The State of Cartoon Network

[TheSummoner]

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the current state of Cartoon Network.

On one hand, shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show are still going strong. The flip side of that coin, however, is that garbage like Annoying Orange and Johnny Test is somehow still on the air. Badly-Drawn Off-Model Sitcom Looney Tunes and the endless plague of Scooby Doo are also still things.

As for [Adult Swim], since the revival of Toonami, I've found myself enjoying the late night block more than I have in a long time. Still, the memory of how badly they screwed up Toonami before makes me cautious. The run of new Venture Brothers episodes not too long ago was also a bright spot, despite being a short season. Still far too much Seth McFarlane garbage and live action "comedy" on the weekdays for me to pay much attention then though.

What are your thoughts?

[Pokonic]

Its....better than it was a few years ago.

Toonami makes up for what gets run usually on Adult Swim, and Adventure Time and Regular Show are decent as well. As for other shows, Gumball is apparently decent enough that it's not usually factored in lists of "crap thats on TV these days". I will actually defend the Loony Toons and Scooby Doo shows, if only because they bring some life into stagnant franchises and that the Scooby Doo one isn't actually that bad of a show.

There's no redemption for anything live action airing on Adult Swim, though.

[Jayngfet]

I've made my thoughts on the matter clear several times over, but just to reiterate:

Every single thing that's gone wrong can be traced back to the rise of Stuart Snyder. Immediately after he takes the reigns Akins and Demarco get ordered to give Toonami it's fatal rebrand, the entire channel gets a major reworking to have a live action focus, the in-house programming gets cut to less than half what it was before, all the major talent left(to the point where Hasbro managed to build The Hub largely on people who ran from Snyder), and filled the remains of the network with the cheapest possible foreign exports(mainly Canadian Flash Comedies, which he gutted of whatever actually funny jokes existed because they were too risque) which replaced the original content they made. The remaining in-house shows were often cancelled quickly or cheap live action.

This is directly responsible for the dramatic drop of ratings the network took in that period. Adventure Time's record for "best ratings ever" was only good after they changed their ratings measurements to throw off pretty much everything pre-snyder and exclude female viewers. Compared to the old heydey when Toonami was pulling three to four times that with it's best that's average at most. It's not even produced by CN's main studio.

The only reason we're getting Toonami back is because Mike Lazzo runs most of Adult Swim's stuff and he's Toonami alumni and friends with basically everyone involved. Funimation is explicitly offering them a deal, and even on the show itself they're upfront about how bad they need money. Heck, that whole Pacific Rim event was so thrown together I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't just Beacham and Del Toro throwing funds at Akins and De Marco to keep them afloat, since Snyder sure as hell isn't going to divert funds away from his lazy live action productions.

[t209]

Austrailia branch isn't faring better either.
Good News: They didn't have crappy live action series, other than Tricky TV shorts.
Bad News: Exchange Student Zero (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXhW9u6uK4) (Then again, I am a fan of darker anime like Berserk and show hatred on Yu Gi Oh as Garth Ennis' opinion on Superheroes) and Oggy and the Roaches.
I just saw it in my trip to Burma.

[Jayngfet]

Austrailia branch isn't faring better either.
Good News: They didn't have crappy live action series, other than Tricky TV shorts.
Bad News: Exchange Student Zero (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXhW9u6uK4) (Then again, I am a fan of darker anime like Berserk and show hatred on Yu Gi Oh as Garth Ennis' opinion on Superheroes) and Oggy and the Roaches.
I just saw it in my trip to Burma.

International CN is a lot like Adult Swim in many respects: It's far enough from the center that Snyder can't make major decisions instantly and if they can justify some things not much attention will be paid(Toonami's April Fools was done on a budget of next to nothing with heavy ads).

This can be good, since Toonami actually persisted for years in Europe and some Latin countries after it perished stateside, and the best from the USA network stays longer in others.

However, it can also lead to some ...interesting choices. The obvious one being Boomerang Latin America, which embraced Live Action so wholly finding anything animated is impossible(though it's probably better quality on average since I don't think they cut down the material quite so much).

