Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I've got the JLblUes

New episodes of JLU have been delayed 'til Spring. Some speculate that this is to coincide with the release of Superman Returns. Some speculate that this is to coincide with the release of the first JL season set on DVD.

I speculate that it's because Cartoon Network doesn't know their arse from a hole in the ground. They drove He-Man into cancellation with haphazard scheduling and no advertisement. They'll show all the available episodes of a series in one chunk, then wait six months to ever mention the series again. It's happened to JL multiple times already. Seems like only Adult Swim knows what it's doing. Cartoon Network would rather show six hours of "Kids Next Door" and "Ed, Edd, and Eddy," than put on a variety of shows, maintain a static schedule, and actually use the wide variety of programming rights they own.

Would it be so hard to air Teen Titans and Justice League in the afternoons, during the mid-season breaks? Would it be so difficult to air them even once a week? Is it too much to ask that Superman and Batman: TAS not be limited to late-night Boomerang?

To say nothing of the fact that they've apparently cancelled Teen Titans. What a shot in the foot. Honestly, that has to be one of their most popular series; every friggin' kid I have contact with watches it, and it's a damn good show. Why oh why would they cancel it?

Unless the big reveal comes that they'll be doing "Teen Titans Unlimited" or something concurrent with the proposed Legion of Super-Heroes series. Then, all CN sins will be forgiven.

Except killing He-Man. That was just a crappy thing to do.

4 comments:

Jon said...

I could swear I saw somewhere that Teen Titans is coming back as "New Teen Titans." Could be wrong there, but I don't think even CN is dumb enough to kill a cash cow like that.

But, yeah, they treat JLU like shit, probably because it's cheaper to just get a hack translation of some terrible Japanese series and air that. Because the world needed an English language version of that show where a guy fights people using prehensile nosehair, you see.

Philip said...

I'm just happy to learn that there will be more episodes. I had just gotten my fiancee hooked on the show when it disappeared. I couldn't find any information at all about when (if?) it would be back.

Cartoon Network's scheduling choices baffle me. Would it kill them to keep a stable line-up for more than a few weeks?

Jon said...

Their target audience loathes stability and, apparently, loves them some Codename: Kids Next Door.

Keep in mind, however, that I am in my twenties and angry with a cable network that only airs cartoons for not airing the cartoons I want to see, so, uhm, take what I say with a grain of salt.

Tom Foss said...

Well, my biggest problem with CN is the same problem I have with Sci-Fi channel. Both stations own the rights to large amounts of programming, but prefer to show the same things over and over. If you've got the rights, you should use it.

And when you've got highly rated, highly regarded original series, it behooves you to promote them, and not to cancel them or let them languish. You know, like Invisible Man, Farscape, Justice League, Teen Titans, He-Man, etc.

And it behooves you to stick to your raison d'etre...why is Cartoon Network showing live-action movies? That's two hours that could be used to show Thundercats, Ho! or a JL three-parter or Voltron or Robotech or Looney Toons, or any of the animated films they own. To buy the broadcast rights to a project and then sit on it in favor of homogeneity and cheesy movies (Sci-Fi, I'm looking at you), is idiotic.

I think the ultimate example of Sci-Fi Channel's poor priorities is the existence of "Original Pictures" like Larva, while they have *never* had the broadcast rights to any of the modern Star Trek shows. Next Gen is on G4 for crying out loud, and DS9 is on Spike. These should be the staples of Sci-Fi channel programming, not daily marathons of Manimal and movies you wouldn't watch for free.