April 1st, 2000. To most, it was an ordinary April Fools Day. But for animation addicts, it is remembered as the day that Turner launched Boomerang, a channel dedicated to the cartoons of yesterday, all day, every day.
You see, while Cartoon Network started out as a haven for classic Hanna-Barbera, Warner, and MGM cartoons, it didn't last that way for long. By the time the nineties came to a close, those older shows were becoming fewer and fewer on the schedule. Between their original series, anime on Toonami, the influx of Warner Bros. cartoons they could air following the Turner-Warner merger, and other acquired titles, the older titles slowly faded out of the network, but Ted Turner had a backup plan. That backup plan was Boomerang. What started out as nothing more than a programming block on CN was becoming a network of its own, and has been running ever since.
After 24 years on air, Boomerang has had a rocky history not unlike its older sibling. As time passed, the classic shows were again tossed aside for newer shows, sometimes former Cartoon Network original shows, and other times series that were still airing new episodes on that channel. However, as of late, the channel seems to have gone more towards its roots, focusing on airing Hanna-Barbera, Popeye, Looney Tunes, and other similar titles. Why, they've even begun airing shows that, to my surprise, never aired on the channel before. This past August saw them air the infamous Yo Yogi! for the first time, for example.
Much like the channel recently, today appears to be the perfect day to go back to the channel's humble beginnings and see how the world was introduced to Boomerang. Below is an article that appeared in The Atlanta Journal on July 17th of 1999. Beyond informing readers about the upcoming channel, it also sheds some light on the Cartoon Network studio at that time, still in the process of becoming its own company outside of Hanna-Barbera.
'Toons Times Two
By Charles Haddad
Staff Writer
To be called Boomerang, the channel is to begin airing April Fool's Day. Boomerang's launch will also mark a shift in strategy for 7-year-old sister channel Cartoon Network.
Cartoon Network will focus on airing original cartoons, while Boomerang will feature cartoons from the company's Hanna-Barbera library.
"Boomerang will serve baby boomers and kids ages 2 to 7," says Cartoon Network President Betty Cohen. "These people have told us they want more of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons."
Right now, about 30 percent of Cartoon Netwokr's schedule consists of original cartoons such as "Dexter's Laboratory," "PowerPuff Girls" and "Johnny Bravo." Most of these original series run in prime time Monday through Thursday and up to 11 p.m. on Fridays.
To boost original production, Turner Broadcasting is creating a separate animation studio for Cartoon Network.
Currently, Cartoon Network animators work out of the Los Angeles-based Looney Toons division of Warner Bros. Studio. The studio is a unit of Time Warner, which owns Turner Broadcasting. The size of Looney Toons, one of the world's largest animation houses, has apparently become a problem for Cartoon Network's animators.
"A lot of our creators wanted the feel of a small studio," says Cohen. She wants to make her animators happy, because "the success of our shows are affected by the talent we can attract."
Turner Broadcasting will lease a separate building and renovate it into a state-of-the-art facility in Los Angeles. Cohen says she hopes to have her animators moved into a new studio by the end of the year.
Boomerang, to be announced today in Los Angeles, comes as the Cartoon Network is on a roll. The channel won the second-highest rating on cable TV during the past six months, according to Nielsen. That rating beat out its biggest competitor, Nickelodeon.
Boomernag's creation is reminiscent of a strategy Turner Broadcasting followed with its TNT and Turner Classic Movies channels. At first, TNT featured old movies from Turner Broadcasting's vast film library. But the channel switched to airing original movies, films made in the 1970s and 1980s and live sports programming. Turner then moved its old movies to a new channel, Turner Classic Movies.
This coming Friday, it will be exactly two years since the local Xfinty provider dropped Boomerang from their channel lineup.
ReplyDeleteBy that point, their sole concession to vintage theatrical and television animation was the myriad 'Scooby-Doo' series and seemingly the same 30 Tom & Jerry and WB shorts that were ran over and over and over, so I was tuning in much less.
Glad to hear they're starting to get their act together, though it might be too little, too late. MeTV has become the go-to for classic cartoons, and I don't see that changing.