Cartoon Network Turns 20

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF ADVERTISING AGE BY JULIE LIESSE In 1997, the management team at 5-year-old Cartoon Network cooked network has seen its share of “potholes and obstacles, but has been scrappy all the way,” Mr. Sorcher says. up an April Fool’s Day stunt. The idea was to pick the most annoying In 1992, after purchasing Hanna-Barbera’s car- cartoon they could find and run it over and over again—for 12 hours. toon library, and with classic MGM and Warner Bros./Looney Tunes titles in hand, Mr. Turner turned They chose a 50-year-old Tex Avery cartoon featuring of Turner Broadcasting System’s Animation, Young heads with his decision to launch a 24-hour cable a character called Screwy Squirrel. The cartoon went Adults & Kids Media division. Now, as it celebrates network dedicated to animation. Some observers on the air at 6 a.m. and, at seven minutes long, repeat- its 20th anniversary on Oct. 1, Cartoon Network is ed about eight times an hour. What the programmers offered in 26 languages and is a presence in 178 coun- did not anticipate was the major snowstorm that hit tries and 367 million households around the world. the East Coast that day; schoolchildren were home Following the first quarter of 2012—its best in five At a Glance and watching TV, and soon the network switchboard years—the network completed its most-watched sec- Q Available in 26 languages across 27 separate feeds. was flooded with phone calls asking what was go- ond quarter and summer ever, according to Nielsen ing on. The network began running a crawl advising Media Research. This summer, Cartoon Network was Q Distributed in 178 countries. viewers that Screwy Squirrel had taken over the net- the No. 1 television network all day long and in the work—which he did, until 6 p.m. that night. 7 p.m.-to-9 p.m. early prime-time slot with boys ages Q Available in 367 million homes worldwide. The event was included in Entertainment Week- 2 to 11, 6 to 11 and 9 to 14 years old. Its Monday Q Develops and produces much of its original content ly’s 1999 list of the “100 Greatest Moments in Televi- evening block of originals, including “Regular Show,” at Cartoon Network Studios, Burbank, Calif., and sion.” But for Rob Sorcher, then general manager of “Adventure Time,” “Annoying Orange” and “MAD,” Williams Street Studios, Atlanta. the network, the dust-up carried even more meaning. led all other networks among boys. Each of those “That moment,” says Mr. Sorcher, “was when I knew shows was No. 1 in its time slot. Q Offers one of the Internet’s top-rated entertainment that Cartoon Network mattered.” “At the core of our success today is continually de- websites; in addition to the U.S. site, CartoonNet- For two decades, Cartoon Network has mattered. veloping content that has surprised and entertained work.com has 15 satellite sites around the world. From cutting-edge animation and classic character viewers—funny, unique, alternative content featur- repackaging to on-air events and pro-social initia- ing shows and characters that could happen only on Q Offers more cartoons and characters (2,000-plus) tives, Cartoon Network has helped the world look at Cartoon Network,” Mr. Snyder says. than anyone else, drawing from the world’s largest cartoons in a new, fresh, different way. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Cartoon cartoon library that consists of more than 14,000 “It all started with a catalog of classic cartoons, Network. Mr. Sorcher, the first general manager, left Warner Bros., MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon 2 million households and the vision of Ted Turner,” for stints at USA Network and AMC before coming Network Originals series and shorts. says Stuart Snyder, president-chief operating officer back to CN four years ago as chief content officer. The SEPTEMBER 17, 2012 C1 Cartoon Network October 1, 2012 were skeptical; an Associated Press item noted the New Generation network had “a modest launch that analysts say re- flects the lackluster economy and tough competition Animators for channel space.” Cartoon Network started with dis- tribution in 2 million households. When J.G. Quintel was an animation student at the Initially the network ran cartoons from its vast li- legendary California Institute of the Arts, he discov- brary. “We had wall-to-wall cartoons—and asked our- ered Cartoon Network—through the work of CalArts selves, how do you make this special?” Mr. Sorcher says. alumni Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky. Both “We began to look at cartoons in a different way, and at of those animators had turned characters they created ourselves as curators of our animation library.” in student projects into seminal Cartoon Network se- The programming team created special events ries, “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Dexter’s Laboratory.” featuring legendary animators such