2012
10.26

Okay, so I wasn’t sure what to do on the blog for Cartoon Network’s 20th anniversary.

Should I write about the golden days of Toonami, before it ended with a whimper and Naruto fillers and came back as a substitute for [adult swim]’s Saturday night anime block? I could, but it’d sound like a whiny post for the fans that stick around with the new Toonami, the ones who are interested in most of the series currently airing (my personal interest in the newer series is moot), and the even fewer who just like to hear Steve Blum’s voice as TOM again.

How about a post dedicated to some of my favorite memories from the network over the years? I have a lot of them, and surprisingly a decent amount of which did occur when I was no longer a child. That’s a nice idea, but maybe just a bit too personal for this blog.

One thing I nearly did was do a First Impressions Are Key article on some of the pilots of the network’s programming. A three-parter, in fact, but I couldn’t muster up the motivation to write paragraphs on end about certain shorts.

But then I remembered one idea I had a long time ago- I’ve always wanted to do a weekly, semi-weekly or recurring series of articles where I sit back and watch four of the classic Cartoon Network series that I adore all over again, one episode at a time, and go into detail on why I and so many others like these so much. Now seems like as good of a time as ever to introduce them.

The four I picked are four of the most admired among fans of Cartoon Network in the 90’s and early-mid 00’s- Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and Ed, Edd n’ Eddy. Each are great for their own reasons, and had and still have fans well outside of their target demographics. What’s not to love about them?

And I plan to watch the first episode of each show again, and write a little piece on each of them, hopefully each Friday, in synch with the glory days of Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. Thankfully, the first seasons of all 4 shows are out on DVD if you want to find them and watch along with me, and while the rest of the series are on iTunes, that’s unfortunately it for Dexter and Johnny (PPG got a complete series set for its 10th anniversary, while the Ed boys lucked out and got a second set as well).

And I’ll go in order or premiere for these articles, so here’s the first fully original CN series, premiering in April 1996, Dexter’s Laboratory!

Dexter’s Laboratory:

Dee-Deemensional

The first short of the series to air (but not the first one made!) starts with Dexter, boy genius(!) being sucked up by a giant gelation monster. While he’s about to be consumed by the monster, he writes a note to his oafish sister Dee Dee to send to himself in the past so they can avoid the scenario. A fine idea… except the Dexter of the past doesn’t believe her.

The meat of the episode comes from Dee Dee of the future talking to Dee Dee of the past and the two teaming up. Check out the little birdy watching them converse and freak out. A great series of reaction shots! Dexter walks out to see the Dee Dees together, and realizes that his sister’s plea is legit. The rest leads up to fun cartoon hijinks and a depressing ending for the boy genius. Without spoiling the end results, Dexter doesn’t learn his lesson, and life goes on for the poor kid.

It’s a tad predictable, but a decent start to the first short made for this new series. Besides the bird, highlights include a recreation of The Nutcracker and the aforementioned ending.

Magmanamus

Something about Dexter’s first season- only the first and third segments are Dexter stories. The middle one always contained a follow-up series in between. The first half of the season mostly contained Dial M for Monkey, which I’ll focus on for now.

This Monkey short has a giant volcanic monster live underneath downtown Dexter’s hometown. The funny thing is, this monster hates noise, but lives right below what might be the busiest, loudest town in this cartoon world. When he finally snaps in hope of getting some silence, the people freak out, only causing more noise, and forcing the monster to snap.

Monkey, which is connected to Dexter’s Laboratory in that he happens to be Dexter’s pet monkey, the subject of extreme testing, only to prove negative in enhanced strength and ability. However, that isn’t the case at all. Monkey can kick ass! And he takes on the monster himself.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Dial M for Monkey. While I respect the shorts for introducing Tartakovsky into the world of action, they always felt flat and unfunny to me. This is a decent one, though. It’s always fun to hear Brad Garrett voice act before Raymond, and Monkey’s methods of winning is cute, as well as the ending. It’s also interesting to see Monkey without his agency or cohort Agent Honeydew (despite appearing in the opening credits), who’d be introduced later on.

