The Boondocks is an American animated television series created by Aaron McGruder for the Adult Swim programming block of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network, based upon McGruder's comic strip of the same name. The Boondocks is a social satire of American culture and race, revolving around the lives of the Freeman family – ten-year-old Huey, his younger brother Riley, and their grandfather, Robert. The series is produced by Rebel Base in association with Sony Pictures Television and is currently airing its second season on Adult Swim.

The Boondocks takes place in the same place and time frame as its comic counterpart. The Freeman family, having recently transplanted themselves from the South Side of Chicago to the peaceful, fictional suburb of Woodcrest, find different ways to cope with this acute change in setting as well as the drastically different suburban cultures and lifestyles to which they are exposed. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, and races provides for much of the comedy on which the series plays.

The TV-MA-rated satire premiered on November 6, 2005. The fifteen-episode first season ended on March 19, 2006. The second season premiered on October 8, 2007 and was although, according to McGruder's MySpace page, considered to be cut to only 13 episodes.

The word "Boondocks" derives from the Tagalog word "bundok" which means "mountain". The word came into American use after the Philippine-American War (which followed the Spanish-American War) when returning military personnel used the term. It has since become a slang word for suburban areas.

The controversial nature of the comic strip (as well as Aaron McGruder's insistence on maintaining creative control) lead to several failed attempts to get this series going since 1999. McGruder initially developed "The Boondocks" as a television series before turning it into a strip. Some of the would-be homes of the series included HBO, MTV and Comedy Central. In 2003, the FOX network ordered a pilot with the prospect of picking up the series. They eventually passed, only to have the series taken up by the Cartoon Network's spin-off network, Adult Swim.

Although Reginald Hudlin helped develop the series, his involvement with the show ended in July 2005 (four months before its premiere) when he was named President of Entertainment for the B.E.T (Black Entertainment Television) network (the very channel that he and McGruder have often lampooned). RZA, Ja Rule and Brandy Norwood are among the actors who auditioned for the show.