Board 8 > The 100 Dumbest Events In Children's Television History

(+) Yeah! (+)

I disliked the ending of Korra S1 a lot to the point that I didn't watch S2, and the way I understand it everyone thinks S2 sucks.

I will get to it one day, though.

il

I really like Miraculous and was sad they completely regressed Chloe. But man I had not heard about the fallout and fan reactions, that's really sad/gross.

Cody11533 posted...

Owl House has been sitting in my backlog for a while, sad to hear it got shafted for the final season.

I mean it's still very worth watching and managed a satisfying conclusion. We just missed out on a lot of extra details and adventures.

I agree with the Legends of Hidden Temple monkey puzzle. Didn't remember it bothering me as a kid. Found some old episodes online a few years back and watched them as a nostalgia kick. The only thing I remember was how cringy it was to watch kids struggle with that puzzle. It was just downright awkward.

I am also sure Voltron is in here somewhere

Tag

This is fun to read, even though I'm not familiar with a lot of these shows so far. I'll make some guesses for what might come up:

• Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain ("It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?")
• The Steven Universe fan-art harassment debacle
• Leaked audio of Sean Schemmel making racist, sexist, homophobic jokes in Goku's voice.

Also it probably won't make the list due to not really being a children's show, but shoutout to Netflix cancelling Inside Job after it was already renewed. Nothing has hurt my faith in a platform more than that singular decision

#95: Sid The Science Kid Looks For His Friends

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/4/5/AAAG8cAAEnch.jpg
Did you hear the one about the most annoying kids you've ever met?

Sid The Science Kid was an educational show created by the Jim Henson Company with a hybrid of computer animation and motion capture puppetry. The innovative animation technique gave the show and its characters a bit of a strange look, but the show itself did well enough in its goals to teach science concepts to young children, and it's also worth noting that the show had a great deal of diversity and made a commendable effort to educate kids on different cultures and ethnicities alongside the science lessons. That's all well and good, but in order to get to the lessons, you had to sit through what has to be one of the most annoying 90 second sequences in television history, in which Sid goes down to the playground and looks for his friends, who introduce themselves with loud noises, terrible dancing, air guitar, and... yeah. This sequence played near the beginning of almost every episode of the show, and as a way to set the tone for everything that came after, it falls very, very flat. It's a shame, because the show itself is decent, despite some of the weird animation. It managed a successful run on PBS Kids, so it's not like the incredibly annoying character introduction sequence hurt the show, but I definitely feel for parents who had to sit through this every time the episode came on. At least we got some hilarious Youtube comments out of it... before Youtube's new rules came along and deleted all the comments on videos for kids. Now you can't even enjoy this intro sequence ironically.

Uh... I feel like I should predict something. So I'm going to throw up "Arthur's Big Hit".

An episode so poorly written it became the show's biggest meme.

I glossed over children.

Uh

Moving Doug from Nickelodeon to ABC?

I very vaguely remember Sid the Science kid from my childhood, but I never actually watched it. Even back then I thought it looked super ugly.

I just looked up the intro and yikes that was bad, my condolences to any parents who had to deal with that on a regular basis.

GavsEvans123 posted...

Leaked audio of Sean Schemmel making racist, sexist, homophobic jokes in Goku's voice.

He said American, unless dubbed anime is fair game.

Teen Titans Go doing an episode all about how people prefer the original Teen Titans could make it on here.

RySenkari posted...

#98: Whenever The Contestant Couldn't Put The Shrine Of The Silver Monkey Together

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/6/AAAG8cAAEnZQ.jpg
"Everybody knows how to put the monkey on!"

