What To Know About 20th Television Animation, Disney's New Adult-Oriented Cartoon Unit

Walt Disney Co.’s DIS Disney Television Studios has launched a new unit called 20th Television Animation to develop and produce animated series aimed primarily at an adult audience.

What Happened: The new unit will begin with 11 series in production, including “Solar Opposites” and “The Great North,” and will oversee legacy titles including “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “American Dad” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

Marci Proietto, executive vice president for 20th Century Television, was named the head of the new unit. All animated programming previously produced by 20th Century Television will now be handled by the new unit.

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“This is truly a boom time in adult animation and I’m excited to continue to build on the leadership of this studio with this new production unit laser-focused on growing our roster of successful animated series,” said Proietto, who joined the former 20th Century Fox Television straight out of college 29 years ago, starting as the assistant to the head of production and working her way up through the ranks.

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Why It Matters: Adult-oriented animation has been one of the most lucrative Disney genres, not only on the company’s networks but in sales to other platforms: Apple Inc AAPL is running the company’s “Central Park” on its Apple TV+ streaming platform, while “The Prince” is a popular fixture on HBO Max, part of the AT&T Inc. T entertainment offerings.

The animated output is also a popular fixture on Star, the mature audience-focused content hub within the Disney+ streaming service. Star was launched last month for a global audience, with initial presentations in Canada, western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore; a Latin American version of Star is scheduled for later this year.

(Photo: The long-running “Family Guy” is now part of Disney’s new 20th Television Animation unit.)