Things You Didn't Know About Classic Cartoon Network Shows
When it started, Cartoon Network aired animation created by MGM, Hanna-Barbera, and others. After a while, the network started producing its own content, and the world has enjoyed dozens of amazing series ever since. For more than 20 years, Cartoon Network has been the home of amazing hits, including The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and many more.
However, for all that fans of these shows already know, there are bound to be plenty of facts about their favorite Cartoon Network classics they just don't know!
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In just about every cartoon featured on Cartoon Network, the end credits are simply that, and they aren't entertaining. Shows like Rick and Morty have an end-credits scene, but even this is rare. For The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, the show's end credits are different, and they sound different. In fact, the dialogue in the credits sounds like wild gibberish.
It's intriguing, and because the words that close out the episodes don't make any sense, fans have looked into them a bit deeper to find out what they truly mean. The end credits feature dialogue that's played in reverse. If you play the clip backward, you will hear the series creator, Maxwell Atoms, saying, "No, no. This is the end of the show. You're watching it backward!"
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- Samurai Jack
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Samurai Jack is one of the most critically acclaimed series to air on Cartoon Network, with eight Primetime Emmy Awards, six Annie Awards, and an OIAF Award. The series is beloved by many, but few who watched the series noticed something interesting about the show's theme music, which is eponymously titled and can be seen right here.
The theme music composer is none other than William James Adams Jr., and if that name doesn't sound familiar, you may know him as will.i.am, the lead member of the Black Eyed Peas. Interestingly, his work on Samurai Jack isn't the only time he's contributed to a Cartoon Network series. In 2002, he recorded the song "Secrets" for Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip-Hop Experiment.
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The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack's creator, Van Orman, grew up in Panama City, FL, where he "used to fantasize about living near the dock and having adventures all the time." His family moved to Utah when he was 13, but his heart remained in Florida. He yearned to return, and as an adult, working as a janitor, he saved enough money to return to the Sunshine State.
When he got to Florida, he took rice and potatoes and paddled his surfboard to Shell Island, where he intended to live off sea urchins. He even managed to spear a manta ray, but the threat of extreme hunger coupled with severe sunburns had him rethinking his lifestyle. He returned to the mainland, but he wasn't finished. He continued his adventures in Mexico, where he attempted to live in the jungles while dumpster-diving for food.
All of this helped him craft the concept that would eventually become The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He pitched the concept in 2001 to Cartoon Network with a short depicting many of his influences, but he was rejected... at first. He received some feedback, and after a couple of years of retooling his concept, he returned and repitched his concept successfully in 2003.
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Before Dexter's Laboratory, Cartoon Network broadcasted old MGM, Warner Bros., and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This was done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it wasn't exactly sustainable forever. Because of this, the network focused on creating original content, and it started with shorts aired via a showcase called What a Cartoon! in 1995.
The first of these to gain popularity and earn its own series was Dexter's Laboratory. Technically, the first "original" series on the network was Space Ghost Coast to Coast, but that show was a re-edit of old footage and wasn't exactly original. Dexter's Laboratory was an entirely new and original product for the network, and it helped put it on the map as a viable producer of quality entertainment.
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Craig McCracken has had a great deal of success in creating original content for Cartoon Network. He's probably best known for creating The Powerpuff Girls, but a few years later, he knocked another one out of the park with the creation of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The series, which centers around an orphanage of sorts, houses abandoned imaginary friends and got its start thanks to a couple of dogs.
McCracken came up with the show's concept after he adopted two dogs from an animal shelter. Doing this planted the seed in his mind that adopting abandoned loved ones could work with imaginary friends, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was born. The series became one of the most successful for the network and managed to take home a total of 12 out of 35 awards, including five Annie Awards and seven Emmy Awards.
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In 2007, Cartoon Network Studios Europe became established, and it hired Ben Bocquelet to help people pitch projects for potential development. After a short time, the network opted to solicit pitches from its own employees, so Bocquelet decided to submit his own idea. For The Amazing World of Gumball, he took a bunch of previously rejected characters he created for commercials and threw them all together.
The pitch went over well, and the network greenlit the series, which was the first one produced by the European studio. The fact that the characters are all disjointed and from different places can be seen in their depictions. Different animation styles are used for different characters, which offers up an aesthetically pleasing (if different) show. It also makes for a series that embraced stylistic differences, which only helped establish and elevate the series with fans.
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While Cartoon Network's roster of animated series isn't devoid of accolades, Courage the Cowardly Dog has one nomination most people would find surprising. The pilot episode, "The Chicken from Outer Space," garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards.