Legends Of The Hidden Temple is one of the best game shows Nickelodeon ever aired. Combining intense physical challenges with fun historical knowledge, it sees six teams of kids gradually whittled down to one as they compete in various games to earn their chance to run through the Hidden Temple in pursuit of an ancient treasure that will earn them a prize (usually a trip to Space Camp or something). The Temple was full of tests, tricks, and puzzles, and none more famous than the iconic Shrine of the Silver Monkey, in which the contestant must put together a three piece monkey statue to advance to the next room. That's it, just a three piece puzzle. My niece does way more than three piece puzzles, and she's half as old as most of the contestants on this show. ...so why do so many of them have so much trouble solving the damn thing? Don't give me that whole "pressure" and "bright lights" thing, that excuse might fly when someone misses an actuator on the Aggro Crag, but not in the Hidden Temple. Lots of contestants have solved it and solved it quickly, so it's especially egregious when someone fucks it up, and yet there are entire compilations of kids doing just that. Every possible way to fail at the Silver Monkey puzzle, some kid has done. They've messed up the base, or gotten the middle piece turned around, or, in some extremely stupid cases, they've tried to jam the head on the wrong way. So many great temple runs have been ruined by Silver Monkey shame, and even the Legends Of The Hidden Temple movie and the Loud House crossover have poked fun at it. The Shrine of the Silver Monkey has gone down in infamy as the most iconic part of Legends Of The Hidden Temple, and it's both frustrating and hilarious to this day to watch reruns of some poor kid totally stumped by the damn thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvzoY9SaQY

Larry.

Never forget.

I wonder how many of these shows I'm simply never going to have heard of. Did not have cable until I was in high school, and most of these references are from well after that time anyway. (And I'm the baby of the family, easily, so it's not like I had younger brothers or sisters to pick this stuff up from.)

RySenkari posted...

Now you can't even enjoy this intro sequence ironically.

That's where you're wrong

https://youtu.be/ZEHQ0W-NHAM

RySenkari posted...

she really did emerge as one of the stronger new elements of the show and perhaps the most memorable aspect of The Real Adventures, save for maybe the CGI Questworld

Its neither of these, its pretty obviously the Opening, which still bangs to this day.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SToORarXCzc

Ezekiel Rage was also a fun recurring villain

more predictions:
Nickelodeon "accidentally forgetting" to invite Jojo Siwa to the Kids Choice Awards after she came out, despite her being a nominee
Everything involving Dan Schneider
Everything involving Jennette McCurdy
Butch Hartman leaving Nickelodeon and trying to start his own Christian streaming service

#94: Disney's Brand Spanking New Doug

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/1/8/AAAG8cAAEniW.jpg
I can see that it's brand new, but I don't see any spanking going on!

In 1996, Disney picked up the rights to air Doug, one of the original three Nicktoons alongside Rugrats and Ren And Stimpy. The show had done well in its three year run on Nickelodeon, but had been somewhat overshadowed by the other two, and Disney acquired the rights to Doug hoping to turn things around by making it an anchor of its new One Saturday Morning block. The show would pick up where the original left off, with Doug and friends now in middle school, with a few changes along the way: Roger, who was once a poor kid living in a trailer park, was now rich. Connie had lost weight, the Honker Burger was now a fancy restaurant... initially, despite the changes to the show, creator Jim Jinkins was happy to be working again, and had fun working on early episodes despite the changes. However, as time went on, Disney's Doug seemed to lack much of the quirky charm of the original. Characters' personalities bled into one another, and the show took on elements of a generic teen comedy rather than the unique coming of age story it had been on Nickelodeon. Billy West, who had done an excellent job as Doug and Roger in the Nickelodeon show, was let go for budgetary concerns, and the other voice actors no longer recorded together, eliminating the chemistry they had originally. Even Jim Jinkins began to burn out, clashing with other executives on creative matters. Despite all these changes, Disney's Doug was enough of a success to get four seasons and a movie, though that can also possibly be attributed to being part of the successful One Saturday Morning block, taking advantage of its fellow shows' ratings. It's easy to wonder why Disney even acquired Doug if they were planning on eliminating much of the things that made the show so beloved on Nickelodeon. Perhaps in their effort to make the show truly seem "brand spanking new", they wanted to differentiate their Doug from the old Doug. Still, it's not like Disney didn't air quirky teen cartoons at the time: Pepper Ann was far more interesting and unique, and its legacy endured much longer than that of Disney's Doug, a show many people forget existed at all. Few shows have been treated so well (seven seasons and a movie) and yet still seem like they got screwed: Doug had to endure being overshadowed by Ren and Stimpy, then by Rugrats after Ren and Stimpy flamed out. It got a chance on ABC, but despite being a staple of its premiere Saturday morning block, never really got to be the show it had once been on Nickelodeon. Disney's Brand Spanking New Doug is a frustrating exercise in "why?": Why would a network pay millions to acquire a show, then suck the life out of what had made it so great in the first place? It's not as if they were trying to keep it out of the competition's hands, since it hadn't done much for Nickelodeon either. Despite all the attention and money lavished on it, it ended up being one big spankin' waste of time.

