The Cartoon Cartoon Show
Encyclopedia
What a Cartoon! is an American animation showcase project created by Fred Seibert
for Hanna-Barbera
Cartoons to be run on Cartoon Network
. The project consisted of 48 short cartoons, intended to return creative power to animators and artists, by recreating the atmospheres that spawned the great cartoon characters of the mid-20th century. Each of 48 short cartoons mirrored the structure of a theatrical cartoon, with each film being based on an original storyboard drawn and written by its artist or creator.
The shorts from the project first aired on February 20, 1995 and promoted as World Premiere Toons. During the original run of the shorts the series was retitled as The What a Cartoon! Show until the final short aired November 28, 1997. Then more shorts came from 1997 to 2008. The project served as the launching point for multiple successful Cartoon Network series, including Dexter's Laboratory
, Johnny Bravo
, Cow and Chicken
, I Am Weasel
, The Powerpuff Girls
, and Courage the Cowardly Dog
as well as a prequel
to Fox TV's Family Guy
. The series is influential for birthing a slew of original Cartoon Network hits and helping to revive television animation in the 1990s.
became president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992 and helped guide the struggling animation studio into its greatest output in years with shows like 2 Stupid Dogs
and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
. Seibert wanted the studio to produce shortcartoons, in the vein of the Golden Age of American animation. Although a project consisting of 48 shorts would cost twice as much as a normal series, Seibert's pitch to Cartoon Network involved promising 48 chances to "succeed or
fail," opened up possibilities for new original programming, and offered several new shorts to the thousands already present in the Turner Entertainment
library. According to Seibert, quality did not matter much to the cable operators distributing the struggling network, they were more interested in promising new programs.
With Turner Entertainment owner Ted Turner
and Seibert's boss Scott Sassa
onboard, the studio fanned out across the world to spread the word that the studio was in an "unprecedented phase," in which animators had a better idea what
cartoons should be than executives and Hanna-Barbera supported them. The company starting taking pitches in earnest in 1993 and received over 5,000 pitches for the 48 slots. The diversity in the filmmakers included those from
various nationalities, race, and gender. Seibert later described his hope for an idealistic diversity as "The wider the palette of creative influences, the wider and bigger the audiences."
Seibert's idea for the project was influenced heavily by Looney Tunes
. Hanna-Barbera founders William Hanna
and Joe Barbera, as well as veteran animator Friz Freleng
, taught Seibert how the shorts of the Golden Age of American animation were produced. John Kricfalusi
, creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
, became a teacher of sorts for Seibert and was the first person Seibert called whilst looking for new talent for the project. As was the custom in live action film and television, the company did not pay each creator for the storyboard submitted and pitched. For the first time in the studio's history, individual creators could retain their rights, and earn royalties on their creations. While most in the industry scoffed at the idea, encouragement, according to Seibert, came from the cartoonists who flocked to Hanna-Barbera with original ideas.
The format for What a Cartoon! was ambitious, as no one had ever attempted anything similar in the television animation era
. The shorts produced would be a product of the original cartoonists' vision, with no executive intervention: for example, even the music would be an individually crafted score. Each "Looney Tunes length" (7 minutes) short would debut, by itself, as a stand-alone cartoon on Cartoon Network.
Seibert explained the project's goal in a 2007 blog post: "We didn’t care what the sitcom trends were, what Nickelodeon
was doing, what the sales departments wanted. [...] We wanted cartoons."
). The special was hosted by Space Ghost
and the cast of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and featured comic interviews and a mock contest with the creators of the various cartoons. The Toon-In was simulcast on Cartoon Network, TBS Superstation, and TNT. To promote the shorts, Cartoon Network's marketing department came up with the concept of "Dive-In Theater" in 1995 to showcase the 48 cartoon shorts. The cartoons were shown at water parks and large municipal swimming pools, treating kids and their parents to exclusive poolside screenings on 9' x 12' movie screens.
