Thoughtnami™

I know people don't read my regular site like they used to. I think it has to do with the fact that Toonami only has one show worth watching. So, when I relaunched the Opinions section with the creation of BXT: The Flipside of TXB, I know people aren't really checking it out (either that, or they just don't want to tell me it sucks). One of the flipside moments I have included is Imagine If , something I actually created back in September 2005. The reason I created that section is because I happen to be a history buff. I know, I know, history can be boring to some people, but I find it fascinating. Animation and entertainment history are so enjoyable and kind of more relevant to my life. For instance, did you know that Nickelodeon and MTV were co-owned by Warner Communications? Did you know that Ted Turner almost bought CBS? Did you know that Hanna-Barbera was almost bought by Viacom and Warner Communications was almost bought by Paramount? Heck, a couple of years ago, Co...

In case you haven't visited The X Bridge in recent weeks, you probably didn't realize that I launched BXT, a new subsection of the Opinions section that is the flipside of what's normally talked about at The X Bridge. I created BXT after realizing that although I'm kind of bored talking about just action-animation and "whitching and bining" about Cartoon Network over and over, I needed a forum to talk in a longer format, something that I couldn't do on a regular basis at Thoughtnami. That whole Defending the 80s article couldn't be written here in full without taking up a huge chunk of the screen, and I know that readers may not have the patience to read a long screen of pictureless text. I hope Toon Zone doesn't mind. I just wanted to make an unfiltered section where I could just vent about everything. That said, this is not the last post of Thoughtnami. I feel that this place has a lot of potential, perhaps as a place where I could be a little mo...

November's been a rather depressing month for me. My uncle got a staph infection paralyzing him from the waist down, and a family friend ( Miss Ruth ) passed away. The show must go on, so, here's the rant. I hate cable. I hate the cable industry and all it represents. But what I really hate about cable is the fact that it's a monopolistic practice that really punches the consumer on a yearly basis, raising the prices for their own benefit and not really looking out for those that pay them. We need choices in cable service. Okay, I can hear a crowd murmuring "Why don't you quit whining and subscribe to satellite?" I would, but I'm confused at which one would be right for me. Should I go out for Dish or DirectTV? Choices. But that's the kick, my friends. With satellite, you do have a choice of services. With cable, you don't have that luxury. Choices are great because you aren't stuck with just one thing, system, or service. I could get delivery ...

I've been watching television just as long as I've been reading, which is practically all of my life. What I have learned in my nearly three decades of television viewing are the following: - Network programmers and executives cater to the lowest common denominator and rarely think of anything original for a period of seven years. - Networks are explicitly cheap when it comes to programming. The whole point of NBCU 2.0, as NBC Universal are calling their cost-cutting efforts, is to develop cheap, non-scripted programming for the next three seasons. - Aside from rare occasions, the most popular show isn't always the most watched show and gets cancelled quickly. Or else, Arrested Development wouldn't be rotting on G4 while The War At Home remains on Fox. - Shows built around diverse, urban audiences are rarely seen on broadcast television (quick, turn to CBS, Fox, or NBC, or The CW on any night but Mondays) and quick to be be cancelled. - International, non-Spanish progra...

. . . but when exactly did credits become evil and intrusive? I remember a time when credits didn't get squished down nor sped up to fit in an advertisement for another show. Heck, I remember a time when they did vocal promotions for other shows during the end credits without having to invade the credit space. The credits, mind you, are placed to give those fine men and women the credit they deserve (thus, that's why they're called "credits"). Now, credits are squished down to microscopic sizes or with such distortion, barely visible to the naked eye, to make room for commercials and promos for shows they heavily promoted during the duration of the show, you know, in case you missed it during the show. E! scrapped end credits altogether, speeding them up in little-bitty type in a light, barely readable font at the beginning of their original programming. And even though their Friday night lineup is the best collection of shows on a single night on television today...

