Board 8 > The 100 Dumbest Events In Children's Television History- Part 2 (The Top 30)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello again, and welcome to the second topic for my latest project, The 100 Dumbest Events In Children's Television History!

Thanks for making the last topic such a huge success, I can't believe it's about to hit 500 before even reaching the top 25. I've decided to just go ahead and start this topic even though that one still has a few posts left, 30 is a nice, neat, even number and it'll be good to have a topic just for the top 30.

To recap some of the information from the last topic:

This project is inspired by a book I learned about on TVTropes:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory

The idea for my list came when I was thinking about what moments in the last 20 years (since the book was published) would make the list if the book was updated for 2023, and it evolved into my own ideas for a list based exclusively on children's television, which has had its own share of dumb events over the years.

-As mentioned before, this will be an American-centric list, as I'm too lazy to research all the dumb children's television events from around the world. Therefore, potential top-10 worthy moments like the Pokemon seizure incident, Jimmy Savile getting away with everything he got away with, and the Xuza Park fire won't be on this list. However, shows that originated overseas but air on American television are fair game, as long as the dumb event had something to do with the show's American airing (therefore, a bad foreign show coming to America could make the list, but a controversy caused by a foreign show exclusively in that show's country of origin would not make the list).

-It involves children's television only, so general audience shows, even if their audience is mostly children, won't count. Therefore, the Flintstones Winston commercial or anything having to do with shows like Full House or Boy Meets World wouldn't make the list. I bend this rule a couple times for certain reasons, however.

-It involves TELEVISION, so events like Janet Waldo being recast for the Jetsons movie or the Jem live action movie producers using clips of the cartoon's fandom to promote their crappy movie also don't count.

I'll be starting the top 30 hopefully sometime this morning, so 5 or 6 hours from now. In the meantime, feel free to predict what you think the top 30 might be!

Here's the previous topic for quick reference:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80493929

And for those who don't want to go through that whole topic, here's a quick summary of 100-31.

#100: The Owl House Gets Canceled For "Not Fitting The Disney Brand"
#99: Mr. Rogers (Inadvertently) Flips Off A Crowd Full Of Children
#98: Whenever The Contestant Couldn't Put The Shrine Of The Silver Monkey Together
#97: Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest Producers Claim Jessie Won't Be A Damsel In Distress, She Ends Up A Damsel In Distress On Very First Episode
#96: The Chloe Bourgeois Saga
#95: Sid The Science Kid Looks For His Friends
#94: Disney's Brand Spanking New Doug
#93: Cartoon Network Recasts The Powerpuff Girls
#92: Captain Planet Meets Hitler
#91: Butt-Ugly Martians
#90: 4Kids Sings The National Anthem
#89: No Such Luck (The Loud House)
#88: Pinky, Elmyra, & the Brain
#87: Zevo-3
#86: Rugrats Sequel Ruined By Creepy Artstyle
#85: R-Rated Saturday Morning Cartoons
#84: Clarence Creator Can't Keep His Hands To Himself
#83: The Mighty Mouse Cocaine Scandal
#82: Steven Universe Canceled Over Gay Wedding
#81: Steven Universe Fan Artist Driven To Suicide Attempt For Drawing Rose Quartz Skinny
#80: Crash & Bernstein
#79: Arnold Takes Off His Helmet On Pluto
#78: The Zenon "Zequels"
#77: Double Dare 2000
#76: Star Butterfly Commits Magical Genocide
#75: Totally Spies And Its Many Fetishes
#74: Nickelodeon Screws Over Micah Wright
#73: I've Got Batman In My Basement (Batman: TAS)
#72: Worldwide Day Of Play
#71: Corporal Capeman
#70: Big Bad Beetleborgs
#69: Katy Perry On Sesame Street
#68: Plop Plop (Teen Titans Go)
#67: Disney Continues Sonny With A Chance After Demi Lovato Leaves
#66: Buffalo Gals (Cow And Chicken)
#65: The Voltron: Legendary Defender Shipping Controversy
#64: Well Excuuuuuse Me, Princess!
#63: Jabberjaw
#62: The Legend Of Korra Moves To Friday Night For Season Two
#61: Re-Animated/Out Of Jimmy's Head
#60: Everyone Drops The Ball On Class Of 3000
#59: Arnold Betrays Iggy (Hey Arnold)
#58: Loonatics Unleashed
#57: Nick Studio 10
#56: The High Fructose Adventures Of Annoying Orange
#55: Last Horizons (TaleSpin)
#54: Those Gushers Commercials Where Kids' Heads Turn Into Fruit
#53: Hammerman
#52: Obscene Broadcast Signal Intrusions On Preschool Programs
#51: Arthur Same-Sex Couple Controversies
#50: Caillou
#49: Butch Hartman's Fall From Grace
#48: Ted Turner's Temper Tantrum Dooms SWAT Kats
#47: Mr. Meaty
#46: Bizarre Anti-Drug Commercials
#45: Nick Or Treat
#44: Sesame Street Moves To HBO
#43: The Kids On Liberty's Kids Don't Age
#42: Voice Actors And NFTs
#41: One Beer (Tiny Toon Adventures)
#40: The Cancellation Of Invader Zim
#39: Arthur's Big Hit (Arthur)
#38: Planet Sheen
#37: I Love L.A. (Alvin And The Chipmunks)
#36: Blossom's New Boyfriend
#35: The Charlie Adler/Tiny Toons Dust-Up
#34: Characters Whose Sole Purpose Is To Make The Protagonists' Lives A Living Hell And Who Never Get Punished
#33: Dexter's Rude Removal
#32: Fred: The Show
#31: John Kricfalusi Blows It, Then Things Get Way Worse

