I remember it like it was yesterday. My pokemon journey started in 1999. I was also 10 years old and a prime target for the franchise. I had a huge interest in being outdoors at the time, preferably fishing or catching snakes, baby alligators, lizards, and turtles as well as bugs, birds, and small mammals. I was always the neighborhood kid without a shirt or shoes on and covered in mud and poison ivy. I guess I could be somewhat likened to the creator of pokemon in this sense. Having this knowledge and hands on experience with these real life pokemon critters gave me an advantage on bonding to the franchise in ways my friends did not. Always being outside and not owning or playing a gameboy, my exposure came from the card game. I slowly got introduced to these cards from the various neighborhood kids and soon had this strange attraction and imagination of this pokemon filled world. However, my parents had other plans. My dad in particular was an evangelical Christian and did not support the hobby whatsoever, deeming it as evil. So my collection always remained small and I had to literally beg my mom for even just one booster pack. I only ever opened a handful of new booster packs. I never got into gen 2 at all other than the second movie and never had a full set of the first three gen 1 sets. Even still I had enough to keep me content, even though I was definitely envious of all the kids who had loads and loads of cards and booster packs. Trading was very memorable and so was the rare times I was inside and could catch a show. Anyway now I'm 35 and recently have found the hobby again. I searched and searched my parents house for my original binder but I think it was trashed. They pages would most likely have been full of dirt and debris and the cards would definitely be in horrible shape. Looking back, I do feel somewhat robbed of my childhood interests but I can't blame my parents for doing their best. Now I'm happy to say I've finally completed base, jungle and fossil, as well as 151 and some newer sets. I've even made a good bit of side money hustling some cards so in a way, I'm getting some of my childhood back and it feels so good.
In my country, Argentina, anime was around all the time, even when no one called it "anime": Astroboy, Heidi, Speed Racer, Captain Tsubasa and several more were always on TV on the 80's. There were also some uncensored really cruel and violent animes airing during the 80's: Minashigo Hatchi (Honeybee Hutch) and Kerokko Demetan (Demetan the Frog), where in every episode someone died or was tortured, that maybe escaped censorship by the fact that they were insects and pond animals and the lack of blood, but mothers at that time were really worried about their children crying in front of TV's, haha.
Thanks to Adult Swim and Toonami it feels like I’ve been watching anime for as long as I can remember. I spent many Saturday nights staying up until 1:00AM watching Inuyasha and Samurai Champloo. However, my most memorable encounter with anime was this one night when I was just flipping through channels and found one that I’d never come across before. Within seconds I recognized that what I was watching was undoubtedly anime but it was way more graphic than anything I’d seen prior. That night I ended up watching the last hour or so of Akira followed by the Baki the Grappler OVA from the 90s. Seeing that mutation scene as like an 8 year old was MIND BLOWING…
Sometime in the early to mid 90s, I woke up in the middle of the night, turned the TV on, and like you, I was mesmerized by what I was seeing. It was Robot Carnival. Been a fan of anime ever since.
I used to watch Maury more than the other shows. I remember tuning in when he had wild teen girls, obese babies, guests with bizarre phobias, or makeover shows. But when he did nothing but paternity tests on his show I stopped watching it.
I absolutely loved Surge. Back in the 90s, on the last day of 8th grade, I drank an entire 2 liter bottle while walking home. Don't know how I didn't get sick from that. lol
Fun Fact: Scooby Doo was on the USA Network during the early years of CN ('92-'94), in their Cartoon Express block. When the syndication rights expired at the start of 1995, Turner made the rght choice. I salute you from Peru.
Seibert doesn't deserve nearly the amount of credit that you're giving him, here. He essentially just took the philosophy, concept and proven method of cartoon animation that was pioneered (and then only 2 years later, unintentionally self-sabotaged) by John Kristfalusi, and just adopted the method verbatim for his own. Seibert basically replicated and copy pasted exactly what John K did, but without the manic perfectionism and self-sabotage. He basically stole John's method, but slightly adapted it to be cheaper and on time so that it didn't fall apart as quickly.
And yes, I know uttering the name John K seems to be a dirty, unforgivable word now, and has basically became the unspeakable Voldemort of animation, but that doesn't mean his 90's ideas and successes can be ignored or treated like they never happened. Long story short, John K innovated and walked, so Seibert, could copy, take credit, and run.
Correction: Swat Kats was NOT a ratings OR commerical failure. It actually did very very well in the ratings as was climbing in popularity. Swat Kats was axed at the HEIGHT of it's increased popularity and a planned 3rd season cancelled mid-way through development by an Irate Ted Turner who called it "edgy, unpleasant and violent" and was also motivated by it taking ratings and success away from Ted Turner's Captain Planet pet project which he personally wanted more. When audiences were rejecting Captain Planet and turning into Swat Kats instead, the plug was pulled on it out of spite.
I had a subscription to Nickelodeon Magazine. I read those things, cover to cover. Completely trashed them. Took them to school with me, constantly reading them. It truly was an amazing magazine. And I took it for granted. Obviously magazines are out of style, and have been replaced by tablets. But there just isn't anything that comes close to the greatness of Nickelodeon magazine. No app, no website, nothing. Now its just pure brainrot with skibidi toilet, and pure misinformation about health and politics.
