Live action Cartoon Network?

That's as close as people get to cartoons without being drawn first. ;)

They've been talking about this all week on Cartoon Brew.

I've worked on and off for Cartoon Network for many years in Atlanta, New York, and LA, and I keep in touch with many friends at the Williams Street compound in Atlanta. Friends who have a front row seat of this swindling of the viewership. The troubling thing to me, at this point, is that I have not yet read the real logic fueling this hackneyed shift in programming.

It's about money.

Cartoon Network is showing properties that they buy CHEAP and then broadcast sandwiched between original programming. Then they charge the same advertising rates. Buying cheap and selling at a premium is something that started on the Toonami program years ago. DragonBall Z and the other anime series they slotted were all purchased for next to nothing and yet still pulled in the highest ratings of their entire schedule when shown during the afterschool slot.

I do not know what residuals are due to the creators of shows from their past that are not being shown (Courage The Cowardly Dog, Cow & Chicken, Johnny Bravo, etc), but the price of broadcasting Saved By The Bell repeats is less of a bill for them.

When everyone seems to be completely flummoxed at these changes at the network, I feel compelled to impart what I am quite sure is the real inspiration behind this programming boondoggle: Cartoon Network is simply not bringing in any real money at their channel. There is no merchandise on the market for their shows, there are no fast food toy promos, and there is not any national advertising. (Cartoon Network advertises in LA and NYC only with hopes that the advertising traffic agencies located in those two cities will assume it is nationwide.)

I don't think it is mere conjecture to state that this newest move by the network is a grim sign of the state of affairs there. Expect a major shake up in the near future. They have been reeling since Betty Cohen stepped down.

Once upon a time, there was a cable station called MTV. The acronym stood for "Music Television," and the station would play music videos.... :D

At the very least, CN could rerun episodes of the late, unlamented "Duck Factory." At least that show was about an animation studio (and was one of Jim Carrey's early gigs...).

.

while i dont have the latest figures on Cartoon Network i do have some numbers from the year before.

Cartoon Network had cash flow of $241 million last year on $650 million in revenues, making it more profitable than the CNN group. It accounts for 17% of Turner's revenues, vs. 14% for news.

so im not sure how desperate CN is all of a sudden

CN is releasing almost everyone of their Adult Swim shows on DVD now along with other stuff like cloths and whatnot. That stupid Aqua Teen Hunger Force has to be making them a ton of money just by itself, wouldn't it?

while i dont have the latest figures on Cartoon Network i do have some numbers from the year before.

Cartoon Network had cash flow of $241 million last year on $650 million in revenues, making it more profitable than the CNN group. It accounts for 17% of Turner's revenues, vs. 14% for news.

so im not sure how desperate CN is all of a sudden

They way I understood it... I thought that Adult Swim was it's own channel that shared the same airspace as Cartoon Network, kinda like Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite were in the past.

If THAT is the case... how much money IS Adult Swim actually making from DVD sales? Is it enough to support the network entirely? I really don't think so... I really do think it's about money, and Adult Swim is definatley taking notes from CN's playbook... or... are they taking notes from Nick at Nite's playbook and showing old shows for cheap? Nick at Nite DOES have it's own channel space now.

Hmmmm.... :rolleyes:

I dunno... I think they need some new ideas over there. I'm sure they're doing it to raise money, but at the same time, they're betraying their brand. They need ideas to raise the money they need and still make the Swimmers happy, and attract new Swimmers. Leadership, I say!

They own the entire H-B catalog, yet refuse to show anything other than crappy Scooby-Doo meets the Harlem Globetrotters movies.

How about a retro show, with Huckleberry Hound, or Magilla Gorilla, or Wally Gator, or Secret Squirrel, or...

Heck, they could even rerun stuff we haven't seen in a few years, like Two Stupid Dogs, or Swat Kats. There are lots of little kids who haven't seen ANY of this stuff, and none of it would cost a dime of production money.

How about a retro show, with Huckleberry Hound, or Magilla Gorilla, or Wally Gator, or Secret Squirrel, or...

