The Lookback: Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?

The Flashback Cartoon Network

      I'm not asking you whatever happened to Robot Jones? Unless you know, then please tell me. This is about the early 2000's Cartoon Network series with that title. (So funny, I'm sure nobody else has made this joke at all)   Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? was created by Greg Miller  whom worked on a few other Cartoon Network shows as a writer, storyboard artist, animation layout-ist, and more.  

    The original pilot aired in 2000 as part of a "Voice your Choice Weekend" where 11 pilots were featured and viewers could vote for their favorites. (There were other factors right, right?)  (Source)  The pilot got second place after "Grim and Evil" which would become it's own series, but am I just talking about a random pilot then?  Well, yes, I'm going to start with that first. 

        

     The basic concept is that there are robots (duh) and there's apparently a robot child with robot parents, because that's how that works.  The "parents" now want  the younger robot to go to a human middle school and learn about humans. (To doom us all?)   Robot ,which I think is his first name,  doesn't want to go because humans are inefficient (it's because we sleep, isn't it). Robot already acts like a human in some ways so maybe oh my.   This begins the plot of what the series would be about a robot "child" going to human middle school to learn about humans through the eyes of our middle schoolers. (Which I'm not sure is the best idea)  So the pilot goes through Robot annoying the math teacher because he's a smart robot. (compared to a dumb robot)  Robot is in the principal's office and if he slips up again , he gets detention. (That'll teach the robot)  Tha to doesn't go well since he gets it anyway and this makes Robot mad, because he has a mood device inside for some reason. Anyway, he doesn't get detention.  He doesn't want to see another human again, until he sees a girl with braces, head gear and a prosthetic leg and falls in love. (Robot love the purest love?) 

He's been programmed to love/ Copyright Warner 

                            

         The first thing that gets me is the animation style. It's very dirty not bad, but meaning that it's not what you'd see in the later cartoons even the ones on Cartoon Network at the time, where it has a messier animation style, kind of matching up to the School House Rock cartoons.  It was also a hand drawn traditional cell animated series when cartoons had gone more to digital ink and paint.  Characters are in full color and so are some objects, but you'll notice the backgrounds are simple back and white, which gives everything else a way to pop out.   When Robot goes to the bus, the entire outside is black and white sketches, but the bus and Robot are in full color it really is kind of interesting and unique style. I like it.  It also fits its setting since the show also takes place in the 80's, which is interesting, but it was about the time for 80's nostalgia to show up. 

Life feels so bleak to me for some reason/Copyright Warner 

        There are two versions of the pilot, I'll get to that when I talk more about the show.  The pilot didn't win, but it did get second and well, and Cartoon Network went, I guess we should make this a series too.

   

       The full series premiered on July 19, 2002.  

      The first episode I'm looking at  has two segments, the standard of these shows,  of course. Robot has a mission from his mother to figure out a way to make a friend. That's right Robot has to make a friend. Now, this would be easier, but apparently the kids in the school don't want to befriend a robot (Why not?)  Robot finds two guys playing video games and he likes video games too. (Who knew?) Oh there are also two bullies because children's show. They are called the Yogmen twins named  Lenny and Denny who I don't think Robot should trust. They are also dressed like Devo, so whip it good. (whoa whoa time out for fun there) 

Devo were such mean kids/ Copyright Warner 

          Robot is convinced to follow them because he's an empty vessel robot. They trick Robot to scan the girl's changing room and wow I'm surprised that made into an episode, Cartoon Network early 2000's was on it's on edge there. Of course, Robot gets in trouble  They also make Robot get sprayed with pop which causes him to break dance. The two boys Robot met earlier are bothered by this and go to help Robot.  There's another thing to this show that's also fun, there's the homages to comic strips with the big lettering and pop quotes when needed that's a nice addition. 

    

       Yougmens also state they want Robot's brain  and get Robot away from the two boys. (Ironic, humans want the Robot's brain) It was actually easy to get his "brain" ( a light bulb like thing) Then he later goes to them and finds out they made a robot with his brain to be evil.  Poor Robot, even cries.  The boys from earlier come back and help him by programming him with a fighting game and is able to fight the other robot to get his "brain" back.   

