It’s Autumn again, and so begins many of the Autumn traditions; raking the leaves, harvest festivals, pumpkin chunkin’, and Cartoon Network seems to be partaking in what would seem to be a fall tradition of their own: suddenly pulling a series on the network’s DC Nation program block from it’s schedule.
Yes, that’s right. This week, Toon has removed DC Nation’s latest animated series, Beware the Batman from the lineup, just like it did last year with Green Lantern: TAS and Young Justice. Toon claims that BtB will return to the lineup in January, but I think that we all know what this means.
In Beware the Batman‘s absence, Toon will be filling the now vacant half hour with another episode of Teen Titans GO!, thus making TTGO! the only thing airing on the block outside of the shorts. Not surprisingly the internet message boards have since lit up like Christmas trees by fans expressing their disgust over Toon’s decision. As always, I’ve seen the inevitable post claiming that “Cartoon Network hates its fans!” “CN has so much contempt for us!” To this, I say , to borrow a catchphrase from ESPN, “C’mon, man!” Does anyone honestly believe that Cartoon Network’s executives are a bunch of melodrama villains with black silk top hats and handlebar moustaches who clasp their hands in fiendish glee as they yank off TV shows just to make the fans at home cry?
“Nyeh-heh-heh! That’ll give those couch potatoes something to chew on besides their breakfast cereal!”
I don’t believe that Cartoon Network does what they do out of spite. However, at the same time, I can’t deny that Toon does indeed treat it’s comedy cartoons better, primarily because they get higher ratings and don’t cost as much to produce than the action cartoons do. Case in point, let’s take a look at Teen Titans GO! as opposed to the other shows that have aired on DC Nation. TTGO! doesn’t premiere on Saturday mornings; it premieres on Tuesday evenings along with Toon’s comedy premieres and gets encores throughout the week, again not as part of DC Nation. Beware the Batman, Green Lantern: TAS and Young Justice, by contrast, had no encores and were not so heavily promoted by the network. And now, with DC Nation airing 2 back-to-back airings of TTGO!, the block now looks like a joke. Why even run TTGO! as part of DC Nation at all? I personally like the idea of the shows on a particular program being exclusive to said block.
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Much of the logistics and reasoning behind Toon’s indifference to action cartoons we’ve already covered back in earlier article, “Bringing Action Back”, so there’s no need to repeat myself here. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I feel I must once again state how I feel that a large part of the problem lies with Toon only getting 2 hours of prime time before morphing into Adult Swim at 10 PM. 9 PM weeknights could easily be devoted to action cartoons, if Toon would just push AS back to 10 PM or even 11 PM.
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I can understand why fans are up in arms about this latest development, but as for myself, I really can’t feel too bad about Beware the Batman going on hiatus because I saw it, and when all is said and done, BtB was just another Batman cartoon. BtB wasn’t terrible, but it was nothing to write home about either. Honestly, I liked Batman: The Brave and the Bold more, and even though Toon didn’t treat TB&TB very well, that series at least got a couple of seasons. I mean, we’re long overdue for a Wonder Woman animated series (and a movie also, for that matter), and we’re currently in the wake of Man of Steel and right on the verge of Superman’s 75th Anniversary and Warner Brothers Animation makes yet another flippin’ Batman cartoon? What the what?!?
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So what’s next for DC Nation? No plans have been revealed just yet, but fans have been pretty vocal about that as well. One poster on a message board suggested sarcastically
“Next they’ll make a wacky, kiddie sitcom version of the Super Friends! Ha-ha!”
Ah, yes. That remark is so sharp that you run the risk of cutting yourself, but I have to say this: If DC and WBA were to actually make a show like this and if said series were well written, well executed, entertaining and funny, I would definitely watch it. First, Cartoon Network’s target audience is kids 6-14, and kids love wackiness. They eat it up like free pizza. A comedy focused take on the Super Friends would completely fit in with the audience that the network is targeting right now. Second, like The Brave and the Bold before it, such a series could be an effective way of introducing the less celebrated characters from the DC universe, the ones who aren’t nearly popular enough to get their own series, to younger viewers. And the more learned viewers would likely be curious and research these characters in order to know more about them. This could conceivably be a good strategy for the studio and for the network. I would watch the heck out of a show like that if was done well. Just putting that out there.