as Chuck Jones “I remember looking at the archives and thinking, and Tex Avery; it would spotlight a particular cartoon Stuart Snyder Rob Sorcher ‘Wow, Cartoon Network will let you make a show character. The creative and marketing team used the based on your student films,’” Mr. Quintel says. character library to create funky, attention-getting film program. Recent hits such as “Regular Show” Which is exactly what happened to Mordecai and on-air promos and interstitials critical to creating a and “Adventure Time” started as shorts, and the net- look and feel for the new network (see story below). work is producing 10 shorts this year. “Sometimes the promos were the most interesting In 2001, the network made another critical decision: thing on our air. And when we curated in an unusual It took the late evening and overnight programming way, we saw a jump in ratings,” Mr. Sorcher says. “So hours and gave them their own programming block, we got very good, very quickly, at coming up with Adult Swim, which in 2005 evolved into a full-fledged hundreds of ideas that helped people see cartoons in network specifically targeting young adults 18 to 34. a different way.” “Adult Swim programming is as original as you are The network’s brand personality continued to going to get on television,” Mr. Snyder says. “It’s a true evolve with the decision to jump into original pro- ‘badge of honor’ brand and network for the hardest-to- J.G. Quintel Pendelton Ward gramming two years later. Its first original series, reach group of consumers.” Rigby, the animated animals who two years ago made “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast,” premiered as a late- Running from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET), Adult Swim the leap from Mr. Quintel’s student work to “Regular night offering in April 1994. “Hosted” by one of is basic cable’s No. 1 network with people 18 to 34 Show,” an Emmy-winning anchor of CN’s hit Monday Hanna-Barbera’s vintage animated action heroes, the and 18 to 49, and is seen in 99 million U.S. homes. evening block. parody late-night talk show set the edgy, unexpected, While Adult Swim proved a perfect match for young Mr. Quintel and Pendelton Ward, creator of the alternative tone for Cartoon Network’s future pro- adults, and the elusive young male demographic spe- Emmy-nominated hit “Adventure Time,” lead what gramming choices. cifically, Cartoon Network’s day and evening program- Chief Content Officer Rob Sorcher calls the “new gen- In 1995, in search of additional original series, the ming has focused increasingly on boys. eration of animators.” Both turned 30 this year. network commissioned four dozen original short car- In addition to its slate of original series, network “Animation is such a difficult thing to do well. But toons, its “World Premiere Toons.” From that group of management has successfully built on some of its top these guys are very similar to Craig and Genndy. They short films came six of the network’s first wave of orig- classic properties, including “The Looney Tunes Show” are young, visionary animators who understand in a inal programming hits, including the landmark series and updated “Tom & Jerry” features. The never-end- pure way what they want to do,” Mr. Sorcher says. “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “The Powerpuff Girls.” ingly popular “Scooby-Doo” franchise lives on with Both he and Mr. Ward attribute Cartoon Network’s “It was an approach that put the artists first,” Mr. original movies and a new half-hour series, “Scooby- current success in part to a “creator-friendly” atmo- Sorcher says. “We built our business around the cre- Doo! Mystery Inc.” sphere. Says Mr. Ward: “If there is a brand philosophy ative product.” Eventually the network set up its own Cartoon Network has rounded out its program- at the network, it is taking cool risks.” CN Studios, in May 2000, but through the years it has ming portfolio with key acquisitions, including the continued the search for new talent through its short popular “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” now in its fifth Branding/On-Air Promos It was YouTube, Michael the network’s Creative Group. ic feel for what the network was all about.” Ouweleen says, before The answer was creating a variety of attention-getting The promo work helped Cartoon Network develop an there was YouTube. on-air promos, short content and interstitials. There were incisive, funny, skewed way of looking at things and a In the very early days mash-ups that brought classic cartoon characters into brand identity that has stuck to this day. of Cartoon Network, the contact with each other, minivideos that used classic “I don’t know many networks that have the same em- network’s marketing and characters with modern music and longer on-air promos phasis on the writing of promos,” says CMO Brenda Piper.

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