Old-School CN Nostalgia Thread (1990s)

[Moleoman]

Here are two snapshots (by PrintScreen and cropping in Paint) from Aster City Mosaic video from August 2001.

The left image: The TCM off-air screen (that reads in Polish: "TCM returns on-air at 20:00") that plays before TCM Poland handovers into retransmission of CN UK.
The right image: An example of a cartoon with a man at bottom right corner translating into British Sign Language.

Some notes from my past about CN Poland's (CN CEE) startup in 2003 (and one of two startups I saw before CN CEE stopped retransmitting CN UK (and later CN Pan-Euro) during 03:00-06:00) : One "night" on spring/summer 2003 circa 5.50 CET I turned on my TV set. CN Poland like always during this time aired the retransmission of CN UK. A "Gadget Boy" episode (in English, also by this time I didn't knew the name of the show until I got the Internet in 2006.) was ending (fortunately without pushbacks ). After Gadget Boy there were a generic "Powerpuff Girls" promo with a "Dexter's Laboratory" promo following that. After the promos I saw the CN loop from 2002-2006, that usually played before the closedown. And after the loop (probably that's when switchover from CN UK to CN Poland happened during this time) one of multiple Block era idents played and "Heathcliff and Dingbat" in Polish started.

 

[RandomMe]

Here are two snapshots (by PrintScreen and cropping in Paint) from Aster City Mosaic video from August 2001.

The left image: The TCM off-air screen (that reads in Polish: "TCM returns on-air at 20:00") that plays before TCM Poland handovers into retransmission of CN UK.
The right image: An example of a cartoon with a man at bottom right corner translating into British Sign Language.

Some notes from my past about CN Poland's (CN CEE) startup in 2003 (and one of two startups I saw before CN CEE stopped retransmitting CN UK (and later CN Pan-Euro) during 03:00-06:00) : One "night" on spring/summer 2003 circa 5.50 CET I turned on my TV set. CN Poland like always during this time aired the retransmission of CN UK. A "Gadget Boy" episode (in English, also by this time I didn't knew the name of the show until I got the Internet in 2006.) was ending (fortunately without pushbacks ). After Gadget Boy there were a generic "Powerpuff Girls" promo with a "Dexter's Laboratory" promo following that. After the promos I saw the CN loop from 2002-2006, that usually played before the closedown. And after the loop (probably that's when switchover from CN UK to CN Poland happened during this time) one of multiple Block era idents played and "Heathcliff and Dingbat" in Polish started.

"Monster movies need a monster snack."
I once had some insomnia, I woke up at 5am. I've seen Gadget Boy for the first time! I remember seeing the DiC "Kid in Bed" logo, but no M6 logo afterwards. I assume that I had a weird dream once which involved me watching TCM/CN at 04:50, just to see the handover for the first time, probably it was a nightmare of sorts involving me and watching TV at inappropriate times of day (5am, anyone?).
Oh, and, by the way, it happened somewhere in the spring of 2004.
Another memory which involves CN and having to sleep involved me watching an episode of the Powerpuff Girls one Friday morning (Gettin' Twiggy With It) and going to bed too soon for unknown reasons. It was on a friday morning because it had the "POWERPUFF60" bug on the bottom right corner of the screen. 2002-2003, by my reckoning.
AH, YES! Ed, Edd n Eddy. My #1 Cartoon Cartoon. It's very funny and still fresh, even after all these years.