“That would actually be a good idea, so sarcastic remark fail!”
Whenever I’m on message boards, invariably a thread will pop up by some hopeful tube watcher who wants to “save Boomerang”. These threads typically complain about the same things: Boomerang doesn’t show enough classic cartoons. My favorite old shows don’t air there anymore. I don’t like how they now show recently canceled Cartoon Network shows on there, and blah and blah and blah. And just as invariably these same threads will offer “solutions” on how to save Boomerang, usually involving trying to convince Da Boom’s parent companies, Turner Broadcasting and Time-Warner, to take all of the recent CN leftovers like Dexter’s Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, Samurai Jack, Teen Titans, Ben 10, Sidekick, Almost Naked Animals, etc., off of the channel and starting petitions to get the old 1960’s Hanna-Barbera ‘funny animal’ cartoons like Atom Ant, Wally Gator, Secret Squirrel, Top Cat, Pixie and Dixie, Touche Turtle, Ricochet Rabbit et al, back in regular rotation on Boomerang.
I find it interesting that so many peoples’ idea of “saving” channels like Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney Channel is just bringing all of their older shows back. While I try not to be ants at the proverbial picnic, I typically pass on any such movements. It’s perfectly fine with me if folks want to see Yakky Doodle and Breezly & Sneezly return to Boomerang, if that’s what floats your boat, then I say ride that rocket, baby, but don’t think that Hokey Wolf and Snagglepuss cartoons coming back to regular rotation on Boomerang would be saving the channel, ’cause resurrecting the old HB cartoons and saving Boomerang aren’t even close to being the same thing. It’s time to face the elephant in the room….
“Honk if you’re horny!”
(Should’ve seen that coming.) No, not that elephant; the one which no retro-lover wants to face: the harsh but very real fact that Boomerang isn’t a baby boomer channel anymore. Turner doesn’t feel the need to utilize the entire HB library since Boomerang is just Cartoon Network’s dumping ground for their canceled programming and the shows that CN once aired but have since gotten rid of but need to let their licenses run out. Let’s not confuse our wants with the network’s needs; you may want Turner to restore Boomerang back to the way it was in 2003 or 2004, but they don’t need to do that by any stretch of the imagination. Bringing all of those old CN cartoons would make a lot of retro fans happy, sure, but it wouldn’t be saving Boomerang. Anyone who truly wants to save Boomerang should be trying to think of a way to get it into tons more homes, expose it to a much wider audience than’s it’s ever been exposed to, and most importantly, to make it profitable. Turner’s apathy towards Boomerang stems from the fact that Da Boom doesn’t make its’ parents any real money beyond subscription fees, and few people are willing to pay an additional fee on top of their basic cable/satellite service fee just to watch old cartoons. The reason that Boom is ad-free is because advertisers won’t go anywhere near it, as admen and accountants don’t want to run spots on a channel which doesn’t show anything new, since it’s been shown that newer and first-run shows attract greater numbers of viewers consistently than older shows and repeats of canceled shows.
Removing all of the post-1990 cartoons from Boomerang isn’t the answer, either. As much as it would make a lot of fans happy, Boomerang can’t just run Looney Tunes and old-school Hanna-Barbera toons from the 60’s through the 80’s for all eternity. Boomerang was created by Turner Broadcasting in order to move the older shows from Cartoon Network so that there would be more room on Toon’s schedule for premieres and newer acquisitions. Boomerang just gets the shows when they’re done airing on Cartoon Network or if they’re 3rd party acquisitions which Turner still has the broadcasting rights to. When Boom was launched in 2000, Toon’s schedule was mostly Hanna-Barbera reruns, so those shows were all moved to Boomerang. Now that it’s 2013, it’s the shows from 1990 to present that get moved over to Boom. The era in which the shows were produced doesn’t figure into Turner’s decision making at all. Boomerang aired some 1990’s cartoons during the 00’s and now they air some 2000’s cartoons in the ’10’s. That’s not a disgrace and an insult, it’s a natural progression. In the same manner that just bringing back the likes of Pixie & Dixie alone wouldn’t single-handedly save Boomerang, just adding the likes of Pokemon, Teen Titans and the 90’s era Cartoon-Cartoons to Boomerang isn’t single-handedly destroying it. It’s really a natural progression for Boom to keep adding newer shows to their rotation as time goes on. What’s considered “old” and “classic” varies from person to person and changes from generation to generation. Time, like an arrow, only moves in one direction, straight ahead, and as such the shows from the 90’s, 00’s and beyond can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. Yes, Boomerang is a retro channel, it at one time alleged to be the “home of classic cartoons”, but it’s beyond absurd to expect Boom to act like every cartoon made after 1990 doesn’t exist. Not only is complaining about Boomerang running post 90’s shows kind of pointless since they’ve been doing this for over a decade now, but expecting Boomerang’s entire schedule to consist solely of baby boomer era toons wouldn’t be helping the channel survive at all.
