>Opinions | The Ameobazation of Cartoon Network

Originally Posted by Jeff Harris

Dear Cartoon Network (CC: executives and upper management),

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article that basically gushed how much I love your network but not enjoying what you're becoming. You've listened to what I had to say and actually did a few of the suggestions I made in the conclusion of that article. Unfortunately, in recent months (well, years, but what I've seen in you is really rising to the surface), you have undergone an identity crisis.

For some strange reason, you think you're Nickelodeon.

Now, now, there's nothing really wrong with wanting to be Nickelodeon. I can understand why you want to embrace the audience that Nickelodeon has basically ruled for decades. They made the network billions in marketing and advertising revenue, and I know that money rules the world. Nickelodeon has virtually taken over the minds of people who believed that children's entertainment began and ended with Disney with ventures outside their channel space. Plus, they've successfully launched three unique digital networks (Noggin/The N, Nick Games and Sports, and Nicktoons; Nick Too doesn't count) while you have no idea how to operate the one spinoff network you have, Boomerang.

But there is something wrong with being something you're not. If people wanted a Pepsi-flavored Coca-Cola, they would not only drink the actual Pepsi, but they would protest Coca-Cola to go back the way they were. Oh, wait, that did happen 20 years ago. Remember New Coke? Well, you have transformed Cartoon Network into New Nick. Looks like Nick. Tastes like Nick. Called Cartoon Network. Heck, you even separated your adult-oriented programming block Adult Swim just like Nickelodeon did with Nick at Nite years ago.

You're not Nickelodeon. You've turned your backs on the audiences that helped build you up. You've given up on tradition in favor of the quick buck. You've allowed yourself to be pleasured by 4Kids Entertainment, an entity that has trashed you numerous times in the media. And primetime still is lacking the originality and fun it once had. Fridays is fine, Toonami (another thing . . . Saturday nights is Toonami, acknowledge that once in a while) is great, and Sunday nights are entertaining. It's Monday through Thursdays that need prayer.

You're not Nickelodeon. You're Cartoon Network. You have the continuity announcer saying that "This is Cartoon Network," but are you doing that for the audience or to remind yourself who you are? Heck, if someone looked at Cartoon Network for the first time since 2000, they'd hardly recognize the place. That's not really a bad thing, since you guys actually improved the place in may ways, yet ruined it a bit as well.

I want to show you how the US sees Cartoon Network and how it can be changed for the better. Let's start.