“Checkered Past” News & Discussion

[parkersfan89]

I didn’t know Johnny Bravo was on Boomerang as recently as 2018. I think I last saw it on Boomerang in 2012 or 2013, when it was also airing on Cartoon Planet on CN. They likely removed it from Boomerang because the CN shows didn’t do well there. Since there are little chances of Johnny Bravo rerunning on Boomerang or being remade by CN, it has better odds of airing on Checkered Past than PPG.

sorry, to keep saying this, how come you think that OG ppg won't be airing on CP

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

sorry, to keep saying this, how come you think that OG ppg won't be airing on CP

Because there is a new series in development. Ex-Boomerang employee Dave Byer indicated they want to keep the CN and AS brands distinct for advertising purposes.

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1750699005741252764?s=46

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1736751291198529572?s=46

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1736747891383796136?s=46

 

[parkersfan89]

CP's schedule for 4/22/24-4/26/24 (Billy & Mandy are back, oh baby):

April 22, 2024​

• 5:00 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Mom and Jerry / Chubby Cheese / That Crazy Robot" (repeat)
• 5:30 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "D & DD / Ham Hocks N' Arm Locks" (repeat)
• 6:00 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy - "Toadblatt's School of Sorcery / Educating Grim / It's Hokey Mon!" (repeat)
• 6:30 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy - "Night of the Living Grim / Brown Evil" (repeat)

April 23, 2024​

• 5:00 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Hunger Strikes / Koos is Loose / Morning Stretch" (repeat)
• 5:30 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Dee Dee Locks and the Ness Monster / Backfire / Book 'Em" (repeat)
• 6:00 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "Mandy the Merciless / Creating Chaos / The Really Odd Couple" (repeat)
• 6:30 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "Who Killed Who? / Tween Wolf" (repeat)

April 24, 2024​

• 5:00 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Labels / Game Show / Fantastic Voyage" (repeat)
• 5:30 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Filet Of Soul / Golden Diskett" (repeat)
• 6:00 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "Grim in Love / Crushed / Love is Evol Spelled Backwards" (repeat)
• 6:30 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "The Crawling Niceness / Smarten Up! / The Grim Show" (repeat)

April 25, 2024​

• 5:00 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Snowdown / Figure Not Included / Mock 5" (repeat)
• 5:30 p.m. ET/PT - Dexter's Laboratory - "Eww, that's growth / Nuclear Confusion / Germ Warfare" (repeat)
• 6:00 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "Son of Nergal / Sister Grim / Go-Kart 3000" (repeat)
• 6:30 p.m. ET/PT - The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy - "Billy's Growth Spurt / Hoss Delgado: Spectral Exterminator / Tickle Me Mandy"

April 26, 2024​

• 5:00 p.m. ET/PT - Cow and Chicken - "101 Uses for Cow and Chicken / Intelligent Life? / A Tree Story"
• 5:30 p.m. ET/PT - Cow and Chicken - "Night of the Ed! / Cow's Pies / I Are Good Dog"
• 6:00 p.m. ET/PT - Ed, Edd n Eddy - "Take This Ed Shove It" (repeat)
• 6:30 p.m. ET/PT - Ed, Edd n Eddy - "Mission Ed-Possible / Every Which But Ed" (repeat)

 

[Checkerboard]

Because there is a new series in development. Ex-Boomerang employee Dave Byer indicated they want to keep the CN and AS brands distinct for advertising purposes.

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1750699005741252764?s=46

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1736751291198529572?s=46

https://x.com/byerbethere/status/1736747891383796136?s=46

That's just bizarre. All the Cartoon Cartoons were CN shows to begin with, having no place on AS whatsoever. So they are basically limiting themselves in what to air, despite owning it, because they hope to get more money out of it that way lol. Yet what they do longterm is only fracture further both channels and their identity crisis.

CP is good for 3 reasons:
1) old shows are back
2) old shows are remastered
3) bumpers

But otherwise it seems messy, or rather improvised - despite probably not being created with profit in mind entirely. What shows actually qualify then? I can't see it going for more than a year this way, but maybe they will surprise us with CN 20 style bumpers then.

 

[Conttactt]

But otherwise it seems messy, or rather improvised - despite probably not being created with profit in mind entirely. What shows actually qualify then?

