The Adult Swim series "The Boondocks" returns for its second season tonight at 11:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network, several months overdue. Why the delay?

"It just took us longer to finish the show than we thought," said creator Aaron McGruder. "It's animation. We wanted to get it right. It's a very complicated thing to do. It goes to three countries and really it's one of those things that if it's bad, it's really bad. We took the time and got it right."

"Boondocks" is back after a 20-month hiatus with an episode that finds protagonist Huey, a 10-year-old left-wing revolutionary, trying to organize a union among ushers at a movie theater. Younger brother Riley tries to illegally video tape a movie to sell a pirated copy. Their granddad sneaks into the movie and smuggles food in.

McGruder, who first conceived "Boondocks" as a rare newspaper comic strip that featured African-American lead characters, said the show's staff learned a lot from the first season, including what the show actually looked like.

"When we finished the last script of the first season, none of us had seen the first episode. It hadn't come back from overseas, so we'd written the entire first season blind," he said. "Just knowing what the show is played a huge role in how we shaped season two. We got much better control over the animation and that allows you to tell stories in a proper way. When the animation is controlling you, you're limited to what you can do."

McGruder said the pace is faster and the show is funnier in year two, which comprises 15 new weekly episodes. He acknowledged that the TV show played a role in the demise of his daily comic strip.

"I didn't want to do both badly," he said. "In the first season, I tried to do both and it took a huge toll on me. I constantly play with the idea of coming back, not to newspapers, but online or wireless of something. It could happen."

McGruder said he didn't want to return to the daily newspaper grind because he couldn't meet the schedule required. What about Sunday-only, like some other newspaper comic strips?

"Perhaps," he said, "but as of now I just feel like however it happens, if the strip would ever come back, it would have to be on my terms."

With the TV version of "Boondocks," McGruder said he's been afforded more freedom than in newspapers.

"Newspapers are a very conservative and sanitized medium," he said. "Just in terms of the expression of ideas, we're allowed a lot more range on television."