Cartoons that are a middle ground between being for kids and being for adults?

[Leviathan]

I don't understand why there aren't more of them. The most successful cartoons of all time have had cross-generational appeal. The Simpsons, for example, is clean enough for kids but risque enough for adults, and so both latched onto it and made it a mega-success. Most everything that followed in its wake did not figure this trick out; an "adult" cartoon had to be for "adults" period, limiting its audience size.

To this day, most animated shows are created either strictly for kids or strictly for adults. My only explanation is that businessmen are obsessed with "demographics" and can't figure out anything that doesn't fit a specific box. Their blindness is their loss.

It's more advertisers than executives. A show that get's ratings outside of its demographic is undesirable to advertisers, the cause of so many cancellations over the years.

I don't think it's a coincidence that all these massive cuts to animation on streaming are happening at the same time streamers are embracing ad-supported tiers.