We don’t have any firm rules on what is and is not allowed to air, but here are some educated guesses

1. Start date of 2005 or older
2. Made and owned by CN
3. Not written off for taxes
4. Was relatively popular at time of airing
5. Show does not have an obligation CN specifically

With that in mind, options are pretty limited. I’d say the frontrunners are

1. Johnny Bravo - Seems like a no brainer, but the new brass seems to have an axe to grind against Johnny and have quietly swept him under the rug

2. Kids Next Door - Probably the biggest hurdle for this is it becomes less episodic as it goes on

I hate to say it, but I think those are the only two shows that fit all 5 criteria I listed above. PPG and Fosters meet 4, but fail the 5th criteria which is immediately disqualifying.

 

[Darklordavaitor]

Here’s a thought- what about Samurai Jack? It’s been considered an [as] series for a while now, but has its roots in Cartoon Network. The last season may be harder to show during what’s technically day time, but seasons 1-4 should be good enough, right?

 

[Checkerboard]

I don't think they need to pass all criteria, but there isn't many shows to choose from left. My brainstorming...

Probably too new:
Uncle Grandpa, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes

Probably too new and too action:
Ben 10, Sym-Bionic Titan, Secret Saturdays

Probably too new and too serialized story:
Steven Universe, Regular Show, Adventure Time

Probably too new and too obscure/unpopular:
Robotomy, MAD, Secret Mountain, Problem Solverz

Maybe old enough, but too obscure/unpopular:
Squirrel Boy, My Gym Partner's a Monkey

Maybe actually old enough, but problematic:
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Class of 3000, Megas XLR

I'd have to say NO to 90% of the above sadly. Then you have left... what?

Old enough, but less popular:
Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, Time Squad, Sheep in the Big City, Mike Lu and Og

With these I'd have to say 50/50 chance.

Old enough, popular enough, but...:
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Codename: Kids Next Door, Flapjack, Chowder, Juniper Lee

With these I'd say maybe 70% in favor. But honestly I feel it would be a mixed bag in terms of gelling and ratings being associated with Adult Swim.

Old enough, but politics...
Johnny Bravo

If they aired that they would probably cherrypick episodes that aren't confrontational. Which is maybe like a fraction.

Which leaves us with...:
The Powerpuff Girls

Which for obvious reasons will stay on CN forever. They are not THAT desperately stupid to throw over their biggest IP.

...or:
Samurai Jack

Which already aired on Adult Swim before and is violent and long.

So in the end it seems Checkered Past has been a failed experiment and will end this year unless they decide to expand it beyond Cartoon Cartoons. In which case I could see other shows from the eras (1992-2004) they own, but didn't exclusively make for CN, airing. Like:

2 Stupid Dogs, Addams Family 1992, Captain Planet, The Mask, Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast, Brak Show, Sealab 2021. I doubt they would try any action and if yes, only the popular picks like Space Ghost, Birdman, Herculoids, Thundarr, Jonny Quesz that ideally have also a Bluray release. Of course, if they're desperate, they can always throw in Flintstones, Jetsons and Scooby.

So, yeah, this is my analysis.

 

[JMTV]

That's just bizarre. All the Cartoon Cartoons were CN shows to begin with, having no place on AS whatsoever. So they are basically limiting themselves in what to air, despite owning it, because they hope to get more money out of it that way lol. Yet what they do longterm is only fracture further both channels and their identity crisis.

I know I might give Adult Swim way too much credit, but Cartoon Network for the longest time has suffered an identity crisis before all this mess since it established itself as a being a "kids brand" in the mid-2000's rather than being an "all ages brand". At least Adult Swim has stayed consistent of being an adult block, even if they evolved overtime.

I may not agree with Adult Swim's decision with their retro block, but I can somewhat understand since this is a very "pick your poison" situation. It's either a) air the old Cartoon Cartoons that fans recognized and gain more ratings, or b) air more Bob's Burgers and King of the Hill at 5pm.

IDK. If I was in charge of CN/AS, I would put the old Cartoon Cartoons back to Cartoon Network where they belong, but hey, what do I know? I'm not a WB executive making these decisions. (shrugs)

But otherwise it seems messy, or rather improvised - despite probably not being created with profit in mind entirely. What shows actually qualify then? I can't see it going for more than a year this way, but maybe they will surprise us with CN 20 style bumpers then.

Well, I mean, Michael Ouweleen is in a very uneven position right now since Warner Bros is run by a reality TV mongaloid. If WB was run by people who had a passion about movies and TV shows (including animation) things would've been different.

I don't know how long Checkered Past is going to last, but we'll just have to see.

2 Stupid Dogs, Addams Family 1992, Captain Planet, The Mask, Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast, Brak Show, Sealab 2021. I doubt they would try any action and if yes, only the popular picks like Space Ghost, Birdman, Herculoids, Thundarr, Jonny Quesz that ideally have also a Bluray release. Of course, if they're desperate, they can always throw in Flintstones, Jetsons and Scooby.