I understand why the boomers want to keep Boomerang purely cartoons from that era, but restricting Boom to nothing but Looney Tunes and HB cartoons from the 60’s through 80s just isn’t sustainable anymore; putting such limitations on Da Boom’s roster would ultimately do the channel more harm than good. Here’s why: over time, the baby boomers had babies of their own, and as much as some boomers want to stomp around demanding that Turner listen to them and only them, the Gen Xers, Gen Yers and Millenials, who are now in the late teens, 20s and 30s, get nostalgic too, and they want to see the shows that they grew up watching and remember fondly as well. Why should Boom only cater to the boomers, and not to them?
I keep hearing all this talk about people wanting to save Boomerang, but so few of the boomers are willing to share it. “Oh, Boomerang should be around to bring kids and parents and families together, as long as it only airs the cartoons that I grew up watching!” is about as hypocritical and self-centered a mentality as you can get. We can’t force our childhood memories onto today’s kids; it would be great if some of them gravitated to some of our favorite toons like we did (and indeed, some do), but at the same time, the succeeding generations need to be allowed to form their own childhood memories. Nostalgia occurs for every generation and no one generation is superior to any other. I’ve said this before, but just bringing back Pixie & Dixie and Touche Turtle wouldn’t be saving the channel; in order for any network, even a retro network, to thrive and flourish, newer shows and constant rotation are necessary. Anybody who really wants to save Boomerang should want it to be watched by as many viewers as possible, not just by the baby boomers. A wider range of people watching Da Boom and enjoying seeing their favorite childhood shows again is a good thing. Ideally, there’s enough room on a 24/7 network to accommodate the old as well as the new; the key is finding a decent balance. Boom can’t only run the same crop of cartoons it started with forever and shut out the cartoons form the most recent decade(s) as restricting Boom to only accommodate the baby boomers and ignoring all the generations after them would be catastrophically short-sighted for Turner to do, and would only bring on the channel’s demise that much sooner.
Now I can’t agree with the notion that Boomerang is currently in a period of decline, since that would imply that there was ever a time when Boomerang was great; my feeling is that the Boomerang channel started out mediocre when it was first launched and has remained that way ever since. Da Boom has always been just a dumping ground for Cartoon Network’s older and out-of-production shows, and it’s still just CN’s dumping ground now, it’s just that now there are newer old and out-of-production shows occupying the channel’s air space. Boomerang has been running the same hamster wheel for over a decade now; at this point I think the question we ought to be asking isn’t “Can Boomerang be saved?”, but rather “Should Boomerang be saved?”. I personally think that Boomerang has long since outlived its’ usefulness as a 24/7 channel, since retro programming doesn’t guarantee success. There’s a reason channels like Nicktoons, the channel formerly known as Toon Disney, Nick @ Nite, TV Land and even Boomerang have been progressively pushing back the reruns of old shows and shifting their focus toward new content: because most viewers want to see new and original programming, as opposed to repeats they can find on DVD for less than $20. So bringing back Touche Turtle and Wally Gator wouldn’t be the savior of Boomerang. And I admit that my opinion is a decidedly biased one, as I’ve never been the biggest fan of HB’s 1960’s funny animal shows, at least not to the extent that I’d be willing to go through changes to get them back on TV. I can’t imagine ever waking up with a burning desire to see Atom Ant again, and if I ever did, I’m sure I could find some of his cartoons floating around on the internet or on a ‘Best of Hanna-Barbera’ DVD on Amazon or somewhere similar.