   

     The episode ends with Robot doing a data log segment about what he learned. This episode expands upon the pilot, giving Robot some friends, who's names weren't mentioned in this episode but the named Cubey and Mitch.  For note, I looked at Episode 5a here, it feels more like a starting point than episode 1a

Weird way to spell friends/ Copyright Warner 

    

More after the jump

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #14: Mina and The count

Nickelodeon 

 Previously, hello I'm a cereal addict, hey Steve! [H

#14 Mina and the Count 

                                           What a Cartoon!   Season 2 episodes 4c, 5c, 7c, 9c, and 13c

        This  is going to sound weird, (what ever that means for this blog)  but our journey takes us away from Nickelodeon and "Oh Yeah! Cartoon" for a moment.  That's because this one has a longer story than some of our others

        Mina and the Count was created by Rob Renzetti , and it started as  a student film and eventually made a premiere on Cartoon Network's  "What A Catoon! Show" that's right it first aired on Ted Turner's cartoon station. 

   So here's how this post is going work, we are going to look at the five "Oh Yeah! Cartoon" shorts,but we are going to start with the "What a Cartoon!" short just to have some fun continuity. 

What a Cartoon! Mina and the Count; Interlude with a Vampire 

              Vlad the Count is doing what he does best going out and looking for fresh blood, for vampire reasons. We first meet Mina, our main character, and then our vampire guy wakes up because it's nighttime and that's when they wake up.  He shows up in Mina's room and uses his vampire hypnotism powers and realizes he made a mistake he was supposed to get her older sister who's 17 and not Mina who's 7.  (Ooops)  He accidently gets her out of the trance and she's attached to him and won't let go. ( a normal reaction to a creature of the night)  

       He tries to do anything to have her let go,  and ends up having to play with her.  Most of the cartoon has Vlad running off and being found  and having bad luck along the way. Her father hears the noise and sees Mina's room is a mess and her out of bed, the vampire hides as a doll (that works) and flees before dawn. Later he beats up Igor for screwing up.

 

  Mina and The Count: My Best Friend

     Oh Yeah Cartoons! Season 2 episode 9c

                 

        We now make our journey back to "Oh Yeah Cartoons!"  There are some changes not just to the animation, but the voice actress for Mina changed from Ashley Johnson to Tara Strong. The interesting thing about the switch over is that there is no re do of the pilot. It's just throwing you into maybe knowing already. 

       Mina is in school  and does a report about her best friend, talking about the vampire. (She  put in  the work though)  anyway a  boy makes fun of her because the whole vampires aren't real. The  boy's name is Nick so, hmmm wait.  

        Vlad seems to accept that he's Mina's friend, interesting, anyway he shows up and she tells him what happened.  He decides to teach her how to uh fright. It's kind of sweet to see him try to show her how  to scare to stop the bully.  Next day, she dresses like a vampire and tries to  make Nick not make fun of her, this doesn't work. 

 

       The next next day, Nick tries to stalk Nina but instead gets a note and gets to meet Vlad. The twist is kind of fun and you should watch it for that, but I'll say the resolution is good for Mina, at least. 

More after the jump 

Do Watch Elliott From Earth

Cartoon Network  Opinion 

     I was going to do a blog post about each episode, and give my thoughts on episodes one by one, that was my intention before the series premiered.  Then the series premiered, and I watched each day it came on the air (all 10 days straight).  Watching the show, I wasn't sure what to expect first, but now that I've watched it, I think this is a better way to a post about this show. 

       "Elliott From Earth" is a Cartoon Network series made from Cartoon Network's European Studios the same studios that made " The Amazing World of Gumball". You can see they might have a similar aesthetic to the series.  It is a different creator and writing staff. 

Copyright Cartoon Network Studios Europe 

  The very thing is called "Chapter One: The Journey Begins" and this chapter is 4, 11-minute episodes called "Wednesday" .

