Why Disney Channel Feels Dead At This Point?

Why Does Disney Channel Feels Dead At This Point? By Felix Saenz

 I wrote a journal about why Disney XD needs to die and I decided why not do the same for Disney Channel? The channel doesn’t seem to be as dead as Disney XD, but compared to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (when they eventually rebrand later this year), it’s looking to be one of the next kids channels to shut down, even if it won’t happen for a long time. But with a streaming service under its belt, it makes you wonder if watching Disney shows on linear tv is worth these days. I won’t be as critical as I was towards DXD but it’s still going harsh since I was never big on Disney to begin with.

First of all, I think Disney Channel has no purpose as a network anymore because most of the exciting stuff are now on Disney+. The linear network these days has nothing to offer outside of new episodes. There’s a person who runs the Disney Schedules account and you’ll notice how dead their channel are, especially Junior. https://twitter.com/DisneySchedules?s=20 All they do is constantly air the same shows over and over again. I’m pretty sure the target demographics will get sick of seeing nothing but Jessie, BUNK’d, Big City Greens, Puppy Dog Pals, Bluey, and TOTS fast and beg for the network to air other shows (but they can’t because those shows get all the ratings). I talked about how uneven the animation and live action ratio is and while 2018 show promise (with animation returning to Disney Channel full time), it’s too late to go exactly the same it was many years ago when they were perfectly balanced especially with its own streaming service being prominent. If you’re not preschool, BCG and Miraculous Ladybug (somehow that show is getting more screentime than the other Disney cartoons currently running), then animation is useless on Disney Channel. Even Disney and PIXAR movies have stopped airing on this channel for the most part. They are now mostly on Freeform if you can watch on live tv. They have aired a few times in the past year but only for certain events. As for DCOMs reruns, they have ran out of stuff to air. It’s mostly Descendants and Zombies reruns with the occasional standalone movies (that aren’t musicals). Basically there’s no variety anymore. I mean it’s sad since it used to take an advantage from Nick and CN: not having an adult themed block. But even their overnight schedule is a waste. It used to be a 6 hour block for ended shows (never mind the fact that their currently most played show is a show that already ended back in 2015), but now currently running shows get to play during those hours as well. Where’s Disney Replay when you need it? It’s getting so sad that freaking Disney Junior has lost better ratings than the main channel. And yet their scheduling aren’t any better (it’s been crap for years now even though the first few years were diverse). I think it’s time for Disney to shut down their channel in the States, if the time ever comes. Granted it used to be a premium channel so I don’t know how it’s ratings were like during its first 15 years of existence. But if they don’t do anything to impress the viewers the next few years, it’s time to say bye bye bye. Oh and another thing, the promos these days are atrocious. If you thought Nickelodeon being hip and cool was bad, then Disney is even worse at it and that may be the main reason why I’m slowly growing out of it. I’ve given up on the channel a couple times and this will be my next time if they don’t shape up. So long, Disney Channel. You were fun during my childhood but now it’s time to let it go. At least I’ll still have Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network on my side to watch for kids cable networks (and Disney+ for all the stuff related to Disney but that’s streaming). Keep in mind while I’m still looking forward to some of their shows, I’m better off watching them on Disney+ instead so I can have a better binge watching experience. I tried to not make this an essay because I didn’t have three reasons why. It was mostly about the streaming wars being a huge factor of declining interest in Disney networks.

Why TV Animation Is Better Position Now?

Why Is TV Animation in a Better Position Than They Were 12 Years Ago?

Hello this is Felix Saenz, writing a series of journals that will make people argue with me over my differing opinions. For this journal, I have decided to write about the state of television animation and how much it have came from their dork age in the late 2000s. And even though streaming is taking over, western animation is going strong more than ever. And here’s why...

First of all, better access. This can applies to tv in general but cartoons have a much better access to watch outside of cable, even if it’s piracy. Around 2010 is when cable being available in households started to decline and Netflix subscribers start to rise. During this time, Viacom had a deal with Netflix to stream their shows. This lasted until May 2013 where they suddenly got removed. Around the same time, Turner struck a deal with Netflix to stream their content. The biggest problem with this was that Netflix only streamed one season at a time, which means you had to wait a few months to see the other seasons. Unsurprisingly this didn’t last long as Viacom’s contract with Netflix and by 2015, they were gone. Both Viacom and Turner content went to Hulu for several years until they migrated to their own streaming services. And look where we are now. Thanks to streaming services, we now have a much better access to short lived and older shows. 

