Jamie Kellner Dead At 77

[JUS28]

He was also one of the reasons why Cartoon Network ended up going downhill and Betty Cohen being let go.

Jamie Kellner, TV Maverick Who Launched Both Fox and The WB, Dies at 77

Jamie Kellner, who made his name as the only exec ever to create two broadcast networks — Fox and The WB — died Friday in Montecito, Calif. He was 77.

variety.com

 

[JUS28]

I also told Andy Merrill (the voice for Brak) about Kellner's death!

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[Frontier]

RIP Jamie Kellner.

 

[TnAdct1]

Let's be honest here: given some of the things he did (cancelling shows because it was attracting adult viewers; the end of WCW; Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain), there's going to be a mixed reaction in terms of this news.

 

[Corwin Haught]

Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain

That one was actually Steven Speilberg's decision, but he did greenlight for broadcast. (The opening with "what the network wants" was somewhat misleading).

 

[JMTV]

Let's be honest here: given some of the things he did (cancelling shows because it was attracting adult viewers; the end of WCW; Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain), there's going to be a mixed reaction in terms of this news.

Yeah, you took those words right out of my mouth.

In my opinion, even though Jamie Kellner’s passing is unfortunate and I hope his family and colleagues are okay after all this, but at the same time, I’m not the biggest fan of the guy either.

While Jamie Kellner had done some good things like bringing Fox and The WB Network some iconic hits from their respective networks, and of course, help bring Fox Kids and Kids WB to life, but on the other hand, his leadership at AOL Time Warner comes across as he does not understand cable television at all, especially Ted Turner’s networks.

This is the same guy who let Betty Cohan go due to disagreement disputes, having Cartoon Network geared towards kids rather than all ages, pushing Kids WB content and advertising strategies onto CN in order to compete against Nickelodeon, splitting Cartoon Network and Adult Swim for ratings and advertising purposes rather than appealing to the family co-viewing demographic, and he doesn’t understand Ted Turner’s vision is for the networks.

(Oh, he called WCW “too low class”)

Yeah, I’m pretty mixed on Jamie Kellner. I want to respect the guy because he knows how to create successful television business strategies, but just the way he handled the Turner networks almost come across as so out of touch and doesn’t have a understanding of what going into Ted Turner's vision for their business and just want to make his own legacy.

Now, to be completely fair, at least Cartoon Network wasn’t totally severed by Kellner’s tenure because at least Jim Samples did help CN grow above and beyond in the City era, but the fact that CN has to be a kids brand rather than a all ages brand, from a business standpoint, I get that, but in my personal opinion, it rubs me the wrong way since I don’t view Cartoon Network as Kids WB the cable channel just for the sake of profit and merch sales, but that’s just me.

Anyway, rest in peace, Jamie Kellner.

 

[Majin_Megabyte]

This is sorta weird timing with the Vice documentary about the death of WCW is currently airing. I have some mixed feelings about him. With he how handle the cancelation of animated shows and the entire situation with WCW.

Anyway, RIP Jamie Kellner.

 

[nick p]

Jamie Kellner cancelled WCW Pinky & The Brain and Freaakazoid

 

[TnAdct1]

That one was actually Steven Speilberg's decision, but he did greenlight for broadcast. (The opening with "what the network wants" was somewhat misleading).

While it's very likely that Spielberg was the one who pitched the addition of Elmyra, it was Kellner who wanted a retool of Pinky and the Brain (with a couple of third season episodes basically serving as responses to this request).

splitting Cartoon Network and Adult Swim for ratings and advertising purposes rather than appealing to the family co-viewing demographic

I feel that this was the biggest problem with Kellner during his time working with Time Warner: he couldn't accept the fact that there are shows that could appeal to both kids and adults (with the shows airing on Kids WB when it started being a huge example of this).

 

[Vuxovich]

Jamie Kellner cancelled WCW Pinky & The Brain and Freaakazoid

The real reason why the whole Steven Spielberg animated universe was canned was due to the Pokémon anime's success in the United States. Anyway, I will be thankful to Kellner for improving Cartoon Network et cetera. Requiescat in pace, man!

 

[JMTV]

I feel that this was the biggest problem with Kellner during his time working with Time Warner: he couldn't accept the fact that there are shows that could appeal to both kids and adults (with the shows airing on Kids WB when it started being a huge example of this).

Yup. That’s why I said he is so out of touch. Cartoons doesn’t automatically mean it’s for kids.

It’s sucks that Betty Cohan had to be let go.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

While it's very likely that Spielberg was the one who pitched the addition of Elmyra, it was Kellner who wanted a retool of Pinky and the Brain (with a couple of third season episodes basically serving as responses to this request).

It was a different WB executive, Christopher Keenan, who had the Elmyra idea. I got that straight from Ruegger's mouth.

Overall Kellner struck me as one of those stereotypical TV Suits you hear about who made shows worse by meddling with them because he thought he was smarter than he really was. Yeah, Batman Beyond happened under his watch, but I feel like if Kellner had his way, every show would have been Max Steel.

