Who Tells Cartoon Network's Story?
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control:
Who lives
Who dies
Who tells your story"
In 2027, Adult Swim is going to present a five-part documentary about Cartoon Network celebrating its 35th anniversary.
Wait, no, let me rewrite that properly. That sounded a little too much like a press release.
In 2027, Adult Swim, not Cartoon Network, is going to air a five-part special eulogizing Cartoon Network in honor of the channel's 35th anniversary while likely ignoring much of the last decade because nothing happened and everything is fine.
Okay, that might be a little too cruel.
Still, at the time of this writing, June 2025, news from the Annecy Internation Animation Film Festival in France, the biggest global showcase of film, television, and streaming animation, occurred this week, and one of the very few highlights to come from the ghostly visage of a defeated studio known as Warner Bros. was the announcement of a five-part documentary about Cartoon Network that's airing on Adult Swim, the block that ultimately devoured the brand in the United States largely because of the Adult Swim-loving head of The Cartoon Network, Inc., Michael Ouweleen.
Given the past couple of years as well as the many actions he ordered on the Cartoon Network brand both on a linear and digital scale, Michael Ouweleen is the LAST person I want promoting and helming such a production.
In a very telling interview from Collider Magazine's Steven Weintraub, Ouweleen presents himself as someone who really loves Adult Swim and believes the block is prepared for the foreseeable future (even though he's clearly ignoring the Ellison, um, elephant in the room) while being largely dismissive and completely sidestepping the subject of Cartoon Network aside from the documentary.
For example, here's Ouweleen addressing how he, as the head of Cartoon Network, decides how the library is utilized, what gets revived or rebooted, or if something should just stay in the past. Again, the actual head of Cartoon Network:
Cartoon Network is one of the most beloved animation libraries anywhere. How do you decide when to revive something, reboot it, continue it, or leave it alone?
OUWELEEN: A lot of that is with Cartoon Network Studios, with Sam [Register] and the team. They're working with the series creators who have worked on, say, Adventure Time and Regular Show, or something like that. So, if someone who has worked on one of those properties has a pitch, then they'll listen to it, and they'll come talk to me about it, or Vanessa [Brookman], who does Cartoon Network across Europe, about it, and then it's a conversation from there. In media, generally, people have been into reboots. I'm manifesting the conditions to start new things again. At Adult Swim, we're only doing new things. We have signals from the fan base, a research study we did in the last year, and they don't want us to do reboots. They're like, “Keep going. Keep doing the things.”
You see how he deflected what's going with Cartoon Network to Sam Register, the head of Cartoon Network Studios, and Vanessa Brinkman, the head of Cartoon Network International who is, more or less THE de facto head of Cartoon Network these days, instead of himself, who I should repeat and remind you, is the head of The Cartoon Network, Inc. but pretty much says he completely controls what goes on at Adult Swim?
I'll continue.
Ouweleen on the state of traditional pilots (and notice the very quick deflection away from Cartoon Network to Adult Swim):
Has the traditional pilot system changed? How does a new creator break into Cartoon Network today?
OUWELEEN: Well, Cartoon Network is sort of an open question just because there's less and less kid stuff going on. So, for Adult Swim, if you're making your own stuff, and it doesn't have to be long, and you’re putting it out there, even if you don't have tons of followers, it's our job to find you and be appreciative of you and then enter into a conversation with you about doing channel IDs for us. That's just a way to start knowing you. Or (Adult Swim) smalls, those digital shorts. We do 50 of them a year with us, and if we're interested in you and you’re interested in doing it, we’d commission three of them for you so you have a little bit of time, and you can dedicate yourself to it. Then, if those are good, three more, and then we’d option something from you for formal development, maybe. So that's the other way.
Or if you have an idea and you have some work that you've done and you have an idea to pitch, you just kind of email us and pitch us. We're less interested in any singular idea than we are in you as a person and our relationship with you. But the best advice is to make your own stuff, even if it's short, but just make it unique. Don't try to copy somebody else. Don't try to guess what we want to see. We want to see what you want to make.
Slightly deviating for a bit, I think I have to make a comment about something Ouweleen said just then:
No, you can't just e-mail Cartoon Network or Adult Swim your pilot. There are literal rules made through various unions and studios that strictly prohibit unsolicited stories and material.
And as a veteran in the industry as well as a union member and network executive, Ouweleen knows this. You send off your original idea via e-mail, they're legally not inclined to contact you, and they'll likely keep it without doing that. You gave it to them, it's theirs now. Just don't send stuff unsolicited to any major studio.
Okay, that's my deviation.
Now, I know I shouldn't be nervous or anxious about a documentary, but I honestly don't think it's going to be an honest narrative about the history of the channel. I want to know if they'll actually celebrate the original version of the network and talk to the people who were originally there like Betty Cohen (the woman who created the concept and was the first head of the network for about a decade), Linda Simensky, or Dea Connick-Perez instead of *just* Mike Lazzo and archival footage of Ted Turner.
I wonder if they'll talk to creators who build up the network, including those who were wrongfully humiliated by the current head of the network like Maxwell Atoms or Mr. Warburton? or had their shows ultimately purged out or written off under Ouweleen's reign like Diego Molano, Parker Simmons, Guillaume Cassuto, Olan Rogers, or Owen Dennis.
I wonder if they'll talk about how a lot of Black, Latino, and LGBT+ talents were treated and showcased as well as how they were mostly the first to be discarded by management. I wonder if they'll talk about how O.K. K.O. and Craig of the Creek, a pair of shows with Black creators and, in the case of Craig, a Black creative staff who made that show feel more authentic to the culture, were canceled because of sudden shifts in corporate ownership despite having higher ratings than other shows.
I wonder if they'll talk about Juniper Lee, Class of 3000, and Invincible Fight Girl.
And yes, I am aware they're going to interview folks from Space Ghost Coast to Coast right now, but how much of that footage are they actually going to use? How much are they going to talk about talent who they felt was no longer needed who built the foundations on which the network existed only to live in near poverty or, in the case of C. Martin Croker, literally dying at his desk because of something that was treatable, but he couldn't afford to treat?
It would be truly dishonest to only talk about the positive aspects of Cartoon Network, but then again, that's what you can do when you're more or less talk about yourself.
Or at least the network you more or less killed.
Cartoon Network is on borrowed time, and I said my eulogy almost a couple of years ago. After the dust settled on The Deal™, the future of the channel is as clear as a bowl of chili. Shows that would have been a shoo-in for the channel are headed to other outlets including Prime Video, Tubi, and Hulu. Heaven knows nobody expected an Adventure Time continuation would be on Disney+, but that's a thing. Even the recent upfront presentations from Warner Bros Discovery felt like a funeral because there is so much uncertainty about the futures of all of those brands, especially Cartoon Network, which might end up being spun off in its strongest region in Europe.
You know, where Vanessa Brinkman, the lone person who seemingly believes in the Cartoon Network brand, manages and operates the networks.
If there's no Cartoon Network in 2027 when this documentary airs, it's no longer a celebration.
It's a eulogy.
And the man who severed the legs and drawing arm of the channel is the one telling their story.
I really want to be optimistic about what this documentary will be, but I don't feel confident with the people talking the loudest about it nor the people who are about to own that legacy outright. I want to be wrong and hope it's a hell of a tribute to a great brand when it actually airs.
I think I just want to see Cartoon Network find its spark, understand its legacy, and actually survives for another 35 years instead of barely hanging on as it has down for much of the decade.
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