This is Part One in a Series
Alright, so I’ve got this idea kicking around in my head that I just need to let loose into the world. The only problem is, I need to establish a few things first. So, this is going to the start of a series of blog posts, and while the content of this post is relevant to the final post I want to make, the content of this post won’t really tell you where I’m going, exactly, I don’t think. Maybe it will, and I just think too highly of myself. Anyway, I’m not sure which topic to start with of the first two, they’re kind of super interconnected, but I think I need to establish this stuff, before going on to the next.
Anyway, we need to discuss how we’re moving towards an “On Demand” society and what that means for television. As you are probably all aware, streaming has changed everything for television and the networks still aren’t sure how to deal with that, especially when it comes to animation, which has consequences for the toy industry. Networks are having trouble selling kids on shows, especially ones with long-form storytelling, this, in turn, affects toy sales because now toy companies don’t know how to sell their toys to kids since the cartoons they used to use aren’t working.
Now, this sort of gets into the ThunderCats Roar issue. I’m not thrilled with the series, but just hear me out, I’m not just, “Oh, this doesn’t look like my ThunderCats, therefore it sucks.” I know one of the main arguments for ThunderCats Roar is that they tried a serious reboot in 2011 and it failed. Did it though? Yes, toy sales weren’t there, but honestly, the toys weren’t very good, and I mean that from a quality standpoint. Bandai America missed the mark in terms of the audience for the show, it was older viewers, and the toys needed to be of higher quality to appeal to those viewers. There was another problem though, which was far more problematic. Cartoon Network sabotaged the show, they barely advertised it, and let it go on a month-long hiatus after the first seven episodes without any indication when it would be coming back.
Why is that break a problem? Well, go back and watch the first seven episodes of the 2011 ThunderCats series. They set a goal, get to the Tower of Omens in the first few episodes. By episode seven they have reached that destination and gotten answers as to what they need to do next. It is a self-contained arc, almost a season-long arc, in fact. If you suddenly go on break after episode seven and don’t announce that the show will be coming back shortly, people are going to think the first season is over, and they need to wait probably about six months before the season picks up again. Contrast this with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which goes on break regularly. When broadcast, at the end of an episode they announce when the next episode is going to air if the show is taking a break. ThunderCats (2011) didn’t do that, I know, I watched episode seven when it aired, live. That’s not good.
Then when the show returned, Cartoon Network started moving the airtime around, much like they did with the 2002 He-Man series. If a show doesn’t maintain a regular airtime, it loses viewers. That means you can’t gain an audience, and if you don’t gain an audience it doesn’t matter how good or bad your toys are, you’re not going to move them, because no one cares about the series. So, Cartoon Network’s handling of that show meant it never gained an audience past the hardcore ThunderCats fans, who were all relatively old, in their 30s or so. They’re not going to buy cheap toys, but that’s what was available. So, yeah, the toys didn’t move. The 2011 ThunderCats show didn’t fail to connect with audiences, Cartoon Network made sure it didn’t connect with audiences.
So, with ThunderCats Roar, I have to wonder why it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, given how the network treated the property back in 2011 that just seems like a bad idea. Especially since even popular shows like Steven Universe, OK KO, and others are barely being aired in favor of Teen Titans Go. How is ThunderCats Roar going to connect with audiences if it barely ever gets any airtime?
Now, I’m not a fan of Teen Titans Go, but I completely understand why it is thriving. In an era with streaming services that allow you to watch story heavy shows on demand, how can a weekly serialized television show really work? I love NBC’s The Blacklist, but I prefer watching it after a season has aired and it’s put up on Netflix, it’s so much more enjoyable than waiting a week between each episode. There is a sentiment out there that story-based cartoons simply don’t work these days. I don’t agree, Voltron: Legendary Defender is in its sixth season. The toys sales don’t seem to be there, but Netflix seems happy enough with its viewership to keep it going, at least through six seasons. There is a thriving community of fans for the show across all social media platforms. People are watching it. Are kids watching it? I don’t know, but it’s being watched. RWBY is also getting enough views that Rooster Teeth keeps making more episodes. Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, Star vs the Forces of Evil, the new DuckTales are all being watched. Story heavy or at least focused cartoons still work today.
But viewing habits are changing, and I understand why a show like Teen Titans Go is appealing. After every episode, it resets to the status quo. If it happens to be on television you can watch any episode without feeling lost, and in the era of streaming, those are the kind of shows that are going to work on traditional television, where people don’t need to set aside time every week to catch the next episode, so they can follow the over-arching story. This is especially true for children, they don’t have the same amount of free time they used to have to follow television shows, for reasons I’m going to get into in the next post in this series.
But why is Cartoon Network airing Teen Titans Go and nothing but Teen Titans Go? Well, it’s resonated with children, possibly because they don’t need to follow it. But also, kids have a habit of just watching whatever they like over and over again. How many stories have you heard over the years of someone talking about how when they were a kid, they burned through some movie they had on VHS because they watched it every day? I’ve heard a lot of those kinds of stories. Kids fixate on a show that’s their favorite and then they just watch it on repeat. Netflix feeds into this desire. Kids will pick their favorite show, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood or Paw Patrol or whatever, and just watch every episode of that on repeat, even if they’ve already seen the episode. Cartoon Network just constantly airing Teen Titans Go is playing into this behavior. Their favorite show is always on Cartoon Network, so kids will tune in and stay on Cartoon Network, because the network is feeding this binging behavior, and oh, yeah, it doesn’t matter what order the episodes air in, because there’s no real continuity between episodes, which makes Teen Titans Go perfect for this sort of strategy. If a kid comes in halfway through a Teen Titans Go programming block, it doesn’t matter, they haven’t missed any story elements.
So, I completely understand why if you’re airing ThunderCats Roar on Cartoon Network you’d go with a format similar to Teen Titans Go. The episodes are self-contained, and it looks kind of like what kids are already watching. But is that right for ThunderCats? I’m not going to sit here and say that the original 80s ThunderCats cartoon was super serious all the time. I mean, there’s an episode of the series where Cheetara gets obsessed with gold, because women love gold, and her obsession with it I think nearly causes her to betray the team, though it ends up saving them in the end. Like that’s ridiculous, but it was also sincere, and ThunderCats Roar doesn’t look sincere, it looks sarcastic.
But things need to change to resonate with a modern audience. Yes, you’re right. Voltron: Legendary Defender is very different from the 80s Voltron cartoon, but they have the same heart. The new DuckTales is also quite different from the original DuckTales, but again they have the same heart. When you reboot a show, you need to figure out what resonated with people about the original show and translate that to a new audience. I think ThunderCats Roar missed that mark, at least from what I’ve seen so far, but I could easily be wrong.
The more important points here though, are changing viewing habits and how they’re affecting what shows look like, and then choosing the right airing format for what you want to do and making sure that vision fits the property you’re bringing out. ThunderCats Roar has the right tone for the airing format it has chosen. I’m just not sure it picked the right tone for the property because it’s not showing off what made people fall in love with ThunderCats in the first place, and if you miss that mark, you’ve given up what makes your property unique and memorable, since that’s what stuck with people.
Anyway, I’m going to end this here. We’ll get into the time demands on modern children and how that affects toy sales, and how these changes in viewing habits have left toy companies scrambling to figure out how to sell toys in the next post. In addition to a few other points, I think.
A New Hasbroverse 