Ákos got CN CEE after 9pm for a day

It falls on the "Toonzone user Red Arrow :D got Disney XD for a day after 18:00":
Ákos's TV provider, Digi, has proceeded to "test" CN CEE without TCM. Here's a photo:

It felt like Ákos was dreaming awake.

Olá jeitoso

Estás a ler isto? Well then:
I didn't have enough time to finish my CN history thing before the 1st of October, but I can try and finish it as well as putting some random Halloween-related stuff on it right up until the 31st.
The Hub will be replaced by Discovery Family on the 13th of October, but I don't know if the Brony virus will affect CN USA. I think that CN Scandi is still airing it in the early morning hours and CN Arabic used to air it.
But anyway, tomorrow I'll post lots of footage from CN USA in the past because the channel turns 22. At 20 it had all those ceremonies, at 21 it looked depressing.
Anyway, enjoy this song:

"Almost everything is in English"

In the first few minutes of today's episode of RTP 1's show called "Bem-Vindos a Beirais", some actress said that she couldn't wait for the end of that English class, someole else told her that English is important, almost everything was in English, she learned English easily from reality-shows and the English teacher doesn't want to show that kind of thing, and instead shows boring movies from the past century.
Missing something?

This week, episode six of Around the World

With a primary focus on the new Boomerang LA/BR.

CN HQ October 2014 schedules

WEEKDAYS:
04:00 - Ed, Edd n Eddy
04:20 - Johnny Test
05:10 - Ben 10: Omniverse
05:35 - Grojband
06:00 - Adventure Time
06:15 - Steven Universe
06:25 - Johnny Test
07:15 - Total Drama: All-Stars
08:05 - Grojband
08:30 - Ben 10: Omniverse
08:55 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
09:45 - Teen Titans GO!
10:10 - The Amazing World of Gumball
11:00 - Johnny Test
11:50 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
12:40 - Regular Show
13:30 - Adventure Time
13:55 - The Amazing World of Gumball
14:45 - Ben 10: Omniverse
15:10 - Steven Universe
15:35 - Adventure Time
16:00 - Regular Show
16:25 - Total Drama: Pahkitew Island
16:50 - Grojband
17:15 - Johnny Bravo
17:40 - Dexter's Laboratory
18:05 - Ed, Edd n Eddy
18:30 - Cow and Chicken
18:55 - Adventure Time
19:45 - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
WEEKENDS:
04:00 - Ed, Edd n Eddy
04:25 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
05:15 - Teen Titans GO!
05:40 - Grojband
06:05 - Ben 10: Omniverse
07:00 - Incredible Crew
07:20 - Adventure Time
07:45 - Uncle Grandpa
08:10 - The Amazing World of Gumball
08:35 - Regular Show
09:00 - Steven Universe
09:25 - Total Drama: Pahkitew Island
09:50 - Grojband
10:15 - Total Drama: All-Stars
11:05 - Adventure Time
11:55 - Regular Show
12:45 - Ben 10: Omniverse
13:35 - Teen Titans GO!
14:25 - Ben 10
15:15 - Johnny Test
16:05 - Dragons: Defenders of Berk
16:55 - Johnny Bravo
17:20 - Ed, Edd n Eddy
17:45 - Dexter's Laboratory
18:10 - Total Drama World Tour
19:00 - Regular Show
19:00 - Cow and Chicken
I'll edit it later on.

Popeye music (and titlecards) used on RTP 1 this evening

Once again, RTP 1 is continuing to insist in a weekly series of five mini-documentaries. This week: Trocado em Miúdos (wasn't this the name of an RTP show in the past?). They used the KFS-era Popeye intro and version of the theme.
And we can't watch it. Oh well...
...remember when those episodes were promoted on BM HQ with "In The Navy" by the Village People?

Cartoon Network Music: the channel?

Don't trust on the Romanian Wikipedia for that:
Cartoon Network Music este un canal de televiziune privat comercial din România, axat pe muzica. A fost lansat pe 3 aprilie 2014 și este deținut de compania ProTV SA.

Infobox:

Cartoon Network Music

Lansat la 1 iulie 2014

Proprietar ProTV SA

Format imagine 4:3/16:9 (576i SDTV)

Slogan „Check Music!”

