The 13 “Deaths” of Cartoon Network (Editorial)

[JMTV]

Being a rerun farm seems to be working with most of cable. Comedy Central is content with being The Office channel. TBS is fine with being a Friends, Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon channel. USA is comfortable with being the Law and Order: SVU channel.

That maybe true, but lacking variety doesn’t help in the long run.

Cable abandoned live action scripted originals and I'm surprised cable animation has lasted as long as it has.

Well, I mean, the popular live action scripted shows were on streaming than it was on linear than it was on TV. At least cable animation doesn’t ha that problem, as far as I’m aware.

So far, adult comedy is the only genre of animation Max cares about, so it doesn't seem like Cartoon Network's animation would transition to Max after the Infinity Train debacle.

That’s because Max does a very poor job of promoting CN’s output and not making it as accessible as possible.

With regards to Infinity Train, that show got screwed over from Day 1.

It was supposed to be a HBO Max original from the beginning, but HBO Max got delayed. Leaving Infinity Train being moved to CN in 2019-2020, and even then CN barely rerun the show at all after its premieres since that show came out in a time when people already moved on to streaming. Then Infinity Train moved to Max in 2020, and while it did get a major boost for releasing episodes weekly instead of dumping it all at once, but after that, the cast and crew moved on to other projects, Tom Aschiem was brought on board and wanted to have Cartoonito and ACME Night for CN, and Max barely advertising their kids content as it used to, leading to the show getting canceled after season four in 2021 and being dumped unceremoniously, and finally Zaslav Thanos-snapped Infinity Train out of existence in 2022.

It just this whole situation that I have to live through was soul-crushing to see makes me so upset.

Kids and family animation for Max is getting the short end of the stick in favor of adult animation just because adults watches the service than kids is asinine to me because WB didn’t put any effort into making kids going to the service.

Or it just handled by incompetent executives who just doesn’t know what to do with CN by giving them a clear direction. I don’t know.

 

[Leviathan]

Craig McCracken let it slip that the Powerpuff Girls "reboot' that was announced isn't actually in active development, just one of many ideas that's being possibly considered for the future.

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That right there tells you everything you need to know about modern CN, when a reboot of the biggest show they ever had (from the original creator, no less) is not an immediate, enthusiastic greenlight.

To be COMPLETELY honest, a Craig-led PPG reboot would probably be better served on adult swim anyway, because as the 2016 series showed, a lot of what made the orginal show good would have to be toned down if it aired on mainline CN.

 

[JMTV]

That right there tells you everything you need to know about modern CN, when a reboot of the biggest show they ever had (from the original creator, no less) is not an immediate, enthusiastic greenlight.

Not to dismiss Craig or anything (I love the guy) but I’m going to have to wait for Annecy Film Festival to give us an update about the future PPG series.

To be COMPLETELY honest, a Craig-led PPG reboot would probably be better served on adult swim anyway, because as the 2016 series showed, a lot of what made the orginal show good would have to be toned down if it aired on mainline CN.

I mean, you’re not wrong. Standards and practices were different now than it was back in the 90’s. (Not that I agree with it of course)

 

[Stumpos]

Wonder what everyone thinks of the schedule Cartoon Network has now? Does the fact it has more variety now compared to how much they spammed Teen Titans Go from 2015 to 2020 remotely help them?

 

[Silverstar]

Wonder what everyone thinks of the schedule Cartoon Network has now?

As Jay Sherman would say, "It stinks!". So does the current branding.

Does the fact it has more variety now compared to how much they spammed Teen Titans Go from 2015 to 2020 remotely help them?

You call four shows, one of which is already over, "having more variety"??

 

[Stumpos]

You call four shows, one of which has already ended "having more variety"??

They air more than 4 shows:



There's no new shows premiering there, but there is more effort at variety than the mid-late 2010s where it was spamming Teen Titans Go.

 

[Goldstar!]

Again, that's like putting a Band-Aid on the Titanic. Cartoon Network needs to have more than just that if they want to impress me. Where are the 1990s Cartoon-Cartoons? No, they're not new, but that would add some variety to the channel. Plus, they're all IPs that Warner Bros. owns outright, so airing them wouldn't cost them a dime. Heck, even if CN became Boomerang for a few hours of the day and just ran Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, the MGM shorts, Popeye and the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960s to 1990s all afternoon, that would at least be something different.

And stop giving everything that's good and/or original to Adult Swim. And move AS back to late nights, where it belongs.

 

[Stumpos]

Again, that's like putting a Band-Aid on the Titanic. Cartoon Network needs to have more than just that if they want to impress me. Where are the 1990s Cartoon-Cartoons? No, they're not new, but that would add some variety to the channel. Heck, even if CN became Boomerang for a few hours of the day and just ran Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, the MGM shorts, Popeye and the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960s to 1990s all afternoon, that would at least be something different.

And stop giving everything that's good and/or original to Adult Swim.

True.

Technically some of the Cartoon Cartoons do air reruns on the Checkered Past block.