 

[Moleoman]

Once again, I make a quest based on rare CN HQ bumpers from the past. I sterted this earlier this year and only one bumper was found. Some of these were used on CN CEE or CN UK.
1: Cartoon Network Cinema bumper, ca. 2002. My mind says that Cow was holding an actual torch instead of Chicken, but it was probably my mind. Same as an already existing bumper posted by Romanian YT user OldMcBarney, but the text read "CINEMA" and not "TOON FILM". Probably used until 2005? (RA, Á97HU, S, J, CNR, M)

This ident featured statue of Cow facing front holding Chicken with her right hand. You can see it in the block's promo (at 0:48): SKATOONY pl intro (dwie wersje) - YouTube

As I remember the first next ident for CN Cinema (which normally aired in ca. 2000-2003) acidentally aired one time in late 2007/early 2008. It featured a Baboon watching a movie (not coming from a I.M. Weasel episode) and he gets more nervous by seconds and he starts screaming like a monkey. Then, while the announcer quietly sais that Cartoon Network Cinema was coming up next, it cuts to the screen from the ident of with the words"ZA CHWILĘ" in yellow Times New Roman a'la-3D font in place of "CINEMA" or "TOON FILM"

2: Kaleidoscope-themed bumper, featuring various HB stars. Used around late 2004 or so. At the end, we see the CN logo, but with two of the letters swapped (CAROTON NETWORK). Later, it changes to the correct text (CARTOON NETWORK). Used on Boomerang as late as 2011, just by editing the end. (RA, S, J, CNR)

It was that CN bumper that had the classic music as the BGM, which played on our CN and at the end had cheerlader Tweetys holding squares from CN logo and connect them to make the CN logo but with two letters swapepd)?

6: Bumpers and promos for Cartoon Carnival, hosted by a Bloo impersonator. Used in the fall of 2006. FostersFriend doesn't have those bumpers... (RA, S, J, CNR)

Luckily, bumpers and promos for Cartoon Carnival in our country used Bloo's Polish voice actor from the show (Grzegorz Drojewski).

7: Footage from VBirds: Perfect. I only remember watching it once when I was sick, sometime in 2003, and, if my memory doesn't cheat, it was similar to Dance Dance Revolution. (S, J, CNR)

V-Birds from CN Scandinavia in Danish (V-Birds have also played in our CN (CN CEE), too): Vbirds - YouTube

16: Series of promos for CN shows. The only one I can find is the one for Robotboy, but I assume that there was a HiHi Puffy AmiYumi version of it. To see the Robotboy bumper on YouTube (because VBOX7 is very slow outside of Bulgaria), search for "Robotboy bumper OldMcBarney". (note: it has the logo of Xiaolin Showdown, which never aired over here. Also, the "show select" sound effect is used in the intro of 2 Days and 1 Night)

16. There was also an ident in the same style for "Camp Lazlo" from CN Poland (at 0:54): CN zapowiedzi reklama z 30 czerwca 2006r - YouTube
I remember that another ident from that series of promo that was played often on CN CEE was for "Atomic Betty". Idents for "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" and "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" also played at least once as I remember.

 

[RegularCapital]

@Moleoman: Thanks for uploading the picture.
@RandomMe: This is all of the information I know about the "Big Bravo Breakfast":

From what I remember it was a programming block shown during Half Term (School Holidays) so that could be either February, May or October (most likely October/November around Hallowe'en), presented by Johnny Bravo and people were able to call him, so basically it was a talkshow. 2005 would be too late, it was definitely during the "Blocks Era" back in 2003-2004. Also look at this thread: https://www.toonzone.net/forums/car...on-network-u-k-super-autumn.html#.Utg6_fRdU0k

The person who uploaded that video on YouTube actually worked on the Big Bravo Breakfast.The Big Bravo and Big Bravo Breakfast were pretty much a precursor to Skatoony.

Marc Silk voiced Johnny Bravo for both shows.

MARC SILK VOICES
https://twitter.com/marcsilk

Richard Brookes wrote the script for both Skatoony and both Johnny Bravo FM and Big Bravo Breakfast shows.

http://www.mbalit.co.uk/sites/default/files/writercv/Brookes, Richard.pdf

The Big Bravo back in 1999 was a big clue for me to find the CN UK encryption date, as the phone number provided didn't have an international dialing code (+44 for UK) and there weren't any callers from continental Europe, I think that's one of the reasons why the UK feed split off, that and country specific advertising. As you may know the CN UK website during the Blocks Era was poorly archived.

