Anyone here ever watch cartoon network? If youve watched it somewhat regularly in the past two years, you would have noticed a very nice, very convenient patern to their programming. Each half hour show would start exactly on the hour or half hour, there would be exactly one short commercial break during the show, and the show would end at either :24 or :54 past the hour. This made viewing shows on Cartoon Network very easy on someone like me, who absolutely cannot stand advertizments. I havnt watched all that much of Cartoon Network (excepting of course, Adult Swim) in the past few months, mostly because all the new stuff theyre coming out with is absolute crap, but occasionally I catch an episode or two of Dexters Lab, or EdCubed.
Whats pissed me off in the past week or so is that Cartoon Network has gone completely commercial. They now pull the same stunts that Fox does with Advertizing. Namely, theres a commercial right after the theme song, before the first actual clip; and now the programs dont end until the end of the half hour. Cartoon Network has apparently sold out. This distresses me because it just ads another underline to the vastly apparent commercialization of our world. We cant go anywhere in public anymore without being bombarded with ads, and now advertizers are finding more and more annoying ways to get us to sit through them, either on TV, radio, or the Internet.
I'm sick of it. I refuse to be advertized to. If I want to know about a product that I might be interested in, I'll go looking for information, I dont want that information forced on me.
To hell with advertizments and advertizers.
/rant
The commercialization of what was once decent TV...
Moderators: Tunnelcat, Jeff250
I completely agree. Do company execs actually think that advertising sells a single product? I've seen commercials for just about everything, but none have convinced me to buy something. If I do buy something, it's because I saw it in a store or heard about it from someone. I don't mind newspaper ads or catalogs; they simply showcase what a store's offering, and they're relatively non-intrusive. But out of all TV commercials, I loathe the Raymour and Flanigan ones the most. Anyone who's seen one will know what I'm talking about. I shudder to even think of them...I, too, am getting fed up with the increasing amount/length of commercial breaks. It's gotten to the point where you can't watch a movie on TV anymore, since it's interrupted every ten minutes. I'm at the point where all I use the TV for is PS2, although I'm willing to put up with commercials if Iron Chef is on the Food Network 
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Flabby Chick
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Krom
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Cartoon Network did not sell out; they were bought out by WB because they were doing too well against the Kids WB channel. I quit watching Cartoon Network about a year or so after they were bought; it just was not any good anymore.
Now if I hear something on Cartoon Network is good, I download it off the net (in the original Japanese language typically) and watch it commercial free. If I find it to be really good, I purchase it online, otherwise it gets archived to a CDROM and never watched again.
-Krom
Now if I hear something on Cartoon Network is good, I download it off the net (in the original Japanese language typically) and watch it commercial free. If I find it to be really good, I purchase it online, otherwise it gets archived to a CDROM and never watched again.
-Krom
That would explain why there has been such an influx of Warner Brothers cartoons on Cartoon Network.
I'm not sure it's something I actually mind. Frankly, I was tired of anime in general. Of its stiff composition, melodramatic storylines, and supposedly "deep" underpinnings. Maybe the avid wannabe otaku took all the fun out of it. Or maybe it was that I was tired of being bombarded by anime on every station. Honestly, we make cartoons in other parts of the world, you know. Japan doesn't have exclusive rights here.
I think domestic animators, however, all learned a thing or two from anime. Namely, people want more detailed storylines that continue from one episode to the next, "good" versus "evil" is a blurred line, and the whole "superhero"/"one man saves the world" genre is boring. Not to mention that anime stylings are present in almost every cartoon, especially in the hair. Gradually, we're taking back our own airwaves, and the thousands of employees Disney's Eisner laid off might just have employment in the future.
I'm not sure it's something I actually mind. Frankly, I was tired of anime in general. Of its stiff composition, melodramatic storylines, and supposedly "deep" underpinnings. Maybe the avid wannabe otaku took all the fun out of it. Or maybe it was that I was tired of being bombarded by anime on every station. Honestly, we make cartoons in other parts of the world, you know. Japan doesn't have exclusive rights here.
