Late night cartoons catch on with adult viewers, advertisers.

In 2001, Mike Lazzo, programming head at Time Warner Inc.'s Cartoon Network, pitched a late-night show to John Muszynski, a potential advertiser. The stars: a domineering milkshake called Master Shake and a shape-changing hamburger named Meatwad.

"I looked at him and said, 'I don't get it,'" recalled Muszynski, managing director of Chicago-based media buyer Starcom USA, which counts Coca-Cola Co. and Kellogg Co. as clients.

Three years later, Muszynski still doesn't get "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," which airs opposite late-night fixtures "The Tonight Show" and "Late Show with David Letterman." That hasn't stopped him from advertising as Cartoon Network's ratings climb.

The all-animation channel's offbeat fare topped ESPN sports programs and TNT net work among 18- to 34-year-old cable TV viewers in 19 of the first 39 weeks of 2004, according to Nielsen Media Research, which tracks TV habits. "I don't have to get it," said Muszynski. "The viewer has to get it."

From DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s "Shark Tale" to "SpongeBob SquarePants" on Nickelodeon, cartoons are reeling in big audiences.

Betting on a payoff from cartoons for grownups isn't as wacky as it may sound. Scripted shows on broadcast TV typically cost $1 million to $2.5 million an episode to produce, while Cartoon Network's staff of 30 writers, animators and producers for adult shows turn out "Sealab 2021" and "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" in a converted carpet factory in Atlanta for $50,000 to $200,000 an episode. The adult cartoons will generate $100 million in annual revenue for Time Warner in the next few years, predicted Mark Lazarus, president of the New York-based media company's Turner Entertainment Group.

"We do expensive things on the cheap," said "Aqua Teen" co-creator Matt Maiellaro.

One way Cartoon Network trims costs is by doubling up on jobs. Maiellaro, a former production assistant on low-budget films such as "Hellraiser 3," and writing partner Dave Willis, 34, sing backup on the show's theme, performed by tapper Schoolly D.

Dimwitted hamburger

If "Toy Story" strives for realism with its bedroom of perfectly rendered playthings, Cartoon Network takes the opposite tack. Meatwad, a dimwitted hamburger with circles for eyes, changes into three shapes: a bridge, an igloo and a hot dog. Frylock, a talking order of french flies, has no legs. Master Shake, who swims uninvited in a neighbor's pool, bosses both of them around.

In the 1960s and 1970s, cartoons reflected the state of the American living room on Saturday mornings. That began to change with shows like "The Simpsons" and their commentary on society and politics. "The kids that are 19 years old now grew up with cartoons," said Michael Maynard, chairman of the advertising department at Temple University.

Today, 27 percent of 18- to 34-year-old men regularly watch cartoons; 35 percent are whitecollar professionals; and 37 percent are members of households with annual incomes of $50,000 or more, according to market research firm Yankelovich Partners Inc. in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"That's a prime audience for advertisers," said Peter Jankovskis, director of research at Oakbrook Investments LLC in Lisle, III., which owns 150,000 shares of Time Warner among its $1.3 billion in assets.

Cartoon Network is becoming a boon to its parent, too. It contributed $650 million of the $4.6 billion in revenue at Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System cable channels last year. Profit, excluding costs for depreciation and amortization, rose to $241 million. Time Warner spokeswoman Tricia Primrose Wallace declined to provide a year-earlier comparison.

What Time Warner will say is that Cartoon Network's profit has increased faster than that of any of the 11 other Turner domestic U.S. networks during the past five years, including CNN, the all-news channel, and TBS, which airs reruns of "Seinfeld."

During the same period, Time Warner itself had losses totaling $110 billion, led by a $98.7 billion loss in 2002, a U.S. record, after the company wrote down the value of its America Online division.

On Nov. 3, Time Warner said third-quarter profit fell 7.8 percent after it set aside $500 million to resolve government investigations into accounting practices at America Online. Net income dropped to $499 million, or 11 cents a share, from $541 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 5 percent to $10 billion.

For TV's major broadcast networks, Cartoon Network is one more irritant. Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS are already struggling to stem defections to cable shows, including crime drama "The Sopranos."

NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker said he doesn't consider Cartoon Network a threat in the late-night arena. One reason: It's small. Cartoon Network draws about 17 percent of the 8.3 million viewers who tune in to NBC's "Tonight Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

Matt Harrigan, who returned to Time Warner after working on "The Late Show with David Letterman," said writers and cast members at "Adult Swim" are becoming celebrities. That may make it easier to attract advertisers for a new show called "Squidbillies," the story of a family of squid in--where else--rural Georgia.

With such characters on the horizon, Cartoon Network may find that advertisers like Muszynski start to consider talking milkshakes run of the mill.