Sci Fi network launched 10 years ago, it was best known for airing endless reruns of "Battlestar Galactica," along with the umpteenth TV airing of "Star Wars." Hard-core sci-fi geeks, it seemed, had found a channel all for themselves. Around the same time, Cartoon Network became the 24-hour hub for fans of nostalgia cartoons, and nothing but. If Bugs was your boy, this channel was your toon boon.

When Mike Lazzo was 15, he came home from school every day, made popcorn and watched "Speed Racer." One afternoon, in the middle of some epic tussle between Speed and Racer X, his mother told him to mow the lawn. He said no. He had to finish watching the show. "And she said, 'You know, son, these cartoons are not going to do you any good when you need to go out and find a job,' " Lazzo recalls. How wrong she was.

Some critics--including our very own Howard Rosenberg--contend the 1990s represent the real "Golden Age" of prime-time series, citing shows ranging from "Frasier" to "Ally McBeal" to "NYPD Blue." Others--including members of my very own family--cling more fondly to the past, arguing that nothing today rivals "The Honeymooners," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" or "The Twilight Zone." Hey, reasonable minds can differ.

A world-renowned scholar of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound writes a book about the guy who created Wile E. Coyote. A cable channel that shows nothing but cartoons says a third of its audience is old enough to vote. Animation cels--the hundreds of individual drawings that make up a six-minute cartoon--sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Cartoons may have a reputation for being kids' stuff; in fact, they're anything but. Just ask Ken Dennison, who regularly sits down in his Bel Air, Md.