TV Week article: "The New Non-Toon Cartoon Network"

[Sketch]

Bah screw it...

Let CN do what they want but they should change their name to CN Kids. Then Boomerang can be retooled as THE Cartoon Network as the home of animation for all ages (with pieces of what made Boomerang worth while as well as what made CN worth while in the past and recent shows they wont air anymore like Megas, Duck Dodgers, JLU - soon, etc.).

That'd be the easiest way to fix things decently with very much hassle without spitting on the brand names of Boomerang and CN (at least directly as they are now with 90's and 2000's stuff on Boomerang and live-action on CN).

Then CN will be free to be as Nick as they want while there will still be a good animation venue besides Nicktoons Network. By making Boomerang an ad network and retooling it as a different Cartoon Network it could get picked up a lot more and that'll help the bottom line for sure.

 

[One Radical Dude]

The next thing they'll probably do is add live-action to Boomerang, as well. Don't rule that possibility out.

 

[anime_guru]

yes I can see different strokes on boomerang, and then boomerang would become ME TV or Nick at Nite x2...that's a scary thing

 

[Nin-Nin69]

Now that it's official, I can officially say that Cartoon Network is dead to me.

I barely catch AS now since new episodes I want to see are online. There is no real motivation for me to watch Toonami anymore outside of BoBoBo. There are too many bad original cartoons while the classics are neglected for poorly organized blocks, boring cartoons which were made to put toddlers to sleep, and above all airing live action anything.

I knew something bad would've come up since the packaging of Fridays. Sure they were trying to go after Nick and Disney, but why? You're already #1! There should be no real reason to out best someone on their playing field when you've already got the high ratings and the shows to back you up. How much higher did they want to go? 4 times the amount of people that populate the world?

The reason you're falling behind is due to the shows that you're backing up which a majority of your viewers dislike or are sick of watching. Where the frig is Samurai Jack, Justice League, and Courage? Remember these shows which gave them such high ratings over the weekdays? They would even trade good shows like Time Squad and Megas XLR over for another 2 blocks of a bad Kids WB show or another KND or Juniper Lee slot. And there are almost no more classic cartoons on CN unless AS tries to be funny (when they're not) and air "lol Chuck Norris Crappy Crap Spectacular with Ninja Stars."

So what if you don't have Spongebob? You don't need to make not one, but two shows that involves the same team while neglecting the bad writing. Sure the Spongebob movie made more than the PPG's, but do you know why? Because you didn't really push it out to the older public outside of the network while letting smug jerks like Roger Ebert walk all over it. The single made up at the last minute, "That's What Girls Do" I feel is one of the leading causes to turn people away. AS even helped out with the PPG pimpage to make the older audience feel confident about seeing a movie involving little girls. That was one of the best things AS has ever done for the CN community in their entire lifespan. Craig McCracken even came here asking people to spread the word and get more people to watch the movie in theaters. So what did they do in return? They blamed their CN studios and blamed their CC animators. None of the blame went towards the morons who are in charge of marketing and advertizment who work for WB and CN when the animators were doing a better job promoting the movie with an even smaller budget than the people that get handed $750,000 to make a trailer.

Until the day that CN understands their own faults and fixes them rather than changing their format, (which will never happen) then I no longer consider myself a loyal CN viewer. Just like MTV did back in 1996 when they got stupid VJ's, got rid of their best shows, and stopped carring about the music I like, this will never change. Nickalodeon even jumped down this path in 1996 while I've only seen 3 good shows since then. It's been 10 years now and both are getting worse and worse every year. I can see CN going down this path. And now I'm seeing this pattern where good networks go bad on the 6th year of a decade.

MTV 1981-1996
Nick 1981-1996
CN 1992-2006

Toon TV is dead and buried.

 

[Wanted]

Thank you. Now, you folks can either sit here and (say sweet nothings) about how you want Cartoon Network to revert, or do something about it. Get a degree in one of the fields that you think may impact animation (and one that you rather particularly like, for there's nothing worse than hating your profession), rather than just hypothesize about what Cartoon Network could and should do.

 

[bat313]

Ahem.