Second reason (and this is relevant to the journal), animation have seen a strong reassurance since 2010 started. If you people are feeling for nostalgic for the late 2000s, I urge you get to fuck out of this journal. I don’t have the nicest things to say about tv networks around this time period (especially aimed at kids). There’s a reason why I don’t look fondly back at Cartoon Network and Disney Channel during those years. Not so much with Nickelodeon but even they started to have their own problems like dedicating so much screentime to SpongeBob and by the time Cyma Zarghami became the president, Nick started favoring live action shows more than cartoons that wasn’t popular. The Noods era was beginning for CN in July 14, 2008 and you’d expect a fresh new outlook for CN’s future. Wrong! At the time, some greedy executive named Stuart Snyder thought it was a good idea to do live action on a network that have the word cartoon in its name. It was a rough time for us Animation fans. If you go up and ask any Cartoon Network fan, the general census that 2009 was THE WORST YEAR of all time. There were no new original cartoons from their own studios and all they did was shove CN Real down our throats. The only good thing to come out of was the schedule and to give this era credit is something I don’t want to do, because they did had more shows airing at the time as opposed to just Gumball and Teen Titans GO dominating the schedule (even with better content). By the time Snyder left, we never heard of those shows again. However, he did gave us CHECK IT era, where the network suddenly made its comeback by being Cartoon Network and not the Reality TV Network. There were shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Sym-Bionic Titan, Gumball, Steven Universe, etc. Yep, it was clear that CN was back to its old roots. Though its a matter of time before the schedule was no longer important to the live feed and became limited to just a few shows because binge watching is the hip thing to do. Now let’s discuss the Disney Channel debacle. This is purely my opinion (and other cartoon fans), but I also feel like Disney Channel itself (not the movie studios, the live action remakes won’t be a main thing until the mid 2010s) was starting to drift away from animation and instead show more content that was aimed at tween girls. Stuff like High School Musical and Hannah Montana weren’t exactly what tween boys who are animation fans want to watch Disney Channel. I did the same thing and didn’t watched much of the network until Phineas and Ferb and Fish Hooks were prominently airing. They’re in a better position now with extra animated shows on their channel (especially since Disney XD is about to be irrelevant) but only if they can let BUNK’d end so that Jessie can stop rerunning more than the other shows that are still airing new episodes. Nick on the other hand, had one of the most notorious and stricter business practices ever. Any new cartoon would dead if they didn’t stand up to SpongeBob’s ratings. It was a Cyma thing and it got worse over time. With Brian Robbins at the helm, this had only happened to Rise of the TMNT only because it was made from the previous management. But rest assured you, Nick is going to get better with this. They’ll have Netflix and Paramount+ to work with so we don’t have to deal with shows being dumped to Nicktoons and Teennick for low ratings. 

And last but not least, the quality of animated shows themselves. Many people will claim that television animation peaked in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, but I digress. It doesn’t matter when animation was at its high point, there’s no end point when cartoons stopped being good. The 2010s and so far the 2020s prove that tv animation is still going strong. Don’t listen to what anime profile pictures on Twitter have to say, they are not going woke. They are jealous that western animation is taking more risks than their fanservice driven shows ever have. Some of the examples are representation of various culture like ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. They also have expanded beyond comedy, and there’s various of cartoons with story arcs (even if they are going overboard in recent years), as well as sci-fi, slice of life (which was very popular in the 90s) and more. Now it doesn’t mean I’m dissing anime or the classic cartoons, but animation is evolving, and I mean that in a very good way. I thought most cartoons during the late 2000s were hit or miss. There were more misses because there weren’t that many memorable cartoons unless you look for a few quality ones like Phineas and Ferb and Chowder. All I’m saying, if it wasn’t for those shows and Flapjack and Adventure Time, we wouldn’t be in the position we are right now. And while there are quite a bit of revivals and spin-offs for some companies especially Nick, I really hope they don’t overshadow the promising original ideas from animators. What matters is that TV Animation is still in good hands. Nothing will ever go the way of 2009 ever again...let’s continue supporting new cartoons, regardless if their quality. Even if streaming takes over, there will still be quality cartoons on cable, it’s just the risky stuff have to be on streaming for having story arcs.

What to Expect from Tom Ascheim’s Cartoon Network

 What to Expect from Tom Ascheim’s Cartoon Network by Felix Anthony Saenz

    As of July 1, 2020, Tom Ascheim has become the president of Warner Bros.Global Kids Young Adults and Classics (which includes Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and TCM). Previously, he played a huge part of Nickelodeon in the 90s and the 2000s and then he joined ABC Family where he was responsible for renaming to Freeform. Judging from his resume, it looks like he’s going to be a much better CEO for Cartoon Network than Christina Miller ever will and I will explain why.

