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Problem #4: Toonami or SVES: Pick One!

I do not and will never believe that Saturday Video Entertainment System is the "action equivalent of Cartoon Cartoon Fridays." I won't believe that because CCF was never leeching off another programming block to get off the ground.

Since 1997, there had been only one major action programming block on Cartoon Network, and that block's name is Toonami. Produced and created by Williams Street Productions, the good folks behind Adult Swim, Toonami has basically become a micronetwork within Cartoon Network, programming ten hours per week at minimum for the network. Long ago (well, let's call it last February), Toonami programmed 19 hours or programming for Cartoon Network, but in some strange state of wisdom, Cartoon Network decided that 10 hours were enough for Toonami. At the beginning of 2003, Cartoon Network aired several action shows on Saturday nights without a brand name. Many of these shows were once a part of Toonami while others were new to prime-time. Toonami fans and supporters hoped that the "Batman" block would become Toonami. When the network announced that Toonami's newest acquisition, .hack//SIGN, would be exclusive to the Saturday night block along with other former Toonami shows like Masters of the Universe, Transformers Armada, Dragonball, Zoids, Superfriends, and G.I. Joe. The nail of the coffin came just a week before the new Saturday lineup took place when it was announced that Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, already finding spots on Cartoon Network's primetime lineup, would be the cornerstone of the new block. It became clear that the block wasn't Toonami when it began promoting itself as Saturday Video Entertainment System, a action block with something for everyone.

To the average viewer, the block was a slap in the face of the spirit of Toonami. It was like . . . how can I explain it?

Imagine you're an older kid, about five or six, an only child used to getting a lot of attention. Then, all of a sudden, a new baby is born and raised to become a real brat. The new kid takes all of the older kid's toys, either smashing them up or claiming them as his own. When the older kid complains about it, the parents just shrug off the complaints as silly, petty, and childish and give him a new toy to play with, just to keep him happy. Meanwhile, the young kid looks at the older kid's new toys and grabs them for himself and getting new toys the parents said the older kid wouldn't get.

Toonami was never aimed towards little kids or just younger viewers. Preteens, teens, and college-aged viewers were also making up a chunk of the audience and most often than not, they were also the most vocal about what they want to see on the block. Producers of the block talked to numerous fan outlets over the years. For some reason, after the Turner coup of 2001, Toonami folks were given a gag order not to speak to the fan press, mainly because the fan press were the most vocal about the drastic changes to Toonami that summer.

When the new Saturday action block began, it just seemed generic to a lot of viewers. They have less-than-stellar graphics promoting it, and it's hardly a ratings smash, yet it's promoted a whole lot often than Toonami. SVES has most of the marquee action franchises of the network, including .hack//SIGN, Dragonball Z, Samurai Jack, Rurouni Kenshin, and the newest series Teen Titans. Newer action shows that would have normally premiered on Toonami first premiered on SVES. In the middle of the new cycle of Kenshin episodes, Cartoon Network moved it away from Toonami and placed it on SVES, where it is struggling to find a permanent slot, moving from 9:30 PM to its current 11 PM slot. When it moved, it seemed like the promotions were celebrating that Kenshin has a new home, especially since there wasn't anything wrong with its former home.

Sure, Toonami does get a few new episodes here and there from time to time, but it seems like Toonami is taking a backseat to SVES. Toonami has been treated like a minor league of sorts for action shows to get an audience started, and if its proven to become very popular, the network will move it to what it sees as the major leagues on Saturday nights. The fact is Toonami and SVES can not co-exist. There shouldn't be two very similar action franchises on one network, and I feel that if Cartoon Network has already built a marketable brand with Toonami, why would they make another block to undermine and dilute the brand that was already established? It makes very little sense.

Like I said at the beginning of this problem, I don't see SVES as the "action CCF." I could understand putting a bunch of diverse action shows together on a lineup, but it doesn't constitute a block. Also, if you have to take away shows from another block to build up your lineup, weakening it, you're doing something completely wrong.

SVES is a failed experiment. The block has been on since March, and the lineup has changed about five times. It's like Cartoon Network doesn't know what it wants SVES to be. Do they want the Saturday block to be a Toonami clone, a toy ad showcase, a premiere outlet for new series, or 4Kids' personal beast? I'd say give SVES to folks who know what to do with it, and not just people who just place dated graphics inbetween episodes. I say it's time that SVES becomes the Saturday primetime block that the Toonami brand deserves and keep Toonami on weekday afternoons. Weekdays could be the main block. Saturdays could be the experimental premiere block.

Now, for your perusal, a guideline of things that Cartoon Network needs to do to get back to speed.