Unfortunately, the segment didn't take home the statue, which ended up going to the Wallace and Gromit short, "A Close Shave." While it didn't win that particular award, the series went on to receive three Golden Reel Award nominations and one Annie Award, so it wasn't without several significant accolades.
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If you've seen Johnny Bravo, you already know the series is all about a misogynist who absolutely loves hitting on women. He's not the type of character you would think many women would appreciate, but it turns out the series would never have made it to the air without the support of three important women. Ellen Cockrill, Juli Kane-Ritsch, and Janet Mazotti all fought for the series to be picked up.
When it was originally pitched to Cartoon Network, the studio was ready to pass on it. It was described as not being "cartoony" enough for the network, but those three women ended up saving it. The series creator, Van Partible, wrote on his blog why he thought the three women came to his show's defense: "I think it's because they know Johnny Bravos in their lives and can relate. They also enjoy watching him get his comeuppance."
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There are a lot of reasons why someone might make an animated television series. Whether it's for fame and fortune or artistic goals, most reasons behind their creation tend to be understandable. Still, the impetus for Ed, Edd n Eddy was comparably atypical. Danny Antonucci was designing a commercial when a friend of his actually dared him to create a children's cartoon. Since all of his work up to that point had been made for adult audiences, the dare put him out of his comfort zone.
He took up the challenge and conceived of Ed, Edd n Eddy as a cartoon that resembled the ones he loved from the 1940s through the '70s. He put together his concept and pitched it to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The latter network wanted to retain creative control, so Antonucci made a deal with Cartoon Network, and the series was picked up for a premiere in early January 1999 - and it all happened thanks to a dare.
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Chowder is one of the more interesting series to air on Cartoon Network, and like many of the network's series, it stems from the artistic talents of someone who worked on other popular series. C.H. Greenblatt began developing the concept while he worked on SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon. He put together some sketches and a rough concept based on the sorcerer's apprentice plotline.
This eventually developed into an apprentice cook and a master chef. By the mid-2000s, Greenblatt had enough of a concept to put together a pitch, so while working as a writer and storyboard artist for The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, he pitched Chowder to the network. It took a little time, but after a couple of years, he got the green light to proceed with one year of production. By the time the series made it to air in 2007, Greenblatt had worked on it for seven years.
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Everyone who knows and loves The Powerpuff Girls knows that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup all got their superpowers from Chemical X, but that's not how they originally started. When Craig McCracken first developed the girls for a student film at CalArts, the characters were known as the "Whoop-*ss Girls." On top of that, they got their powers from opening up a literal can of whoop-*ss!
Of course, the concept evolved a bit from the earliest days of McCracken's student work, and they eventually became known as the Powerpuff Girls around the world. The series got its start via a What a Cartoon! short called "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins" and has gone on to spawn a feature-length animated film, a reboot, and a live-action television series adaptation set to release during the 2021-2022 fall season.
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Adventure Time is easily one of the most successful and influential animated series to premiere on Cartoon Network, but it nearly found a home on Nickelodeon instead. When Pendleton Ward was shopping his idea around to various networks, he went to Nickelodeon to pitch his idea. When you think about it, Nickelodeon would have been a good fit, seeing as it was home to SpongeBob SquarePants and several other innovative children's animated series.
Adventure Time began on Nicktoons via a short that premiered on Random! Cartoons, so it's not as if Ward didn't already have his foot in the door. The short became a viral hit, but when Ward tried to get the network to option it, he got the dreaded "no" from the network executives. He tried another time but got the same answer. The network executives felt the concept was "too weird" for a children's show. By 2010, the series was in full development at Cartoon Network, where it remained for eight years.
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These days, most animation is done entirely on computers. Artists use various tools to accomplish this, but generally, they illustrate using a tablet, and the models they create are then animated using software. It makes the process far less time-consuming and efficient, but that's not how all animators like to work. The animation is far more traditional for Regular Show and has been described as being "far more low-fi" than other series.
The series creator, J.G. Quintel, prefers to do things more simply, as the show begins its life as a script illustrated via rough hand-drawn images. These storyboards are then animated into a rough animatic that's sent to the network for approval. The backgrounds, character designs, and props are assembled at Saerom Animation studio in South Korea. The animation is done using paper, which is then digitally composited and painted on a computer.
Quintel prefers working with paper despite the "low-fi" nature of the medium. Storyboard artist Calvin Wong described "the tools of the trade as being pencils, pens, white-out and occasionally lightboxes and electric erasers." While it may have taken more time, the process clearly worked. Regular Show ran for eight seasons consisting of 261 episodes, so the animators must have done something right.