I think domestic animators, however, all learned a thing or two from anime. Namely, people want more detailed storylines that continue from one episode to the next, "good" versus "evil" is a blurred line, and the whole "superhero"/"one man saves the world" genre is boring. Not to mention that anime stylings are present in almost every cartoon, especially in the hair. Gradually, we're taking back our own airwaves, and the thousands of employees Disney's Eisner laid off might just have employment in the future.
uh...most the stuff on TV now thats animated is all imported. You want to talk about content? Well, lets face it, the japs have their really good stuff and then.....they have their really BAD stuff, but hey! Lets import ALL of it!! The good and the bad!
Why not, most of us just barely escaped being mindfvcked by television anyways. Lets just keep our kids dumb. Let them continue to watch a bunch of imported stuff that after our editors butchered it and removed all the plot and the cohesive storyline it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What the hell.
Besides, kids are worthless anyways right?
Lets just accept the reality of it *wink*. The japanese have been buying up a bunch of land in the US. They almost completely control our programming for children on television and soon they'll run our government someday using braindead Japanime zombies raised on crap! Hey, atleast those of us that are left will get some sucky sucky 
On the note of Cartoon Network. Who cares? I used to watch Cartoon Network constantly when we first got it and I was 14 years old. Used to leave it on all night even while I slept. This was before all their Cartoon Cartoons started. No Dexter, no PPG, no Courage or Ed, Edd & Eddy. None of it, but they played some old cartoons that I used to really like and that was good enough.
Since I've been in my twenties though, CN has interested me very little. WAY too much Scooby Doo for the last 4-5 years or so. They'd have like 6 Scooby shows on during the day and then their Cartoon Cartoons in the evenings. Then, about eh, maybe 4 years ago? 5? They started Toonami....anime....anime...and well, it was ok back then because they didn't have TOO much anime. Now they have a ton of it and not all of it is good either.
So...in my eyes, cartoon network just went from playing slightly less crap and replaced it with 'new' slightly less crap that has a whole lot of crap mixed in with it
In otherwords...the more things change the more they stay the same. It was bound to happen eventually. As long as people can sit and watch while networks play commercials every 5 minutes like idiots the networks will continue to do it. The less content they have to put on TV for you the more money they make and save.
We as a society have completely forgotten that we as the people who watch have the power. They make the money off of us watching. If we refused to watch they'd have to change their habits to please the viewer. Just a handful of us who have turned our backs on mainstream television isn't going to cut it.
Nobody will do anything about it though, which is the tragic part. It's all rants and ravings and we get angry at this and that and whatever but it's never important enough in our minds to follow through on a lot of things. So slowly we're having to endure longer commercial breaks and more frequent breaks as well so that in the long run we've been bombarded with more ads then the actual program we were watching.
Thats why I watch Sportcenter, re-runs of MadTV and Baseball games and thats about it. I haven't even done that in the last two months though. None of the new cartoons or anything interest me. All the new cartoons are either these real serious ones with very simplistic animation or the anime ones with decent or great artwork (lets face it, anime isn't exactly animated, atleast not most of the stuff we import) that have no substance.
That new He-Man cartoon was promising. Had good artwork and good voice acting and episode story lines. Seems to have been canned though, never hear anything about it. oh well, thats my rant. Kind of came to really sudden stop, but I'm sleepy and I gotta work again. Two months with no days off, even working the holidays! yay....well, two more weeks and I'm done so thats a plus.
Why not, most of us just barely escaped being mindfvcked by television anyways. Lets just keep our kids dumb. Let them continue to watch a bunch of imported stuff that after our editors butchered it and removed all the plot and the cohesive storyline it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What the hell.
Besides, kids are worthless anyways right?
Lets just accept the reality of it *wink*. The japanese have been buying up a bunch of land in the US. They almost completely control our programming for children on television and soon they'll run our government someday using braindead Japanime zombies raised on crap!
Hey, atleast those of us that are left will get some sucky sucky On the note of Cartoon Network. Who cares? I used to watch Cartoon Network constantly when we first got it and I was 14 years old. Used to leave it on all night even while I slept. This was before all their Cartoon Cartoons started. No Dexter, no PPG, no Courage or Ed, Edd & Eddy. None of it, but they played some old cartoons that I used to really like and that was good enough.
