The End of Cartoon Network

[furtech]

The end of an era...it's a shame that this will happen with little fanfare or notice. The new head of Cartoon Network has dismantled the animation department in Burbank and will now "outsource" animation to Canada (ie, work-for-hire job-shops). The directors and creators responsible for such unique and wonderful shows like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Chowder are gone.

Rob Sorcher, the new head honcho of CN wants to focus on live-action programming, as characterized by the spate of reality shows (basically rip-offs of adult reality shows) the channel is now airing (ghost hunters, quiz shows, survivor-type shows). The animation department has essentially been dissolved.

The reason for this? Cartoon Network is making a healthy profit, but not as healthy as Nickelodeon or The Disney Channel. Bottom-line stuff. Sorcher believes that live-action original programming during primetime is the answer. Talk is that they might even drop "Cartoon" from the network's name-- thus potentially taking "SyFy Channel" off the hook for "Most Stupid Name Change in Marketing History".

Cartoon Network was a place with few peers: the creative freedom there was legendary. The shows ranged from edgy (Death as a comedic foil?) to base and idiotic ("Ed, Edd and Eddie") and worlds in-between. Directors would post their story-boards in the commons areas, inviting feedback from fellow artists and anyone who cared to comment. The kind of openly creative openness last seen in art school. There was a family-atmosphere, where fun-projects included a "high-school yearbook" created one year about the staff at Cartoon Network.

No more. Gone. Poof.

Here's the Los Angeles Times article that spells it out

Thanks for the heads-up, Wayne

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Wow, how extremely disappointing. CN was one of the few networks I watched, along with Discovery and Animal Planet. But all of them seem to be going downhill lately. *sigh*

[moonstone-wind.livejournal.com]

:( this makes me very sad

[sewinggoddess.livejournal.com]

so thoroughly disappointing. I watch CN every single day.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

Noooo... just when animated cartoons were getting good again! I hate child live-action and I despise the vast vast majority of reality TV

[jonnywoof.livejournal.com]

Uhhh....live action shows on Cartoon Network? No more cartoons? That's retarded. That's like MTV not playing music!

[http://users.livejournal.com/quietfire_/]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Fucking A man. I don't even have tv in my house and this pisses me off cause it's like my favorite channel since it's the only good cartoon channel.

[ruggels.livejournal.com]

I despise reality programming, even more so when starring kids( because you can't put them in real danger for legal reasons),, this really really sicks, and I will probably not work out, and will cause a sharp drop in CN's rqatings. I wasn't happy when they started introducing Live Action Programming, and now. is it jsut me or are ALL cable networks becoming the same. Rality Shows, Documentary Reality shows, and soem sort of sport?

Scott

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

I C what U did there

[revengetherapy.livejournal.com]

WHAT. WHAT NOOOOOOOO. CN RAISED ME.

[kvogel.livejournal.com]

The likely underlaying drive for such is that live action stupid shows (so-called reality stuff) is so darn cheap to do. Especially as they are bad copies of other network's concepts, they don't need real writers or other creative developement types, just a dumb idea and a few days/weeks of camera crew time.
Yeah, I hope CN takes it in the shorts for ratings, as I'd be really surpised if live programing was ever considered as a ratings move, instead of what looks like from here a pure bottom line move

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

I think that CN can not be regarded like any ordinary broadcast network, or even like any other cable network; it has pretty much been one of the freebies included in basic cable and basic satellite TV programming, a given, just as evening network news has always been sort of a freebie, and which (until the last 20 years) wasn't really expected to make a profit, it just enhanced the overall "package". Or at least, that is how the tiypical consumer/audience member will see it.

The fact that it IS a separate entity, or rather a proprietary subsidiary of yet another subsidiary, ultimately a part of the Time/Warner stable, and very much IS expected to contribute to the bottom line, is why forces above and outside the Cartoon Network envelope get to make major cultural changes to what they believe is their asset, the company, with its' name and reputation and finances.

...and as always, they sem too short-sighted to realize that their TRUE chief asset is their audience, all those eyes watching what they put over the wire. That audience is what earns them their money - they don't sell time to advertisers, they sell an AUDIENCE, one which is constantly changing as toddlers become kids, kids become adolescents, adolescents become adults; and that ausdience has a good memory - it remembers cartoons it saw the year before, recognises reruns, has favorites, develops and cultivates tastes for things like anime, which it can't see anywhere else.

That audience can see sports everywhere else, and the same for "reality programming".

...But that's Show Biz. These two schmucks will destroy CN, find that the audience has left, and then say "it couldn't be saved - we tried, but it just wasn't meant to be", and walk away after they have found a way to deflect blame and keep some of their wunderkind lustre, leaving a dead asset in their wake.

