Saul of the Mole Men

The Cartoon Network's late-night blocs of Adult Swim programming breaks new ground Sunday night, Feb. 11, with the debut of two new shows that happen to be live action. Live action shows on a cartoon network? Crazy!

I confess that I haven't watched enough of "Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job" to get a sense of it beyond that it looks to be going for a similar flavor as HBO's fondly-remembered "Mr. Show," another two-man sketch show. I have seen the first installment of "Saul of the Mole Men", which makes a fairly amusing debut.

Described as "like 'Land of the Lost' on even more acid," "Saul and the Mole Men" offers an occasionally nasty send-up of 1970s Saturday morning adventure shows, particularly those from the magical world of Sid and Marty Krofft. The first episode depicts a team of jump-suited scientists from a supercool organization called "STRATA" on a mission to the center of the Earth. When a disaster wipes out most of the crew, leadership falls to Saul (Josh Gardner), a nerdy, socially challenged geologist. (Real geologists will probably fire up message boards denying any resemblance.)

The jokes frequently rely on bizarre non sequiturs, such as the exchange when the injured mission commander asks Saul "What are you doing with Todd's cold sore?" "It's a mustache, Captain," Saul replies. "The coldest sore of all!" says the Captain. Typically, Adult Swim emphasizes out-of-nowhere surrealism over plot or character, so we'll have to wait and see whether "Saul and the Mole Men" is going anywhere.

Nevertheless, the show's kitschy design proves so clever and loving, it borders on genius. The Mole Men wear hilariously phony costumes reminiscent of "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters," although they have a decidedly grown-up fondness for alcoholic pineapple and strange fornication practices. A STRATA promotional film perfectly captures both the 1970s idea of edgy marketing flourishes as well as the look of the era's entertainment: A short location shot seems to take place in the same valley as every outside-the-studio episode of "Star Trek" or "The Six Million Dollar Man." The interior of the drill machine could be a leftover set from "Far-Out Space Nuts." The actors are filmed in front of a green screen, and so will "interact" against flat, primary-colored landscapes that look like Salvador Dali's notion of the Earth's crust.

"Saul and the Mole Men" is so fun to look at I'm inclined to cut it a little slack for making jokes out of awkward pauses or violent slapstick. So far, I kind of dig it.