*megaphone reverberates with feedback*

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "LIVE-ACTION CARTOON" IN EXISTANCE! IT IS AN OXYMORON LIKE VIRTUAL REALITY, SOFT ROCK, AND MICROSOFT WORKS. THERE ARE "CARTOONY LIVE-ACTION SHOWS," BUT NO "LIVE-ACTION CARTOONS." PLEASE STOP USING THIS TERM BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EXIST!

That is all.

Couldn't agree more my friend. Whether the media use's the term or not, it's not a real thing. Cartoons are animation. Animation comes in many forms, hand drawn, computer or clay mation to name a few. HOWEVER PEOPLE ACTING OUT PARTS IS SIMPLY NOT A CARTOON. IT IS LIVE ACTION. LIVING BREATHING PEOPLE ACTING. maybe they act cartoony, maybe the plots are so god awful that peolple automatically know the show is for kids and hence must be a cartoon, i dunno, but you are right my friend. The term is ludicrous.

 

[One Radical Dude]

All right, Jeff -- I have DISH Network, do I write to the corporate office or what? I want to make sure I write/contact the correct folks. I refuse to do nothing (I would hate to think back and ponder if I (as well as other folks) could have "saved" Cartoon Network). If our efforts fail, at least we've tried. Beats not doing anything at all.

 

[Sketch]

CN is just going to do what they want so let CN be whatever but retool Boomerang to look something like this (this being weekdays)

06:00 AM - Captain Planet
06:30 AM - Static Shock
07:00 AM - Power Puff Girls
07:30 AM - Dexter's Laboratory
08:00 AM - Courage the Cowardly Dog
08:30 AM - Mike, Lu and Og
09:00 AM - Johnny Bravo
09:30 AM - 2 Stupid Dogs
10:00 AM - Whatever Happened to Robot Jones
10:30 AM - What A Cartoon Show
11:00 AM - Cow and Chicken
11:30 AM - I Am Weasel
12:00 PM - Looney Tunes
12:30 PM - HB Toons
01:00 PM - The Flinstones
01:30 PM - The Jetsons
02:00 PM - Freakazoid
02:30 PM - Tiny Toon Adventures
03:00 PM - Teen Titans
03:30 PM - Ninja Turtles
04:00 PM - Animaniacs!
04:30 PM - Pinky and the Brain
05:00 PM - Power Puff Girls
05:30 PM - Megas XLR
06:00 PM - Dragonball
06:30 PM - Dragonball Z
07:00 PM - Justice League Unlimited
07:30 PM - Samurai Jack
08:00 PM - Dexter's Laboratory
08:30 PM - Courage the Cowardly Dog
09:00 PM - Johnny Bravo
09:30 PM - Duck Dodgers
10:00 AM - Justice League
10:30 AM - Batman Beyond
11:00 AM - Batman: TAS
11:30 AM - Superman: TAS
12:00 PM - Looney Tunes
12:30 PM - The Flinstones
01:00 PM - Sheep in the Big City
01:30 PM - Time Squad
02:00 AM - Pirates of Dark Water / SWAT Cats
02:30 AM - He-Man / The Real Adventures of JQ
03:00 AM - Thundercats
03:30 AM - GI-Joe
04:00 AM - Toon Heads
04:30 AM - Chuck Jones Show / Tex Avery Show
05:00 AM - Bob Clampit Show / Popeye Show
05:30 AM - Late Night Black and White

As not to spit on the name of Boomerang more than they already do. Maybe it CN 2 or CN Too. You may notice that from at least 3PM-6AM when CN/AS is showing comedy this channel would be showing action and vice versa. It should help keep the networks audiences from having many conflicts.

 

[Djm912]

I thought we stuck the fork in Cartoon Network and Adult Swim a while ago. The zombie networks CN and [adult swim] are what's left.

Don't be surprised to see CN with some kid reality shows(like the Discovery Channel) that are "in the spirit of animation" before 2008. What next, live game shows in front of a crowd outside somewhere in Atlanta?

Honestly, this is how the TV business works. If CN thinks that pulling the G4 card and becoming a crappy version of a succesful network, then so be it.