Also, when all is said and done, I don’t really care about Boomerang that much because I seldom watch the channel, and whenever I do, it’s usually only for short intervals. While I feel the retro fans’ pain, I can’t really say I identify with it since I’m not a nostalgic person; while I remember some toons I grew up with fondly and don’t mind revisiting some of them from time to time, for the most part I prefer watching new shows. Plus, most of Boom’s schedule consists of shows which I’ve either seen hundreds of times before already, can just as easily watch via other venues like DVD or was never that into to begin with, so even if Boomerang were to miraculously become the channel that most folks seem to want it to become, I admit that I still wouldn’t watch it that much.
If I were the one in the big easy chair and breathing new life into Boomerang were my call, I would do one of the following:
Strike the Boomerang channel and restore it to its’ original state as a programming block on Cartoon Network. The Boomerang block could air for about 2 hours on CN during weekday mornings/afternoons, with an encore on early weekend mornings or weekend afternoons.
Pull a Hub, in other words have another company buy Boom, transforming it into a general kids and family entertainment network in the same manner that Hasbro saved Discovery Kids by transforming it into The Hub, and make the old HB toons part of the new channel’s regular schedule, though not the bulk of the schedule. If Boom were to truly become an ad-supported network, then there’s no way it would be able to sustain itself on just repeats; newer programming would be necessary. People whose idea of “saving” a network is just “bring back this show”, “bring back that show” or “they should only air the 60-80’s shows” or “they should just air 90’s shows” fail to realize that such a thing would be ratings suicide because today’s kids are more interested in their shows, which is not to say that some kids wouldn’t watch the older shows, I’m sure some of them would, but based on what I’ve seen and read kids’ demos are typically stronger for current programs.
Change Boomerang into an internet-only channel and run the Turner/Warner classics library on it. I think this latter idea could truly work, since as with linear 24-hour video game, music video and tech-based TV channels, with the internet becoming more mainstream, the web has basically killed linear retro channels on the boob tube.
These are merely suggestions of course, but I think they’re all more feasible than expecting Turner to suddenly pull a 180 and restore Boomerang to consisting mostly of old HB toons like it did when it started. Let’s face it: The only time you’re going to see change on Boomerang is when the channel isn’t called Boomerang anymore.
One complaint I hear quite frequently from folks in my generation and up is how dramatically the face of Saturday morning TV has changed on broadcast television: your ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, which we’ll hereinafter refer to as the Alphabet Networks, ’cause I’m lazy and I like clever buzzwords. For several decades, these networks used to run full-scale animation and kids’ programming blocks on SatAM (and some on weekday mornings and afternoons too) for 2 to 4 full hours on end, but recently, these blocks gradually began to disappear, getting replaced by morning news and infomercials, and most of the Alphabet Networks have opted to let syndicated packages handle their weekend morning programming aimed at the kiddos, e.g., Qubo, Cookie Jar TV and most recently Litton’s ABC Weekend Adventures and their new syndicated package which will launch on CBS on September 28th (coincidentally, that’s my mom’s birthday). The only Alphabet Network still running their own SatAM block currently is The CW, which currently airs the Vortexx action cartoon block.
What happened? Why did this happen? How did this happen? A lot of my peers tend to scapegoat the E/I requirement, enacted in 1990 by our pals at the FCC, which requires that every full-service terrestrial television station in the U.S. to show at least three hours of educational television programs every week. “Darn that E/I mandate!” they cry. “That E/I requirement needs to be scrapped!” “This stupid E/I mandate is what’s killed the Saturday morning I grew up with!” “If it weren’t for the E/I requirement, the broadcast networks would be airing good cartoon shows again!” Etc., etc., etc.
“Why is everybody always pickin’ on me??”
Now, before you all get out the tar and feathers and prepare yourselves for a good ol’ fashioned lynchin’, let me enlighten you on something: the current state of Saturday morning (and weekday mornings and afternoons too, for that matter) kids’ programming on the Alphabet Networks is NOT the fault of the E/I mandate. If the E/I requirement were to be removed, there’d still be a less than squadoosh chance of so-called “old-school” Saturday morning blocks returning to broadcast TV. If E/I were to ever go, all affiliates would happily run another hour of big-bucks local news and buckets more infomercials. The only reason the networks provide — or in ABC and now CBS’s case, arrange for a syndicated block of — E/I programming is that it’s a bargaining chip they can use when they ask the affiliates to give up time for other programming efforts — sports, Sunday morning news shows, etc. The affiliates are lazy. If they can get their networks to do their E/I work for them, they will.