Țară România

Acoperire România

Numit în trecut Sport.ro

Canale înrudite Pro TV, Pro TV Internațional, Acasă, Acasă Gold, Pro Cinema, MTV România

Pagina oficială www.cartoonnetwork.ro

Acces

Satelit

SESAT 1

Dolce Canalul 465

Televiziune prin cablu

NextGen

AKTA

UPC

RCS&RDS

Thanks to Francisque from Toonzone for pointing out that. I decided to recover the entire text when it removes, no such channel exists and Sport.ro is still around.

I just need some time today

Plus with the latest school changes, I'll post tons of videos next Wednesday.

No Dash! Yonkuro on CN Arabic next Saturday

It seems that they turned back and will show a Tom and Jerry movie instead.
No anime for you.

October schedules to be posted tomorrow

Tomorrow evening, in this case.

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 6: Changing looks

As Cartoon Network added more and more original shows on the schedule, a new look was needed. In the USA, Checkerboard left and Powerhouse came.

This look was also adopted by CN LA, CN BR, CN SEA, CN JP and CN AU.
In Europe and India, a different look, designed by Cosgrove-Hall, was used instead:

Meanwhile, new CN feeds were being launched: CN JP (for Japan), CN PL/CEE (with Polish, Hungarian and Romanian audio tracks), CN NU, CN FR, CN ES and CN IT.
At this point, CN HQ was being separated from CN UK, finally achieving it in 2001.
That same year led to the introduction of a new look, designed in Spain by Ink Apache (their codename for the look is Casillas):

CN Real

I will only cover CN Real either Monday or Tuesday. It won't be an annex.

The History of Cartoon Network - Annex 6: The Big Pick

The sequel to What-A-Cartoon!, this time it was made through CN's most-successful comedy block of the time: Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
The first edition was made in August 2000. The highest-rated shorts were The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? and Longhair and Doubledome. GAOBAM won, but eventually WHtRJ got it's own vendetta and got it's unsuccessful show.
In 2001, the following shorts aired:
Captain Sturdy
Yee-Haw and Doo-Dah
Imp, Inc.
My Freaky Family
Major Flake
Utica Cartoon
The Kids Next Door
Swaroop
Ferret and Parrot
A Kitty Bobo Show
KND won with "No P in the Ool".

BM LA has rebranded

If you were expecting this weekend to be the end of the old Latin American Boomerang, think again: it's not.
Instead, BM LA has proceeded to rebrand today coinciding with the start of the marathon that will get to see how the new version of the channel looks like.
Here's the new logo:

However, another logo could be used:

But they turned it down because it looks like this (in my opinion):

CN promo for TV providers

This promo was primarily used for information channels on TV providers in the late 90s (in this case, (Time Warner) Oceanic Cable in Hawaii).

CN HQ/SEA blogs

I found it! (not the space cabbage)
Click here.

CN PT didn't work this morning

I was expecting to see CN HQ but they didn't.

Tomorrow morning, more on CN's history as we go into the late 90s

Followed by The Big Pick, on this blog.
I just need the time to squeeze all of CN's history in three days.

Checkerboard-era CN bumpers

Items

Enjoy your favorite characters on Cartoon Network (CN LA, in Spanish)

Eyes

and some more

CCF AU footage

It's from Australia, they had the .com Pick and Premiere Premiere brands.

Mojo Jojo on CCF

Features his spoof of The Outer Limits:

JBVO: all segments from 2000

A few minutes worth of JBVO segments. In a few years, new generations will know about that fast recap.

The History of Cartoon Network - Annex 5: What-A-Cartoon!

When Cartoon Network launched it was initially an animation showcase channel, the channel lacked something. Their own content. All of a sudden, Fred Seibert launched What-A-Cartoon while at Hanna-Barbera, and Cartoon Network would never be the same again.

The format was successful, 79 shorts were selected, 48 shorts were picked and a handful of them got their own shows. The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory had two shorts, Cow and Chicken, and Courage the Cowardly Dog had one, plus Dino, who desperately wanted to get a spin-off of it's own, had one, but it didn't get past the nominations.
What about the rest? Surely they didn't get past the nominations as well, but those shorts got some love by the producers. Can you imagine seeing Mina and the Count as an actual series?