Good luck, CN. Hope you're happy with REALLY being #3 forever now. Cartoon Network was a great experiment that worked pretty damn well, but I suppose CN is what's going to get them the ratings.

 

[Nin-Nin69]

Thank you. Now, you folks can either sit here and (say sweet nothings) about how you want Cartoon Network to revert, or do something about it. Get a degree in one of the fields that you think may impact animation (and one that you rather particularly like, for there's nothing worse than hating your profession), rather than just hypothesize about what Cartoon Network could and should do.

I'd love to do my own series one day, but I'd get the same treatment as those on Sunday Pants. Unless I took a bunch of drugs over the next odd years and loved the idea about writing Derp Comedy while belittling the auidence, they would love my ideas. Then with a splish splash of live action we've got primetime Derp TV. If I happen to fall out with games, then I might go down the road of independent films while doing stuff for Spike and Mike. Too bad Spike and Mike don't get current animators much credit in the field since they helped Don Hertzfeldt and flash cartoons on the internet.

 

[One Radical Dude]

Sketch, the way I see it, these guys are probably going to eventually do the same thing to Boomerang at some point -- throw in some "live-action cartoons " there. Believe it!

 

[remnant]

Now that it's official, I can officially say that Cartoon Network is dead to me.

I barely catch AS now since new episodes I want to see are online. There is no real motivation for me to watch Toonami anymore outside of BoBoBo. There are too many bad original cartoons while the classics are neglected for poorly organized blocks, boring cartoons which were made to put toddlers to sleep, and above all airing live action anything.

I knew something bad would've come up since the packaging of Fridays. Sure they were trying to go after Nick and Disney, but why? You're already #1! There should be no real reason to out best someone on their playing field when you've already got the high ratings and the shows to back you up. How much higher did they want to go? 4 times the amount of people that populate the world?

The reason you're falling behind is due to the shows that you're backing up which a majority of your viewers dislike or are sick of watching. Where the frig is Samurai Jack, Justice League, and Courage? Remember these shows which gave them such high ratings over the weekdays? They would even trade good shows like Time Squad and Megas XLR over for another 2 blocks of a bad Kids WB show or another KND or Juniper Lee slot. And there are almost no more classic cartoons on CN unless AS tries to be funny (when they're not) and air "lol Chuck Norris Crappy Crap Spectacular with Ninja Stars."

So what if you don't have Spongebob? You don't need to make not one, but two shows that involves the same team while neglecting the bad writing. Sure the Spongebob movie made more than the PPG's, but do you know why? Because you didn't really push it out to the older public outside of the network while letting smug jerks like Roger Ebert walk all over it. The single made up at the last minute, "That's What Girls Do" I feel is one of the leading causes to turn people away. AS even helped out with the PPG pimpage to make the older audience feel confident about seeing a movie involving little girls. That was one of the best things AS has ever done for the CN community in their entire lifespan. Craig McCracken even came here asking people to spread the word and get more people to watch the movie in theaters. So what did they do in return? They blamed their CN studios and blamed their CC animators. None of the blame went towards the morons who are in charge of marketing and advertizment who work for WB and CN when the animators were doing a better job promoting the movie with an even smaller budget than the people that get handed $750,000 to make a trailer.

Until the day that CN understands their own faults and fixes them rather than changing their format, (which will never happen) then I no longer consider myself a loyal CN viewer. Just like MTV did back in 1996 when they got stupid VJ's, got rid of their best shows, and stopped carring about the music I like, this will never change. Nickalodeon even jumped down this path in 1996 while I've only seen 3 good shows since then. It's been 10 years now and both are getting worse and worse every year. I can see CN going down this path. And now I'm seeing this pattern where good networks go bad on the 6th year of a decade.

MTV 1981-1996
Nick 1981-1996
CN 1992-2006

Toon TV is dead and buried.

CN is not #1 in ratings. WHile their animated programs are highly rated overall Nick and Disney DESTROY them in overall rating becuase live-action shows are simply more popular. Ask Disney.

So many of you guys bring up Samurai Jack and Justice League and the like but those shows are not often rating juggernauts.( Actually JLU was. Timm was just tired of the show and wanted it to end.) Samurai Jack did terrible in the ratings. It definition of cult.

