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NETWORK TV Fall 2024
It's that time of year again! The networks are releasing their fall line ups
Kids WB had an very strange run in what it is in context of time. I've written about the block (twice!) and it seems there's a period where the block launches and lives on the idea of bringing in the Warner Bros. TV animated shows from FOX Kids, then in 1999, it decides Pokémon. Then it brings in some more anime, then it stops, then it dies. That also means that Kids WB has stuff they dropped in between the stuff they are known for likePhantom Investigators . Another case, would this show: Detention.
Funny enough, over on ABC, Disney had a series called Recess. That series came out in 1997 and was mostly a series that took place at a kids' favorite part of the school day :recess. I'm not saying that this show was trying to run on the success of that show or a copy of it. It's more a genre of show that existed that we really don't get now. Like Recess, Detention takes from something that happens at school and brings it to the forefront, that being detention. Unlike, recess -the time period- detention isn't seen as a very positive thing and isn't supposed to be. In media, it had different showings and usages. The famous depiction of the event is The Breakfast Club.
Detention , the series, takes a look at the idea of kids who somehow end up always being in detention and like The Breakfast Club has a mis-mash mixture of kids forced together in one spot. It premiered on Saturday, September 11, 1999 on the WB. The show was created by Bob Doucette.
The door that FOX opened just by existing is something of a television historical note that, if not for television or the media around today, would not exist in its current form. In short, without FOX existing as a broadcast network, there would have been no The WB or UPN, and probably no major vertical integration mergers where a movie studio with a TV studio would be co-owned with a broadcast network. There would have been no Disney owning ABC.
In 1993, well November 1993, Warner Bros. , a large movie and TV studio which would also be a a factor in many successful TV shows, including the soon to be big and popular "Friends" for NBC, was going to start their own broadcast network. Called The WB. Their primary partner, since WB didn't own local TV stations, compared to how Murdoch bought TV stations before launching FOX, would be Tribune Company. (Source) Tribune owned major stations in the top markets and a few other locals. (like the owners of the local station in Denver KWGN) They also owned a cable channel feed of Chicago's WGN, which would also be of help.
The WB was going to launch in January of 1995, and was coming a market that as different than FOX came in. There was way more cable competition, which was hurting local independent stations. Maybe having a network would help these stations, that was a theory. Even when though there was an explosion of new , mostly UHF, indie stations coming on in the 80's the market had worked for the content. Including weekday and non-Saturday children's programming. This gave us the Disney Afternoon , which birthed us FOX Kids. FOX Kids history should be noted here benefited from Warner Bros. programming in their assent to a top spot.
The WB network launched January 11, 1995, the KIDS WB block didn't launch until September 9, 1995. In theory, if anybody could launch a powerful kids with animation block would well Warner Brothers. Again, they had success on Fox with shows like "Animaniacs" , "Tiny Toon Adventures" , "Bat Man the animated series". If someone was to make up a theory that Warner saw how well their stuff was doing but not fully reaping the benefits and decided to go it on their own and here we go; that could make sense.
“People think networks produce shows and networks seem to take creative credit, when in fact, studios are the producers. Now people know who should take the bow, and that’s Warner Bros. Studios Animation.”
Those words from Jamie Kellner, the first head of The WB. He was also the former Fox president. Maybe the magic of FOX would help the WB. Though our post is only about the Kids block.
Kids WB, took FOX's model of being a Saturday Morning and Weekday block. When FOX came in there were 3 other blocks on Saturday morning, but NBC was bowing out, but three's also Nickelodeon on cable to worry about. In fact, cable is part of the WB more than FOX. In many markets the WB didn't not exist, even in the early days. In some markets, the cable company would pipe in a close by one, especially like Colorado Springs already having KWGN-TV in Denver on cable systems. (Hometown talk) Remember I also mentioned the WGN cable feed, which was also a WB network feed (unless a sports game took that out) that means for a selection of people the WB was a cable network, not a broadcast network. Of course, cable brings in local TV stations that do have over the air, but the WB might not be over the air in some areas. FOX Kids would be accessible than Kids WB! in some markets. In major top cities that wasn't a problem since the WB would even be on prime VHF stations like Channel 11 New York, Channel 5 LA, Channel 9 Chicago.
