Old-School CN Nostalgia Thread (1990s)

[CartoonNothing]

Ace, is it also ok to post the clips on your account?

 

[Darklordavaitor]

Just remembered the Fancy Anvil Awards, and I'm trying to remember all that won and which cartoons were shown. Now I remember distinctly that an Edx3 short was aired, but not which one, but what I do remember is the Powerpuff short "Los Dos Mojos", the Dexter shorts "Let's Save the World You Jerk!" and "Mock 5", as well as the classic Looney short "Rabbit of Seville" airing then.

Also, does anyone remember the exact list of winners of the 2000 Presidential Election thing CN did? All I can tell you right now is that Scooby was #1, Powerpuff was #2, and either Dexter or Bugs Bunny were #3.

I loved it when CN did events like these, when the various characters of the shows could interreact with each other. Just for fun, check out this classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hABvEHqsacY

 

[Racattack!Force]

Whoa, the channel had such a different feel back then. It just felt nice and retro.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Like I said, I currently have no means of extracting or recording them from my tapes; no capture card, no camera, not even a capable enough PC.

This'll all have to wait until around May-ish, when I'll have a lot of free time and resources on my hand.

 

[Kevin]

Ace, if you can get thoe clips onto your computer, I'd love to see them! It's certainly great news that you were able to acquire some more classic CN material.

 

[Master Toon]

Whoa, I haven't posted in this thread since.. well since I created it. I still have more happy pappy memories, such as watching Cartoon Network's Christmas specials. I always look forward to Dexter's Lab when Dexter tries to prove Santa is really Dad dressed up and when Johnny Bravo mistakes Santa for a burglar and knocks him out.

My favorite memories of CN was weekday Toonami -- More specifically, weekday toonami around the time brand new DBZ eps were about to premiere for the first time in years. To be honest, at that point in my life, each new DBZ episode really was the highlight of pretty much every single weekday.

In all seriousness, it was shows like DBZ, Gundam Wing, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star, Yu Yu Hakusho, and the Tenchi Muyo series that gave me reason and motivation to get up every day to go to school. That might sound weird, but the rationale was that the sooner I got it over with, the sooner I'd be able to come home and enjoy the afternoon watching Toonami. G Gundam was probably the last good show I remember premiering on the line-up.

After that, my overall enjoyment in the network declined for various reasons.

In that case, check out this thread also created by yours truly.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I loved the bumpers where they all worked at a studio and there was a few live action people running around. I would honestly spend money on a DVD of just that.

 

[CartoonNothing]

Ace, can you post a list of the bumps you have?

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Check out my YouTube account:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperAdventures

 

[Ace Goodheart]

*bows down*, thanks for making my thread a sticky again, whoever you are!!!

And those who are new and/or returning to this thread, please don't mind the bumper/commercial talk that has made up the last few pages of this thread........this is still a nostalgia thread for all things '90's Cartoon Network! It's just that the visitors have dried up over time aside from the regulars.

 

[The Huntsman]

I used to watch Cartoon Network all of the time when I was younger, more so than I do nowadays, though I mostly remember it from the mid to late 90s. However, I do not believe that the network was the bliss that so many people seem to pine for. As a child, there were numerous animated programs that I never cared about and didn’t enjoy watching, and as an adult, I probably still wouldn’t enjoy them. That’s the thing; opinions are commonplace and one person’s utopia is another person’s dystopia. In that regard, the shows of the 90s were no better or worse than the new-millennial shows. In ten years, I’m confident that people will be nostalgically reminiscing about shows that many people are taking for granted in this day and age. I admit that I would like for Cartoon Network to take a few steps back and adopt the good practices that they employed a decade earlier, but networks don’t make money by staying the same. If that weren’t true, networks would never get new programming. Even networks dedicated towards showing old programs, such as Boomerang and TV Land, have been doing their best to acquire newer programming that might be more financially sound.

I apologize for the digression, but I believe that these issues need to be considered when people reflect back on the past. Ideally, a network retains its best features and gets rid of its worst features, and while Cartoon Network has made some poor decisions, I believe that they made the right call in getting rid of some of their old programming. “Jonny Quest”? No thank you.

At any rate, one of my favorite memories is when they aired that Screwy Squirrel episode over and over on April Fools Day. It was so annoying, yet at the same time, I must have watched the episode at least a dozen times. It was captivating, in an odd sort of way.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Good response. Believe me, not all us old-school CN fans proclaim that everything aired on the network during the '90's was a classic. As a matter of fact, I'm more of a fan of the '90's Cartoon Network's format, promotion, bumpers etc........you know the technical stuff, and not so much the actual shows. I mean, there's a lot of them airing daily on Boomerang, and I have nor the patience or desire to watch them regularly.