    It’s only been 6 months and Ascheim’s Cartoon Network hasn't been in effect right away. What’s happening right now is that just like with other networks when they have a new management team, they will just cancel shows from the previous CEO and get prepared for a bunch of new shows. Unfortunately, 2020 was such a messy year to be a Cartoon Network fan. As you can see, only ONE new show premiered on the linear network and it’s the widely hated show, Thundercats Roar. It only lasted one season, leaving the network devoid of exciting new shows. The schedule has become fully automated at this point as the only shows constantly getting screentime and new episodes are Teen Titans GO, Gumball, Craig of the Creek, and Total Dramarama. What makes it even more frustrating is that Gumball already ended back in June 2019, and yet it somehow continues rotting as a zombie. Yes, if you’re unaware, the remaining crew members of the show have decided to do clip shows because they are desperate to keep this show alive for two reasons (most likely to keep viewers patient from the Elliott from Earth premiere or the 10th anniversary in May). It’s a slap in the face that newer shows get shoved aside while an almost decade old show is still dominating the network (Disney Channel have the same issue with Jessie as well but you can pretty much guess why that show is still airing). But I don’t want to complain about the schedule, but it’s something that new management has got to improve. What I want for Tom Ascheim to do as a president for Warner Bros kids division is to cool it with the spinoffs and reboots. From the look of the upcoming series, We Baby Bears and that Tiny Toon Adventures reboot, they don’t seem to be winning people over (especially since we’re already having a PPG 2016 moment with the TTA reboot). And besides, we already HAD enough of the whole baby trend anyway (WBB has more than enough episodes focusing on the bears as cubs). And yes, thanks to Ascheim’s involvement, it looks like he will be pushing preschool to CN for the first time since Tickle U was a thing back in the mid 2000s. And I can see why everyone is so skeptical of this idea. While I have hopes that Cartoon Network get better again, I fear that this is going to be more watered down than the time they tried to do PG shows. I already saw those darn anime weebs whining about how safe this channel is these days. I don’t blame them. They stopped showing anime constantly (unless you’re Bakugan which only airs at 6:30AM on Sundays) and with Steven Universe being reduced to promotions like the “Don’t be racist” PCA short, so they must find a new show to fill in the void. Enter another new show from Genndy, called the Unicorn Warriors, which seems to be more of his usual genre: action/adventure. I don’t know how many shows he have created, but unlike Butch Hartman, he haven’t lost his touch whatsoever, who knows? If the show can impress the audience, then this and Kid Cosmic (another cartoon from Craig McCracken coming to Netflix) will prove that Genndy and Craig are the best veteran cartoonists to come out of the early Cartoon Network days. Sorry Butch. I forgot to bring up the elephant in the room, but while we learn that most of the recently ordered shows will be airing on the live feed and HBO Max, this got me an idea. You know how certain projects like Tig N Seek, The Fungies, Distant Lands, and Infinity Train Book 3 headed to HBO Max instead of Cartoon Network? Well, to keep this network alive, they should be doing a TV premiere of those shows so that people can watch them the old fashioned way (we can continue the daily premieres for the latter two, even though I think they are becoming outdated in an age of streaming). I don’t understand why the first two shows are HBO Max originals as they don’t have that story driven fare that most modern CN shows have. Right now, CN is finally outperforming Disney Channel because the Disney+ hype train is that strong. What they should be doing is the most important thing of all when you get a new CEO: a much needed rebrand. You see, this channel has the exact same branding style since they made a slight logo change back in 2010. It may no longer be called CHECK IT anymore, but the influences are still there (even if things have changed a lot during the last 10 years). It was good when it was new, but now it has become stale as heck. Who even uses CMYK branding these days? At least Boomerang’s current branding is a little more appealing to the eyes (and yes I’ll go into more details about the future of Boomerang later). A new look is long overdue. Next, the bumpers should look livelier. Most of them are poorly designed nowadays and look like they were made in 5 minutes. I want to see CN characters interacting with each other like during 2004-2006 (I’m bummed that didn’t last long). So bringing back CN City would be a perfect solution. It will bring back the charm from many years ago. As for Boomerang, they have been getting better in recent months and I wonder if that Ascheim’s first major decision. Either way, the schedule is shaping up and is certainly a lot more bearable than CN’s sluggish lineup right now. Classic tv shows reruns still have a reason to exist and if METV are to be concerned, Boomerang also needs a rehaul. Anyway, I’m losing track on what I’m saying in this journal, so that’s all I’m going have to say. Cartoon Network needs to start fresh this year with their new President on board, everyone is bored of the emptiness the live feed has for a while.

Fanboy and Chum Chum Scorecard

FANBOY AND CHUM CHUM SCORECARDS
Season 1
Wizboy/Pick a Nose - Okay / Mediocre
The Janitor Strikes Back / Dollar Day - Decent / Meh
Trading Day/The Hard Sell - Meh / Decent
Digital Pet Cemetery/Fanboy Stinks - Mediocre / Bad
I, Fanbot / Berry Sick - Mediocre / Good
Chimp Chomp Chumps/Precious Pig - Okay / Mediocre
Monster in the Mist/Fangboy - Meh / Decent
Brain Drain/Fanboyfriend -  Meh / Okay
Chicken Pox/Moppy Dearest - Okay / Bad
Norse-ing Around/The Janitor's Apprentice - Decent / Okay
Excuse Me/Night Morning - Decent / Okay
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha/Secret Shopper - Meh / Good
Prank Master/Little Glop of Horrors - Decent / Good
Total Recall/Refill Madness - Good / Decent
Cold War/Fanboy in the Plastic Bubble - Meh / Okay
Sigmund the Sorcerer/Fanboy Ahoy - Great / Okay
Fan vs Wild/the Incredible Shrinking Fanboy - Decent / Meh
Separation Anxiety/Strings Attached - Okay / Decent
The Book Report of the Dead/Stan Arctica  - Okay / Good
Man-Arctica the ride/Fanbidextrous - Good / Meh
Saving Private Chum Chum/Jingle Fever - Good / Great
Eyes on the Prize/Battle of the Stands - Decent / Okay
Lord of the Rings/The Incredible Chulk - Good / Decent
Norse Code/The Great Bicycle Mystery - Decent / Good
A Bopwork Orange/Freeze Tag - Okay / Decent

Season 2

I'm Man-Arctica/No Toy Story - Decent / Okay

GameBoy/Crib Notes - Okay / Good

Schoolhouse Lock/Back from the Future - Meh / Decent

Tooth or  Scare/The Big Bopper - Good / Okay

Present Not Accounted For/The Sword in the Throne - Good / Meh

Brain Freeze - Great

Slime Day/Boog Zapper - Great / Okay

Risky Brizness/Kids in the Hall - Decent / Good

Frost Mart Dream Vacation/Field Trip of Horrors - Okay / Decent

There Will be Shrieks - Great

Igloo of Irritation/HypnotOZed - Okay / Good

Robo-mance/Rattleskunkupine! - Good / Good

Bubble Trouble/Lucky Chums - Okay / Okay

The Last Strawberry Fun Finger/Power Out - Okay / Good

Champ of Chomp/Dental Illness - Decent / Good

Get You Next Time/Lice Lice baby - Meh / Okay

A Very Brrr-y Icemas - Okay

Funny Face/Put That Cookie Down! - Good / Good

The Winners/Two Tickets to Paladise - Okay / Decent

Hex Games/Speed Eraser - Great / Decent

Heroes vs. Villains / Face-Eating Aliens From Planet X - Great / Okay

The Cold Rush/Camp-Artica - Good / Meh

Buddy Up/Normal Day - Okay / Decent

Freezy Freaks/Microphonies - Okay / Good

Super Chums - Great

Attack of the Clones/Secret Club - Okay / Good

Why Disney XD Needs to Die?

