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arkus-rhapsode · 10 months ago

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So... What is a Cartoon Network Show? (A Discussion)

Hey everyone, Arkus back again and I'm doing something that I alluded to a while ago, but I was working on a project involving Cartoon Network. Now for those unaware, I don't consider myself to be a part of the larger animation community like say a Cartoonshi or an Alpha Jay Show. I approach this topic as simply someone who grew up on Cartoon Network and has always had a level of reverence for the channel and undoubtedly had an impact on my formative opinions on the value of animation that I still have to this day.

So when I heard the announcement for Jellystone's Crisis on Infinite Mirths special it got me wondering-wait what is a Cartoon Network show? Now that might seem like an easy answer: "Its a show that was on Cartoon Network," but as I delved deeper into the question there appeared a great amount of context that seemed to go all over the map. I'm sure that there are people more versed in the content that may see this as common sense knowledge. So this is post for people like me-the average enjoyers of animation who want to understand more and have greater context about a channel they may have a soft spot for and want to be better informed when the question is asked, "what is a Cartoon Network show?"

(Yes I did make a spreadsheet on this one. This wasn't a task I took lightly)

So before we really get into the weeds of everything, I do want to make sure we're all on the same page: Cartoon Network is a television channel which is aired in multiple countries around the world which is overseen by the parent company of The Cartoon Network Inc. Which itself is owned by the mega conglomerate that is Warner Bros Discovery. The Cartoon Network Inc. Owns various production companies to make original content the primary ones being Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera Europe, and Williams Street. The network itself is broken up into several blocks such as Cartoonito (An early morning block aimed at pre school children) and Adult Swim (An evening block aimed at 18+ individuals). With (At the time I am writing this) the 6 AM to 5PM being aimed at kids 6-12 years old and being considered "Cartoon Network" hours.

So with all the terminology out of the way, lets address the obvious answer of "a Cartoon Network show is a show that aired on Cartoon Network" I would say that interpretation is a bit reductive. Sorta like calling every game that's been on a Nintendo console a "Nintendo game." While not necessarily wrong, it does conflate the idea that the third party games are the same as the first party ones, which also makes a lot of misinformation very possible. Cartoon Network like Nickelodeon, Disney and many other channels can have original programming and acquired programming. Original programming being shows made for and existing solely on this network while acquired programming may be shows or movies that a company is pay broadcasting rights for. You see this a lot in foreign programming. Obviously the various anime that air on Toonami are not creations for Cartoon Network nor produced by them.

However, I think there is some interesting things that would be considered acquired programming on Cartoon Network. Because now we have to talk about why Cartoon Network exists in the first place and that's Hanna-Barbera.

Without Hanna-Barbera there would be no Cartoon Network. Plain and simple. The channel was founded with the intent of housing the animated library of Hanna-Barbera (Along with classic Luney Toons shorts from the 40s) when Ted Turner successfully acquired the studio. Now the thing to remember is Cartoon Network was made in the early 90s, while Hanna-Barbera shorts had existed since the 50s in various forms of syndication. Usually on ABC.

As such these shows like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry etc. Wouldn't be considered original programming for the network. But it would be a division of Hanna-Barbera that would become what we know today as Cartoon Network Studios, which would begin creating shorts for "What a Cartoon!" Which would in turn become the seeds for Cartoon Network's first original programming.

Speaking of acquired programming, I'm sure if you're of a certain age group you probably remember Warner Bros other network that contained original animation-The WB. And probably more famous its animation block, Kids WB.

Now the reason for the creation of The WB is itself a massive business interests and experiments in network television and policies of the Federal Communications Commission, so I simply want to get into its well known kids programming block, Kids WB that actually served as an outlet for shows created by Warner Bros Animation. Such as

Animaniacs

Pinky and the Brain

Freakazoid!

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries

Superman: The Animated Series

Road Rovers

Waynehead

The New Batman Adventures

Histeria

Batman Beyond

Detention

¡Mucha Lucha!

What's New, Scooby-Doo?

Ozzy & Drix

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island

Loonatics Unleashed

Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!

Now, you may be seeing some of those names and wondering, "Wait wasn't that on Cartoon Network though?" Which yes, many of these shows would come to Cartoon Network especially in the wake of the WB's own tumultuous history that would eventually see it become one half of what we know todays as The CW. However, many of these shows weren't made to be aired on Cartoon Network, but rather to air on the The WB, which while both were owned by the greater Warner Media parent company, these were acquired programming. I can personally attest to reruns on the Cartoon Network being my exposure to shows like Freakazoid and Superman the animated series and The WB in turn actually had aired some programming from Cartoon Network such as Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls. And because these properties are all owned by the same parent company it actually makes the water more muddy on what is "Cartoon Network show." Made even more complicated by the fact that Hanna-Barbera the production company as we know it would be absorbed into Warner Bros Animation in 2001.

We are not talking simply about getting Pokemon because some broadcasting money was exchanged to air in America, we're actually talking about programming that the channel itself was founded on rerunning and playing reruns made by a sister network in the bigger Warner Television umbrella.