So this different for us to, might as well, plus it's a short-lived sitcom from the year 2000, which is now older than it was years ago. (What?) The series we're talking about is Grosse Pointe , a series that ran 17 episodes on the WB network. It was created by Darren Star the creator of Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Sex and the City, Younger , and more!
This series was a sitcom that first ran after Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Popular , at least at first. I'm going to frame this where it seems the WB was doing an older teen block with the Sabrina episodes being her in college, then this show and rounding out the night with "Popular" I can see what they were going for here.
Let's get on with this show. What's it about? The start of the very first episode starts with a "previously on "Grosse Pointe" like you just walked into something and somehow missed it, then it has two teenagers riding in a car talking about the girl's pregnancy, then a crash, she's in the hospital, then it cuts to two people watching what we were watching. Followed by the theme song which is the Tom Jones song "Sex Bomb" .
This show is parody of those teenage drama shows like the ones that Darren Star created above, and were on TV alot in the 1990's , kind of still around on the CW, but not as prolific as everyone was looking to create their own "90210". this show takes place in the behind the scenes of a teen drama set in Michigan. And the show airs on the WB network, so it's a WB show about a fake WB show.
The WB network presents a WB show about a WB show /Copyright Darren Star
In speaking of "Sabrina" Lindsay Sloane is in this series, she played Valerie on Sabrina in this show she's playing almost the same character, kind of a loser with low self-esteem. So Marcy Sternfeld is just the Sabrina character but in a different person. The first episode introduces a new character , to their world, everyone is new to us named Courtney Scott, who is playing a girl named Laura Johnson who moved to Grosse Pointe , the town, from West Virginia, the state (this joke is rolling) as she (Laura) is trying to get used to being a TV show set and finding her place and getting a handle on acting. She's played by Bonnie Somerville, this means this show has someone playing someone who's playing someone else, my head hurts. Somerville's first series role as in a main was this show she later got to play on "The OC"
What if we made a show about making a show about making a show with a show inside/Copyright Darren Star
The show again, is a parody and satire of those teen shows and the stuff that happens behind the scenes. The part where Courtney questions why she has to wear the outfit they pick for her and since the show takes place in Michigan it doesn't make sense. Anyway, fitting of a teen drama, this comedy series has continuing stories. At the end of episode 1, Johnny Bishop, played by Al Santos, might be falling for the new girl and making Marcy, who likes Johnny, worried. So our series has teen drama behind the teen drama series drama. (there's layers to this)
Why yes Sarah Michelle Gellar did make a guest role here
I also like how there's a someone who's whole role is to be a stand-in , of course he wants to be more than just a stand-in. This show also really works if you liked or (hated?) and know alot about "90210" they make those in-jokes and more character jokes too, about the genre. Like the Dawson casting, you know where like 30-year-old plays teenager, they do here having, the character , Quentin Barbary King, is balding older man. Also funny his actor Kohl Sudduth, was 25 or 26 when the show was on.
mmm product placement...
Also another adding to the story, from episode 2, the reason why Courtney was added was because the network doesn't want Hunter to screw up, if she does they have a character to replace her with. Instead, it turns episode 2 where Hunter now wants to get rid of Courtney as well. The plot works to where Marcy ends up bonding with Courtney finding out that she has a boyfriend. Hunter tries to continue the plan. It really does feel like a teen drama mixed in with being parody. Like backstabbing and staying on top being used as part of the plot.
So, my main point takes a teen drama style with it's characters and decides with the behind the scenes stuff and it having drama. Episode 3, has more of Hunter trying to get things to go her way wit the show by trying to set up stuff to work out for her. It also seemed that Dave, the stand-in, might have a thing for Marcy, setting up that it seems.
