FXX turns 10

[hobo 7]

Ten years ago today, Frank Reynolds from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia interrupted a soccer game by bursting out of a leather couch butt-naked to introduce the world to the FXX cable network, followed by a whole day of Parks and Rec reruns.

The channel started out kinda slow, only having syndicated comedy shows and new episodes of former FX sitcoms to hype it up. But in the summer of 2014, they made cable television history by hosting a 12-day marathon of The Simpsons, marking the cable debut of that show by playing every episode produced at the time (a record broken by VH1 Classic's 19-day SNL marathon the year after).

By Autumn of that year, the network finally gained enough clout to generate it's own unborrowed first-run originals, starting with smaller animated fare such as Stone Quackers and Major Lazer and later venturing into live-action with Man Seeking Woman, before slowing down again in terms of content after the latter show's 2017 conclusion, aside from Simpsons reruns and Sunny and Archer premieres.

It also had a show called Cake, a nice little compilation series showcasing experimental cartoons and dry comedy from the internet. Unfortunately, as of 2021, the show is no longer in production, but it's spirit lives on...in the form of split second clips of the show during FXX promos.

Today, as a result of the Disney buyout of 20th Century Fox and the FX Networks, FXX mostly exists as a content hub for 20th Century Television Animation, with popular animated series from that library such as King of the Hill, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and Futurama anchoring most of it's daily lineup, while also sometimes giving newer animated shows like Little Demon, Solar Opposites and Praise Petey a chance to shine on cable.

Live-action still exists on the network in the form of morning movies and new Sunny and Dave episodes every once in a while, but it's obvious that cartoons, whether they be reruns or occasional premieres, are this channel's future, unless a sudden company shake-up or regime change returns the network to mediocrity by stripping it of any smidgen of purpose it has left. Very specific, yes, but in these anti-cable times, you never know.

Does anyone else on this site still watch the network like I do? If so, what do you think of it now, and what do you think it's future holds? Let's converse.

 

[[classic swim]]

I still find it to be an unappealing viewing model that I can only sometimes tolerate whenever I’m around anyone else’s TV. It’s filled with every negative connotation I could give the modern state of cable.

But again, you shouldn’t put the original network on a grand pedestal of quality either. And the very ilk of FXX is just what television is now. It pretty much is the future of that market, if there is one.

 

[harry580]

I think fxx is like tbs as fx is like tnt

 

[Checkerboard]

I have it encoded as the Simpsons network. It's nice it lasted ten. Not sure it'll last ten more.

 

[Francisque]

There's not much to celebrate, there is?

The channel kind of acts as a "FX 2" or something more animation on a loop.
Not sure it's never been the case.

And these days they can easily forget about secondary channel of soon-to-become secondary stations, because of streaming, particularly in the case of Disney

 

[Moe]

I didn't realize that FXX is 10 years now and I don't watch FXX often, but I do when I'm in mood for random adult animated shows. Fox and Disney tried to use FXX to compete with Adult Swim, but Adult Swim won by far.

I think fxx is like tbs as fx is like tnt

Difference between TBS and TNT are very noticable: TBS is sitcom and comedy orientated since TNT is drama orientated (since 2001), but both are very alike when air sport games. Back in 1990s, TNT was mix of retro, cartoon, drama and sports.

 

[Yojimbo]

I watch it on occasion when there's a new season of Sunny or Archer. Well, last season of Archer now. I'm moderately curious how much longer the channel will last or what the plan for it is in the long run.

 

[Daikun]

FXX is only 10 years old? I thought it was older.

 

[LinusFan303]

I have watched FXX in the past 10 years more than FX. Since I can watch the west feed as well as the east feed its nice to have on in the background for King of the Hill, Simpsons, etc.