Or Shnookums and Meat?

Or Pizza Boy?

Or Larry and Steve... oh, wait, hang on, it's Family Guy.
Eventually these shorts got packaged as "The What-A-Cartoon Show", and later on, "World Premiere Toons".


There was also an offshoot called Web Premiere Toons, but just save it for next week.

Simon's rant/review: Cartoon Network

A 3-part rant/review on CN's shows, how good or bad they were and with some trouble in pronouncing it.

Part 2 can't be embedded, watch it here

Moxy and Flea

Footage from the show nobody knew (that's just a metaphor) if it aired in Europe:

10 Years in 60 Seconds

The first time CN cared on an anniversary, it seems that they only care about that every ten years.

Cartoon Network's Non-Stop Stones-a-Thon

From 1995. This marathon introduced the unseen pilot known as "The Flagstones" to the public.

Toonami on Kids WB

There once was a time (the best time there ever was!)
where you could watch Toonami shows on broadcast TV.
Shame that they didn't make many CN shows available on Kids WB. Nine in Australia did that on their version.

CN USA's The Last Bell

Breaks from a short-lived mid-afternoon block in 2003.

CN Groovies - Pork Jam

Pork Jam was the only Groovie to air on CN HQ, by my reckoning.

An announcement - CN USA turns 22

During the course of the next few days, up until next Wednesday (October 1st), I'll post a variety of CN USA bumpers and promos. I'm trying to squeeze as much CN history I can because I have four days left.

Later tonight: a quick overview of What-A-Cartoon!

(I know the video has the intro to the "first" PPG pilot (the first one was The Whoopass Girls) but it is generally accepted that I use "first" in quotations.)

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 5: Nationwide expansion

When Cartoon Network launched in the USA, it wasn't widely available as it is now. As I already said, CN could be available to most of the USA on TNT's CN block, which eventually mutated into TNT Toons, then Disaster Area (on TBS) and then it was removed from the schedule of both channels.

Thanks to these package deals, Cartoon Network began to look into expansion.
And with that, CN had become the fifth most-watched cable channel in the US.
Also, TCM launched in 1994 (Turner's 6th brand), they would later timeshare with CN in most of Europe.

CN PT recognized Nuno Markl

but they are unaware of how bad the songs sound like in the Portuguese version (the songs, in his opinion, sound like they were interpreted by The Voice contestants).
Tomorrow, I'll post the "good" version of this on Cartoon World Portugal.

The two other times where Nuno Markl talked about AT

In the days of CN HQ
After the switch
Also, don't switch to English on CN PT. It's a ruined experience.

Once again, Markl and AT

I've already commented here with other people who say that CN PT is awful.
I'm not alone.

I'll make another CN History annex this weekend.

It will be about What A Cartoon! on Saturday, and about The Big Pick on Sunday.

CN Arabic's HD version has just closed

Info from SP/NC IV:
CN Arabic's HD version, available only to the Middle East (not available in North Africa) has just closed, due to it being not widely available and it only broadcast via YahLive.
A timeshift version of the channel exists on MyHD.

Announcements

I have some difficulties in doing what I am going to write right now:
-Change the background to a CHECK it. 1.0 one.
-Add a direct link to this blog's Facebook page. Cartoon Media Group's blogs have one.

The History of Cartoon Network - Annex 4: Preschool blocks and Cartoonito

CN has tested the waters in preschool programming various times. The first two examples were in the 90s, with Smallworld and Big Bag. Both blocks were also shown on CN LA and BR, and Big Bag got localized versions for Brazil (on TV Cultura), France (on Canal J) and the UK (on ITV).

Small World aired short shows from Europe, the USA and Canada. Big Bag was similar, except that the shorts were contained in a show that had 30 episodes:
But neither of those blocks were successful.
CN IN, CN SEA and CN PK had Tiny TV, a block which found some success in India and eventually transferred to Pogo. CN KR also had it, prior to the adoption of the CHECK it./Sinnaneun Jaemi (Fun and Exciting) look. It also went to European shores on the Scandinavian version, as Lilletoon, in four languages: English, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.

