Gather around. It’s Pop Quiz Time:
Q: What’s the difference between these 2 things?
A: One of them is a sinking ship, and the other one is the Titanic.
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There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Cartoon Network’s hour long program block Cartoon Planet has since been expanded and is now running on Thursday afternoons as well as Friday nights. The bad news is that the block has since began to be less of a celebration of CN’s 20th Anniversary and has devolved into being mostly a dumping ground for old CN shows. Things picked up a little when CP began airing more recently canceled CN originals such as Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, Robotomy and The Problem Solverz (although CN kind of shot itself in the foot by running the same episode of Robotomy 2 weeks in a row), but those shows left the block just as suddenly and mysteriously as they came. Worse yet, CP has begun airing recent acquisitions such as Scaredy Squirrel and Almost Naked Animals, and even more curiously, CN has recently began airing entire episodes of WB’s MAD once per hour on the block (granted, each episode of MAD is only 15 minutes in length, but still…).
“What? Me on Cartoon Planet?”
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This I personally don’t understand. Why run MAD as part of Cartoon Planet when MAD is still making new episodes and gets encores throughout the week? If CN is going to run MAD, then the network might as well start airing The Amazing World of Gumball, Regular Show, Adventure Time and Johnny Test during the block. Admittedly, I don’t typically hang out with Cartoon Network’s current target age demographic, so I have to ask; is MAD really that popular? Are the shows’ ratings really so strong? I knew that the show was doing well enough to stay on the air, but I didn’t think that MAD was anybody’s favorite CN show, the way that Regular Show and Adventure Time are. It’ could simply be that one of the Big Brass at Cartoon Network is just a huge fan of MAD. After all, that’s the only reason why Cowboy Bebop ended up airing on Adult Swim. I’m going to quote my twin brother Damon (Silverstar) here, as the following is his take on MAD airing as part of Cartoon Planet, so as the following are his words, they’ll be typed in blue.
If Cartoon Network really must run MAD on Cartoon Planet, then why not do it this way: First, you don’t have to run MAD every single week. You could rotate it, the way that you do with every other show on the block. Second, you could just air 1 or 2 sketches, not the entire show each time. WB’s DC Nation sometimes airs MAD sketches, but with that block, it’s always just 1 sketch per show, not the entire episode.
More than many, I personally understand that nostalgia alone loses it’s appeal after a while, and I don’t want to sound like a nostalgia person, but if CN is going to start running non Cartoon-Cartoons on the CP block, then they could just as easily start airing old Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry shorts. They’re at least old enough to be considered nostalgia and have been running on CN for years. In the case of the latter, CN has already started airing shorts from WB’s Tom & Jerry Tales, which began airing on CN in 2008. Heck, CN could even air 2 Stupid Dogs on CP. Not technically a Cartoon-Cartoon, I realize, since 2SD originally aired on TBS, but the show did run on CN for a time, and again, it’s old enough to be thought of as nostalgic.
Personally, at this point, I which that CN would have stuck with the block’s original title, Best of CN, so we the viewers at home could continue to savor the memories of the original 1995 program. CN may have resurrected the name, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s still only 1 Cartoon Planet.
ROCK ON!!
ADDENDUM
It’s recently come to my attention that Cartoon Network has added Annoying Orange to the Thursday afternoon Cartoon Planet lineup. So it’s official; CN just doesn’t care anymore.
“What’s the matter? Don’t you find my show a-PEAL-ling? Did I just plant the SEED of doubt? HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
Ugh. What else is on?
Twin Images 
The current Cartoon Planet is a joke. It was originally intended to be a love letter to old school CN viewers to commemorate Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary (not to mention promising filler since everything else CN had tried airing on Friday nights at 8 had failed), but it stopped being that in fairly short order.
Presently Cartoon Planet is nothing more than a dumping ground for cancelled and soon-to-be cancelled CN shows. Not only are they running the exact same shows every week, but lately it's always the exact same episodes of said shows. If CN takes this a step further and begins airing their current comedy cartoons on CP, then the block will officially have no reason to exist.
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ADDENDUM: As of November 2013, episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball and Johnny Test have begun airing on Cartoon Planet, so it's now official: CP is no longer a classic CN block, just Funny for Your Face with a different name.
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