As many of you probably know, The National Film Board of Canada has produced many of the most artistically brilliant animated short films ever. Luckily for all of us Turner Classic Movies is showing two and a half hours of these animated shorts. These will range in years from 1941 all the way to 1999. This block will show some of the best films produced by NFB, including Caroline Leaf's The Street (1976), Richard Condie's The Big Snit (1985) and Sheldon Cohen's The Sweater (1980). Many other amazing shorts will be included as well. The block starts at 5:00pm (west coast) and 8:00pm (east coast). It is a definite must watch for all fans of animation, so toon in all you cartoon lovers.
Sadly since the MGM hour long block went off of Boomerang, it has been rare to see any classic non-Tom and Jerry animated MGM short. This is why you all need to watch Turner Classic Movies on April 15th. They are airing two of these shorts back to back. They are a 1937 animated short directed by Rudolf Ising called The Hound and the Rabbit, and a 1942 cartoon directed by Hugh Harmon called The Hungry Wolf. These are both great cartoons, and it is fantastic to see them on TV. This is a part of an Easter marathon of films with bunnies in them, this marathon also includes three live action films/Those are Harvey (1950), The Rabbit Trap (1959) and Night of the Lepus (1972). The marathon starts at 5:00pm (west coast) and 8:00pm (east coast). The two cartoons [lay back to back starting at 10:15pm (west coast) and 1:15am (east coast). I hope that TCM plays more MGM cartoons in the future, and I will definitely be watching these.
Welcome back fellow Cartoon lovers as we look at more of the history for of Cartoon Network, your home for cartoons.
In 1995 a short shown on World Premiere Toons called Dexter's Laboratory was nominated for an Emmy. This short proved so popular that in August of that same year Cartoon Network announced that it would be the first World Premiere Toon to receive a whole series of it's own. Shows that would follow would include Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog (one of my favorite TV shows of all time), I am Weasel and Mike, Lu & Og. The show of course become a huge hit, and a quite good show in it's own right. Dexter's Laboratory was a joint project between Cartoon Network studios and Hanna-Barbera.
1995 however didn't just bring brand new shows to Cartoon Network, but also brought some that had been around for a while to the channel. 1995 brought G-Force: Guardians of Space to Cartoon Network. This was a 1986 American version of a 1972 anime series called Science Ninja Team Gatchman. This is the second adaption of this anime. Preceding it was 1978's Battle of the Planets TV show. This adaption included both dubbed footage and new animation from the Hanna-Barbera studio. This show had a very brief run on TBS. I can't find any reason why it disappeared, but it did. Cartoon Network however introduced many American audiences to the 1972 anime, despite the many changes. Also introduced to Cartoon Network in 1995 was the 1973 animated Hanna-Barbera animated version of The Addams Family.
In 1994 World Premiere Toons (later renamed What a Cartoon!) was announced. This show was co-produced by Cartoon Network and Hanna-Barbera. It featured new 7 minute cartoon shorts (about the same length as an average Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie). Such cartoons as Courage The Cowardly Dog, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory would eventually grow out of this.The show came to be in February 1995. The Powerpuff Girls in Fuzzy Lumpkins was the first short to air.
Though The Moxy Show was the first original show to be made for Cartoon Network, it was a Hanna-Barbera production. The first one to be made for Cartoon Network was Space Ghost: From Coast to Coast. Intrestingly this show borrowed it's characters from a 1960's Hanna-Barbera cartoon show simply called Space Ghost. This show featured a wacky, irreverent, and adult-aimed sense of humor, that showed what future Cartoon Network originals would be like. This show premiered on April 15, 1994.
1994 was a special year for Flintstones fans. On May 7th, Cartoon Network showed The Flagstones the original unaired pilot for the show (The name was changed to The Flintstones for the actual show, because Hi and Lois (a popular newspaper comic) creator, Mort Walker felt the name was too close to his fictional families name of the Flagsons). Then on May 19 though May 22, the channel aired all 167 episodes of The Flintstones back to back. I know what all of my fellow Flintstones fans are thinking, "Can they please do this again" and I would be lying if I didn't say that I wasn't thinking the same thing. By the way here's a video of the pilot I mentioned earlier.
