Why is it so rare for a cartoon to exceed 100 episodes?

T

The Skip

New member
Unlike anime which has many, many shows that go on over 100 episodes, most cartoons do not.

I can only think of a handful of cartoons for the U.S. that exceeded 100 episodes. The Fox comedies like The Simpsons and so forth manage to break the barrier, but not so much for everything else.

Even B:TAS didn't exceed 100 eps, unless you include the 24 TNBA with it.

Both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons, the original series and the 4kids series, lasted 194 episodes and 155 episodes respectively. But that's TMNT, and turtle fans are blessed to have long runs for their series.

Flintstones had over 100 episodes. I believe one of the Scooby Doo series had more than 100 eps, although I may be wrong.

Anyway, why is this so rare?
 
Probably because, unlike live-action shows, cartoons only need about 65 episodes to get into syndication. That's why most of the Disney Afternoon shows ended around the 65 episode mark.
 
For the most part, children's cartoons are made with only 65 episodes in mind since unless they're incredibly popular (Spongebob, Rugrats), they're pretty disposable in the studio's minds as it already has achieved syndication. If you make it to 65, consider that a success.

For adult animation, very few series succeed in primetime, and that's why only a few comedies on FOX have broken the barrier aside from "South Park", which is an anomaly.
 
That's easy to explain. 65 is that magic number for cartoon for a reason. It's 1/4 of a year if the episodes are run Mon-Fri in a week. 13 is the magic number if it's a weekly cartoon. If running on Saturday or a specific weekday, that also a 1/4 of a year.
 
That was true back in the day. Nowadays it's a different story since cable channels dominate the market and don't need syndication. The situation now is that these channels don't give shows a chance. If it isn't an immediate hit it's gonna get cancelled right away.
 
Also, the reason why there are a lot of anime that lasts for more than 100 episodes is that, with few exceptions, new episodes are being shown all throughout the year with little to no break in-between. If a show is popular enough to run for 2 years, for example, they'll get about 104 episodes (52 times 2)
 
Animation is also expensive, and time consuming. Which is why most networks would rather go with reality shows, and sitcoms because they're less expensive to produce. Since cable networks follow their own rules, they don't have to follow the old network, or syndication models. That's why most cartoons get canceled so soon, or have less than 65 episodes in their lifetime.
 
Someone else will have to either confirm or corrent this for me, but i believe in Japan, a TV show is legally required o run for a certain number of episodes, which is part of the reason clip episodes are so commonly used as filler. I seem to remember learning this when I was reading about American shows being broadcast on Japanese TV, probably one of the Transformers series in particular.

There's also the fact that some (though certainly not all) anime is based on manga. That provides both a built-in audience and an expectation that the show will cover all of the material from the manga, which is oftentimes pretty lengthy.
 
Because for the most part, the US television market is still largely ran like it's 1990 rather than 2010. Producers largely want to see a 52-episode limit on most products so they could "sell" them outside of the country/market. The magic number used to be 65, but once the 13-week children's entertainment syndication market died about the turn of the century, the cable rules took over.

And yes, Western animated shows beyond the 52/65 episode number are rare, but I could point out a few exceptions aside from The Simpsons (459 and counting), both TMNT shows (Fred Wolf = 193 and 4Kids = 160), Rugrats (172), Family Guy (142 and counting) , South Park (200 and counting), and King of the Hill (259 episodes [255 on broadcast, 4 syndicated-only]):

The Smurfs (256)
The Flintstones (166)
Arthur (165 and counting)
G.I. Joe (139 [95 from Sunbow and 44 from DiC])
Spongebob Squarepants (139 and counting)
The Real Ghostbusters (134 [147 if you count the Slimer! episodes])
Thundercats (130)
Totally Spies (130 [new-to-US episodes coming April 26 to Cartoon Network])
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (130)
Garfield and Friends (121)
The Fairly Oddparents (118 and counting)
Doug (117 [52 from Nick, 65 from Disney])
Dora the Explorer (113 and counting)
Captain Planet (113)
Beetlejuice (109)
Muppet Babies (107)
Alvin and the Chipmunks (102)
Duck Tales (100)
Hey Arnold! (100)

Although Animaniacs would be on this list on a technicality, the series only had 99 episodes. The 100th, Star Warners, was the 65th and final episode of Pinky and the Brain. So, there you go.

Ben 10/Alien Force/Ultimate Alien and Futurama will join the 100+ episode club this calendar year.
 
Yeah. It's really the other way around, CyberCubed: Most anime don't exceed 12, 13, 24, or 26 episodes. Sure, there are long-running mega-hits like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Sazae-san, Shin-chan, Pokemon, and Doraemon, etc., but the majority are specifically designed to fit a season's worth of time slots and end. It's a revolving door system of new shows, where a new show replaces a finished one as quickly as it started.

Occasionally, you'll get a sequel series if something is popular enough, and this is becoming more common nowadays, but it's still very much as much a minority to have long-running shows over there as it is here.
 
A lot of animation's long-runners go on hiatus (Spongebob), are cancelled and then revived due to popular demand (Rugrats, Kim Possible, Family Guy), or are constantly revived through new incarnations (Scooby Doo, Transformers), so that should be taken into account.

52/65 episodes will make an animated series last 4-5 years on cable. Except for the big hits, most of them will reach their maximum popularity (and ratings) and start fading by the time they start reaching their last episodes.

Besides, would a lot of shows have really benefited from more episodes? Except for a few that got cancelled prematurely or ended on cliffhangers, I would say most animated shows have had good runs.
 
Exactly; counting all of the various revivals of Scooby I think the franchise has had something like 200 episodes or something like that. Not to mention the movies(both direct to video and live action).
 
And Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo both had 26 episodes a piece. Quantity doesn't equal quality.

The only reason Pokemon has lasted as long as it has is because they're pushing a product. If there's no product, the show won't exist. Just the same as it is in the US, the Japanese animation market is largely merchandise/product-driven. If there's a profit to be made, they're going to milk the hell out of it. If there's no additional profit potential, then it's gone.

Yeah, they can make a long-running series, but I don't see anyone clamoring for someone to pick up the 6000+ episode Sazae-san, the 2000+ episode Doraemon, the 1300+ episode Nintama Rantarō, and the 700+ episode Chibi Maruko-chan. At least not domestically.
 
Then, they're are shows that become successful on their own without merchandising, or products to push in mind beforehand. The merchandising eventually follows after the results of said success.
 
Well, they're going to air the 641th episode this week, but that's a moot point.

It really isn't that surprising that Pokemon has that many episodes considering the games and the franchise itself is still quite successful. Since the games still sell like hotcakes, the series still has decent ratings and the series does its job as being an ad for the games, there is no reason to stop it. Plus, as Jeff already pointed out, quantity does not always mean quality.

I've seen and heard of more anime series that last between thirteen to fifty-two episodes than ones that last over a hundred episodes. They definitely have a fair share of long-running series, just as we do, but most of those consist of either SJ titles, Pokemon and some comedy series. I think that for anime series, the ones that go beyond one-hundred episodes are not the norm for animated series in Japan.

As for why it's rare for over here, I thought it was because a lot of series aren't really successful enough to last that long. Most series in the U.S. would be lucky enough to get as high as fifty-two episodes and that's about a four to five season run, which is a pretty good run. Some series are able to still be successful and popular after hitting fifty-two episodes, but I think there are more shows that don't reach that level. While having more episodes of a series can be nice, I don't think that it's really necessary for all shows to have over a hundred episodes.
 
Back
Top