Episode hallmarks seem to be ending with scenes of "coming next week on Grosse Pointe". This matches up with the cold-opening doing scenes of either from the series or a previously episode. The one thing to also notice in this series is the words where they outright mention things that people might notice in these teen shows and in showbiz overall, it's sometimes noticeable.
Episode 4 is probably the most 2000 of the episode where Hunter wants to have a part in a new Oliver Stone film about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, which is something very 2000. Somehow the Lifetime movie reference is still timeless, interesting. Hunter has to gain wait for the role of Monica and it makes her become slightly nicer. The network people are worried about her weight gain because of the whole how TV networks want thinner actresses. This is an example of the show pointing out things that happen in show business, especially at the time this show was out. The people who work on the show seem to adjust a way to write this into their script, but then Hunter finds out she's not getting the part and she turns back into her normal self.
The episodes very much follow that same idea of having a center plot of slight drama mixed with comedic moments while it satirizes, teen dramas whilst giving some depth to it's own characters they don't feel like blank slates too much, you do get some investment from watching beyond the layer of it being a parody.
What makes this series work is the idea the series doing a parody doesn't just feel like it's pointing and laughing at what it's parodying. The characters are still interesting, and you get an investment in them. It does help that the people working on the show have experience in the content they are parodying, so they know how to do it. It doesn't feel like it's being spiteful and hateful towards the genre of teen dramas, but kind of pointing out the flaws and making you laugh with them. There's a lot that makes this show work, if you like "90210" this show works for them and if you don't, it works for those viewers as well. Though, I think it work more for those who like those kinds of shows, due to the in-jokes.
Since this is "Short Lived Series" segment, you can guess where this is going. The show premiered as a Friday night on the WB series, between "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" which the WB picked up from ABC. That show was popular, and the WB, had the show be Sabrina be in college and an older teen show, but still kind of family safe. The next show, being this one is slightly less family safe, and much of that lead-in might have not stuck around for this one, the show after this was "Popular" (that's the title). "Popular" which ironically was a teen drama. They moved "Grosse Pointe" to Sundays, but the decision was made to end it after 17 episodes.
The show was pretty well acted as well, the cast playing dual roles was interesting, especially given the roles of having to cover two characters. The show is well casted, even if they were going for a parody of mostly 90210, they also hold some distinctiveness.
Darren Star ended up alright, he was working on Sex and the City at the same time, he later created the TVLand series "Younger" which is like a teen drama but with older people. (or uhh same age actor people?)
I won't say this series was ahead of it's time, it fits in with the time, plus it was in the right hands of someone who knew the genre that was being satired which makes it even better and probably was the best way to do it. It seems the people writing the show weren't too afraid to make a little fun of themselves and the business, which is also a good touch.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we figure out how to get some characters in our teen drama out of this love pentagon, eh, I guess we could just have them stab each other, that's drama!
We don't write enough about the 2000's. Back into our safety zone with cartoons, but hey why not? But continuing with a theme of short lived series , this one is an interesting case. The series we look at today is from Kids WB called Phantom Investigators. (get it ? P I ) The series ran for 13 episodes in 2002 then it wasn't renewed. (More on that later)
If you have seen the Nickelodeon series "Kablam" you may have seen a featured cartoon segment called "Life with Loopy". The cartoon used a mixture of mediums , so it used cardboard and puppetry with stop motion and hand drawing. .
It was one of the main long lasting Kablam shorts that pretty much lasted the show's entire run. It never reached it's own series though. Life with Loopy was created by Stephen Holman who also created a segment for Liquid Television called Joe Normal.
You can see he had a style. Copyright MTV (We guess)
If we are going in order of appearance , Joe started then it was Loopy. Anyway we aren't really talking about either of these, but they give us a glimpse of what we are talking about today. In May of 2002, Kids WB added a new series to their Saturday Morning line up , it also probably aired on weekdays , but who knows?