[Starwulf]

I actually can't stand stuff like Regular Show or Adventure Time. I equate it to the crap on Adult Swim like "The Tim and Eric show", or the one with the idiot that's always wearing the mask(Oh, yeah, Delocated is what it's called). Of course, I also despise Annoying Orange as well. On the other hand, I love the new Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo, and I also enjoy Johnny Test.

For Adult Swim on Saturday Nights, I'm a fan of a good chunk of it: Bleach, Naruto, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, Inuyasha. I do have one major complaint, and that's that the bastards started one piece on like..episode 200 or so >< I've only ever seen like 30-40 episodes of it, so when I tried to watch it the night it premiered, I was so lost, I said screw it :-(. Hoping they re-air Deadman Wonderland soon, I missed the first 2 episodes, so I said meh, I'll catch it another time. Friend tells me it's really good, so hopefully they DO re-air it.

[Arcanist]

To the tune of this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGf2b1H91JA)

Cartoon Network has changed...

Cartoon Network is no longer about epic cartoons and phenomenal shows that it was about in the beginning. It has all been replaced with that reality television crap that infested MTV in the early 2000's, however instead of the stupidity to laugh at, you've got nothing to entertain you. It is just endless crap like Destroy, Build, Destroy and that show about those idiotic teenage boys doing stupid stuff and that show about those kids doing random things trying to imitate mad TV and yes, they've even manage to get a childish version of MadTV that tries to make pop culture references and nothing else...

I remember coming home as a kid to watch Toonami and watching the stories of Goku and his team trying to gather the Dragonballs, as well as Ronin Warriors, Zatch Bell, One Piece (despite the crappy 4kids dub), Naruto and for a brief time Knights of the Zodiac. Sure, they were ridiculous and far-fetched, but I loved them to the end. They opened up my eyes to anime and changed my life forever to the point where I honestly wouldn't be able to say that I am the person I am today without it. And then they expanded into an afternoon block called Miguzi and that is when I knew that my time with Tom was coming to an end...

I was there on the last night and I remember shedding a tear of sadness when Tom said goodbye one last time...

Cartoon Network has changed...

But all is not lost. With the return of Toonami, I feel that the younger generation might just have a chance to realize what made the good old days so good... We just have to let the world know how much we want Toonami and the good old days to stick around...

[t209]

I forgot to say about the Asian and Austrailian Cartoon Network.
- We got Kids WB cartoons (Loonatics and Baby Looney Tunes) in late 2000s.
- But we didn't get Young Justice, even reruns (But saw it on Burmese Cartoon channels).
- Ironically, I grew to like Adventure Time since it's a show that I can only watch, other than Gumball.
- Anyone in Southeast Asia who watched Exchange Student Zero. Is it decent or just some guys who didn't watch Anime but try to make it.

[Mando Knight]

On one hand, shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show are still going strong. The flip side of that coin, however, is that garbage like Annoying Orange and Johnny Test is somehow still on the air.

I actually can't stand stuff like Regular Show or Adventure Time.

Different strokes for different folks...

Personally, I like Adventure Time and Johnny Test, but think Regular Show is drivel.

[Jayngfet]

I forgot to say about the Asian and Austrailian Cartoon Network.
- We got Kids WB cartoons (Loonatics and Baby Looney Tunes) in late 2000s.

I believe at least on of those also aired on CN around the same period or slightly earlier.

[Tanuki Tales]

I also agree that Adventure Time is pretty good, after I gave it a chance.

It reminds me of the kind of crazy, "I can't believe this got past the radar" animated programming of the 90s and is something I could see playing besides Animaniacs and Ren and Stimpy back in the heyday.

[Kawaii Soldier]

The flip side of that coin, however, is that garbage like Annoying Orange and Johnny Test is somehow still on the air.

Wait, other people hate Johnny Test? I thought I was the only one.

Also, Uncle Grandpa which just looks like a rip off of Gravity Falls - an amazing show my the way.

