Cartoon Network: How Stuart Snyder Is Killing The Network, and Animation With It

In 1994, I became one of the happiest kids on my block. It wasn't because of my grades, going outside, or my friends. No, all those things (except my grades) were good. No, what made me happy was that was the year we got Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Network. "All Cartoons, All the time! Forever, and ever, and ever! UNTIL THE END OF TIME!"

At only 9, I already got to feel instant-nostaglia as shows that I thought were once-canceled were back, and I had a chance to watch a ton of new cartoons I had never heard or seen before. It was, for a kid, and an animation fan alike, a heaven, a slice of bliss.

But ever since 2003, the station has steadily gotten worse and in 2007, a man became the head of programming for both Cartoon Network and Turner Broadcasting and given a task: How do you make Cartoon Network viable against Nickelodeon and Disney? Both Nick and Disney had, since 2005, steadily cut back on new animated shows, astounding since both studios were powerhouses only 5 years ago. Since they were cutting animation talent and eliminating programs that were doing well... well, what could he do?

Easy: Stop focusing on the CARTOON part of the name and focus on the NETWORK. Or, even better, stop making so many cartoons.

The idea Stuart had was to expand the network away from cartoons and do more things, such as a live action movie (which was terrible, not even campy-bad!) and expand into rip-offs of Sci-Fi and Discover Channel shows that involve real kids in real drama, like hunting ghosts and blowing stuff up. Sounds cool, but... well, they're "reality shows". Cheap, no-writter TV.

Meanwhile, we're seeing animation in this country suffer on a whole.

Ten years ago, an animator had a chance to get out there and possible start a career doing a show that THEY wanted, a show that THEY could do. John K, in 1993, paved the way to allow for the "Director system" to come back, and for the most part, most cartoons were done with the artists and creators in control. It seems that the end of that came with Camp Lazlo, a show that a cousin of my said, and I quote, "was the most fun I had doing a show in my life." He has worked on everything from Muppet Babies to The Simpsons to Futruama. That's one hell of a complelment!

Now, an animator is hard pressed to get an interesting new show out there outside the internet, and most shows created are now incredibly cheap, done in Canada using Adobe Flash. To me, the fact a talented man like Harry Patridge is stuck posting cartoons on the internet with no network willing to give the man a chance to create a cartoon (for kids!) on their network... my god, its amazing!

Cartoon Network and Viacom were in competition in the 90's and it was one hell of a great thing for the craft! Each tried to outdo the other in terms of cutting-edge animationa dn interesting concepts and ideas. We're now on our own. To me, the decline began back in 2003.

Since then, the line-up of Cartoon Network has been more of a focus on not producing cartoons or showing older ones for a new generation, but instead focusing on 6 - 8 shows for the 24/7 network and see what sticks. It is more in line with MTV in the sense that the name is in "spirit" only, and it is irritating as an animation fan and historian to see this happen.