Good Cartoons that never found an audience

I

irenecooke2004

New member
Can you think of any good cartoons that failed because it had trouble finding an audience?

Invader ZIM
Created by popular comic-book artist, Jhonen Vasquez, Invader ZIM was the usual 'alien-trying-to-take-over-earth' concept, but with some smart and very dark humor for a children's cartoon and some spectacular animation.

The show, however, had a small following, only finding an audience shortly after its demise. When the show made it to DVD in 2004, it quickly became one of the highest-selling products on Amazon.com. (I remember reading an article online where Nick was actually furious that the DVDs were a success, since they gave the DVD rights to Media-Blasters, instead of releasing it to DVD themselves through Paramount Home Entertainment) Invader ZIM merchandise, such as T-Shirts and Posters became available through Hot Topic and were also very profitable. Let's thank our lucky stars Nick didn't try milk more money out of the franchise by trying to revive the show with a new staff.

The Critic
The Critic was a hilarious show about a loser stuck reviewing terrible movies and trying to find luck with women while raising a son from a failed marriage.

The Critic was, in my opinion, just as funny as The Simpsons was back in the day. The show didn't do well in the ratings, and viewers complained that Jay was 'too pathetic' of a character to like. The show bombed, just like every other primetime cartoon that wasn't on the FOX Network.

After it cancellation on ABC, the show got picked up by Fox a year later, with slightly different character designs. The staff of the show gave Jay a girlfriend to make him less pathetic and the show actually did well in the ratings. The only problem? The then-president of the Fox Network HATED the show and gave it the axe. Years later, UPN tried to pick up the show, wanting it to be more 'kid-friendly' because The Critic was popular amongst kids. The show never came to UPN. A few short animated webtoons of The Critic were later posted online, with Jon Lovitz returning as Jay.

The Oblongs
An irreverent animated sitcom in the vein of The Simpsons or Family Guy, starring a family of freaks. The dad had no arms or legs, the twins were conjoined, and the rest.. were pretty normal, actually. The mom had a drinking problem, but had no hair. I guess that makes her a freak? The daughter was pretty normal too, but had a lump sticking out of her head.

The show revolved around the family going through life in The Valley, a gloomy polluted area of the city where other freaks like themselves lived, while the gorgeous, rich 'normal' people lived on the Hills above, away from the pollution, constantly looking down on the people living in The Valley.

The show suffered the same fate as The Critic did on ABC. It was a primetime cartoon that wasn't on FOX. (It originally aired on The WB) it didn't find an audeince and was quickly cancelled. Repeats of the show later got picked up by [Adult Swim] and to my knowledge, was pretty successful. I don't know why [adult swim] never bothered to renew the series.
 
Mission Hill had it all, crazy characthers, fun plots, tripsy pop-art style, to think that this was cancelled and the simpsons are still going on is highly depressing :sad:
 
One reason was probably financial. As a network series, The Oblongs cost more to produce than the usual Williams Street fare, This is also why Evan Dorkin's Welcome to Eltingville never made it beyond a pilot on AS. Also, by the time that Oblongs was airing in reruns on AS, the cast and crew of the series had already went their separate ways. It wouldn't have been easy for Williams Street to round-up the original cast and crew to produce new episodes. Also, WS probably couldn't afford to hire Union actors such as Pamela Aldon, Jean Smart and Will Ferrel to provide the characters' voices.



Co-singed.

One of my picks would be Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Even though with the shows' humor and one liners toned down in order to be suitable for a Saturday morning audience, it was still quite funny. This show aired for only 1 season (1997) on Fox Kids, and (so far) hasn't returned to TV since. It's a shame that Sam & Max never got a run on prime-time, where they would be able to get away with more. It would be great if Steve Purcell would launch a new S&M series for Adult Swim.
 
Invader ZIM had a small following? Not from what I remembered! I remember it being very popular when it first aired, then Nick just killed it for the yellow sponge :p.
 
It's not that ZiM had a small following, it's just that it didn't have the following that Nick wanted it to have. It didn't attract the demo Nick wanted it to, but it didn't necessarily do bad. And it was dropped long before Nick started dropping most Nicktoons besides SB. SB was only just becoming a phenomenon when ZiM started.
 
