In 1985, Ted Turner bought MGM for $1.4 Billion, only to sell the companies production and distribution assets in 1986. This allowed him to keep the thousands of archived cartoons under MGM. shortly after he also acquires Hannah Barbera in 1991, one of the largest animation studios and creators of some of the most popular cartoon of the time. in 1992, Turner decides to found The cartoon network Inc, the worlds first 24/7 cartoon channel! their first broadcast was October 1st 1992, with Betty Cohen as the new president and "Droopy's guide to the cartoon network" being the first broadcast.
Through 1992, CN's schedule was made up entirely by old cartoons, which wasn't too bad since Turner and Hannah Barbera had more than enough, though as time went on, the need for original programming got ever stronger. This eventually accumulated into The Moxy Show - Cartoon Networks first original program. The Moxy show would unfortunately be lost to time with only segments resurfacing, it wasn't well particularly received and was cancelled after a short time on air. CN didn't help this by quite literally never talking about/alluding to the Moxy show since its airing.
1 year later, CN would attempt original programming again with Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. This surreal show would garner more success than the Moxy show, but was clearly aimed at a slightly more mature audience than the network was used to appealing to. This foreshadowed what what was to come for the channels future.
after space ghost's positive reception, CN tries to attempt original shows on a much larger scale. In 1995, Cartoon Network premiers What A Cartoon! . This show was made with 3 short pilots coming together for a 30 minute segment. at the end of each episode people could vote for what pilots they wanted to become fully-fledged shows on the network. This resulted in some of the most beloved and well known cartoons to come from cartoon network.
Shows that were voted in from what a cartoon include Dexter's Laboratory, Jonny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I am Weasel, The Power-Puff girls and Courage the Cowardly Dog. These became known as the Cartoon Cartoons. other shows joined the network separate from what a cartoon, notably Samurai Jack and Ed, Eddy and Eddy.
by 1997, it seemed CN couldn't get enough cartoons. the saw the popularity of foreign animation, specifically anime, and wanted to capitalise on its success. To do this they made a new block on the schedule called Toonami in which they would air action cartoons and anime. the block ran from 7-9 pm and aired shows such as Voltron, ThunderCats, Sailor Moon and more.
It seems CN went a little nutty with the original shows and now there's just too many. As a result, Cow and Chicken gets cancelled and all the original archived cartoons move to a secondary channel called Boomerang.
Betty Cohen retires in 2001 and is replaced by Jim Samples. Jim has this idea that late at night the network could air more mature content for older audiences, since most children go to bed around 9. on sept 2nd this would become Adult Swim, a late block on Cartoon network with a much more surreal and raunchy sense of humour. Space ghost immediately moves to adult swim when its introduced.
In 2002 the network celebrates its 10th birthday. For the occasion they premier their first feature length movie for The Powerpuff girls.
Ted Turner retires in 2003. Cartoon Network's bumpers would make a name for themselves in 2004, with the start of the CN City bumpers. Bumpers are short segments between advertisements and scheduled programming that often features the channel's logo or iconography. Sometimes they tell you what's up next or what blocks to expect in the coming hours.
the CN City bumpers features characters from cartoon network shows living together in a big city. These bumpers are very highly regarded for their creativity, crossovers and animation.
also in 2004, Cartoon Network's logo gets a revamp.
Toonami's shows are becoming too violent for their audiences so its banished to the weekend . CN wheels in Toonami's little cousin "Miguzi" for a daytime slot.
By 2005, the CN City bumpers with their high production value started to cost too much. The bumpers are changed to red backgrounds with character's talking on them. this became known as the YES era. to promote this, CN put up strange billboards with the phrase the character was saying - minus the character. after a while they were added to give context.
These bumpers felt much less inspired and entertaining as CN City. After this point CN's bumpers flop between styles relatively quickly , signalling that they're starting to lose grip on their brand identity.
2006 saw the release of CN's second feature length film - Re-animated. This was a live action - animation hybrid, like who framed Rodger rabbit. People weren't particularly happy about it, this is CARTOON NETWORK of course, not live action network.
Aqua Team Hunger Force, an adult swim show popular with young adults, is getting a movie. for promotion, the creators commissioned 40 led signs of Mooninite characters from the show swearing. they planned to stick them up around high population areas in US states.
On the 31st of January, some people in Boston reported the signs to police believing them to be suspicious devices or terrorist threats. Authorities responded swiftly by closing surrounding roads, subways and remotely detonating at least 2 of the signs. This,. as you would expect, caused major delays. Once authorities discovered the nature and source of the sign, Turner broadcasting system, owner of CN, came out with an apology and a $2 million pay-out; 1 million for the boston police dept. and 1 for Homeland Security.
As a result of the 2007 Boston Bomb scare, Jim samples resigns as president and is replaced by Stuart Snyder.
Snyder kicks off his presidency by attempting another "What a Cartoon!" with Wedgies. Only 2 shows, Chowder and the Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack, came from this.
The bumpers have changed to strangely proportioned CG models nicknamed 'noods'.
2009 was the start of the CN Real block, a section on CN's schedule where they would air original live action content. Re-Animated was a precursor to this, and was unsurprisingly mad into a full show that aired on CN Real. Audiences were not receptive to this, most thought live action content had no place on a channel called CARTOON network. On this block, they made "Re-animated" into a full show called Out of Jimmie's head.
The CN Real block ended in may 2010 due to low ratings and negative reviews.
By 2010, all the cartoon cartoon shows have ended, and CN is looking for some new, animated content. As a result, they pick regular show, as well as Adventure Time after Nickelodeon rejected it twice. 2010 also saw the end of Chowder and The Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack
Adult swim also starts airing earlier, at 9pm.
In 2011, CN is struggling for ratings. They create two new shows that look so bad they're essentially scaring the kids away. These were Problem Solverz and Secret mountain fort awesome.
At least The amazing world of Gumball is released in 2011 so they pull it back a little.
Now in 2012, the channel is 20! To celebrate they create a new block for the cartoon cartoons called "cartoon planet" and reboot Toonami on Adult swim. Drunk with nostalgia, CN thinks its a great idea to reboot a beloved show from the 2000s- Teen Titans. The reboot is called teen titans go, is in a whole new style and clearly aimed at a less mature audience.
Unsurprisingly, fans of the original did not react positively to this reboot.
2013 saw not only the release of TTG!, but two other infamous shows; Uncle Grandpa and Steven Universe. Steven universe is notable for the way it divided audience options, not unlike marmite. Uncle grandpa is just plain weird, definitely not the weirdest thing to air on CN, but up there.
Snyder leaves his role as president in 2014 and is replaced by Christina Miller.
At this point in time, CN's schedule is a train wreck. they play way, way too much TTG!