Heck, they could even rerun stuff we haven't seen in a few years, like Two Stupid Dogs, or Swat Kats. There are lots of little kids who haven't seen ANY of this stuff, and none of it would cost a dime of production money.

do they own the boomerrang network also? I'd watch those but it's bundled with some other channels I don't watch on my cable network...therefore didn't subscribe..

first it was "Dumb and Dumber", now saved by the bell
except it's everynight not just on Fridays....SCREEECH!!!

I thought they were originally just going to do it for a week or two. God, I hope they don't end up doing full seasons of that garbage. Next thing you know, we're going to get full-on soap operas.

they do own Boomerang.

personally i think they have lost their footing in terms of program selection and just need to sit down and revamp it a little bit. it dosent matter if it contains old shows or new, obscure ones or popular ones.

a whole generation that hasnt seen some older things could be introduced to it.

i dont mind if they show 'some' films once in a while but they shouldnt lose their focus.

Ape,

thats why they have Mtv2 and VH1. it is just a programming shuffle. ideally they know who they are targeting and what people want to watch i guess.

Ape,

thats why they have Mtv2 and VH1. it is just a programming shuffle. ideally they know who they are targeting and what people want to watch i guess.

Key word there is guessing. Did any of you catch the new "Aventure" show, the animation was shaky. I keep seeing elements floating around, out of context.

Hah! They just got totally called out too. Watching adult swim couple of nights ago, and durring one of the "Dear Adult Swim" black and white text bumpers, someone wrote to the effect of "Now that you are showing live action, you have completely sold out", to which they replied "Yeup, we're sell outs". So they seem to reconize that fact and don't care. Amusing.

Hah! They just got totally called out too. Watching adult swim couple of nights ago, and durring one of the "Dear Adult Swim" black and white text bumpers, someone wrote to the effect of "Now that you are showing live action, you have completely sold out", to which they replied "Yeup, we're sell outs". So they seem to reconize that fact and don't care. Amusing.

Hey, at least they're being honest.

Like I said... I think they need some new ideas. I'm guessing that in some meeting over there somebody yelled out "Saved by the Bell" as a joke... but they went and did it anyway for the lack of ideas.

This thread set me thinking about how they could come up with some cheap programming choices and still stay true to their brand. Here are two I thought of based on some of what they are doing now...

1) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Yes, its not adult animation and yes, it failed in Toonami... but I think that it might do well in Adult Swim. It's He-Man. Their key market audience grew up with He-Man. It's just collecting dust at Cartoon Network... fits their brand better than Saved by the Bell.

2) The Crappy 1980's Animation Show. Hey, they showed that crazy Chunky Norris (thats what I call him) cartoon. They could randomly show 80's cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, from Pac-Man to the Go-Bots to Mr. T to Thundarr the Barberian. Yeah, its Boomerang stuff, but its also "what adults grew up with" stuff. Fits their brand better than Saved by the Bell.

Both of these would be really cheap and easy for them to do and fits their brand in some way... off the top of my head. Of course, they probably already thought of going in this direction and said no for whatever reasons.

I like some of the other suggestions here. Anyone have any more?

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Yes, its not adult animation and yes, it failed in Toonami... but I think that it might do well in Adult Swim. It's He-Man. Their key market audience grew up with He-Man. It's just collecting dust at Cartoon Network... fits their brand better than Saved by the Bell.

Actually, He-man is currently shown on Boomerang, along with Batman and Superman. Actually today they just started showing Justice League on Boomerang in the Superman timeslot.

I honestly have no idea why they're running chuck Norris and none of those other cartoons. I remember seeing Mr T the other day on Boomerang and it was just as bad as Chuck's show.

Just read another post about this on strut your reel. In fact the first part is the same post that Harvey posted earlier. However the SECOND half of the post is another insider with what seems to me would be the likely a more true reason behind it. Check it out.

http://www.strutyourreel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1453

i dont like the bits about selling out. i think thats a throw away comment that comes from people who have nothing riding on it.

because tomorrow if they didnt sell out and went belly up no one would come in and take a pay cut.

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I think it's ridiculous.

There is plenty of other animated content out there (Independent or otherwise) that they could show.

I'm against it. I hope that they don't follow the path of G4tv. They started slowly changing from a Video Game Channel to a Spike TV Rip-off.

I haven't seen a commercial for it lately, are they still showing it? I see they're showing Spider-man over Memorial Day weekend. I think movies are okay there every once in a while, but a whole series, original or not? That sucks.