Beginning February 26, 1995, each What a Cartoon! short began to premiere on Sunday nights, promoted as a World Premiere Toon. Every week after the premiere, Cartoon Network showcased a different World Premiere Toon made by a different artist. After an acclimation of cartoons, the network packaged the shorts as a half-hour show titled World Premiere Toons: The Next Generation, featuring reruns of the original shorts but also new premieres. Eventually, all of the cartoons were compiled into one program bearing the name of the original project: The What a Cartoon! Show. The show's initial premieres for each short preceded Cartoon Network's Sunday night movie block, Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theatre. The shorts continued to air on Sundays until 1997, when the network moved the shorts to Wednesdays at 9pm. Following the premiere of Johnny Bravo
, Cow and Chicken
and I Am Weasel
as full series in July 1997, the series shifted to Thursday nights, where it remained.
The What a Cartoon! Show continued airing new episodes until November 28, 1997, when the final short of the 48 contracted during Seibert's era aired. After that, more shorts were produced and aired between 1997 and 1998. In 2000, the pilot shorts appearing on the network's viewer's poll that lost (including the original Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
short, Ferret and Parrot, Foe Paws, Jeffrey Cat, Longhair and Doubledome, Lucky Lydia, Major Flake, Nikkie, Prickles, Trevor, Uncle Gus, Utica Cartoon, Commander Cork, Maktar and David Fiess's Lost Cat) were eventually added when The What a Cartoon! Show was re-titled The Cartoon Cartoon Show in the early 2000s. In 1998, Cartoon Network debuted two new short pilots and advertised them as "World Premiere Toons": Mike, Lu & Og and Kenny and the Chimp in "Diseasy Does It!". Both were produced by outside studios and are not part of the original 48 shorts specifically produced by Hanna-Barbera for What a Cartoon!. The two pilots were compiled into The Cartoon Cartoon Show, while both shorts eventually garnered their own series, Mike, Lu & Og
in 1999 and Codename: Kids Next Door
in 2002. A pilot King Crab: Space Crustacean (1999) was also retconned into The Cartoon Cartoon Show anthology.
The show continued to air for many years afterward until eventually being dropped from the schedule. Recently, reruns have played on Cartoon Network's retro animation sister channel, Boomerang
. The Big Cartoon DataBase
cites What a Cartoon! as a "venture combining classic 1940s production methods with the originality, enthusiasm and comedy of the 1990s."
), Asia (Achiu So), the heartland of the US (Jerry Reynolds), and colleague (Seth MacFarlane
). The crew also contained young series first timers (like Genndy Tartakovsky
, Craig McCraken, Rob Renzetti
, Butch Hartman
, and John Dilworth), but veterans as well (like Don Jurwich, Jerry Eisenberg, and Ralph Bakshi
). In addition to the veterans, Hanna-Barbera
founders William Hanna
and Joseph Barbera
each produced two shorts each for What a Cartoon!. Many of the key crew members from previous Hanna-Barbera series 2 Stupid Dogs joined the team of What a Cartoon! as well.
Many of the crew members of What a Cartoon! later went on to write and direct for Dexter's Laboratory
, Johnny Bravo
, Cow and Chicken
, I Am Weasel
, and The Powerpuff Girls
, including those named above. The Kitchen Casanova director John McIntyre is particularly known for directing several Dexter episodes. Initially, Ralph Bakshi's two shorts (Malcom and Melvin and Babe! He... Calls Me) were considered too risqué to be shown. It has been rumored that John Kricfalusi
was slated to direct several new What a Cartoon! shorts of his own (produced by his production company, Spümcø
). However, both Yogi Bear
-influenced cartoons were commissioned separately by Seibert, and instead premiered as their own: Boo Boo Runs Wild
and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith
both premiered in 1999.