And that's all the information I have.

 

[RandomMe]

As I remember the first next ident for CN Cinema (which normally aired in ca. 2000-2003) acidentally aired one time in late 2007/early 2008. It featured a Baboon watching a movie (not coming from a I.M. Weasel episode) and he gets more nervous by seconds and he starts screaming like a monkey. Then, while the announcer quietly sais that Cartoon Network Cinema was coming up next, it cuts to the screen from the ident of with the words"ZA CHWILĘ" in yellow Times New Roman a'la-3D font in place of "CINEMA" or "TOON FILM"

It was that CN bumper that had the classic music as the BGM, which played on our CN and at the end had cheerlader Tweetys holding squares from CN logo and connect them to make the CN logo but with two letters swapepd)?

Luckily, bumpers and promos for Cartoon Carnival in our country used Bloo's Polish voice actor from the show (Grzegorz Drojewski).


V-Birds from CN Scandinavia in Danish (V-Birds have also played in our CN (CN CEE), too): Vbirds - YouTube

I remember that another ident from that series of promo that was played often on CN CEE was for "Atomic Betty". Idents for "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" and "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" also played at least once as I remember.

1: Thanks for the description of this rare bumper featuring I. R. Baboon. Cow holding an actual torch may be my mind playing tricks, as when I saw the video of the CN CINEMA bumper, my mind said: "Hey! Cow shouldn't be holding Chicken. She was supposed to hold a torch. You know, just like the Columbia Pictures logo". Promos for movies began with a very brief excerpt of the bumper, and we could see the word "CINEMA" for .3 of ephemto seconds.
2: Yes.
3: Because we only had the budget for impersonators...
4: That's the Danish version of the VBirds pilot. Not VBirds: Perfect. By the way, there used to be an animated interview on a 2003 episode of SMTV Live with the presenter talking to the characters (they made an animated version of him). Sadly, it's nowhere to be found (I've only seen it in early September 2011, by my reckoning).
5: As I already said before, the sound effect was recycled for the intro of 2 Days and 1 Night, right at the end of the intro.
Also, the 2003 Skatoony block on CN HQ had some weird bumpers. I can only find bumpers in Polish, but no bumpers in English. There was one bumper which I recall watching. It had Chudd Chudders saying: "This program has been brought to you by... (pause and changes to a slightly high-pitched voice) Himrahim. For him." If someone from the CN HQ region had those bumpers, I could be in instant luck.
RegularCapital, it's your turn now!

 

[RegularCapital]

@RandomMe: That's all the info I know about Big Bravo Breakfast, as for those bumpers/promos on your quest I only vaguely remember them.

Sidenote: The drummer for the VBirds was from Birmingham and is a band member of UB40, VBirds has been recently remastered in HD on YouTube.

 

[RandomMe]

@RandomMe: That's all the info I know about Big Bravo Breakfast, as for those bumpers/promos on your quest I only vaguely remember them.

Sidenote: The drummer for the VBirds was from Birmingham and is a band member of UB40, VBirds has been recently remastered in HD on YouTube.

You could actually give some more info about the hard-to-find bumpers. You need to participate a little more in this "quest" I made.

 

[Red Arrow]

Did the Pan-European feed ever air Skatoony? (I mean the real show, so no strange block)

6: Bumpers and promos for Cartoon Carnival, hosted by a Bloo impersonator. Used in the fall of 2006. FostersFriend doesn't have those bumpers... (RA, S, J, CNR)

As most of you know XD, the CN bumpers aired in Dutch between 1997 and 2001, in English between 2001 and 2010 and they're back in Dutch since early 2010.
However, we still got the Pan-European feed back in 2010! (So the words on screen were still in English)

I was completely shocked (back in late 2009) when I saw a Cartoon Carnival bumper with an awful FEMALE Dutch voice XD It was the first Dutch commercial I ever saw on CN!

