From the 90s to the 2010s, cartoon network was a household name, the place to go looking for all the most popular and groundbreaking cartoons. In recent years however, CN seems to have been on the decline, in ratings, viewership and overall presence. In today's episode of cartoonery, I’m going back to the start to find out what exactly happened to cartoon network?

 

We're going to start with a man called ted turner. Turner was known as the creator of Cable News Network, or CNN, the world's first genre specific channel as well as the first 24-hour news station. This channel saw great success and was the precursor to cartoon networks formula.

In 1986, Turner acquired Metro-Goldwyn Mayer for a measly $1.5 Billion, only to sell it not long after. Luckily, he kept hold of the archived cartoons he gained access to through the purchase. These included Tom and jerry and pre-1948 Looney Tunes. Five years later in 1989, Turner buys Hannah Barbera, an animation studio known for some of the most popular animated shows, like The Flintstones, scooby doo, Yogi Bear and more.

 

So now Tuner is lying on a big pile of cartoons. He decides to put them to use by founding The Cartoon Network inc. on the 12th of March 1982, the first 24/7, 365 cartoon channel. 

This was revolutionary at the time, as in the 80’s cartoons would only really play on Saturday mornings. Betty Cohen is made the first president, and the first broadcast was a guide to the cartoon network, hosted by Droopy the dog. Technically the first actual cartoon they broadcast was Rhapsody Rabbit, where bugs bunny shoots someone so he can play piano.

Through 92, CN broadcast teds precious archived cartoons, but it started to get stale the longer they went without original programming. In 1993 they premiered their first original program: The Moxy Show, a cg animated show in which Moxy – a dog – and his friend flea provide commentary over classic cartoons. The Moxy show was very short lived and is now completely brushed over by Cartoon Network, never getting as much as a passing mention. Because of this most of the show is now lost media.

Their first attempt at an original show didn’t go so smoothly, but their second would go a little better. In 1994, CN premiered Space Ghost: Coast to coast, a surrealist talk show where the 60’s superhero interviews guests. The show was a huge hit with audiences and showed that CN had merit in producing their own content.

After the success of space ghost, they decided to try original shows on a larger scale with What A Cartoon! In January of 1995. They would air 3 short pilots as a half an hour episode and have viewers at home vote for their favourite one. The most popular shorts got made into their own shows. The most popular one out of all of them and the first to be made into a full show was Dexter’s Laboratory. Followed by Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I am Weasel, The power puff Girls, and Courage the cowardly dog. There were also a few additions to the channel that weren’t from What a Cartoon, like Ed, Edd & Eddy and Samurai Jack.

In 1997, CN saw the action overseas and wanted to capitalise on it, so they made a new block called Toonami, where they would air exclusively Anime. This exposed many western children to anime from a young age, allowing them to access content they wouldn’t usually be able to watch.

Now there’s an issue- Cartoon Network has too many cartoons. With all the archive shows, original programming and shows from overseas their schedule is getting too tight. So, they kill off cow and chicken and I am weasel (probably for the best) and move the archive shows onto a new channel called boomerang. Betty Cohen leaves in 2001 and is replaced by Jim Samples, and Jim he’s got this crazy idea that, late at night, when the kids are asleep, they could play more mature content to appeal to older audiences. This led to the creation of Adult Swin, originally a late block on Cartoon Network.

Now its 2002 and the network is 10! To celebrate they make their first feature length movie for the power puff girls, which saw mediocre success. In 2003 Turner retires and

for 2004, CN changes its logo to a sleeker and more dynamic design. now is probably a good time for me to mention the bumpers. Cartoon Network’s history is usually defined by what bumpers they were using at the time, with 2004 being the CN City era. The CN City bumpers involved characters from CN’s schedule interacting together in a big city. These are some of the most visually appealing and well-liked bumpers. I really like the one that’s samurai jack and johnny bravo meeting in a laundromat, I think it's so silly and creative. Crossover events and bumpers were not uncharted territory for cartoon network, but the amount of genuine passion and creativity pumped into these shows and era stands out in a big way.  

 

Toonami is getting a little too violent around this time to they banish it to the weekend block and bring in its little cousin Miguzi, a tamer version of Toonami. In 2005 the city bumpers were starting to cost too much so they changed it to a still red background. after Cn city, cartoon networks bumpers take a turn perhaps for the worst. They're flipping between many different styles very quickly, between 2006 and 2008 we had CN city, Yes, Summer 2007 and Fall bumpers.

In 2006 Cartoon Network releases its second feature film – Re-animated. This was a live action animation hybrid like who framed Roger Rabbit, and people were not happy. This is Cartoon network; they thought there was no place for live action content on a channel like this.

 

Aqua Team Hunger force, an adult swim show popular with young adults, is getting its own movie. For promotion, the creators commission 40 LED signs of Mooninite characters from the show flipping the bird. In January 2004, they stuck them in hight traffic areas where they most likely be seen around major cities. On the 31st, people around Boston started to report the signs to the police, thinking it was a suspicious device or possibly terrorist threat. The authorities responded to this by remotely detonating some and closing surrounding roads and subways, causing big delays. When authorities discovered it was an aqua team hunger force character, turner broadcasting system, owner of CN, came out with an apology and a $2 Million dollar payout, 1 million for the Boston police department and another for homeland security.  

As a Result of the incident, Jim Samples would resign from the network, being replaced by Stuart Snyder.

 

By 2008 Snyder has erased a lot of popular content from the channels roster. Shows left include Ben 10: Alien force, Secret Saturdays, Cowder and the marvellous misadventures of flapjack. The Bumpers have also changed to these weirdly proportioned CG people nicknamed Noods. They also tried to start another What A Cartoon with Wedgies, but only one show came from this opposed to what a cartoon’s 6.