The Japanese, ever the individualists, proceeded to make their own pre-school block called Pipora Pepora (ピぽらペポら). This block debuted in 2003 and was a two-hour block repeated several (2-3) times a day. It was replaced by Cartoonito in 2011, in line with the brand's expansion. If Cartoonito was a channel in Japan, then Pipora Pepora could return in form of a block focusing on short-form shows.
That's just my speculation.
After attempting to push the preschool demographic with Pecola (the Korean cartoon where everyone is made out cubes) and (to some extent) Hamtaro, another experiment was made in 2005 with Tickle U.

There's no sound on this video, but you can find (very little) footage of it online.

This block lasted for a little over a year and aired mostly short-form shows like Peppa Pig, Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto!, the then-new Gerald McBoing Boing remake, Firehouse Tales, Krypto the Superdog, Gordon the Garden Gnome and Little Robots.
Oh, and Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs.
But eventually the block got cancelled here and there and pre-school programming on CN USA was reduced to Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs and a new show called Ellen's Acres. Gerald McBoing Boing moved to Boomerang. And then those shows were removed from the schedule.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Cartoonito (initially a block on CN Too) was born:

Within less than a year it finally got it's own channel, and four years later, it had become a block on various versions of Boomerang, new channels for Spain (which closed last year) and Italy, and eventually sacrificing the block at the start of 2014 on BM HQ and BM EE.
Recently Cartoonito launched a channel in Asia, and they are trying to put the brand in Latin America, but as Mariana from Toonzone pointed out months ago, the name could be Cartoonzinho in Brazil.

World's largest poo poo cushion

Features some Engrish pronunciation.
Thanks, CN FR!

The History of Cartoon Network: Annex 3: Summer Fridays, Cartoon Network Fridays, Fried Dynamite/Dynamite Action Squad and You Are Here

When last we left our CCF story, CCF was considered obsolete and Summer Fridays took it's place.

There's one thing I'd like to explain: why are the Teen Titans characters doing on the show's bumpers? Initially, the show was intended to premiere episodes on Friday nights, but they turned it down and instead wanted to show it on Saturday mornings.
But Summer Fridays was only a temporary block - in September, a new, completely different block took it's place.

That's not what you're expecting. That's footage from the Australian version of the block which somehow survived the end of the American version.
But anyway...
September 5th, 2003. Out went Summer Fridays (and the CCF dynasty) and a new block, going under the name of Fridays was launched. Though this is not the Fridays I'm going to talk about.
This "Fridays" was known as "Cartoon Network's Fridays" and was a Summer Fridays without the word Summer. Have you a murky past?
Not much of this block is known to exist, The Fridays I'm going to talk about right now premiered on the 3rd of October and it was initially hosted by Tommy Snider and Nzinga Blake. The show commenced with a minute-long title sequence featuring tons of H-B and CN characters, most of them never got to see their own fifteen minutes of fame on the block itself:

(Another TT reference: WHY are Starfire and Robin on the intro? TT rarely aired on Friday nights)
Anyway...

The video you've just seen comes from a later phase, which was new for 2005: Nzinga Blake left Fridays and was replaced with Tara Strong, owing to, uh, I don't know. The intro changed, looking more modern this time (in terms of characters).
This block was successful and was eventually exported to Australia in 2004, also introducing two local brands: the .com Pick from the CCF era and the Double Play. The Premiere Premiere brand was abolished.
Meanwhile in the USA, things were getting more and more nonsensical as the years progressed. It had tons of weird segments (like Whiskers, The Cast Who Can Name Fruit or Rev Chase). They made a contest in the show's dying month (January 2007) to see who could promote Re-Animated. No one knows who won.
And then Stuart Snyder came and decided to drop Fridays. The replacement only came around on August 31st. It was not the name of one block, but two blocks: one for Friday night comedy premieres and one for Saturday morning action shows. The names were Fried Dynamite (Fridays) and Dynamite Action Squad (Saturdays).

Fried Dynamite was unsuccessful.
It did, however, run for a little over a full year (ending on September 26th, 2008). Into the Noods, and You Are Here is born. And, after nine years, it was a complete change of tack: action shows on Friday nights.