Tag

Re-tag

List has been super fun to read so far, I look forward to seeing what kind of fuckery the top 30 has in store.

Tag

I hope #1 will be the birth of the viewers - SICK BURN

#30: Toons In Space!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/2/4/AAAG8cAAEotc.jpg
I'm pretty sure if someone tried using that font today, Disney would sue.

This is another one that actually appeared on the original 100 Dumbest list, ranking #87 overall and thus ranking #2 amongst kids' television events. While I don't quite have "Animation studios (but mostly Hanna-Barbara) go for a quick cash grab by ripping off Star Wars and sending their IPs to space" as high as #2 on my list, it's still pretty remarkable, in a very bad way, just how many cheap Star Wars space knockoff cartoons were launched in the months after the film's release. I've already touched on Jabberjaw and how there were so many Scooby-Doo knockoffs in the 1970s, but this is even more shameless, with cartoons like Josie and the Pussycats and Yogi Bear getting space-themed knockoffs, cartoons like Space Academy and Space Sentinels being hastily thrown together to capitalize on the Star Wars fad, and the failed Partridge Family sci-fi cartoon, Partridge Family 2200 AD (which was canceled in 1975), getting a name change to Partridge Family In Outer Space and having its re-runs thrown back on Fred Flintstone and Friends. The Star Wars ripple effect continued for YEARS thanks to the success of the sequels, with Gilligan's Planet being made in 1982 as an animated remake of the original live-action show, but with space aliens and sci-fi themes. None of these space cartoons were any good, and none of them lasted very long, as kids were smart enough to distinguish between the Star Wars movies that they liked and these hastily thrown together cartoons that they hated. This was TV animation at its absolute nadir, by the late 70s and early 80s studios were just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck, and very few things did. You haven't heard the last from this era either, there are a couple more cartoons that are even worse than the space craze, and they'll be showing up even higher on this list...

Taggalympics

#29: Spamming One Show All Day, Seven Days A Week

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/9/AAAG8cAAEotr.jpg
I guess if you love Teen Titans Go... Merry Christmas?