Since I've been in my twenties though, CN has interested me very little. WAY too much Scooby Doo for the last 4-5 years or so. They'd have like 6 Scooby shows on during the day and then their Cartoon Cartoons in the evenings. Then, about eh, maybe 4 years ago? 5? They started Toonami....anime....anime...and well, it was ok back then because they didn't have TOO much anime. Now they have a ton of it and not all of it is good either.
So...in my eyes, cartoon network just went from playing slightly less crap and replaced it with 'new' slightly less crap that has a whole lot of crap mixed in with it
In otherwords...the more things change the more they stay the same. It was bound to happen eventually. As long as people can sit and watch while networks play commercials every 5 minutes like idiots the networks will continue to do it. The less content they have to put on TV for you the more money they make and save.
We as a society have completely forgotten that we as the people who watch have the power. They make the money off of us watching. If we refused to watch they'd have to change their habits to please the viewer. Just a handful of us who have turned our backs on mainstream television isn't going to cut it.
Nobody will do anything about it though, which is the tragic part. It's all rants and ravings and we get angry at this and that and whatever but it's never important enough in our minds to follow through on a lot of things. So slowly we're having to endure longer commercial breaks and more frequent breaks as well so that in the long run we've been bombarded with more ads then the actual program we were watching.
Thats why I watch Sportcenter, re-runs of MadTV and Baseball games and thats about it. I haven't even done that in the last two months though. None of the new cartoons or anything interest me. All the new cartoons are either these real serious ones with very simplistic animation or the anime ones with decent or great artwork (lets face it, anime isn't exactly animated, atleast not most of the stuff we import
) that have no substance.That new He-Man cartoon was promising. Had good artwork and good voice acting and episode story lines. Seems to have been canned though, never hear anything about it. oh well, thats my rant. Kind of came to really sudden stop, but I'm sleepy and I gotta work again. Two months with no days off, even working the holidays! yay....well, two more weeks and I'm done so thats a plus.
To be fair, virtually every cartoon on television is animated in places like Korea. That has been true since the 1980s and since Hanna-Barbera ushered in the age of cheap animation. It's the reason you can watch Looney Tunes and note how beautifully animated they are, and then turn to the drivel that is - oh, any HB cartoon from the 1970s and beyond - and realize how cheap it looks.
What I don't like, and what I can't stand, is the continual proliferation of anime based on the sole fact that it is Japanese. I'm tired of the white, wannabe otaku who think they know everything about every series and love anything Japanese for that reason alone. Who live and breathe Japan as if it's holy country and can do absolutely no wrong. Sure, I used to like anime. And then, as I was bombarded with it on every station and as our own domestic cartoonists were getting pushed by the wayside by the latest incarnation of Card-Playing-Monster-Giant-Robo-Wars, I started to loathe it.
We have countless Americans who have great ideas for animated series. But their chances are stifled by our insipid willingness to import everything from Japan.
What I don't like, and what I can't stand, is the continual proliferation of anime based on the sole fact that it is Japanese. I'm tired of the white, wannabe otaku who think they know everything about every series and love anything Japanese for that reason alone. Who live and breathe Japan as if it's holy country and can do absolutely no wrong. Sure, I used to like anime. And then, as I was bombarded with it on every station and as our own domestic cartoonists were getting pushed by the wayside by the latest incarnation of Card-Playing-Monster-Giant-Robo-Wars, I started to loathe it.
We have countless Americans who have great ideas for animated series. But their chances are stifled by our insipid willingness to import everything from Japan.
"Randomizing" the time when commercials are played is an effective way to make their selling cost higher. If I own a company, and want to advertize I won't pay as much for commercials that are played at definite, easily avoidable times as I would for one played during a time that people will not expect it to be played.
The problem I have these days is the fact that everything seems to be very cookie-cutter. Back when, at least you has some good diversity- now it seems like its all the same.
The problem I have these days is the fact that everything seems to be very cookie-cutter. Back when, at least you has some good diversity- now it seems like its all the same.
The main problem with domestic animation is that no one wants to watch Cartoons aimed at Adults.
With the exception of South Park, King of the Hill and The Simpsons.