Optimus Prime's death better be #1.

not a universal opinion, but I still love the whistling Doug theme song from Disney over the "doo-doo" Nickelodeon one.

It's kind of weird how "new" Doug was longer and more prominent than "classic" Doug.

(As someone who didn't have cable as a kid I loved Disney's Doug btw >_>)

#93: Cartoon Network Recasts The Powerpuff Girls

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/8/AAAG8cAAEnjw.jpg
...hey, is that Mara from Progressive?

In 2016, Cartoon Network rebooted their classic superhero animated series The Powerpuff Girls, hoping to bring the show to a brand new generation of fans. The announcement of the reboot was met with mixed emotions, but fans were cautiously optimistic, hoping the show would retain its unique blend of action and humor. Controversially, however, it was soon announced that the original cast (Catherine Cavadini as Blossom, Tara Strong as Bubbles, and EG Daily as Buttercup) would not be returning to reprise their roles. Almost immediately, the news sent fans into an uproar. All three original cast members were ready, willing, and able to reprise their roles, but instead, the parts went to Amanda Leighton (Blossom), Kristen Li (Bubbles), and Natalie Palamides (Buttercup) instead, with producers citing that they wanted to "infuse new energy" into the series. To be fair, the three new actresses performed their roles quite well (indeed, there were moments I preferred Palamides' performance to Daily's), and Leighton and Palamides remain busy voice actors to this day, so obviously the new three were talented enough to play the parts... but it begs the question why the original actresses were replaced in the first place, as all the "new energy" their replacements brought wasn't enough to save the show from critical scorn and eventual cancellation. Speculation arose about the new cast being hired to save money... and to be quite honest, whatever the reason was, replacing three beloved cast members is pretty inexcusable. Fans were already unsure about the new series, the replacement of the original cast just served to drive many of them away from the show, and there just weren't enough new viewers to bridge the gap. Like The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest did by alienating critics, alienating a key group of people that your show needs for its success (in this case, old school fans) is not the way for a reboot to go, and the new Powerpuff Girls got off to a bad start it couldn't afford.

I didn't expect my prediction to come true so soon

Oh geeze. New power puff girls. Should have called that one.

Predicting we also will get the last season of Dexter's lab on here

Not even the only terrible VA decision made by animation studios

#92: Captain Planet Meets Hitler

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/0/AAAG8cAAEnj8.jpg
Oh my god, they managed to make his mustache look even dumber!

In the sixth season of Captain Planet And The Planeteers, the episode "A Good Bomb Is Hard To Find" sees Dr. Blight and her future self travel back in time to sell an atomic bomb to World War II-era leaders... including a mustached man clearly intended to be Adolf Hitler. Just... look at this guy. He's clearly Hitler, he calls himself the Fuhrer and speaks in a German accent, but for some reason they had to replace his mustache with a Fu Manchu? Were they worried that if they showed an accurate depiction of Hitler, people might get... offended or something? It's OBVIOUSLY Hitler! In fact, when Captain Planet shows up to dispose of the bomb, he faces down Hitler and is weakened just by the sheer magnitude of hatred coming off of him. And, this is actually a part of the episode I liked, the fact that Hitler is such a hateful asshole that it causes Captain Planet to be weakened just be being near him. The voice actor even does a good job conveying Captain Planet's contempt for him when he speaks. Still, this is just an incredibly silly episode. Hey Arnold was able to get away with directly referencing Hitler (and having Arnold's grandpa kick the crap out of him), but Captain Planet shied away from doing so even while explicitly condemning him. The whole plot is just stupid all around, even for a Captain Planet episode. We already know that war is bad, and we already know that Hitler is bad, did the episode really need to have him at all if it was going to shy away from showing him and mentioning him by name? And if it would've been too offensive to do so, why put him in the episode? The result is just a laughable mess that comes off as being even funnier than seeing Grandpa Phil pull Hitler's pants down on Hey Arnold, and that scene was SUPPOSED to be funny.

