A Network That I Used To Know

The vacant shell
of a building
of a network
that barely exists.

I no longer have Cartoon Network. 

For the first time since May 1995, I no longer have access to Cartoon Network. I don't think I'll ever get it back, and quite frankly, I don't think I need it, and they're really not giving any reason to want to resubscribe to the channel any time soon. And for the first time since I heard about the channel's creation back in 1991, I'm fine not having it.

I never thought I'd be in a position where I no longer feel the need to watch Cartoon Network let alone support the channel because, for all intents and purposes, Cartoon Network is dead, and Adult Swim killed it.

Not David Zaslav because, let's be honest, he's not thinking of what happens to Cartoon Network. Despite what so many people think, I doubt his final thoughts before he goes to bed is "How can I screw over Cartoon Network viewers and fans in the morning?" Way too many animation fans have turned that man into a boogeyman for everything that goes wrong with Cartoon Network. It's the same reason you don't blame the AT&T era of WarnerMedia. 

Tom Ascheim, Christina Miller, Stuart Snyder, and Jim Samples didn't kill Cartoon Network. There were a lot of problems within their time at the top, but they seemed to actually want to see the Cartoon Network brand succeed

I don't feel Michael Ouweleen, the current president of Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, is doing that. 

A lot of things happened under his reign that seems rather one-sided and heavily towards making sure Adult Swim is the dominant brand and Cartoon Network a lesser brand. At times, it felt that Cartoon Network took a backseat to Adult Swim, but it was never to the extent that it is today. Taking away three hours from the core Cartoon Network lineup was the ultimate dagger plunge that killed Cartoon Network as a legitimate brand in the United States.

Yeah, people will immediately blame the internet for Cartoon Network's woes, even though at least under Samples, Snyder, and Miller, Cartoon Network DID have quite an online presence. I think people tend to forget that Cartoon Network Online and Toonami Reactor/Jetstream predated Crunchyroll and even YouTube by years, Ouweleen killing the official webpage and getting rid of all online spaces for everything BUT Adult Swim hasn't helped. 

People will say that kids don't watch linear television, and while that may be fair, consider this fact. If kids don't know about shows, aren't targeted with ads promoting shows, and the shows aren't promoted in places where kids are, they won't watch. 

Also, it's because of the Adult Swim brand that Cartoon Network is even considered a kids' brand because from October 1992 until September 2001, the channel was aimed towards ALL audiences. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was originally on Cartoon Network. O Canada was on Cartoon Network. The very first showcases of anime films happened years before Toonami was a twinkle in the eyes of Cartoon Network. Many late-night showcases weren't intended for a kid audience. Cartoon Network was not considered just a kids' brand until Adult Swim, and there's a generation who refuses to believe that. 

So, if you ask if I feel Adult Swim killed Cartoon Network, yes, I do.

Back in July, when the #RIPCartoonNetwork hashtag was making the rounds, I had hoped that the Cartoon Network brand would do something to alleviate concerns about the future of the brand. At the time I'm writing this (December 2024), what has happened is this:

• Cartoon Network shut down its main webpage in August
• Cartoon Network removed Regular Show, The Amazing World of Gumball, Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, The Powerpuff Girls (2016), Ben 10 (2016) and Chowder from MAX  in September and the first three seasons of Craig of the Creek in December (and they'll remove The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Ed, Edd n Eddy by the end of the month)
• Cartoon Network has taken some of its originals from digital storefronts, including shows they previously removed from MAX.
• Invincible Fight Girl, a series originally intended for Cartoon Network, premiered on Adult Swim, officially marking a whole year without a single original series from Cartoon Network Studios premiering on Cartoon Network and the third straight year without a non-spinoff series from Cartoon Network Studios airing on Cartoon Network proper (Ivandoe comes from Hanna-Barbera Europe, not Cartoon Network Studios).
• Cartoon Network shut down the new Cartoon Cartoons shorts incubation unit and vaulted everything made during that time and refused creators the right to use those shorts as a pitch to other networks, studios, and streaming companies unlike some former Cartoonstitute alumni did with their shorts. 
• Cartoon Network delayed the final cycle of Craig of the Creek from September 2024 to January 2025 and the most recent cycles of We Baby Bears indefinitely in the US for some reason.

Really not making people think the Cartoon Network brand isn't dead, Mike.

But hey, apparently Adult Swim is doing swimmingly well. The block has more hours than the Cartoon Network brand itself. Granted, most of it is filled with Disney-owned reruns you can easily see on FX, FXX, Freeform, and especially on Hulu. In fact, Adult Swim is celebrating getting Family Guy back in January, where it will settle in a cozy 10 to 11:30 PM E/P slot where it will directly compete against reruns of Family Guy on Comedy Central and FXX, where the possibility of the same exact episode airing at 10:30 PM is possible across all three channels on one night. 