A large part of the problem is only niche networks seem to be the only ones interested in airing them.
As for Korean animation, they can only do so much with what they're given. the Simpsons and Futurama are animated in Korea, and thats about the best animation on TV of late.
With the exception of South Park, King of the Hill and The Simpsons.
A large part of the problem is only niche networks seem to be the only ones interested in airing them.
As for Korean animation, they can only do so much with what they're given. the Simpsons and Futurama are animated in Korea, and thats about the best animation on TV of late.
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MD-2389
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To be honest with you flip, there are several episodes of Gargoyles (a US show mind you, that hired on japanese animator studios to do certain episodes given how frequently it aired on TV) that would rival (and in some cases surpass) animation today. (episodes like "The Mirror", "MIA", and the "Hunter's Moon" trilogy come to mind)
Now about the imported stuff, you guys have to realize that they aren't catoring to our tastes when they write this stuff up. They (as in their locals) are mostly interested in heavy martial arts use, flying around doing ★■◆● thats not possible IRL, etc. (ie: Kiss of the Dragon, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Black Mask, etc). They aren't interested in a story, they just want the good guy kicking the bad guy's ass. Our programming is VASTLY different to theirs, and vice versa. It has to do with the difference in the culture and mindset of the people.
This is why I love my capture card so much. I'll capture the whole thing, edit out the commercials and watch it as many times as I want.
Now about the imported stuff, you guys have to realize that they aren't catoring to our tastes when they write this stuff up. They (as in their locals) are mostly interested in heavy martial arts use, flying around doing ★■◆● thats not possible IRL, etc. (ie: Kiss of the Dragon, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Black Mask, etc). They aren't interested in a story, they just want the good guy kicking the bad guy's ass. Our programming is VASTLY different to theirs, and vice versa. It has to do with the difference in the culture and mindset of the people.
My beef with commercials isn't how often they're aired, is that they're really obnoxious. They compress the crap out of the audio so that it sounds like its really loud (which I *REALLY* hate them for that), do things that are blatantly irritating (which I suppose is the whole point...to get you to remember them), and air the same one all the time when they are first released. (ie: Boost mobile phones's "Where you at?!", the Quiznos things (I never liked those damn things from the start, and I really hate them now.), and that damned Arby's oven mitt...) Now they're even trying to trick commercial blockers built into damn near every PVR by playing with the volume level (since thats what most of them check for).snoopy wrote:Or, you could realize that those commercials are whats making it possible for you to watch the show without having to pay even more. Something has to pay the bills for cartoon network.
This is why I love my capture card so much. I'll capture the whole thing, edit out the commercials and watch it as many times as I want.
I disagree with you a little bit MD. Our viewers very much want to see the good guy kick the ★■◆● out of the bad guys. We're also very open to movies or tv shows that have such things but also have a freakin plot other then just that behind them as well.
The fact of the matter is most anime have these things and instead of leaving them as they are and getting good voice acters to dub the powers that be hack them up into really useless and very annoying nonsense when it's imported. Then on top of that dub them with horrible voice acters. Not all of them of course, but the overwhelming majority seen on regular TV are this way.
Sometimes I really do think it is done on purpose to numb and dumb down the youth of america but *shrug*. You can watch some of the cartoons we watched way back then and sure there are problems with them, mostly in voice over mistakes or scene errors, but a lot of them have vastly superior content compared to the trash that is on today.
I know there are things on today that blow those out of the water though, so....I guess you just have to find and watch what really appeals to you and ignore the other crap.
The fact of the matter is most anime have these things and instead of leaving them as they are and getting good voice acters to dub the powers that be hack them up into really useless and very annoying nonsense when it's imported. Then on top of that dub them with horrible voice acters. Not all of them of course, but the overwhelming majority seen on regular TV are this way.
Sometimes I really do think it is done on purpose to numb and dumb down the youth of america but *shrug*. You can watch some of the cartoons we watched way back then and sure there are problems with them, mostly in voice over mistakes or scene errors, but a lot of them have vastly superior content compared to the trash that is on today.
I know there are things on today that blow those out of the water though, so....I guess you just have to find and watch what really appeals to you and ignore the other crap.