Thoughtnami™

Merriam-Webster defines the term slippery slope as "a course of action that seems to lead inevitably from one action or result to another with unintended consequences." Laura Joffre Numeroff and Felicia Bond's If You Give A Mouse A Cookie is perhaps the greatest story to explain what a slippery slope is.  A kid gives a mouse a cookie, who then asks for a glass of milk to drink with the cookie, and then he asks for a straw to drink the milk. It goes on from there with a series of requests that ultimately ends up back to the mouse asking for another cookie and starting the cycle up again. I bring up this story and the slippery slope analogy because Cartoon Network fanatics still want MeTV Toons to add CN's catalog to that channel because Cartoon Network no longer airs those shows, and, instead of demanding THAT network airs them, they'll complain at MeTV Toons, and anyone connected to the channel for NOT airing them.  Seriously, since the day the network was annou...

 A bit of an update at TXB. It's returning full time in 2026.  Details here .

You probably should have saw this coming, and if you haven't, you really haven't been paying attention to Adult Swim. Checkered Past will no longer be a part of Adult Swim's weekday afternoon. The block, which was the catalyst for Adult Swim's expansion beyond primetime and into weekdays, was a daily showcase of some of Cartoon Network's most iconic originals like Dexter's Laboratory, Ed, Edd 'n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Cow & Chicken, I Am Weasel, Grim & Evil, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Evil Con Carne, What A Cartoon!/Cartoon Cartoons Show, and Cartoon Planet.  Its final broadcast aired moments ago at the time of this posting (June 27, 2025). What's replacing Checkered Past shouldn't be of any surprise to anybody. It's King of the Hill .  It's ALWAYS King of the Hill , the safest, most banal choice to open Adult Swim, and now, it'll be the opening series on weekdays and weekends at 5 PM E/P starting on Jun...

Do you watch Cartoon Network? I have to ask this question because I get the feeling a lot of folks who claim to be fans of the channel really don't. The ones who have been so vocal about the latest news , especially in regard to the library and studio (who kind of missed the news that both were folded into Warner Bros Animation back in 2023 as well as literally anything regarding the network itself since then ) and the latest from Comcast saying they're dropping Cartoon Network from Xfinity's Core linear package and putting it in the More Sports and Entertainment package for an additional $10 a month where it'll be included with fellow WBD network TCM and NBA TV as well as NFL Network, NFL Red Zone, Big 10 Network, CBS Sports, and Military History Channel starting on August 12. Oh, and DirecTV dropped Cartoon Network from its entertainment-only package but kept Adult Swim there (they literally air nothing in that channel space from 5 PM to 6 AM E/P every day now).  They...

 On June 25, 2024, MeTV Toons launched nationwide as an over-the-air classic animation channel aimed towards older adult audiences, In partnership with Warner Bros Entertainment (who is a creative consultant and programming partner), Weigel Broadcasting gave viewers who wanted classic cartoons a channel that celebrated the medium with showcased dedicated to Looney Tunes, MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Fleischer, Harveytoons, Screen Gems, UPA, Jay Ward, Total Television, Gerry Anderson, and Walter Lantz. Rarities not seen on broadcast television in decades, including a few that haven't aired since they first aired, were found on MeTV Toons.  In short, it was a cartoon channel we haven't seen since, well, the original Cartoon Network launched in 1992. A bud of mine, The Real Don East , made this homage video to Cartoon Network's original pre-launch promo for MeTV Toons. It fits quite well with what the new channel had to offer because it had all of the same shows CN had at launch. Ther...

Hey, remember last month when I talked about the rumored split of Warner Bros Discovery and how I'd think it would go down even though I had doubts it would happen? Well, it's no longer a rumor. It's happening , and yeah, it's not going down like I hoped it would. You remember when you were a child, you were told to not touch a hot stove because it would burn you and hurt you? Hopefully, you weren't one of those kids who decided to touch it anyway. If you did, I hope you learned your lesson and never did it again.  Unless you're a weirdo who loved the pain and the scent of burning flesh. The C-suite of the soon-to-be-divided Warner Bros Discovery are apparently these kinds of weirdos. So... what's the breakdown? Warner Bros is cutting off Discovery. And the Turner channels, including CNN. And Bleacher Report.   They're keeping TNT Sports globally but getting rid of it domestically. As I said, sports is big business around the world, so the Streaming/St...

After the company re-rebranded its premium streaming service to HBO Max , which nearly everybody under the sun never stopped referring to it, you have to ask yourself one question: What's really going on at Warner Bros Discovery? WBD seems to be embracing the scripted and sports sides of the company more these days, and you can tell that the Discovery brands are feeling more like an afterthought. Oh, don't look at me like that, cartoon fan.  Consider the following: There's a refocused emphasis on scripted programming at Warner Bros Television . Not that WBTV had any problems when it comes to scripted programming, the studio continues to have hits across many platforms, including Netflix, Apple TV+, and at least one series on every major US broadcast network. Ever since Discovery acolyte Katherine Finch resigned at the end of 2024, Channing Dungey, the head of Warner Bros Television, took the helm of the US Networks group, which seems to begin bearing fruit for the scripted ...

A couple of weeks ago, I began writing an article after reading  a recent interview   Puck 's Matthew Belloni had with HBO's Casey Bloys about the current direction of the MAX streaming platform . And I put it off because something was off in the air. About a week later, I started to rewrite that article after reading  a feature story from Bloomberg Businessweek 's Felix Gillette about the current woes of the Cartoon Network brand . Both articles had a lot to be desired to say the least. People like to paint Casey Bloys as some kind of wunderkind at HBO, and yes, his reputation at the network over the past two decades speaks volumes for how the HBO brand has evolved and changed. But in Belloni's interview, Bloys came off like an aloof numb who just seemed to be parroting what his superiors tell him to. Belloni suggested to Bloys that Netflix should sub-brand their content the way HBO and others within the WBD serfdom do, but Bloys just blew it over. I should note that ...

 

Want to play a little game?  Back in the day when I was working full-time on TXB, I created a series of articles called "Imagine If." Essentially, reimagined scenarios of media companies doing things they likely could have done in the past but decided against it.  Saban buying Funimation. Warner Communications keeping Nickelodeon. Ted Turner actually buying CBS. The USA Cartoon Express lasting beyond 1998.  Things like that.  This is no different.  I was given a challenge by reader and fellow AU scenario writer Chandler Ritter-Roberts over at Bluesky . The challenge?   Building a media company that could become a massive modern media conglomerate.  #BuildYourAltConglomerate, as his hashtag goes.  I could create a company as big as I want to counter what two of the biggest media companies, Warner Bros Discovery and The Walt Disney Company, could do and create a realistic media empire.  The one caveat in this game? While every media compan...