Old-School CN Nostalgia Thread (1990s)

[ECDT1089]

I didn't know they made bumps for Rocky and Bullwinkle. I always remember seeing the generic late-night bumpers used with that show (or maybe that was Dudley Do-Right)

There were Rocky and Bullwinkle bumpers. I don't remember the "Back to the Show" one but the "We'll Be Right Back" one involved Bullwinkle onstage doing a magic trick with a Hat. Dudley Do-Right had generic ones. I really would like to see the Tiny Toons bumpers.

 

[ECDT1089]

Does anybody remember the exact date Cartoon Network transitioned into the Powerhouse theme?

 

[WolfGran]

Does anybody remember the exact date Cartoon Network transitioned into the Powerhouse theme?

Around July 1997. Sorry, that's all the info I could find.

 

[Jayngfet]

And it's september 20th folks, you know what that means. On this day today, one year ago, toonami was canceled.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Around July 1997. Sorry, that's all the info I could find.

I believe I was one of the first to mention that date, but now I'm not so sure. I think I might have to ask one of those Primal Screen guys to see if they remember the actual date when CN rebranded.

All I know is that on July 1997, "Cow & Chicken" and "Johnny Bravo" premiered, so that may have warranted the "Powerhouse" rebranding, but again I'm not sure. Might've been late 1997-early 1998.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Update on my circa-1995 Checkerboard-era footage: I've just finished capturing from the last of my six tapes (which, by my estimates go up to mid-to-late July 1995). There was a big gap in recording dates on this last tape; the first couple of recordings were from mid-to-late May, then a couple in late June, and then some scattered recordings throughout July.

Not much exciting stuff that I've noticed, just a couple of promos/bumpers on the second batch of "World Premiere Toons" (they appeared to have taken a break airing new shorts in May 1995, starting again in June), a promo for the obscure block of crappy '70's shows called "70's Super Explosion", and some other misc. shows. Still better than nothing, but once I'm done putting the footage together and encoding it, I'll have officially exhausted my collection of CN footage. After such a grueling, time-consuming project, I seriously doubt that I'll be searching for more or working on recording/uploading anything major.

I was, and still am mostly interested in the "Checkerboard" era, and this magnum opus of a project (over a year-and-a-half in the making) has provided great memories, as 1995 was an important, BIG year in Cartoon Network's history, and it was the year in which I truly became a CN fanatic at 8 years old.

Hopefully I'll have compiled/encoded/uploaded my remaining work by the end of this month.

 

[ryandcow]

totaly off topic but ed edd and eddy movie has an air date that I know about finally. Let the ripping commence (november)

 

[Ace Goodheart]

The first of my last batch of videos is up!

As it turns out, my collection of CN footage extends up to (presumably) August 9, 1995.......so that's eight non-consesutive months worth of commercials, ID's and interstitials. I had trouble figuring out the dates on my last two video's worth of footage, as the recordings were scattered from June-August 1995.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

After more than 1 1/2 years of planning, buying, setting up, watching, capturing, editing, encoding and uploading (most of which was done in the last three months), I've FINALLY exhausted my collection of circa-1995 Cartoon Network footage. Quite a trip it was, but after so much waiting (and then, so much work) I'm glad to have reached this milestone, and to most importantly have contributed something to the old-school CN fans.

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Been a while, hasn't it?

While I've since exhaused my footage, there's an exciting new piece of old-school CN footage that contains some of the oldest footage out on the 'net, from 1993!

It's a 5-minute promotional VHS for Cartoon Network from 1993, and it was posted up by former TZ board member TVSuperMax! The video lacks color and has banding, because it is an NTSC tape captured off of a PAL VCR, but still, enjoy! He'll post up a better version in the coming weeks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC2I5o_nkEE

Contains a few bumpers of that time period, along with intros for the "Morning Crew", "Down Wit' Droopy D", "Tom & Jerry", "Super Adventures" and "Bugs & Daffy Tonight!" blocks.

Amazing! I haven't seen any of this in at least 15 years.

 

[chdr]

^ Woah! Great find, there.

 

[WolfGran]

Hey, does anyone know what the Nonstop Stones-A-Thon was? I don't remember it at all, but I've seen some promos on YT and I'm very curious. I do know it was Flintstones-related, though, but that's it.

I have one more question. In one of Ace's videos, there is a promo for a block called Saturday Japanime. Despite having a different name, it looks exactly like Night of the Vampire Robots. What's the deal?