 Why Disney XD Needs to Die? By Felix in the Future Productions

Another journal is about to published and to make this relevant to current events, I decided to talk about how Disney XD is useless now. First of all, let me tell about the history of this channel. It all started in 1998, when Disney wanted to make a premium channel about their animated lineup. And thus, Toon Disney was born. I remembered watching it a few times as a kid, but I didn’t fondly remembered as much as I did with Nicktoons and Boomerang. The name lasted until February 12, 2009 where it rebranded into Disney XD. During its final years under the Toon name, they were starting to milk the Jetix block as much as they can and they even started airing some live-action shows (especially from Disney Channel). It can explains the name change because DXD is basically your boy version of the original Disney Channel. As you can see, when High School Music and Hannah Montana became popular, the main channel became a cesspool of being a pop star, which is something that appeals to tween girls. Now I didn’t mind some of the shows, but Hannah Montana, Cory in the House, and Jonas weren’t my cup of teas. And when it become dominant on the channel, that when I stopped watching for a while. Disney in general is supposed for everyone (hence why they’re more safe than their rivals), not a tween factory. But back on topic, Disney XD at first was a cool channel, especially if you wanted to get away from all the saccharine shows the main channel was airing at the time. It was also different in that it was ad supported. So instead of seeing proud sponsors, you’ll see regular commercials. I had memories watching it when I used to have Dish Network. I watched shows such Kick Buttowski, Zeke and Luthor, I’m in the Band, Pair of Kings, and more. Notice how they all had male leads? Yep, this is the boy Disney Channel alright. As the years went on, some genius executive had the brightest idea ever by deciding that animation doesn’t belong on the main channel, so DXD eventually became a grounding dumping for Disney Television Animation production. Especially during the mid-2010s, outside of the occasional Phineas and Ferb and Fish Hooks airings, the only time Disney Channel ever aired animation was during the Disney Junior block and whenever they air Disney/PIXAR movies. Good for animation fans, but not good either because of the cable package. DXD has less viewers than the main channel and relying on a premium package just to watch Disney cartoons was ridiculous. This lasted for good awhile until it was announced in 2018 that most of the new cartoons (including Star vs, Milo Murphy, Ducktales) would move to the main channel. There were some hope after all! But wait, here’s one big problem we have to deal with in the future: the streaming wars. Disney decided to enter the streaming business by creating a service simply titled Disney+. To me, it is proven without a doubt that Disney XD has become a goddamn zombie once that service launched. It is an irrelevant, afterthought of a network that I regret being a viewer in the first place. I always more of a Nicktoons and Boomerang person anyway. And this is my bias on Nick and CN speaking, but even though I grew up with some Disney shows, I never look fondly at Disney’s tv content as much as I did with their movies growing up. But with D+ being a thing, you would expected less burnoffs to that channel. Wrong! In the year of 2020, they decided to burn off Ducktales and Big Hero 6 the Series over there instead of Disney Channel because they do better in ratings. And thus, the boy ghetto animation strikes again. Thankfully, they’re both ending, so we don’t have to worry about them rotting at a dead channel any longer. Oh did I forgot about two elephants in the room on what this damn channel has become? It is now an anime and gaming channel. I mean, who in the hell wants to watch a Disney network for those things? If G4 haven’t died, none of this wouldn’t be happening. But nope, hope you enjoy Player Select, which refuses to go away. As for the anime part, yes you heard it here. There is anime on Disney. They started it with Naruto Shippuden (which was too mature for Cartoon Network) but it left after a couple years. And then, they decided to form an anime block. It clearly flopped because who wants to see kid anime on Disney XD? If Cartoon Network wasn’t so stubborn with their Teen Titans GO and Gumball fetish, this would’t happened either. Nowadays, anime and superhero shows are the only thing airing new content. And yes Pokemon was there at one point, for the Sun and Moon series, but now the Journeys anime is now at Netflix (which have more viewers than DXD). And once all of those shows end (including the aforementioned two Disney TVA shows), it’s B-Y-E B-Y-E to Disney XD. I wouldn’t miss this channel at all, I’m sure most of you wouldn’t, either. All of this shit would’ve been avoided if the executives at Disney Channel gave a shit about animation and now thanks to Disney Plus, it’s too late to have the channel feel like it was growing up: a perfect balance of live-action and animation. But it’s still uneven and they still air Jessie a lot because Bunk’d refuses to die (yes, it got five seasons) and Big City Greens, as good as it is, seems to be the only cartoon they constantly give screentime whenever the others are on hiatus. Oh well, Disney+ is the future of Disney TV anyway. Thanks for reading this journal turnt into a rant in the end. Next time, I’m writing a journal on TV schedules and why I believe cable TV won’t being dying anytime soon.

Why Side Hustle Might Be the Start of Nick Sitcoms Renaissance?