Oh I know a good one: Thundercats 2011 reboot getting cancelled so that a LEGO show that is an obvious ripoff of Thundercats could take its place

#91: Butt-Ugly Martians

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/5/5/AAAG8cAAEnkf.jpg
"We don't wanna rule the world, we can't even attract girls!"

An early-2000s CGI cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon, Butt-Ugly Martians was a show about three would be Martian conquerors who decide that instead of taking over the world, they just want to have fun and defend it from other invaders instead. The CGI, as was par for the course for these early CGI shows, was just bad. The jokes were awful, the characters were one-dimensional, and the humans were even uglier than the titular Martians themselves. The only thing this show had going for it was the voice acting, featuring long-time pros such as Rob Paulsen, Kath Soucie, and Robert Stack in one of his final acting performances (a shame it had to be on this piece of crap). Even the show's theme song lets you know what you're in for, with the Martians singing about how they want to ride hoverboards and stuff their faces. They also keep chanting the letters "B.K.M.", which stands for "Butt-Kicking Mode", the robotic suits they use to battle the show's villains. This cartoon didn't know whether it wanted to be a comedy cartoon or an action cartoon, and ultimately it fell flat trying to do both. Toward the end of the show's run it did have some brief flashes of potential, with the Martians progressing to an even stronger Butt-Kicking form to take on more dangerous threats, and gearing up toward a more action-focused storyline, but this was far too little, far too late, and Butt-Ugly Martians deservedly met its end after just one season.

That just reminds me of the grossout era of cartoons and this one doesnt even fit that modus operandi!

Also lol Fuhrer Manchu. The greatest pollutor is hatred indeed.

Despite the backlash from the replacing the old VAs, was the new Powerpuff Girls any good?

Loved Captain Planet but never watched it religiously so I didn't even know there was an episode like that lmao

MysteriousStan posted...

Despite the backlash from the replacing the old VAs, was the new Powerpuff Girls any good?

It had its moments. Like I said, there were times I felt the new VAs (particularly Buttercup's) were actually better than the old ones. It just didn't have enough of what made the original show great. My niece loves it, anyway.

Captain Planet was wild
Had episodes about AIDS, Racial violence, zombies.

#90: 4Kids Sings The National Anthem

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/7/AAAG8cAAEnld.jpg
Did you know the Star-Spangled Banner is set to the tune of an old drinking song? That's good, because you'll need a drink after this.

Back when 4Kids had their own Saturday morning cartoon block, they called up a bunch of their shows' voice actors and had them record themselves singing the Star-Spangled Banner in character (and according to Luffy's voice actress, it was the ENTIRE national anthem). They then put this commercial together, a fart-mangled travesty of lots of different characters (most of them not even American) singing the national anthem together. And yes, it's as bad as you'd expect. Some characters, like the Winx Club cast, are decent enough, Splinter from the 2003 TMNT cartoon puts his whole heart into singing the damn thing, but some characters are just awful, and the result is one of the worst versions of the national anthem you'll ever hear. Roseanne's was worse, but not by much. Whatever your political opinion, you surely have to agree that 4Kids disrespected our country far worse than an entire arena full of athletes kneeling to the flag has ever done, and this version of the song has become a Fourth of July tradition for truly masochistic cartoon fans everywhere. And hey, guess what, it's almost the Fourth of July right now! So grill some hot dogs, pour yourself a cold one (I recommend something very strong), kick back, and listen to Sonic the Hedgehog, the Winx Club, the cast of One Piece, and God knows who else warble our national anthem in glorious fashion. If our flag is still there afterwards, it gave proof through the night that it's made of stronger stuff than most.

