Digital Feature: Final Paper

Sasha Belorme

WRT 109 SYNTHESIS AND RESEARCH WRITING

Instructor: Lamont Rouse

12/9/2022
Whenever I think of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network these days, I think of that comic strip /

meme of the dog sitting in his apartment on fire saying 'This is fine'. I know that we (okay,

mostly I) always go on about Nickelodeon's fall-off, but Cartoon Network's is just as bad. If

you’re old enough to feel nostalgic towards many of their classic shows during their salad days

you definitely know how far this modern channel has gone down in such a short amount of time.

Today Cartoon Network sits closer than ever to irrelevance. However, unlike the strange

dilemma over at Nickelodeon it’s not the Spongebob Syndrome that takes the blame. It’s clearly

studio heads who have learned nothing from their previous mistakes, some more recent than

others. This year Cartoon Network celebrated its 30th anniversary during their debatably lowest

point in history with a dangerously low amount of alive and kicking shows under their belt. The

network has gone through many ups and downs through their lifespan but the rut they are in now

seems not to be stopping anytime soon and nothing they are doing is showing they will soon

bounce back. Fans and critics believe they are trapped (haven't learned to let go of the past) and

haven't found a way to evolve as a channel and brand that resonates with the general public.

Unlike the decades prior, they haven’t had a big revolutionary series yet despite it nearly being

three years into this decade. Let’s look over its history, the rise and fall and see how they can

make a comeback.

In the late summer of 1986 Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System obtained

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists from Kirk Kerkorian. In fall of 1986 Turner was

mandated to give MGM/UA back to Kerkorian after just 75 days. (Delugach, 1986) However,

Turner still had a huge chunk of MGM's movie and TV library made prior to May 1986 and

developed Turner Entertainment Co. Turner Network Television debuted in October of 1988. In

1991, Turner made a deal to buy Hanna-Barbera’s library for $320 million. (Hall, 1990) Betty
Cohen was picked by Turner himself to make a channel that would encase these shows and she

became the first president of Cartoon Network. On October 1 1992 Cartoon Network was

officially launched and played only cartoons 24/7. (Winfrey, 1992) The channel was a grower but

soon stuck and by 1994 Cartoon Network was the fifth most popular cable network in the United

States. The first era of Cartoon Network is known as the Checkerboard era due to the logo’s

appearance. The first show to be exclusively shown on the channel was The Moxy Show in

1993. The first series to be produced by Cartoon Network however was Space Ghost Coast To

Coast. Cartoon Network studios was initiated in 1994 and was a new division of Hanna Barbera.

The first show to air was the What A Cartoon show, whose main goal was to be an exhibit for

young creators to present their ideas. Popular shows to be spawned from this program include

Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, I am Weasel and Dexter’s Laboratory. They eventually became

series of their own. (Strike, 2003) In 1997 Toonami, a programming block dedicated to anime

and action shows, was launched. (Arnold, 2017) The Checkerboard era ended in 1997 and was

replaced by the Powerhouse era, which was called that since it used the instrumental Powerhouse

by Raymond Scott. (Goldmark & Taylor, 2002) Popular shows from this era include Powerpuff

Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, Codename: Kids Next Door

and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. There was also the introduction of Cartoon Cartoon

Fridays in 1999. It was a block of original cartoons from the channel that aired new episodes,

reruns and world premieres of shows.

Betty Cohen stepped down as president of Cartoon Network in June of 2001 and was

replaced by Jim Samples in August. (Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter, 2001) In September of

2001 Adult Swim was launched and debuted with the shows Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law,

Sealab 2021, Cowboy Bebop, The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Space Ghost Coast
to Coast. (Bahr, 2021) July of 2002 was when Cartoon Network released their first theatrical film

based on an original series The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Despite it being received warmly by

critics it was a box office failure grossing only 16.4 million dollars on an 11 million budget. In

the early summer of 2004 the Powerhouse era came to an end and was replaced by the CN City

era and Cartoon Network got a new logo and motto “This is Cartoon Network!”.(Time Warner,

2004) The defining characteristic of this era was the bumpers that had Cartoon Network

characters interact with each other and is constantly seen as the best Cartoon Network era due to

its creativity. Many of the original cartoon cartoons ceased production around this time and were

being replaced by new shows like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ben 10, My Gym

Partner's a Monkey, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and Camp Lazlo. In the late summer of

2005 Cartoon Network introduced their first preschool block called Tickle U that was meant to

compete with Noggin (now known as Nick Jr.) and Playhouse Disney (now known as Disney Jr.)

Tickle U was very unsuccessful and was canned in January of 2006. The CN City era ended in

spring of 2006 and was replaced by the Yes era. The Yes era had more simplistic bumpers

consisting of stick puppets and characters saying and doing things in front of a red background.

The Yes era was succeeded by the Summer of 2007 era that ended in September of that same

year and was succeeded by the Fall era. In February of 2007 Jim Samples resigned after a Boston

bomb scare caused by packages that were meant to promote the Adult Swim series Aqua Teen

Hunger Force. (Gough, 2007) Stuart Snyder took his place in May. (Romano, 2007) 2007 also

saw big changes for the network as it was the year they premiered their very first live action

show Out of Jimmy’s Head. The Fall of 2007 era was replaced by the Noods era in July of 2008.

Noods were plain white figurines that could take on the color scheme of a cartoon character or

change into another color. (Cone, 2009) In September of that year Cartoon Network’s longest
running block at the time Toonami concluded.(Loo, 2008) This era is seen by many as the

defining moment that Cartoon Network jumped the shark and took a turn for the worse leading to

one of its most infamous eras. Now we’re entering the dark age.