    

     The show starts with a very thematic feel to it start, we meet Elliott who is 11-years-old and seems to be on the quest to make friends. His mother a geologist named Frankie and live and travel in a R.V where she goes around trying to prove...aliens are real. She has this particular rock that she says came from outer space and might be a clue, she's also  been made fun by other geologists.  From the start, you can see Elliott is an optimistic character but long for stability and friends. He also likes dinosaurs, as noted by his toy dinosaur, that he introces to another boy with the same name.   

       

    The show sets up the characters well and I do like how it's the parent who thinks aliens are real  and it's not a kid trying  to have to convince his parent.  The art style is already amazing, and I like the designs, but more on that later. 

       

  The show is called "Elliott from EARTH" but he's still on Earth. We have to get to from part.  That means the meteorite.  So the meteorite is activated  sends them to another world. This is like a world like a forest/jungle/swap area. Strange frogs, which you will be seeing in future episodes as the little intro cards. I'm going to do this spoiler free, but do watch the show (heh the title of the post) and notice the little nuggets and details, this show rewards those who rewatch after the first time, you'll love it. 

      They also lose the meteorite, because we need our characters to stay from Earth not on Earth, or we have no plot. A dinosaur is met, a good boy, they name him Mo. They speak dinosaur and somehow the dino speaks their language, it's weird, but it's alright.  

      It's still Wednesday, we go to part 3, they find out, yes they are in a different world, but they were actually in a biosphere.  They are taken out of the biosphere because they aren't supposed to be there. This is the start of where you get to see the different alien creature-folk as the world building comes alive.  Already, we had some cool world building going on, and this makes it even better. 

    Episode 4 is the conclusion of Chapter One and the "Wednesday" arc. We meet the world of the show ,now we are in this beautiful city.  I won't give too much, as I promised but this episode does a good message of don't judge a book by its cover and it's actually the Mom who has to learn that. These four episodes set up the series well and it seems like it will be an interesting journey.  It is story-driven show, if you like that type of thing, like you can't watch it out of order really at all, so mind that for this part and the rest. 

           This show does have comedy and it's some great moments, that don't want to explain because this a post making a pitch to you to watch and enjoy this series yourself.   Episodes 5 and 6, I love how the tiles of these episodes are alliterative. I do love episodes and stories that take place at the same time but from different sides. I think case: episode 5 is same time focused on what Elliott and Mo are doing, while Episod 6 is with Frankie. That's fun.  Elliott goes to a school like place and is apprehensive about joining because we get some more backstory about how his constant moving made him not able to make friends. It's a nice touch, and the episode works well. Episode 6 drives the plot along with Frankie trying to learn more about this world and getting help with finding the meteorite.  

      Some episodes in the series are characters experiencing this world.  Pause. I'm going to mention it here the theme intro is awesome, I'm also surprised it was longer than 5 seconds, or at least allowed to air on tv and be longer than 5 seconds.  Gumball's theme is short for example on Live TV. Un pause. (what?)  I like these episodes where you learn about different characters, creatures and strange things in this world. Because it is a not a grounded our Earth world, there's stuff to play around with. Episodes 5 to 16 are Chapter 2, this book is little bottom heavy. (slight joke?) 

 

   What are some episodes that stood out to me between 5-10?   "Chaotic Clumping" is fun because of Mo and Elliott getting combined. It's also good example of a strength of this show, it takes plots we've seen and gives them twists.  The endings are especially great. 

   Episodes 11-15 have a great strength to them as well.  "Parallel Paradox" (episode 11) does a great job of  taking a plot we've seen before of character has to be in two places at once and executes its own style , spin and humor on it.  It's a funny episode just as much as anything else.   "Temporal Tedium" is a well done episode, the twist  of end is just perfect. This show has a dark humor it works well. 