The best show on Monday nights is NBC's Heroes. I could end the post there and have a Coke and a smile, but if you've never seen it (either because you're pumped on RAW or watching bland things like Monday Night Football or the CBS "comedies"), you really owe it to yourself to at least catch the replays on Sci-Fi Friday nights at 7 PM inbetween one of last year's best sci-fi shows Night Stalker and new episodes of the awesome as hell Doctor Who followed by a show I'm really getting into, the new Battlestar Galactica. Seriously, Sci-Fi hasn't had a powerful lineup like this since . . . ever (as much as I'm a Farscape fan, it didn't have any good shows backing it up [sorry Stargate fans, but that show seemed too "Trekky" for me]). Anyway, the skinny on Heroes is that these random individuals from all points of the globe. A struggling comic book artist paints the future weeks in advance. A younger brother of a politician who has dreams t...

Hey kids, guess what 2005 animated movie from Warner Bros. makes its US television premiere this Thursday? If you guessed Corpse Bride, then you guessed right. Now, for the $20,000 question. What network will debut the movie? If you guessed HBO, oooh, sorry, but thanks for playing. You guessed Cinemax? Eeeh, bummer, wrong answer. The correct answer is ABC Family. Okay, now wipe that soda off your computer monitor and wall. It'll make everything sticky (at least, I hope that's soda). Yes, the big movie attraction for October for ABC Family is the US television premiere of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. This is an ironic point because Touchstone's The Nightmare Before Christmas made its US television premiere on HBO, many years after it came out. The fact that the Oscar-nominated film would come on basic cable a little after a year it made it theatrical debut is kind of a surprise. People knew about the deal that Time Warner made with ABC Family to air some of their movies, b...

Canada. Our neighbor to the north. Pretty kickass country from what I heard about it, and I hear a lot. I celebrate Canada Day every July 1. I'm a big supporter of Canadian animation, despite its limited airings here in the States (I miss Eek! The Cat and ReBoot), and live-action fare. And Doctor Who . . . thanks for co-producing it CBC (though I can say with pride we got the new English-language episodes before you guys did!). Sure, they could be a little xenophobic at times (seriously, the whole 70% Canadian programming requirement is a bit limited, isn't it?), but hey, thus is the price for keeping the legacy of Albion, um, Canada alive. And considering I have a significant readership here and the terrordome that is TXB that comes from that great land up there, I thought I'd drop a some Canadian knowledge to share my love for the land from time to time. Here goes. MTV Canada doesn't show music videos. Now, the American crowd looking at me saying "MTV USA doesn...

The world is ready for a new animation channel. Okay, scratch that. The world largely has this animation channel. It's just the United States that's missing this channel. Of course, I'm talking about Animax (the title of the post gives the identity away), Sony's animation channel that's spreading throughout the world like ivy at Wrigley. In 2004, after Sony and Comcast forged an alliance that helped them buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (and such lucrative properties like James Bond, the Pink Panther, and Rocky), they planned to many many cable networks together. Over the decade, Sony has been slowly introducing the Animax brand to the Western hemisphere by sponsoring numerous events, putting Animax-branded programming on certain anime DVDs, and prominently placing the Animax logo in the end credits of Astro Boy, which sadly failed on broadcast and cable (though for the life of me, the cable channel that aired the series no longer exist, with some odd live-action/animation m...

I feel kind of bad for G4. No, bad's not the word. That's not even the phrasing I'm looking for. I think it's the opposite. Why do I feel this way and why do I feel the need to talk about a channel that has been nothing more than a joke since they absorbed a great channel like TechTV a couple of years ago? Because of the following newsbyte: E! and Style chief Ted Harbert, the CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group (a guy who could become a very powerful individual if he made the right decisions), adds G4 to his oversight. He will continue to report to Comcast Programming Group President Jeff Shell. G4 President Neal Tiles, who joined the network in September 2005, will now report to Mr. Harbert. G4's executive staff will move into E!'s Los Angeles offices. Sources said layoffs among the G4 staff are likely, though Mr. Harbert said it's too soon to tell. In other words, G4, a channel that was once dedicated to video games that bought TechTV only for X-Play and ch...