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Tom Warburton may have created Codename: Kids Next Door, but he didn't intend to when he started working on the concept. Instead, he put together a pilot episode called "Diseasy Does It" for a show called Kenny and the Chimp. The series was to be produced by Hanna-Barbera, and it included a group of rebellious children known as "Those Kids Next Door."
In Warburton's original vision for the series, "Those Kids Next Door" would have carried out mischievous activities next door to Kenny's home, and this would cause trouble for him. Ultimately, the plotline was modified to focus entirely on the side characters. Warburton completely reconfigured his pilot and managed to get "No P in the OOL" produced at Cartoon Network Studios. That episode won a viewer's poll, which earned it a series green light.
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By the time What's New, Scooby-Doo? hit the airwaves in 2002, it was the ninth animated incarnation of the popular Hanna-Barbera series that first aired in 1969. The series that came between What's New, Scooby-Doo? and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! all featured a somewhat different format, but the newest series, which first aired on Kids' WB before making its way to Cartoon Network the following year, was a return to form.
As in the first series, the show revolved around Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers, and the titular pup traveling around the country solving mysteries. The biggest difference between the first series and the ninth was the introduction of technologies not present in the 1960s, which makes sense, seeing as the new series was developed for an entirely new generation.
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Like many animated series created for Cartoon Network, Cow and Chicken was never scared to embrace controversial topics. Still, while it isn't unusual, it is rare to have an entire episode banned by the network, but that's exactly what happened shortly after "Buffalo Girls" aired on February 20, 1998.
The episode dropped several incredibly overt nods. It relies heavily on stereotypes and innuendo, including the following bit of dialogue:
Oh! the Buffalo Gals, a motorcycle-riding gang that randomly breaks into people's homes and chews on their carpets.
There's also a character named "Munch Kelly," they all play softball, and other bits of innuendo are sprinkled throughout. Cartoon Network let it air once, but after that, it was replaced in the series lineup with "Orthodontic Police."
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The Teen Titans have been around since 1964's The Brave and the Bold #54, but most people don't know them from the comics. While the books have always found success, the number of fans who read them religiously is far smaller than the massive audience the animated series has enjoyed. Not only was Cartoon Network's Teen Titans a massive hit, but it also spawned several other series, so there are tons of rabid animation fans who love the team.
Be that as it may, the roster from the television series may be the best known, but it's not exactly comic book accurate. Ask any fan, and most will tell you that the Teen Titans' original roster features Starfire, Robin, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy, but that's only correct when referencing the show. In the comics, the original group consisted of Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Speedy (Green Arrow's sidekick).
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Getting a new series made is never easy. It often costs a great deal of money to produce a pilot (especially if it's animated), so there are plenty of ideas that get pitched and never see the light of day. CAMP LAZLO! was given the green light to begin production, but lost it soon after. The original pitch came when Linda Simensky, who previously worked with Joe Murray on Rocko's Modern Life, called the series creator for a new idea.
He pitched a show called 3 Beans, but Simensky "thought it sounded too much like a salad," so the name was swapped out for CAMP LAZLO! Everything was working out well for Murray to produce the series for Cartoon Network Studios, but it got off to a bumpy start. Soon after the green light was given, it was revoked, leaving Murray "pissed and depressed."
One of the network executives wasn't "completely sold" on the series, which left Murray having to pitch it in a frenzy. Fortunately, he managed to pull it off, and the show entered into production in 2004. It managed to remain in production through November 2007 after airing 61 episodes consisting of 120 segments, two specials, and 14 shorts.
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If you've watched Ben 10 and thought to yourself, "This seems an awful lot like a comic book," there's a good reason for that! The series, which follows the adventures of a 10-year-old boy whose Omnitrix makes it possible for him to transform into a variety of alien lifeforms, stems from the minds of comic book creators.
Man of Action Entertainment created and produced the series, and that group consists of Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Steven T. Seagle, and Joe Kelly, all of whom are long-time comic book creators. The group worked together for three years, retooling their concept before Cartoon Network picked it up.
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Young Justice was a critically acclaimed animated series that dealt with some serious adult issues. The series was beloved by fans, but that didn't stop Cartoon Network from giving it the boot at the end of its second season. When that happened, DC's plans for a new animated universe perished with the series. Originally, the third series was meant to tie in numerous elements from a wider DC Animated Universe, but the show's cancellation made that impossible.
The series is set on Earth-16, and the plans for that reality came to a screeching halt. While the series cancellation may have forever altered the main DC Animated Universe plans, there's still more Young Justice thanks to Netflix. When the series aired on Netflix, a renewed interest revived the series for a third season. A full 26-episode Season 3 aired in 2019, thanks largely to fans who petitioned for the streaming service to pick up the program.
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