Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network logo
Launched	October 1, 1992
Owned by	Turner Broadcasting System (a Time Warner company)
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Slogan	Check it.
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Nationwide
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia (General) Los Angeles, California (West Coast)
Sister channel(s)	TBS, CNN, TNT, TCM, HLN, truTV, WPCH, Boomerang
Website	cartoonnetwork.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 296 (SD/HD) (East) Channel 297 (West)
Dish Network	Channel 176 (SD/HD) (East) Channel 177 (West)
Cable
Available on most cable systems	Check local listings for channels
Verizon FiOS	Channel 257
IPTV
AT&T U-Verse	Channel 325 (SD) (East) Channel 326 (SD) (West) Channel 1325 (HD) (East) Channel 1326 (HD) (West)

Cartoon Network (abbreviated CN, operated by The Cartoon Network, Inc.) is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992, after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991. It was served as a 24-hour outlet for classic animation properties from the Turner Broadcasting libraries and was all-ages-oriented, but now the channel targets both children and adults (via its Adult Swim programming).

It also broadcasts many shows, ranging from action to animated comedy. Original series started in 1994 with Space Ghost Coast to Coast, along with Cartoon Cartoons original programs like Cow & Chicken, I Am Weasel, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, What A Cartoon!, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Mike, Lu & Og and Courage the Cowardly Dog. In 2009, it started airing live-action programming, including movies from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.

History[link]

Development[link]

In 1986, Ted Turner's cable-TV conglomerate acquired the pre-1986 MGM film and television library^[1] (which also included Gilligan's Island and its animated spin-offs, the U.S. rights to a majority of the RKO Radio Pictures library, and the Associated Artists Productions catalog which includes the pre-1950 Warner Bros. feature films, the pre-1950 Warner Bros. short subjects, the Harman and Ising Merrie Melodies except Lady, Play Your Mandolin!, the pre-1950 Warner Bros. cartoons, and the Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios Popeye cartoons released by Paramount Pictures). On October 3, 1988, its cable channel Turner Network Television was launched and had gained an audience with its film library.^[2] In 1990, it purchased animation studio Hanna-Barbera and acquired its large library as well as most of the Ruby-Spears library.

Launch[link]

On October 1, 1992, Cartoon Network was launched as an outlet for Turner's considerable library of animation, and the initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. cartoons (the pre-1950 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies), the 1933–1957 Popeye cartoons, MGM cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons.^{[citation needed]} At first, cable providers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit carried the channel.^[3] By the time the network launched, Cartoon Network had a 8,500 hour cartoon library.^[4] From its launch until 1995, the network's announcers said the network's name with the word "The" added before "Cartoon Network", thus calling the network "The Cartoon Network".

Cartoon Network was not the first cable channel to have relied on cartoons to attract an audience. Nickelodeon had paved the way in the 1980s. On August 11, 1991, Nickelodeon had launched three "high-profile" animated series: Doug, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Rugrats, further signifying the importance of cartoons in its programming. The Disney Channel and the Family Channel had also included animated shows in their programming, as did USA Network, whose Cartoon Express was widely popular. In each of these cases, until October 1, 1992, cartoons were only broadcast during the morning or the early afternoon. Prime time and late night television hours were reserved for live-action programs, following the assumption that television animation could only attract child audiences, while Cartoon Network was a 24-hour single-genre channel with animation as its main theme. Turner Broadcasting System had defied conventional wisdom before by launching CNN, a channel providing 24-hours news coverage. The concept was previously thought unlikely to attract a sufficient audience to be particularly profitable, however the CNN experiment had been successful and Turner could hope that the Network would also find success.^[5]

Initially, the channel would broadcast cartoons 24/7. Most of the short cartoons were aired in half-hour or hour-long packages, usually separated by character or studio—Down Wit' Droopy D aired old Droopy Dog shorts, The Tom and Jerry Show presented the classic cat-and-mouse team, and Bugs and Daffy Tonight provided classic Looney Tunes shorts. Late Night Black and White showed early black-and-white cartoons (mostly from the Fleischer Studios and Walter Lantz cartoons from 1930s), and ToonHeads, which would show three shorts with a similar theme and provide trivia about the cartoons.^{[citation needed]} There was also an afternoon cartoon block called High Noon Toons which was hosted by cowboy hand puppets (an example of the simplicity and imagination the network had in the early years). The majority of the classic animation that was shown on Cartoon Network no longer airs on a regular basis, with the exception of Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes.

