This is a brief follow-up to Jason’s “Tooning In at Late Night”.

Recently, regarding the prospect of so-called classic cartoons airing in syndication, some optimistic wag posted this:

“I’d like to see smaller stations and affiliates relaunching morning, afternoon, and weekend toons. They’d probably make more in the long run on cartoons. Considering the syndication rights for some of the shows they run are pretty steep especially for current hit shows. 

They pay through the nose for syndication rights, all so they can bring in more viewers for that show, so they can profit from the advertising. Depending on the show they may eventually break even. While the original network and advertisers clean up.”

To which let me respond with the following:

File this one under “Not Gonna Happen”. That’s a nice dream, but a dream is all it is.

Here is your reality check: Syndicated cartoon blocks, be they on weekday mornings, afternoons or weekends, simply aren’t profitable nor viable in this day and age of 24/7 animation and kids’ entertainment cable networks. The syndication market is all but dead in this country; most of the cartoon studios currently operate under the umbrella of giant corporations, and they’re not going to lend these properties out to local, syndicated or even broadcast network markets, as they have no reason to do that and doing so wouldn’t benefit them in any way. Why should corporate giants like Disney, Warner Bros, Universal and Dreamworks (which recently acquired Classic Media) loan their wares out to local or syndicated markets to air for about 2 to 3 hours when they can just run these cartoons on their own cable channels which run all day long?

The entertainment industry has changed too much in the last 2 decades for a network/syndicated weekday afternoon block like a Kids’ WB! or a Fox Kids to work anymore. There’s nothing the Alphabet Networks can offer kids that the 24/7 cable channels don’t already offer them in spades. And for the minority of viewers who don’t have cable or satellite, the internet and home video fills that void.

Furthermore, nowadays most local affiliates and syndication markets have no desire to pick up cartoon blocks because they know they can’t compete with cable, satellite and the internet. In fact, companies like Tribune and Sinclair actually pressured WB to drop the afternoon toons because they were losing money. And speaking of money, once again, TV networks and stations do what makes them the most lettuce. Presently networks make more money running news shows, talk shows, court shows, game shows and infomercials than they would running cartoons, especially old cartoons, so they run, guess what? News shows, talk shows, court shows, game shows and infomercials. We aren’t going to see a magical return of syndicated cartoon blocks just because some peoples’ nostalgia demands it.

Things change. The TV market you’re describing doesn’t exist anymore. Sorry.

And ‘dat’s the name of that tune.

Today, a colleague of ours (the same guy from BCDB who made all that noise about Witch Lezah in “Why Y’all Hatin’ on Witch Lezah?”) posted the following nugget on Toon Zone’s Cartoon Network forum:

“I apologize for doing a thread like this, but I must say, I think the worst programming block on Cartoon Network is on Saturday mornings, 7 AM to 12 PM. It’s now all anime and action cartoons, many of them based on toy lines, including “Ben 10 Omniverse,” “Young Justice,” “Beyblade: Metal Fury,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Green Lantern,” and “NINJAGO.”

I actually saw some of “Ben 10” morning because nothing else was on TV, and I was bored out of my mind (just to see how bad they were!) Nothing really happened, it was just constant talking and some of the usual action sequences!

Sorry, but I have to agree with other people online on how Saturday morning cartoons have drastically changed. I still remember 10 years ago, Cartoon Network would have a two or three-hour Looney Tunes block on Saturday mornings, but not anymore. I feel sorry for kids that, instead of growing up eating sugary cereals watching funny, semi-educational or even remotely entertaining cartoons, children will just be having bacon and sausage and fatty pork products for breakfast while nothing plays on TV but droning talking and stereotypical action sequences on animation that is secretly plugging the toy lines they are based off of, as well as forced edutainment and news in terms of live-action.”

Now my response is kind of long and wordy (surprise, surprise!), so if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to address and rebut these statements here on Twinsanity as opposed to cluttering up Toon Zone with it:

These shows are only boring TO YOU, because as I know from your posts on BCDB, you’ve never liked action cartoons. (BTW, not all anime are action cartoons. There are plenty on non-action oriented anime, it’s just that the action anime are by and large the only anime that gets imported here.) The substantial fanbases that Ben 10, Pokemon, NinjaGo, Beybalde and Clone Wars have accrued, not to mention the hundreds of people complaining about Green Lantern: TAS and Young Justice going away and the dozens more setting up petitions and campaigns to get these shows revived clearly don’t share your views. You may not like these shows, but the action cartoons with high toy and merchandising tie-ins earn CN big ratings and routinely put butts into seats. Action’s got to air somewhere, and the current Big Brass at CN don’t seem willing to run it anywhere else besides SatAM right now (but we’ve covered that in greater depth in “Bringing Action Back”). Anyway, your personal feelings about these shows is moot, since you’re not a kid and therefore not part of the audience that CN is trying to attract with these shows.