  Episode 16 is the  Chapter 2 finale and, so far, the last episode that has aired. It ties stuff together from the other episodes and explains the deep the question of Mo learning what happened to dinosaurs. Which um well that's not good.  It feels like it's going to be an episode with one thing but that one thing ties it together and makes it a good episode that also wants you to want more. That's all I'm going to say.  

  

       This post is mostly me just saying I really love this show. It's not completely perfect, but it's a enjoyable ride. You can watch all the episodes in one sitting or as I did watched them when they premiered day by day.   

   

        Since this is a cartoon, the thing you notice is the art work . The colors have a neon look to them, it is a very colorful program, with the different alien species they have unique designs and colors and bring a whole lot to the look of the show.  As the title says, do watch this show, it's has fun characters, environments and stories to tell.  

  That's it for now, tune in next time when we figure out what this message from aliens telling us not to open this box means.  

          

The Lookback: Sheep in the Big City

Cartoon Network  The Flashback 
              

           On November 17th, 2000 Cartoon Network premiered a new show that was starring a simple farm animal, some call this animal  a sheep, those people are correct.   Sheep in the Big City is about a sheep named Sheep who moves to the big city.  It was created by Mo Willems, who had previously worked on Nickelodeon's "The Off Beats"  which aired on "Kablam" but didn't become a series.  He also some other accomplishments like working on Sesame street and "Code Name Kids Next Door".

   "Sheep in the Big City" is one of those Cartoon Network series that seems to have been forgotten about in the life of Cartoon Network.  To be honest, they had lot of shows that were popular and some shows just kind of slipped under the radar.  This  is a good series that didn't seem to last long.

    The premise of the series is Sheep, the sheep, is a happy sheep with a farmer named Farmer John (he's a farmer). His favorite sheep seems to be Sheep. There's a secret government organization (don't lose us now) run by General Specific (get it?)  and has a new giant ray gun. Also there's an angry scientist because this show is doing a reference to the difference between mad and angry.  The ray is powered by using a sheep. Guess what Sheep is, that's right (a horse?)  a sheep.  Only one sheep can fit it and well guess who? The general threatens Farmer if he doesn't give up Sheep, he'll destroy the farm.  Sheep decides to leave the farm to make sure he's safe and the farm isn't destroyed.  After he escapes , General Specific's right hand man, Private Public.

     Farmer goes out to look for Sheep and the military is looking for Sheep as well. Sheep has  to figure out life in the big city.   The series will mostly about Sheep living in the Big City and running from General Specific.

    Most episodes start with a fake show that ends up being something Sheep is watching  then he changes the channel and theme plays.    The show divides it's  22 minute stories into 3 segments, that's right it doesn't do two 11 eleven minute stories, each episode is the full length.    The titles of the different segments of episodes are sheep based puns because of course they , ewe wouldn't want it to not have sheep based puns, you'd lamb-bast the show.   Most of the show's  comedy is in word play.  There is some slip stick , especially with Sheep being hit , and characters hitting , punching, falling and other things.  Other parts of the show has it's own style with  commercials they do in the show, mostly from a company  called Oxy-Moron. (Get it ) Like how one ad  makes a viewer think they are doing a roach killing ad, instead doing a product that makes the angry roaches, happy.   It also incorporates other segments of different sketches.

             Going back to the words of the show, they use a high vocabulary set of words, as part of the show's nature.  This isn't really a talk down to an audience show. They have the narrator be part of the show, where he interacts with characters and events to the show and also does things for other the skits as well.

        One of the episodes. I really enjoyed was "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream!" ,which takes the idea of  a dream episode makes fun of it then accelerates into the most outrageous and funniest thing ever. It's a good example of the show's humor. 

          Funny enough, the other characters around Sheep are the interesting ones, since Sheep is a sheep who mostly functions as a sheep and does mostly normal sheep things.  So General Specific, Lady Richington for example are interesting characters. Lady Richington has a dog named Swanky , who Sheep is in love with ,but she doesn't like him so she hits him with her metal wig.  (That's a sentence) She finds new inventive ways to get Sheep away from her.  The angry scientist  doesn't like being called mad, that makes him angry.