2009 was when the CN Real block started airing. This was a chunk in CN’s schedule where they would air live action content targeted towards teen boys. Remember that movie I said people weren’t happy about? Well now they’ve made a whole show out of it called out of jimmies head. Other CN real shows include Dude what would happen and destroy build destroy. In fact, in the whole of 2009, CN premiered 5 new live action shows and 0 animated ones. As you can probably ascertain people weren’t positive about this, and it’s reflected in the fact the block was cancelled just a year later. It's clear that around this time, CN was trying to capitalise on the success of nickelodeon and Disney's live action shows, like iCarly and Hannah Montana.

 

By 2010, most of the classic Cartoon Cartoons have ended. CN picks up adventure time after Nickelodeon rejected it, as well as regular show – two properties that would get very popular in the years to come. With the new content they decide to scrap the live action stuff, as well as chowder and flapjack, they will be missed. Adult swim also starts airing earlier, now at 9pm.

 

2011 CN is struggling for views. They greenlit two shows, problem solvers and Secret Mountain Fort awesome, that are so ugly and terrible that I’m not surprised they struggled. They pull it back a little when they release the amazing world of gumball. Its 2012 and its Cartoon Network is 20! To celebrate they make a block for their old shows called cartoon planet and bring back Toonami on adult swim. Since it’s getting older, CN is feeling a little nostalgic for the glory days. They decide to re-boot a popular show form the 2000s, Teen Titans, as Teen Titans GO! Fans of the old show hated the new one, saying it isn’t accurate enough to the original. It’s very clearly aimed at a younger and less mature audience, though I believe it was over hated in its heyday. 2013 saw not only the release of TTG! But also 2 other infamous shows, uncle grandpa and steven universe. Steven universe is notable for the way it divided audiences. It’s kind of like marmite, you’re either going to really like it or really hate it. You can see this with the amount of online discourse about the show there is, with it gathering a large fandom and possibly even larger hatedom. Uncle grandpa is an incredibly surreal show, featuring characters like pizza Steve, a pizza slice with glasses, and giant flying realistic tiger, a giant flying realistic tiger.

 

In 2014, Snyder leaves his role as president and is replaced by Christina Miller. At this point, Cartoon Network’s scheduling is a trainweck, playing TTG! Almost every hour. Adult swim is even earlier, starting at 8pm instead of 9.

CN realises they forgot about boomerang, turning to see it decaying in a far corner. They spruce it up a little, giving it a new look and updating the programming, though it remains the dumping ground of cartoon network.

The bumpers from her onward are mostly the same, gradually degrading into more and more generic designs. Usually, some combination of squares, the colours yellow, blue and pink –as well as the classic black and white- and clips from the shows. No longer rare there dynamic and engaging crossover bumpers, now we get a coloured screen with up next on it.

In 2016 they reboot the power-puff girls and Ben 10 – people liked these just about as much as they liked the teen titan's reboot. The more notable event of 2016 is the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner for a whopping $80 Billion! This had some major implications for cartoon network and its sister channels as a part of WarnerMedia. The merger would be finalised in 2018 after some minor disruptions by Donald J Trump and the department of justice.

 

2018 also saw the release of some new original shows like apple and onion, summer camp island and craig of the creek. None of these really garnered any critical acclaim like their previous shows had, but it's cool to think Richard Ayoade voices an onion. Its 2019 and even more new shows are being released, like infinity train, Mao Mao and Victor and Valentino. Again, none of these seemed to really take off, except infinity train which gained some popularity online. Steven universe also comes to an end in 2019 but not without dropping a movie and epilogue series in its wake.

Christina miller leaves her position as president and is replaced by Tom Ascheim. Shows are starting to disappear from the network, either due to cancellations or being moved to streaming services. Shows aren't even premiering on cartoon network anymore, having their debut be on HBO Max – the time warner streaming service – instead.

 

And that's essentially where we are today.

As of current, cartoon networks future as a 24-hour cartoon channel is looking uncertain. The merger with AT&T is what I would consider the ultimate death of the channel, though it's hard to ignore the steady trend of decline it was on before that. AT&T focused heavily on building Time Warner’s streaming platform instead of prioritising the Network side of things, leading to the release of HBO MAX in 2020. Popular shows and ips were moved there, as well as spinoff and extra content for shows like adventure time. This will've significantly decreased to viewership of cartoon network since who would sit through ads and shows they don't care about if they're already paying for MAX. It's also a real spit in the face for fans of the original show who rely on content being aired on CN to air exclusive cannon content behind a subscription and paywall. AT&T also employed a lot of post-merger cost cutting techniques, like staff layoffs and restructuring. This caused a lot of shows to face delays and cancellations reducing the amount of original content they were pushing out. Not to mention that CN’s shows had been slowly lacking in quality more and more over the years, at least since Snyder’s presidency.

 

Unfortunately, merging with an even larger corporate entity than yourself can have some adverse effects. AT&T had a tighter focus on profits, allowing creativity and new ideas to be stifled before they really got a chance to try, which is such a shame. In the beginning, Cartoon Network gained notoriety and praise for being unique, trying things no other network would and giving the creative freedom to its artists, allowing new and innovative shows to air that are still revered to this day. Many of the cartoons that aired on CN shaped the children that watched them, myself included, becoming an integral part of our childhoods. Thats why it's so upsetting to see the channel go through such dramatic changes and pitfalls.

 

Cartoon Network will never be the way it once was, a powerhouse in the cartoon industry and a revolutionary channel that exposed children around the world to some of the greatest kids programming ever to hit the screen – and that's unfortunate. It has slipped into the grasp of corporate greed and lost a lot of its identity along the way. Personally, i will always look on the earlier eras of cartoon network fondly, and I really recommend checking out some of the shows to anyone who hasn't.