Inspired by Seibert's interest in the modern rock posters of Frank Kozik
, each of the shows' creators worked with the internal Hanna-Barbera "Creative Corps" Creative Director Bill Burnett, and Art Director Jesse Stagg
and designer Kelly Wheeler to craft a series of high quality, limited edition, fluorescent art posters. The Corps launched a prolonged Guerrilla mailing campaign, targeting animation heavyweights and critics leading up to the launch of World Premiere Toons. The first poster campaign of its kind introduced the world to the groundbreaking new stable of characters.
of What a Cartoon! in 1996. Two more series based on shorts, Johnny Bravo
and Cow and Chicken
, premiered in 1997, and popular short series The Powerpuff Girls
became a weekly half-hour show in 1998. Courage the Cowardly Dog
(spun-off from the Oscar-nominated short The Chicken from Outer Space) followed as the final spin-off in 1999. In addition, the Cow and Chicken short I Am Weasel
eventually was also spun-off into a separate series: in all, six cartoon series were ultimately launched by the What a Cartoon! project, any one of which earned enough money for the company to pay for the whole program. In addition to the eventual spin-offs, the What a Cartoon! short Larry and Steve by Seth MacFarlane
featured prototypes of characters that would later go on to become MacFarlane's massively successful Family Guy
.
The What a Cartoon! project and its assorted spin-offs brought Cartoon Network major commercial and critical success, and the network became an animation industry leader as the 1990s drew to a close. In 2001, coinciding with the death of William Hanna, Hanna-Barbera merged with Warner Bros. Animation
and Cartoon Network opened its own production arm, Cartoon Network Studios
in Burbank, as the rightful H-B successor to produce original programming for the network and future projects. Two What a Cartoon! shorts, Windup Wolf and Hard Luck Duck, were the last cartoon shorts directed and produced by William Hanna
, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera
. In addition, The What a Cartoon! Show and spin-offs were the final original productions released by Hanna-Barbera
.
Creator of The What a Cartoon! Show, Fred Seibert, left Hanna-Barbera in late 1996 to open up his own studio, Frederator Studios
, and to produce Nickelodeon
's own version of What a Cartoon!, titled Oh Yeah! Cartoons
. The showcase contained familiar What a Cartoon! alumni (Butch Hartman
, Rob Renzetti
) and launched several successful Nickelodeon series, including The Fairly OddParents
, ChalkZone
and My Life as a Teenage Robot
. Frederator Studios launched another animation showcase in 2006, titled Random! Cartoons, which in turn produced Nickelodeon
's Fanboy and Chum Chum
in 2009 and Cartoon Network
's Adventure Time
in 2010.
A sequel-of-sorts to the What a Cartoon! project, a Cartoon Network project titled The Cartoonstitute was announced in April 2008. Created by Cartoon Network executive Rob Sorcher and headed by The Powerpuff Girls
creator Craig McCracken
, the project was to "establish a think tank and create an environment in which animators can create characters and stories," and also create new possible Cartoon Network series.
However, the project was eventually scrapped as a result of the late 2000s recession
and only fourteen of the 39 planned were completed. Nevertheless, J.G. Quintel's Regular Show
short and Pete Browngardt's Secret Mountain Fort Awesome
were greenlit to become full series and Regular Show premiered in September 2010 with Secret Mountain Fort Awesome slated to premiere in 2011.
's management for What a Cartoon! by Hanna-Barbera. The shorts are listed in order of which they aired, and do not contain extra cartoons added on by Cartoon Network when the show was re-titled The Cartoon Cartoon Show.
Fred Seibert
Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios...
for Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
Cartoons to be run on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
. The project consisted of 48 short cartoons, intended to return creative power to animators and artists, by recreating the atmospheres that spawned the great cartoon characters of the mid-20th century. Each of 48 short cartoons mirrored the structure of a theatrical cartoon, with each film being based on an original storyboard drawn and written by its artist or creator.