             The show's look is very retro in design. The homages to old style advertising in the episodes fit the show well. I like it, it's something we don't see much even in this day and age.   The show has distinct design that makes it stand out. 


more after the jump

20 Years of Mike Lu and Og

CARTOON NETWORK  THE LOOKBACK 

       There are cartoon network series that seem to get slipped under the radar of bigger ones even now. (In fact, I wont' even say what shows I currently think slip under the radar, to keep this post current for 50 years or something) I think in the framing of 90's early 2000's Cartoon Network for "Powerpuff Girls" , "Dexter's Lab" there are shows that slip under that memorability.   This case it's "Mike Lu and Og"

          First airing on November 12th 1999.  To be pure and exact, it had a pilot that aired on "What a Cartoon Show" a year before this, but they already had made their choice for it be a series, obviously.     The series had 2 season and ran 26 episodes (or 52 segments). 

    The premise of this series is simple a girl named Mike who is from New York, and won't let you forget it, is an exchange student to a random Island. Where a few British settlers were shipwrecked and their descendants inhabit. Most of the episodes is Mike trying to figure out the island while also trying have the comforts of home and teaching them about her home lifestyle.

On the Left in Red: Mike/ Copyright Warner Media 

                     The main cast of characters ,besides Mike, are  Lu and Og.  Lu is younger than Mike but older than her cousin Og, She considers herself to be the princess of the Island.  A mostly stubborn character who wants things to go her way. 

                    

pictured : Lu / Copyright  Warner Media 

            Og is the youngest of the trio, and Lu's cousin.  He is very helpful to Mike's ideas because he is an inventor and scientist. He's the smartest of the three by default but gets caught up in everything as much as everyone else does. 

  

   pictured : Og/ Warner Media 

          There are other characters as well  like Lu's father is dotes on his daughter and is governor of the Island, thus why Lu acts like a princess.  There's Og's parents who have also taken in Mike as their exchange student guest.  There's Lu's turtle Lancelot, and a few other animals as well.  Interesting cast really. 

    

               Most of the episodes plots are simple: Mike wants the comforts of home and the episodes center around the islanders trying to figure  these modern things and customs.   The series was strange but it seemed to have fun with it's premise. It's interesting to see  Mike's reactions to island life yet, still missing things she's used to from home. I think it mostly takes place contemporary time  so he's put on an island with stuck in a past time attitudes. The Islanders are quirky and yet seem receptive to most of Mike's "oddities" 

  more after the jump 

Powerpuff Girls 20 : Every Superhero has an Origin Story

Cartoon Network  The Flashback 

       The Powerpuff Girls  first premiered in November of 1998 on Cartoon Network (though pilots for the series were featured a few years earlier).   Personal note : PPG is one of my favorite Cartoon Network series and was when it first ran too.  I have written about Powerpuff Girls Z when the remake series was starting in 2016 so, this time I decided to look at the Powerpuff Girls Movie that came out in theaters in 2002. (Yes I call this  a TV blog, but it's more than that it's just easier to say TV blog plus, this is based on a TV show)  This movie is an origin story of the Powerpuff Girls, even though the intro does explain how they were made this movie sets to explain how they became Townsville's  dedicated heroes.   As the title stays,  Superheroes do need origin stories. Apparently, this movie is the reason Cartoon Network seems weary of releasing anymore of their TV series to theaters.

    The narrator is in the movie too!  He starts with mentioning that Townsville is riddled with crime (why? no body knows)  and he asks if there's anyone in this town that can help make this better.  It brings us to the professor who does sciencey-science things.  There's also a monkey who's destroying his lab because the professor doesn't believe in cages for some reason.  The mixture in the open re-acts the intro of the Powerpuff Girls where chemical x is added to the mixture Professor Utonium was working on , and it explodes.   Bringing us the title card of the movie.

