What if the Big 4 Networks were still our only source of New Toons?

S

SassyB

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Saturday Mornings and syndicated weekday afternoon/mornings. The ONLY times kids pre-mid 90's (without Cable at least) could get their new toon fix.

But what if, today, Cartoon Network, Nick,Toon Disney, and Boomerang were only showcases for vintage programming (Or in Nick and Disney's case, they only had their live action stuff as the only new programming).

If Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS were the only Networks in existance still to air Saturday Morning cartoons from 7 to 12 (or 8 to 1 depending on where you are), and they had FIRST crack at new shows/concepts, what do you think their lineups would look like today?

And I mean if they hadn't fallen into showing news shows or pimping out their schedule to Disney/Dic/Qubo/anime repeats and 'Educational content'.

What shows would make the cut that originally aired on Disney/Nick/CN, and how would they be changed from what we got in the final product?

Personally, I could see Powerpuff Girls ending up on NBC (with toned down violence, of course), Power Rangers continuing on Fox, and Out of Jimmy's Head on CBS. ABC, without it's endless Disney repeats, would probably still be running Bugs Bunny/Tweety today.
 
I could easily see hollow celebrity-based and movie-based cartoon shows still being produced.

They Call Me Macarena (1997), ABC The woman from the famous music video is cartoonified as a 12-year-old Latina girl who learns social morals and the importance of family each week.

Britney TV (2001), NBC Live-action shots of Britney Spears bookend this limited-animation DiC series where a cartoon Britney travels around the world giving little girls beauty tips. Several years later, a creepy man in his forties who demands the show be re-released trolls Toon Zone for several months.

Scooter the Amazing Scooter (2003), CBS A talking scooter with attitude, shades, and urban slang brightens the life of an African-American boy in what vaguely looks like Harlem.

Bridge to Terabithia: The Series (2007), Fox Kids This stays true to the promotional advertising, not the movie itself, and chronicles the adventures of two children in a REAL fantasy world.

I'll be back to make more.
 
At the risk of sounding bitter, the question is more like "What if the big networks' Saturday line up wasn't thought up by the station owners' lazy, greedy relatives who want to make the most money with the least effort?"

Even with CN, Indie stations and broadcast networks were able to come up with competitive programming. Sure, WB buying Pokemon helped to kill syndication. And CBS's "let's not even try" Nick Jr. line up of 1998 was a sign of things to come. But even then, the networks were trying.

I say if NBC or CBS came up with an intellegent, well thought out TV show that could comply with FCC regulations that was enjoyable on many age group levels, they could compete with the up to 3 cable networks that just rerun the same thing in the afternoon. It's just laziness and greed at this point.

But back to the what if....



WOW! In your what if simulation, DIC animation sure gets a lot of work.

Honestly, we'd see a new Spiderman series before the one that's supposed to come out. one that would have happened between the first and second movie, which would have been different than the MTV series.

We'd also see a lot of the Marvel cartoons that air on CN go to those networks sooner.

We'd probably see Nintendo make a new Mario series based on the new games that is CGI.

And a lot of the proposed ideas for cartoons, including the new Garfield series, which was just cut down to a DTV feature now, come to fruition. We'd see more animation jobs, and some odd creations on Network TV, and not lose new talent to compete with the already overstocked internet.
 
The Adventures of POG (1995, CBS) The POG Inc. mascot is animated, given a few friends who look similar to him, and has a ton of 11-minute escapades in his homeland of POG Island.

Sandler's Sanctuary (1999, CBS) A live-action kiddie show hosted by Adam Sandler. Contrary to what many assume, it isn't ripping off Pee Wee's Playhouse. It's actually stealing and re-writing scripts directly from "Pryor's Place," which preceded Pee Wee, and since nobody remembers that one, it's a free ride.

Furby and Friends (1999, Syndication) About a cheery gang of Furbies that lives in a bright, rainbow-filled sunny fantasy land. In most markets, it's stuck at 7 am.

L'il Jerry (1997, NBC) NBC's habit of adapting its prime-time hits as children's programming continues with this Film Roman show about a small Jerry Seinfeld at a day care center. Kramer, Elaine and George are here in kid form as well, only barely recognizable personalitywise (the only thing Kramer continues to do from the original show is enter through doors loudly). The Soup Nazi has been renamed the "Soup Grumpy-Puss."

Captain P the Playstation Master (1999, NBC) In this recycled series, Captain P buys a defective Sony product (what are the odds) and is zapped into Playstationland, where he teams up with Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Blasto, that completely forgotten "Rascal" character, and a completely out-of-character Lara Croft that sounds like a valley girl, carries laser guns and is almost completely flat-chested.
 
Since there were lots of "kiddie" versions of prime time shows i can see the following happening:

The School: The adventures of the "office" cast as elementary schoolers

Veronica Mars: The early years: Veronica Mars as a pre-teen detective, complete with a theme song by Hillary Duff

House and Son: An out-of-continuity spin-off of "House" where he adopts a sassy wisecracking kid who fronts his own rock band

(yeah, i know the kiddified prime-time shows kind of died off in the early 80s, but i wouldnt put it past the networks to try it again)
 
While the others were funny jokes, this one actually sounded like it could happen, scarily enough. Thank Toutatis it didn't.

Apparently, CBS did have a new series based on Care bears that didn't get much press. Looks outright terrible, but then again, i hate those damn bears. Shoulda given Mr. Beastly his own spinoff show.
 
It would probably air randomly throughout the day (seeing that Furbies were infamous for having that (creepy) defect when they would just turn on and say one of their lines for no explainable reason).:anime:
 
You know, I saw some of that horrendous GPK cartoon on Youtube a while back. Saved me from p**ing away 20 bucks, I'll tell you that.

I bet a lot of Nelvana shows would pop up on SatAm. I could see PBS dropping Cyberchase due to low ratings, and having it go to CBS with new episodes, and no "Cyberchase for real" segment
 
Cyberchase was apparently originally produced for broadcast on commercial television, judging from that there's commercial break fade-outs present in the episodes (with the "For Real" segment presumably meant to pad out the time commercials would've taken up); that, and the tone of the show doesn't seem completely "PBS"-like (considering the show's about fighting a villain who's out to get rid of a [literal] head of state... :-p ).

-B.
 
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