As such, while I don't think the "If it aired on Cartoon Network, its a cartoon Network show" is an interpretation I agree with, I can see where there's a shared level of DNA in some of the programs that makes it harder to separate the two.

This actually leads us to another potential answer for what is a Cartoon Network show, "Its a show made by Cartoon Network Studios."

Now as previously mentioned, Turner would acquire Hanna-Barbera and at the time Hanna-Barbera was still making new shows by the time Cartoon Network was started. Such as The New Adventures of Captain Planet, 2 Stupid Dogs, and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. But these shows would actually end up debuting and airing on TBS, another Turner/Warner Television Arm. But now we return to that newly formed division in Hanna-Barbera studios known as Cartoon Network Studios. This studio was primarily made for making original programing for What a Cartoon! which would lead to the creation of some of the earliest Cartoon Cartoons.

Johnny Bravo

Cow and Chicken

I Am Weasel

Power Puff Girls

And of course the big one, Dexter's Laboratory.

In fact, when you look back on it, Dexter's Lab is structured similarly to an old school Hanna-Barbera show. Where you'd have say the Huckleberry Hound Show, but you'd have various segments one being the Huckleberry Hound segment, but then having a segment focusing on Hockey Wolf, and a segment with Pixie, Dixie and Mr Jinks. In the case of Dexter's Lab, an episode could contain a Dexter segment then go into Dial M for Monkey or The Justice Friends.

However, these weren't really considered "Cartoon Network Studios" as we in the early 2000s probably remember it. As these productions were still made by Hanna-Barbera for the first few seasons with Cartoon Network Studios being a studio in name only at the time. Probably why you may remember older Dexter episodes ending with the Hanna-Barbera logo then followed up by the Cartoon Network Studios logo in later seasons.

Now if we went strictly by Cartoon Network Studios being what makes a Cartoon Network show (Including the previous five shows mentioned) and originally aired on Cartoon Network then that leaves us with:

Now some eagle eyed viewers may have noticed that this list has some noticeable absences. Such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Codename Kids Next Door, The Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans, and one of my favorite Cartoons of all time, Ed Edd n Eddy. And well the simple answer is that they weren't made by Cartoon Network Studios. Ed Edd n Eddy was made by a.k.a Cartoon and Funbag Animation Studios. Kids Next Door like Sheep in the Big City was made by Curious Pictures. And Courage the Cowardly Dog was made by Stretch Films (Though both Courage and Kids Next Door would have their pilots developed in Hanna-Barbera).

Gumball was made by Hanna-Barbera Europe which is a production company under the Cartoon Network Inc parent, but is again technically not made by CN Studios. Teen Titans is another product of Warner Bros Animation same with Teen Titans Go. Kinda funny that a show that for a time basically controlled the channel wasn't even made by CN Studios. Even the first ever original exclusive show made for the Cartoon Network, The Moxy Show, wouldn't count under this definition as it was made by Colossal Pictures.

There's also the fact that some shows made by Cartoon Network Studios are exclusive to Adult Swim such as Primal and some to the pre-school block of Cartoonito. Now these may actually be more rare than you would first think as really only Jessica's Big Little World was made by CN Studios for Cartoonito, while Adult swim actually has its own interesting background.

You see, Cartoon Network's earliest adult animation was the animated parody talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Which utilized the classic Hanna-Barbera character as a surrealist spoof of late night talk shows. These would be produced not under the banner of Hanna-Barbera or Cartoon Network Studios, but actually under the name Ghost Planet Industries. This production arm would eventually become The Cartoon Network Inc in house production company for adult animation known as Williams Street. So most shows you might watch on Adult Swim these days are by Williams Street. However, with the fifth season of Samurai Jack, you being to notice that Cartoon Network Studios became more comfortable producing shows that would air in the evening time slot of Adult Swim.

(Also this is a complete side tangent, I didn't want to include failed pilots within this list as it would feel like unnecessary bloat, but I wanted to highlight Korgoth of Barbaria made by Aaron Springer with animation made by Genndy Tartakovsky, which was sadly never picked due to the production cost, would be repackaged as a special on Adult Swim. And this was a co production with Cartoon Network. Like wow. Like wow! I know we have Primal on the list, but its kinda just a bit of trivia I like)

So while they're made by CN Studios, they were not shows accessible to CN's usual demographic time slot.

And that's not even beginning to scratch co-productions Cartoon Network Studios has been involved with over the years. Such as the Star Wars Clone Wars series made by Genndy Tartakovsky or transformers Animated which obviously the Star Wars and Transformers IP isn't owned by Warner Bros. Same with Mixels. But then there's shows such as Villainous and Jorel's Brothers which are actually originally properties made with the Latin American Branches of Cartoon Network. Villainous itself relishes in so many Cartoon Network cameos.

And then there's the CN Real shows which... Yeah I think its not Gatekeeping of me to say they don't count.

