{"id":41984,"date":"2023-12-08T16:11:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T21:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41984"},"modified":"2024-01-27T15:47:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T20:47:39","slug":"rest-in-peace-cartoon-network-1992-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/08\/rest-in-peace-cartoon-network-1992-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Rest in Peace, Cartoon Network (1992-2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in the heyday of cable television, channels were all aimed toward a certain market and fan base. If you loved science fiction there was a channel for you. If you loved medical science, there was a channel or you. If you love romance movies, there was a channel. And surely enough there was the Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network offered up cartoons twenty four hours around the clock and in 1992 they guaranteed a complete line up of cartoons you couldn\u2019t find anywhere. Their line up consisted mainly of Hanna Barbera since they were owned by Warner, so for pretty much anything non-Disney, Cartoon Network had.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They played everything from Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, The Super Friends, black and white fare like Felix the Cat and Popeye, Canadian cartoons, and even light anime fare like G Force and Voltron.<\/p>\n

In the mid-nineties Cartoon Network began to slowly introduce audiences to more anime as well as more mature late night fare like \u201cSpace Ghost Coast to Coast.\u201d Gradually they eliminated their late night cartoons in favor of mature animated fare eventually labeled \u201cAdult Swim.\u201d With the line up came a pretty big successful library of anime, and action oriented animated series that were inevitably replaced with more original and underground animated and live action fare that were more about adult comedy and off the wall subject matter. Without a doubt the Adult Swim line up flourished for years despite some tumbles here and there.<\/p>\n

The line up managed to build some cult icons, as well as some bonafide adult animated classics, and even helped breathe new life in to cancelled series like \u201cFamily Guy,\u201d \u201cHome Movies,\u201d and \u201cFuturama.\u201d Over the years Cartoon Network sought out to rebrand and change its entire image, integrating more live action fare in spite of its namesake, and failed pretty infamously. They were losing ratings to the Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, so rather than leaning in to their animated fare, they opted to rebrand the channel as a more organic kids network.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And it failed. Gone were the heydays of some of their more original series\u2019 like \u201cJohnny Bravo,\u201d and \u201cKids Next Door,\u201d and they slowly phased out their marathons like \u201cJune Bugs\u201d and \u201cCartoon Cartoon Weekends.\u201d Over the late aughts Cartoon Network struggled and struggled publicly to keep its line up fresh and once streaming became an integral part of the entertainment experience, and cable subscribers slowly dwindled the once charming corner for animation buffs became a wasteland.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t seemed too much of a bright outcome for Nickelodeon or Disney Channel either as both have rethought their strategies with series, the latter of whom have opted for less sitcom fare and more animation. In 2023 there came two big announcements that indicated the end of Cartoon Network once and for all. Along with most of the programming living and breathing on their popularity on the streaming service MAX, the studio heads announced they\u2019d be widening their popular Adult Swim line up.<\/p>\n

The programming block that once began at 10pm was eventually moved up to 8pm right before bedtime, and now they\u2019ve announced the line up would premiere everyday at 6pm. They cited this reasoning for kids not really watching their channel anymore. To add insult to injury Warner announced they\u2019d officially be closing down Cartoon Network studios once and for all, wrapping up all work at their headquarters and moving a lot of the productions to Warner animation studios. Although they vehemently insisted that Cartoon Network was still around, the writing was on the wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Cartoon Network was officially dead and was now primarily just a brand name for nostalgia sake like Hanna Barbera, et al. With cable TV becoming increasingly obsolete, future closures will follow, and it\u2019s a sad fate that comes with the progression of technology, and the increasing greed of production studios to cut costs on programming development. It\u2019s only a matter of time before networks like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon follow suit. For many fans of the once prominent network it signaled the end of an era where many of us had retreated to view some of the best animation of all time. The channel had a life and a spark about it in its heyday that Nickelodeon and Disney could never really duplicate.<\/p>\n

They not only helped bring a new audience to classic series like \u201cWait \u2018Til Your Father Gets Home,\u201d \u201cBirdman,\u201d and \u201cScooby Doo,\u201d but they also built their own brand of truly classic cartoon series like \u201cPowerpuff Girls,\u201d \u201cDexter\u2019s Laboratory,\u201d and \u201cRegular Show.\u201d Cartoon Network will always be a great memory for many, including yours truly, whose appetite for animation was insatiable.<\/p>\n

Cartoon Network fed that hobby well, and they will be sorely missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the heyday of cable television, channels were all aimed toward a certain market and fan base. If you loved science fiction there was a channel for you. If you loved medical science, there was a channel or you. If you love romance movies, there was a channel. And surely enough there was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[99,580,737],"class_list":["post-41984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pcthugs","category-tv-tomb","tag-animation","tag-kids","tag-nostalgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42476,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions\/42476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}