The shorts from the project first aired on February 20, 1995 and promoted as World Premiere Toons. During the original run of the shorts the series was retitled as The What a Cartoon! Show until the final short aired November 28, 1997. Then more shorts came from 1997 to 2008. The project served as the launching point for multiple successful Cartoon Network series, including Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios . The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions...
, Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
, Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
, I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel is an American animated television series produced by Cartoon Network Studios in co-production with Hanna-Barbera, created by David Feiss, and broadcast on Cartoon Network....
, The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
, and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. Its central plot revolves around a somewhat anthropomorphic dog named Courage who lives with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, an elderly, married farming couple in the "Middle of...
as well as a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to Fox TV's Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. The series is influential for birthing a slew of original Cartoon Network hits and helping to revive television animation in the 1990s.
Origins and production
Fred SeibertFred Seibert
Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios...
became president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992 and helped guide the struggling animation studio into its greatest output in years with shows like 2 Stupid Dogs
2 Stupid Dogs
2 Stupid Dogs was an American animated television series created by Donovan Cook and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Program Services that originally ran from September 5, 1993 to February 13, 1995 on TBS. The main segments of the show featured two dogs, "Big Dog" and "Little Dog". The Big Dog...
and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is an animated series for television created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Program Services. Every episode of the series was directed by Robert Alvarez. The bulk of the series was written by either Glenn Leopold or Lance Falk...
. Seibert wanted the studio to produce shortcartoons, in the vein of the Golden Age of American animation. Although a project consisting of 48 shorts would cost twice as much as a normal series, Seibert's pitch to Cartoon Network involved promising 48 chances to "succeed or
fail," opened up possibilities for new original programming, and offered several new shorts to the thousands already present in the Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
library. According to Seibert, quality did not matter much to the cable operators distributing the struggling network, they were more interested in promising new programs.
With Turner Entertainment owner Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
and Seibert's boss Scott Sassa
Scott Sassa
Scott M. Sassa is currently president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the operating group responsible for Hearst’s interests in cable television networks, including ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and History; a joint venture with Mark Burnett Productions, and Manilla a start up that organizes people's...
onboard, the studio fanned out across the world to spread the word that the studio was in an "unprecedented phase," in which animators had a better idea what
cartoons should be than executives and Hanna-Barbera supported them. The company starting taking pitches in earnest in 1993 and received over 5,000 pitches for the 48 slots. The diversity in the filmmakers included those from
various nationalities, race, and gender. Seibert later described his hope for an idealistic diversity as "The wider the palette of creative influences, the wider and bigger the audiences."
Seibert's idea for the project was influenced heavily by Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
. Hanna-Barbera founders William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
and Joe Barbera, as well as veteran animator Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
, taught Seibert how the shorts of the Golden Age of American animation were produced. John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply referred to as Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series, created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the titular characters: Ren Höek, a psychotic chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a good-natured, dimwitted cat...
, became a teacher of sorts for Seibert and was the first person Seibert called whilst looking for new talent for the project. As was the custom in live action film and television, the company did not pay each creator for the storyboard submitted and pitched. For the first time in the studio's history, individual creators could retain their rights, and earn royalties on their creations. While most in the industry scoffed at the idea, encouragement, according to Seibert, came from the cartoonists who flocked to Hanna-Barbera with original ideas.
Format
| "On top of [a research and development program], I reinvigorated the 'who comes in the studio' equation. Now talented people wanted to show up. Some 5,000 people pitched us cartoons from all over the world. We got into business with Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote... , with Bruno Bozzetto Bruno Bozzetto Bruno Bozzetto is an Italian cartoon animator, creator of many short pieces, mainly of a political or satirical nature. He created his first animated short "Tapum! the weapons' story" in 1958 at the age of 20. His most famous character, a hapless little man named "Signor Rossi" Bruno Bozzetto... ; we got into business with a broad range of people who never would’ve given Hanna-Barbera a passing chance. We worked with people who were 70 years old, who were 20 years old. We turned on its head the perception the people in the community had of us." |
| — Creator Fred Seibert Fred Seibert Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios... on the variety of directors for What a Cartoon! |
The format for What a Cartoon! was ambitious, as no one had ever attempted anything similar in the television animation era
Animation in the United States in the television era
Television animation developed from the success of animated movies in the first half of the 20th century. The state of animation changed dramatically in the four decades starting with the post-World War II proliferation of television...
