History of Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is part of The Cartoon Network, Inc. unit of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery which primarily focuses on animated programs.
1986–1992: Development
On March 25, 1986, Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists from Kirk Kerkorian. However, due to concerns over the debt load of his companies, Turner was forced to sell MGM/UA back to Kerkorian on August 26, 1986, after just 75 days of ownership. However, Turner kept much of MGM's film and television library made before May 1986 and formed Turner Entertainment Co. and created Turner Network Television from it The pre-May 1986 MGM library also included animated shorts from United Artists' acquisition of Associated Artists Productions. In 1991, Turner acquired Hanna-Barbera for $320 million, outbidding MCA Inc. and Hallmark Cards.Through these acquisitions, Turner gained an expansive animation library. Outside of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons and Hanna-Barbera productions, the company's catalogue also included pre-1948 Warner Bros. and Popeye cartoons, enabling them to establish its own children's programming-focused network. Hanna-Barbera's intellectual property proved to be a great advantage for brand recognition.
Ted Turner selected Betty Cohen, then Senior Vice President of TNT, to develop a new network to showcase these animated programs. Several potential names, such as Toon City and Cartoonia, were considered before the decision to name it Cartoon Network. On February 18, 1992, Turner Broadcasting announced plans to launch Cartoon Network as a platform for its animation library.
1992–1997: Launch and Checkerboard era
On March 12, 1992, The Cartoon Network, Inc. was founded. Seven months later on October 1, 1992, its namesake television channel was launched, with the first program being Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network, hosted by MGM cartoon character Droopy, featuring the first cartoon to air on the network, Rhapsody Rabbit. At first, cable providers in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Detroit carried the channel.Cartoon Network was not the first cable channel to have relied on cartoons to attract an audience, however, it was the first 24-hour single-genre channel with animation as its main theme. At the time, Nickelodeon was the primary option for basic cable children’s programming, but even with its new cartoon block, Nicktoons, it accounted for only a portion of total cartoon viewership, giving Cartoon Network the advantage with it focused exclusively on animation. Turner Broadcasting modeled Cartoon Network after CNN, aiming for a profitable single-genre channel. The concept was initially thought unlikely to attract a sufficient audience, but the achievements of CNN and the broad appeal of animation led Turner to believe that Cartoon Network could also achieve prominence. Cohen, the network's first president, also saw its potential not just as an outlet for Turner's animation library, but as a brand that could showcase animation as a platform in its own right. In the following years, she made Cartoon Network's appeal fit more of a psychographic, rather than a standard demographic like with most basic cable channels.
Initially, the channel aired a continuous schedule of classic cartoons, organized into themed blocks such as Down Wit' Droopy D, The Tom and Jerry Show, Bugs and Daffy Tonight, Late Night Black and White, and ToonHeads. The majority of the classic animation that was shown on Cartoon Network no longer airs on a regular basis, but Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes continued to air up until 2017. Cartoon Network also promoted various aspects of animation, such as supporting ASIFA-Hollywood and advocating for the preservation of animation history. They recruited animation historians like Jerry Beck to join their advisory board and showcased international animation, including Canadian animated shorts under the O Canada block, as well as independent student films from the ASIFA-East Animation Festival. A challenge for Cartoon Network was to overcome its low penetration of existing cable systems. When launched on October 1, 1992, the channel was only carried by 233 cable systems. To grow its audience, the network used package deals, offering access alongside sister channels TNT and TBS. By 1994, ratings increased significantly, and the channel ranked as the fifth most widely distributed U.S. cable network. Early on, Hanna-Barbera productions such as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, and 2 Stupid Dogs, aired on the network, in addition to TBS and TNT to increase exposure. The first international feed of Cartoon Network launched on April 30, 1993, in Latin America. Additional feeds followed across Europe and other regions on September 17, 1993, as part of Cartoon Network Europe, thus founding Cartoon Network Worldwide the following year, to further brand growth.
Cartoon Network's first exclusive original show was The Moxy Show, an animation anthology series first airing in 1993, used as an attempt to create a mascot for Cartoon Network. Its first produced series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994, is a parody of talk shows, featuring live-action guests interacting humorously with reused animation of Hanna-Barbera series. This approach helped attract a young adult audience and expanded the network’s appeal beyond children, leading to the production of programming block Cartoon Planet for children with the same team.
In 1994, Hanna-Barbera founded a new division to produce programming exclusive to Cartoon Network, which was eponymously named Cartoon Network Studios and started production on What a Cartoon!. This show debuted in 1995, offering original animated shorts commissioned from Hanna-Barbera and various independent animators. The network marketed the series as a way to offer more creative control to animators, higher budgets, and a break from limited animation. Cartoon Network was able to assess the potential of certain shorts to serve as pilots for spin-off series and signed contracts with their creators to create ongoing series. Dexter's Laboratory was the first spin-off of What a Cartoon! in 1996 after winning a 1995 viewer vote.