[sailortweek.livejournal.com]

This is very sad indeed. To see that something as wonderful and imaginative as original Cartoon Network programming is being shat upon by pre-teen "reality television" make me horribly ill. I want the contact information for this jackass Rob Sorcher and give him a piece of my mind.

This disgusting change makes my husband and I seriously consider cancelling our cable...CN is one of the only reasons we pay for it. But when Venture Bros season 4 starts, they will debut it on the internet and I won't have to turn my TV on. I wonder how this affects Adult Swim? Nevermind that half od Adult Swim is pretty stupid anyhow...

A channel geared towards the teenage boy? They already have one! It's called SPIKE TV. OH SNAP!

EDIT: I just now posted on the cartoon network's website comment page-


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/business/la-fi-ct-cartoon17-2009aug17,0,1625921.story

This makes me sick. Why would I want to watch this channel anymore? I want cartoons! I want the fun shows like Foster's, Chowder, and Flapjack. Even your Adult Swim lineup is slipping. You need more cartoons/shows like The Venture Bros and more talented folk on your team like Craig McCracken. This network's inability to see past profit potential is causing this INSANE change in programming. If your "viewers" want "reality" television, then they should watch the other seedy, boring, and mind-numbingly insipid channels...CN should not bow to that level!

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Wow. That really really sucks :(

[artytoons.livejournal.com]

Wrestling on SyFy Channel. That I am still pondering "why??"

My cable company doesn't carry "Boomerang" on any expanded basic or digital classic tier...my guess, the "Boom" is the new 24 hour animated programming "CN" unless this new digital technology allows new niche channels CN.2, CN.3, and so on for primary animated content on the same channel tier at no additional cost.

If I'm stuck with basic cable with only the new revised "CN" Nick rip-off shows...they have lost this viewer.

[divitus.livejournal.com]

man i remember back in college 99 though 03 i lived on cartoon network.. it inspired my artwork when i was painting crazy Ed Roth graffiti new art pieces fueled on ciggs back when i smoked and stimulated on techno and caffeine with CN playin in the background what better times.. and now there just gonna let it die and burn.. how tragic.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what the buzz is saying. Reality shows are cheap to make plus they don't have to deal with unpredictable creative types. Regarding writers, one of the snags of the last writers' strike was the issue of "reality show" writers-- the Guild said they should be covered under the WGA contract, but the companies insisted that the shows were not scripted (which is a bald-faced lie).

Agree with the pure bottom line incentive for the move-- but that doesn't sound PC. Vulpesrex's comment below is the other half of the equation-- where the shitty idea (reality shows for kids) tanks, and they just use the excuse that the net was too sick to save.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Good-going on the letter!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's pretty much the typical Hollywood scenerio. Similar to most marketing snafu, like Coke when they said, "Hey, we have 70% of the soft drink market...but hey! Pepsi has 30%!," which led to the whole "New Coke" idiocy (nice recovery, though-- Coke Classic was genius).

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Steve and vulpesrex nailed it: Bottom line, baby!

Reality shows are cheap and predictable. No thought given to core audience or quality of content. That's what happens when the bean counters take over.

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

The clueless MBAs strike again....

MBA1: "Not enough people are watching our shows!"

MBA2: "Maybe we should make some better shows and promote them?"

*cricket noises*

MBA2: "I'm fired, aren't I?"

MBA1: "Oh yeah."

MBA3: "So let's get rid of that stuff that costs money... cartoons, right? And do cheap-ass reality crap. If we lower or costs, we increase our profit."

MBA1: "Yeah... those stupid kids will watch any crap."

-----
Gee, if they were still doing cartoons, I'd pitch "Clueless MBAs!"

[artytoons.livejournal.com]

If reality show contestants are homicidal maniacs, maybe there is hope for scripted shows...



VH1 cancels reality shows with dead murder suspect

Monday, August 24, 2009

(08-24) 15:31 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) --

VH1 will not air the reality shows with a contestant who was found dead Sunday of an apparent suicide at a Canadian motel. Both shows featured Ryan Jenkins, the contestant sought in the killing of his model ex-wife.

A network spokesman said Monday that both "Megan Wants a Millionaire" and "I Love Money 3" have been canceled.

Jenkins had been one of 17 wealthy bachelors vying for the love of former "Rock of Love" contestant Megan Hauserman on "Megan Wants a Millionaire," which the network pulled off the air after three episodes.

Jenkins was also a participant on the not-yet-aired "I Love Money 3," a series featuring contestants from various VH1 reality shows competing for cash.

[swirling-chaos.livejournal.com]

That's awful. :( I'll be sad to see this happen, a lot of those shows were a big part of my childhood and the world is really lacking in original, creative programming these days.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

The problem with the Times article in this case is that it lays blame on the 'times'... rather than programming, which I think is one of the main infections that is killing it off.... :/
Still... sad to see it waning.