Maternal Combat

And now we’re back to Dexter. When Dexter and Dee Dee’s mom gets sick, the kids take care of things by themselves. When their incompetence becomes too apparent (but fun, if nothing else), Dexter takes matters into his own hands and creates a Momdroid.

All goes well with the Momdroid, until Dee Dee ends up sniping the controls away from her brother and use them for her own gain. Dexter makes another, superior Momdroid 1000 (guess which movie this is referencing) to take care of Dee Dee and her actions. The titular maternal combat occurs now, and we end with some more great gags, especially when their dad comes home.

And here we come to the first episode of Dexter’s Laboratory. How does it hold up? Decently. I always have maintained that the best part of the show was the sibling rivalry between Dexter and Dee Dee, and that holds true to the two shorts here. The earliest episodes are a little slower paced than the rest, but it will become a lot more clever and fun as it goes along, but there isn’t a weak link between the three shorts. Not even Monkey, which was a fun episode.

Also, “You fool! Mothers do not get sick.”= highlight of the entire episode

Now let’s move onto the next show. Cow & Chicken and Johnny Bravo premiered around the same time, in July 1997. While I really enjoyed both shows, I always thought that the latter was way better than C&C, and watching some of both now, that belief holds true. How does the first episode stand up now? Let’s see.

Johnny Bravo:

Johnny Bravo

Of the 3 shows here to have one or more pilots made for What-a-Cartoon (Ed, Edd n’ Eddy was the first Cartoon Cartoon to not have been a part of the WAC series, which exempts it from this statistic), Johnny Bravo was the only to have its pilot air in its freshman episode. While we will eventually get to Dexter’s pilots  (Powerpuff’s never made it on the show, mostly due to a change in length between the original shorts and the series’ episodes), JB shows us the first taste of its titular lead the world had experienced again right off the bat.

The funny thing is that the self-titled pilot isn’t too far off from how the show turned out, weird narration from a Ron Pearlman knock-off aside.

Well, besides one other thing. The first girl our womanizing Johnny interacts with is a little younger than his usual target. A lot younger.

Granted, Johnny doesn’t hit on her, but he does make reference to how awkward the age gap would make their dating. This alone freaked out the censors at Cartoon Network so much that they made creator Van Partible promise that he’d never talk like this to a young girl ever again. (well, we’ll see about that…)

The plot is minimal. Johnny’s out looking for some action at the zoo, when a (hot red-headed) keeper runs out in hopes of finding an army or super hero to help her catch an escaped gorilla. It just so happens that Super Bravo (he didn’t name himself here, but let’s be real, you were totally thinking of that title) is here to save the day with his “black belts in every form of martial arts” (although he’s still studying sumo wrestling).

Turns out, this gorilla is quite articulate, with a sassy attitude to boot, and able to match wits with the witless Johnny. The whole short ends up formulating a classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon (not a surprising comparison, given who made this), and has the gorilla mess around with Johnny, right down to his hopeless ending.

Not bad stuff for a pilot. I referenced one or two of the both lines, but I try to not mention all of the great gags in these shorts. Trust me when I say there are some great ones, and promises more for the show.

Jungle Boy in “Mr. Monkeyman

Jungle Boy? Who’s Jungle Boy?

“Johnny Bravo” wasn’t the only short Partible made for What-a-Cartoon. He also made this short staring what could be assumed to be Boy from the Tarzan films in his own adventures.

Back in the day, Cartoon Network wanted an accompanying series of shorts to go with their main series. This is why Dexter’s Lab had Dial M for Monkey and later the Justice Friends, and Cow & Chicken would share fame with I Am Weasel. Presumably, Jungle Boy was going to be Johnny’s paired series.

By the time Dexter was working on its second season and Johnny was picked up, CN decided to drop this practice. This made Monkey and the Justice Friends occasionally become integrated in Dexter’s shorts during the show’s second season. While Cartoon Network ended up liking Weasel too much to have David Feiss drop it from Cow & Chicken, Partible wasn’t required to keep Jungle Boy as a regular part of JB.