Let me get this straight. About a year or so ago, Nickelodeon presented the basic cable premiere of the live-action Scooby-Doo movie. It got good ratings because, hey, not all kids have access to HBO. A few months later around the summer of 2006 up until around a couple of weekends ago, the movie was on rotation on the ultralame ABC Family Channel (aside from Kyle XY, which will return sometime this spring, they have nothing). It got so-so ratings because there was already a been-there-done-that atmosphere among the channelscape of kids. Now, tomorrow, The Network presents the film based on a franchise that they showcased heavily on their channel from 1994 until about 2004 but wouldn't touch today with a 39 and a half-foot pole unless it was a movie version of it. Let it be reminded that the channel no longer wants to connect to the past that actually gave them much love in the animation community and this is a live-action movie on a cartoon network. You know what? Frak this. I giv...

I read something on Cartoon Brew that kind of irked me a bit. No, it wasn't another slam on 3D productions not made by the almighty Pixar, but rather the comment made by Michael Ouweleen about that idiotic live-action movie they just finished producing at The Network: "[E]ven though we are featuring live-action characters, it still had to be done the Cartoon Network way." Now, I know Mr. Ouweelen by what he does and who he is. He seems like he has some sense and some of the things he does are, to put it mildly, is okay. Naturally, he wouldn't bite the hand that feeds him and wouldn't condemn what The Network is doing. Afterall, he has a job and has to tow the corporate line. Afterall, for a year (remember, we first got wind of the live-action movie airings about a year ago), The Network has been under heavy criticism from people who feel that they're deviating from their original purpose of airing 24 hours of cartoons every day until the end of time. So, guys ...

While trying to avoid the Pokemon virus that has infected every corner of Cartoon Network (including Toonami Jetstream, which means that Sean and Jason don't have control of what goes on there, sad to say), I noticed this other deviation. You know, I used to like TV Land. I did. I mean, back in the day, it was like old-school Nick At Nite (when they actually spelled out "At" instead of using a damn @ sign), and they do tend to show some good retro favorites like The Jeffersons, Good Times, Benson, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Three's Company, I Love Lucy, and perhaps one of the most perfect sitcoms ever produced, The Dick Van Dyke Show (a title that could get censored in this overtly sensitive world of ours). Like nearly every channel on the dial, TV Land has deviated from its initial concept by airing more "popnost" and "celebreality" programming over the years (what's next? Schindler's List on Comedy Central? The Man Show on Lifetime?...

I like Scooby-Doo. Anybody that knows me either from my frantic postings at the "gated community" known as Toon Zone or the angry, yet somewhat comical updates at The X Bridge knows that I'm not a fan of Scooby-Doo, and yet, for my 100th posting here at Thoughtnami, I never thought I'd utter those words at the beginning of a post. Let's rewind to the point of my original disdain. Afterall, from the time the show premiered on Cartoon Network in 1994 (yes, it's a little-known fact, but Scooby-Doo wasn't always on CN since it was basically licensed to USA in what would be the last hurrah for the late, great Cartoon Express) until late 2004, Scooby-Doo has been a boil on nearly every CN fan with its almost total dominance on the lineup. Of course in 2006, I would actually kill to see something other than Camp Lazlo, Foster's, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, or Billy and Mandy on the lineup whenever they have an open slot, even welcoming Scooby-Doo with open arms. Scoob...

On June 29, 2006, lightning struck the Harris household. Well, the large pine tree that's close to the house, but it did enough to knock out the power, phone lines, and cable. My computer, the one I JUST got for Christmas last year, was damaged. Sure, I had a surge protector (which is probably the only reason the actual computer is saveable), but the modem, the USB card, the CD-ROM drive, and my monitor were totally fried, which explains the almost three month absence from the outside world. And dealing with the insurance company hasn't been easy. In fact, they've done nothing. They didn't check the damage nor did much of anything else. So, instead of waiting for a claim check (which my family still is), my great-aunt gave me a computer to check up on what's going on out there. It's a little slower than my last computer (but still scores faster than the old Packard Bell POS I had for years), but it does the job. Plus, in the middle of all of this, in the middle ...

Before I begin, I want to thank you all for keeping patience with me these last couple of weeks. If you've read The X Bridge, you knew that I had to take a hiatus for a while to watch over my grandfather, who's recooperating from a stroke that left him pretty much lethargic and bedridden. He's doing much better now, but he has his good days and bad days, just as always. Now, for the business at hand. It's all comics. That's the moral and lesson of what I'm going to say in this rant of sorts. I'm presenting it loud and clear in case it gets lost in the stream of consciousness that a lot of folks tend to bypass in this type of article. I know I get a little wordy at times, so the overall lesson of why I have to say isn't lost. But if you want to continue reading and wondering what I'm talking about and how I got to that conclusion, go right ahead. There is a kind of controversy going on in the manga fandom that has kind of torn it asonder. Well, not re...