 

[abwayax]

And we're even divided over that! Some of us prefer the "Powerhouse" (late 90s-early 00s) look, while others go for the "checkerboard" (early-mid 90s) look. Personally I like them both, but I grew up with Powerhouse so that's what I stick with.

In fact I have more material I'm tempted to post, but it's all Powerhouse and I'd like to wait for some Checkerboard to balance it out. Besides, I'm not sure how many people in here like the Powerhouse look anyway.

Edit: I don't know if this was mentioned but BigDogJango has some Checkerboard-era clips.

 

[Antiyonder]

I used to watch Cartoon Network all of the time when I was younger, more so than I do nowadays, though I mostly remember it from the mid to late 90s. However, I do not believe that the network was the bliss that so many people seem to pine for. As a child, there were numerous animated programs that I never cared about and didn’t enjoy watching, and as an adult, I probably still wouldn’t enjoy them. That’s the thing; opinions are commonplace and one person’s utopia is another person’s dystopia. In that regard, the shows of the 90s were no better or worse than the new-millennial shows. In ten years, I’m confident that people will be nostalgically reminiscing about shows that many people are taking for granted in this day and age. I admit that I would like for Cartoon Network to take a few steps back and adopt the good practices that they employed a decade earlier, but networks don’t make money by staying the same. If that weren’t true, networks would never get new programming. Even networks dedicated towards showing old programs, such as Boomerang and TV Land, have been doing their best to acquire newer programming that might be more financially sound.

I didn't have CN until 1999, so I only got to experience their glory days for awhile.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Regardless of the flaws had by the old Cartoon Network, the people running it put a lot of passion into running it. They made good and bad decisions sure, but they enjoyed running the network, and I tend to think it's the positive attitude displayed by them that made the earlier years of the network enjoyable.

The current suits, however, are more of the old fashion cartoon hating adults, thus their lack of enthusiam and passion for the network shows are what I think contributes to lack of viewers and gives a sour feeling to longtime viewers. I mean, even before live action came to the network, their non-action cartoons for the most part felt more like the sitcoms you'd see on Disney and Nickelodeon, only with fantasy and fictional elements thrown in.


It's kind of like Marvel and why they struggle to get new readers today. In the 60s up to the 80s, Marvel made it readers feel like they're were part of something cool for reading their products. Sure, the comics were written to be kid appropriate, but Stan Lee and the rest of Marvel seemed to be pleased with older readers enjoying their product. Today, however, aside from a few writers the mindset at Marvel is that 5 years is enough for a reader to enjoy a comic before they move on with life and they switch to the next generation of kids.

Using The Spectacular Spider-Man again as an example. Why have viewers enjoyed the show you may ask? Good characters, writing and fluid animation for starters, but Greg Weisman (Supervising Producer) enjoys animation and is a Spider-Man fan. While his work on the show is tiring, he clearly enjoys helping to put the cartoon together, thus we enjoy watching it.

To sum it all up, people who actually enjoy their job will have more success in satisfying the customer and/or viewer more than the disgruntled people who complain about their dead end job. Only way I see CN improving drastically is for the execs to develop more optimisim towards animation or resign and make room for potential employees who do.

You brought up how CN has to change to survive the ratings war. Changing line ups understandable, changing attitude, not good.

I apologize for the digression, but I believe that these issues need to be considered when people reflect back on the past. Ideally, a network retains its best features and gets rid of its worst features, and while Cartoon Network has made some poor decisions, I believe that they made the right call in getting rid of some of their old programming. “Jonny Quest”? No thank you.

If they are getting rid of an old program to make room for another show, then it's understandable. If it's to show an additional episode of a show that's already on the air, then, no.

See, for the moment, there is room for some more additional classics on the network as they wouldn't have to get rid of any shows, just cut each shows airtime to one episode a day.

 

[The Nameless]

I prefer the Powerhouse era, as I was too young to even watch TV during the Checkerboard era.

Some of the good memories of the classic CN are watching SGC2C on Saturday nights, the Cartoon Cartoons, the Acme Hour, CCF, and the bumpers. In fact, I have three tapes of CN dating from 2000-2002 (none of them were recorded by me; I got them from the local flea market). Expect classic CN goodness coming to my Dailymotion account soon (I'll also put them up on Operation Time Capsule; I'm "Checkerboard" there).
​

 

[CartoonNothing]

If only CN brought back the powerhouse bumpers. I'd call CN to bring back the old logo and Primal Screen to bring back all the powerhouse coming up next, we'll be back, and back to show bumpers!!!