Growing up, we didnt have the cartoon network until around 1995. Our cable provider didn't carry it. But I really do love this video. Specifically because unlike 99.99% of video essays, you actually focused on the IP of Cartoon Network, and not just the shows. Far too many people think that what made Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network great in the 90s was the shows. That's incorrect. It was the atmosphere of the channel itself, as well as the time period. Because in theory, if the shows were what made Cartoon Network great, then you could simply stream the shows, and get the same feeling. But you can't get that same feeling from simply streaming. Just like what made McDonald's or Burger King great in the 90s, wasn't necessarily the food. Just like the shows, the food plays a role. But the atmosphere of the restaurant plays a much bigger role. Because in theory, non-fast food restaurants have way better tasting food. But they don't have toys, playplaces, activity books, soda fountains, ketchup despensers, etc. All the things that are fun to a kid. Just like all the things you mentioned in this video that the cartoon network, you won't get on streaming. And also, the 90s were simply a different time. And it was a long time ago. If Back to the Future was made today, they would be going back to 1994. And in 30+ years, things change. McDonald's doesn't taste nearly as good today. And they've removed all the fun from their restaurants. And watching stuff from the 90s isn't nearly as fun today. The movie inside did a great visual representation of this phenomenon, by mixing the sadness with what was once pure joy. Thats what it feels like watching stuff from the 90s.
Thanks for talking about this era of CN... this was the one I lived and watched and enjoyed immensely. I concur that the look and creativity of the channel was way better than its material, I mean, I loved Looney Tunes, POpeye, Tom and Jerry and Flintstones/Jetsons, but everything else was mostly generic Hanna-Barbera mediocrity. However the craziness and style elevated the material and made CN more that the sum of his parts.
Fantastic retrospective! I didn't have the channel till 1999 so I'm fascinated by the early years of the network and wish more people would talk about them. I see you also have a video about Gameboy and that's my next stop for sure!
Animators like Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken were always the biggest hipsters. If they weren't drawing cartoons, they'd probably be playing in bands. But if you think about it, cartoonists were always the biggest hipsters of any era, going all the way back to the 1920s and 30s. The original rock stars
Great video, I wasn’t even alive for this era but I still think about early CN all the time. That’s how impactful it was! They handled bumpers and channel identity better than pretty much any other network, you don’t get the same treatment in the streaming age sadly /:
I had a drama teacher who said that he acted as a guest on one of these shows and the driver of the limo that the show sent him offered to whack the the other guest that he was having the “dispute” with. Allegedly, anyway.
Now if we can get just get them to sell the 90s Hanna Barbera library of Dexter's Lab and 2 Stupid Dogs to ME TV, I would no longer have any need for Cartoon Network whatsoever!
@@impalaman9707 They have the rights for 2 Stupid Dogs! I excited for them to add it in. They'll be adding it into the rotation later, they have a graphic showing all of the shows they currently have the rights for and it also has Freakazoid and few other 90s classics.
imo, MeTV Toons is absolutely failing to do with marketing or branding what Cartoon Network did right with it's early days or with Boomerang. I predict MeTV Toons to be a failure and a flash in the pan that doesn't survive a year or two at most.
@@the-NightStar the ratings disagree with you. Before they launched ME TV Toons, ME TV did its own internal market research which showed their ratings spiked immensely in the few times in the day when they did show classic cartoons. So this was by popular demand. More classic cartoons means more ratings. Believe me---there is a LARGE segment of Boomers and Gen Xers who have no access to cable and have been starving for the lack of classic cartoons that over the air network television has failed to provide but that they grew up with---and ME TV Toons fills that void!
@@the-NightStar I disagree. It's very similar to early cartoon network with their between show segments. No its not as zany and immersive, but it is a channel made with fans of classic animation in mind first. That's what I enjoy. It's free channel for people who still utilize antenna TV primarily, so I don't see it dropping in the ratings because there's nothing comparable to compete with it. They also did a great job of marketing the launch in my opinion by taking into outlets online that was probably already serving their desired fanbase.
I loved the commercials and bumpers they would run. I vividly remember one with betty rubble doing housework and the tone was somber like there were marital issues in the rubble home. As dark as it may sound it was kinda hilarious which is what they were going for
OMG, I can't believe this doesn't have any comments over 12+ hours! The editing and presentation was so professional! Amazing video! Hope my comment gives you a boost! :)
OMG one of the best childhood memories. "Richie Rich", "The Flinstones", "Captain Planet", "Cow and Chicken" etc. And after midnight, instead of this channel, the TNT channel was switched on with Hollywood classics in English.
I think the best part about the pokemania time was the fact we were kids. Pokemon seemed so good and so hard because we didn’t know how to use the badge glitch. We didn’t know how to use type advantages like we do now which made the early gens seem much harder. Gym leaders seemed like they were this impossible obstacle, that when you finally beat them it was a big deal. I use to organize my party from lowest lvl at top to my highest lvl and send them out in that order and would not deviate from it. The mystery of not knowing weather Mew was under the truck or not was amazing. Now we have bulbapedia to answer all questions if we have them. Making everything that comes out now much easier that the original game s
