Video of the Week: The Best Place for Cartoons

 Cartoon Network has had many memorable bumpers and advertising campaigns over the years, but today, I'd like to highlight one of my personal favorites. Airing around the turn of the millennium, "The Best Place for Cartoons" promos featured many cartoon all-stars interacting with each other in the real world. They often portrayed the characters as Cartoon Network employees, and several of them took place in common workplace settings, such as the water cooler or the parking lot. 

I'll be looking at three of these bumpers today. The first one focuses purely on Yogi Bear, who runs into some problems after misplacing his ID. A decently funny promo, and it's also interesting to hear what appears to be Billy West as Yogi. I can't think of any other time he's voiced that particular character.

What's also interesting about some of these older CN commercials is that you can actually find audio commentaries by the crew behind some of them online. I believe these came from promotional discs, but I can't say for sure. If you'd like to see this ad with commentary, check it out here.

This second bumper, titled "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service", plays out about how you'd expect. Fred goes shopping at a convenience store, but encounters some issues with the dress code. You've also got some great appearances by Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, and I.M. Weasel here. 

I've saved my favorite promo in this series for last. Scrappy-Doo has long been a punching bag for cartoon fans, so what happens when Scrappy has had enough? You get this bumper, featuring a Scrappy pushed to his breaking point. It's probably my favorite depiction of the character ever, in all honesty.

Early Cartoon Network Merchandise

 I've looked at early CN promos and press material, so it seems time I give some attention to the early wave of merchandise based around the network. This isn't by any means an in-depth showcase, but here are some of my favorite pieces I found with the Cartoon Network branding.

Starting off is this plush toy of Huckleberry Hound released by Mattel. This was part of a series called "Cartoon Club", which consisted of plush incarnations of many Hanna-Barbera characters. Some of the others in the series included Fred Flintstone, Elroy Jetson, Magilla Gorilla, and Yogi Bear. They're honestly pretty nice looking for plush dolls, but there's something off about them that I simply cannot put my finger on. Maybe one of you feels the same?

Unsurprisingly, there were plenty of shirts with the Cartoon Network logo and Hanna-Barbera characters in the early days. This one has a set of characters decked out in some very nineties clothing. That was a common theme among shirts of this era, alongside the characters playing basketball and other sports.

Here's a simple but nice pencil box based on the network, which was released in 1994. Commercials around this time often used a graphic similar to this, so I assume that's where the design came from. It's also easy to come across on online auctions, so if you want a piece of early CN merch without breaking the bank, this one's for you.

The last piece of merchandise I'll spotlight here is, fittingly, the most nineties one of the whole bunch. That's right, we've got CN pogs! There are a lot of characters in these, and they all use artwork that I haven't seen used in any other merchandise. As far as pogs go, I'm impressed. This set contained 21 items in all, and I assume there were no further releases.

Far More Cartoon Network Print Ads

 October has come once again, and with it, another set of posts focused on Cartoon Network, which launched on October 1st back in 1992. In both 2023 and 2024, I shared posts showcasing a few print ads for the network from its early years (you can view those posts here and here). Now, I'm back with more advertisements. From those found in the papers to magazine ads, here is yet another set of Cartoon Network print ads.

This first one is interesting in that it promotes not only the network, but also a launch event taking place in Turner's Atlanta base of operations. The promo promises animated guests, surprises, and a picnic lunch following the event. If you'd like to know more about this launch event, check out this post I did in 2023. It's probably the only time you'll see Ted Turner setting off TNT alongside Fred Flintstone and Yogi Bear. 

Here's a pretty neat one that appeared in a newspaper's comic section. I've shown off ads similar to this one before, but those were from magazines. Honestly, I think I prefer this style a bit more. You've also got to love how the ad "hides" a Yogi Bear comic.

Another newspaper ad, this one has a similar style to the first ad, but with a different set of characters. Instead of Fred, Yogi, and George, they went with a canine theme consisting of Astro, Huckleberry Hound, and Droopy. Much like that artwork, it was used in a lot of early promotional materials for the channel.

I've got one more for today, and this one was actually put out after the network went live. Droopy is the sole star of this promo, informing readers that Cartoon Network is wired and ready to go. It's kind of interesting looking back at how much attention Droopy got in early CN stuff. You could almost see him as the mascot of the network in its early years. Don't forget, the first thing aired on CN was Droopy's Guide to Cartoon Network.