 

[aegisrawks]

I love him. I dont care. Come at me. Without Fox Kids And Kids WB the world wouldnt be what it was.
EDIT: I know he did controversial stuff, and very condemned decisions, and much of the biggest Fox Kids hits were in spite, not because of him. But with Fox or The WB those wouldnt exist, at all.

 

[Corwin Haught]

It was a different WB executive, Christopher Keenan, who had the Elmyra idea. I got that straight from Ruegger's mouth.

Keenan was the SVP of Creative Affairs at Warner Bros. Animation, so he wasn't technically "the network".

 

[Daikun]

I also told Andy Merrill (the voice for Brak) about Kellner's death!

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How fascinating that Andy doesn't remember him.
Interestingly, it seems like CN's staff didn't interact with him much, or perhaps even at all. Here's what Jason DeMarco had to say on Bluesky after someone brought the news to his attention...

 

[Pooky]

I love him. I dont care. Come at me. Without Fox Kids And Kids WB the world wouldnt be what it was.
EDIT: I know he did controversial stuff, and very condemned decisions, and much of the biggest Fox Kids hits were in spite, not because of him. But with Fox or The WB those wouldnt exist, at all.

I wouldn't say I love him, and I appreciate that people aren't valorising someone just because they died, but at the same time I'm not sure he merits such a negative thread right now. Unless there's more to it that's not being mentioned here, I'm not sure much of this matters all that much all these years later, to me as someone who wasn't directly affected by any of his decisions. OK, Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain wasn't great, but the world kept spinning. I guess he stands as a reminder that as long as there's been internet communities there have been these hate-figure scapegoats.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

One of the attacks on him that I have always disagreed with is that he brought Kids WB programming to CN. In the 90s there was not much overlap. Shows like Superman and Pinky and the Brain would air in one off events, but it took Superman years to regularly air, and Pinky never came back. Batman did get to air starting at the beginning of the Powerhouse era, but it took years to air all the episodes.

Eventually, we get to summer 2001 when they start cross promoting the networks more, but shows are still primarily exclusive to one channel or the other. Samurai Jack episode one aired on Kids WB, but they never aired the full show. The closest to actual runs were brief promotions. PPG was briefly on Kids WB to promote the movie. Kids WB Toonami aired a couple of CN shows like DBZ and Sailor Moon for a week or two. Cardcaptors season one aired on Toonami on CN for three weeks, as part of the lead up to Kids WB airing season 2. While it’s disappointing they couldn’t air all the episodes in order on Toonami, that decision was already made at the WB sadly.

Even during the period when Kids WB Toonami was airing, Kids WB shows on CN were bunched in a single rotating slot on Friday nights between Samurai Jack and CCF in 2001. There are shows like Cubix and the Mummy which aired on CN just once or twice, and never got full runs. Even Pokemon and Yugioh were kept exclusive to this slot for months, and didn’t air regularly until November 2002. They missed out on airing those shows at the peak of popularity, and were so far behind that some seasons ended up being skipped. When they finally did get more Kids WB shows airing regularly in 2003, there seemed to be restrictions on where they could air on CN. X-Men Evolution was a show that Demarco was unable to air on Toonami (on CN that is, it did air on Kids WB Toonami). X-Men aired late at night, usually at a timeslot like 10:30 pm with ads for Adult Swim programming that was coming up next.

X-Men Evolution did get decent slots on SVES though. SVES was an attempt to incorporate more Kids WB shows to a new Saturday night block replacing Adult Swim Action. They had Max Steel on there in the first month. It was removed quickly, but the block still aired WB shows like Pokemon, Yugioh, Jackie Chan Adventures, and X-Men Evolution. I think that block was a solid attempt at unifying the WB brand. It had the most popular anime and action cartoons from Kids WB, new episodes of WB superhero cartoons like Teen Titans months before Kids WB got them, a full hour of Justice League, toyetic Toonami shows like He-Man, Zoids, and Transformers, and later in the night we get to more mature anime like .hack//sign, Cyborg 009, and Rurouni Kenshin. In its seven hours it took advantage of the Kids WB and Toonami libraries. Even former AS shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Gundam 0080 aired there, so it’s not like CN was only focusing on kids just because some Kids WB shows aired.

The peak of Kids WB-CN cooperation seems to be in from November 2002-the city era. During fall 2005, Transformers Cybertron was awkwardly shared between Toonami and Kids WB, randomly skipping episodes during a period of especially poor scheduling. They also stop airing the original Yugioh that fall on CN midway through season 4. Most later Kids WB shows never made it to CN, other than Tom and Jerry Tales and Johnny Test. A show like Legion of Super-Heroes would have fit well on Toonami or Miguzi, but it never got to air on either. The Batman was on Toonami sporadically, but never made it past the first couple seasons. Even though Kids WB’s later output is inconsistent in quality, I still would have preferred if they had a variety of Kids WB shows airing instead of just focusing so much on Billy and Mandy, Fosters, KND, Ed Edd n Eddy, and Camp Lazlo. Xiaolin Showdown seemed to be the main Kids WB favored by CN at this time.

