By now, you know about Boomerang, Cartoon Network's sister channel, having made some changes. The bumpers, using Hanna-Barbera toys from the 50's & 60's, with voice-over narration by actor-game show host John O'Hurley (ex-Seinfeld, Family Feud), have been retired in favor of some slick new graphics and voice-overs done by a much younger actor. That's the good news.
The bad? Programming has gotten very lazy. Double-play blocks dominate the schedule as of now, with Tom & Jerry, The Garfield Show, and 2 different Scooby-Doo series airing up to 3-4 hours per day. With all the material in the WB/Turner vaults, you'd think they could diversify the schedule. Numb Chucks, which was originally ticketed for CN last year, airs on weekends on Da Boom, as does Grojband. Yes, they have Boomerang Theatre back on the schedule, weekends at 9 am (ET), but how much d'ya wanna bet they replay the same movies over and over again every three months?
We're told that there are more changes to come, and that the "rebrand" is a gradual process. Part of the problem is Boomerang giving 2 hours of primetime per night to a pair of current CN series, The Amazing World of Gumball and Teen Titans Go!, neither or which is really top shelf entertainment. They're being repurposed, you see, in order to maximize ratings for both shows. We all know that this incarnation of the Titans is an insult to fans of the long running DC franchise. Gumball puts animated characters on live-action backgrounds via computer. Not a new concept, but it just looks, well, lazy and unfunny. Both shows, of course, have been reviewed here previously.
Gumball & Titans don't belong on Boomerang since they're still in production, but CN's current head, Christina Miller, is listening to the marketing nerds instead of common sense and conscience. Boomerang should be for the entire family, instead of being geared for the same malleable minds that CN is marketed toward. Older fans want their favorites, too, you know. Someone on Toon Zone suggested that maybe CN/Boomerang should reacquire beloved DC toons from the 90's (i.e. Batman), but it all depends on whether or not Discovery still has rights.
The bottom line is this. If Da Boom doesn't get out of its programming rut by, say, Summer, it's in trouble. Period.
25 comments:
100% agreed. The changes supposedly being made to Boomerang's schedule should have come all at once when the channel first re-branded, this 'stealth gradual' rebrand has all the eye-marks of being a HUGE mistake, as was completely turning their backs on the classics. I get that Da Boom is ad-supported now, and as such, Turner wants to steer the channel away from its' archive roots and remake it as a contemporary channel for younger kiddos and their families (since the channel wasn't earning a ton of money as an archive channel), but grownups are part of the family too, they should still get the opportunity to see the toons they grew up watching, even if it's during non-peak viewing hours like late at night after the kids have been put to bed.
Boomerang's Upfront is in May; we know that 'Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!' and 'Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production' have been slated for Boom (the deal to run the new Inspector Gadget series has apparently fallen through, that series will be exclusive to Netflix as of this post); here's hoping that The Powers That Be have more in store than just those 2 shows and that by then they plan to do away with these constant double shots of the same shows, otherwise this rebrand will be D.O.A. and all this noise will have been for naught.
As bad as Be Cool supposedly is, Da Boom doesn't deserve to be stuck with that. Wabbit should be on CN, but that shows a lack of faith in that product.
I get that CN wants to heavily push its current generation of in-house originals, but it shouldn't be at the expense of old school style humor. Uncle Grandpa, Regular Show, et al, cater to teens as well as the small fry, but that's so big bro/sis can interpret some of the lamer jokes to the kiddo's.
Seems to me that Christina Miller's having to serve whomever it is that doesn't want to make the right changes. Bigger mistake.
Whoever rebranded Boomerang should get hit by a car.
Now, that's being cruel, Steven.
Care to elaborate on why you feel this way?
Because they raped Boomerang.
Raped? Now you're being harsh. I don't think you quite get what they're trying to do.
What I'm saying is that making Boomerang look like the New CN is just dumb. This is why change needs to stop.
It's a slow, gradual process, which in this case is a mistake. If they were serious about rebooting the channel, they should've gone full bore in the first place, or waited until after the upfronts in May. The double-play block format isn't working, but they don't care.
Cartoon Network: Raping Boomerang since 2015.
No different than [adult swim] raping Hanna-Barbera's library since 2001.
Hanna-Barbera had a library? When?
Boomerang is now showing Courage The Cowardly Dog on Mondays through Fridays from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
Well, at least Courage is out of production. Hanna-Barbera's history as its own studio dates back nearly 60 years. That being said, a lot of what is in that library today is being ignored. Their loss.
Aside from new boss Christina Miller, I'd say the blame for the lazy programming goes to Rob Sorcher, who'd been partners-in-lameness with Stupid Snyder.
Rob Sorcher is responsible for this?
Get a grip.
They should take Teen Titans Go! off the channel and replace it with the original Teen Titans.
Unfortunately, CN/Boomerang will keep TTG on the air until people either tire of it or WB decides to end production. Putting the 2003-8 Titans series on Boomerang will make us happy, but they don't want to do the right thing. Idiots.
Actually, the original Teen Titans ended in 2006, not 2008.
Whatever. Ended too soon.
Warner Bros. should have made Teen Titans Go! Season 6 of the original Teen Titans cartoon. That's how I could fix Teen Titans Go. You know how Season 3 of Mucha Lucha was called Mucha Lucha: Gigante?, That's what I am talking about.
Actually, TTG! is a completely different---literally---animal. Worse than the original TT, which, oh, by the way, actually did end in 2008.
What do you mean the original TT ended in 2008? The last episode aired on CN in 2006.
The series' official coda was the TV-movie, "Trouble in Tokyo", which premiered in 2008.
That was 2006, not 2008.
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