From January 23rd to January 29th in 1995, Cartoon Network did it's first (and last) annual Dog Bowl (to compete with the Super Bowl of course (and as a Cartoon lover, who doesn't care to watch sports this sounds much better to me)). This was hosted by Morocco Mole and Fred Hickman (a real life sports announcer (yeah I had to look him up too, then again I'm not a sports fan)) Competing in this dog bowl were Hong Kong Fooey (Number one super guy), Scooby Doo, Doogey Daddy, Huckleberry Hound, Precious Pup, Muttley, Spike (from Tom and Jerry cartoons), Droopy, Two Stupid Dogs, and Two Curious Dogs (from some of Chuck Jones' early Merrie Melodies). Cartoon Network fans themselves voted for who they liked best. A hour of two dogs (a half-hour each) would air each day and whoever won that round would air again the next day, until a winner was decided. The winner was Scooby Doo. Let me know who you would have voted for. I would have personally gone for Droopy, but Huck would have been a very close second. All of them would good choices though.
So more Cartoon Network history coming up. Until then Peace love and cartoons.
Hello again fellow cartoon lovers. I am sure for many of you, Cartoon Network has at least at one time been a very special channel to you. If you are a 1990's child like me, then it was probably also your introduction to the classic theatrical cartoon shorts of the 1930's, 40's and 50's, as well as the Hanna-Barbera TV shows of the 1950's and 60's. As these hold a special place in my heart so of course does Cartoon Network, even if I am fully willing to admit it is not the great channel it used to be (Though I do like Steven Universe a lot). So let's share our memories of watching this channel, as we discuss the history behind it.
Carton Network began on October 1st 1992, started by Turner Entertainment. The day the channel premiered it was hosted by your good friend and mine Droopy. The first cartoon shown was The Great Piggy Bank Robbery with Daffy Duck. The channel did not start off with original programing, instead it relied on what Turner Entertainment owned. Luckily they owned a lot. They had bought Hanna-Barbera in 1991, giving them access to the whole Hanna-Barbera library. They also had access to all the classic MGM cartoons, the pre-1948 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, and all the classic Fleischer Brothers and Famous studios Popeye cartoons.I don't know about you but that sounds like animated paradise to me. This meant they had about 8,500 hours of cartoons that they owned the rights to. This was the first time a TV channel had 24 hours a day dedicated to cartoons. There was a show on another Turner owned channel, TNT, called Cartoon Network on TNT which showed more of these cartoons they owned, because they owned so many. By January 1993, Cartoon Network was already the most viewed channel on TV.
Some of the classic cartoon shorts were packaged in various half-hour or hour long themed blocks. Two of the best of these were Late Night in Black and White (Something that sadly the network would probably never air today), which showed various classic black and white cartoons from the 1930's (and from various studios). Another was Toonheads. Toonheads would pick a different theme each episode, and in between each cartoon a narrator (Usually either Leslie Fram or Don Kennedy). This show would include both theatrical and TV cartoons.
In May of 1933, the studio had audiences vote for the best cartoon mom so they could dedicate Mother's day to her. As a joke included in this poll was Race Bannon from Johnny Quest (because he was one bad mother). Race actually won and on Mother's Day of 1993, Cartoon Network showed a Johnny Quest marathon. On June 13 1993, Cartoon Network aired the first of it's June Bugs marathons (24 hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons) something I miss very much. The first new character created for Cartoon Network was named Moxy. This was a computer animated dog, who introduced various classic cartoons on The Moxy Show. This character was voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and the show was produced by Hanna-Barbera (that studio's first series made specifically for Cartoon Network), and first shown on November 26 1993. Due to the computer animation The Moxy Show was the first live cartoon show (you can't have a hand drawn live cartoon, because it is a strain on the animators wrist).
There is more Cartoon Network history to come so don't touch that dial.
Great news my fellow animation lovers, Spirited Away one of the best films of recent years is returning to American theaters. This will happen on December, 4th and December 5th. The dubbed version will be shown on December 4th, and the subtitled version will be shown on December 5th for the film's 15th anniversary. If you haven't seen this film you need to see it, as it is a modern day masterpiece. If you have seen this film try to see it on the big screen.
Hello there fellow cartoon lovers. I assume some of you like me, are fans of a certain show called Courage the Cowardly Dog, and you have good reason to be it is one of the smartest, scariest, funniest and best looking animated TV shows. Some of you like me may have the DVDs of the series. And again if you are like me, you are very disappointed by the lack of special features. However this doesn't need to bug you anymore.
John R. Dilworth the creator of the series has done some commentaries on YouTube. However these commentaries do not have the cartoon with them, due to copyright reasons. You play the YouTube video and your DVD at thee same time and are able to have commentary playing over some of your favorite episodes. John R. Dilworth has done two of these so far. One is for the fan-favorite episode King Rameses Curse and the other is for the shows first episode A Night at The Katz Motel. He plans to do much more in the future.
