CARTOON NETWORK ‘STOKED’ THEY DON’T DO LIVE-ACTION
Nickelodeon is on a sinking ship. Between the victims coming forth to blame Dan Schneider and his cohorts for not keeping the environment safe for child actors and their parent company, Paramount Global, consistently slashing so many shows from actually staying on their streamer site, it all just kind of makes watching that channel not worth it anymore. Like, you know you have a problem as a company when you have the majority of people telling you how Spongebob Squarepants is the only good show they have left. (Good as it is, you’d think another television show would have a chance of competing for a Kid’s Choice Award Blimp.) Anyway, the lucky thing that Cartoon Network has going for them that Disney Channel and Nickelodeon themselves can’t quite shake is how CN never fell for the deathtrap that is working with kids on live action television. They did have that block for a while where they aired live-action programming, particularly dedicated to the boy audience, but of course the results of those poorly received and barely watched narratives ended up in cancellation. Could you imagine if they kept “Out of Jimmy’s Head” running or “Dude, What Would Happen?” Dude, what would happen if Bobb’e got out of Hanna-Barbera’s clutches and ended up in Dan Schneider’s? That would “Destroy, Build, Destroy” that kid’s self-esteem. Of course it would make much more sense for Nickelodeon and Disney Channel to just stick to animation, if they even have the opportunity. Such a watershed moment is likely to cause future dilemmas. All children programming as we know it, live-action, mixed media, animation or otherwise will forever be scrutinized. And that seems to make sense because safeguarding our future generations from absolute dribble is for the fate of the world to be well-protected by well formulating minds and not total mechanics. Cartoon Network, the home of my childhood entertainment, like Ed, Edd, N Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Samurai Jack, genuinely gave me such a dopamine rush to the point where I actually quit Piano when I just wanted to watch the Fridays Primetime Block afterschool before the weekend would start. That’s where that corner of my mind wanted to live exclusively. And for a while, it absolutely did. So to consider that they didn’t have creep producers that crept on the talent? What a godsend! Seriously, who would’ve realized they were smart enough to avoid all the future pushback that coil very well have been a public relations’ disaster. Best to avoid such scenarios for the good of your health. You can never be too careful. I would even go so far as to say that the way Cartoon Network is pushing the Teen Titans Go Marathons–not too dissimilar to a certain Sponge under the sea–this may be a tactic that Warner is pushing for so that they can build up better programs to take over when the time comes at long last. It’s easy enough to see that they are dominating the children’s television arena, next to Bluey and Sesame Street.