Even so, let’s indulge you for a minute and ask: what else is CN supposed to run on Saturday mornings?  They could run encores of their original comedies, but they already do that throughout the week. CN may not want to run the TV-PG rated comedies like Adventure Time and Regular Show on SatAM, and kids would likely see more encores of Johnny Test and The Amazing World of Gumball, say “Been there, seen this!” and switch to something else. They could possibly air premiere comedies during those hours, but I’m guessing that CN would rather air their comedy premieres during prime time, where they’d stand a much greater chance of earning strong ratings. In fact, if you see a first-run comedy cartoon airing its’ premiere first-run eps on weekend mornings on CN, chances are it’s because the bigwigs in charge of the network don’t have a lot of faith in it and/or just want to burn through the episodes quickly to fulfill their contractual obligation. Should CN air Retro, like the 2 to 3-hour Looney Tunes block you mentioned? A single hour works (LT has always performed well on SatAM, and indeed, CN currently airs LT for an hour at 6 AM on Saturdays), but a 3-hour block of Looney Tunes across the board is not gonna happen. As much as I love Looney Tunes, a 2 to 3-hour LT block would get trounced in the ratings by the competing blocks of new and original comedies airing on Nick, Disney and The Hub. You can’t counter-program new hotness with oldies-but-goodies; fresh new programming is needed to keep bringing the viewers back. CN knows this all too well. Do you recall Thanksgiving of 1994 or 1995, when CN ran the “Great American Toon-In” to counter Nick’s “Nonstop Nicktoons Weekend”? CN was basically the Hanna-Barbera Reruns Channel back then, and their programming consisted solely of older toons like Yogi Bear, The Flintstones and Looney Tunes shorts. Well, the ratings came in the following Monday, and it wasn’t even close: CN got completely, utterly and hilariously trounced by Nickelodeon. The “Nonstop Nicktoons Weekend” earned roughly thrice the ratings that the “Great American Toon-In” did. Nostalgia is fine and all, but it doesn’t earn the big ratings, at least not the kids’ channel ratings that CN wants. Again, one could try to aim Retro Saturday morning programming towards adults, but there’s no big money to be made from that. A SatAM block can’t thrive on Retro alone. At the very most, there could be a SatAM block which mixes some retro hits along with first-run premieres.

Which brings me to my next point: let’s stop thinking small. Go macro with me for a second and look at the big picture. The harsh reality (one baby boomers don’t like to face) is that the industry has changed a lot since when we were kids. Reality check time: Saturday morning just isn’t the big deal that it once was. Sure, SatAM was a big deal for us back when all we had to look forward to cartoon-wise was SatAM toons (aside from weekday syndication and the occasional prime time special), but nowadays kids have cable channels which air cartoons 24/7 as well as internet services like Hulu and Netflix. Why should kids clamor to watch 2 to 3 hours of cartoons one day a week when they can get their animation fix anytime they want? Networks can’t compete with that. The reason you see more news and infotainment on the broadcast channels than cartoons nowadays is the same reason why any networks do anything: MONEY. The Alphabet Networks make more money running news and infomercials on Saturday mornings than they would trying to counteract the kids’ cable networks with their own children’s programming, so they run news and infomercials.

Do I feel sorry for today’s kids for missing out on our childhood SatAM experience? Not in the slightest. For one thing, they’re watching what they like, and that’s all that matters, even if what they enjoy doesn’t appeal to us. Quality is subjective and relative, and often what kids view as great entertainment can drive adults mad (I know my parents didn’t understand my fondness for The Super Globetrotters back in 1979). We can’t force our childhood memories on today’s kids; they can’t and shouldn’t be forced to like the same shows that we like(d). For another, today’s kids have 24-hour cartoon and kids’ entertainment channels. They have DVDs. They have the internet. they have tons of ways to get tooned in. All we had was the Alphabet Networks’ offerings. I’d have beaten up an old lady in front of her grandchildren for an all-cartoon network back then. So no, I don’t feel the least bit sorry for today’s kids. If anything, they should feel sorry for us, ‘cause we had to get our fix the hard way.