Well, we already got Boomerang. So, there ya go.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Minor but an Adult Swim Museum bumper with "Checkered Past" characters in it.

 

[Conttactt]

Here’s a thought- what about Samurai Jack? It’s been considered an [as] series for a while now, but has its roots in Cartoon Network. The last season may be harder to show during what’s technically day time, but seasons 1-4 should be good enough, right?

It could work, but I think a lot of people don’t consider it a “fix” since it was a regular Toonami staple since 2014. Not that Toonami will ever have the space for it again, but there may also be some kind of internal choice to always keep it on the backburner as a Toonami show.

So in the end it seems Checkered Past has been a failed experiment and will end this year unless they decide to expand it beyond Cartoon Cartoons. In which case I could see other shows from the eras (1992-2004) they own, but didn't exclusively make for CN, airing. Like:

A lot of what you suggested is written off, so those a lot of non starters there.

I think it’s a bit extreme to suggest the block is going to die this year. As I said in an earlier post, this block is NOT meant to be watched every single day. There is a very real possibility this block does just well enough with the 4-5 shows it has and can keep doing that for years to come. The discussion point is always “checkered past needs new content!” But, does it? Or do people just WANT new content? And also as I have said before, this whole block is free for them to air. It does not have a high bar for success.

I feel like a lot of people subconsciously apply a “Toonami style” mindset to this block. That it needs a constant rotation of fresh content at all times and it’s at constant risk of cancellation if it has a few bad nights. And that’s just not the case.

 

[Checkerboard]

What is and isnt written off?

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

What is and isnt written off?

That isn’t exactly known, but here are a few Toonami shows we have confirmation are written off:
Megas XLR
Symbionic Titan
Beware the Batman
Thundercats
Shenmue
Blade Runner Black Lotus
Fena Pirate Princess
These shows were suddenly removed from Toonami due to tax write offs, with most of Batman burned off in one night, a few days before the new Gotham show premiered. At one point very early in the Toonami revival, Demarco said IGPX was written off, but it has managed to return to Toonami due to complex methods we never fully had explained. He has said the same method couldn’t apply to Megas XLR, so it seems like CN originals may have a tougher situation than international coproductions. Here is an interview where the creator of Megas talks about the show being written off.

10 Years After Megas XLR: An Interview With George Krstic

From May 2004 to January 2005, 26 glorious episodes of Megas XLR hit the airwaves. The show was about two modern-day slackers (Coop and Jamie) who inherit a giant robot from the future named Megas …

untiedmagazine.wordpress.com

We don’t have a definitive list of which CN shows have been written off, especially not older ones, but in recent WBD purges, most of the ones from the 2010s and 2020s which are not currently airing on CN got written off. There are rumors surrounding earlier shows, but other than Toonami stuff I am not sure on which exact shows were written off. If a show is so obscure that it hasn’t aired in 20+ years, it is safe to assume CN may have written it off. Some of the older CN shows never even showed up on Boomerang. I wouldn’t be surprised if series like Robot Jones were written off.

 

[Silverstar]

I think it’s a bit extreme to suggest the block is going to die this year. As I said in an earlier post, this block is NOT meant to be watched every single day. There is a very real possibility this block does just well enough with the 4-5 shows it has and can keep doing that for years to come. The discussion point is always “checkered past needs new content!” But, does it? Or do people just WANT new content? And also as I have said before, this whole block is free for them to air. It does not have a high bar for success.

I feel like a lot of people subconsciously apply a “Toonami style” mindset to this block. That it needs a constant rotation of fresh content at all times and it’s at constant risk of cancellation if it has a few bad nights. And that’s just not the case.

Yeah, that makes sense. Checkered Past is really just something quick and cheap that WBD can run during those early Adult Swim hours. It's a Band-Aid patch fix, not the savior of the network that a lot of people seem to think it is.

If a show is so obscure that it hasn’t aired in 20+ years, it is safe to assume CN may have written it off. Some of the older CN shows never even showed up on Boomerang. I wouldn’t be surprised if series like Robot Jones were written off.

Once more for the folks in the back.