While I'm pondering the need for a Top Ten Biggest Turning Points in Animation list, I know that Jerry Beck had a lot of material to ponder. He made great choices. Even the questionable ones like Ren and Stimpy and Gerald McBoing Boing made sense if you think long and hard about it. Here's the list Mr. Beck made: GERTIE THE DINOSAUR (1914) STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928) SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) GERALD McBOING BOING (1950) THE FLINTSTONES (1960) FRITZ THE CAT (1972) AKIRA (1988) THE SIMPSONS (1989) THE REN & STIMPY SHOW (1991) TOY STORY (1995) But ten isn't enough. It should have been a Top 25 Biggest Turning Points in Animation. I'm just taken aback that there Mr. Beck didn't mention any Fleischer, MGM, nor Warner Bros. shorts at all. Perhaps, subconsciously, this was his protest against Time Warner and Cartoon Network for removing those shorts from the more availiable Cartoon Network to Boomerang, almost totally removing Looney Tunes from public view, an...

Those familiar with me from my action-animation domicile know that until last Christmas, my computer situation has been lacking. Flash would crash, videos wouldn't play, and MP3s barely got through. Needless to say, the internet has been hellish for me. So, using my newish computer, I've come to discover what the internet has to offer. I bit the bullet and actually made a profile on MySpace. I checked out some of the music sites online (note to self: indy rock and hip-hop, nerdcore, and mashups like American Edit and anything from The Kleptones are pretty damned good, and Havoc TV is just a godsend). And this weekend, I finally caved into the pressure, the hoopla, whatever it is and actually checked out this thing called Homestar Runner . I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at anything on the computer in my life. "A Folky Tale". . . oh my gosh. Frelling genius. "A Jorb Well Done" . . . wow. And Strong Bad . . . he was right in that intro video. ...

The Scooby-Doo. The Rebel Yell. The Grizzly. The Berserker. Diamond Falls. White Water Canyon. Hanna-Barbera Land. Anyone who has ever been to Kings' Dominion prior to Paramount's takeover of those theme parks would know those names with fondness. I remember every summer the whole family would take a trip to Kings Dominion. They've done this ever since the park opened in 1975. I remember when I was a little kid going in Yogi's Cave. The big guy was standing right in front of it near a pic-a-nick basket and a fishing pole in his hand. It was awesome. The place was huge with that silly song playing throughout, "This here cave belongs to Yogi . . . " Needless to say, to me and my family, this was better than Disney World. But, as the years went on, as they always do, things change and families grow apart. We didn't go to Kings Dominion as much as we did the park closer to home, Busch Gardens. The last time the whole family went to Kings Dominion was the summe...

Over at the mothership taking place at all points on the globe, Ben, Karl, William, and Knux all take part in a once in a lifetime interview with the maverick fathers behind the block we call Toonami, Jason DeMarco and Sean Akins. At the same time. Listen as they talk about the evolution of Toonami Jetstream, the new season of IGPX, Black Hole Megamix, Oblivion, why they picked up Bo^7, why Gundam just isn't working (and what did), who's the better Guitar Hero guitarist, what they did during the reconstruction of Williams Street, and the crusty old guys who inspired them to do what they do. Head over to the eighth episode of The Toon Zone Podcast right now. And when you're done with that, talk about it .

On Monday, a group of individuals announced plans to change the face of television. Okay, it's kind of hyperbole, but it's true. Two network groups (ION Media Networks [formerly Paxson Communications, owners of i, the network formerly known as PAX TV] and NBC Universal [owners of Telemundo and some broadcast network who name escapes me]) and three media companies (book publisher Scholastic, Corus Entertainment [owners of YTV and Nelvana Animation], and Classic Media/Big Idea [the former owns properties ranging from Rocky and Bullwinkle and Underdog to Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing Boing to the Little Golden Books characters while the latter, a unit of Classic Media, created religious-based and secular value-based programming, most notably VeggieTales) are joining together to launch a trio of children's entertainment outlets under the "Smart Place for Kids" banner: - Three national broadcast blocks on NBC (Saturday mornings beginning in September), Telemundo (Saturd...