 Why Side Hustle Might Be the Start of Nick Sitcoms Renaissance? a TV review by Felix In The Future Productions

        This is my first journal in a while after focusing on graphing past kids tv schedules. And I want to resume with a Nick themed essay. This month, they have premiered two new promising live-action shows. One is about 5 kids becoming astronauts after accidentally launching a spaceship. This particular show that I will be talking about follows two girls Lex and Presley (played by actual best friends named, Annie/Jules LeBlanc and Jayden Bartels) who must find part-time jobs in order to repair their friend’s father’s boat (who is actually their school principal). With the help of Presley’s brother Fisher, they use an app called Kid-DING to find jobs to pay the money they owed. With a concept like this, do you think this show would only last one season? Well, we’ll have to keep watching to find out. Even if the girls finally pay their principal back by the end of the first season, the next season will probably have them doing something different and they break another property, leading to more job shenanigans. After watching this show, let me just say that it is a breath of fresh air for Nick sitcoms and it could save their live-action lineup for years to come and here are a few reasons. First of all, it is not another Dan Schneider production. For years, Nick has depended on the same producer to create their sitcoms much like how CBS loves to rely on Chuck Lorre to make cheap sitcoms with laugh tracks. I don’t count Young Dylan nor Danger Force as the sitcom that’s gonna save Nick’s live-action content because the former is created by someone who is divided and is dominating BET and the latter is spinoff of a popular sitcom which is only remaining influences from DanWarp. And last, it’s not another sitcom that has to do with superheroes or singing talents (I felt like we have too many of those shows for Nick and Disney). And plus, the concept haven’t been done by Disney before, so Nick gets positive points for being original. I started this review a few weeks ago, but now that I watched the first 4 episodes, I can gladly say that show is more bearable than the likes of later iCarly, Fred the Show, Sam and Cat, Henry Danger, Game Shakers, Knight Squad, etc. The characters are tolerable although Fisher should dial it back with her crush on Lex. Munchy (who is played by Terry Crews’ son Isaiah) is the funniest character on the show imo (and his brother Jaget have just as much as memorable one-liners). The writing isn’t the strongest aspect of the show, but as a TV critic, I  came for the entertainment. It can get formulaic and there’s moments that make you “OH, I know what’s gonna happen in the end” and roll your eyes. But it’s harmless and not as frustrating as Cyma greenlit sitcoms where every most of them had that writing style. Oh, and the overacting is present, but it’s not as force as it was in 2010s kid sitcoms. Sure, Annie and Jayden should’ve used a little more work on their acting skills as they’re social media stars. Right now, Jayden is somewhat better as she had more TV experience than Annie who fame started through video blogging with their family. The theme song is a bop and yes it continues the tradition of main stars performing it. I just wish it last a little longer but you know, they gotta make room for commercials. Vitamin D-iaster is the best episode from what I’ve seen so far because it takes its usual Nick absurdness to the next level. Currently, Trashy Jobs is my least favorite episode because of Ruby and I knew she was going to do something to get rid of the girls just to be closer to Fisher. On the subject of live-action programming, I feel like with the new VP in charge, Nick is finally making quality sitcoms again (they’ve always been good with game shows since they made them relevant). Hopefully, the next sitcoms like Brendar the Barbarian and Warped! (If it does get picked up which I hope, we should use for a new sitcom featuring an All That 2019 member right about now) will finally be the part of this long awaited sitcom comeback Nick desperately needs. I recommend this show for the target audience especially if you’re fans of the main stars. Their star power might be the reason why we might have another hit on our hands for Nickelodeon. 7/10

Why Nickelodeon's Current Management Is Interesting?

You know how much I have high hopes with Brian Robbins' tenure and the shows and movies greenlit or premiered under him so far? Well, here is the list of all the department in the past year or so:

*Ordered before Robbins took over
Spinoff or revivals/reboots are underlined.

Animation (run by Ramsey Naito)
Middle School Moguls (miniseries) * (Gina and Jenae Heitkamp)
The Casagrandes * (Michael Rubiner)
It's Pony * (Ant Blades, co-productions with Blue Zoo)
Glitch Techs * (Eric Robles and Dan Milano)
Kamp Koral (miniseries) (Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller)
Adventures in Wonder Park * (David Zuckerman and Anne Flett-Giordano)
Rugrats * (Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul Germain)
Man in House * (Michael Molina)
Meet the Voxels * (Chris Young)
Middlemost Post (John Trabbic III)
Star Trek Prodigy (Dan and Kevin Hageman)
Garfield
Big Nate (Jim Mortensen)
Phoebe and Her Unicorn (Dana Simpson)
Real Pigeons Fight Crime
The Patrick Star Show
The Twisted Timeline of Sammy and Raj (co-productions with Nick India)

Scripted Live-Action (run by Shauna Phelan) + indicates descendants of a DanWarp production
Cousins for Life * (Kevin Kopelow & Heath Seifert, 20 episodes)
All That (revival) (Mike Tollin & Brian Robbins)
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Revival) (BenDavid Grabinski)
Young Dylan (Tyler Perry)
Danger Force + (Christopher J. Nowak)
The Astronauts
Side Hustle + (Dave Malkoff)
Erin and Aaron (Dicky Murphy)

Unscripted Live-Action (run by Rob Bagshaw)
The Substitute
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
America's Most Musical Family
Top Elf
The Crystal Maze
Group Chat The Show
Unfiltered
Unleashed

