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

I want to say that I've read several times that the cost involved in making cartoons means that there's not very much of a profit in many cartoons. I don't know if it's still true today, but I guess back in the 80's a lot of cartoons got money from the toy companies that were producing toys based on those cartoons. So many cartoons like He-Man and Transformers were basically 1/2 hour commercials for the toys.



I don't consider those two together as one show. They were two completely different production companies that put out two completely different products.



Now these episodes I do consider to be the same show. It's the same people creating the show. They just changed things up a little bit. It's the same as when the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon became TMNT:Fast Forward. Same show, just changed up the formula a little bit.
 
On the contrary. While Sunbow didn't animate the series, the DiC version was a direct continuation of the continuity established in both the Sunbow series and the Marvel comics . So, yeah. it's one show, just with two different animation houses, many of the same contributing writers, and a two-year hiatus gap.

Kind of like Doctor Who, which had a seven-year hiatus gap between the last television episode and the TV movie and a nine-year hiatus gap between the TV movie and the current series. Same continuity. Same show.
 
Regarding G.I. Joe, when some complained on the Shout! Factory forum about the DiC episodes not being included in their recent release, I think it was stated that Hasbro even considers them separate series, so that's why the DiC era was not included.
 
But by that logic, Beast Wars would be the same show as the original Transformers cartoon. Just because they shared a common continuity doesn't make it the same show.



Ok, I'll admit, Beast Wars was not the greatest comparison. But since you bring up He-man, there was the second He-Man cartoon: The New Adventures of He-Man. If you're going to claim that DIC's G.I.Joe was the same series as the original G.I. Joe cartoon, then you might as well claim that The New Adventures Of He-Man was the same cartoon was the original He-man.
 
I know that I'm in the minority here, but I actually don't mind the 52 episode rule. Not every show needs to run for 100+ episodes. I actually think that it's better that a series end while it's relatively popular and good as opposed to continuing to run for years and years well past the point of anyone caring about it until said show is like a zombie that refuses to stay dead *cough-The Simpsons-cough*.
 
The reason that theory is kind of nullified is that Beast Wars isn't a direct continuation of G1 Transformers. Plus, it was a completely different series. Beast Wars wasn't called just Transformers. It was called Transformers: Beast Wars (Beasties in Canada).

Meanwhile, Sunbow's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was followed up two years later by DiC's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, which continued the series where the last one left off. Again, using the Doctor Who parallel, it's kind of like the situation that separated the end of the Davies run of Doctor Who and the beginning of Moffat run of Doctor Who. Instead of specials in the case of Doctor Who, the series was buffered by the OVA movie in 1987, reruns of the first two seasons followed up by the television premiere of the movie as a mini-series, and a direct follow-up mini-series in 1989, which saw DiC take over as the show's producer for its last two seasons.

It's not like DiC's G.I. Joe was a stand-alone series ala GI Joe Extreme, Sigma Six, the computer-animated projects, Resolute, or the upcoming series. And it's also dissimilar to the Filmation-produced He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and the Mike Young-produced He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which were two similarly-named shows with similar characters with different continuities and relationships.
 
I also don't think the key creative staff for a lot of these shows could've taken much more than 52/65 episodes before departing for newer projects. Dexter's Lab is an example that went beyond its original 52 episodes and suffered for it due to this.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is another American cartoon that looks like its going to surpass the big 1-0-0, but each episodes is only 11 minutes long and the show is purposefully animated on the cheap.
 
Doraemon has got to be one of the longest running animes ive come across orginal run 1979-2005 only ended 5 years ago good lord thats a long time for a series and ithink Detective Conan just hit the 500 mark not to long ago but thats in Japan and really hated adult Swim for cancelling Detective Conan but anyways the only ones that are still running from the 90's are

Pokemon
Family Guy
Simpson
King of the Hill(Formerly:crying:)
South Park

these are the Juggernauts that surrpassed 100 in the States which is a feat in itself since America tends to get bored Really Quickly :sweat:
i cant say anything im guilty of it every so often but anyways Gratz to the series creators they probably dont even have to wipe there own ass anymore becuase of these shows :D
 
Eh, if you ask me, it's only "the same show" if every episode is packaged together in the same connected series of box sets. If the creator wants them to be lumped together, they can easily put them all under the same banner.
 
As far as coming close or even getting up to 100 episodes, the cartoons that pop into my mind right away are Ducktales and Code Lyoko. Ducktales has exactly 100 episodes, while Code Lyoko topped off with 95 episodes (which really suprised me, as much as I love the show I didn't expect it to be that popular:sweat:). There's also shows like Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Spongebob, Rugrats, and Fairly Oddparents. Those are the only ones I can come up with at the moment.... there might be more that I don't know of, maybe?
 
