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

Anybody have any idea how many half-hour episodes (not total individual episodes) of Rocky and Bullwinkle there were?

Interesting about the 52/65 minimum. In the book Growing Up Brady it was said that The Brady Kids was given a second season so it could meet the requirements for syndication, and that show only had 22 episodes.
 
But it's not like the Simpsons went stale after only 52-65 episodes, or even after 100 episodes. In fact, a lot of the best episodes took place after that amount, but before the show started going stale around the ninth season or so.
 
Jem had a concrete ending which is why it sucks that the last season isn't on DVD.

Transformers Generation 1 had a concrete ending in "The Return of Optimus Prime", but at the last moment Hasbro decided they wanted to do a new mini-series originally a 5 parted titled "Rebirth", which I believe would have served as a way of doing a new series, but at the last minute Hasbro decided that they wanted it to be 3 parter instead of a 5 parter.

Some shows like Kim Possible end up with two or more endings due to either fan demand or like in the case of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited the studio waiting up to the last minute to decide to bring the series back; which lead to the series having 3 different final episodes(Starcrossed,Epilogueand Destroyer).
 
This is why. They're all still top ten shows. (well, I don't know about Nintama, but still). Sazae-san's been cleaning house for 40 years.

I haven't actually seen any of these shows, but Sazae-san is a series that runs three shorts in half an hour, so draw from that format what you will. I would imagine there's some level of repetition but in 1000 episodes, who's going to notice?
 
I saw a Youtube clip of WPWR in Chicago from the mid 80's airing reruns of 'The Brady Kids' during the week. Since it had only 22 episodes, i have to wonder how they had s series with a small episode count on their weekday schedule.
 
I know Chibi-Maruko Chan does 2 shorts in a 1/2 hour slot, from my own exeperiances.(multiple weekends through out my middle to hs years, then re-discovering it last year on my local international channel. Only for it to be replaced by a chinese kids sing-along show:sad:) Can't say if they repeat any storylines, but I did notice alot of the characters that were background dressing years ago are actually noticiable people in the current years.
 
I see your point BUT on the flipside of that, ending a series too early always leaves you saying WHAT IF?

The Simpsons has gone on a bit longer than it should have, but as long as it's getting ratings it's not going anywhere. Personally, I still like the show. It's not as good as it was a decade ago but it's easily the best of the Animation-Domination shows IMO.
 
Some people say it's creative staff only having a limited amount of ideas, but I disagree. I find whether a show works past 100 episodes or not entirely depends on the set up. I think long-running shows only work if there's an actual story there, some meat on the bones if you will, and is always engaging and evolving. Something like The Simpsons seems to be pretty hated these days, and I suspect it's because it's pretty much the same thing every episode, and disregards continuity and its own established characterizations for laughs. If your use the same style of story for every episode, it gets old fairly fast and becomes horribly repetitive. If over half your show is hated, then I wouldn't really call it a good show.

On the flip side, I think shows like One Piece only get better as they go along. The Diamond and Pearl series of Pokemon is also vastly superior to the ones before it in terms of writing, story, and character development. Detective Conan is also another I find has gotten better and the latest episodes are far better than the earlier ones.
 
I believe Spider-Man:TAS and X-Men on Fox Kids should have went over 100 episodes if Avi Arad haven't screw with just to sell toys and let the people at Fox Kids and the people that work on the show do their thing, And their would be no Spider-Man Unlimited, Same thing with Justice League/Unlimited on CN.
 
I think an even better question is this: why are so many series cut short after they reach the 'magical' 65 episode limit? Does being able to go into syndication really call for an abrupt cancelation? I think not, as there are plenty of series that could go for much longer than that if the exeuctives allowed it. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is just the latest example to become the victim of this nonsensical 'rule,' and there will no doubt be more in the future. :shrug:
 
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