Cartoon Network at 25: sketching out a cutting-edge future

BY

-

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 - 08:01 GMT

BY

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 - 08:01 GMT

Characters from Cartoon Network -- which turns 25 on October 1 - appear onscreen at The Theater at Madison Square Garden

Characters from Cartoon Network -- which turns 25 on October 1 - appear onscreen at The Theater at Madison Square Garden

Sunday marks a quarter century since the Cartoon Network burst upon the pastel-colored landscape of American television animation, redefining the way kids' entertainment was beamed into homes.

Launched when ratings for morning cartoons were dropping and "The Simpsons" was starting to dominate primetime, many thought Turner Broadcasting Systems's $320 million purchase of the Hanna-Barbera library was lunacy.

But Ted Turner, whose company already owned extensive back catalogues from MGM and Warner Bros., believed there was a gap in the market for a round-the-clock, seven-day channel showing cartoons that young and old could enjoy.

His vision has been spectacularly vindicated, with CN growing from a modest start-up to one of cable TV's most popular programmers, seen in around 100 million American homes and in more than 170 other countries.

"The thing that separates us is that we have artists driving the process here for everything," chief content officer Rob Sorcher told AFP and other media outlets on a recent tour of its headquarters in Burbank, California.

"That is a fundamental difference from most other studios, because the artists are telling the stories through drawings. There aren't scripts getting done in most cases, and then animators animating them."

In its infancy, the network showed re-runs of "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Scooby Doo Where Are You!," "Tom and Jerry," "Popeye" and many other classics.

It went into original programming with "The Moxy Show" in December 1993, following up with "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and, from 1997, "Johnny Bravo," which raised eyebrows with its adult humor but became iconic.

More recently the network has churned out numerous hits including "Steven Universe," "Star Wars: Clone Wars," "Powerpuff Girls," "Regular Show" and "Adventure Time."
"Ben 10," its longest-running franchise about a boy that can turn into aliens, has enjoyed widespread critical acclaim, winning three Emmys, with the associated merchandising estimated to have been worth almost $5 billion.

Writer Steven T. Seagle, whose Man of Action Entertainment studio produces the show, said one of the challenges has been to crank up the pace for viewers who are getting increasingly quicker at devouring information in the smartphone age.

Comments

0

Leave a Comment

Be Social