Any animated program with 100+ total episodes might be a rarity, but for TV's longest-running animated programs, such as The Superfriends, Scooby-Doo, Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, Pink Panther, The Smurfs, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies and The Simpsons, among others, and that list is too long to name, it's expected, because if a program lasts that long, due to reasonably good ratings and good story telling, the costs for animating each and every episode is worth it, because it turns a profit, not just for the network running it, but also for the studio that produces it. The one drawback is, for the long-running Saturday morning programs, there are quite a few that don't animate episodes for each and every season they've been on the air- the studios sometimes need to take a breather for a season or two, before resuming production, and at the same time, the voice-actors involved with the programs, may have other projects going on as well, so they'll need to take a breather from time to time. In prime time, animated programs are a much different story. There, the programs are animated for each and every season they're on the air, regardless of what happens, because the animators have to work, consistently and the voice-actors have a contract, which they must fulfill, and in terms of what they must do, behind the mike, they work harder than the voice-over talent for Saturday morning programs to fulfill the need. For animated programs that air during the week, almost the same thing, but all in all, it's a very complicated and time-consuming process.
 
But, then, why do writers have so much more creative energy when it comes to live action shows?

Live actions shows (specifically, dramas) have episodes that are twice as long as animated shows, and frequently have seasons that are about twice as long as animated shows.

Meaning a single 24 episode season of a live action drama has roughly the same amount of screentime as an entire 52 episode animated series. And live action shows frequently go on for many more seasons than most animated shows (24, NCIS, Law & Order, Star Trek, Stargate, Dexter, Buffy, Smallville, the list goes on and on), making them many many times longer than your typical 52 episode (or even 100 episode) animated series.

I doubt a lack of creative energy is the main problem. Writers have plenty of creative energy when it comes to stuff that network executives are willing to put money behind.


Fact is, animated stories are typically a flash in the pan compared to your closest live-action equivalents. When you factor in episode length, season length, and number of seasons, it's no wonder animation fans might feel like their favorite stories are too short.
 
I always wondered why they make thousands of episodes of those shows; because they are still popular, or because they are inexpensive filler? Do they always come up with original material, or recycle plots and scripts?
 
Wow, alot of good points on their own sayings. Now its time for me to say something about this. Now depending on where your going with the animation, animation is sometimes expensive depending on where you are going with its budget. Now I don't want to mention the shows that have gone past a 100 episodes since some of them have already been mentioned on here. Besides the budget there is also the views on the show, if the show has many viewers as an audience then the show is good for more episodes. If there in the 50/50 range(some but not a lot) you either get a second season or the boss of the studio that is making the cartoon walk in and say this "Your show is not doing so well, as soon as your done with the 13th one its over". Sometimes the shows end on the 4th season, feeling like it is best to end it while its ahead so it doesnt lose the feel on how great the show is. Duckman is a good example.

Now in my point of view there has been shows that have been good and some have been bad that didn't get pass the first season. In which that show ended with 13 episodes, in some shows they end with only six or seven episodes. I will set my exmaples on the shows that ended with 13 episodes, and other shows that did well but sadly enough didnt have much of an audience.

The Legend of Zelda- Now, when you were thinking that a Zelda cartoon could work since Mario and Sonic had their cartoons back in the day. And this show didnt get past the first season. And in my own opinion its a poorly done show on a good video game, I think the animation crew behind this didnt know what they were doing when they were making this cartoon. If they had the right crew who knew alot about Zelda then the cartoon wouldve been better. Personally I think the team behind Sonic Satam shouldve done the zelda cartoon. Although i am surprised that Nintendo hasnt allowed a Zelda anime. I am not agaisnt people who like this cartoon, which I would be surprised if there is anyone on here who even likes the cartoon.

Sonic Satam- Now this show managed to get an audience, but however Power rangers had more viewers than this. And the show got axed with an opened ending that wouldve been good. However if the show managed to have more viewers than Power Rangers a 3rd and a 4th season wouldve been produced leading this up to the 50th episode by the 4th season. The show ended with 26 episodes.

Striperella and Ren and Stimpy APC- Now these two shows managed to find an audience, but sadly enough you can blame creative differences and lawsuit for stripperella being stripped off the tube. Aside for Ren and Stimpy blame people who didnt like the idea of "over the top" Ren and Stimpy. Second seasons were planned for both of these shows but they were later dropped. Striperella had 13 episodes while APC had 6 episodes{if your not counting the episodes as part two showings}. I know a few people who were not amused when these shows were canned.

Spicy City- Now this one didnt do so well, it only ended with six episodes. And surely enough a second season was offered but however HBO wanted to fire the original people who worked on the first season(wouldve been bad if you asked me). And surely enough after creative differences got this show ended for good. Sadly enough HBO has not even released the show on VHS or even DVD for that matter...

Whew, I feel exhausted after typing for about 50 minutes.
 
I'd should also point out that while shows like 'Scooby-Doo', 'Fat Albert', and 'Superfriends' had good long runs, they went through various name changes, and format changes during their lifetime so that they would remain fresh on the network's Saturday Morning schedules. In Scooby's case, network changes. Originally airing on CBS, and then moved over to ABC for the remainder of it's original run. However, 'The Flintstones' had a good solid run on ABC from 1960 to 1966, but had various Saturday Morning spin-offs on different networks since then.
 
I feel the same way as you. And it's possible to develop the characters with only 52-65 episodes. And I agree with the Simpsons but I am going to save that for another thread.
 
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