While the character will appear again later this season, this is the only solo Jungle Boy short in existence. From what I understand, CN wanted a pilot episode for their shows to be made, which explains why this short stuck around. CN and Partible thought that Jungle Boy was going to stick around, but even after this ended up not being the case, there wasn’t enough time to make a bonus Johnny short, so they kept it in.

Maurice LaMarche, presumably keeping up a Ron Pearlman impression, narrates the opening of this short, selling Jungle Boy to be a little messiah, a cross between Tarzan’s unfortunately named son, Superman, and a high-profile child star, and loved by all.

Except for the same pink gorilla from Johnny’s pilot short, who is now king of the jungle, and afraid that Jungle Boy is taking away his popularity among his people. King Raymond takes it upon himself to dress up as Jungle Boy (how he pulls it off, don’t ask me), as to lower the opinion of the kid to the inhabitants of the jungle.

Of course, Jungle Boy saves his honor, and balance is restored in the jungle. It’s a cute short, but I could see this concept become tiresome if this was picked up as its own show, or even stuck around as a companion to Johnny Bravo. Jungle Boy doesn’t have much of a character besides being a nice kid, and if they stuck to a formula of King Raymond trying to one-up JB (heh, notice how both of Partible’s lead characters have the same initials), the show could have become very tiresome. The supporting animals seem likable enough though, possibly to the point that they could save the show.

Not bad, but I think it’s not the worst thing in the world that Jungle Boy only had one short of his own.

Before we go to the last short of the episode, though, I must ask you- did you see any rhinos around here?

Johnny Bravo and the Amazon Women

And here is the first original short made for the show, I believe as a second test for CN to see if the show was worth buying. This proved to the network that… it was worth another shot.

Johnny is on a boat long before Andy Samberg and crew would have made you groan at hearing those words, as he attempts to hit on a chick, only to be pepper sprayed so hard that he falls out of the boat and gets kicked by a whale into an island… full of giant amazon women.

The there’s some good gags here, but the whole thing runs so fast that it’s hard to really appreciate the humor. I’m pretty sure that this is the shortest of the three segments, since the other two were extended a little for the sake of What-a-Cartoon’s necessity. Because of that, there’s little breathing room and it all ends so soon. But at least the ending is a classic, if perhaps a bit risqué. But hell, that’s why we love it.

The first episode of Johnny Bravo is pretty okay, all things considered. The main concept of Johnny trying and failing to hit on women, while being totally oblivious to not only how he repulses his targets, but the rest of the world around him. There’s a lot of groundwork to be done though, as the two JB segments feel as unpolished as any other show’s first couple of episodes would.

It’s also a bit strange to see Johnny be the only main character used so far. While these wouldn’t be the only time we see the show done without Mama or Suzy, the first supporting roles to show up alongside Johnny, you can still feel like their presence has hardly been thought of by the time this was made, This will change though, as Johnny Bravo will soon develop to be the show it’s remembered as today.

The highlight of all of these shorts comes from a sight gag in the first short, when a Christ-like figure stands in a “Stop cartoon violence!” sign, which contrasts to the short, but is still a nice idea.

Now The Powerpuff Girls is a bit special to me. While I was watching Cartoon Network for at least a year or so prior to it’s airing, this is the first show I remembered the premiere of, all the way back in November 1998. I was never one to dismiss programming with female leads despite having a Y chromosome, so I had no problem becoming a fan of the show. And I’m not the only boy who can safely say this, which explains its massive appeal.

The Powerpuff Girls:

Monkey See, Doggie Do

Note: If you go by production and DVD order, you’d find that “Insect Inside”/”Powerpuff Bluff” was the first episode of Powerpuff to air. But by checking scheduling, you’d find that “Monkey See, Doggie Do”/”Mommy Fearest” aired first on the network. Since I so clearly remember the latter being my first taste of the show beyond the What-a-Cartoon shorts, I’m going to review those first, and I’ll tackle the actual first episode next time.