During the mid to late 2000s Nickelodeon and Disney Channel struck gold with sitcoms

like Drake & Josh, iCarly, True Jackson VP, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Hannah Montana

and Wizards of Waverly Place. Cartoon Network was desperately trying to get a piece of the pie

by trying to make live action series of their own. Making a live action series was a lot cheaper

and took a shorter time too. In summer of 2009, the network debuted the CN Real programming

block. Five live action series premiered that whole year, The Othersiders, Bobb'e Says, Dude,

What Would Happen, BrainRush, and Destroy Build Destroy.(Lloyd, 2009) While no new

original cartoon was in sight for the whole twelve months. Many people agree that this was the

period in time when Cartoon Network had officially reached their nadir, the bottom of the barrel.

Most didn’t sit well with the fact that live action shows were airing on a channel dedicated

towards just cartoons. Due to the overwhelming levels of hatred most of these shows were

getting from the general public most were quickly canceled and never aired again. Around this

time imported Canadian cartoons like Total Drama Island, 6teen and Johnny Test started airing.

The Noods era ended in 2010 and was replaced by the CHECK it era. Dude, What Would

Happen? and Destroy Build Destroy were the only two CN Real shows to air during the CHECK

it era. Cartoon Network would still air several other live-action shows during this era, such

original programs like Level Up and Incredible Crew and the acquired show Hole in the Wall.

The live action content stopped airing permanently in April 2013. In April of 2010 Cartoon

Network began airing their first original cartoon in over a year Adventure Time. It was also the

first show on the channel to broadcast in high definition. In fall of that same year Regular Show
also premiered. Both of these shows were huge crowd pullers and paved the way for a very good

age for the network. This era is widely known as the Cartoon Network renaissance era since it

revived the network’s popularity after the mixed reception and failure of the Noods era and CN

Real. Despite having some hiccups here and there like Problem Solverz and The High Fructose

Adventures of Annoying Orange Cartoon Network did start showing a lot of major

improvements while other children network’s lagged behind. Nickelodeon was tainting their

reputation and legacy by releasing an onslaught of egregious live action and animated shows and

started airing Spongebob ad nauseam which led to their dramatic fall from grace. Disney

Channel on the other hand was focusing on only live action programming and hardly gave any

animated properties the light of day.

In retrospect the CHECK it era is seen by the general consensus as one of the best

Cartoon Network eras alongside the Powerhouse and CN City era and the last truly great era they

ever had and will have. TV-PG programming started to air for the first time ever and the TV-PG

shows of the era were edgier, mature and appealed to many generations. More successful shows

to come from this era include The Amazing World of Gumball, The Looney Tunes Show, Ben

10: Omniverse, Steven Universe and Clarence. Sadly however, in 2013 they debuted an acquired

series from DC and Warner Bros. called Teen Titans Go which was a spinoff of the popular

action series Teen Titans from 2003. Despite the series being universally lambasted by critics and

fans the series still ended up being commercially successful. It quickly became one of Cartoon

Network’s most popular series at the time. By 2015, ratings were extraordinarily high, often

surpassing that of not just the main kids channels, but even shows on the big four networks like

ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. Consequently this caused the show to eventually get a lot of special

treatment and favoritism. By the mid 2010s Teen Titans Go had already cemented itself as one of
the biggest kids shows in America and had nothing to prove. Cartoon Network was in more than

a position to slow down on the oversaturation. But their reluctance to do so not only caused a

decline in their popularity and their ratings, but most importantly, it tainted their legacy forever.

More than CN Real ever could.

Teen Titans Go started to get compared to Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants and

MTV’s Ridiculousness with how much overexposure it got. Several programming blocks were

dedicated to it and led to more overexposure. The overexposure was so severe that it prevented

most Cartoon Network series other than Gumball to ever get any airtime at all other than

graveyard slots, hurting their ratings and causing a few of them (e.g. Uncle Grandpa and

Clarence) to get unceremoniously canceled. One of its most infamous examples of its

overexposure was during the last week of December of 2017 when it took 99% of that week’s air

time. (CNschedules, 2017) By the later half of 2018, the superfluous broadcasting began to take

a nosedive as its popularity decayed, former fans turned their backs against it and the theatrical

flick was seen as a box-office disappointment. Not a single episode of Teen Titans Go or any

Cartoon Network series has hit a million views since 2018 and in the past year or so viewership

was down to at least 180,000. Although another large factor into this is also streaming and social

media taking up the majority of kids’ time. (Read, 2020)

It truly is sad to see what happened to Cartoon Network. Before Teen Titans Go they had

other bad shows like Secret Mountain Fort Awesome or pretty much anything on the CN Real

block, but none of them have marred their reputation and public respect more than the overuse of

Teen Titans Go has. They are also starting to repeat their past mistakes by making a new

preschool block and making live action content again like the upcoming show Family Mash-Up.

It's like executives failed to forget why the channel was great to begin with. However, as bad as
the network is now they will always be better than Nickelodeon. They’ve had many shows that

have lasted for 4, 5 or 6 seasons and they usually don’t instantly cancel something if it’s not a

runaway success like Spongebob. "Leave them wanting more" should be the motto that they live

by. Open up more opportunities for new content, do more cartoon shorts programs like What a

Cartoon. And allow other people besides CalArts graduates & storyboard artists on other popular

shows to have a shot at getting their ideas out there. I still have hope Cartoon Network will

someday find a happy ending. Nickelodeon on the other hand, not at all.

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