Preschool (run by Eryk Casmiero)
Butterbean's Cafe * (Johnny Belt and Robert Scull)
Ryan's Mystery Playdate (Albie Hecht)
Blue's Clues and You * (Traci Paige Johnson and Angela Santomero)
Santiago of the Seas (Niki Lopez)
Baby Shark's Big Show! (Gary Doodles and Tommy Sica)
The Tiny Chef Show

If not counting the shows that were leftovers from the previous managements, 28 shows has been ordered under Robbins' tenure so far. And I think what suffered during Cyma Zarghami (and to a lesser extent, Herb Scannell) is that they relied too much on the same certain creators, producers, as well as having musical prodigy and annoying and dimwitted for main characters. I think Nick is finally understanding that we can't depend on them forever. So with this new management, we can the following stigma that Nick has suffered:
-That their animation lineup is nothing but SpongeBob clones, which isn't entirely true. We just need more shows that are different from it. And also to prove that the channel is more than SpongeBob. People hate the idea of the show getting spinoffs, so we have protested to Nick that we want more originality. Even if they're relying too much on existing IPs, I would also recommend to check out on shows like Star Trek Prodigy, Big Nate, etc. so we can support more non-Spongebob Nicktoons.
-That their live-action lineup is nothing but Dan Schneider's productions. Yeah, he was the main producer at Nick for a long time, but I felt like Teennick's schedule is the reason why we have this stigma. Most of his shows succeed, while the other sitcoms not created by him barely thrived (except for The Thundermans which still airs on TV regularly). So it has got to stop now, and hopefully the future sitcoms will prove that their live-action shows can still be fun.

It's not a long journal, but I just wanted to point out that Brian Robbins is doing a decent job as president of Nickelodeon right now. He may not make the best decisions, but rest assured, that Nick will be great again.

Post-Sequel SpongeBob is OVERRATED and Here's WHY

 Post Sequel SpongeBob is Overrated and Here’s Why

Intro

I haven’t done these long essays in awhile, and I want to talk about something about a long running show’s era, in specific the current era. Now before you guys attack me for betraying the SpongeBob fandom, it wasn’t out of spite. It was something that I wanted to see the show try something new and different after almost a decade of the same guy in charge, but the end results proved me otherwise. I also kind of start to grow out of the show in general, and that might be the cause of it. Without further ado, here’s my opinions on SpongeBob SquarePants episodes produced after Sponge out of Water and why I think they’re not as good as people are making out to be.

Post-Sponge Out of Water

In the mid 2010s, the first era after the 2004 movie has came to an end. Thus it gave us a second movie called Sponge out of Water. It had a very interesting premise. The first half plays out like your typical Spongebob episode, where Plankton tried to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula once again. Then it became a time travel parody in the middle. And the last 20 minutes is where it got it’s title and it got promoted like crazy: Spongebob and his friends enter the real world, in 3D. To coincide the wrapping of the second movie, it was revealed that the creator Stephen Hillenburg would be back working on the show full time. And thus the post sequel era was born. SOOW wasn’t much of a sequel but we call it that because it was the second Spongebob theatrical movie. As many people stated, Season 9B saw a renewed interest in the show after 10 years of post-movie which was ran by Paul Tibbitt. Tibbitt would continue working for the show for the rest of season 9 until he left the show for good in 2016, leaving Vincent Waller and Marc Ceccarelli in charge. In my opinion, season 9B is what the post-sequel era should’ve been: a perfect balance of dialogue humor and wacky facial expressions. I enjoyed this patch of episodes because it set a calmer tone of the show compared to what we have nowadays. Like some people are saying, it felt like I was watching a very early episode with underwater atmosphere. Lost in Bikini Bottom reflected this, despite not being the best way to start off the new era (this, Company Picnic, Married to Money, and Mutiny on the Krusty feel like rejected scripts from post-movie era when it comes to execution). Episodes like Tutor Sauce, What’s Eating Patrick?, The Sewer of Bikini Bottom, Two Thumbs Down, Sharks vs Pods, Goodbye Krabby Patty are good examples of interesting ideas with great characterizations. I only like found one or two episodes that was rather questionable but the good outweighs the bad. Sad that this didn't last long...