Anyways, I don’t see what the big deal is, as you’re not being forced to watch any of these shows. If what CN offers on Saturday morning isn’t to your liking, then you always have the option of watching something else, doing something else or just plain sleeping in.

Regarding the current state of action cartoons, most notably the recent and abrupt cancellations of shows like The Secret Saturdays, Sym-Bionic Titan, Generator Rex and the recent Thundercats reboot, and the relocation of many of these action cartoons to Saturday morning (DC Nation was placed on SatAM from the start), many action cartoon fans believe that network execs have had it in for action for a while now. “These shows are wasted on Saturday morning!” they complain. “Why don’t these shows air at night? They should be airing at night! It’s like they want these shows to fail!!” To which I say, the notion that The Powers That Be actually set these shows up to fail is just plain ridiculous; if the Suits in charge had no desire to keep these shows going, then they wouldn’t have bought them and greenlit them in the first place. But I do agree that shows like these are better suited for nighttime. However, here’s the thing: networks like CN have already tried airing action cartoons at night (first with You Are Here, and again with Night of Action), and they all failed to strike ratings gold.

It could be that their competition is just that good; I personally feel that Disney Channel’s live-action kidcoms (which typically air their premier episodes during prime time) are not funny and you can’t tell them apart, but they’re not aimed at me. However, I tend to think that the reason is partially due to the reasons listed in Part 1: that stand-alone comedies are easier to follow and have greater replay value since they don’t have to be shown in a specific order. The prime target audience for channels Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and The Hub are kids, and by and large, kids aren’t interested in following long, ongoing sagas and overlapping story arcs; that sort of thing is more enjoyed by hardcore action fans and comic book readers, and they tend not to want to get up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. Networks could try to market these shows towards the older, more secular action-loving crowd, but the problem with that is that adults don’t buy toys, at least not to the same degree that kids do. (On a semi-related note, it’s worth pointing out that the reason Animaniacs‘ run on Kids’ WB! was terminated by the network after 99 episodes wasn’t because of low ratings, but because the show was much more popular with adults than it was with kids, not a good thing for a show which airs on a block called KIDS’ WB). Unless action is to be restricted to adult-oriented programming blocks like Adult Swim or be simplified to a form that’s more appealing to younger audiences (like Batman: the Brave and the Bold or the upcoming Teen Titans GO!), this trend is likely to continue.

There’s another fly in the ointment regarding putting action on top again, a fly the size of an allosaurus, and that’s money. The harsh reality is that action shows don’t sell anymore. They are awesome and fun and cool and deep and intricate and all that good stuff but they don’t make money, plus they cost a truck load per episode to make.

Back in the 80s and 90s, the shows we watched had a lot of money from toys and merchandise coming in. Kids today don’t buy action figures like we did. More accurately, their parents don’t buy them, so the companies don’t get all of that revenue. Also cereal companies used to be the prime investor in these shows because they could advertise all of those great commercials selling sugar cereals to kids. That is illegal now. So when the government stopped that, it devastated the industries’ income. They had to start making cheaper, simpler shows. Studios take massive risks trying to make action shows that they know they can’t sell toys for or get money from commercials for. The market has changed dramatically and action shows, which typically involve more complex character designs, backgrounds and plots, are very expensive to produce, too expensive to produce if only a handful of people are going to watch and studios and networks aren’t going to make that money back in the form of toys, games and other assorted merchandise.

Times have changed, eras change, and yes, kids do watch comedy, they love it. Like it or not, more money is made from kids comedy than kids action. Times may have been different when we were kids, but it’s changed. The people working at the studios (artists/directors/writers) may and in all likelihood do want to tell these awesome action stories, but the fans don’t buy the back packs, toys, DVDs, or even watch the shows on cable anymore to give action shows the desired ratings. How can action survive when there is no money?