And they eventually decided to call it "Action Fridays" with the start of the CHECK it. era,  but it wasn't a proper block. They later on proceeded to the launch of DC Nation, to which Teen Titans GO! has become the most successful DC Nation show so far, to the dismay of Young Justice gans.
But You Are Here also marked another change of tack: comedy premieres on Thursdays (first as CN Thursday Nights, then as HAR HAR THARSDAYS) and later on Mondays and now on Thursdays again (I'm talking about AT, RS and TAWOGB as examples).
Fifteen years later and CN's Friday nights have had so many changes, currently they're not part of a block right now.

The History of Cartoon Network . Annex 2: CCF

If it wasn't for Cartoon Network in the USA, Friday nights weren't dead zones on prime time thanks to it. Technically CN was competing with other cable networks at that time of night, generally between 7 and 11, when primetime shows are on.
This aversion was made because Friday nights mean that the weekend was about to start and most people were out. However, most pizza places (understand it as places like Chuck E. Cheese's, which we never had) had their TVs turned on Cartoon Network.
CN launched Cartoon Cartoon Fridays on June 11th, 1999.

As the video shows, the first segment was the "CCF lottery". In this first phase, all schedule bumpers were live-action and featured guest stars like Jack Horkheimer, host of "Star Gazer", a show that aired on PBS stations (mostly before they shut down every night) up until his death in 2010, an NFL football player, a meteorologist, the Grambling State Marching Band and others.

CCF premiered in great success, but the live-action format was quite difficult for the CN of the time. On June 9th, 2000, it got it's first revamp, which led to define a generation of (let's just say) three years of Friday nights:

This format was times more successful than the previous one, mostly because the "cartoon characters as hosts" motif probably suited well. Prroduction was now at the hands of Primal Logic, who proceeded to design the City era in 2004.
A Halloween special, called "Scare-Toon Scare-Toon Fright-Days" was broadcast on October 4th, 2002, featuring two direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies (a sign that later on, CN USA would show most of them all the time) and new episodes of Courage, the Cowardly Dog and Grim and Evil.

There were also CC Weekends on various feeds and the block was a worldwide success, airing for a while on CN UK, CN SEA, CN BR, CN LA and CN AU. CN AU kept with it until late 2007, where it was replaced by "The All New Show Show" hosted by Bloo.
Unfortunately, the one thing we don't have golden ages is... they end.
On May 19th, 2003, CCF aired on CN USA for the final time, but the last CCF wasn't symbolic. They didn't know that their temporary replacement, Summer Fridays was yet to come and they didn't do something special for the last edition.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this Friday night spotlight where we look at CN USA on Friday nights after CCF's demise.

CN Azeri fansite

An abomination made on WIX, constantly playing computer sounds made by the creator of the site, with CN TR videos and a fandub of Ben 10,.
Click here.

Ben 10 in Azerbaijan

The reason why they get the Turkish CN:
-it airs on ANS (which used to be a news channel)
-They have a rather disturbing digital clock
-The theme song is lectored in Azerbaijani instead of being sung
IT'S AN ABOMINATION!!!

New CN HQ music filler bumpers

Once again, info confirmed by SP/NC IV: CN HQ is airing the TT GO! theme song and Waffles song during breaks. No videos of those, but here's a video of the AT one. I should be watching those episodes in ten minutes.

Around the World nº 5

Fresh as Chanel Nº 5. features Dash! Yonkuro and Boomerang, which we'll have more details about it in due course.

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

Clarence won't come to CN HQ in October

Nartoon Catwork IV confirmed this, CN HQ is currently showing no teaser promos for it.

Your Shout: Boomerang HQ with Portuguese audio

Can Boomerang HQ return to our country with a partial Portuguese audio track?
If that can happen, is that a possibility or is it a distant possibility?

Tom and Jerry is popular in Mozambique

Ask Televisão de Moçambique for that, a few months ago they aired it three times a day!
And there's a kindergarten with that name!
They still have to watch The Tom and Jerry show to give them a little food for thought.