. The shorts produced would be a product of the original cartoonists' vision, with no executive intervention: for example, even the music would be an individually crafted score. Each "Looney Tunes length" (7 minutes) short would debut, by itself, as a stand-alone cartoon on Cartoon Network.
Seibert explained the project's goal in a 2007 blog post: "We didn’t care what the sitcom trends were, what Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
was doing, what the sales departments wanted. [...] We wanted cartoons."
Broadcast
The first cartoon from the What a Cartoon! project broadcast in its entirety was The Powerpuff Girls in Meat Fuzzy Lumkins, which made its world premiere on Monday, February 20, 1995 during a television special called the World Premiere Toon-In (termed "President's Day Nightmare" by its producers, Williams StreetWilliams Street
Williams Street Productions, LLC, operating under the name Williams Street, is a division of Cartoon Network, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting, an operational unit of Time Warner...
). The special was hosted by Space Ghost
Space Ghost
Space Ghost is a fictional superhero created by Hanna-Barbera Productions and designed by Alex Toth for CBS in the 1960s. In his original incarnation, he was a superhero who, with his sidekick teen helpers Jan, Jace, and Blip the monkey, fought supervillains in outer space...
and the cast of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and featured comic interviews and a mock contest with the creators of the various cartoons. The Toon-In was simulcast on Cartoon Network, TBS Superstation, and TNT. To promote the shorts, Cartoon Network's marketing department came up with the concept of "Dive-In Theater" in 1995 to showcase the 48 cartoon shorts. The cartoons were shown at water parks and large municipal swimming pools, treating kids and their parents to exclusive poolside screenings on 9' x 12' movie screens.
Beginning February 26, 1995, each What a Cartoon! short began to premiere on Sunday nights, promoted as a World Premiere Toon. Every week after the premiere, Cartoon Network showcased a different World Premiere Toon made by a different artist. After an acclimation of cartoons, the network packaged the shorts as a half-hour show titled World Premiere Toons: The Next Generation, featuring reruns of the original shorts but also new premieres. Eventually, all of the cartoons were compiled into one program bearing the name of the original project: The What a Cartoon! Show. The show's initial premieres for each short preceded Cartoon Network's Sunday night movie block, Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theatre. The shorts continued to air on Sundays until 1997, when the network moved the shorts to Wednesdays at 9pm. Following the premiere of Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
, Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
and I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel is an American animated television series produced by Cartoon Network Studios in co-production with Hanna-Barbera, created by David Feiss, and broadcast on Cartoon Network....
as full series in July 1997, the series shifted to Thursday nights, where it remained.
The What a Cartoon! Show continued airing new episodes until November 28, 1997, when the final short of the 48 contracted during Seibert's era aired. After that, more shorts were produced and aired between 1997 and 1998. In 2000, the pilot shorts appearing on the network's viewer's poll that lost (including the original Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? is an American animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network from 2002 to 2003...
