Cartoon Cartoon Fridays

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Cartoon Cartoon Fridays launched in June of 1999 and primarily focused on airing Cartoon Network original series in primetime through May of 2003.

But what made this block so legendary? To find out, we have to look at the era it was built in.

Welcome to the 90s. No streaming, smartphones, widely adopted social media or hyper fast internet with instant access to whatever you wanted. If you wanted to watch something, you had four options:

Blockbuster or other video rental stores.

TV, with it’s wide array of NBC, CBS, ABC, though FOX had acquired local stations, and TheWB had just arrived.

You had to own it on VHS or pre-record what you wanted to watch on a VCR.

Then there was cable.

Cable was the next level of entertainment. Sole channels dedicated to movies, game shows, music, sitcoms meant there was always something on.

And this next level of entertainment was controlled by a few massive media giants.

If you’ve watched prior Attack the Blocks, you’ve heard me speak on Viacom, which owned MTV Networks, a grand slice of the cable pie that included Nickelodeon.

But Turner Broadcasting was another major player.

Turner Broadcasting was a pioneer in the cable landscape; launching TBS in 1976, and rapidly expanding ever since. 1980 saw the debut of the Cable News Network, aka CNN.

Turner attempted to acquire CBS in 1986 but failed, so instead picked up MGM Entertainment in the same year. This would’ve led Turner in the red, and within three months of the original acquisition, MGM was back in the hands of original owner Kerkorian, albeit with Turner owning a vast library of MGM movies and tv shows. This gave Turner enough content to launch TNT, which arrived in 1988.

But, there was still a bevy of animated content from MGM left untapped by Turner.

In 1991, Turner acquired Hanna Barbara Productions. This gave Turner an even more expansive library. With such a massive catalog, The Cartoon Network, featuring Checkerboard bumpers, launched on October 1st, 1992 as the first animation-centric cable channel, with an 8500 hour library of animation.

While Cartoon Network was airing their collection of decades long animation, Hanna Barbara was going through a shift.

Fred Seibert, president of Hanna Barbara, along with the assistance of company creators William Hanna & Joseph Barbara refocused the studio to garner all new original animated shorts in a vision to develop a new Golden Age of animation.

Seibert garnered more assistance and advice from iconic Looney Tunes animator Friz Frelong, and Ren & Stimpy creator John Krisfalusi, who left his show and Nickelodeon due to creative differences.

The studio opened up 48 slots for animated shorts, giving animators complete creative freedom. They opened the floodgates for submissions and got [DBZ over 9000] no, not that many, but a still vast 5000 submissions.

Speaking on the submissions, Seibert said “Some 5,000 people pitched us cartoons from all over the world…We got into business with a broad range of people who never would've given Hanna-Barbera a passing chance. We worked with people who were 70 years old, who were 20 years old. We turned on its head the perception the people in the community had of us.”

Talking about the competition, Seibert found, [Cartoon Network] "didn’t care what the sitcom trends were, what Nickelodeon was doing, what the sales departments wanted... we wanted cartoons.”

The selected team of shorts had a bevy of members, including Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti, Butch Hartman, John R. Dilworth, Bruno Bozzetto, Achiu So, Jerry Reynolds and Seth MacFarlane. Even Hanna and Barbara made shorts.

The shorts were to be 7 minutes in length, and as stated prior, given complete creative freedom, even down to the music. They would air on Cartoon Network in what would later be known as What a Cartoon!

The premiere was a spectacle known as the World Premiere Toon-In; simulcasted on TNT and TBS on February 20th, 1995. The first short? Craig McCraken’s PowerPuff Girls.

Through 1997, the shorts premiered Sundays under the title World Premiere Toons.

This was the home of pilots for shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

As shorts continued to air on the What a Cartoon show, the formerly mentioned pilots became full-length cartoon network series, or Cartoon Cartoons.

Dexter’s Laboratory launched in 1996, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, and I Am Weasel in 1997, PowerPuff Girls in 1998, and Courage in 1999.

Ed, Edd and Eddy, produced by Danny Antonucci in his studio A.K.A. Cartoon, launched in 1999. It was the first series to not go through the What a Cartoon short process, and the first produced by a company other than Hanna Barbara.

