If you had some extra money...

If I had money to burn:

- I'd buy the worldwide rights and ownership of Saban/Fox Kids library and the Capital Cities/ABC (Weekend Special/Time For Timer/Schoolhouse Rock) library from The Walt Disney Company. Because aside from Power Rangers, the Marvel stuff, and the occasional Schoolhouse Rock project, they're not doing much with it. I would.

- I'd buy Toei Animation, Tatsunoko Productions, TMS Entertainment, MoonScoop, and Marathon . Not the rights to their works. The studios themselves. Content is king, and he who owns the content rules the world. Plus, with direct control of those studios, no middleman. I'd own those shows lock, stock, and barrel.

- I'd buy 45% of Classic Media. I don't want the whole company, just a piece, and I'd help make those brands more available worldwide in their classic and modern incarnations.

Using these outlets:

- I'd hire the industry's top producers and creators from all over the globe to help develop animated films and series for all media platforms.

- I'd develop three media platforms to present the new and library shows - a broadband-only network with free and subscription-based programming, a cable-based children's/young adult animation network. and a digital television over-the-air animation subchannel format.

- I'd push hard to make sure those shows will be on the outlets that would get the most eyeballs, even if they aren't the outlets I own.

- I'd release season-by-season sets of those shows, digitally remaster older shows, and release them on the removable media du jour.

Is it a radical plan? No doubt. Is it an expensive plan? For sure. But it's a good plan, and one I'd do if I had truckloads of money at hand.

That's just my animation plan. For other plans . . . watch The X Bridge in the coming days.
 
With a few billion or trillion to throw around I would...


  • Buy the the Fox Kids library of shows from Disney and create a ad-supported Fox Kids Channel that would be digital cable.
  • Finance a complete series DVD set for Megas XLR with extras and episode commentary.
  • Buy Cartoon Network from Turner and create a clause that the channel could not show any live action programming (unless it has something to do with animation or is somehow animation related) as long as the word "cartoon" is in it's name. Also, I would fire Snyder and Sorcher and return CN as a channel for everyone, not just action loving pre-teen boys.
  • Re-launch Boomerang as the ad-supported Kids' WB Channel and move all Turner's live action programming to said channel. Boomerang, meanwhile, would become a 2-4 hour block that would run daily on Cartoon Network.
  • Pay Time Warner to run Looney Tunes daily (and also on late nights) on Cartoon Network (and while I'm at it, I'd also inform CN that they could no longer any live action movies on The Flicks without paying me a fee).
  • Assemble a team of gifted movie directors and produce a really good Superman live action feature.
 
If I had Scrooge McDuck money (which is one of my goals in life), here's what I'd do.....



  1. I'd buy G4 from Comcast and turn it into a nerds' channel that people would actually want to see. G4 would go back to representing what its' name actually stands for: Games, Gear, Gadgets and Gigabytes. Merge X-Play with Reviews on the Run and G4TV.com and turn them into a fun yet informative video game review show. Give Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose a Screen Savers-like show on said network. Have a show for computer-animated shorts and films, a la Eye Drops. Relaunch Beat the Geeks, Robot Wars and Arena. Acquire reruns of Farscape and Transformers G1. Air video game and tech-themed cartoons like Saturday Supercade, Captain N: The Game Master, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Pac-Man, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (aka SatAM), Pole Position, Dragon's Lair, ReBoot, etc. Bring back Anime Unleashed. Make Cheat! a half-hour show again and have Cory Rouse co-host it with Kristen Adams. Bring back Cinematech and Icons/Game Makers, keeping the subject matter on video games and people in the tech industry. I'd keep Web Soup; it makes me laugh, keep Ninja Warrior; folks like ninjas, and keep Attack of the Show!; I personally think the show is crell, but it does have viewers and it would be foolish to dump a popular show, but Cops, Cheaters and The International Sexy Ladies Show: gone.
  2. Make a new ad-supported 24-7 basic cable animation channel. Forget CN. I'd launch my own cartoon network: BLAM!-The Toon Channel. I'd buy the WB properties from Turner so that my channel could and would carry the Looney Tunes shorts, as well as Tiny Toons, Animaiacs, Freakazoid, Taz-Mania, Pinky & the Brain and other WB properties. My channel would feature some E/I shows like the ones on Qubo and KEWLopolis, some retro classics, an action cartoon block, a comedy cartoon block, original series (of all genres: comedy, action, edutainment, boy-centric, girl-centric) and animated movies--ONLY animated movies. It would also have a "mature" After Hours block showcasing more "adult" cartoons--but no scatological frat-boy stuff; I mean shows like King of the Hill, Futurama, Mission Hill, Home Movies, O Canada, Liquid Television, Toon Heads, etc. Cartoons from across the pond (Canada, Japan, France, UK, etc.) are welcome on my schedule.
 
I'd start a Saturday Morning Retro Network. 24/7 of shows from NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox Kids, Kids WB, and 4 Kids. From the 50's all the way through the CW's final season.

There would also be the original network bumps and promos, such as ABC's Bump in the Night bumpers; CBS's Fido Dido bumpers; NBC's Secret Saturday Club bumpers, etc.

And in between the shows (or most of them) would be the educational segments, such as Time for Timer, Schoolhouse Rock, One to Grow On, What's On Your Plate, and so on.

I'd even go so far as to dig up the 'Saturday Morning Preview' specials for weekly Friday Night showings.

The CBS/ABC Afterschool specials would also get airplay, as well as the Weekend Specials/CBS Storybreak and various films that would occassionaly get airplay on Saturday Mornings (Here Come the Littles, The Bump in the Night Christmas Special, etc)
 
Allow Mitch Schauler to do an Angry Beavers movie (as long as Nick Bakay and Richard Horvitz are willing to reprise the voices of Norbert and Daggett).

Produce an Invader ZIM movie. Allow creative freedom for Jhonen Vasquez (again, I'd probably only allow this if Horvitz, Andy Berman, and most of the other voice cast are willing to return).

Make a new Catillac Cats series.
 
If I had Scrooge McDuck money, here's what I'd do.....

Completely remove CN Too with CNX Toonami with my schedule

Completly fire Snyder and Sorcher from ever working with Cartoon Network again

Allow the Ren and Stimpy Ultimate Collection to go for sale

Pay for the FCC to end their misery known as the e/i

And thats all i can think off my head
 
Money, Money, Money...Yep, first off remove or reduce the e/i requirements.

I would create three non-cable channels. Let's face it - cable is part of the problem, not the solution.

The first channel would be animation 24/7. It would be a variety of animation, including international shows.

The second channel would be a kids channel. Some animation, some family shows. It will not have the type of shows that CN, Nick or Disney has. And for goodness sake, no reality tv.

The third channel would be a young adults channel. It would have classic animations, modern animations (not necessarily current shows), action movies and syndicated shows (the type of shows that used to appear on Saturdays in the 1990's).

And again, no reality tv.
 
You know, I see all these people wishing if they had the money, they'd "buy off the government" to get rid of the E/I requirement in children's programming. It's cute, but if people with money and power couldn't do it, how could you? Just saying.
 
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