I do wonder then, what was the last year that Cartoon Network had a good schedule consistently? I'm guessing personally to be 2014 (final year they aired the pre-2010 cartoons on some consistent basis and the end of Stuart Snyder's run) but I am open to other answers.

 

[Silverstar]

They air more than 4 shows:



There's no new shows premiering there, but there is more effort at variety than the mid-late 2010s where it was spamming Teen Titans Go.

So now they're running eight shows instead of four, and I'm supposed to hand them a medal for that? Not gonna happen. A few more reruns doesn't make everything OK. A shiny, polished turd is still a turd.

Technically some of the Cartoon Cartoons do air reruns on the Checkered Past block.

Which has been whittled down to just two shows, and technically that block is part of Adult Swim, not Cartoon Network.

I'm not cutting Cartoon Network any slack until I start seeing some new shows which aren't just going to get tossed over to Adult Swim, some new original comedies and new original action shows, a rotating set of classics (including ones from CNS), a decent branding instead of this boring Pastel one and a conscientious effort to show respect to the world of animation and the creative people who make it possible.

I'm happy that you think this is acceptable, but I'm not that easily impressed. WBD is going to have to do A LOT better than this to get back into my good graces.

 

[Stumpos]

I'm happy that you think this is acceptable, but I'm not that easily impressed. WBD is going to have to do A LOT better than this to get back into my good graces.

Not saying this is remotely peak Cartoon Network (especially compared to the early 2010s) and their lack of new shows premiering (with Adult Swim getting the premieres now) is pretty bad, but only saying there is some attempt to fix the schedule even if it's essentially a case of having to steer a sinking ship at this point.

 

[Silverstar]

^You're waaaaaaaaaaay too kind to these guys. I'm not going to applaud mediocrity.

 

[JMTV]

Technically some of the Cartoon Cartoons do air reruns on the Checkered Past block.

Even if they cut down to just simply 2 shows on a block that geared towards adults.

Just throwing it out there.

I do wonder then, what was the last year that Cartoon Network had a good schedule consistently?

I guess 2014, but for me personally it's 2011 and 2012.

Not saying this is remotely peak Cartoon Network (especially compared to the early 2010s) and their lack of new shows premiering (with Adult Swim getting the premieres now) is pretty bad, but only saying there is some attempt to fix the schedule even if it's essentially a case of having to steer a sinking ship at this point.

That maybe true, but like @Silverstar said, it's gonna take a lot more than just quick patches to fix the sinking ship.

That's like putting a cherry and sprinkles on top of a bland cake. It may look better than the first try, but didn't really fix the actual problem.

 

[Moe]

Wonder what everyone thinks of the schedule Cartoon Network has now? Does the fact it has more variety now compared to how much they spammed Teen Titans Go from 2015 to 2020 remotely help them?

Not compared to Cartoon Network in 1992-1993 when they were most variety.

 

[mqg96]

True.

I do wonder then, what was the last year that Cartoon Network had a good schedule consistently? I'm guessing personally to be 2014 (final year they aired the pre-2010 cartoons on some consistent basis and the end of Stuart Snyder's run) but I am open to other answers.

Last consistent schedule of original programming, 2014.

Last consistent schedule of different genres of shows and various art styles… 2012.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

Yeah I would say 2014 was the last good year for CN. Ever since then it's been pretty bad.

 

[Leviathan]

There's no guarantee ratings would pick up even if Cartoon Network did greenlight some new shows.

That new Fairly Oddparents show isn't doing too hot over at Nickelodeon, and that's a reboot of an established IP from the leader of kids' TV.

 

[Mejo]

Heck, even if CN became Boomerang for a few hours of the day and just ran Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, the MGM shorts, Popeye and the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960s to 1990s all afternoon, that would at least be something different.

Judging from this Acme Fools promo from earlier this year, the Looney Tunes shorts (alongside TTL, Builders, TLTS and NLT’s) were apparently going to be shown in a weekday afternoon block, but it appears that that didn’t happen (though the Weekday Afternoons part could have been an error, IDK):

 

[JMTV]

Judging from this Acme Fools promo from earlier this year, the Looney Tunes shorts (alongside TTL, Builders, TLTS and NLT’s) were apparently going to be shown in a weekday afternoon block, but it appears that that didn’t happen (though the Weekday Afternoons part could have been an error, IDK):

It was just a promotional stunt for Acme Fools in April, just like it did last year. I don't think Looney Tunes is going to be part of the daily schedule for CN since they would like to focus on their newer adaptions of Looney Tunes rather than airing the classics.

 

[Silverstar]

There's no guarantee ratings would pick up even if Cartoon Network did greenlight some new shows

That doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Debut shows on CN, then stream them on Max the following day for those who don't watch TV.

 

[Leviathan]

It was just a promotional stunt for Acme Fools in April, just like it did last year. I don't think Looney Tunes is going to be part of the daily schedule for CN since they would like to focus on their newer adaptions of Looney Tunes rather than airing the classics.

IT's quite probably MeTV Toons is going to get higher ratings than CN proper has gotten in years, so it'd be a waste anyway.