 

[Zen Man]

- Circa-August 1999 programming schedule


Original thread link: http://tinyurl.com/ytpccv (NOTE: features our very own Jeff Harris!)


Monday-Friday:

6:00am Cartoon-A-Doodle-Doo
7:00am Alvin & The Chipmunks
7:30am Pup Named Scooby Doo
8:00am 2 Stupid Dogs
8:30am What A Cartoon Show
9:00am Cow & Chicken
9:30am Dexter's Laboratory
10:00am Tiny Toons
10:30am Animaniacs
11:00am Scooby & Scrappy Doo
11:30am Smurfs
12:00pm Road Rovers
12:30pm Freakazoid
1:00pm Beetlejuice
1:30pm Addams Family
2:00pm Flintstones
2:30pm Jetsons
3:00pm Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
3:30pm Captain Planet
4:00pm Toonami
6:00pm Batman
6:30pm Tiny Toons
7:00pm Animaniacs
7:30pm Dexter's Laboratory
8:00pm Cartoon Cartoon Rotation: Ed, Edd n Eddy on Mondays, Courage the
Cowardly Dog on Tuesdays, Powerpuff Girls on Wednesdays, Johnny Bravo on
Thursdays, & I Am Weasel on Fridays
8:30pm Cow & Chicken
9:00pm Tom & Jerry
9:30pm Bugs & Daffy
10:00pm (M-Th) Scooby Doo (F) Tex Avery
10:30pm (M-Th) Flintstones (F) Toon Heads
11:00pm (M-Th) Cartoon Cartoon Rotation (See 8:00pm below) (F) Cartoon
Planet
11:30pm (M-Th) Cow & Chicken (F) SGC2C
12:00am Rocky & Bullwinkle
12:30am Underdog
1:00am (M-Th) Bugs & Daffy (F) Gary Coleman
1:30am (M-Th) Tom & Jerry (F) Jabberjaw
2:00am (M-Th) Scooby Doo, Where Are You? (F) Banana Splits
2:30am (M-Th) Flintstones (F) Super Globetrotters
3:00am (M-Th) Gumby (F) Hair Bear Bunch
3:30am (M-Th) Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (F) Speed Buggy
4:00am (M-Th) Speed Racer (F) Devlin
4:30am (M-Th) Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest (F) Funky Phantom
5:00am (M-Th) Top Cat (F) Fangface
5:30am (M-Th) Yogi's Treasure Hunt (F) Inch High-Private Eye

Saturday:

6:00am Toonami
8:00am Smurfs
8:30am Alvin & The Chipmunks
9:00am Scooby & Scrappy Doo
9:30am Beetlejuice
10:00am Powerpuff Girls
10:30am I Am Weasel
11:00am Ed, Edd n Eddy
11:30am Courage, the Cowardly Dog
12:00pm Road Rovers
12:30pm Freakazoid
1:00pm Pup Named Scooby Doo
1:30pm Tom & Jerry Kids
2:00pm Super Friends
3:00pm Godzilla
3:30pm 2 Stupid Dogs
4:00pm Super Chunk
7:00pm Flintstones
7:30pm Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
8:00pm Cartoon Theater
10:00pm Acme Hour
12:00am Rocky & Bullwinkle
12:30am Underdog
1:00am Super Friends
2:00am Speed Racer
2:30am Cartoon Planet
3:00am SGC2C
3:30am Dudley Do-Right
4:00am Rocky & Bullwinkle
4:30am Top Cat
5:00am Big Bag
5:30am Small World

Sunday:

6:00am Big Bag
6:30am Small World
7:00am Big Bag
7:30am Small World
8:00am Boomerang
9:00am Bugs & Daffy
10:00am Cartoon Theater
12:00pm Scooby Movies
1:00pm 2 Stupid Dogs
1:30pm Road Rovers
2:00pm Godzilla
2:30pm Swat Kats
3:00pm Super Friends
4:00pm Bugs & Daffy
5:00pm Mysteries Inc.
6:00pm Taz-Mania
6:30pm Animaniacs
7:00pm Tiny Toons
7:30pm Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
8:00pm Toonami
10:00pm Powerpuff Girls
10:30pm I Am Weasel
11:00pm Ed, Edd n Eddy
11:30pm Courage the Cowardly Dog
12:00am SGC2C
12:30am Late Night Black & White
1:00am O Canada
1:30am Pink Panther
2:00am Droopy
2:30am Popeye
3:00am Huckleberry Hound
3:30am Yogi Bear
4:00am Atom Ant
4:30am Secret Squirrel
5:00am Underdog
5:30am Dudley Do-Right

And that's IT! I'm done! There's nothing left to dig up! I'm hoping this is the last time and that these posts can now be easy references for the future. "Operation Time Capsule", how do ya like me now? Update your separate Ace schedule listings, ASAP!