I know I mention this show every chance I get, but I'm gonna say the 2002 He-Man. It's really a shame that it didn't get the kind of fan following that the original He-Man cartoon had. Cause the 2002 version was a much better cartoon.
 
Got 3 seasons worth didn't it? I mean it wasn't very popular but it stood its ground I say before they unjustifiably ended it.

Clerks TAS, underrated classic that at its time was ignored. :crying: I only saw 2 episodes and then it poof vanished.

I can't think of anymore but I know I've come across many in the past. I'm hesitant to mention earth worm jim because I honestly don't remember how long it lasted.
 
If movies can be included, then Astro Boy and Iron Giant. Two great movies that have similar depth and emotion but that the movie audience overlooked. Too bad, because that means we'll get less great movies like them and more trash like Planet 51. :sad:
 
The travesty is most series cited in this thread so far DID have a strong following, they just weren't the target audience the network was looking for, so they didn't care :shrug:.
 
ABC didn't give Mike Judge's Goode Family much of a chance, did they? Didn't make the fall schedule.

What network execs fail to understand is that in the 21st century, cartoons aren't just for children anymore. A lot of adults are still toon fans, and will welcome something like Goode Family as long as the writing is good enough and the network is willing to get behind the show.

To that same extent, WB also barfed on Will Vinton's The PJ's (w/Eddie Murphy), which I think also did time on Fox.

I can think of about 1000 SatAM shows that never found the audience they wanted for any number of reasons.
 
Yeah, I'll have to vouch for The Critic. I have the DVDs and the show stands the test of time. I'm surprised that Jay's likability was a problem with viewers; that was kind of the joke. It immediately brings to mind the scene where Jay recalls his failed marriage; his then-wife exclaims "I DON'T KNOW WHY I EVER MARRIED YOU!" and the camera pans out to show them still at the altar as the Wedding March plays and they begin to walk down the aisle unhappily ever after. Odd thing is, Jay was a pretty decent guy, maybe a bit curmudgeonly, but given the quality of feature films in his universe, perhaps the only normal one who could see them for what they were.

The webtoon, unfortunately, came years before watching things on the Internet became commonplace, so the only people watching it were probably the few fans the show had left after its' original run who also happened to be technologically savvy. The format of the show oddly shifted, becoming less about Jay's life and more about Jay reviewing actual, real-life movies, which at least for me didn't click as well as the series did initially. I much prefer to watch the old TV episodes than the webisodes any day.
 
Dude, I was just about to post that!

But yeah, Sam and Max on Adult Swim would be an awesome idea. I don't know why Steve Purcell chose to make his series a children's series... or give them different voices than in Sam and Max Hit the Road...

Why couldn't he have gone the route that Everett Peck did when he pitched Duckman? That show lasted for four seasons!

(My rant is over... for now, at least.)
 
I'm curious if Sam & Max even had enough of a following in 1997 to have ever had a chance at crossover viewership. Speaking as someone who had no idea who Sam & Max were in 1997, I wouldn't have watched (and didn't watch) it then, but I sure would watch it now. And it does seem like the sort of thing that would be better geared towards Adult Swim, or maybe Fox.

And one that just came to mind would be God, The Devil & Bob. I don't remember it well enough to say for sure if it was good, but I remember getting a few laughs out of it; then it was pulled before it could ever find a foothold.
 
I believe Skunk Fu! was one of those show. it was the best show on Kids WB & then moved to Cartoon Netwok & then got removed.

GoGoRiki is another one, It got removed for some reason. (will there be new episodes soon?) & Kirby: Right Back at Ya! was unfaily removed on the CW4kids after a few episode (at least they aired the movie).

Let's not forget Jimmy Two-Shoes. percally the best canadian import from teletoons to Disney XD.

Also Nick did have Pelswick, Corneil & Bernie, Kaput & Zosky & Rocko's Modern Life.
 
Mission Hill actually found an audience on Adult Swim years later and was well known enough that it got a DVD release and reruns playing into 2009.

To the poster who suggested the thought as to why Adult Swim never tried renewing The Oblongs.

Can you imagine what the paycheck alone for Will Ferrell would cost these days? Back when it launched in 2001, he only had done bit parts in movies and was mostly known on SNL, now he's one of the hottest go to comedic actors in Hollywood. His paycheck alone would be ten times that of the production budget.
 
Back
Top