I never thought I'd see the day that there would be a Black, female version of Cartman on television. And tonight, I've seen it on Bromwell High, an animated, adult British/Canadian animated series that recently started airing on BBC America. Wish they'd advertise it better since it's obviously been airing for weeks now. It currently airs on The Detour on Teletoon in Canada (the Canadian equivalent to Adult Swim). Have you seen this show? Chances are that if you're only looking at the billionth rerun of Family Guy over on Adult Swim, you probably aren't. If you're just started or want to know a little something about it, let me give you the skinny. Bromwell High chronicles the hardships of those who attend this underfunded, broke-down, overcrowded high school (every city has one) ran by this scheming, vulgar headmaster who isn't exactly the brighted bulb in the lamp (though he did win the school in a poker game). The three central characters are naughty...

Remember Steve Purcell's ginchy anthromorphic detective series Sam & Max: Freelance Police? Great series of games and a GREAT animated series from Nelvana. Too bad it only lasted one season. Well, straight from E3, GameTap (the subscriber-based video-game broadband nirvana owned by Turner Broadcasting) and Telltale (a nice group of fellas who is comprised of a lot of former Lucasgames artists and programmers, many of whom were involved in numerous titles, including Freelance Police) announced plans to produce a brand new Sam & Max series exclusively for GameTap. The new series, which will also be availiable for sale at TellTale's official Sam and Max site , where new strips can also be found, will mark GameTap's first original production. GameTap will also introduce the new Sam and Max game on their network, an industry first. If you're able to attend E3, check out GameTap's booth (Booth #1078 located in the South Hall ) for a sneak peek as well as other gi...

It's 10:44 PM in the East when I started writing this. I'm watching Sci-Fi Channel. I'm not watching science fiction. I'm watching Law and Order: SVU. Okay, call me crazy, but when did SVU become classified as a science-fiction, horror, or fantasy series, the three typical genres I tend to feel belong on Sci-Fi. It's not. I like SVU, but I'd like to see it on USA and NBC, where they belong, not Sci-Fi. At least Sci-Fi's smart enough to focus on the more horrific serial killer episodes rather than the regular ones. And hopefully, it's just one night only as the ad I just saw suggests. And for all you people complaining about Passions seen on Sci-Fi, stuff it. At least Passions has fantasy elements like witchcraft, spiritual themes, and other oddities. Hell, they just brought back the fantasy elements on the NBC episodes recently with the introduction of mermaids and the current Vendetta plot with all the paranormal elements seen in things like um, that up...

You remember The Prisoner? Crazy, insane series about a former secret agent man who gets kidnapped and sent to this strange (you know, I don't think strange even describes The Village) where chaos was the order and rational thought wasn't anywhere in sight? No? It reran on Sci-Fi back in the 90s and recently on BBC America. It's been parodied on a lot of pop cultural institutions like The Simpsons and ReBoot. That show with the floating white balloon chasing the lead character. Yeah, that show. It was one of the greatest sci-fi series ever made. No, it wasn't set in space or involved an intergalactic war. It wasn't even about confronting alien creatures of any kind. It was a straight sci-fi psychological thriller action-adventure and no modern series has ever come close in replicating it. Well, according to C21 Media, the folks at Sky One in the UK figure if you can't beat 'em, remake it, and in 2007, that's exactly what they're going to do. Hot off ...

This September, one of the greatest sci-fi epics ever created comes to homes in the way they were meant to be seen. In cutesy little plastic pieces. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy completes the popular franchise by giving you a chance to relive the adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest of the pop culture icons in a fun-sized format. Oh, right. And to mark this upcoming release, 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilms are going to release The Original Trilogy on DVD for a limited time on September 12, 2006. And when I mean The Original Trilogy, I mean Han shoots first, English on the control panels, no celebration on Naboo, and Hayden isn't a ghost. Yeah, THAT Original Trilogy. But if you like the other stuff, they'll be in this release too. Here's the official press release . Yub yub indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen. This is why Bill Amend is one of the greatest comic strip writers/artists around today. He gets it. Of course, Mr. Amend is always ahead of the mass media when it comes to covering stuff those late to the party haven't found out about yet. The iMac. Wikipedia. TechTV. Now Cartoon Network not showing cartoons (and even skewering cable news "talk shows" to boot). Well played, Mr. Amend. Well played. By the way, this is the first time I posted an image on Blogger. Pretty cool, eh?