short, Ferret and Parrot, Foe Paws, Jeffrey Cat, Longhair and Doubledome, Lucky Lydia, Major Flake, Nikkie, Prickles, Trevor, Uncle Gus, Utica Cartoon, Commander Cork, Maktar and David Fiess's Lost Cat) were eventually added when The What a Cartoon! Show was re-titled The Cartoon Cartoon Show in the early 2000s. In 1998, Cartoon Network debuted two new short pilots and advertised them as "World Premiere Toons": Mike, Lu & Og and Kenny and the Chimp in "Diseasy Does It!". Both were produced by outside studios and are not part of the original 48 shorts specifically produced by Hanna-Barbera for What a Cartoon!. The two pilots were compiled into The Cartoon Cartoon Show, while both shorts eventually garnered their own series, Mike, Lu & Og
Mike, Lu & Og
Mike, Lu & Og is an American animated television series produced by Kinofilm Studios that ran on Cartoon Network. The show was the seventh Cartoon Cartoon, based on a short for The What-A-Cartoon! Show. Created by Chuck Swenson, the show follows a girl named Mike, a foreign exchange student from...
in 1999 and Codename: Kids Next Door
Codename: Kids Next Door
Codename: Kids Next Door, also known as Kids Next Door or by its acronym KND, is an American animated television series created by Tom Warburton and produced by Curious Pictures in Santa Monica, California.. The series debuted on Cartoon Network on December 6, 2002 and aired its final episode on...
in 2002. A pilot King Crab: Space Crustacean (1999) was also retconned into The Cartoon Cartoon Show anthology.
The show continued to air for many years afterward until eventually being dropped from the schedule. Recently, reruns have played on Cartoon Network's retro animation sister channel, Boomerang
Boomerang (TV channel)
Boomerang is a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner. Boomerang specializes in reruns of animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives, including pre-1986 MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
. The Big Cartoon DataBase
Big Cartoon DataBase
The Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
cites What a Cartoon! as a "venture combining classic 1940s production methods with the originality, enthusiasm and comedy of the 1990s."
Crew
The What a Cartoon! staff had creators from Europe and Canada (Bruno BozzettoBruno Bozzetto
Bruno Bozzetto is an Italian cartoon animator, creator of many short pieces, mainly of a political or satirical nature. He created his first animated short "Tapum! the weapons' story" in 1958 at the age of 20. His most famous character, a hapless little man named "Signor Rossi" Bruno Bozzetto...
), Asia (Achiu So), the heartland of the US (Jerry Reynolds), and colleague (Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
). The crew also contained young series first timers (like Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Borisovich Tartakovsky is a Russian-American television animator, director and producer. His best-known creations are Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Sym-Bionic Titan...
, Craig McCraken, Rob Renzetti
Rob Renzetti
Robert "Rob" Renzetti is an American animator and director who created the animated television series My Life as a Teenage Robot and is currently story editor on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.-Background:...
, Butch Hartman
Butch Hartman
Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV is an American animator, executive producer, animation director, storyboard artist, voice actor, occasional singer, producer, and creator of the animated series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy.-Childhood:Hartman was born in Highland Park,...
, and John Dilworth), but veterans as well (like Don Jurwich, Jerry Eisenberg, and Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
). In addition to the veterans, Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
founders William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
and Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
each produced two shorts each for What a Cartoon!. Many of the key crew members from previous Hanna-Barbera series 2 Stupid Dogs joined the team of What a Cartoon! as well.
Many of the crew members of What a Cartoon! later went on to write and direct for Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios . The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions...
, Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
, Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
, I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel is an American animated television series produced by Cartoon Network Studios in co-production with Hanna-Barbera, created by David Feiss, and broadcast on Cartoon Network....
, and The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
, including those named above. The Kitchen Casanova director John McIntyre is particularly known for directing several Dexter episodes. Initially, Ralph Bakshi's two shorts (Malcom and Melvin and Babe! He... Calls Me) were considered too risqué to be shown. It has been rumored that John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
was slated to direct several new What a Cartoon! shorts of his own (produced by his production company, Spümcø
Spümcø
Spümcø, Inc. was an American animation production company based in Los Angeles, California. The studio produced three traditionally animated series, two Flash-animated cartoon series, two music videos, five animated shorts, and a comic book. The company also went on to produce content for a few...