The story of the episode is that Mojo Jojo, primate wonder, steals a jeweled Egyptian artifact that gives him the power to turn people into dogs. Why? Why not? If everyone else is a dog, then Mojo can easily take over the world

Of course Mojo succeeds at first, and turns most everyone in the city of Townsville into a pup, including the Mayor, Miss Bellum, Professor Utonium, and eventually, even the girls! And of course, they end up saving the day.

First or not, you can tell that this is an earlier episode based on how raw the girl’s interaction with each other seem to be. The police are extremely inept, and while the force were never particularly bright in the rest of the show, hot damn, do these cops seem dim.

There aren’t that many strong gags here, unfortunately. Turning most of your main characters into dogs in one of your earliest episodes will cause that, but even the dialogue with the girls and Mojo is meh. A couple of weak puns seem to be all we really get.

Mommy Fearest

TV PUPPET PALS! Who doesn’t love these guys from Dexter’s Lab? Since Powerpuff shares a lot of creative forces from that series, it’s not surprising to get a shout-out from the CN original that started it all here.

After watching their favorite program, the Professor decides that it’s time for his girls to go to bed, make sure they brush their teeth, get dressed, even if they don’t want to (this is one of the few times you’ll see a girl in her panties, animated or not, in a kids show, so yeah), and go to bed. But only if the door is creaked open a little for Bubbles.

Professor Utonium is a great dad. His girls mean the world to him, and while they constantly make him proud by saving the world, his work is nowhere near done. The only weak point of the job is. How lonely he is, which this episode indicates. The Professor wouldn’t have had to make the girls if he could find a woman of his own. But he’s just not a smooth operator.

Until he meets Imma. Imma Goodlady, to be exact (sheesh). The two hit it right off, and they get a date, Friday at 7. Thanks to the girls, of course, because the Professor just couldn’t hit a girl up on his own.

The Professor and Imma hit it off. Way off. So much so, that after their first date, she moves in with the Utonium clan. It’s around this time that Imma shows her true colors and becomes a monster. Is she actually a monster, though? I won’t say, but this will contain the first appearance of a memorable villain on the show.

I didn’t want this one to go on overlong, so I cut my retrospective on the second episode short. It’s a step-up from the previous short, but isn’t extremely funny, either. Both episodes are okay, but that’s about it. The show will get better as it goes along.

I’ll have to give the highlight to the beginning of when the girls help the Professor get ready for his date. Bubbles puts a tie on his head, only for Buttercup to drop it to the top of his chest, right where it belongs. Bubbles replies “Oh. I guess that looks good, too.” The best part? Professor U just stands there, smiling, completely trusting of his girls.

Premiering only a couple of months later, in January 1999, Ed, Edd n’ Eddy was unlike anything on the network before, original or not. That proved to be a good thing, as even though it was never marketed as well as The Powerpuff Girls or even Dexter’s Laboratory, EEnE was about as big as both of them, and continues to be one of the most iconic programs in the network’s history.

Also, my personal favorite, something everyone that knows me is grudgingly aware of. Does the first episode hold up now? Let’s see.

Ed, Edd n’ Eddy:

The Ed-Touchables

Note: Just like how the first episode aired of Powerpuff isn’t the first on its DVD, the first episode of Ed, Edd n’ Eddy is put as the second on the DVD. While it is possible that “Pop Goes the Ed”/”Over Your Ed” might have been produced first, I’m going with “The Ed-Touchables”/”Nagged to Ed” here, not only since it’s the first that aired, but also because it properly introduces some of the most infamous characters in the latter short, which also happens to appear in the other eligible episode.

Anyway, the first scene of the episode contains a great introduction to Edd, or Double D if you prefer (tee hee!).  We get to see the hypochondriac, obsessive-compulsive little genius organize every little thing in his room just so, only to be bothered by a constant doorbell ringing.

Who’s the door? Why, it’s Eddy, the conceiving liar and head honcho of the trio. He comes in to hang out with one of his two best (and really, only) friends, only for him to be cleaned up nice and tightly by Double D, which reinstates Edd’s obsession with cleaniness. But hey, all is well… until Double D finds out that his fabled magnifying glass is missing.