Woah I created life! / Copyright Warner Media 

     Three girls appear from the explosion and ask the professor what is his name.  They suggest that he gives them names.  He gives them names Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup.  He quickly decides to get them gifts because it's their birthday. There's something different about these girls- they have superpowers. (what?!)  There's a green money with his brain protruding out and dramatic music, that'll probably bring nothing later.  There's a montage of the professor and the girls getting to know each other and setting up their lives.  Since, they weren't born babies the next day is for school. Everyone at the Poke Oaks Kindergarten seems to like the girls.   There are somethings to learn about though, like what is tag?

That'll buff out/ Copyright Warner Media 

    This tag game goes wrong when the girls do  a long chase around the city causing some destruction.  This tag thing does take up a good long chunk of this 73 minute long movie (yeah it's not that long)  The mayor , who called Mayor in the series and movie sees that girls causing destruction actually, he wants  pickles. This is his favorite thing in the series too,  and the girls stop him from enjoying his pickle (that sounds wrong some how).  Professor  Utonium tells them when putting them to bed, that they should try not use their powers around town.

Girls. don't destroy the town next time. / Copyright Warner Media 

     The  next day, the girls go to school, which shouldn't be open because who runs a school while there's a river of water running through it with rebuilding work going on ?  There's some health and safety problems somewhere there.  The other kids don't like the girls anymore. (Also, this school has no electricity who does this?)  Meanwhile, the Mayor forms and angry mob because that's what mayors do , to arrest the professor.  Meaning he can't pick up the girls from school  and the girls start  to think the Professor hates them now.  The news media in the town call the girls freaks because bad people. Plot convenience time  : the girls see the TV videos calling them freaks , but don' t see the news report that the professor is in jail.

     The three of them try to walk home but get lost.   This is when they run into a gang called the Gang Green Gang but they are saved by a shadowy figure. It's the monkey from before. ( I'm shocked)   His name is JoJo.  He gets the girls to help him with his plan to "make the town better".   Will this  make the  town better?  Find out after the jump!

A Look at Craig of the Creek

CARTOON NETWORK 


           This is kind of our first look at a Cartoon Network series, something we really don't do much so, this is a moment in Joshuaonline history.  The series we are looking at is called "Craig of the Creek" it premiered just in March of this year.

   As an example I will be using the first episode as our reviewing episode so that if it sounds interesting there's room to check out the other episodes. Join us.

       The episode starts with Craig doing some drawing in the kitchen when his older brother , Bernard, tells him to move because he has some English work to do.  So Craig moves to the living room but then gets booted out because his sister Jessica wants to watch CNBC. (Not literally but you know one of those stock market things)  He travels to the room where his father is exercising and that gets ruined because of the air from the bike.

Draw! Copyright Tuner 

      Craig then goes to the creek part of the show's title. There are his two friends Kelsey and J.P. Craig is working on an atlas of the known parts of the creek where legendary kids have been .  (ooh an Atlas)   There's an area that's filled with poison ivy. (I'm itchy thinking about it)  The three of them decide to go there wearing protective clothing pass through it to be come 'legends'. (or die trying.) They notice a rustling the poison ivy something is there.  J.P's suit gets a tear in it and they have lost their calamine lotion and there's something in the poison ivy still rustling.  They try to evade  it   but they've run out of trees.  Craig decides to run into the poison ivy to get help and risking his own not itchiness. He jumps down but then bounces back on the tree (because he is a witch, what? don't look at me like that.)  and he suggests they gotta jump that they found a trampoline under the ivy.  All 3 of them jump up and down then a kid wearing just shorts comes out of the ivy in mysterious fashion.

Copyright Turner 

       He was the one following them, he's called "The Scatch less one" . (That's the name of my band) Unlike most people he's immune to poison ivy.  He explains that didn't have anywhere else to go and has six brothers and sisters at home so this was the one place he couldn't be bothered. Craig decides not to be legendary and puts on the map a warning to keep out. (awww)

copyright Turner 

   That's the first episode.   more after the jump

The Lookback : Cartoon Cartoon Fridays

The Flashback 
 
    This time on Joshuaonline we take a lokback at  daytime sitcoms repeats because... (Wait! We got mail!)