This list is awesome

Great topic. I remember when I was a kid seeing ads for Butt-Ugly Martians and even then thinking it looked absolutely terrible. Needless to say I was right!

Also the reason for Hitlers (real) silly moustache is that it was the common working class moustache of the time and he wanted to seem in touch with them. This is why you see it super commonly in early 20th century photos (most notably Charlie Chaplin!) then it vanishes after Hitler rises to power and it becomes associated with him. By contrast the Captain Planet guys moustache would be seen as aristocratic!

Oh noooooo I forgot about the Powerpuff Girls reboot and now I realize this is definitely not the last time it's showing up on this list.

Top 10 potential for that disaster.

I also forgot about the Powerpuff Girls reboot

predicting the creator featuring a self-standin as the love interest of Blossom and/or twerking

This is a lesser-known one, but the show Tig N' Seek was a huge disappointment for me because it got rid of pretty much everything that made the pilot on Youtube charming, most damningly the cat's entire personality. I have no idea what happened, but something must have gone very wrong behind the scenes when it was greenlit.

#89: No Such Luck

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/5/AAAG8cAAEnnd.jpg
The face that launched a thousand fics.

A particularly infamous episode of The Loud House, "No Such Luck" appears during the second season, and sees Lincoln, in an attempt to get out of being forced to attend his sisters' activities, pretend to be a jinx so that they shun him for being bad luck. Unfortunately, it works a little too well, and he ends up getting thrown out of the house and forced to live outside due to his family thinking he's bad luck. Eventually, he manages to win his way back into their good graces by wearing a squirrel mascot suit, but now his family expects him to wear it around them all the time. It's definitely one of the show's worst episodes, with the family acting uncharacteristically mean to Lincoln (even by early season standards), and it's never brought up again in the course of the show. Still, it's not QUITE bad enough of an episode to make this list on its own. This entry is, like the Chloe Bourgeois entry before it, a tag team effort between the show's writers and its fandom. To say the fandom reacted poorly to "No Such Luck" would be a massive understatement. Though the show's writers weren't sent death threats or accused of crimes like Thomas Astruc, fans still flooded Youtube with angry reaction videos and posted screeds to message boards decrying the Louds' behavior. The portion of the fandom who already treated Lincoln like an innocent angel baby who can do no wrong closed ranks around him even more tightly, and many of them launched hate screeds against the sisters as well, particularly Lynn (the one who started this whole mess). It's also pretty much impossible to go anywhere in the fandom without seeing "No Such Luck" Fix Fics, even to this very day, and many of the most acclaimed fics in the fandom are stories that treat the events of this episode way too seriously, including calls to child protective services and Ronnie Anne showing up to beat up the Louds and smother Lincoln with physical affection. And, yes, the fandom anger is justified, but the extent to which much of the fandom focused on this episode and refused to let it go, combined with the bad episode itself, earns "No Such Luck" a place in Loud House infamy and a spot on the list.

LightningStrikes posted...

I remember when I was a kid seeing ads for Butt-Ugly Martians and even then thinking it looked absolutely terrible. Needless to say I was right!

Same

I typically strongly dislike fandom rage but that plot synopsis sounds absolutely terrible and quite possibly irresponsible. Literally just child abuse humour from characters that are supposed to be sympathetic and likeable, how did anybody think that was a good idea? Also if Im understanding this right the resolution is not that they realise theyre treating a family member terribly but that they stop believing hes bad luck, implying that they were being rational all along. I like a bit of dark humour but that just sounds deranged.

I remember a lot of the 90s/00s CGI shows and even as a kid I thought that Butt Ugly Martians looked worse (visually) than the rest.

(I guess I'm echoing what some other people have said)

What is a screed?

#88: Pinky, Elmyra, & the Brain

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/0/5/AAAG8cAAEnoZ.jpg
"It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?"

