| Cartoon Network | |
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 Daffy Duck gets stuck in Cartoon Network's logo attempting to upstage Bugs Bunny in the intro to the network's Bugs and Daffy show. | |
| Premiere | October 1, 1992 |
| WBAU shows aired | Bugs and Daffy Tonight / The Bugs and Daffy Show / Bugs and Daffy Looney Tunes Tiny Toon Adventures Taz-Mania Animaniacs Toon Heads The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries Freakazoid! Acme Hour Road Rovers The Bob Clampett Show The Chuck Jones Show Baby Looney Tunes The Looney Tunes Show Starring Bugs Bunny Duck Dodgers The Looney Tunes Show |
| Owner | Turner Entertainment |
Cartoon Network is a cable channel created by Turner Broadcasting in 1992. It debuted on on October 1st of that year, beginning its broadcast with the Looney Tunes short The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. Initially created following the Turner company having bought the Hanna-Barbera cartoon library, the network also ran the color Looney Tunes shorts produced up to 1948, which were under Turner's ownership at the time (these shorts were also being shown on fellow Turner-owned channels TNT and TBS).
In 1996, as a result of Time Warner merging with Turner Entertainment, Cartoon Network was now allowed to show cartoons from Warner's library. However, since most of the post-1948 Looney Tunes cartoons were still under contract to be shown on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network would not be able to show them until September 1999.
Yakko with Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory in a promo advertising Animaniacs' arrival on the channel.
The Warner commentate on a bumper for Cow and Chicken.
In the meantime, reruns of Taz-Mania began appearing on Cartoon Network in late 1996, followed by Freakazoid! in April 1997. Then in 1998, Road Rovers was added to Cartoon Network's schedule following its cancellation and removal from Kids' WB! After the network switched to its "Powerhouse" look in March 1998, the first 50 episodes of Animaniacs were shown on Cartoon Network on August 31st, with the later episodes showing up after Kids' WB! stopped running the show (outside of its segments' inclusion on The Big Cartoonie Show). To promote the show joining the network's line-up, Yakko, Wakko and Dot would sometimes show up in the network's bumpers and commentate on the shows in question, and an animation of them walking would be pasted into the episodes, accompanied by a few bars of the theme song. Tiny Toon Adventures also joined the channel following its first departure from Nickelodeon in September 1999.
Tiny Toons, Taz-Mania, and Animaniacs were eventually removed from the channel's line-up by 2001 (after which Animaniacs and Tiny Toons appeared in reruns on Nickelodeon), and Freakazoid! was later dropped in March 2003. However, in 2002, Cartoon Network picked up reruns of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. To date, Histeria! and Loonatics Unleashed have never been shown on Cartoon Network. Pinky and the Brain has also never appeared on Cartoon Network in the US.
By October 2004, after the network had switched to its "city" look, the Looney Tunes shorts (along with the Boomerang block) were dropped from Cartoon Network's regular schedule altogether due to the box office failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, though The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Duck Dodgers remained part of the schedule until mid-2005. However, Bah, Humduck!: A Looney Tunes Christmas has aired annually as part of the channel's Christmas marathons from 2006 to 2011. Also, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Wakko's Wish were still aired occasionally (until the latter film's broadcast rights were transferred to The Hub in 2012), and Bugs Bunny's Howl-o-ween Special was also aired on the network for the first time in October of 2009.
The channel finally brought the Looney Tunes shorts back to their regular schedule in November 2009, only to drop them again in January 2010. The shorts returned to the network again on March 21, 2011. This was followed by the premiere of The Looney Tunes Show on May 3rd of the same year. Currently, there is not yet any word on if any other WB Animated Universe shows will also return to the network.
"Powerhouse" commercial bumpers
From March 1998 to June 2004, Cartoon Network went through a branding known as the "Powerhouse era", so named due to the use of Raymond Scott's composition "Powerhouse" in its bumpers. These bumpers, animated by Primal Screen, depicted typical gags and scenes from the shows, underscored by a remix of the show's theme music set to "Powerhouse". The backgrounds for the bumpers were given color schemes to fit with the time of the day the shows aired: shows that aired on weekday mornings had bumpers with yellow backgrounds, shows that aired on weekday afternoons had green bumpers, shows airing on weekday evenings as well as on weekends had blue bumpers, and shows that aired during the midnight hours had black backgrounds (early on, these bumpers were red, but were changed afterward because older TV sets could not display red backgrounds very well).
After 2001, as Cartoon Network began to shift its focus more and more towards its original programming, the Powerhouse bumpers gradually started becoming less frequently used, with certain shows airing in programming blocks that used their own bumpers. The black midnight-hour bumpers, in particular, became discontinued when the Adult Swim programming block was expanded to weeknights. Some of the newer additions to the network's schedule, such as Baby Looney Tunes and Duck Dodgers notably never even had their own Powerhouse-styled bumpers. Additionally, in 2003 and 2004, for the Powerhouse-styled bumpers that were still being used, the "Powerhouse" remixes were inexplicably dropped, replaced with background music from the shows themselves. In the case of Bugs & Daffy, the title card music from "Box Office Bunny" was now used, while Freakazoid!, in its last few months on Cartoon Network, used pieces of the theme song's instrumental. These bumpers were discarded entirely when the network switched to its "City" branding in June 2004.
| Image | Description |
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Bugs & Daffy | |
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Daffy is aimed at by a shotgun (presumably by Elmer Fudd) and puts up a "Shoot him!" sign pointing to Bugs, who simply twists the sign back in Daffy's direction. Daffy, apparently not noticing the switch, blows a raspberry at Bugs right before he gets his feathers blasted off.