Man if thats not a cartoon schedule I don't know what is! I still remember the promos CN did for Animaniacs when it premiered on the network and I completely forgot that Tiny Toons aired on CN for a short time. I can't remember any promos/bumpers though.

But definately an awesome schedule with just about everything you could ever want. CN was definately at its peak here.

 

[Nexonius]

If some of you guys didn't know Cartoon Network (cartoon library wise) started, I think I can clear some stuff out.






How Cartoon Network Started.




It all started in 1954-1955, when Warner Bros. Pictures had sold the studio to a bank-led syndicate. Jack Warner, the youngest of the Warner Brothers, had a majority stake in the company. This led to a big rupture in the family itself. While Jack was in charge of WB, the brothers never said a word to each other.

Okay, enough of that. The bottom line was, Warner Bros. sold their pre-1948 catalog (including the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies pre-1948 package) to Associated Artists Productions (which would also acquire the Popeye 1933-1957 cartoons from Paramount that same year). I used to wonder why would WB sell their library.

Okay, let's fast forward to 1958, when United Artists bought the package. UA owned the coup for about 22-23 years until Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures bought out UA, the AAP library, and the U.S./Canada/Australian rights to the RKO library.


Ted Turner


Ted Turner bought a broadcast network in 1976..........it's off topic. Let's get back to the story.


Turner had just lost at trying to buy CBS Inc. (The Broadcast Network) in 1985. Even though Ted had lost buying a broadcast network, Ted had won something that was worthwhile in 1985-1986, (only to sell it 74 days later because of debt), and it was MGM/UA Communications from the poorly ran man Kirk Kerkorian. Although the Tuner had to sell the UA studio, the MGM logo, and some films back to Kirk, Turner smartly kept the ultra sized library, which now included: Pre-1952 United Artists material, most of MGM's Pre-1986 library of movies and cartoons (Captain And The Kids also, except Pink Panther, and other United Artists cartoons, and Flip The Frog), United Artists Television's package (the AAP library of Warner Bros. and Popeye films and cartoons, Gilligan's Island), and the U.s./Canadian/Australian rights to RKO Radio Pictures films. The new name for this group of films was called Turner Entertainment. While Turner has been wrongfully colorizing the MGM/WB films, Turner's TBS Network was mostly the home to WB/Popeye/MGM cartoons.


Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears:


No, I'm not starting to go all out on this bit. While Hanna-Barbera at the time in the 1980s were making mostly babyfied carnations of the HB stars, along with shows like The Smurfs, The Snorks, and later Ed Grimely and Ruby-Spears with Alvin and The Chipmunks, Mr.T, Centurions, and spinoffs of CBS Paramount properties like Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and Laverne and Shirley, it's parent company Taft Broadcasting were being in financial troubles (as both H-B and R-S were at fault also). American Financial Corporation bought Taft (including H-B, R-S). AFI changed it's name to Great American Broadcasting in 1987. For the H-B studio in 1989, things were looking mucky. First, with The Jetsons Movie, and second, more than half of the H-B staff (including Tom Ruegger) going to Warner Bros. Animation (which would eventually have H-B) for Tiny Toon Adventures, and many other WB shows. In 1990, Great American Broadcasting had put Hanna-Barbera's and Ruby-Spears' library for sale. MCA, Viacom, and Disney were eager buyers, but none of them won. MCA and Disney declined to purchase it and Viacom lost to Turner.


And here is when we go back to Turner.

Turner Broadcasting and partner Apollo Investment Fund in August 1991 had bought Hanna-Barbera Productions, and its library for $320 million. Ruby-Spear's Pre-1991 library was also bought by Turner. Worldvision (which Taft also owned until 1991 when Spelling bought Worldvision , and then Blockbuster, and finally, Viacom) Enterprises' distributed rights were taken by Turner. Turner Entertainment now included: Pre-1952 UA material, MGM's Pre-1986 library of movies and cartoons (which reunited Tom and Jerry with Hanna and Barbera), Warner Bros. 1948 movies and cartoons, Popeye shorts, and Gilligan's Island.




Due to the mega library to cartoons Turner had, Turner had the opportunity to launch Cartoon Network in 1992. And the rest is kind of history.