Ren and Stimpy 2.0

But then, the impossible happened. On October 15, 2016, the episode Whirlybrains premiered on TV, thus marking the beginning of season 10. When I first saw that episode, I noticed something different. The show all of a sudden became so expressive and zany that I thought this was going to be an one-off thing. A few episodes later, when I saw the premiere of Snooze You Lose and Krusty Katering, is when I truly noticed a shift in tone, and it was for worse. Not only these new episode have became a cash grab for the network, but they also seem to be made as an excuse to churn out more meme reactions. Part of the reason why I liked the off-model faces in the first 9 seasons was because it happened so sporadic. It made a punchline work, and it wasn't literally in your face. When I watch SpongeBob now (now as in seasons 10-present), all I see is memes and forced slapstick. Not to mention, it became a Ren and Stimpy clone. And don't get me started with the characters nowadays. While a couple of them are back to their earlier season selves (like SpongeBob himself and Mr. Krabs), certain characters have gotten more annoying than usual, due to the writers and artists not adopting to the new style. As a result, Patrick now acts like a toddler who would throw a tantrum for not getting what he want or just shout for the sake of comedy (example: Patrick's Coupon, The Clam Whisperer, Pat The Horse, Ink Lemonade). Meanwhile, Squidward rarely make any sarcastic comments anymore. Whenever he appears nowadays, he would simply go ballistic for the littlest things (example: Whirlybrains, The Clam Whisperer, Goon on the Moons, Jolly Lodgers). I'd rather have the jerk Patrick and the miserable Squidward back (though he has always been abused). I noticed no difference with Mr Krabs character, except that he's somewhat more bearable again. Plankton is somewhat more silly, but he haven't changed much. Karen, on the other hand, now gets more screentime, and to reflect the new style, she is more expressive than ever. Sandy is still Sandy. I will say this, there are some positives I got to give this new style. The animation is well done, even if it tries to mimic Looney Tunes' fluidity (as well as humor). The facial expressions can be drawn decently when it doesn't get overdone. I have no ill against the crew members as they are doing their jobs. On another note, most of my favorite episodes during this era are the ones that are experimental (Mermaid Pants, Mimic Madness, Feral Friends, Boo-Kini, Squid Noir). Just wish the writing was better and tolerable...I have yet to see season 12 outside of Big Birthday Blowout, but my biggest fear is that the writers will continue going overboard with this new style and it might overstay its welcome after 3 years. Sorry fans, but the flaws I listed proved that while seasons 4-9 weren't no "pre-movie era", at least I remembered more than just the wacky faces and loud humor from that period. So I just can't get into this new side of the show for whatever reasons.

The Future of SpongeBob SquarePants

All good things must come to an end eventually. There was one unfortunate day for SpongeBob fans. On November 26, 2018, Stephen Hillenburg sadly passed away from ALS. He announced that he was diagnoised with the disease back in March 2017. In my opinion, this news have mentally affected me and certain side of the fandom. The show's current (wacky) state have been a source of many arguments I have with the fandom all because I couldn't accepted the change. I can't even express my opinions on modern SpongeBob without being attacked. Not to mention, the negativity surrounding the show's "decline" continues to be a hot topic. And all of a sudden, the fandom have now changed for the worst, starring on February 3, 2019, when it the NFL betrayed them for a musical performance at the Super Bowl. There were many angry fans when it turns out Travis Scott was the one to perform, not SpongeBob and his friends. While it was understandable to be upset about, they went overboard by saying that they deserved better and that it was a slap in the face for Hillenburg. And thus, our journey of the the fans treating Steve like they personally know him begins. On February 14, 2019 (although it was dated back as early as his first few days in office), Nickelodeon and Brian Robbins announced that they were going to make a handful of SpongeBob spinoffs to explore the show's universe (like MCU). While the idea may have sounds okay at first, this is when people started being suspicious of the current regime's treatment of the franchise. It wasn't until June 4, 2019 when they announced the first SB spinoff, Kamp Koral. Everyone (including me) weren't pleased. The cartoon community were pissed because, according to a tweet from Paul Tibbitt, Steve wouldn't approve of this. And I didn't approved of it because of the idea. Muppet Babies deserves the blame for starting this trend and reinventing it again with the 2018 reboot. And besides, summer camp shows are getting old at this point. However, after a few months, I grew sick and tired of all the "STEVE WOULDN'T WANTED THIS" posts concerning the spinoffs. The fans suddenly became so attracted to Hillenburg that they started spreading more lies about his life. When the SpongeBob musical live special got promoted on Twitter, everyone blew a fuse for no reason and thought it was an insult to Hillenburg, not knowing he attended the premiere in 2017. And now the fuel is only continuing with the newly announced Patrick spinoff.

Conclusion

Folks, I am going to frank with you. The negativity and the fandom surrounding this show has scarred me for life now. It's nothing but excessive arguments over which era is better, speaking behind a dead's man over the spinoffs, refusing to watch any other shows on Nick (more details will be explained in a little bit), and whatnot. I can't take it anymore. I was already no longer being a fan in 2017, but 2020 is the year I can finally make it official, I no longer supporting any new SpongeBob content is produced after Hillenburg's death. Not because it's disrespectful for Hillenburg, but the idea of a show continuing even after a creator's death will feel soulless. He didn't even lived to see it turn 20. And let be really be honest once more, Nickelodeon REALLY needs to stop depending on this show so much. They set the bar so high with its success that if a Nicktoon doesn't reach SpongeBob level ratings, it will be cancelled right now and will be sent to the Nicktoons network. Lately, I have been defending Nickelodeon too much, but the past few years have finally open my eyes and realize that corporations are not your friends. (I still admire Nick for their content, but ViacomCBS is a company I won't be defending) Luckily, the cartoon community has started protesting by convincing Nick that their animation lineup is more than just the Sponge (and a large family, which have a spinoff featuring a Latina and her big family). The hashtag is called #SupportNewNicktoons (whether it be original or based from existing Property). And as much as it pains to say this, I think it's for Nick to finally let go of SpongeBob forever as a show. They can continue making merch for the show and air reruns as long as they like, but seeing the show be responsible for everything wrong with Nick is making me depressed. It's better to have a show be finished than to continue suffering the consequences. Anyway, that's it for this essay. I hope you respect my opinions on the post-sequel era (although we can all agree that Nickelodeon really needs a drastic improvement so its reputation can improve).