After 2002, this was the only "we'll be back" bumper used for Bugs & Daffy. Announcer quips:
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Bugs, as a barber, gives Gossamer a haircut, reducing the monster to just a pair of sneakers. This bumper's gag is based on one from Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century, but placed in the Rabbit of Seville setting.
After 2002, this was the only "we're back" bumper used for Bugs & Daffy. Announcer quips:
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Penelope crawls out from under a freshly-painted bench and Pepe chases after her, during which she crashes through some cans of paint.
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Yosemite Sam shoots at Bugs, who dodges the bullets by dancing. Some offscreen bystanders throw flowers to Bugs when he finishes, and he takes a bow.
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Sylvester airlifts himself up to Tweety's cage by attaching a fan to his back. Tweety, however, stops the fan with a screwdriver and sends Sylvester spinning out of control.
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Tweety leaves out a decoy of himself which explodes right after Sylvester eats it.
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Taz-Mania | |
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Taz is fed various foods. |
Freakazoid! | |
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Dexter's first transformation into Freakazoid, as seen in the intro sequence and "The Chip", is recreated.
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Freakazoid runs into an alleyway and ends up ramming straight into the camera.
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Road Rovers | |
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Hunter, Colleen, and Blitz corner General Parvo, but he pulls out a tennis ball and throws it to distract Hunter, who leaps at the camera trying to catch the ball.
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Shag scratches for fleas, much to Blitz's disgust.
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Animaniacs | |
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Dr. Scratchansniff tries to keep Yakko, Wakko and Dot under control by hypnotizing them with a spinning wheel. It seems to work, until the camera zooms in on the wheel and suddenly Scratchansniff is the one who's been hypnotized by it.
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Yakko, Wakko, and Dot are working on a jigsaw puzzle. Wakko can't get his pieces to fit together, so he smashes them with his mallet.
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Ralph the Guard chases after the Warners, who are riding a tandem bicycle. The Warners escape into a fake backdrop, which Ralph only crashes against.
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The Warners are putting their handprints in fresh cement on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but Wakko gets his hand stuck in his cement block.
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The Brain has just written a complex equation on his chalkboard, but Pinky erases it to doodle a self-portrait. Brain angrily tips the chalkboard over and it knocks them both out.
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Dot is trying to put up the letters on a theater marquee, but she falls off the stepladder.
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Tiny Toon Adventures | |
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Buster keeps showboating in front of Babs, so she pulls a rope that drenches him with water. This bumper is based on the closing gag from Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation. |
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Buster and Babs unzip each other to reveal they're actually Little Beeper and Calamity Coyote, respectively. Calamity attempts to chase Beeper, but he quickly tires out and zips up the screen.
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Buster and Plucky duel each other with paintbrushes as their weapons. |
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Babs fantasizes about being a queen, and her fantasy balloon gets in the way of Plucky's view, so he pops it with a pin. Babs gets back at him by popping his own fantasy balloon when he fantasizes about money. This bumper is based on a gag from "Her Wacky Highness".
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Buster, Babs, Hamton, and Plucky are having a group photo taken, but Plucky takes a cue from Daffy in the intro sequence and places an anvil above Hamton.
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Buster approaches Elmyra, who's hugging Furball, and tricks her into taking a stick of dynamite made to look like a puppy, which then explodes in her face. |
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Buster mixes a carrot smoothie. |
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Calamity pulls a rope to drop the Cartoon Network logo on Little Beeper, but it lands on him instead. |
The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries | |
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Sylvester attempts to eat Tweety as a sandwich, but he escapes, and before Sylvester can grab him again, Granny appears behind him and whacks him with her umbrella. |
Pinky and the Brain | |
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Brain plants his flag in Cartoon Network's logo, causing it to pop like a balloon and fly about, taking him and Pinky with it. |
Connections
- Rob Paulsen voiced Major Glory in Dexter's Laboratory, Brick and Boomer in The Powerpuff Girls and Tudrussel in Time Squad.
- Jess Harnell voiced Doubledome in the Longhair and Doubledome cartoon shorts.
- Candi Milo voiced Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory, Cheese and Madame Foster in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Mom and Teacher in Cow and Chicken.
- Tara Strong voiced Terrence in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls.
- Charlie Adler voiced Cow, Chicken, Red Guy and Baboon in Cow and Chicken and I.M. Weasel.
- Kath Soucie voiced Dexter's mother, LeeLee, Agent Honeydew and Pony Princess in Dexter's Laboratory, Bubbles in the original Powerpuff Girls pilot shorts on The What-a-Cartoon! Show, and a younger version of Muriel in Courage the Cowardly Dog.
- Frank Welker voiced Monkey in Dexter's Laboratory.
- Phil LaMarr voiced Jack in Samurai Jack, Hector Con Carne in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Nautolan Jedi Master Kit Fisto in Star Wars:The Clone Wars, Helmsman in The Powerpuff Girls, Wilt in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Rob, R.E.C.R. and T-Bot in Megas XLR, Phily Phil in Class of 3000 and Marcus Connor in The Life and Times of Juniper Lee.
- Jeff Bennett voiced Dexter's father in Dexter's Laboratory, an Amoeba boy in The Powerpuff Girls, Raj in Camp Lazlo, and Johnny Bravo in the show of the same name.
- Jim Cummings voiced Red-Eye in Dexter's Laboratory and Fuzzy Lumpkins in The Powerpuff Girls.
- Tom Kenny voiced the Mayor, an Amoeba Boy, Talking Dog and Rainbow the Clown in The Powerpuff Girls, Eduardo in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Jake Spidermonkey in My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
- Joe Alaskey voiced a prospector in Johnny Bravo.
- Dan Castellaneta voiced Earl in Cow and Chicken.
- Maurice LaMarche voiced Father in Codename: Kids Next Door.
- etc..