Before the two Ed’s try to crack the code, they go over to the house of the show’s other Ed to meet with him. This Ed is dimwitted, but bright-hearted and dead set in his ways, helping to round out the three main characters. He’s watching a monster movie on TV but pauses to give his best friends a noogie, only to cause more roughhousing.

Now it’s time for Sarah, Ed’s vindictive little sister, to come out and give the Ed’s hell. Like how Double D is missing his magnifying glass, Sarah is distraught from her missing dolly. This is done in a somewhat creepy scene, implying that Edd has a crush on Sarah despite their massive age gap. Thankfully this was dropped after this episode, but soon the opposite will become a semi-recurring point on the show.

Eddy decides to put these two unfortunate coincides together and calls it an epidemic of the serial toucher. He plans on having his buddies solve these heinous crimes, and here come the Ed-Touchables.

We get a chance to introduce the rest of the Cul-De-Sac kids in the rest of this episode as Eddy warns them to “Hide your stuff” (and presumably your kids and wife as well). Kevin and Johnny 2×4, along with his buddy Plank, get decent introductions, and we get a decent idea of Jimmy’s weird fascination for Sarah, but we’ll have to wait to become more acquainted with Nazz, and Rolf.

Do we find the serial toucher? You’ll have to see for yourself. This short definitely feels rough around the edges, but there’s a lot of iconic material for the show in here. We get a good view of Ed and Double D’s room, along with a classic scene of the Eds walking and hiding behind a pole in (near) unison, and the Ed’s even get a brief taste of their beloved jawbreakers. There’s a lot of better stuff to come along, but this is one of the better shorts I’ve seen this week.

Nagged to Ed

Double D has Ed and Eddy begin an expedition to discover more about some of his beloved bugs, despite the lack of interest from Eddy. Their plan is to head off into the woods, until they get lost.

Ed then gets stuck on a spider web, and as his buddies attempt to pull him out, they hear a disturbing rhyme- “Ed, Edd and Eddy, sitting in a tree- K-I-S-S-I-N-G”. Who can this be? In somewhat of a recreation of the scary wilderness scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, they try to not find out. Which would work out, if they weren’t stuck in mud.

They wake up in the trailer of the Kanker sisters- May, Marie and Lee, wearing nothing but the bathrobes of these girl’s different fathers. We never learn too much about their family life, but we can safely assume that they must at least have the same mom, even if we don’t know the exact ages of each of them. Or maybe they’re just metaphorical sisters, not biological. Oh well, doesn’t matter. They’re weird and this is our proper introduction to them.

The Kankers give the Ed’s some humble hospitality, in hopes that the boys would fall in love with them, with typical mixed results. Like, who the hell puts a tire wheel inside of a burger?

When the Ed’s reject them, the Kankers forcefully turn on the boys and have them do their husbandly duties. They comply for a while, until Eddy snaps and makes the girls cry. Does this mean that the Ed’s can leave on their own good time? Yes, but not in the way they’d want to.

So, are the Kankers PMSing? Beats me, but I don’t ever really recall the girls being this sporadic. But it’s not a bad introduction to them. While the show would occasionally bring the girls in just to give the Ed’s hell as a sign of laziness, there are just as many, if not more, times when their usage was beneficial to the show. This only gives us a taste of the sisters at their best/worst.

The first episode of Ed, Edd n’ Eddy is just fine. I remember watching this as it premiered and knowing right away that this show would become something special, and I was right. I just had no idea HOW special it was going to be, and as much as I liked this episode, it doesn’t fully give you the idea of how great it will become. But there’s plenty of classic moments nonetheless.

Nothing like seeing Eddy smash Double D with a couch in the first episode. The show’s love for cartoon physics helps to make for an early series highlight.

Overall:

The first episodes of each of these shows all range from decent to merely good. I don’t think that there’s a particular weak point this week, although some shorts are definitely better than others. I’d probably say that “The Ed-Touchables” is my favorite of the week, but I can certainly say that it gets better from here for each show.

Welp, there goes the first step of a potentially huge labor of love. If I bail out, I’ll just add a caption making this a First impressions Are Key article, but I want to go through the whole run of these four brilliant, creative shows.

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