 

[JMTV]

How fascinating that Andy doesn't remember him.
Interestingly, it seems like CN's staff didn't interact with him much, or perhaps even at all. Here's what Jason DeMarco had to say on Bluesky after someone brought the news to his attention...

Okay, that's interesting. Not everyone who worked at CN had any effect on Jamie Kellner's leadership. Good to know.

Though, it makes me wonder why would Kellner decided to let Betty Cohen go and being replaced by Jim Samples at that time.

One of the attacks on him that I have always disagreed with is that he brought Kids WB programming to CN. In the 90s there was not much overlap. Shows like Superman and Pinky and the Brain would air in one off events, but it took Superman years to regularly air, and Pinky never came back. Batman did get to air starting at the beginning of the Powerhouse era, but it took years to air all the episodes.

Eventually, we get to summer 2001 when they start cross promoting the networks more, but shows are still primarily exclusive to one channel or the other. Samurai Jack episode one aired on Kids WB, but they never aired the full show. The closest to actual runs were brief promotions. PPG was briefly on Kids WB to promote the movie. Kids WB Toonami aired a couple of CN shows like DBZ and Sailor Moon for a week or two. Cardcaptors season one aired on Toonami on CN for three weeks, as part of the lead up to Kids WB airing season 2. While it’s disappointing they couldn’t air all the episodes in order on Toonami, that decision was already made at the WB sadly.

Even during the period when Kids WB Toonami was airing, Kids WB shows on CN were bunched in a single rotating slot on Friday nights between Samurai Jack and CCF in 2001. There are shows like Cubix and the Mummy which aired on CN just once or twice, and never got full runs. Even Pokemon and Yugioh were kept exclusive to this slot for months, and didn’t air regularly until November 2002. They missed out on airing those shows at the peak of popularity, and were so far behind that some seasons ended up being skipped. When they finally did get more Kids WB shows airing regularly in 2003, there seemed to be restrictions on where they could air on CN. X-Men Evolution was a show that Demarco was unable to air on Toonami (on CN that is, it did air on Kids WB Toonami). X-Men aired late at night, usually at a timeslot like 10:30 pm with ads for Adult Swim programming that was coming up next.

X-Men Evolution did get decent slots on SVES though. SVES was an attempt to incorporate more Kids WB shows to a new Saturday night block replacing Adult Swim Action. They had Max Steel on there in the first month. It was removed quickly, but the block still aired WB shows like Pokemon, Yugioh, Jackie Chan Adventures, and X-Men Evolution. I think that block was a solid attempt at unifying the WB brand. It had the most popular anime and action cartoons from Kids WB, new episodes of WB superhero cartoons like Teen Titans months before Kids WB got them, a full hour of Justice League, toyetic Toonami shows like He-Man, Zoids, and Transformers, and later in the night we get to more mature anime like .hack//sign, Cyborg 009, and Rurouni Kenshin. In its seven hours it took advantage of the Kids WB and Toonami libraries. Even former AS shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Gundam 0080 aired there, so it’s not like CN was only focusing on kids just because some Kids WB shows aired.

The peak of Kids WB-CN cooperation seems to be in from November 2002-the city era. During fall 2005, Transformers Cybertron was awkwardly shared between Toonami and Kids WB, randomly skipping episodes during a period of especially poor scheduling. They also stop airing the original Yugioh that fall on CN midway through season 4. Most later Kids WB shows never made it to CN, other than Tom and Jerry Tales and Johnny Test. A show like Legion of Super-Heroes would have fit well on Toonami or Miguzi, but it never got to air on either. The Batman was on Toonami sporadically, but never made it past the first couple seasons. Even though Kids WB’s later output is inconsistent in quality, I still would have preferred if they had a variety of Kids WB shows airing instead of just focusing so much on Billy and Mandy, Fosters, KND, Ed Edd n Eddy, and Camp Lazlo. Xiaolin Showdown seemed to be the main Kids WB favored by CN at this time.

Okay, that is a fair point. I'm not saying having Kids WB content on CN is a bad thing, but I was just saying that the people at the top are really trying to emphasized CN as being a kids network rather than being a network for all ages.

 

[JUS28]

Okay, that's interesting. Not everyone who worked at CN had any effect on Jamie Kellner's leadership. Good to know.

Though, it makes me wonder why would Kellner decided to let Betty Cohen go and being replaced by Jim Samples at that time.

Okay, that is a fair point. I'm not saying having Kids WB content on CN is a bad thing, but I was just saying that the people at the top are really trying to emphasized CN as being a kids network rather than being a network for all ages.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Andy did pointed out he knew Jim Samples back in the day! I wonder if he and Samples were good friends?

 

[JMTV]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Andy did pointed out he knew Jim Samples back in the day! I wonder if he and Samples were good friends?

That's a good question. I have no idea, and that's none of my business.