Cartoon Network
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Cartoon Network is a cable television network created by Turner Broadcasting which primarily shows animated programming. The original American channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 with the Bugs Bunny short Rhapsody Rabbit being its first-ever aired program.[1] Cartoon Network originally served as a 24-hour outlet for classic animation properties from the Turner Broadcasting libraries. Cartoon Network is mainly youth-oriented, but shares channel space with a late-night adult-oriented channel skein called Adult Swim, helping to boost being popular with kids and adults. In recent years, Cartoon Network began airing more live-action programming, mainly being movies.
In 2008, Cartoon Network made a music video stating that comedies are the heart of the network and action is the soul of the network. Cartoon Network West was also introduced in 2008, three hours behind regular networks.
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[edit] History
[edit] Late 1980s-1995: Early Days
By the end of the 1980s, Ted Turner's cable-TV conglomerate had acquired the MGM film library (which included the older catalog of pre-1948 color Warner Bros. cartoons), and its cable channel Turner Network Television had gained an audience with its film library.
In 1990, it purchased animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions and acquired its large library as well as most of the Ruby-Spears library. Cartoon Network was created as an outlet for Turner's considerable library of animation, and the initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. (like Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies), MGM (like Tom and Jerry and Droopy Dog), and Hanna-Barbera cartoons (like The Jetsons and The Flintstones), with many Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons like Wally Gator used as time fillers. Most of the short cartoons were aired in half-hour or hour-long packages, usually separated by character or studio—Down With Droopy D aired old Droopy Dog shorts, The Tom and Jerry Show presented the classic cat-and-mouse team, and Bugs and Daffy Tonight provided classic Looney Tunes shorts. The majority of the classic animation that was shown on Cartoon Network no longer airs, with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The New Scooby-Doo Movies and Tom and Jerry. This was the Platinum Era.
[edit] 1995-2003: Cartoon Cartoons
Hanna-Barbera started production on The What-A-Cartoon! Show (also known as World-Premiere Toons and "The Cartoon Cartoon Show"), a series of creator-driven short cartoons that premiered on Cartoon Network in 1995. It was the network's third original series (the second was Space Ghost Coast to Coast with moltar later becoming the toonami host and the first was The Moxy Show). The project was spearheaded by several Cartoon Network executives, plus Fred Seibert (who was formerly one of the driving forces behind the Nicktoons, and would go on to produce the similar animation anthology series Oh, Yeah! Cartoons). The chief purpose of The What A Cartoon Show was to help Cartoon Network expand their library of exclusive programming and it introduced a number of new cartoon ideas. Only seven of them, however, were spun off into their own series runs. These eight series, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Mike, Lu & Og became the origins of the network's original cartoons which were collectively known as Cartoon Cartoons. But the channel later dropped this name for their cartoons after 2003. At 2003, Cartoon Network had a new block called Fridays.
This was the time on Cartoon Network when it was in its Golden Age. Toonami was introduced in 1997, bringing Saturday night ratings higher than before and Cartoon Cartoons were doing well.
[edit] Enter Time Warner
In 1996, the merger of Turner with Time Warner was complete. This consolidated ownership of all the WB cartoons, so now post-1948 releases were being shown on the network, leading up to a 2000 announcement that Cartoon Network would be the exclusive TV home of the classic Warner Bros. animated library. Newer animated productions by WB also started appearing on the network - mostly reruns of shows that had aired on Kids' WB, plus certain new programs such as Justice League.
[edit] 2002: Cartoon Network's 10th anniversary
On October 1, 2002, Cartoon Network's 10th birthday, Cartoon Network aired a one-day special bumper acknowledging their 10th anniversary. The promo showed quick clips from shows, bumpers, and promos throughout Cartoon Network's history.[2]
[edit] 2004: A New Era
On June 14, 2004, Cartoon Network relaunched itself with a new logo and slogan, “This is Cartoon Network.” The first program ever aired on the relaunched Cartoon Network was Rescue Heroes. The bumps now featured 2D cartoon characters from their shows interacting in a CGI City composed of sets from their shows. They were created by Animal Logic.
By now, nearly all of Cartoon Network's classic cartoon programming had been replaced by new programming, with the exception of a select few, such as Tom and Jerry, a longtime staple of the Turner networks. Within a few months, the network took off more shows from the 1990s (Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo etc.) and put them on a 30 minute block called The Cartoon Cartoon Show. Some shows like Time Squad, Mike, Lu & Og, I Am Weasel and Sheep in the Big City were taken off the network completely. Some shows started to air on Boomerang this year. The shows were Classics. Mike, Lu & Og is one of the shows that currently airs in Boomerang.
Since the City Era was introduced and The New Cartoon Network, this year was one of the final years of Cartoon Network's Golden Age.