The PPG movie was riding on a wave of hype. It just wasn't going to sustain itself. Also blaming marketing is classic example of " I have no idea who to really blame"

Evolution of Television. Everyone is changing formats. It's the only way to survive in today's market. Single genre stations are a dying breed becuyase they were a novelty that cable used to sell itself. Now however people want multiple things gthat appeal to them. Look at the most successful stations. Nick,Mtv, Lifetime. What do they have in common? They adapted away from giving a single genre and more into making a solid package of programming for a specific demographic. That is what CN is doing. That is the only way CN will survive.

 

[Sketch]

Not so fast there... LA comedies kick the crap out of CN's shows for ratings but you didn't mention the notable fact that Nick's cartoons kick the crap out of their live action shows in ALL demos. Sponge Bob, Fairly Odd Parents and Avatar beat Nick and Disney's live action fair easily.

Simple proof that cartoons can and do get better ratings with youth demos than live action programing. But LA shows are on the rise at the moment especially Drake and Josh, Zoey 101 and Disney's Hanna Montana. None the less... Sponge Bob beats everything and it's a cartoon. Nick sure found a pot of gold with that one. Too bad CN can't seem to make a show that is equally popular. I'd chock that up to everyone trying to be Sponge Bob and failing miserably (not just CN). Even so Foster's at least is a great show it's a shame it's not doing anywhere near as well as Nick's toons.

And yeah I'm pretty sure most of agree that CN was already dead. Adding live-action is just pissing on the grave.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Not so fast there... LA comedies kick the crap out of CN's shows for ratings but you didn't mention the notable fact that Nick's cartoons kick the crap out of their live action shows in ALL demos. Sponge Bob, Fairly Odd Parents and Avatar beat Nick and Disney's live action fair easily.

High School Musical anyone? 7.5 million viewers.

 

[Sketch]

True, but that was a movie not a series.

 

[jarjar23]

And a premiere. Any kid movie or show premiere gets big ratings - it's just the matter of will the movie/show maintain the ratings as it's shown again (in movies case) or more epiosdes premiere (in a show case). High School Musical did EXTREMELY well, and it's STILL doing extremely well.

 

[Sketch]

Yes there seems to be a "music show" boom right now. American Idol anyone? And now Disney's Hanna Montana is really drawing in girls 6-14. So once again I must say... CN get a clue and air Full Moon o Sagashite. It's the perfect show to ride on that trend (since we all know how CN loves to ride the trends now).

 

[bat313]

.( Actually JLU was. Timm was just tired of the show and wanted it to end.)

That's some missinformation if i ever heard it.

 

[HG Revolution]

1) So many of you guys bring up Samurai Jack and Justice League and the like but those shows are not often rating juggernauts.( Actually JLU was. Timm was just tired of the show and wanted it to end.) Samurai Jack did terrible in the ratings. It definition of cult.

2) Evolution of Television. Everyone is changing formats. It's the only way to survive in today's market. Single genre stations are a dying breed becuyase they were a novelty that cable used to sell itself. Now however people want multiple things gthat appeal to them. Look at the most successful stations. Nick,Mtv, Lifetime. What do they have in common? They adapted away from giving a single genre and more into making a solid package of programming for a specific demographic. That is what CN is doing. That is the only way CN will survive.

1) The last episode of Samurai Jack made the Top 30 most-watched programs with kids 9-14 the week it aired. Very few CN programs do that.

2) Not every successful network has changed goals. Nick is sticking with its goal to be a kids network and is succeeding. Comedy Central is sticking with its goal to be a comedy network and is succeeding. HBO admitted changed its goals from "uncut movies" to "uncut anything" but at least still was daring with its new goal and didn't succomb to "trends" that CN and MTV have and it is a successful network as well. If Cartoon Network improved its off-network promotion (which would heighten the ratings of already fairly-successful shows like Fosters) and made better shows they could survive without live-action.

 

[jarjar23]

Do you think they infact could rename the network? Not nesessarily the Children's Network, becuase it sounds too, well, childish, and viewers would get confused with it STILL being "CN". They'd need to COMPLETLY reinvent themselves.