Remember when networks used to play different shows at different times every day? You'd turn on Nickelodeon, and the average day's programming consisted of a couple dozen different shows. Same with Cartoon Network, and the Disney Channel. These days, you're lucky if you see more than half a dozen different shows in a day, as most kids' networks now spam the same show over and over again, sometimes only showing one thing all day. For Cartoon Network, it's usually Teen Titans Go. For the longest time on Nickelodeon, it was Spongebob Squarepants, with the occasional Fairly OddParents or Loud House marathon. Marathon... marathons used to be special. It used to be, people looked forward to seeing their favorite show two hours in a row. If a network was showing the same thing all day, it was an event, accompanied with things like interviews and trivia quizzes. Now, to paraphrase, "it's just Tuesday". And... I get it, to some extent. If a show's killing it in the ratings and showing it over and over again puts butts in seats, then it can be a good business move, at least in the short term, to do just that. But scheduling like this cuts down heavily on programming diversity. Remember the days when you'd change the channel and stumble on your new favorite show? Spamming programs like this doesn't give lesser known shows a chance to shine, and if the show you're showing repeatedly begins to decline in the ratings, it can take down your whole network's numbers, leading to firings or worse. Fortunately, these days networks seem to have taken that lesson to heart, and Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are both trying out more programming, but modern viewers still have painful memories of when it would seem like months would go by without anything but Spongebob and Teen Titans Go on their screens.

Ugh, don't remind me of how awful teen titans go was every single day. And I despised the show with how it appeared with the disappearance of all the other dc cartoons.

#28: The Fonz And The Happy Days Gang

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/7/AAAG8cAAEouR.jpg
'Eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

And this is one of those cartoons I was referring to during entry #30. This animated spin-off of Happy Days saw The Fonz and his friends somehow acquire a time machine and wind up on an odyssey through space and time, searching for a way to get home. This show was back from when the Fonz was on EVERYTHING... t-shirts, lunchboxes, coffee cups, video games, you couldn't escape the Fonz, and you couldn't escape him on Saturday morning either. The cast of Happy Days even reprised their voice roles, but don't let that fool you, this was not a good cartoon in any way, shape, or form. In addition to there being a Star Wars ripoff episode (in episode 2, naturally), we got old West episodes, pirate episodes, Arabian Nights episodes... you know, all the classic time travel cliches all rolled up into one unimaginative mess of a series. The animation is god awful, the comedy is bad, the show is littered with insensitive cultural stereotypes, even the voice actors sound bored. Apart from some limited camp appeal, The Fonz And The Happy Days Gang pretty much represents the worst aspects of animation cashgrabs all rolled up into one, and it mercifully ended after two short seasons (though some aspects of the show would get rolled into a Laverne and Shirley animated series, if you can believe it). Though the Fonz may have jumped the shark in 1977, he jumped over it again and again every time this trash heap came on television.

The all day airing thing is crazy. Also remember when CN had Green Lantern and Young Justice, but we lost both and Teen Titans Go got to run for years :(

tag part 2

RySenkari posted...

#29: Spamming One Show All Day, Seven Days A Week

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/9/AAAG8cAAEotr.jpg
I guess if you love Teen Titans Go... Merry Christmas?

Remember when networks used to play different shows at different times every day? You'd turn on Nickelodeon, and the average day's programming consisted of a couple dozen different shows. Same with Cartoon Network, and the Disney Channel. These days, you're lucky if you see more than half a dozen different shows in a day, as most kids' networks now spam the same show over and over again, sometimes only showing one thing all day. For Cartoon Network, it's usually Teen Titans Go. For the longest time on Nickelodeon, it was Spongebob Squarepants, with the occasional Fairly OddParents or Loud House marathon. Marathon... marathons used to be special. It used to be, people looked forward to seeing their favorite show two hours in a row. If a network was showing the same thing all day, it was an event, accompanied with things like interviews and trivia quizzes. Now, to paraphrase, "it's just Tuesday". And... I get it, to some extent. If a show's killing it in the ratings and showing it over and over again puts butts in seats, then it can be a good business move, at least in the short term, to do just that. But scheduling like this cuts down heavily on programming diversity. Remember the days when you'd change the channel and stumble on your new favorite show? Spamming programs like this doesn't give lesser known shows a chance to shine, and if the show you're showing repeatedly begins to decline in the ratings, it can take down your whole network's numbers, leading to firings or worse. Fortunately, these days networks seem to have taken that lesson to heart, and Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are both trying out more programming, but modern viewers still have painful memories of when it would seem like months would go by without anything but Spongebob and Teen Titans Go on their screens.

This is.... incredible

And its during christmas break when kids actually might want to watch during the day too?