[edit] 2005: New Promos and City Look
With the City look still going on, Cartoon network launched Cartoon Network Summer for this summer only where new episodes of old shows and premieres of new shows including Camp Lazlo and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. In Fall 2005, there were many new things to the network including The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Camp Lazlo, and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. On Christmas premieres of new shows started to air including Ben 10, and My Gym Partner's a Monkey! During 2005, Lumpus and Slinkman (Camp Lazlo) hosted a block at Summer 05' called Cabin Fever 10am-4pm.
This was the last year of the City Era and the first of CN's new "silver age".
[edit] 2006-2007: New Bumps and Info
In the summer of 2006, Cartoon Network's slogan was a simplistic “Cartoon Network - Yes!,” as spoken by Fred Fredburger, a character on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Before then, the network's original slogan, "the best place for cartoons", had remained the network's slogan for nearly five years. The network also used bumps featuring the cast of Camp Lazlo as stick puppets and characters in front of a red background. The Golden Era ended by that time.
The new campaign featured three different styles of bumps. The first style is "Lunchbox of Doom", featuring an assortment of show clips inside a CGI gothic lunchbox, a reference to an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. The second is "VS.", comparing two cartoon characters. The last style is a reprise of the CGI City look, using flat, dark colors.
As of 2007, Cartoon Network retained the image campaign that began in 2006, although a slightly refreshed version of the theme is currently in use.[3] On October 15, 2007, the channel began broadcasting in 1080i High Definition.[4]
Starting in Fall of 2007, the network look was revamped, and bumpers and station identification were themed to The Hives song "Fall is Just Something That Grown-Ups Invented", and aired for several months past fall, leading into July 2008, when it got replaced. It has seemed to still be aired during the summer, but without anyone singing. Another bumper named "Ridiculously Short Cartoons" aired excerpts from shows on Cartoon Network, also airing until May 2008.
Starting September 14, 2007, the first live action Cartoon Network Studios show, Out of Jimmy's Head started to air. Later in the year, the more people hated the show so in May 2008, the show left the network and the character sneak peek was still on Cartoon Network Video until Summer 2008 when the show was deleted from the Video list.
Live action started to air a lot of movies and shows making the network to start its Silver Ages.
[edit] 2008: Changes and Teletoon
About a third of their Cartoon Network Studio shows were cancelled during this year. Cartoon Network's current slogan was "Funny For Your Face". When the new year started, Cartoon Network started using some of the shows that currently aired on Teletoon. Johnny Test was added in January 2008, George of the Jungle was also added in January 2008, Chop Socky Chooks was added in March 2008, Total Drama Island was added in June 2008 and 6Teen was added in November 2008.
Cartoon Network announced at it's 2008 Upfront that it is working on a new project called "Cartoonstitute", which is headed by animators Craig McCracken (as executive producer) and Rob Renzetti (as supervising producer). Both report to Rob Scorcher, who created the idea. The program will work in a way similar to What A Cartoon!, by creating at least 150 pieces of animation within 20 months.[5]
Since April 2008, Cartoon Network has played a 1 minute sign-off bumper, depicting a child's daily activities from sunrise to nighttime. In the end, it reads "Good Night. See you tomorrow!" before the Adult Swim program block began. It is their first sign-off bumper after 7 years of showing such a nightly block.
Ever since May 25, Cartoon Network has been airing a series of shorts called "Wedgies". Its name comes from the Wedge, a tool for splitting wood. The shorts, "Wedgies", is used on Cartoon Network to fill in spots between two programs. Brand new "Wedgies" are usually shown on Sunday marathons that shows programming with a common link. The "Wedgies" also have to fit the common link (e.g. Wedgies featuring babies must show during a marathon about babies. Wedgies featuring nachos must show during a marathon with nachos).
Starting July 14, instead of the Fall is Just Something That Grown-Ups Invented song, it airs little creatures called Noods which are most of the time white until they either change colors or change to Cartoon Network main characters or other characters. Also, they have been characters in the Supermarket with food. For example, Chowder behind eaten fruits. Nood looks were so popluar that Cartoon Network made Seasonal Noods for the Holidays of the Year including Halloween and Winter. The Logo has also changed a bit. A Marathon means a new color logo and the Holidays has an ice logo. It changed in almost each program that airs. Many pages of the Cartoon Network website was changed to a nood background. The pages include Games, Shows and Front Page.
In 2008, Toonami ended its Saturday night time slot to Action Flicks, showing animated action movies. In mid 2008, Movie Madness was changed into The Flicks. The Flicks airs each Sunday night premieres of worldwide movies or network movies. Pretty much, Cartoon Network stopped airing shows before 2007, since most of them were cancelled. Some weren't cancelled but aired on CN Video, in their Cartoon Network website or iTunes. 2008 also brought the return of the show, ¡Mucha Lucha! and also had many airings of the popular show, Johnny Test.