The book that inspired this countdown, The 100 Dumbest Events In Television History, is actually a subtitle. The book's actual title is "What Were They Thinking?", and that question applies perfectly to this entry on the list. Pinky and the Brain are a mouse duo who are constantly trying to take over the world but are foiled by various events and coincidences, and Elmyra is a little girl who constantly tries to hug and imprison animals whenever she sees them: in other words, yet another obstacle to Pinky and Brain's efforts. So why, in the world, would network executives choose to pair them together? Haven't Pinky and the Brain been through enough? Apparently not, because Warner Bros. executives thought that Elmyra was just what the doctor ordered to bring up Pinky and the Brain's flagging ratings in 1998. Elmyra herself was a popular character, but not on her own: she was a villain of sorts in Tiny Toon Adventures, usually placed into an episode as the antagonist for some poor animal (or sometimes some poor Tiny Toon) to escape from. Though not overtly evil, she clearly was oblivious to the fear and harm she caused the animals in her care, making her quite a menace and also making Elmyra-centric episodes (where she was the protagonist) something of a chore to endure. So, again, why was she brought in as a protagonist? Why was she brought in as someone for Pinky and the Brain to be forced to get used to? Did it make for some funny moments? Rarely, though most of the time Elmyra just proved to be a frustrating presence, and made Pinky and the Brain's antics repetitive rather than clever. And yes, the voice acting was excellent: Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, and Cree Summer are three all-timers who did the absolute best they could to sell these characters in this situation... but fans weren't buying, and after 13 episodes, Elmyra put the nail in Pinky and the Brain's coffin for good (at least until the Animaniacs relaunch 20 or so years later). Hardly anyone liked this show: the Pinky and the Brain producers and writing team hated it, and actively resisted it with numerous lines in the theme song and show itself saying essentially "hey, don't blame us, WB is making us do this". When even THEY could see how bad of a flop this was going to be, the writing was on the wall.

Johnbobb posted...

What is a screed?

Merriam-Webster defines "screed" as:

a : a lengthy discourse
b : an informal piece of writing (such as a personal letter)
c : a ranting piece of writing

We saw a LOT of a's and c's written about "No Such Luck" from the fandom.

#87: Zevo-3

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/3/AAAG8cAAEno_.jpg
After Zevo-3 ended, Doctor Stankfoot would be hired by Dan Schneider to be the on-set podiatrist for Victorious.

After the Children's Television Act banned advertisements directly in children's cartoons, you'd think that there wouldn't be anymore product placement shows on the airwaves... but you'd be wrong, because those rules don't apply to cable, and Nicktoons is a cable network. And so it was that in 2010, Nicktoons became the home of Zevo-3, a show commissioned by the Skechers shoe company, based on characters from some of its commercials. The show features the heroic team of Z-Strap, Kewl Breeze, and Elastika (all named after Skechers shoes, obviously), battling the evil Doctor Stankfoot. I shit you not, that is the name of the villain. Were it not for Dan Schneider's disdain for animation, I imagine he'd have demanded to direct this show. The show itself is your basic generic teen action drama, with the young superheroes battling evil supervillains while also dealing with typical teen issues like school and romance. As far as action cartoons go, it's mediocre, not great, not terrible. The voice acting is solid, with Dante Basco and Kari Wahlgren as two of the heroes, and Mark Hamill voicing Stankfoot (which, you'll know if you've ever seen Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, is only the second dumbest name of a villain he's played). The animation is decent, the show itself honestly isn't terrible if you can stand all the shoe/foot puns, but even so, how is this actually going to sell shoes? It's based on the characters themselves, not the shoes. As far as I can tell, the series didn't do anything to actually improve sales of the company's shoes, and it ended after one season, proving to be a waste of money for the company. Even though America's toy and clothing corporations are free to flood the cable airwaves with promotional cartoons, there's a reason they rarely do it these days: this isn't the 1980s, Z-Strap isn't Optimus Prime, and Stankfoot isn't Megatron.

Dan Schneider and shoes.... a horrible nightmare combo