The Powerhouse era was the third era of Cartoon Network. It began on March 2, 1998, transitioning out of the Checkerboard and Starburst eras, and ended during the early morning hours of June 14, 2004. It was succeeded by the CN City era. The last program to air under the Powerhouse era on June 14, 2004 was Captain Planet. "Screwy, Ain't It" was the slogan for the era until 2001, along with the secondary slogan "You With Us" (to promote Cartoon Cartoon Fridays) in the following year, and until 2003.
The Powerhouse era was used by Cartoon Network Europe from 1999 to 2002, Latin America also used this look from April 30, 1998 to December 31, 2004, in Asia and Australia, this era lasted from 1998 and August 22, 1999 until September 30, 2005, and in Japan, this era aired from 1999 to December 31, 2005.
Description
"For its first comprehensive reface, Cartoon Network wanted to focus on what makes cartoons cartoony. This package featured new animation of the network stars from many major animation studios including Warner Brothers, MGM and Hanna-Barbera. Of course, the styling had to be very true to the original characters. Each show was placed in an iconic situation on stylized, monochromatic backgrounds that changed color depending on the time of day. The long-running package showcased Primal Screen's animation, music and sound design. It became the international identity for the network, requiring that Primal Screen make custom elements for the UK, Latin America and Japan. In total, we made over 300 distinct spots for this system, each have a unique narrative and title treatments recall classic cartoons." - Primal Screen[1]
Bumpers
The era was named after the Raymond Scott composition "Powerhouse", which was the musical theme for most bumpers and graphical elements of this period. However, on January 15, 2003, the Powerhouse music was removed from the bumpers and replaced with a series of generic fanfares and library themes (except for the Robot Jones and Kids Next Door bumpers, the turkey "Coming Up Next" bumper and on the later weekends, when the Powerhouse music was used for Coming Up Next bumpers), due to the fact Turner Broadcasting lost the rights to Raymond Scott's iconic theme. Also, the "You're Watching" bumper and the yellow, green, and dark blue/black backgrounds for the bumpers were also removed in 2003 (with the strange exceptions of the "Coming Up Next" bumpers until May 2003), leaving only the blue and purple backgrounds still in use until 2004.
The colors used for the Powerhouse branding referred to different time periods. Yellow was used for weekday mornings, green was used for weekday afternoons, blue was used for weekday evenings as well as all day long on the weekends, while dark blue/black was used for midnights and late night periods. Purple was used for action cartoons, orange was used for Halloween, brown was used for Thanksgiving, and white/light blue was used for Christmas. Red was originally the color used for midnights and late night periods until around August, September and October 1998, when the color was replaced with black/dark blue due to older TV sets not withstanding the color red way too much.
When the Powerhouse era was slightly updated in 2003, not only was the original music removed from the "We'll Be Right Back" and "Back to the Show" bumpers, but the yellow, green, and dark blue/black backgrounds of those bumpers and the "You're Watching" bumper were also removed, leaving the blue and purple backgrounds seen during those bumpers seen from 2003 to 2004. However the yellow and green backgrounds were not removed entirely from the network, as the "Coming Up Next" bumpers often contained the green and yellow backgrounds until May 2003. These continued to be mixed with the blue and purple "We'll Be Right Back" and "Back to the Show" bumpers until June 2004.
In the "We'll Be Right Back" and "Back to the Show" bumpers for many shows in evening time, primetime in weekdays and weekends, the era's announcers Clark, Hartman, Shearer and Sanders (with the exception of David and Means) were replaced as announcers by CN characters. The characters who had voiceovers were: Yakko, Dot, Bugs, Daffy, Yosemite Sam, Beetlejuice (note: he also voiced one of the Wrecking Ball bumpers), Buster Bunny, Scooby, Shaggy, various monsters from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Dexter, Dexter’s computer helper, Dee Dee, Mandark, Johnny Bravo, Cow, Chicken, I.M. Weasel, I.R. Baboon, the Red Guy, the narrator of the Powerpuff Girls (he also voiced 3 coming up next bumpers), Ed, Edd, Eddy, Mike, Lu, Courage, Eustace, Muriel, and the news announcer from Sheep in the Big City. The bumpers with the characters as the announcers were used until 2003 when the Powerhouse bumpers were overhauled and Doug Preis took over as announcer around 2002.