A marathon-style airing of all Cartoon Cartoons would premiere once a year starting in 1997 under the moniker Cartoon Cartoon Weekend. It would run through an entire weekend, starting on Friday evenings and ending on Sunday.

By 1999, Cartoon Network developed a block to rival other networks in primetime.

Welcome to Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.

1999

Launched on June 11th, 1999 and lasting through June of 2000, the first iteration was incredibly creative, being entirely live action & parodying lottery drawings, weather reports, astronomy news, and auctions for bumpers and previews.

Shows included: Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Edd and Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken, I am Weasel, Mike, Lu & Og, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

2000

The second iteration was introduced on June 8th, 2000, and removed the live action.

Cartoon Cartoon Fridays were now fully cartoon cartoon based, with Eustace, Courage, Edd and Johnny Bravo hosting. Cartoon Network began releasing What a Cartoon pilots on the block, including The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Meet the Reaper, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones, as well as Sheep in the Big City. Whatever Happened to Robot Jones launched as a series in 2002. Sheep in the Big City became an official Cartoon Cartoon series in November of 2000.

Shows that year included: Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Edd and Eddy, The PowerPuff Girls, Cow & Chicken, Mike Lu & Ogg, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Sheep in the Big City.

2001

2001 would see the exit of Betty Cohen, succeeded by Jim Samples, but Cartoon Cartoon Friday chugged along. There was slight variation to the block, and a much larger hosting list.

Through the year, Dexter, Bubbles, Mojo Jo Jo, The Mayor and Ms. Bellum from PPG, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Edd and Eddy, Eustace and Muriel, the Time Squad trio and Sheep from Sheep in the Big City all got a chance to host.

Time Squad, a new Cartoon Cartoon series, launched on the day of the block’s update, and Grim and Evil debuted on the block later in the year.

A viewer voting segment called the Big Pick gave viewers the choice to vote a What A Cartoon short into production. The winner?

Codename Kids Next Door.

Shows that year included: Grim and Evil, Time Squad, Sheep in the Big City, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Mike Lu and Og, Ed Edd and Eddy, PowerPuff Girls, I Am Weasel, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo & Dexter’s Laboratory.

2001 would also see Hanna Barbara fold into Warner Bros Animation. William Hanna died of throat cancer the same year, while Joseph Barbara continued to work at the redubbed Warner Bros Animation on What’s New Scooby Doo & Tom and Jerry Tales until his death in 2006.

2002

The block remained unchanged in format however, new shows were added, and others were removed. Courage the Cowardly Dog premiered new episodes from summer through fall as it ended its final season. Codename: Kids Next Door would be the final Cartoon Cartoon to premiere on the block.

A Halloween theme took over the block throughout the month of October featuring Grim & Evil, Scooby Doo episodes and movies.

Shows that year included: Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken, I am Weasel, Ed Edd and Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Sheep in the Big City, Time Squad, Grim and Evil, What Ever Happened to Robot Jone and Codename Kids Next Door.

Samurai Jack also aired on the block.

2003

2003 was the end of the road for the block. Just four years after its launch in 1999, the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays would be replaced with a rebranded ‘Summer Fridays’ until an all new Fridays would debut in September.

Before getting deep into the script, I thought connecting the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays and Fridays blocks would be perfectly fine. However, there’s a massive problem.

For those that may have watched my “why people think Cartoon Network died in 2008” video, you may have seen a number of comments saying it wasn’t 2008, but sometime in the early 2000s….

and there definitely could be a case here.

Over on the Friday block, Cartoon Cartoon Fridays didn’t care what age you were, and didn’t speak down to you at an immature level. However, that all changed with Summer Fridays and drastically switched with Fridays.

I’ll follow up with a detailed look at the 2003 through 2007 Fridays block, but for now, this is where I’ll finalize this episode.

The reason Cartoon Cartoon Fridays is thought of with such nostalgia and memory, at least in my eyes is because of its quality. It was truly a block that kept you interested in its bumpers, premieres, and surprises.

I always found this to be truly brilliant. This was going above and beyond with designing bumpers, interstitials, and programming in general.

Anyway,

I recommend checking out more information on What a Cartoon’s legacy and members. It’s a really fascinating dive.