But hey, at least we're getting Steven Universe which looks great and is created by Rebecca Sugar. .\m/ :D

[Aotrs Commander]

UK Cartoon network is... Meh. Show sheduling is still dreadful (i.e. new episodes are often show daily and then repeated ad nauseum often and inconvieniant times)1, content is still mostly repeats, we don't have such a thing as adult swim or toonami (and haven't for years) and most of the time I find myself watching TV while I'm cleaning the room, it's usually Spongebob (which has enough episodes usually the endless repeats at least have a wide base to draw from) or Disney/Disney XD.

Live-action shows tend not to last long, though, and I don't think there's an currently.

So while it might not be as bad as you have it elsewhere, it was never on as higher pillar to fall from in the first place.



1Put it this way, UK children's channels have NEVER (as far as I can remember, and this is going back as far as... crikey, it nearly is twenty years) had a program treated like an adult one, i.e. one new episode at a fixed time over the course of the season. In America, for example, at least at one point you HAD stuff like Naruto airing once per week. It's more than we ever had.

[Fjolnir]

I don't DISLIKE Johnny Test, the problem is that Dexter's Lab did it better ON THE SAME NETWORK...

[t209]

When I first heard of Out of Jimmy's Head, I thought it was like "yeah, we got Roger Rabbit again" (I was in Burma and 10 years old). Then I discovered now as a terrible show and movie.
I wondered if I got suckered into Annoying Orange because of Tobuscus (http://www.youtube.com/user/TobyGames) (Which I began to annoy at him since he can't move so far into Non-Happy Wheels AAA games).

[Metahuman1]

I don't DISLIKE Johnny Test, the problem is that Dexter's Lab did it better ON THE SAME NETWORK...

With out being quite as mean spirited at that.

Yeah, Adventure Time does have that "I can't believe that got past the censors, that's awesome!" vibe, but honestly, it's just too out there for me. I don't know why, but something about it just doesn't click for me.




And yes, it would please me greatly to win a stupidly big lottery just to buy the lions share of shares of Cartoon Network and force Snyder out on his ear.

[t209]

With out being quite as mean spirited at that.

Yeah, Adventure Time does have that "I can't believe that got past the censors, that's awesome!" vibe, but honestly, it's just too out there for me. I don't know why, but something about it just doesn't click for me.




And yes, it would please me greatly to win a stupidly big lottery just to buy the lions share of shares of Cartoon Network and force Snyder out on his ear.
I actually hated (or banned from) Cow and Chicken, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, and I Am Weasel.

[Psyren]

I love Adventure Time in all its crap-past-radar-getting awesomeness.

However, everything else (Johnny Test, Regular Show, Annoying Orange, New Looney Tunes etc.) can go die in a conflagration.

On the Adult Swim side, it still baffles me that people consider Tim and Eric watchable. (ATHF and Venture Bros. redeem it admirably however.)

[Fjolnir]

Tim and Eric is an awful show, Tom Goes To The Mayor was an interesting experiment though.

[Fjolnir]

I actually hated (or banned from) Cow and Chicken, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, and I Am Weasel.

Of those, I am Weasel was the best one, and that can't carry a full half hour, it was much better as a tailing story like Pinky and the Brain on animaniacs, compare it to Evil Con Carne, which eventually became The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (AT's spiritual cousin when it comes to crap going past the radar.)

[Tanuki Tales]

Tim and Eric is an awful show, Tom Goes To The Mayor was an interesting experiment though.

This.

And Psyren's opinion on conflagrations as well.

I felt like Flapjack and Chowder were also pretty decent, but they've sadly ended.

[Metahuman1]

I love Adventure Time in all its crap-past-radar-getting awesomeness.

However, everything else (Johnny Test, Regular Show, Annoying Orange, New Looney Tunes etc.) can go die in a conflagration.

On the Adult Swim side, it still baffles me that people consider Tim and Eric watchable. (ATHF and Venture Bros. redeem it admirably however.)

En, new Loony Toons isn't that bad actually. Yeah, you've got a problem with Jokes that don't work happening too often, I'll admit that up front, but when they do there funny. I think the Nostalgia Critic does a good evaluation of the show.