The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Codename: Kids Next Door, and Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? were the last three shows to receive new Powerhouse bumpers in 2002. When Grim & Evil split and separated into The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne on June 8, 2003, the two series did not have their very own Powerhouse bumpers. They, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Megas XLR, were the only original Cartoon Network series to not have their very own Powerhouse bumpers that aired during the commercials. Instead, most shows would have their own show-styled bumpers not similar to the Powerhouse-styled ones such as Duck Dodgers and Teen Titans.
After Adult Swim signed off at 5:00am on June 14, 2004, Time Squad and Captain Planet were the final two shows to air under the Powerhouse era. At 6:00am, the City era debuted and The Powerpuff Girls was the first show to air under the City era. Also, when the Midnight Run aired or after Adult Swim signed off during that time, the dark blue/black "Coming Up Next" bumpers were also used.
Programming
With the transition from both the Checkerboard and Starburst eras to the Powerhouse era, the network slowly began to feature their original series more prominently. This eventually led to the classic animation programming block, Boomerang, being split off into its own network in April 2000, taking most of the classic Hanna-Barbera series with it. A total of 14 original series were produced during this era.
During this era several notable programming blocks were introduced including: Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre, a movie block that aired on CN from July 1998 to 2007; Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, a weekly programming block through which the network premiered new episodes of its original series; and Adult Swim, a late-night block aimed at a more mature audience that would become it's own channel and take over the entire night schedule in 2005 (despite still sharing channel space with Cartoon Network).
When the Friday-themed program blocks were not airing at any time of the week, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne episodes that first aired on Grim & Evil were the only episodes seen during the Powerhouse era's normal weekly and weekend programming.
CN Original Series
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast (entered hiatus on December 17, 1999, restarted on May 7, 2001 and ended July 22, 2001, moved to Adult Swim on September 2, 2001)
- Dexter's Laboratory (originally ended on December 10, 1999, restarted on November 16, 2001 and ended November 20, 2003)
- Johnny Bravo
- Cow and Chicken (ended August 13, 1999)
- I Am Weasel (ended March 2, 2000)
- The Powerpuff Girls (premiered November 18, 1998)
- Ed, Edd n Eddy (premiered January 4, 1999)
- Mike, Lu & Og (premiered November 12, 1999 and ended May 27, 2001)
- Courage the Cowardly Dog (premiered November 12, 1999 and ended November 22, 2002)
- Sheep in the Big City (premiered November 17, 2000 and ended April 7, 2002)
- Time Squad (premiered June 8, 2001 and ended November 26, 2003)
- Samurai Jack (premiered August 10, 2001)
- Grim & Evil (premiered August 24, 2001 and ended October 18, 2002)
- Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (premiered July 19, 2002 and ended November 14, 2003)
- Codename: Kids Next Door (premiered December 6, 2002)
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (premiered June 13, 2003)
- Evil Con Carne (premiered July 11, 2003)
- Star Wars: Clone Wars (premiered November 7, 2003)
- Megas XLR (premiered May 1, 2004)
Acquired series (not counting Toonami programming)
Unused logo pitches
John W. Golden's (a former motion designer at Primal Screen, who developed the "Powerhouse" branding package) design reel features two variations of the Cartoon Network logo appear on gradient backgrounds, resembling the visual style of the Powerhouse branding[2]. It is possible that these logo variations were part of a proposal to rebrand the channel's logo in conjunction with the Powerhouse package. However, this potential rebranding was not implemented, and Cartoon Network continued to use its established checkerboard logo during this period.
See also
References
- ↑ Screen, P. (n.d.). Cartoon Network Reface montage. Primal Screen. https://web.archive.org/web/20221206005518/https://www.primalscreen.com/gallery/cartoon-network-reface-montage
- ↑ https://www.productionhub.com/video/58151/john-w-golden-design-motion-graphics-reel