Finally, I’d like to pose a question: am I a bad person because I’m not particularly upset that Green Lantern and Young Justice may be going away? I’m admittedly not really an action cartoon person, though I can take action in small doses. That said, even at it’s best, I’ve always felt kind of “eh” about GL: TAS , probably because I could always take or leave the GLs in general, and I enjoyed YJ a lot more when it was just the 6 core sidekicks; I didn’t like how it went the Justice League Unlimited route and added a bunch of new characters. First, I’m not into time-skips to start with, and YJ has this ongoing plot which never seems to end, and too many characters, sub-plots and twists for a lazy person like myself to try and keep track of.

My feelings about this whole action cartoon debacle can be summed up in how I typically view shows of this nature:

“Hey, look. A new action cartoon based on a popular franchise, with deep, intricate plots and elements of drama and deep storytelling. Pretty cool.”

*Watches for a few minutes*

“What else is on?”

*Switches to some check-your-brain-at-the-door comedy cartoon with big-eyed kids, talking animals and rainbows*

Undoubtedly, we’ve all heard or read by now that neither Green Lantern: The Animated Series nor Young Justice were announced among returning series on Cartoon Network’s 2013 Upfront. This has lead many fans to believe that both shows are done. Cartoon Network is already getting a lot of heat from some of it’s viewers for giving most of it’s action cartoons the red-headed stepchild treatment; under promoting it’s action series. Canceling most of them prematurely, etc, and this latest news has only added fuel to the fire. Is there any way for action cartoon to start getting some love from cable/satellite kids channels again?

I say the answer to that is yes, although in order to achieve this, it may be necessary for the producers of said action to rethink their strategy/approach somewhat. Here at Twinsanity, we feel that one reason why action cartoons have been getting the short end of the stick as of late is because so many of them are done in a continuing story/saga fashion. I can hear the arguments in favor this technique now: “Continuing stories, sagas, and story arcs are cooler. They give more depth to the characters. It’s more mature storytelling and blah, blah, blah…” Well, that may be true, but the downside of that is that sagas/serials don’t have a very high replay value. Serial cartoons tend to not do well in reruns, which is one reason why comedy cartoons are often looked upon as the favorite children of cable/satellite channels because most comedy cartoon episodes are each a self contained story, so they can be rerun in any order or no particular order and new viewers tuning in for the 1st time can watch any episode without being lost and then having to catch up. Most people don’t want to revisit a saga once it’s finished. They might want to look at some highlights from the past season, but that’s about it. And channels can’t just run random episodes of a serial cartoon because the entire arc’s story line has to be shown in order or else the whole continuity is lost.

Another important issue is finance.. Let’s face it, quality costs mazoolah, and shows like Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series aren’t cheap to produce. The sad truth is that the shows’ niche audiences and low toy sales don’t justify the cost of producing them. Half of an animated shows’ success comes from merchandising, but unfortunately, kids just aren’t buying the GL and YJ toys. I suppose that it could be argued that CN and the other networks could (or should) be running action shows at night and aiming them at teens and young adults instead, but the problem with this suggestion is a) CN already tried running action premieres at night twice and both times the blocks failed to generate ratings from kid viewers who favored the comedy premieres on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, and b) except for hardcore comic book fans, adults aren’t buying action figures and toy play sets based on the shows. The success of Green Lantern: TAS relied heavily on the live action movie being successful, and since the GL movie bombed, there just wasn’t a huge incentive for many fans to tune in to the animated series. Likewise how the Kids’ WB Legion of Super Heroes animated series’ lifespan was cut in half due to Superman Returns, which opened the summer before LoS’s premiere, under performed at the box office.

In regards to serial fashion being “more mature storytelling”, the irony here is that Nickelodeon’s and Cartoon Network’s prime audience demographic is immature, as in kids. Sure, there are the hardcore comic book fans and the cool secular people who’ll tune in, but the networks don’t want to attract just them. They want to kids to watch because kids buy toys, and a show that’s watched largely by kids means that the networks can sell a bunch of over priced plastic toys based on the characters.

So perhaps it may be time for more action cartoon to go back to having stand alone plots and stories. It is possible to tell a decent action story without having a continuing saga or serial story running along. Shows like Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS and Justice League Unlimited have all done so. Sure, there was the occasional 2-parter, but usually nothing more than that

Now, I realize that my opinions aren’t the least biased, as I’m admittedly more of a comedy person than an action. Plus, I tend to get bored with a plot that that takes more than 2 parts to resolve. I admit it; I have a 22 minute attention span. But it just might be possible for action to regain some the attention that was once paid to them by network executives if they were to make thing somewhat less complicated for themselves.