The History of Cartoon Network - Annex 1: Toonami

(This is a work in progress)
Cartoon Network tried to insist on two different sides of animation from day one: comedy and action. CN USA did various experiments, the most notable of which were Power Zone and Super Adventures, later replaced by Afternoon Adventures. On March 17th, 1997, Toonami launched, featuring Moltar as host:

By the end of the decade, TOM (Toonami Operated Module) replaced Moltar as the host and started to define a generation worth of Toonami:

The block ended on CN in 2008:

In 2012, it returned to CN USA, this time on Adult Swim, having had rebrands in 2013 and 2014. Toonami Asia also exists since December 1st, 2012, airing mostly action cartoons.

Top Cat is popular in Sri Lanka

And it has been for at least three decades. Ask Rupavahini.
I can't imagine that a country so small which only got television 35 years ago has turned TC into a cult cartoon for Sri Lankans. Over here it was never popular.

Around the World, number four

What a despairfest of an episode, I was depressed.

Features a full theme song of a Korean cartoon.

GO! GO!

TNT/TCM with subtitles?

An old TV Cabo website from 1998/2000 claimed that TNT/TCM aired with Engilsh subtitles as well.
Does anyone remember seeing a subtitled movie on TNT/TCM?

An announcement

In the past couple of hours my blog has been seen 23 times by French people. My Darwin the Merman dub notes post was the most popular post last week.
I'll see if I cna record Around the World's fourth episode tonight. Unfortunately, I couldn't did that because I didn't have enough time.

I don't have the time to do Around the World rignt now

It will probably be recorded next Monday.

Still without confirmation

With CN PT out of the Top 10 recently (appearing yesterday on 13th place), it seems that this is a sign that CN HQ will (probably) return, but I'm not sure considering that I haven't got any positive reviews on my petition.

Elfy Food

Series of interstitials that aired on CN UK in 2005. It also aired on a few other European feeds. Any confirmation?

Pimba

I can't believe it. In the EU-PT dub of the episode "This Is My Jam", they say the word "pimba".
Pimba is a word generally used to translate words like "pow!", "crash!", "bang!" and "wallop!". The word defined the worst genre of Portuguese music for two decades now thanks to Emanuel and his "Pimba Pimba". Recently it has been airing A LOT on TV.
PLEASE DON'T LET ME WATCH THIS DUB AGAIN

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 4: International expansion

Ted Turner was a visionary. He knew that a channel based entirely on airing cartoons would become successful. Package deals involving TNT led to the channel's expansion in the USA. The next step: extend the channel beyond borders.
The first localized version of Cartoon Network was a Latin American feed, two subfeeds of the American feed: one for the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin American Spanish and one for Brazil in Brazilian Portuguese. The feeds eventually split off, creating four separate LA feeds: three for the Spanish countries and one for Brazil.

The channel launched on April 30th, 1993, thus becoming the first international CN feed. We don't know if there's any video of this protozoic "Blocks" bumper:

The fourth feed followed afterwards, on September 17th, 1993: say hello to CN Europe. The channel offered us "Toons Without Frontiers" (which may or may not be a deliberate reference to Jeux Sans Frontières/Jogos Sem Fronteiras/It's a Knockout/Games Without Frontiers, which was highly popular at the time), that being the channel's first slogan in Europe, as this video demonstrates:

The channel was initially broadcast in English, Swedish and French. Eventually new languages were added: Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Danish.
The channel initially broadcast for fourteen hours: between 05:00 and 19:00 WET. After 19:00, the channel handed over to TNT, which was Turner's first foray into the classic movie business, predating TCM by almost a year.

This combined service was generally known as TNT & Cartoon Network:

Launch promotions claimed it as "2 New Channels in 1", later changed to "2 Great Channels in 1". The promos involved classic movie couples, alluding to TNT ending with a cartoon couple, alluding to Cartoon Network:

Here's how it was covered by a French magazine:

Eventually the combined service launched in the Asia-Pacific region. On October 6th, 1994, Cartoon Network SEA began broadcasting out of Hong Kong for Hong Kong, Macao and South East Asia. Currently the broadcast area excludes the Philippines which get their own feed between 06:00 and 00:00, with a simulcast of CN SEA overnight, the Maldives, Sri Lanka (replacing the Indian version) and Mongolia. On May 1st, CN India began broadcasting out of Mumbai for the Indian subcontinent. CN Australia launched on October 3rd, 1995, broadcasting out of Sydner for Oceania. All feeds broadcasted from 06:00 to 21:00 (IST, HK/MAL/SING and NSW times, respectively) with TNT Classic Movies taking over the remaining hours. On SKY in New Zealand, in-house channel Orange filled in the slot left out by TNT for unknown reasons.
CN SEA was inaugurated at 12:00 HK/MAL/SING, the same time as CN USA.
I don't know what languages were available on CN SEA and CN IN at launch. I think that CN IN was bilingual (English and Hindi) and that Tamil was added at a later point.
Next time: annexes featuring Toonami, CCF (plus a separate post looking at it's successors), Cartoonito (also featuring pre-Cartoonito attempts at pre-school blocks) and other blocks.

#JMDProut again

Before we didn't care about Cartoon Network

Before the dark ages of CN HQ, we didn't want to watch it in Portuguese.
It had healthy ratings.
It had Portuguese descriptions on TV Cabo's EPG.
We just sticked at calling it "Cartoon".
Then they didn't care about it.
Then CN PT launched, it's popularity increased and we cared about it again.
More than CN HQ.

Tomorrow morning, episode four of Around the World

I just need some time to do it. It will be recorded tomorrow morning.

Everyone else is getting The Tom and Jerry Show

What about us? We sitll want to see it.

Why did they make the switch only to remove this channel, depriving us from watching this show?

TAWOGB visits Merry Hill

This was confirmer today by Toonzone user RegularCapital: the producers used his local mall, Merry Hill (from Dudley) in the episode "The Mothers". See for yourself:


They also did the inside:

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 3: The launch

Last time, we talked about how CN was conceived thanks to their acquisition of Hanna-Barbera in 1991. Now let's talk about the channel's launch and carriage when it first started.

The video seen here is the launch promo. Eventually they came up with the launch date of October 1st. At noon, the channel launched.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no video of how it launched. According to a newspaper, this was how it launched, and I'm quoting it:
"In a private ceremony Thursday, Turner himself will launch the channel with the push of an Acme dynamite plunger on the front lawn of Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s facility on Techwood Drive.
The plunger will spark a fuse, which will explode a barrel of colored chicken feathers and confetti. Then, on a huge TV screen will pop the picture: a cartoon character named Droopy Dog introducing the world to Turner's new "cartoon universe"."
Unfortunately, the channel could only be seen by lucky people living in New York, Washington DC, Detroit and Philadelphia. But what about Atlanta? It could only be seen privately by Ted Turner until they decided to expand the channel nationwide.
Anyway, the first show on the channel was "Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network". Yes, you've heard it, "the Cartoon Network", and until 1995 it was "the Cartoon Network" on promos. The first cartoon on the channel was Rhapsody Rabbit, but in recent years some people claim that The Great Piggy Bank Robbery was shown.
Initially, the channel could get more availability thanks to package deals involving TNT, hence the "Cartoon Network on TNT" block, which eventually triggered the timeshared channel that was broadcast to the EMEA region less than a year after it launched in the USA. We'll see that in due course.

Today is the #JMDProut

I've got this strange feeling that it will be on news papers, news shows, radio stations, all because of that event.

Another abomination is coming to CN HQ

And it's none other than...
...Matt Hatter Chronicles!
How come, CN HQ? HOW COME?!
That show is boring! You are acquiring three seasons of it! This is insane!

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 2: The concept

Last time, I talked about how Ted Turner built his media empire out of an independent station in Atlanta and how it grew with new cable networks, the acquisition of the MGM library and Hanna-Barbera's 1991 acquisition. Eventually they started thinking on the concept, as this video demonstrates:

What the video explains:
-At the time, more kids were watching cable than ever before
-There was only one option: Nickelodeon. If you had Disney Channel, you were in luck
-Cartoons occupied 26% of Nickelodeon's schedule, counting the then-new "Nicktoons" concept
-Not counting prime-time cartoons of the time like The Simpsons (then on it's early seasons) and Fish Police (which was CBS's weapon to compete with it but failed miserably), there were no cartoons aimed at kids
-NBC was leaving the tratitional Saturday morning concept, replacing it with TNBC, a block aimed at teens
-No kids shows overnight
-There was a higher demand on cable advertising at the time CN was conceived
-Cable cartoon audience at the time: 46.7% kids, 44.6% adults
The video shows CN's pre-launch logo which didn't take off when the channel launched.

