Gephyrophillia #220

Originally Posted on 03/24/2010 by Jeff Harris

The other day on Twitter, the official TeenNick account (at least, I believe it's the official account, but the misspelling of Census as "Cencus" leaves me a little suspect about its legitimacy) asked for suggestions on what they should air on their lineup. As an animation fan, I'd figure I'd put in my four half-cents:

TeenNick needs animation. Shows like Daria, Clone High, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and others would do wonders for you guys.

A no-brainer, right? Well, here are a couple of follow-up tweets on the matter:

EW! No, please no cartoons! Leave that for the kiddies on regular Nick! #growup

I say you guys should start playing early Disney classic shows like... no thanks for cartoons. "TEEN"nick.

And this is where it begins. The whole "cartoons is for kids" mentality begins when you become a teen. At least the typical fad-obsessed teen that gloms over whatever prepubescent "musicians" that they will, in all likelihood, have strong memories about but will never see perform again 20 years later. I also blame peer pressure from the so-called cool cliques that laugh at weak, impressionable kids that feel a need to belong with them and abandon things that they enjoyed, like cartoons.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with animation, and it's not just for kids. Never has been, never will be. I wouldn't have created this site at 19 if I thought otherwise (I'm 32 now, do the math). Spongebob Squarepants wouldn't be the biggest cartoon character on the planet if animation was just for kids. The whole "cartoons are for kiddies" mentality always struck me as a little misguided and kind of arrogant to me.

I think part of the reason a lot of teens feel that way is that they never found a cartoon they could enjoy in their teen years. Shows like Daria, Clone High, and the Fresh TV stable of shows (6Teen, Stoked, and the Total Drama series) would have been ideal comedy for a teen-oriented network. Of course, if you want action, you could always put in shows that'll attract both sexes like InuYasha (seriously, the Twilight fangirls [and those rare fanboys] would eat this show up in a heartbeat), Escaflowne, DNAngel, Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball Z (Nicktoons has the current reinterpreted version, Dragon Ball Z Kai, coming in May), Gundam, and many others would make TeenNick more than just an outlet for Canadian melodrama, old cheesy sitcoms, lame reality shows, and middle-ground reruns. Animation would bring diversity to the TeenNick lineup that, for the most part, if very vanilla, complacent, and boring.

And the programmers at TeenNick KNOW they're boring. It's a teen network owned by the same company that also owns what used to be the defacto teen brand in the United States, MTV. However, that network has become a gutter filled with reality sludge that insult viewers' intelligence and make nobodies into celebrities. TeenNick has an opportunity to rise above their sibling teen network, and I feel animation should play a huge role in that. I'm not saying they should put wall-to-wall animation on their network (that's Nicktoons' job), but at least something animated would bring life to the lineup.

After all, to be animated means to be full of life. People tend to forget that's what animation literally means. TeenNick needs animation in more ways than one. They need to show signs of life once in a while in places that aren't in the halls of DeGrassi.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Creator/Webmaster, The X Bridge.