The show is about 4 middle schoolers, 3 of them have powers and 1 doesn't. (Guess which one is the leader of the group?) Named Daemona, Jericho, Casey, and Kira. As stated before, 3 of the characters have a power. Jericho has the power of telekinetic powers , Casey can morph into things , and Kira has telepathic powers. (mind powers, mind powers).
They spend their days investigating things that happen in their town. (those meddling kids.) One episode has them investigating a ghost haunting at house. Meanwhile, episodes will have a sub plot of a character or more having a problem they need to solve.
Making a point of that it has the same creator as Life with Loopy you see the same style used here. There's that use of cardboard and puppetry gives the show a 3D feel while in a 2D world.
copyright Sony
Wouldn't be surprised if they actually burned the paper./
Of course the show features phantoms and other spookies and they use their style to their maximum with them.
Well, I am scared
Since he is dead he can take off his head.
For fun we are going to take a look at an episode directly. In this case episode 8 , "Were-Dog"
2016 marks our 10th birthday of Joshuaonline , when the site started it wasn't focused on TV and Media we eventually went that direction and refined what we cover and talk about , another thing is our record of early blog posts is missing because of quite bad early days of not understanding how posting works. Anyway, will be taking a look at Television stories that were big over the past 10 years starting with 2006.
If Joshuaonline was around in 1995, first off we would be 20 , we also would be looking at the launch of the WB and and UPN. The Concept of Independent stations , ones that if you were a kid in the 60's-80's were the ones the maybe had those movies , cartoons and sitcoms reruns without those pesky ABC,CBS,NBC clutter. They were places you could watch children's shows on the afternoon and movies and what not in the evening, some even had news at different times.
What time is the Eight PM movie ? Poor announcer ...wait someone hit the wrong button
more after the jump
Around this time between the 60's-80's there was ideas of a fourth network (never will happen) yes, a network that would make the big 3 , CBS , ABC and NBC, have to open their club to a 4th and hopefully this fourth network would make ABC finally pack it in. ( That's a joke) FOX was the most successful of that , they are still on the air as of this writing, FOX had began after buying up Metromedia stations and then having other independent stations join them. This was chipping away at the independent stations , something else was too: Cable. HBO had movies (jerks) and so did AMC. HBO and being able to rent movies or buy them (insert rich person name here) why watch on ole channel 32 with commercials or wait a couple years for the latest movie of 1982 come out when I can watch in 1983 anytime I want? Independent stations were still OK , they had other things, some had sports to benefit from (for now) Plus why watch channel 32 air "Lassie" at 5:30pm when I can watch whatever the heck this new cable thing was doing?
Now back to FOX, they had started off slow but did starting growing and well if someone sees a someone doing well with something and if they think (and have money to) they can do the same thing better well there you go. Also the government changed some rules (we could use this alot in writing TV and Radio topics) there was a set of rules called the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules. Not to get into explaining the whole thing , one thing of importance was that the FCC in the 1970 did not want the networks to have monopoly on television . (Insert your 2016 laughs here) They prevented the networks from owning the programs they made in primetime and also prevented programming being aired by a network (their owned stations ) from airing programming they had any stake in. If these rules were around today: NBC couldn't air Chicago Fire because Universal Television is a corporate relation. (This is alternate history if everything else stated the same) Also CBS owned stations couldn't air Entertainment Tonight ( eeehhh ) because CBS makes the show. This law may be the reason why MTM studios (Marty Tyler Moore) and the Norman Lear stuff was all over the networks more , because they were independent companies. (We may talk more about 70's TV in the future) The rules were relaxed in the 80's , though not removed due to Hollywood lobbies and Ronald Regan (who was an actor before ). The rules were seen as outdated after the rise of FOX (yep ) and cable. All the rules were repealed in 1995. (our source for this)