   Hello authors of Joshuaonline , I was wondering if you could do a lookback of Cartoon Network's Cartoon Cartoon Fridays , that is something I grew up with but I hope maybe you could feature it.

   That was an email sent to us by a nice (we hope so) reader who thinks we should look back at Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. So thanks David for the idea.   (You can email us too mychiller@inbox.com)
      I too remember this program block well , so why not take a look back at it.  While most of the the network TV blocks we lookback at for Children's shows was  Saturday Morning. Cartoon Network had the freedom of a different time ,  Friday Night.   Nowadays, Friday TV is bleak nobody does anything anymore. (We mean it , besides Disney Channel)  The networks do put new programming on Fridays , but in many cases it's either shows they didn't have room for anywhere else or sometimes in Fox's case shows to kill.  But that wasn't always the case.
 Cartoon Cartoons were what they called their original series programming to difference it from  the repeats of shows they were airing.
    Cartoon Network carved 4 hours on a Friday  night starting at 7PM ET /PT and started on June 11th 1999.  Originally the interstitial segments were odd things like fake weather forecasts ,  It also  had live-action humans featured and it looked like a PBS station  during drives.
                                                     
          Either that or Cartoon Network has lost it / watch some of the first day bumpers here 
       I  don't remember this style of presention as much I as remember the next (which we will get to in a second) .
       Cartoon Cartoon Fridays featured new episodes of CN's originals meaning we started with "Dexter's Laboratory" , "The Powerpuff Girls" , "Edd,Ed, n' Eddy", "Johnny Bravo" , and a few other shows that the network made themselves.
  By 2000 the block change to presentation I remember more where a character or 2  from a Cartoon Network show would "host" the block.
                  
                 Makes sense , plus you get some cool intro and apparently other cartoons in background.
  Not every show on the block was created by Cartoon Network ,well if there was a special occasion (like the month of December referenced above)   or  a new Cartoon Network show made by a corporate partner.   If you noticed unlike when I talked about "Disney's  One Saturday Morning" for example I talked about their schedule , well technically  CCF didn't have that it was 4 hours a mash up of Cartoon Cartoons  and it was more an event of TV for a Friday Night.
    Every summer from before the block launched to 2002, they had   big weekend called Cartoon Cartoon Weekend. For the 1997 and 1998 it ran around Thanksgiving , while 1999-2002 it ran in August.   They had a "Big Pick" where viewers could pick which pilot they saw on the air they think should be a new CN show.
  In 2000 viewers picked  "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" which then premiered in 2001.
In 2001 "Codename Kids Next Door " won.

                            
                          This is one of the shows that lost

    Though for as well as it did  changes were made (dun dun dun) with it renamed in 2003 to "Fridays" and hosted by humans.    In  May of 2003 , Cartoon Cartoon Fridays bowed out was replaced with Cartoon Cartoon Summer until October when the new format launched.  It did keep most of the spirit of the original and the whole point is the cartoons. (Yeah, I guess ....)
                             
                              That was one of the intros
  Fridays was hosted by  Tommy  Snider and Nzinga Blake, later on replaced by Tara Sands. They were featured between your cartoons with skits , guest stars and more. (Yay more!)  It ran 4 hours and then looped through out the evening. (As Adult Swim began take other nights) by it's end it was the only time of the week where Cartoon Network was broadcasting after 11PMET.  But as all things  in our lookbacks do .. it ended in February of 2007 ,after almost 10 years of Cartoon Cartoon and Fridays.   Fridays on Cartoon Network changed hands a few times before they gave up .

                               
                               We might not get into that...but don't say might.


But yes that's our lookback at what I think is great thing that  when networks on cable and broadcast still thought Friday was special. That hey  Friday Night could be the night to get new cartoons , not just Saturday Morning (which by 1999 was near death)  and that fun TV presentation could make a few hours of shows something special.
 
   Tune in next time when we try and make Wednesday the best night of the week for TV.   Thanks David.