2: Kaleidoscope-themed bumper, featuring various HB stars. Used around late 2004 or so. At the end, we see the CN logo, but with two of the letters swapped (CAROTON NETWORK). Later, it changes to the correct text (CARTOON NETWORK). Used on Boomerang as late as 2011, just by editing the end. (RA, S, J, CNR)

I'm very sure I've seen this one somewhere on the internet, but I can't find it anymore...

it has the logo of Xiaolin Showdown, which never aired over here.

I've always been wondering when my CN would premiere Xiaolin Showdown because of those promos

And if anyone finds a Dutch CN promo from 1997-2001, post it please! ^^ (Promos from Yorkiddin' presents Cartoon Network are also welcome, of course)
The only ones I could find:
1. Cartoon Network - Tom & Jerry - Reclame - YouTube (This is when the Cartoon Cartoons started airing in Dutch instead of English with subititles!)
2. Cartoon Network - Einde en begin Tom & Jerry + reclameblok - YouTube
3. Cartoon Network reclames, promo's en bumpers (2000-2001) - YouTube (already posted)
4. Cartoon Network "Sinter Klass" Power Puff Girls on Vimeo (already posted, from Yorkiddin')
5. Dexter's Laboratory Trailer (DUTCH, Yorkiddin) - YouTube (bad quality, from Yorkiddin')
and many DBZ commercials

 

[josie]

Wow, I'm always astonished by the fact some of you remember all of these details so well. I'm not so good with it even though I have many memories of watching CN UK start ups at 06.00 cet back in the day. I remember for one new year's eve (probably in 98 ) I was awake all night long, watching musicals on TNT ( An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953) and Viva Las Vegas (1964) ) and then seeing the CN start up and of cours Tom and Jerry new year's day marathon. I fell asleep after first few shorts though.

 

[RandomMe]

Did the Pan-European feed ever air Skatoony? (I mean the real show, so no strange block)
I'm very sure I've seen this one somewhere on the internet, but I can't find it anymore...
I've always been wondering when my CN would premiere Xiaolin Showdown because of those promos

1: They never aired the actual Skatoony.
2: I remember seeing the thumbnail one Saturday morning back in 2011, but I didn't click on it.
3: They just imported it from CN CEE. Oh well...

Wow, I'm always astonished by the fact some of you remember all of these details so well. I'm not so good with it even though I have many memories of watching CN UK start ups at 06.00 cet back in the day. I remember for one new year's eve (probably in 98 ) I was awake all night long, watching musicals on TNT ( An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953) and Viva Las Vegas (1964) ) and then seeing the CN start up and of cours Tom and Jerry new year's day marathon. I fell asleep after first few shorts though.

I have an astonishing memory of CN HQ. I remember watching CN back in 2003, just before closedown, and they had a pushback, assumig that The Jetsons was next. Unfortunately, TCM was next...

 

[josie]

^ Yeah, I remember that too. But CN HQ actually aired The Jetsons in daytime during that period, along with The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, The Addams Family. Plus they aired so many HB classics as part of Skatoony on Fridays and weekends, if I remember correctly.

 

[RandomMe]

^ Yeah, I remember that too. But CN HQ actually aired The Jetsons in daytime during that period, along with The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, The Addams Family. Plus they aired so many HB classics as part of Skatoony on Fridays and weekends, if I remember correctly.

I remember seeing "Josie and the Pussycats" for the first time on CN during Chudd and Earl's Big Toon Trip in 2003/4, a few years before I could watch the rest of the show on Boomerang (when I got that channel, in 2008).
What about the promos for the 2004/2005 December specials? Blocks Around the Clocks in 2004, with the rotating C's, and the unknown marathon in 2005?

 

[Jazz1000]

i remember in late 2004 when they had city bumpers with all characters talking to one and another,
i don;t care much about live action on a cartoon channel but honestly i really enjoy cartoon network Friday night hosts on there they had really funny and cool bumpers too

o also use to watch top 5 in mornings when i wake up

i enjoy seening channel a 24 hour on fridays that was one most best things that i think CN did back then

 

[RandomMe]

i remember in late 2004 when they had city bumpers with all characters talking to one and another,

Is that a rare City bumper?
@Europeans: Give me more details about the missing bumpers from the past.