But honestly I would not morn a single other show you listed if it went down the toilet.

t209: As far as getting stuff past the radar, I liked old school loony toons and the 90's Animaniacs, Pinkie and the Brain and Freakazoid better for that kinda stuff then Adventure Time or the Cow and Chicken/I am Weasel/Ed Edd and Eddy stuff.

[Kawaii Soldier]

I love Adventure Time in all its crap-past-radar-getting awesomeness.

Here here!


However, everything else (Johnny Test, Regular Show, Annoying Orange, New Looney Tunes etc.) can go die in a conflagration.

You don't like Regular show? Can I ask why?


On the Adult Swim side, it still baffles me that people consider Tim and Eric watchable. (ATHF and Venture Bros. redeem it admirably however.)

Adult Swim just needs to put all its energy behind making new Venture Bros episode. The last season that just ended was kind of a let down and I wanted more episodes from it.

[Psyren]

You don't like Regular show? Can I ask why?

I can't stand whiny melodrama and teen angst, and it seems every time I catch a glimpse of that show one of them is complaining about some girlfriend or other. Also, they have a tendency to... not sure how to say this politically correctly... "act urban" which just reeks of some committee getting together to decide what kind of phrases the kids find cool these days and throw them all into a cartoon.

Oh, I forgot to mention Gumball, which isn't as good as Adventure Time but does have humorous moments.



Adult Swim just needs to put all its energy behind making new Venture Bros episode. The last season that just ended was kind of a let down and I wanted more episodes from it.

No spoilers! I just caught up to Season 5 myself. La la la, can't hear you...

[Kawaii Soldier]

I can't stand whiny melodrama and teen angst, and it seems every time I catch a glimpse of that show one of them is complaining about some girlfriend or other. Also, they have a tendency to... not sure how to say this politically correctly... "act urban" which just reeks of some committee getting together to decide what kind of phrases the kids find cool these days and throw them all into a cartoon.

I've never really seen too much teen angst in the show. It's just Mordecai and Margret that do this. Also, I don't think the the writers are trying to find what kids think is cool these days. I think they're trying to find what was cool like 30 years ago because so much of that show is 80s based.


No spoilers! I just caught up to Season 5 myself. La la la, can't hear you...

Well the episodes are really good on an individual episode basis. O.S.I. Love You might be my favorite episode of the entire series. It's just the season as a whole that kind of let me down. It's short. Like, the shortest they've done. It's only 8 episodes (but then one was an hour long and another was a Halloween special that aired out of order...so maybe 10 episodes) making it the shortest. I still liked it. I just wanted more.

Also, is your avatar Alphonse Elric?
edit: Never mind, just checked your sig. and it is. Very cool!

[t209]

I've never really seen too much teen angst in the show. It's just Mordecai and Margret that do this. Also, I don't think the the writers are trying to find what kids think is cool these days. I think they're trying to find what was cool like 30 years ago because so much of that show is 80s based.
Plus, GI Joe also have writers who are trying to find what kids think is cool these (80s) days. It's sounds like realistic cowboy swearing, which actually sounds like grandmother and cartoon swearing.

[Calemyr]

As far as getting stuff past the radar, I liked old school loony toons and the 90's Animaniacs, Pinkie and the Brain and Freakazoid better for that kinda stuff then Adventure Time or the Cow and Chicken/I am Weasel/Ed Edd and Eddy stuff.

Yakko: It's that time again!
Dot: To make the censor's cry?

[Metahuman1]

Yakko: It's that time again!
Dot: To make the censor's cry?

Hehe, yup. That's the stuff. =)

[Calemyr]

I also cannot forget a particular WWII era (I think) Loony Toons cartoon with Tweety being chased by cats obviously modeled after Abbott and Costello.

Abbott: Did you get it? Did get it? Give it here! Give me the bird! Give me the bird!
Costello: Oh, if only the censors would let me... I'd give 'im the boid alright...

A good cartoon should be like Shakespeare: jokes and moments for all strata of audience, from the crude to clever, from the blatant to the subtle. Watching older cartoons as an adult is almost more fun than they were as a child.