1997–2004: Starburst and Powerhouse eras
Between 1997 and 1999, more original series debuted based off What a Cartoon! pilots, including Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken and its spinoff I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Mike, Lu & Og. The series Ed, Edd n Eddy, which did not have a What a Cartoon! pilot, also premiered in 1999. Many of these series premiered bearing the "Cartoon Cartoons" brand, airing throughout the network's schedule and showcased during Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, which launched on June 11, 1999, as the main night for premieres. In 1995, Cartoon Network launched "Cartoon Network Online" as an AOL-exclusive site, later rebranded as CartoonNetwork.com. The website offered games, videos, shopping, Cartoon Orbit, and promotions for movies, video games, toys, and more. It also featured the network's first online original series, Web Premiere Toons, which ran interactive web cartoons from 1999 to 2002. Starting in 1996, Cartoon Network aired two Sunday morning preschool programs: Big Bag until 2001, and Small World until 2002.In 1997, Cartoon Network launched a new action block entitled Toonami. Its lineup initially consisted of 1980s reruns of Robotech and ThunderCats. However, as its run progressed, anime such as Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo!, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, and Dragon Ball Z would come to dominate the block. Toonami was hosted by Moltar from the Space Ghost franchise until 1999, where Toonami was later hosted by its own original character, a muscular teenage robot named TOM. On March 2, 1998, the network got its first reface, instrumental Powerhouse were introduced. These bumpers lasted from 1998 to 2004.
In 1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, consolidating Cartoon Network's access to Warner Bros. cartoons, including the post-July 1948 and black-and-white cartoons. These cartoons were still licensed to Nickelodeon, ABC, and The WB, but began moving to Cartoon Network between 1997 and 2000. Newer animated productions by Warner Bros. Animation also started appearing on the network – mostly reruns of shows that had aired on sister block Kids' WB and some from Fox Kids, along with new programs such as Justice League and Teen Titans.
Between 1997 and 1998, Cartoon's viewership rose from 38 million to 54 million households, and it became the second-most popular network in its demographic of 6–11-year-olds in basic cable after Nickelodeon. In 1999, Cartoon Network introduced interstitials under the Groovies and Shorties labels. These segments featured characters from both original programming and the classic Turner animation library, reimagined by music artists and animators in styles distinct from the original shows. On April 1, 2000, Cartoon Network launched a digital cable and satellite channel known as Boomerang, which was spun off from one of their programming blocks that featured retro animated series and shorts, as more original programming and imports from other animated outputs of Time-Warner started to fill the main lineup of Cartoon Network.
On January 11, 2001, Time Warner merged with online service provider America Online for $183 billion. Amongst the executive changes created by the merger, Jamie Kellner would replace Ted Turner as the head of Turner Broadcasting System. On June 18, 2001, Betty Cohen, who had served as Cartoon Network's president since its founding, left due to creative disagreements with Jamie Kellner. On August 22, 2001, Jim Samples was appointed general manager and Executive Vice President of the network, replacing Cohen. Cartoon Network decided to create an entirely adult-focused block due to earlier success with adult audiences. Adult Swim debuted on September 2, 2001, with an episode of Home Movies; the block initially aired on Sunday nights, with a repeat telecast on Thursdays. The initial lineup consisted of Home Movies, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Sealab 2021, Cowboy Bebop, The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. With Adult Swim now intending half of Cartoon Network's audience, the daytime CN now sought to aim at more younger viewers under Samples, and where Cartoon Network's psychographic approach became diverged. Also that year, Warner Bros. Animation absorbed Hanna-Barbera's operations, with Cartoon Network Studios being incorporated as a separate studio as a result.
The first theatrical film based on an original Cartoon Network series, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, was released on July 3, 2002. It received mixed-to-positive reviews but was a commercial failure at the time of its release, grossing $16.4 million worldwide on a budget of $11 million. Cartoon Network and Boomerang would be reorganized, following the replacement of Jamie Kellner by Philip Kent in the role of chief executive officer of Turner, into one individual Animation unit. The network started to drop the "Cartoon Cartoons" brand from its original programming and ended the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block on May 16, 2003. On October 3, 2003, the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block was rebooted in a live-action format as "Fridays", hosted by Tommy Snider and Nzinga Blake, the latter of which was later replaced by Tara Sands in 2005. It aired episodes of Cartoon Network original series and acquired shows alongside movies and specials.