Programming blocks also changed. New episodes of Comedies moved to Thursdays because on Fridays, You Are Here, a new Action block started to air replacing Fried Dynamite's reruns of the Flicks movies. You Are Here is an action block. On Mondays to Wednesdays, evening includes a remix of shows including comedies and non-comedies (sometimes movies). Thursdays are new episodes of comedies as for Fridays are new episodes of action shows. Saturdays include action movies and Sundays are Premieres of movies.
Cartoon Network had another live action movie year. Plus, the network got all their pre-2007 shows pretty much out of their network making Cartoon Network stay in its Silver Ages.
[edit] Present
[edit] 2009: Another Chance, Airings
Cartoon Network started 2009 with a Looney Toons marathon. Apparently, Looney Toons didn't make it on a regular spot. The Powerpuff Girls had a marathon to honor its tenth birthday which also premiered The Powerpuff Girls Rules! special. The marathon did bring in more viewers then normal and was overall successful. [6]
Low airings of Skunk Fu! brought the end of the show for the network since it wasn't seen starting March 2009. Chop Socky Chooks left the network again, Ed, Edd n Eddy returned, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends returned and The League of Super Evil premiered. The Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends series finale aired on May 3, 2009 airing the last five episodes in a marathon from 1PM-7PM mixing up new episodes and older, popular episodes.
On June 11, the sequal to Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action premiered.
On June 17, Cartoon Network had hosted reality shows for a block called CN Real.
[edit] Cartoon Network Looks
Here is a list of Cartoon Network Looks. Looks changed at least seven years to a half of a year.
- Noods (July 14, 2008-present)
- Fall (Fall 2007-July 14, 2008)
- City (June 14, 2004-Summer 2006)
- Powerhouse (1997-2004)
- Checkerboard (October 1, 1992-1997)
[edit] Present Shows
- Main article: Cartoons.
[edit] Programming Blocks
[edit] Present Blocks
[edit] You Are Here
You Are Here is the replacement of Fried Dynamite. You Are Here is an action and adventure block that premiered on October 3, 2008 at 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central. The current schedule that started November 14, 2008 includes Batman: The Brave and the Bold at 8:00PM, The Secret Saturdays at 8:30PM, Star Wars: The Clone Wars 9:00PM and Ben 10: Alien Force at 9:30PM. This block is hosted by a golden Nood with a crown, which might be a king.
[edit] Har Har Thursdays
Har Har Tharsdays is the block where Cartoon Network comedies air new episodes.
It started out as CN Thursday Nights and started at 7:30PM Thursdays. At the 7:30PM time slot new episodes of Camp Lazlo premiered. At the 8:00PM time slot, new episodes of Chowder premiered. At the 8:30PM time slot, new episodes of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends premiered. At the 9:00PM time slot, new episodes of George of the Jungle premiered. This stayed the same until in late April, they started to air My Gym Partner's a Monkey at the 7:30PM replacing Camp Lazlo which finished its show. Also, the 9:30PM time slot was used to show new episodes of Chop Socky Chooks. In May, Out of Jimmy's Head aired its final episodes after Cartoon Network kept My Gym Partner's a Monkey out of the 7:30PM time slot.
The Har Har Tharsdays block started on June 5, 2008 when it still started at 7:30PM. The big changes were that George of the Jungle aired its finale episodes of the second season. New George of the Jungle aired there until no new episodes were left making the block start at 8:00PM with new Chowder. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends got replaced by The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack at 8:30PM and George of the Jungle got replaced by Total Drama Island. Chop Socky Chooks got replaced by Johnny Test. Har Har Tharsdays changed a bit ever since it got started. If shows ran out of episodes or had a hitaus, it stayed on the block (for a while or for good). On October 2, 2008, eleven minute episodes of Thumb Wars aired after the first episode of Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. That week was called Star Star Starsdays. Scare Scare Scaresdays started the following week with an hour of Goosebumps (replacing Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack) but everything else stayed the same. The next week also had another change when Johnny Test was off the block and replaced by premieres of Halloween specials (other than Goosebumps). The next week was in November. 6Teen, a new show to the network replaced Johnny Test and had encores of its first air of the Thumbtastic Afterschool Event. For Christmas, nothing changed but the logo, which looked snowy.
In 2009, Har Har Tharsdays had a "Total Drama Island Rewind". Each Thursday, encores of each Total Drama Island episode was on air at 9:00. Heart Heart Heartsdays aired new episodes of all shows except Total Drama Island. Total Drama Action replaced Total Drama Island starting June 11. New episodes of all shows are airing at the moment.