In 1993-4, when the rules were pretty much sharks without teeth now and would soon be starved off Warner Brothers and Paramount thought hey it would be a good time to jump into some network fun. Warner Brothers , along with Tribune , and Jamie Kellner came together and announced a new network , using Tribune's stations (in turn for 25% ownership of this new network) as their neculus. Tribune had stations in top markets and a national cable feed to help fill the gaps. This network was called the WB which launched on January 11, 1995. Meanwhile Paramount had kind of always wanted a network, they tried in the 40's and 50's they did have a stake in the first fourth TV network, Dumont. While they also were instrumental in helping the 3rd network , ABC, exist some more. Paramount bought some TV stations in the 90's and they found a partner to part own a new project : a network. Chris-Craft industries ,which owned a few stations including in the top 3 markets. They announced their new network , UPN, in 1993 . United Paramount Network, owned by Paramount (later Viacom ) and Chris-Craft (get it ? United) . They launched a few days after the WB in 1995. (We could have done a history of UPN and WB thing )
This brings us to our main 2006 point. On January 24th, 2006 it was announced by CBS and TimeWarner (see things changed ) that they were going to take their respective networks , UPN and The WB shut down them down, and take some programs and "merge" them this new network would by 50% owned by CBS corp and 50% by Time Warner, (Tribune got left out in the cold, but there was a deal for most of their affiliates that were WB to join this network for 10 years) (source)
The WB and UPN had moderate successes and failures but they felt it would be stronger to take the strongest programs, stronger stations (in some areas there was only a UPN or WB station while the other network didn't exist or had to be piped in on cable from a near by market) , and a name . The CW stands for Cbs and Warner Brothers.
this was the first logo .... ermmmm yep
Now in markets were there was a both this meant they had to choose their favorites , or the strongest station. In Tribune markets (except in Philadelphia ,Seattle, Atlanta ) they went with Tribune's WB affiliates , While in Philly and Seattle they went to CBS's UPN station because business politics is fun. In Boston, Miami, and Dallas CBS's UPN stations lost out so that was even , while in other markets CBS owned a UPN station minus the whole Tribune thing CW went there. In other markets it was whoever the network felt was stronger. The whole point was to make a stronger network out of the carnage of UPN and WB left overs. The Network structure was originally the WB's . They were doing Sunday Nights from 5/4c to 10/9c, Weeknights for 2 hours , daytime (formally the kids block ) from 3-5pm (time zone meaning nothing) and the Kids WB children's block. The Network launched in September.
this is logo they later announced and use today.
Now this plan looks good on paper and the first season did alright , not better than UPN or WB but alright . That writers strike (might do a 10 years thing about that ) that affect 2007-08 TV season and this hurt the CW. They killed off their comedy department they also laid off others and un filled some empty jobs. This is a factor in the end of KIDS WB (which you read our whole look back of here) where they sold the time to 4KIDS TV, while the CW was leasing things (Joshuaonline should have bought Tuesdays, darn it) they gave the 5 hour Sunday Nights to Media Rights Captial . CW was their weak night so someone buying their weakest night makes sense... it of course didn't work and they cut the deal in November 2008 (the same year) and replaced it with Drew Carey Show repeats and Jericho . WWE Smackdown (one of the UPN carry-overs) left in 2008 , for My Network TV (more on them later), even though it did well they dropped it because they were going after female viewers ages 18-34. (source) Then again if you are network with ratings problems and might not see 2010 , then you drop something people were watching on your network because it's not part of demographic is well , the wrong decade it's not like 1970's where people still might watch because there's only 6 channels, they can leave you and not come back.
Their demo chasing maybe did pay off anyway , they introduced shows like Gossip Girl ,and 90210. which had buzz and viewers, compared to whatever the heck "Valentine" was. They did give up on Sundays , giving that slot to the affiliates in 2009.
This brings us to around now , they did have a change in action in 2012 . First off , If I wrote in 2007 , that the CW would still be on the air in 2012, I would have called myself crazy. They dropped the whole one demo , everyone else go to CBS or NBC or wherever for your fun instead , for inclusive audience. Arrow came out which had 2 things going for it, it had corporate synergy since DC comics is owned by the parent company , and ratings. They added other genres too instead of just soapy soap stuff , they added "'Who's Line is it anyway?" a revival , Sci fi shows and more.