There was no consistency with it. The character in the center changed (you can see tons of it in the video).
Eventually the logo came out to air on an actual television on an Adult Swim bumper:

Into 1992 now, and Cartoon Network brainstormed on a new (and iconic) logo:

The channel's look (seen in the video) was as closest as it could get to the Checkerboard era.
The plans came true on February 18th, 1992. We'll see how the channel launched (sadly, no video) in due course.

CN UK Cartoon Cartoons bumpers, March 19th/20th, 2006

Toonami UK bumpers

The successor of the former CNX.

Then the channel started showing live-action shows and merged into CN Too.

CNX bumpers

The short-lived entertainment channel which was replaced by Toonami in the UK.

My British friend (Luke Bevan) had a dream about the channel returning, it happened in February this year:
"Last night I had a dream about CNX returning to UK television, Dragonball Z was on the channel, in the top left corner was a graphic bug, the graphic was a white rectangle with a thick blue borderline at the bottom, the text inside the white rectangle said "CN Anime" in black CN Bold font. In the bottom right corner was the old CNX logo, it was semi-transparent."
Here's the channel's website.

Big Bravo Breakfast

Intro to the half-term block that CN UK had in the past.
Was the name an allusion to the then-ended "The Big Breakfast" on Channel 4? Also, does anyone (from the UK) have any more footage of it?

The History of Cartoon Network - Chapter 1: Before the channel's launch

The concept behind Cartoon Network is older than you think - and it's older than Ted Turner's acquisition of MGM.

Ted Turner's media empire dates back to their acquisition of WJRJ-TV in Atlanta, Georgia (Ted Turner's hometown). The channel has been around since 1967, and the January 1970 acquisition led to a new set of calls: "WTCG-TV" (as a backronym for Watch This Channel Grow, but the TCG also stood for Turner Channels Group). As WJRJ-TV, the channel was very low-rated. As WTCG-TV, it went into great success. This success led to the creation of the term "superstation", causing the station to be seen in the south-eastern states:

The creation of Superstation WTBS (later Superstation TBS and eventually splitting off in 2007 to create TBS and Peachtree TV) led to the creation of new cable networks: the second one being CNN in 1980, then CNN 2 (later Headline News/HLN) the following year, and TNT in 1988, which we'll see in due course.

Now this is where things really happen: on August 4th, 1986, Ted Turner acquires MGM/UA from Kirk Kerkorian, however, due to debt load concerns, it was sold back but a vast majority of the library was kept.

On October 3rd, 1988, TNT was launched with "Gone With The Wind", thus becoming Ted Turner's fourth cable network, using their now extensive film library. At this time, said library consisted of pre-1948 Looney Tunes cartoons (mostly Blue Ribbon reprints of Merrie Melodies), all in color, the MGM cartoon library, the Harman-Ising Merrie Melodies (except for Lady, Play Your Mandolin!) and the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios Popeye cartoons.

In 1991, Turner Entertainment acquired Hanna Barbera for US$320 million. And this led to the creation of Cartoon Network, which we'll see in due course.

CN HQ's 21st Anniversary: New episoeds of TAWOGB

CN HQ's 21st Anniversary: European CHECK it. bumpers

Also this weekend: CN HQ on Google Groups

Portuguese posts of people who gave their views on CN HQ, especially the TNT/TCM switch in 1999.

What about Around the World?

A new episode will be recorded on Saturday. Hint: it will feature CN LA's promotion of The Flash in order to promote it's premiere on Warner Channel.

CN HQ's 21st Anniversary: AT Top Princess Episodes promo

Recently aired on CN UK as seen here.

CN UK ad break from today

Click here, it can't be embedded

CN HQ's 21st Anniversary: 1995 break, no bug

CN UK breaks, 2003

CN UK's +1 promo

I just decided to post some CN UK videos as well! CN HQ and UK used to be the same in the 90s.

CN HQ's 21st Anniversary: Squares Era bumpers