People really need to stop blaming the E/I mandate for the so-called ‘death of Saturday morning cartoons’. The Alphabet Networks bowing out of the SatAM game is not the fault of the E/I mandate. There are other factors involved:
1. Broadcast TV in general is currently suffering at the hands of cable and other media.
2. Thanks to the advent of cable, satellite, DVDs, DVRs, the internet, video games, computers, and mobile devices, kids don’t need to watch broadcast TV on Saturday mornings.
3. Local news and infotainment are more profitable for local stations and affiliates than kids’ shows are.
4. The massive merging of corporate media outlets during the 90’s and 00’s and the resulting vertical integration. Translated, most of the SatAM cartoons we olds grew up on are now under the umbrella of the Big Corporations, many of whom would rather let their shows collect dust in the vault than let a competing network they don’t own air them, thus there’s a lot less material available for broadcast TV and syndication.
5. The general death of first-run syndication. Outside of judge or talk shows, there aren’t any major TV ventures coming from syndication markets; most of the Hercules, Young Indiana Jones, Small Wonder or Star Trek type programs are made by cable channels nowadays.
Broadcast network SatAM was already on it’s last legs by the time the E/I mandate come along, so E/I is hardly to blame for the current state of the Alphabet Networks. The harsh truth is that era of Broadcast network SatAM is just obsolete now, gone the way of the dinosaur, those pointy Pilgrim hats and the Edsel; broadcast networks can’t compete with 24-hour cable channels, the internet and home video.
Finally, I’d like to address a couple of comments I’ve read online regarding this matter:
(The CW) is the only network TV station that still keeps the spirit of Saturday morning cartoons alive. Ah, no. The so-called spirit of Saturday morning isn’t dead; This legendary spirit of Saturday morning cartoons is still very much alive and well, it’s just that the media and outlets for it have changed. Kids today have no reason to clamor for some network block which only airs shows for 2 to 4 hours a week when they can now get their cartoon fix anywhere at anytime on cable TV, the internet and elsewhere.
Wish one day, ABC, CBS and NBC will follow suit. But I doubt it. A senior member at Toon Zone said it best: “SatAM will only come back to the broadcast networks if every kids’ cable network suddenly went bankrupt and the internet blacked out”. The Alphabet Networks’ reign of Saturday morning TV was a product of the 70’s through 80’s when broadcast TV and syndication were all we had and the early 90’s when there were like 30-something cable channels that aired only repeats, but the market has changed a lot since then. Broadcast SatAM cartoons just aren’t profitable nor viable in this day and age of 24/7 kids’ cable networks and the like. Many of the Alphabet Networks bowed out of the kids’ programming block game because these blocks were actually causing them to lose money, so we’re not going to see magical return of broadcast SatAM TV just because some folks’ nostalgia demands it.
SatAM really isn’t in that bad shape right now. The Saturday morning experience of today isn’t objectively better or worse than the one we grew up with, it’s just different. The truth is that every era is good in its’ own way, it’s just that some people are too stuck in the past to appreciate it. The way I see it, we have 2 choices: we can either roll with the tide and embrace change, or we can sit on our rocking chairs with nostalgia goggles stuck on our heads like Grumpy Old Men and beg for a return of the “good ol’ days”.
I personally choose the former. 10, 15, 20 years from now, the nostalgia people will be begging for the current Saturday morning regime to return, while I’ll be enjoying whatever goodness comes our way.
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!”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A long name, and also a long enduring franchise, current in its’ 26th year and 4th TV series. By now everyone from 5-year-old kids to 30-year-old nostalgia buffs can name the Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael, but few nowadays remember or even know of the long-forgotten Fifth Turtle–and no, I’m not talking about that annoying little twerp Zach–I’m talking about Venus DeMilo, the lost Ninja Turtle with something extra, two X chromosomes!
For the uninformed, here is a (somewhat) brief history lesson: Venus de Milo (real name Mei Pieh Chi) was introduced in the live action Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation TV series as a fifth mutant turtle. She has also appeared in a few books. Her bandanna was cyan colored, a lighter blue than Leonardo’s, and braided in the back to resemble a ponytail. Lalainia Lindbjerg provided Venus’ voice, while Nicole Parker was the suit actor.