In a moment of deviation, I saw this post at And We Shall March. Now, I'm not a fan of chain letters, surveys, and other sorts of drivel I see on these blogs because they're time killers. So, I had a little time to kill in the middle of the radical upgrade to TXB (which will be online in the coming weeks), and it seemed kind of cool. Do you Wiki ? Well, if you do, wiki your birthdate (in my case, January 21) and add the following: five events, three births, and three deaths. Sounded simple enough. Here goes: EVENTS: 1911: The first ever Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo race is run 1915: Kiwanis International founded in Detroit, MI 1924: Lenin dies of unusual causes 1968: The Battle of Khe Sanh begins in Vietnam 2000: Kevin Mitnick, a famous hacker, is released from prison. Three years later, he was allowed to use a computer again. BIRTHS: 1924: Telly Savalas (actor) and Benny Hill (comedian) 1942: Edwin Starr (musician, best known for song "War") 1953: Paul Allen (entr...

Did you watch Saturday Night Live this past Saturday? You didn't? Wow, guess you figured that it was going to be yet another lame celebrity trying to do lame sketch comedy, which it was. However, if you did miss it, you missed one of the most scathing pieces of animation since, well, Conspiracy Rock. And if you did miss it, you're never going to see it again. Not on NBC, not on E!, not even on You Tube anymore. This week, Robert Smigel lampooned the ridiculous practice The Walt Disney Company continues of putting films in the mythical Disney vault, a place where classics are locked away. You know, classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Bambi, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and 101 Dalmations as well as "classics" like Cinderella 2, Bambi 2, The Lion King 2, Beauty and the Beast 2, Aladdin and the Return of Jafar, and 101 Dalmations: Patch's London Adventure all rest for a period of 10 years. How did the guy who introduced the w...

I like dialogue. The fact that in this free society that we can converse about everything. However, dialogue works when both sides are willing to talk to each other. Cartoon Network, for some reason, refuses to be a part of dialogue when it comes to their recent programming decision of airing live-action shows. They hide behind the term "live-action cartoon" to justify airing live-action fare. Of course, there is only so many times one can use that term (which is an oxymoron like virtual reality, permanent guest host, genuine imitation, soft rock, and Microsoft Works), and the statute of limitation has expired. There's cartoony live-action, but no such thing as a live-action cartoon. I mean, they could almost get away with a Zack and Cody-like show by attaching that "live-action cartoon" label on it with a smile on their face, insulting longtime viewers everywhere. And discussion won't help either. Why? Because while a lot of people can complain, Cartoon Net...

You know, I think I strayed too much from my original intent for this site, which was to talk about things other than animation. I think the world can survive without me kvetching about Cartoon Network's lack of direction for a moment. I do have this question I have to ask: How in the hell did a group who was originally conceived to operate miniature golf courses and sports entertainment facilities become the majority owner of two of the 20th century's biggest icons and a company that owns that overrated karaoke sing-off every week on Fox? Seriously, a company called CKX, Inc. (short for Content is King [the X makes them sound, um, cool or something]) bought 85% of Elvis Presley Enterprises (including the singer's name, likeness, and image as well as all of Graceland) and all of 19 Entertainment (owners of the IDOLS "music" format that spawned Pop Idol in the UK, Canadian Idol up north, and some stupid show on Fox whose name eludes me). Today, CKX bought 80% of al...

Cartoon Network has done some dumb things in the past six months, mostly airing live-action programming, trying to attract the audiences who watch live-action fare on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, and getting rid of everything that made Cartoon Network Cartoon Network. Of course, in spite of all these changes, Cartoon Network feels that they're doing a great job with minor increases, compared to major ones in the same period a year ago. But you know who doesn't think Cartoon Network is doing a good job? Cable operators. Yeah! Cable operators, the people who actually place these networks on their lineups. Apparently, and color me crazy for suggesting this, they believe that a network that calls itself Cartoon Network should, um, show cartoons and not stray from that intent. Otherwise, you're getting into G4/OLN territory. More people are getting rid of OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) because that outlet is straying away from its outdoor recreation roots in favor of f...