 

[Moleoman]

I've found an ident for CN Italy with Samurai Jack crossing the desert to meet other Cartoon Cartoons (I remember that this bumper also played on our CN): Samurai Jack - Mirage Image_Cartoon Network on Vimeo

 

[RandomMe]

I've found an ident for CN Italy with Samurai Jack crossing the dessert to meet other Cartoon Cartoons (I remember that this bumper also played on our CN): Samurai Jack - Mirage Image_Cartoon Network on Vimeo

Now THAT was awkward. I wish we finally had some bumpers from the quest in page 45.
Do you have any details on bumpers 3, 8, 9, and 10? If so, did they air on CN PL-RO-HU?

 

[RegularCapital]

@RandomMe: This what I remember about Toon FM (watching that video on YouTube has refreshed my memory a little bit, I'm surprised on what I can remember especially the Japanese theme of the show), I can prove that Toon FM happened in October 2001 (like most of the Johnny Bravo live shows, before I looked I guessed 2001-2002) also the video pretty much confirms it happened during the European Powerhouse Era, That was 12 years ago, I had to reaffirm my memory. Toon FM was also a radio station back in late 1999 with a restricted licence broadcasting in London and the North West, unfortunately I live in the Midlands and couldn't receive it.

Luckily, CN had a lot more media attention in the UK back then (back when the Children's TV market was less saturated and CN had a higher market share), the only mention of CN in the press now is either Ben 10 or Adventure Time. Admittedly, CN did do a lot of risks and experiments in the UK market between 1999-2005.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-79492818.html
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/67015/media-choice-toon-fm

I will try and find as much as possible about the Mojo Jojo bumper, but I'm not having much luck.

 

[RandomMe]

@RandomMe: This what I remember about Toon FM (watching that video on YouTube has refreshed my memory a little bit, I'm surprised on what I can remember especially the Japanese theme of the show), I can prove that Toon FM happened in October 2001 (like most of the Johnny Bravo live shows, before I looked I guessed 2001-2002) also the video pretty much confirms it happened during the European Powerhouse Era, That was 12 years ago, I had to reaffirm my memory. Toon FM was also a radio station back in late 1999 with a restricted licence broadcasting in London and the North West, unfortunately I live in the Midlands and couldn't receive it.

Luckily, CN had a lot more media attention in the UK back then (back when the Children's TV market was less saturated and CN had a higher market share), the only mention of CN in the press now is either Ben 10 or Adventure Time. Admittedly, CN did do a lot of risks and experiments in the UK market between 1999-2005.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-79492818.html
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/67015/media-choice-toon-fm

I will try and find as much as possible about the Mojo Jojo bumper, but I'm not having much luck.

The Mojo Jojo bumper? "Are you talking to me?! ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?!"
That bumper had a bunch of characters, and I only remember the part where Mojo Jojo said that line. The background was blue-greyish-blue-purple.

 

[Jazz1000]

Is that a rare City bumper?
@Europeans: Give me more details about the missing bumpers from the past.

no? there alot of city bumpers uploaded on youtube
like this one for example:
[video=youtube;sKC1qsQRDkk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKC1qsQRDkk&hd=1[/video]

 

[RandomMe]

I've found an ident for CN Italy with Samurai Jack crossing the dessert to meet other Cartoon Cartoons (I remember that this bumper also played on our CN): Samurai Jack - Mirage Image_Cartoon Network on Vimeo

Moleoman, please, you made the classic dessert/desert confusion. A desert island only has sand and a palm tree. If you want to know what a dessert island is, then watch the I Am Weasel episode "Dessert Island". It was one of my favorites ten years ago.
The quest continues... There are some bumpers that REALLY need to be on the Internet.