10 years into's life the network looks much better off than it did back in 2006 or even 2008 that it has more viewers , programs that people are watching, and even one of those shows won an Emmy. "Jane the Virgin" was their first show to do such. Interestingly, a lot of the shows on the network are from CBS or Warner, more so from Warner than CBS. Since it's a digital age they also have delved well into that . CW Seed is an internet platform with original shows, some library stuff .
What about those other stations left in the cold from that "merger" (it wasn't really a merger)? Well FOX owned the Chris-Craft stations for a few years, UPN affiliates in NYC, Chicago, LA, and some others were owned by FOX for 6 years. Their stations were in that group being left out of the CW. ( Tribune which had a relationship with the WB seemed more senese than having another an owner of another network run ...well that wasn't an owner of the CW.. your major affiliates) In February of 2006, about a month after the CW was announced they announced they were launching a new network called My Network TV. Not the best name, but FOX's parent had just bought Myspace , which was hot at the time , and was My everything. Their location stations websites were myfox.... .com . Stations that weren't owned by FOX but maybe were left out of the CW , could instead of becoming independent (because who needs that?) could join FOX's thing. They had a unique strategy that I personally found interesting they were going to bring telenovelas but in English
airing 5 nights a week in strip. The shows were in 3 month cycle and have recaps on the 6th night.
my Network TV, mine you don't touch!
Most networks have different programs each night , though the spanish networks , Univision , for example airs Telenovelas in prime time and airs them in a daily fashion. They also were going after that 18-34 audience the CW was going for, Now the network could have developed this more gone more traditional American soap , if they had to change the telenvoelas anyway , with cut off dates. A comedy running daily could have been fun and interesting where it's plots could run through the whole series in a few months, etc. They debuted in September of 2006, about 2 weeks before the CW. The ratings were alright they would be great if it was cable ,but getting less than a million on broadcast doesn't work well so they dropped the telenovelas in 2007. They really were on some lost track for 2 years of airing anything they could find. They did have one program that helped a little starting in 2008, they picked up the rights to WWE Smakdown , the first night that aired , MY Net(hahhaha ) beat the CW (ironc). In 2009 they found a new focus ...well an old focus they stopped being a network (didn't change the time) and started airing syndicated repeats. Smackdown packed up to Syfy in 2011. Currently they air one of the Law and Order spinoffs (so does everyone else) cable off repeats of The Closer, the biggest thing is they air the Walking Dead from AMC, which is the only thing not in weekend drama syndication.
It's not really a network anymore it's stations can move their programs to other times , for example in Seattle they air My Network TV stuff 12am-2am , some stations air their programs with digi network , like METV sharing the rest of channel space.
2006 was an interesting year in what happened in broadcast TV ,and as of this writing there's not been new networks launched on broadcast TV (well skipping the digital networks) and there may not ever be again. That was the last hurrah for ideas like that , there maybe other things done in a structure. If Joshuaonline had been doing TV talk in 2006 , I don't know what would have been said (we need a time machine) but it would been interesting to write about the new networks and what they were doing. That's our first 10 years article and we hope you will love the rest , though the others might not have so much back story.
Note: Though it seems now , the Tribune company and the CW are in discussion mode to see if they renew or if the CW will have to do something else.
The Flashback Children's TV
We now return to all our children's programs. Well, that got your attention, this time we are talking Kids WB something about this block to really note. It ran longer than the network it was created for , and it was the last weekday children's block on commercial TV.
The WB network was announced in 1993 as the network of Warner Brothers and Tribune Company (who owned a minority share and provided affiliates in major markets) and it launched in January of 1995. Many of the affiliates were stations that were non-affiliated (independents)and some former network affiliates. Like when we talked about FOX KIDS , many of these stations may have had their children's programming blocks of syndicated programs. But like the network itself , why not have a place to show-off Warner Brothers cartoons and library of shows for Children?