 

[ChildHood90s]

You know it's funny, I have an hour or two of Cartoon Network's old "Leap Year Time Travel Day" event that I can't upload, and no body else has uploaded it (that I've found). If nobody remembers this one time event, you'd see different cartoon network character with their body parts swapped (i.e. Dee Dee being fused with Otto from Time Squad)... I was hoping that there would be a cross over on that day but there never was...

^
And sorry YogiBR123, I've got no idea on that...

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Hey, does anyone know what the Nonstop Stones-A-Thon was? I don't remember it at all, but I've seen some promos on YT and I'm very curious. I do know it was Flintstones-related, though, but that's it.

I have one more question. In one of Ace's videos, there is a promo for a block called Saturday Japanime. Despite having a different name, it looks exactly like Night of the Vampire Robots. What's the deal?

According to the guy who posted those videos on YT, the "Non-Stop Stones-A-Thon" was essentially a Flintstones marathon which coincided with the release of the live-action Flintstones movie back in 1994. CN was no stranger to Flintstones marathons in those days.

And yes, "Night of the Vampire Robots" and "Saturday Japanime" were the same block of anime movies ("Robot Carnival", "Vampire Hunter D", "Twilight of the Cockroaches"), just different names. The block aired under the former name on January 29, 1995, and under the latter name sometime in June/July 1995. I recall seeing "Saturday Japanime" during that summer vacation, and being blown away by my first exposure to real anime. The movies had already aired on Sci-Fi Channel and TBS before they aired on CN.

 

[WolfGran]

^Thanks!

Wait, just one more question.

What was the exact year and date when Super Adventures officially became Afternoon Adventures?

 

[Ace Goodheart]

^Thanks!

Wait, just one more question.

What was the exact year and date when Super Adventures officially became Afternoon Adventures?

From my recollection, it was sometime in mid-to-late 1995. There was also a weekend late-night block known as "Power Zone" airing during 1995, which would end up becoming the flagship afternoon block on CN sometime in 1996, with the same logo and all.

 

[WolfGran]

From my recollection, it was sometime in mid-to-late 1995. There was also a weekend late-night block known as "Power Zone" airing during 1995, which would end up becoming the flagship afternoon block on CN sometime in 1996, with the same logo and all.

Power Zone coexisted with Afternoon Adventures for a short time before it took over as the main action block?

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Power Zone coexisted with Afternoon Adventures for a short time before it took over as the main action block?

It co-existed with the main afternoon blocks for a while before it itself became the flagship block, yeah. They all pretty much aired the same shows regardless; '60's-'80's Hanna-Barbera/Ruby-Spears action shorts/series, and some of the acquired shows of the time such as "James Bond Jr." and "G-Force".

I'm not too sure of the dates, as my memory's not that sharp and there's some conflicting information out there, but "Super Adventures" had both a weekday counterpart and a weekend afternoon counterpart ("Super Adventures Saturdays"). Dunno if later on the weekend afternoon block was re-branded as "Power Zone", or if PZ was solely a weekend late-night block at the time. But as far as weekdays go, it went:

"Super Adventures" (1992-1995)>>>"Afternoon Adventures" (1995-1996)>>>"Power Zone" (1996)

"Power Zone" was cancelled in the Fall of 1996 apparently, and there was no real action block (though action shows still aired occasionally in that timeslot, randomly) on weekdays until of course, "Toonami" premiered in March 1997.

 

[WolfGran]

Huh. Didn't Power Zone have a late-night offshoot of its own when it became the channel's flagship action block?

 

[Ace Goodheart]

Not sure, but PZ did start off as a late-night weekend block first, in 1995.

I didn't even bother watching those late-night action blocks. Not only did they re-run the same stuff that was airing during the day/week, but it was past my bedtime back in those days. Like most of CN's late-night fare back then, it was filler programming, because they had nothing else to run.

The pre-Toonami era of action blocks was pretty dull in retrospect. Even though CN re-branded the blocks numerous times between 1992-1997, they all aired the same stuff, and boy did they run those H-B action shows to the ground. It got a bit better towards the end, when they acquired some outside shows ("James Bond Jr.", "G-Force", "Speed Racer" and "Superfriends") which freshened up the schedules. "Toonami" really was a godsend. CN wasn't even a blip on the ratings radar on weekday afternoons before Toonami. I seriously doubt '90's kids were clamoring to watch old "Space Ghost", "Herculoids" and "Birdman" re-runs over Fox Kids' "Power Rangers", "X-Men", "Spider-Man" and the like. I of course watched them both, but liked the latter most.