RE: Comcast - My Idea for a Black-Owned TV Station

Hi Comcast!

My name is Larry West, and I am an illustrator/designer from Philadelphia, PA. While surfing the net, I saw a post saying that you were looking for ideas for one of two stations to be owned by African-Americans. Despite not being born in Africa myself, I have been told I'm somehow of African dissent. As such, I feel I should apply.

That being said, my idea would be perfect: A 24-Hour Cartoon Channel!

OK, OK! I know exactly what you're thinking! "We've already got one!" NO, you don't! What you have is a kids channel that shows a lot of cartoons but also a bunch of live-action shows! The cartoons on the channel SUCK, and some of them look like they were done by people on acid (I'm looking at YOU, Problem-Solverz!).

No, I want a REAL 24-Hour Cartoon Channel! 

My idea is simple: Nothing but cartoons. Period. OK, except for commercials and any movie that features both cartoons with Live-Action! At the same time, I want to start hiring talented cartoonists who either had a break and lost it or people who never got the one they deserve. Think about it: Comcast supports the arts!

Who's on my list?

John K.
Harry Partridge
Peter Chung
Joe Murray
Mike Judge
Joseph Krzemiensk
Swinton Scott III

Some of these names may be familiar. Some are not. Click on their name and you'll learn more about who these awesome people are! John K, for example, created Ren & Stimpy and is a remarkable cartoonist! Harry Partridge is well known for his Watchmen and Akira parodies, while Peter Chung (my HERO!) created Aeon Flux, one of the greatest cartoons to ever make it to mainstream TV! Joe Murray created Rocko's Modern Life as well as Camp Lazlo, while Mike Judge created King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head! Meanwhile, Joseph K is a talented animator I knew in college adn Swinton Scott III has worked on The Simpsons, Futurama, and Static Shock.

Also, I want get the rights to a bunch of old cartoons, like The Critic, Animaniacs, Duckman (ESPECIALLY Duckman!), Dilbert, Pinky & The Brain, Swat Kats, Aeon Flux, Drawn Together, and a bunch more! Not to mention show movies like Akira, Wallace and Grommit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Cool World.

Yes, "What the HELL You Starin' At? indeed!

In the morning we would show some classic funnies, like Tex Avery cartoons, and then just show some random stuff during the day (some re-runs of cartoons made by our talented staff would be great!), and during the afternoon have a block of cartoons by our in-house staff for 2 hours! Prime time would allow for more new programs, while the hours of 10PM to 5AM would compete against Adult Swim and WIN! Yes, WIN! How? By having the best classic cartoons and adult-themed animation around!

Yes, Reel Toons (TM! TRADEMARKED!!!!!) would be on from 10PM to 5AM showing the more adult of cartoons we have! Aeon Flux and Duckman would be a given, but we could also get whatever we could from Mike Judge's connections! Its perfect! The man helped to host the Animation Show and the Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation!

Yeah.... LOTS of Aeon Flux!

Meanwhile, we would have a bunch of awesome bumps and promos, and attract the key 5 - 35 age demographic! WE WOULD MAKE MILLIONS!!!!


-Wait, really quick... were you expecting this to just be "Hi, I'm black, so lets make it an 'urban' network by showing a bunch of old black sitcoms, toss in a bunch of sexist and homophobic rap videos, never show anything without black people, and treat our audience like uneducated cattle?" Sorry, dude, but I think trash like The Parkers and Soul Plane are nothing more than modern-day minstrel shows while anything by Tyler Perry continues to prove that he hates black people.

LOONEY TUNES ARE BACK!!!!

I'm really am glad to hear this bit of news!

In the world of cartoons, Cartoon Network announced today that, after 5 years away, Looney Tunes will make a return to regular rotation!

Why is this big news?

By and large, Looney Tunes has been on television since 1958. Every week, anyone in America could turn on a TV and catch an episode or one of the countless shorts of the series over the years, including new ones made during the 60's. In 1988, Nickelodeon began showing Looney Tunes and continued to do so until 1999. In 2000, Warner Bros decided to only show the shorts on their networks, and by 2005, they were all but gone.

The return of Looney Tunes is something I've been waiting for for years. I love cartoons, but I also love animation! For years, I've complained that kids today are getting deprived of these shorts. Yes, I won't lie, its boring and tiring at times to watch the same jokes a million times. I got sick of them by the time I was 10. But, well, time heals all wounds, and this is the same case. The classic slapstick and missing, and I would love to see Tex Avery cartoons come back, as well as those of Chuck Jones... but, like I said, I love animation.

Bugs Bunny and Co. will return to Cartoon Network Sunday, November 14th at 1PM. I don't think I'll leave my house.

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.