Venus was a fifth turtle that was covered with the mutagen that had mutated the other Turtles, but got swept away in the sewers to New York City’s Chinatown district. There, she was found by a Chinese Shinobi master known as Chung I. Chung I took her back to his hometown of Shanghai, China, and taught her the way of the Shinobi, raising her for 18 years. Chung I was in possession of a mystical mirror, which kept the dreaded Dragonlord and his minions entrapped within it. Chung I, the appointed guardian of this mirror, was attacked by the Dragons when they crossed over into the realm of dreams, mortally wounding him in his sleep and kidnapping the spirit of Chung I’s dream realm friend, Splinter. On his deathbed, Chung I revealed to Mei Pieh Chi her true origin in New York.
Mei Pieh Chi traveled to New York and met the other four Turtles. After using her Shinobi magic to dispatch the “Shredder” persona from Oroku Saki’s mind, she went to the dream realm to rescue Splinter’s spirit. In doing so, she inadvertently gave the Dragons a way to enter the physical world. The Dragon Lord and his minions first attacked when Venus was alone in Central Park. During combat, the head of a statue of a woman was broken off; 20 minutes later Raphael came to help her. The statue’s head was taken to the Turtles’ lair and served as inspiration of the male Turtles’ nickname for her.
Venus seemed to have lived a sheltered life in China. During the show, Venus was portrayed as blissfully ignorant of some parts of Western life and culture and at times, equally ignorant of life in general. While proficient in fighting techniques, Venus was not trained in Ninjutsu like her brothers; in battle, she would use mystical orbs to various different effects.
It was established early on in the series that while the four turtles were raised as brothers, none of them (including Venus) were biologically related. This was done by the writers so as not to eliminate the possibility of a romantic relationship between Venus and one of the four male turtles (with hints leading primarily to the rebellious, quick-tempered Raphael and/or the stalwart, even-keeled leader Leonardo).
After the cancellation of the show, Venus’ adventures with the TMNT continued for several years. On the official website a “second season” of sorts was formed in the letters section. Starting in 1996 the Turtles would keep journal entries about their adventures in a shared universe with characters from Mirage continuity, Archie Comics, and the cartoons all together. On October of 1997 “Venus’ Venerations” were added to the website, coupled with four tremendously excited Ninja Turtles each expressing their feelings on the new member of their team. Although she only wrote a little more than a dozen letters, she co-existed with Mirage, Archie, cartoon, and Next Mutation characters until the year 2000. In 2001, “Venus’ Venerations” was discontinued, and the current storyline continued without any explanation or acknowledgment to her prior existence.
After all the major villains were “defeated forever” for the moment, they decided to help their friends, the Mighty Mutanimals, defeat Murk Mariner. Venus planned to get captured and defeat the pirates from the inside, but Leo and Don especially hated the idea. It reopened just how important she was to them and their species, and caused great tension. However, they were eventually forced to carry the plan out and no one was hurt (with the exception of the pirates). In the last adventure she had with them, Rat King had broken their truce and his minions had eaten or destroyed nearly everything in their lair. After a grueling battle the TMNT were finding it hard to deal with their losses when suddenly the character retroactively ceased to exist; the Rat King had still destroyed their lair, but suddenly there were only four turtles again. No canonical explanation was ever given for her disappearance.
After Kevin Eastman sold his half of TMNT to Peter Laird, Venus’ letters were removed from the website. However, the rest of the Turtles’ letters from those dates remain and still mention her.
In a 2007 interview director Kevin Munroe elaborated on the instructions Peter Laird gave to him for TMNT. Munroe admitted that among those rules was, “There’s absolutely no mention of Venus de Milo, the female Turtle. You can’t even joke about that with Peter. It’s just one of those things that he hates with a passion.” It is currently unknown if Venus will make future appearances, but seems highly unlikely.
Thanks, Turtlepedia.
Phew. OK, now, onto my main thesis, finally. I know that Venus was one of the biggest controversies in TMNT’s history. I know that she wasn’t well-liked by most fans of the series, and to many, felt like a shoehorned Deus ex Machina, but here it is: I didn’t and still don’t think that Venus DeMilo was a bad idea.