Nickelodeon Is NOT Perfect

Nickelodeon Is Not Perfect

I’m sorry for my excessive Nickelodeon bootlicking the past few weeks on Twitter. Even as a huge apologist of the network, I have to admit some of its flaws:

-Spongebob as a franchise nowadays. People claim that it’s keeping the network alive but I have to disagree. If you’ve been seeing my many rants on it lately, I do not approve of how much they’ve been milking it lately, like the spin-offs (I have a different reason than the others). SmartyPants challenge (it’s pointless cause everyone already knows about the show), as well as various of specials on its success. I has grew tired of the show in general because all I see is memes and seasons 1-3 references. FIND SOMETHING ORIGINAL! Face it, people, I don’t care how it improved the past 5 years, it has become a show existing for money and not for how well-written it is. More details later when I do my unpopular opinion on post-sequel era.

-The unfair treatment of shows that aren’t popular (AKA the SpongeBob). This has been an ongoing problem for Nick since the 2000s. I do scold them for such actions and it’s something that need to stop although so far they’ve been improving. It’s Pony and Ollie’s Pack has been treated well. Anyway, we are no longer in the 2010s, that was when Cyma Zarghami and her team were favoring live-action over Nicktoons.

-Their preschool content nowadays mostly exist for toys. No surprise I went to the mall one day and saw a plethora of Nick Jr merch. I wonder to myself “these shows get all ther love in merchandise, but not modern Nicktoons?” Also, Paw Patrol is getting some heat right now and frankly I don’t give a crap.

-I need to watch more shows, but their most of their live-action content last decade was suffering in quality due to obnoxious characters and phoned in writing. With a certain producer gone, maybe they’ll shake things up.Sadly Young Dylan isn’t winning people over despite having a POC cast. Maybe Tyler Perry isn’t the best writer for African Americans. Just make the kid characters less pandering and punchable and maybe kidcoms can be watchable again.

-Their sudden interest in unscripted content. I don’t mind stuff like The Crystal Maze and Group Chat, but stuff like AMMF and Top Elf just doesn’t fit the network. They should just stick to what they like best: game shows.

-Nick at Nite’s existence is slowly dying off as streaming wars has become more prominent lately. They only promote one show now and the branding is so bland as dirt. I make fun of people who still watches it.

-Hiring social media stars. People like Fred, JoJo Siwa and RyansToyReview are only hired for money, while the others (such as Annie and Hayley LeBlanc, Hayley LeBlanc, David Dobrik, Liza Koshy) are hired because they’re fans of the network growing up. We need more of the latter and less of the former.

All in all, Nickelodeon is not perfect nor my best friend. I think Brian Robbins’ tenure is an improvement over Cyma tenure, but it is still not without its flaws. The SpongeBob spin-offs are the least of my worries and I think we should ignore them instead of bringing it up 24/7…also, I know you guys keep bringing the Dan Schneider stuff, but can we all be glad he’s gone? His works got stale and that way Nick can make fresh sitcoms again.

Fosters home for imaginary friends Scorecard

Fosters home for imaginary friends reviews (Season 1)

House of bloo: Great

Busted: Good

Dinner is Swerved: Great

Adopt. Now: Okay

Store Wars: Amazing

Bloooo: Good
The Troubles with Scribbles: Good
World Wide Wabbit: Great
Seeing Red/House Phone: Good / Decent
Berry Scary: Good
Who Let the Dogs In?: Great

Season 2

Partying is Such Sweet Soiree: Amazing

The Big Lablooski: Good

When There's a Wilt, There's a Way/Everybody Knows It's Bendy: Decent / Terrible

Sight for Sore Eyes/Bloo's Brothers: Okay / Great

Cookie Dough: Great

Frankie My Dear: Decent

Mac Daddy: Good

Squeakerboxxx: Decent

Beat with a Shtick: Decent

The Sweet Stench of Success: Great

Bye Bye Nerdy: Decent

Bloo Done It: Good

My So Called Wife: Great

Season 3

Eddie Monster: Good

Hiccup Burp: Good

Camp Keep a Good MAC Down: Great

Imposter Home for Um Make Em Up Pals: Bad

Dutchess of Wails: Meh

Foster’s Goes to Europe: Okay

Go Goo Go: Decent

Crime After Crime: Great

Land of the Fleas: Good

A Lost Claus: Great

One False Movie: Good

Setting a President: Decent

Room with a Feud: Good

Cuckoo for Coco Cards: Good

Season 4

Challenge of the Superfriends: Great

The Big Picture: decent

Squeeze the Day: Good

Neighbor Pains: Good

Infernal Slumber: Great

I Have Only Have a Surprise For You: Bad

Bus the Two of Us: Great

The Big Cheese: Bad

Bloo's the Boss" Good

Emancipation Complication: Decent

Make Believe It or Not: Great

Good Wilt Hunting: Great

Season 5

Cheese a go: Okay

The Buck Stop Here: Good

Say It Isn't Sew: Decent

Something Old Something Bloo: Good

The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power!: Amazing
Schlock Star: Good
The Bride to Beat: Decent
Affair Weather Friends: Okay
Ticket to Rod: Decent
Nightmare on Wilson Way: Amazing
Better Off Ed: meh
The Little Peas: Bad
Let Your Hare Down: Great

Season 6
Jackie Khones and the Case of the Overdue Library Book: Decent
Mondo Coco : Okay
Pranks for Nothing: Meh
Bloo Tube: Great
Race for Your Life Mac and Bloo: Decent
Destination Imagination (1) (2) (3): Great
The Bloo Superdude and: the Great Creator of Everything Awesome Ceremony of Fun That Hes Not Invited To: Great
Bad Dare Day: Great
Read Em and Weep: Decent
Fools and Regulations: Decent
goodbye to Bloo: Meh