Mike Lazzo

Michael Lazzo (born April 10, 1958) is a retired American television producer and the former executive vice president in charge of the Adult Swim programming block of Cartoon Network, and its production arm, Williams Street. Life and career Lazzo was born in LaGrange, Georgia. In his childhood, his family would often relocate, making it difficult for him to make friends. Instead, he grew heavily invested in television, cartoons (mainly Astro Boy and Speed Racer), and comic books. He dropped out of high school at 15 and for a time worked at a movie theater. In 1984, he began working in the shipping and receiving department of Turner Broadcasting System. He gradually worked his way through the programming department of Turner in the intervening years. He went to program TBS's animation block, running daily from 4:30–6PM Eastern time until 1993, when he became the first programmer in Cartoon Network's history. By 1994, he was the vice president of programming for Cartoon Network. In 1994, Lazzo helped create the first animated late-night talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, for the Cartoon Network. His production company, Ghost Planet Industries, created the spin-off of Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost in 1995; Cartoon Planet debuted on TBS but moved to Cartoon Network the following year. Lazzo helped create The Powerpuff Girls before moving to Cartoon Network's adult-oriented block Adult Swim. In 1997, Lazzo and GPI began production on Toonami, an afternoon block of action cartoons on Cartoon Network. In 1999, Lazzo himself appeared in a rehearsal of the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Fire Ant" in an episode "Table Read". In 2004, he served as the producer for Miguzi, another afternoon block of action programming, this time aimed at a younger audience.