And don't say it can't happen. There have been instances when Futurama, another recent return to Adult Swim, aired the same episode on both Adult Swim and FXX one evening. Oh, and American Dad, which Adult Swim shares with TBS, have also aired the same episode at the same time a couple of times. 

Which begs the question, why is Family Guy coming back to Adult Swim? 

Because Adult Swim wants to recapture the magic the era where they rescued and resurrected the series over 20 years ago? That so-called "golden age" is gone and never coming back. Sure, there may be a bump in the ratings, but not much to matter in the long run. Disney has diluted those shows to the point that it doesn't matter because you can watch Family Guy and all of those old FOX cartoons everywhere and anytime you want without having to just watch it on Adult Swim at an allotted time.  

The reason Family Guy is returning to Adult Swim is quite simple:

Michael Ouweleen has no faith in the Adult Swim originals and has nothing to steal from Cartoon Network in the near future. 

Aside from Smiling Friends and Rick & Morty, what does Adult Swim really have right now that would be considered a brand-builder? Granted, I know they have a lot of originals coming in the foreseeable future, but they're still of the mindset of giving Disney more money than actively producing shows that aren't the same kind of sophomoric nihilistic shows that have been the norm and often buried after midnight. And the ones that do were originally meant for Cartoon Network proper. 

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures With Superman were buried on a Thursday midnight slot. Superman moved to Toonami at a Saturday midnight slot for "season two" which, contrary to what TOM suggested, was not where it belonged. Invincible Fight Girl only airs twice a week: Midnights on Toonami and midnights on Thursdays. Not even in the post-Toonami Rewind slot. 

(And don't get me started on how Toonami Rewind ended up becoming just Dragon Ball Z Kai in December because that seems like a waste of space)

I've come to the point where I asked myself "Why am I still watching this? Why am I so invested in a network that has collapsed so magnificently and seemingly complacent?" 

I was already an older teen when I got Cartoon Network nearly 30 years ago in May 1995. I've watched and supported the network throughout that time, but over the last decade, I found myself watching it less and less. There used to be a time when I watched Cartoon Network/Adult Swim almost all day long. 

Now, I only watch one show, and that's Invincible Fight Girl, but I find myself watching that on MAX and hoping it'll still be around when it's completed because my trust issues with THAT site are also tattered. 

Plus, I realized I watched more AVOD/FAST channels than anything. Tubi has tons of shows I can watch at any time. I have access to a wide variety of FAST channels on Pluto TV and on my Fire TV courtesy of Freevee/Prime Video Channels. I don't have that much of a personal attachment to the Cartoon Network originals as many others do (I've always been more of a classic cartoon fan and love Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, and MGM shows and shorts). I have even less of an attachment to Adult Swim shows (though aside from IFG, I am a fan of Primal and Unicorn). 

When I had issues with my cable service a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, it kind of dawned on me that I'm paying way too much for cable and not getting anything in return from it. The rather lengthy situation made me realize that when I didn't have access to broadband and cable at the same time, I missed my broadband more than I missed cable. I missed not getting FAST channels than what was on cable. 

That's when I made the decision to cut the cord.

Kind of.

I wanted to keep HBO because with HBO, I not only get that premium channel, but I also get MAX at no extra charge and can watch some Cartoon Network/Adult Swim shows there. Everything else I could do without. I was tired of paying a lot of money for something that I'm largely not watching as much as I used to.

So, a couple of days ago, I made the decision to get rid of my digital and basic cable package. When I did that, I still have my local channels, a bunch of shopping channels I'm never going to watch, C-SPAN, and TBS.

I don't know how TBS is the only real cable channel that remained, but I'm not knocking it.

Some channels I'll miss. A lot, I won't. Honestly, I'm not a sports fan largely because I live in a market without a pro sports team, and cable news is a noxious pit of chaos, anger, hatred, sycophancy, and disinformation wanting us to become divided, embrace fascism, and create a civil war because that'll be good for ratings.  

I no longer have Cartoon Network.

It's been a couple of days since I made that decision, and to be honest, I'm not missing it, not just because I no longer physically have access to it. 

I'm not missing it because the Cartoon Network I once loved is no more. It hasn't existed for years, and it's never coming back. That Cartoon Network is dead. What remains is a hollow shell devoid of life, optimism, and creativity. A zombie channel that has been taken over by another barely alive parasite. 

I'm not optimistic about Cartoon Network's future as a network or a brand in the United States. Internationally, it's fine and largely not controlled by someone who only favors the Adult Swim brand. Internationally, Cartoon Network will survive. But in the country of its birth, I feel there's no life in it anymore. Though I'm sad about its demise, I'm okay with it and moving on.

We all should move on.