A new block of children's program yay!!!/ Warnerbrothers/Youtube
In the new fall season 1995, Kids WB launched it ran Weekday afternoons for 1 hour 4-5pm (all time zones , though could be adjusted) , and Saturday Mornings ,of course, 8AM-11AM. The Early programs were some Warner Brother's programs that were originally on FOX Kids or syndication: "Animaniacs". New series included : "Sylvester and Tweety mysteries" (Where the cat and bird solve mysteries together ) , Freakazoid! (about a teenager who absorbs his computer and gains all knowledge of things on the internet and becomes a super-hero), "Earthworm Jim" ( a super hero worm, no we didn't make these shows up) , and "Animaniacs" spin-off "Pinky and The Brain" (Narff).
See... we didn't make it up Warnerbrothers/ Youtube
They also later added cartoons of Batman and Superman and was doing well enough to expand Weekdays by 2 more hours ( 1 hour in the morning, and 1 more hour in the afternoon, though some stations would combine into 3 hours in the afternoon) , in 1997. Then something BIG happened. In 1999, Kids Wb picked up the English Dub of anime program , "Pokemon". The Program was a hit. (Stop!, Kids WB was not the first home on American TV for Pokemon, it was originally in syndication. Now back to your whatever this is) This helped it beat FOX Kids. (We bet someone at FOX Kids was not very happy about not getting Pokemon)
Oh my Gosh! it's Something amazing! Call Everyone!!!! | Youtube
When you buy anime and it does well, you buy more anime , and that's what they did.. like "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Oh , and the whole block didn't become anime fueled it still had other series to make the non anime fans happy.
OK, time for learning.. (E/I).
In 1996, Time Warner owned Warner Brothers (well of course) , Ted Turner (for some odd reason) sold his company to Time Warner, one of those properties was Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network was launched in 1992, as a place for Ted Turner to put all his cartoons that he had bought in the 80's somewhere. In March of 1997, Cartoon Network launched a block in the afternoon called Toonami. It was the home of Cartoon Network's action shows. (Yeah!!! Action!). Now keep that in mind.
( Can we get back to Kids'WB Now?)
In 2001 , the afternoon block was renamed Toonami on Kids WB it didn't air everything the Cartoon Network block did, but it did shows from Cartoon Network to the block ,namely the "Powerpuff Girls". Other shows were shared with Cartoon Network ,and some were Kids WB's own shows namely, "Nightmare Room". Sadly in 2001 the weekday morning block was discontinued. (For Newscasts, bad talk shows , or infomercials depending on where you are because that's fun) . This was around the same time as FOX Kids was in it's dying days, the weekday block of FOX kids had ended. UPN's weekday block ,which was done by Disney, and Kids WB were the only network weekday children's blocks left.
It's mix of outside and done-by-Warner-Brothers, and Cartoon Network co-operating continued. They introduced a new version of Scooby-Doo called "What's New Scooby-Doo" (Yes Scooby,what is new?) It was the first new Scooby Series in about a decade (the last Scooby-Doo series was A Pup named Scooby Doo , it was him as a puppy) after some direct to video releases and the other series airing in reruns on Cartoon Network, it was time. Scooby had a new voice and the series was a hip, cool 21st century making of "Scooby Doo, Where are you?"
Yeah rock theme song.... cool Warner Brothers/ Youtube
There was also more "Pokemon" , !Mucha Lucha!, more "Yu-Gi-Oh!", and more. In 2002, the Toonami on Kids WB name was removed and the weekday block was just called Kids WB. So it continued it's competition around it was changing around 2002. CBS had Nickelodeon programming, ABC was more Disney Channel Programming , FOX had given up and sold it's kids slot to 4Kids Entertainment , UPN didn't do children's TV ( local stations had to find their own), and NBC had gone to Discovery. So, Kids WB was the only commerical network with it's own programmed block of new programming. Though Cartoon Network programs were shared with Kids WB.
