#RIPCartoonNetwork: A(n Over)Reaction to a Hashtag
The hashtag in question?
The hashtag, launched on July 8, 2024, by The Animation Guild, blew up across all social media platforms and encouraged fans of the channel to talk about their favorite Cartoon Network shows that they wish they could see again or wish would have stayed on a little long.
God knows there are a lot of those.
Various news outlets picked up the story, from the usual news outlets like Yahoo, Bleeding Cool, even international news sites to places that don't regularly cover animation like Men's Journal, Creative Bloq, and others. Cartoon Network themselves (at the time of this writing) hasn't made any official statement on social media about the hashtag beyond the umbrella corporate response about how the network is still around they gave to various news outlets.
Still, you can't say the hashtag didn't get attention.
Needless to say, the reports of Cartoon Network's demise are... kind of exaggerated.
While the physical network and brand are still around and still producing shows, the stand-alone studio that produced original programs for the Cartoon Network family of channels and MAX closed its doors in the fall of 2023, a few years after plans to move operations to Warner Bros Animation's new digs and more than a year after the new Warner Bros Discovery split the in-house animation studio of Cartoon Network from the channel (which was now under the same corporate umbrella as such networks like TLC, Animal Planet, Destination America, and American Heroes Channel as opposed to WarnerMedia's original plan of having Cartoon Network under the same corporate umbrella as Warner Bros Animation, Hanna-Barbera Europe, and Turner Classic Movies). Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros Animation are technically AND literally under the same roof now. under the supervision of Sam Register, who was already head of Warner Bros Animation and had been a vital part of Cartoon Network's infrastructure since it launched.
This consolidation was just the latest in various high-profile mistreatments of the animation community since the "end" of the COVID-19 pandemic (BTW, COVID's still around and people are still getting infected, so be aware, and mask up, kids). Studios and distributors like Netflix, Disney, NBC Universal, Sony, and Paramount have also shuttered units, reduced their animation workforce, and scrapped animated productions across the boards.
They just didn't get as much press as Warner Bros Discovery, who, under the direction of its reality-show-loving, vest-wearing, myopic, bigoted, movie-mogul wannabe President and CEO David Zaslav, along with other names who don't get as much press or ire like CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell, Global Streaming CEO/President JB Perrette, HBO/MAX Chairman/CEO Casey Bloys, and, of course, Michael Ouweleen, who is actually the President/CEO of The Cartoon Network, Inc., who ALL created a strange strategy to purge animated shows from MAX for tax write-downs and write-offs, remove already-completed animated titles to reduce residuals to creators, and cancel animated projects in various states of completion without warning, most notably the completed Looney Tunes film Coyote vs. ACME, which will likely never see the light of day. Even older shows that had their entire runs on MAX were purged.
But hey, who wants to see the full series of classics like The Flintstones, the bulk of the Hanna-Barbera library (which is limited to a streaming platform that's barely promoted and slowly seeping into a broadcast network I STILL DON'T HAVE!), the Cartoon Network originals that aren't heavily repeated on any of the CN networks, Emmy-winning projects like Over the Garden Wall and Long Live The Royals as well as newer shows like Close Enough, Final Space, and Infinity Train (which have been purged from the face of the Earth), and nearly every major Looney Tunes short worth watching when you could watch all the Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri shows produced as well every episode of the 40 Day Fiancé and Fixer Upper franchises ever made?
Look, the Discovery side of Warner Bros Discovery is eating good, and I'm not mad at them. Neither should you.
The creative side of Warner Bros, on the other hand, are barely getting by.
Yes, people will point out that creators like J.G. Quintel and Genndy Tartakovsky who had high-profile shows that were scrapped are still making shows for Cartoon Network Studios, but they're the exception, not the rule. So many others aren't so lucky. Countless creators were booted from their jobs, and because their years of hard work had been thrown in the trash to save the bosses at WBD a few nickels, they can't even share what they had been working on. A lot of them had been done under NDA, meaning there were shows that were thrown away that we, the general public, weren't privy to.
While Cartoon Network Studios is far from the only studio that has done this, having a name that begins with CARTOON, not to mention the channel being a cultural milestone for a generation of animation fans (including those who wanted to make cartoons in the first place because of the shows they enjoyed), definitely attracts more attention from the media.
The 2022 purge didn't help matters at all and started this fire. Canceling Craig of the Creek, one of the highest rated and biggest profile shows on the channel was another cinder on the fire.
The linear channel ending its programming day at 7 PM E/P to make room for Adult Swim in the summer of 2023 and THEN taking away another two hours in fall 2023 almost making Cartoon Network a block on Adult Swim instead of the opposite was another spark. Adult Swim taking shows and blocks initially made for Cartoon Network like Unicorn, My Adventures with Superman, and ACME Night, was another log on the fire of fear that was spreading. The visual of an empty Cartoon Network Studios building taking down its iconic facade signage REALLY drives home the point of the hashtag.
Thus, that's why #RIPCartoonNetwork was born.
Was the hashtag a bit hyperbolic?
Absolutely.
I personally felt that it kind of disrespected the folks who are still trying to make the channel and the brand worth watching as well as those still making productions for Cartoon Network. As I said, Cartoon Network isn't dead. That said, #RIPCartoonNetworkStudios wouldn't have had as many eyeballs as #RIPCartoonNetwork did, so I get why TAG created that hashtag.
The problem with that hashtag is that it created a hell of a lot of overreactions from people who are already petrified about the future of not only the Cartoon Network linear channel but the Cartoon Network brand as a whole. As I pointed out, there are many reasons why they would feel that way.
Cartoon Network's silence over the last couple of days hasn't alleviated those fears at all, and I really think the channel and Warner Bros Discovery should address the general public as well as actually do something.
And by "do something," I don't mean just make a toothless response or a video or pithy image proclaiming Cartoon Network is alive.
I want a REAL response to not only the public who are worried about the channel's future but also truly engage with the creators and animators who gave the studio and channel life. I want to see an active approach to restore a lot of goodwill that has been lost over the past two years. I want public apologies to the creators wronged by the purges.
I want to see shows purged return to streaming platforms and linear channels. I want to see WBD pay back those small tax credits to restore those lost shows.
I want a commitment to produce more homegrown original productions not only for Cartoon Network but across multiple platforms, including places like YouTube.
It's a lot to ask, I know, but I feel that the future of the American animation industry is at stake in the coming months. And I feel a unit whose first name is literally CARTOON should create that first spark of that renewal. Give the industry AND viewers something to look forward to.
If that happens or not, it's time for a new animation revolution to begin. By any means necessary.
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