). However, both Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
-influenced cartoons were commissioned separately by Seibert, and instead premiered as their own: Boo Boo Runs Wild
Boo Boo Runs Wild
Boo Boo Runs Wild is a stand-alone special parody of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, The Yogi Bear Show. It was made by The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi and his company Spümcø. Boo Boo Runs Wild originally aired on Cartoon Network on September 24, 1999, along with A Day in the Life...
and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith
A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith
A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith is a stand-alone special parody of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, The Yogi Bear Show, which revolves around Ranger Smith. A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith was made by The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi and his company Spümcø...
both premiered in 1999.
Inspired by Seibert's interest in the modern rock posters of Frank Kozik
Frank Kozik
Frank Kozik is an American graphic artist who has worked with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Melvins, The Offspring and Butthole Surfers. Kozik runs Man's Ruin Records, a media outlet and record label, and has published several books including Man's Ruin:...
, each of the shows' creators worked with the internal Hanna-Barbera "Creative Corps" Creative Director Bill Burnett, and Art Director Jesse Stagg
Jesse Stagg
Jesse Stagg is a trafficker in pop culture with a background in advertising, design, guerilla marketing.Born in New York, educated in London and Cape Town, he was raised in a commune in England....
and designer Kelly Wheeler to craft a series of high quality, limited edition, fluorescent art posters. The Corps launched a prolonged Guerrilla mailing campaign, targeting animation heavyweights and critics leading up to the launch of World Premiere Toons. The first poster campaign of its kind introduced the world to the groundbreaking new stable of characters.
Legacy
Cartoon Network's decision to air original cartoons in the evening was a bold move for a network that primarily had been a re-run haven since its launch in 1992. The fact that Cartoon Network was financing and broadcasting the new cartoons is a testament to how far the network had come since its debut: its viewership had stretched from an initial 2 million homes to 43.6 million in 1997, and the network was slowly developing into one of the most popular offerings on cable. Dexter’s Laboratory was the most popular short series according to a vote held in 1995 and eventually became the first spin-offSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of What a Cartoon! in 1996. Two more series based on shorts, Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
and Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
, premiered in 1997, and popular short series The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
became a weekly half-hour show in 1998. Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. Its central plot revolves around a somewhat anthropomorphic dog named Courage who lives with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, an elderly, married farming couple in the "Middle of...
(spun-off from the Oscar-nominated short The Chicken from Outer Space) followed as the final spin-off in 1999. In addition, the Cow and Chicken short I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel
I Am Weasel is an American animated television series produced by Cartoon Network Studios in co-production with Hanna-Barbera, created by David Feiss, and broadcast on Cartoon Network....
eventually was also spun-off into a separate series: in all, six cartoon series were ultimately launched by the What a Cartoon! project, any one of which earned enough money for the company to pay for the whole program. In addition to the eventual spin-offs, the What a Cartoon! short Larry and Steve by Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
featured prototypes of characters that would later go on to become MacFarlane's massively successful Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
.
The What a Cartoon! project and its assorted spin-offs brought Cartoon Network major commercial and critical success, and the network became an animation industry leader as the 1990s drew to a close. In 2001, coinciding with the death of William Hanna, Hanna-Barbera merged with Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation is the animation division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner. The studio is closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters, among others. The studio is the successor to Warner Bros...
and Cartoon Network opened its own production arm, Cartoon Network Studios
Cartoon Network Studios
Cartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio. A subsidiary of the Turner Broadcasting System , Cartoon Network Studios focuses on producing and developing animated programs only for and related to Cartoon Network...
in Burbank, as the rightful H-B successor to produce original programming for the network and future projects. Two What a Cartoon! shorts, Windup Wolf and Hard Luck Duck, were the last cartoon shorts directed and produced by William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
. In addition, The What a Cartoon! Show and spin-offs were the final original productions released by Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
.