I've been saying this for a while. Some people were/are under the belief that CP is supposed to be the Second Coming of 90s-00s era Cartoon Network 2.0, and that's just not the case. The purpose of CP was never to bring back every old CN show ever produced. (And I don't get why anybody would want it to be, given how the current brass is so bent on there being no overlap between AS and CN; a show turning up on CP would mean it's not coming back to CN proper with new episodes like they so badly want.) The stuff that hasn't been seen in a while hasn't resurfaced for a reason. I particularly don't get the constant requests for Robot Jones; that show was never top priority for CN's brass. Robot Jones was a footnote even while it was running. One rumor goes that the only reason CN greenlit Robot Jones in the first place was so they'd have something to premiere in the summer of 2002.

 

[Fone Bone]

That isn’t exactly known, but here are a few Toonami shows we have confirmation are written off:
Megas XLR
Symbionic Titan
Beware the Batman
Thundercats
Shenmue
Blade Runner Black Lotus
Fena Pirate Princess
These shows were suddenly removed from Toonami due to tax write offs, with most of Batman burned off in one night, a few days before the new Gotham show premiered. At one point very early in the Toonami revival, Demarco said IGPX was written off, but it has managed to return to Toonami due to complex methods we never fully had explained. He has said the same method couldn’t apply to Megas XLR, so it seems like CN originals may have a tougher situation than international coproductions. Here is an interview where the creator of Megas talks about the show being written off.

10 Years After Megas XLR: An Interview With George Krstic

From May 2004 to January 2005, 26 glorious episodes of Megas XLR hit the airwaves. The show was about two modern-day slackers (Coop and Jamie) who inherit a giant robot from the future named Megas …

untiedmagazine.wordpress.com

We don’t have a definitive list of which CN shows have been written off, especially not older ones, but in recent WBD purges, most of the ones from the 2010s and 2020s which are not currently airing on CN got written off. There are rumors surrounding earlier shows, but other than Toonami stuff I am not sure on which exact shows were written off. If a show is so obscure that it hasn’t aired in 20+ years, it is safe to assume CN may have written it off. Some of the older CN shows never even showed up on Boomerang. I wouldn’t be surprised if series like Robot Jones were written off.

If ThunderCats 2011 and Beware The Batman were actually written off you couldn't find them on Streaming. BTB is on Max and 2011 is on Hulu. Also both are still available on DVD / Blu-Ray.

 

[Checkerboard]

And the second question is what exactly written off means in reality?

So you're saying CP is Cartoon Planet 3.0?

 

[Conttactt]

If ThunderCats 2011 and Beware The Batman were actually written off you couldn't find them on Streaming. BTB is on Max and 2011 is on Hulu. Also both are still available on DVD / Blu-Ray.

Something being written off does not mean it’s lost media you can’t find anywhere. We have been told straight from Demarco that those shows were written off.

And the second question is what exactly written off means in reality?

So you're saying CP is Cartoon Planet 3.0?

If a show is a financial failure, the network can opt to write it off as a loss on their taxes in exchange for a tax cut. The logic behind this it to encourage networks to take risks but having a safety net in the event the show fails. The tradeoff for this though, is that network can never air, reference or make any kind of profit off the show ever again. So no new seasons, no merch, and no reruns.

So the tldr is written off = can’t air on CN, AS, Boomerang or any other network or service owned by WBD.

 

[Fone Bone]

Something being written off does not mean it’s lost media you can’t find anywhere. We have been told straight from Demarco that those shows were written off.


If a show is a financial failure, the network can opt to write it off as a loss on their taxes in exchange for a tax cut. The logic behind this it to encourage networks to take risks but having a safety net in the event the show fails. The tradeoff for this though, is that network can never air, reference or make any kind of profit off the show ever again. So no new seasons, no merch, and no reruns.

So the tldr is written off = can’t air on CN, AS, Boomerang or any other network or service owned by WBD.

Max is owned by WBD. Beware The Batman is on it. I checked today. Maybe Demarco is wrong.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Even in the Megas xlr interview I linked, the creator expressed how weird it is you can buy the show on iTunes despite being written off. It seems likely they have different rules for what can air on tv and digital purchase after being written off.

Here is a promo where TOM says “we’re losing Beware the Batman forever” and announced they are running a marathon of unaired episodes.

 

[Checkerboard]

But they could sell the show/ip to someone else still right? Still, writing anything off is a shame.

 

[Conttactt]

But they could sell the show/ip to someone else still right? Still, writing anything off is a shame.

Once it’s written off, the network no longer owns it. In theory, an interested party could attempt to purchase the show from the government. From snippets we have heard from those who attempted this, it’s very expensive and very difficult to pull off. You need to have the financial influence of a TV network to do it. But why would any TV network want to purchase a show that was cast off as a financial failure? So it doesn’t happen.