[edit] Former Blocks
[edit] Cartoon Cartoons
Cartoon Cartoons, a series of comedic animated shorts produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions guided by Fred Seibert, who founded the Nickelodeon-based Frederator Studios years later. Originally known as "The Sophisticated Toons," the shorts were essentially series pilots — the idea was to measure audience response and turn the most popular shorts into series. Only a small handful of the shorts ever made series, however. The first short to air was "The Powerpuff Girls Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins," but it would be three years before the girls got their own series. This show also aired the cartoon "Larry and Steve", which was the prototype of the hit show Family Guy. The first series to spin off from What-a-Cartoon! was Dexter's Laboratory in 1996. A year later, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken joined Dexter on the Cartoon Network lineup. The Powerpuff Girls became a Cartoon Cartoons series in the fall of 1998. Ed, Edd, n Eddy came later as the first Cartoon Cartoons series not to be introduced in a What-A-Cartoon! short.
More shows premiered bearing the Cartoon Cartoons moniker, airing throughout the network's schedule and prominently on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, which became the marquee night for premieres of new episodes and new shows. For three years during Summer, Cartoon Network actually let fans pick which of that year's crop of Cartoon Cartoon shorts made series, by staging a vote where fans could choose from among the three most popular entries. The first short to be voted into a series was The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (originally known as Grim & Evil) in 2000, and a year later Codename: Kids Next Door was voted in 2001. Both have gone on to become two of Cartoon Network's longest-running series. Megas XLR was voted in the year later and ran its own series as well, along with Whatever Happened To Robot Jones in 2002, which didn't receive popular vote but became a series sometime later. Both of which, however, were short-lived.
As of September, 2008, the name was primarily used for The Cartoon Cartoon Show, an hour-long program featuring episodes of older Cartoon Cartoons that are no longer shown regularly on the network.
[edit] Fried Dynamite
Fried Dynamite started on August 31, 2007 with host Blake, a teenager, and promos for it aired before. One of the promos included behind the scenes and sneak peeks of two brand new cartoons, Out of Jimmy's Head and Chowder. Throughout the end of 2007, Fried Dynamite made the world series premiere of Chowder by doing things with cooking and Out of Jimmy's Head by having a special guest. In 2008, the hosts made band interviews with at least three bands, announced the new Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai, had the world television premiere of George of the Jungle and Chop Socky Chooks.
An action cartoon written and directed by Blake was shown once. Different segments like Animal Idol, Brainweirdo, The Sour Life of Jack & Grody and Cartoon Tonight were made and shown. Since May 2008, Fried Dynamite featured movies from The Flicks and more! On October 3, 2008 Fried Dynamite ended since a new action block, You Are Here started to air but in 2009, Dynamite Action Squad switched with The Thumbtastic Afterschool Event so it aired on weekdays called Fried Dynamite: Animated.
[edit] Toonami
Toonami was a registered trademark of Cartoon Network, used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network television channels worldwide, mostly shows American and Japanese cartoons, originating in the United States in 1997. In September 2000, TOM was joined by SARA, an AI program, and a cache of custodial robots dubbed Clydes, named after the original Clyde 49. After the events of The Intruder, TOM was reincarnated in a bigger body and a deeper voice. Before TOM, Moltar was hosting.
Cartoon Network moved Toonami from weekday afternoons to Saturday evenings with a new demographic of preteen and teen audiences (even though preteens and teens were already watching the block much to the network's dismay) while adding a new lighter-toned action franchise, Miguzi, (produced by Williams Street, the folks behind Toonami, its name is loosely derived from the Japanese word for swimsuit, an in-joke to longtime viewers of Toonami) to weekdays in its place.
A new look was introduced to the block in 2007. TOM's fourth incarnation, which featured a humanoid face opposed to a visor look the character had always been associated with and a body that was shorter than his previous incarnation, was introduced as were a trio of new sidekicks, a robot with painted flames named Flash, a green control robot named Two (T for short), and a small robot whose name hasn't been revealed but has a body similar to a Clyde 50. The block's headquarters is a jungle planet. Toonami ended in 2008 after 11 years.
[edit] Fridays
The Fridays block on Cartoon Network that showcased the channel's original cartoon series, with new episode premieres usually taking place in this block. The block replaced Cartoon Cartoon Fridays starting in 2003 and got replaced in 2007.
[edit] Funny For Your Face
Funny For Your Face was a block on Cartoon Network that replaced Master Control when it ended in November 2007. It started out when Johnny Test was introduced to Cartoon Network. Funny for Your Face was cancelled in late June 2008. This block showed comedies such as Camp Lazlo, What's New Scooby Doo, Johnny Test and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends starting at 4:00PM.
[edit] Festival of Chowder
The Festival of Chowder is a block that aired June 1st-June 4th showing semi-new episodes of Chowder.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)
- ↑ Cartoon Network's 10th anniversary
- ↑ Cartoon Network
- ↑ TVWeek.com
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ [1]