As I was writing an article for my main site (look out for Who Killed Saturday Mornings? on The X Bridge in a couple of weeks), I found myself scratching my head. I know that Saturday mornings is a dead institution, but find myself wondering what's actually on this weekend. I'm not talking about the cable networks, because everybody knows what's on. Reruns on Nickelodeon, new stuff on Cartoon Network, premieres on ABC Family. However, what if, on the rare occasion, I want to know what's coming on, say, 4KidsTV on FOX or Kids' WB? I could go three different routes: I could check out the television listings either in the papers, cable grids, or on the interweb, go to their online sites and see what's on, or actually wait until Saturday comes to see what's on and hope the morning isn't clogged with more reruns. But the average person has better things to do rather than ponder what's coming on this weekend on broadcast television, like count the tiles on...

Did you know that the anagram for pornography is "horny pop rag"? A little deviation from the norm here before I think of something new to write about is something I'm calling "Fun With Anagrams." It's a fun little mind game to see what kind of readers I have checking out the site. What are anagrams? Anagrams are words that, when letters are shifted, can become another word. Kind of like how Bart is an anagram of "brat" or how Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who (as well as a darker spinoff coming soon). Ahead are six different anagrams. This week's topic is network names. I'm sure you know I know cable and broadcast networks inside and out. Now, see what I can see, if only for a minute. Play along. (I'll even give you a hint or two) No prize nor reward, just a bit of respect from me. It's not much, but it's worth something. Let's play: switcheroo twinkle event (clue: future smooshed channel, full name of channel, four wo...

"There doesn't seem to be any clear data that anything would be better off separate than together." Jeffrey Bewkes said this not too long ago in light of the would-be coup of Carl Icahn. For those that don't know, Mr. Bewkes is the President and COO of Time Warner. He's the boss of the guy who's the boss of Cartoon Network, just so you know. His quote is nice and true. There isn't any proof that anything would be better off separate than together. If only he wasn't a hypocrite. I have a problem with people who say one thing and do another, and Bewkes isn't adhering to that sage statement he said because, believe it or not, Time Warner is the most separate conglomerate on the planet. They're not united in any way nor do they try to work together to help each other out. They're still acting like they're separate entities rather than a united corporate entity like, say, Viacom. Seriously, the best-run entertainment conglomerate out there i...

Speaking of network indifference . . . Remember when NBC actually had a successful Saturday morning lineup? If you do, chances are you're old enough to vote now. Until Fox Kids came around in fall 1990, NBC OWNED Saturday mornings, airing most of the highest-rated shows on Saturday mornings with the exception of the number one show (that would be The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, which aired on ABC before it became Disney's programming zombie slave). Since pressure from fundamentalist parental television groups forced them to get rid of animation, not to mention the fact that Fox Kids was kicking their butts, NBC changed formats to a teen-oriented live-action lineup preceeded by a Saturday edition of their Today program. They set a trend that would follow in the years to come as CBS and recently ABC followed that route. Meanwhile, Fox Kids continued to dominate the Saturday morning lineups until Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and a newcomer, Kids' WB took over the spotlight. N...

Once upon a time, namely five years ago, Looney Tunes could be found on television on a daily basis. Unless you live in America, that statement is still true. For some odd reason, Looney Tunes has disappeared from the Boomerang lineup. The classic Leon Schlesinger/Vitaphone shorts that revolutionized an entire industry and inspired generations to become animators (or at least write about them) are no longer on the air in the United States. Deservedly, Cartoon Network, the overall broadcaster of all Looney Tunes products, gets the blame from fans of classic animation. Since the creation of Boomerang almost six years ago, all Looney Tunes have migrated to that outlet. Haven't heard of Boomerang? It's alright, a lot of us don't have it. Turner Broadcasting hasn't really pushed the network to cable operators like they've done to their other networks. However, be fair, you can't totally blame the management of Cartoon Network for the shabby treatment of the Looney ...