And of course there are shows that while made by Cartoon Network Studios would actually end up either being web exclusive or go straight to HBO Max like Get' Em Tommy, Tig n' Seek, and The Fungies! There's also the many, many shorts, pilots, and pilot movies produced by Cartoon Network Studios like Welcome to My Life, Party Wagon, and Fire Breather.

It's a lot. And I get why some people really want to simply it. But it's also why I think simply saying a "Cartoon Network show is a show made by the Studio" you're leaving out several shows, some of which icons of the network. And some CN Studios shows just never had a chance to be part of the Network in the same way. This isn't a question that can be easily simplified like that.

So maybe the answer is "A Cartoon Network shows is a Cartoon Cartoon?" Yeah, afterall Ed, Edd n Eddy are considered Cartoon Cartoons even if they weren't made by CN Studios. Heck, look at competitor Nickelodeon who dubs all their various animated works produced "Nicktoons." Surely, Cartoon Network can do the same, right? Well you see, unlike Nicktoons which became an overall term for all their original programming (and honestly much easier to do research on), Cartoon Cartoons specifically referred to a programming block which then became the collective brand name of the shows that aired between 1996-2009 (Ending with Ed Edd n Eddy). But even then some CN Originals made during that time weren't recognized as Cartoon Cartoons like Samurai Jack. Nor were shows like The Moxy Show recognized retroactively.

The Cartoon Cartoons were:

Dexter's Laboratory

Johnny Bravo

Cow and Chicken

I Am Weasel

The Powerpuff Girls

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Mike, Lu & Og

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Sheep in the Big City

Time Squad

Grim & Evil (Eventually Split into The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne)

Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?

Codename: Kids Next Door

So really the term Cartoon Cartoons is honestly an exclusive club for a specific set of shows on a specific programming block. That even itself doesn't cover every Cartoon Network show even for a specific era as there are absences from even that. So while Cartoon Cartoons are Cartoon Network shows, not every Cartoon Network Show is a Cartoon Cartoon.

Well then maybe a Cartoon Network show is a show that had to originally aired on Cartoon Network and was exclusive to only it?

With this definition we're abled to include many of the CN Studios shows everyone is popularly aware of while being able to include shows made outside of CN Studios like various Cartoon Cartoons, Warner Bros Animation shows and Hanna-Barbera Europe.

That said, this would exclude things like the shows from The WB and Hanna-Barbera back catalogue, and the Looney Tunes shorts. While Boomerang has become the home for all the classic Hanna-Barbera programing, you can still see the reverence that CN has for its roots from cameos in CN Originals and CN City to new iterations of these shows airing on Cartoon Network like the Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, The Looney Tunes Show, and Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated.

Speaking of Boomerang, while also another channel owned by WBD Television, many of the Cartoon Network shows have migrated over to. Thus not really making them all that exclusive anymore As well, this definition would also include CN Real programs which... yeah umm not sure about that. No matter what Cartoon Network is for Cartoons.

So even this isn't quite a perfect definition. Neither would be using the HBO Max section labeled Cartoon Network because its obviously and incomplete record that has erased so many shows from its catalogue.

So if all these don't work, then what does? What is a Cartoon Network show? Well... Maybe it's not something that fits in with an objective empirical definition. It may sound corny, but Cartoon Network shows always felt like a family to me. In a way that made this sort of recognizable brand between many of its shows even if all of them were very different in their themes, styles, and humor. I think that's why CN City is so in the minds of people, because you took all these varying characters and made a world where none feel out of place. And it wasn't just Cartoon Network characters, you had the classic Looney Tunes and even goddamn Captain Planet roaming around with all these younger shows.

There's even been recent efforts to enforce this cohesion. As the CMYK/Redraw Your World era. Mixing together this color coding with all these various characters and designs to make them all "fit" together so to speak.

Obviously, Im being a bit flowery here. Im sure Cartoon Network and Warner Bros legal team could probably give you an extensive copyright list which they hold and what can be used, but I still think there is value in this being an answer that you can come up with yourself.

And to me, Cartoon Network represents one of the most important channels in animated television. At its highest and even at its lowest. Cartoon Network was the place of creating cartoons, a place where in the short existence of creator driven network television animation, so many legends were born. This was a channel that really brought out so much creativity from talented people that were inspired by the classic animated shows of the golden age who are inspiring new creators even to this day. That shouldn't be forgotten. That shouldn't be erased. Whether unfitted or seasonal rot, this family of cartoons deserves to be remembered.

This is just me, but this is what I would consider Cartoon Network shows. Shows that were made for CN regardless of being CN Studios, Hanna-Barbera Europe, or Warner Bros Animation. The WB, TBS, Adult Swim stuff? That's more off in its own little corner. Cousins of CN almost.

And I guess I turn the question to you, So... What is A Cartoon Network show?

Well that got a bit heavier at the end. But I hope you enjoyed this. I didn't want it to be a big think piece like some of my more recent discussion post. And I didn't just want it to be me making a list without some thoughtful context. If you enjoyed this please give a like or a reblog, I've been trying to do more fun projects on Tumblr recently that go out of my usual postings.

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