No, I honestly don’t. Were there mistakes made and could she have been integrated into the franchise better? Absolutely. But was she inherently a bad idea? I don’t think so. My issue with Venus wasn’t that she existed, but how she existed. Here are the reasons why I personally feel that Venus didn’t click with fans:
She arrived too late in the franchise’s history. By the time Next Mutation came around, the Turtles already had a previous TV series lasting 10 (!) seasons, 3 live-action movies, at least 6 video games, several comic stories published and not 1, but 2 live-action music stage concerts. (BTW, I didn’t even know there was a second concert after Comin’ Out of Their Shells until I saw Phelous’ review of the 2nd concert, Gettin’ Down in Your Town; if you haven’t already, I advise you to check out Phelous’ reviews of both concerts on Blip. They’re hysterical.) That was too late in the game to introduce a new major character into the franchise, especially to the titular team. Had Venus arrived on the scene around, say, late in the 1st season or early in the 2nd season of the 1987 TV show, she might have been gone over better.
She altered the Turtles’ mythos too much. One reason why Peter Laird reportedly hated Venus so much was because she went against the idea that the 4 Ninja Turtles were the only mutant turtles in the world, although according to her backstory she was technically there from the start, only washed away (though according to the 80’s show, Mondo Gecko was there as well). This could’ve easily been fixed, however, in a way which I’ll get to later. To me, the REAL problem with Venus’ inclusion was this:
The writers screwed with the series’ fundamentals in order to include her. Namely, this bit of BS mentioned above:
“It was established early on in the series that while the four turtles were raised as brothers, none of them (including Venus) were biologically related. This was done by the writers so as not to eliminate the possibility of a romantic relationship between Venus and one of the four male turtles (with hints leading primarily to the rebellious, quick-tempered Raphael and/or the stalwart, even-keeled leader Leonardo).” THAT is what I took issue with. That was malarkey. The Ninja Turtles being brothers is one of the main building blocks the franchise was founded on. It’s key to the Turtles’ relationship with one another. They weren’t put together like many other crime fighting teams, they were raised and trained together. You don’t mess with that, especially just so you can open the door for shipper nonsense. Even if the Turtles weren’t actually biologically related to one another (we weren’t privy to them being born, we first see them sharing a bowl in a pet shop, so that’s anybody’s guess), they were still raised as brothers and would therefore feel related by bond if not by blood; you do not toss that essential element out the window just so the 1 female team member can possibly date one of the male Turtles. It goes back to a question that I’ve been asking for decades: why do female characters have to be girlfriends first and characters second? It’s good ol’ fashioned shipper pandering and sexism, and it stinks now matter how much perfume you try to spray on it. If Venus had just been used as the Turtles’ mutant sister, I think she would’ve gone over a lot better.
It’s because of possible shipping that some fans want to see another obscure TMNT character get revived for the new series, Mona Lisa, a former female college student turned mutant amphibian/reptilian.
Feh, I say. Mona Lisa only appeared in 1 freakin’ episode, “Raphael Meets His Match”, and she served no other purpose than to be a potential love interest for Raph. I say keep the show’s focus as far away from romance as possible. TMNT isn’t Degrassi, and I wouldn’t watch it if it were. (Plus, she has hair. I don’t like that she has hair. A reptile/amphibian with hair is just wrong.) Forget Mona Lisa.
It’ll probably never happen, but if someone did try to bring Venus back into the series, here’s how I would handle it: with the magic of retcon!
I would start a new series with Venus already there from episode 1. She gets mutated along with her brothers, but doesn’t get washed away, so she’s raised alongside the others as their sister. No romantic relationships. Splinter teaches her some ninjitsu, but she also learns the art of Shinobi after spotting some books and writings on the subject sitting around the lair left by Hamato Yoshi’s old friend from China, Chung I.
When I suggested this before, someone quipped that this idea would tick off the Turtles’ fanbase. I say the franchise has endured far, far stupider ideas over the years. (Again, Phelous already illuminated at least 50 of them in one of his reviews). If TMNT can survive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 or Turtle Tunes or We Wish You a Turtle Christmas or Gettin’ Down in Your Town, it could survive a Venus retcon.
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