Or is it?


In 1993, Turner had bought the remaining 50% in Hanna-Barbera from Apollo. In December 1993/Early 1994, New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. were bought by Turner, in turn they had a distribution unit. During the 1995-1997 years, and after The Walt Disney Company had bought Capital Cities/ABC, Time Warner had bought Turner for $7.5 billion, resulting in a big reuniting of WB's movies, shorts, cartoons, and more under one roof. CN had the rights to the later Looney Tunes shows, Warner Bros. Animated 1990s shows (except Pinky and The Brain, Detention, and Histeria!), and more. And the rest is history. Kind of.




The End. Kind of.

-John

 

[Ace Goodheart]

And we're even divided over that! Some of us prefer the "Powerhouse" (late 90s-early 00s) look, while others go for the "checkerboard" (early-mid 90s) look. Personally I like them both, but I grew up with Powerhouse so that's what I stick with.

In fact I have more material I'm tempted to post, but it's all Powerhouse and I'd like to wait for some Checkerboard to balance it out. Besides, I'm not sure how many people in here like the Powerhouse look anyway.

Edit: I don't know if this was mentioned but BigDogJango has some Checkerboard-era clips.

You'd most likely find more people who like/prefer/remember the "Powerhouse"-era Cartoon Network, because it was during the late '90's-early '00's when CN really began appearing in more homes across the U.S. For those of you who didn't know, the "Powerhouse" re-launch coincided with the premieres of "Cow & Chicken" and "Johnny Bravo" on that eventful week of July 1997. All of that influx of new programming and a revamped look probably made CN more attractive to cable providers. Most who like or remember the "Checkerboard" were lucky enough to have CN early on, like me (I think I've had CN since 1993-1994).

While I too was pretty young during the "Checkerboard" days (was between 5-10 years old during it), I lean more towards liking it because I had fallen out of regularly watching CN (outside of "Toonami") sometime around 1998-1999. By then I had only watched all of the pre-1997 CN programming (Hanna-Barbera, T&J, MGM shorts/Bugs & Daffy, Acme Hour, old director's shows), the first generation of "Cartoon Cartoons" ( the WAC shorts, "Dexter's Laboratory", "Cow & Chicken", "Johnny Bravo", "I Am Weasel" and the "Powerpuff Girls") and a little bit of early Toonami ("Sailor Moon" and DBZ, wished I would've seen some "Robotech" and "Thundercats"). After that I've ceased to watch regular CN on a regular basis to this day. Not because I didn't like it..........it just happened. I'm an "Adult Swim" guy nowadays, and occasionally watch Boomerang. Long story short, I had missed out on most of the "Powerhouse" days, especially when it started getting good from 1998 up until around the AOL-Time Warner fiasco.

 

[The Nameless]

I'm reviving this thread, with links to my "recoveries" from a 2000 CN tape:

http://www.dailymotion.com/Garfield...artoon-network-special-bumper-2000_shortfilms
A Cartoon Network Special bumper. This is the only "clean" one on the tape (with no V/O)
http://www.dailymotion.com/GarfieldFan2000/video/x50utm_cn-special-bumper-ppg-promo-2000_shortfilms
Another bump, and a PPG promo (V/O on the special bumper is probably Dee Bradley Baker).
http://www.dailymotion.com/Garfield...artoon-network-special-bumper-2-20_shortfilms
Yet another bump
http://www.dailymotion.com/Garfield...artoon-network-bumper-hypnotist-20_shortfilms
Powerhouse bump (the only one on the tape and in my collection)
http://www.dailymotion.com/GarfieldFan2000/video/x51840_cartoon-cartoon-summer-promo-2000_shortfilms
Cartoon Cartoon Summer promo.
http://www.dailymotion.com/GarfieldFan2000/video/x51msa_cartoon-network-break-time-00_shortfilms
A typical CN break in 2000. Best of all, no Bratz or shoe ads!
http://www.dailymotion.com/Garfield...artoon-cartoon-summer-promo-long-2_shortfilms
Long version of the CCS promo
http://www.dailymotion.com/Garfield...n-sheep-promo-fruit-by-the-foot-20_shortfilms
A Sheep promo and a Fruit by the Foot ad.
http://www.dailymotion.com/GarfieldFan2000/video/x52ihj_cartoon-network-break-time-00-2_shortfilms
Another CN break.
http://www.dailymotion.com/garfieldfan2000/video/x54lsm_cartoon-network-break-time-00-3_shortfilms
A third CN break. This one has the only (to my knowledge) Super Chunk promo in my collection.