Creator of The What a Cartoon! Show, Fred Seibert, left Hanna-Barbera in late 1996 to open up his own studio, Frederator Studios
Frederator Studios
Frederator Studios is an independent American production company founded by Fred Seibert in 1997, with its first series launching in 1998. The studio focuses primarily on artists who write their own shorts, series, and movies...
, and to produce Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's own version of What a Cartoon!, titled Oh Yeah! Cartoons
Oh Yeah! Cartoons
Oh Yeah! Cartoons is an American animation showcase that appeared on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Oh Yeah! was an animation project guided by Fred Seibert, former Creative Director of MTV Networks and President of Hanna-Barbera...
. The showcase contained familiar What a Cartoon! alumni (Butch Hartman
Butch Hartman
Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV is an American animator, executive producer, animation director, storyboard artist, voice actor, occasional singer, producer, and creator of the animated series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy.-Childhood:Hartman was born in Highland Park,...
, Rob Renzetti
Rob Renzetti
Robert "Rob" Renzetti is an American animator and director who created the animated television series My Life as a Teenage Robot and is currently story editor on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.-Background:...
) and launched several successful Nickelodeon series, including The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents is an American-Canadian animated television series created by Butch Hartman about the adventures of Timmy Turner, who is granted fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The series started out as cartoon segments that ran from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001 on Oh Yeah!...
, ChalkZone
ChalkZone
ChalkZone is an American animated television series that aired on Nickelodeon. It was created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber, and produced by Frederator Studios for the Nickelodeon TV channel...
and My Life as a Teenage Robot
My Life as a Teenage Robot
My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated television series, created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of XJ-9, better known as Jenny Wakeman, a female robot designed to protect Earth, who is excessively addicted to teen-related activities, which are almost...
. Frederator Studios launched another animation showcase in 2006, titled Random! Cartoons, which in turn produced Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's Fanboy and Chum Chum
Fanboy and Chum Chum
Fanboy and Chum Chum is an American CGI animated television series produced by Frederator Studios. It is based on a first episode/short from Frederator's Random! Cartoons called Fanboy...
in 2009 and Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's Adventure Time
Adventure Time
Adventure Time was a local children's television show on WTAE-TV 4 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1959 to 1975. It was hosted by the late Paul Shannon, with guitarist Joe Negri and puppeteer Jim Martin...
in 2010.
A sequel-of-sorts to the What a Cartoon! project, a Cartoon Network project titled The Cartoonstitute was announced in April 2008. Created by Cartoon Network executive Rob Sorcher and headed by The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network...
creator Craig McCracken
Craig McCracken
Craig McCracken is an American animator and creator of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.-Biography:...
, the project was to "establish a think tank and create an environment in which animators can create characters and stories," and also create new possible Cartoon Network series.
However, the project was eventually scrapped as a result of the late 2000s recession
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
and only fourteen of the 39 planned were completed. Nevertheless, J.G. Quintel's Regular Show
Regular Show
Regular Show is an American animated television series created by J. G. Quintel...
short and Pete Browngardt's Secret Mountain Fort Awesome
Secret Mountain Fort Awesome
Secret Mountain Fort Awesome is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt and produced at Cartoon Network Studios for Cartoon Network...
were greenlit to become full series and Regular Show premiered in September 2010 with Secret Mountain Fort Awesome slated to premiere in 2011.
List of shorts
The following is a list of all 48 original shorts produced under Fred SeibertFred Seibert
Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios...
's management for What a Cartoon! by Hanna-Barbera. The shorts are listed in order of which they aired, and do not contain extra cartoons added on by Cartoon Network when the show was re-titled The Cartoon Cartoon Show.
| # | Original title | Oh Yeah! Cartoons Oh Yeah! Cartoons Oh Yeah! Cartoons is an American animation showcase that appeared on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Oh Yeah! was an animation project guided by Fred Seibert, former Creative Director of MTV Networks and President of Hanna-Barbera... on Nick Nickelodeon (TV channel) Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers... External linksThe source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
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