New Cartoon Network pilots

there was definitely a lot of "previously did stuff for CN" even back in the old days. Tartavosky and Mc Cracken both worked on 2 stupid dogs and eachothers respective shows, Maxwell Atoms started out doing stuff for Cow and Chicken, Greg Miller (robot jones) previously did stuff for Dexter's Lab (and actually has done stuff for Problem Solverz, SMFA, and UG), A lot of the people who went on to work on Kids Next Door previously did Sheep and the Big city, CH Greenblatt (most known pre-chowder for his stuff on spongebob) worked on Billy and Mandy, and Van Orman previously worked on Camp Lazlo (and had breif stints on both billy and mandy and powerpuff girls)

Heck, of these three pilots, the only one that's done by a cartoon network alum is Burgess (Andres Salaff is a Regular Show Boarder)

edited 13th Jun '15 11:01:06 PM by DapperMammoth

I admitted a lot of that. Still, Maxwell Atoms and Tom Warburton won a competition to get their show on the air; Greg Miller's show was one of the losing entries in that competition; and overall, I don't think it's ever been done at the same volume it has now.

EDIT: Oh, yes, Tartakovsky's cartoon was an entry in another, earlier competition as well...

edited 14th Jun '15 4:13:49 AM by Aldo930

Did you see the competition Craig McCracken won on Space Ghost?

Swimsuit competition!

I thought we went over this in another thread? Most of Hollywood is pretty "incestuous" in the sense that you rarely see proper outsiders coming in and doing high profile original work. People come in and start at the bottom and then work their way up. Occasionally you do get outsider cartoons like Invader Zim or Courage The Cowardly Dog, but mostly they're going to be done by people who cut their teeth on a project for Frederator, Cartoon Network Studios, or Disney, or whatever.

Animation being a relatively small talent pool in the United States probably contributes. Someone should make a giant "Cartoonist family tree." Maybe start with the current shows on CN, Disney, and Nick and then go back and see if how far back they can go, like "Steven Universe was made by Rebecca Sugar who worked on Adventure Time made by a guy who worked on Flapjack made by a guy who worked on..."

It was a landmark event in the history of Cartoon Network in general.

I'd be willing to. They'd all trace back to John K., though.

I'd think plenty of them would trace back to Joe Murray

You'd be wrong. A lot of them trace back to John K.

I didn't say more would trace to murray, I just said plenty of them would. Dan Povenmire and "Swampy" Marsh (worked on Rocko, went on to create phineas and ferb), Hillenburg, Van Orman, anyone who could trace back to van orman, etc.

That's pretty much the gist of it, really; they all either come from John K. or Joe Murray.

And from John K you could trace back to Bakshi and further. I don't see any reason to single out John K like he's somehow the source of it all.

So what do you think would persuade networks to go back writing new action series?

That you could do it on the cheap.

Wait until they can do it in a way that will please the Internet nerds who fetishize this stuff, and cheap enough that if it fails they won't have to write it off.

So you may have to wait a while.

So essentially waiting until it costs more to license and dub anime shows. Great.

From what I can tell, the networks don't care what the internet says, unless its a consolation prize for an under-preforming series like Korra. I wonder if the reason why they stick action series into poor timeslots is because they know the internet will track down and disseminate the information for them, essentially saving on the marketing side.

The Internet's idea of a bad timeslot is Friday night. It's a bad timeslot for adults. Not so much for kids. Remember how for years, Cartoon Network premiered all its new shows on Friday nights, with Cartoon Cartoon Fridays and the like?

I really don't think Cartoon Network really cares about action oriented shows. I'd say they'd care if it meant they could sell toys but that wouldn't make sense since that new Transformer show gets no advertising.

It's a bad time slot for prime time shows but not cartoons. That's the perfect time for airing cartoons. No school the next day, it's a Friday(Cause kids love Fridays), they're likely to stay up later, it's a perfect slot for kids.

edited 17th Jun '15 7:48:42 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

Yep, that's all true.

But I've heard some people say that quite a few action shows failed because they were stuck on Friday nights. But if all the kids are watching, doesn't that mean that they were given the chance to compete in a good timeslot and they couldn't cut the mustard?

Maybe kids just weren't interested in some of those action shows on Fridays. Cause Sym bionic titan was on Fridays and that show bombed.

I'd say being on Saturdays early in the morning killed a lot of action shows. At least DC's.

The ones that were targeted to big kids suffered the most.

"On the WB, big kids go first. In reality, big kids sleep in." - Animaniacs in 1997

Well really with most of the action shows ratings had nothing to do with it. With Symbionic Titan it's because the toyline never materialized.

Green Lantern was never going to get renewed because it was a tie in to a movie that proved to be financially underwhelming, a critical disaster, and clogged up shelf-space for over a year with unsold merchandise.

Young Justice was had toyline issues, but the death knell was getting put on hiatus with such notice that most cable providers weren't able to adjust the schedule listings. Also, the Weisman curse.

Toyline was what killed SWAT Kats too, ultimately. That's why we get so many cash-grabby shows, because they come up with the merch first you're more likely to have a property that lasts even if it's a critical flop.

The approach Hasbro took to Friendship is Magic could work: hire good talent to make the shows around your existing toy line, you have the merch to fall back on if the show is a stinker, but if the show is a hit, you drive the entire brand to new heights of public awareness. If we accept that "successful toy line" is a prerequisite for most lasting animated action nowadays, perhaps they should just start with the toy line.

Of course, they could just ditch the idea that toylines are necessary. It's pretty much a remnant of the 80s - the first action shows, back in the 60s, weren't supported by merchandise.

Comedies can get away with it - many of Cartoon Network's shows ran good, respectable runs despite not having much merchandise out there. So why not action?

Korra died a pathetic death on Fridays. It CAN be a death slot for kids stuff.

On Saturday Mornings it did 4 million and was THE highest rated premiere for Nick.

Well, kid stuff that is aimed at older audiences. Since I don't know if a lot of kids really cared about Korra.