The first challenge for Cartoon Network was to overcome its low penetration of existing cable systems. When launched on October 1, 1992, the channel was only carried by 233 cable systems. However, it benefited from package deals. New subscribers to sister stations TNT and WTBS could also get access to Cartoon Network through such deals. The high ratings of Cartoon Network over the following couple of years led to more cable systems including it. By the end of 1994, Cartoon Network had become "the fifth most popular cable channel in the United States".^[5]

Series[link]

For the first few years of Cartoon Network's existence, programming meant for Cartoon Network would also be simulcast on TBS and/or TNT in order to increase the shows' (and Cartoon Network's) exposure; examples include The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Cartoon Planet, and 2 Stupid Dogs.

The network's first exclusive original show was The Moxy Show, first airing in 1993.^{[citation needed]} The first series produced by Cartoon Network was Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994, but the show mostly consisted of "recycled animation cels" from the archives of Hanna-Barbera, being an ironic deconstruction of a talk show. It featured live-action guests, mostly consisting of celebrities which were past their prime or counterculture figures. A running gag was that the production cost was dubbed "minimal". The series found its audience among young adults who appreciated its "hip" perspective.^[6]

Kevin Sandler considered Space Ghost Coast to Coast instrumental in establishing Cartoon Network's appeal to older audiences. Space Ghost, a 1960s superhero by Hanna-Barbera, was recast as the star of a talk show parody. This was arguably the first time the Network revived a "classic animated icon" in an entirely new context for comedic purposes. Grown-ups who had ceased enjoying the original takes on the characters could find amusement in the "new ironic and self-referential context" for them. Promotional shorts such as the "Scooby-Doo Project", a parody of the The Blair Witch Project, gave similar treatments to the Scooby gang.^[7] However, there were less successful efforts at such revivals. A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild (1999) featured new takes on Yogi Bear's supporting cast by John Kricfalusi. Their "tasteless" humor, sexual content and lack of respect for the source material was rather out of place among the rest of the Cartoon Network shows. These shorts do not seem to have much of a fan-following and the network rarely found a place for them in its programming.^[8]

In 1994, Hanna-Barbera's new division Cartoon Network Studios was founded and started production on What A Cartoon! (also known as World Premiere Toons). This show debuted in 1995, offering original animated shorts commissioned from Hanna-Barbera and various independent animators. The Network promoted the series as an attempt to return to the "classic days" of studio animation, offering full animator control, high budgets, and no limited animation. The project was spearheaded by several Cartoon Network executives, plus John Kricfalusi and Fred Seibert. Kricfalusi was the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show and served as an advisor to the Network, while Seibert was formerly one of the driving forces behind Nicktoons and would go on to produce the similar animation anthology series Oh, Yeah! Cartoons and Random Cartoons.^[6][9]

Cartoon Network was able to assess the potential of certain shorts to serve as pilots for spin-off series and signed contracts with their creators to create ongoing series.^[6] Dexter’s Laboratory was the most popular short series according to a vote held in 1995 and eventually became the first spin-off of What A Cartoon! in 1996. Three more series based on shorts debuted in 1997: Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and I Am Weasel (the latter two as segments of the same show; later, I Am Weasel was separated and got its own show). These were followed by The Powerpuff Girls in 1998 and concluded with Courage the Cowardly Dog and Mike, Lu & Og in 1999.^[6][9][10] The unrelated series Ed, Edd n Eddy was also launched in 1999.^[5]