Even if you wanted to watch Teen Titans go, why would you be playing the same movies multiple times?!

#27: The Hunt For The Tiny Toons Stalker

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/8/AAAG8cAAEou6.jpg
Pictured: Not the Tiny Toons Stalker, but probably just as real.

I've been picking on Tiny Toon Adventures a lot lately, with three of the last fifteen entries focusing on the show or its behind the scenes issues. This is the last time you'll see Tiny Toon Adventures on the list, but this entry revolves around one of the most bizarre incidents in cartoon history and how it probably never even happened, but the truth is equally as bizarre and dumb. The original rumor stems from a video about a "fan" known as the Tiny Toons Stalker, a furry said to be "obsessed" with the show and with Babs Bunny's voice actress Tress MacNeille, to the point of stalking her and sending her obscene fanfiction. According to the rumor, the letters were so disturbing that it contributed to the original show's cancellation, amidst worries that the show featured too many "sexy" animal characters and that it was riling up potentially dangerous stalkers. No less than two people were eventually smeared as potential suspects for being this so-called stalker, but a later video investigation by a Youtuber named Bernievidz uncovered evidence that these incidents were ultimately apocryphal, and that while there many have been a creepy fan or two in the show's history, the incidents never escalated to the level stated in the original video in which the existence of the Tiny Toons Stalker was first rumored. This is one of those cases where the mere existence of such a rumor is as dumb as the rumored incident itself: it sent shockwaves through the Tiny Toons fandom community, with finger pointing and accusations running rampant. The two fans accused of being the Stalker had their names and reputations dragged through the mud, despite little (if any) evidence existing of any such creepy correspondences. Though the details of the story were certainly believable, with online fandoms certainly having done even worse things in the past, the fact that this story was able to spread so readily with little factchecking is an example of the worst nature of fandom emerging. This story is still being reported as real today despite being debunked by numerous sources, and so the tale of the Tiny Toons Stalker remains a specter of terror in the fandom, a character as well known as any featured in the show itself.

Well at least they probably learned their lesson. I'm sure cartoon network today has more variet.....

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/3/AANz_VAAEou_.jpg

Oh no. Is that what cartoons are now?

masterplum posted...

Oh no. Is that what cartoons are now?

And stations wonder why Anime is taking off...

#26: The Socialist Democratic Federated Republic Of Carbombya

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/4/AAAG8cAAEovK.jpg
Do the camels get to vote?

There have been LOTS of offensive stereotypes in cartoons over the years, but this just absolutely takes the cake. The Socialist Democratic Federated Republic Of Carbombya was featured in the 1980s Transformers cartoon, and... just look at it. Just look at the name. Apparently based on Libya, with its leader Abdul Fakkadi based on real-life Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Carbombya (shudder) plays an antagonistic role in several early Transformers episodes as a xenophobic, villainous nation frequently working with the Decepticons. It's not just a one-off joke, either: the country's residents are also walking stereotypes, saying things such as "I swear on my camel" and the like. Even back in the 1980s, it's absolutely insane that they got away with this. I know cartoons used to get away with a lot, but this is over the top even for the time. Voice actor Casey Kasem (who was of Lebanese descent) agreed, as he left the show due to the racist stereotypes portrayed in episodes featuring Carbombya. It's especially egregious that a show featuring a character like Optimus Prime, one of the most heroic cartoon characters ever created, could engage in such base racism and stereotyping, but there you go.

The Amazing World of Gumball is incredible at least. One of CNs best shows of the last 2 decades or so

RySenkari posted...

the Fonz was on EVERYTHING... t-shirts, lunchboxes, coffee cups, video games

I never heard of the Fonz with video games...ha. Here's how I imagine it started.

MONDAY
TUESDAY
bad gameplay
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY

And shows taking over their stations seems to be a trend. Comedy Central's been egregious with it for example, with days filled with Tosh.0 as an example I've seen before. I wouldn't put that just on children's shows and it makes me wonder why that business model caught on for channels.

I remember there being occasional special weekends where they would have one show nonstop and it felt like a cool special event type of deal, I think 'Ed-ternal Summer' was one of them.

Slightly less cool when it's all of the time though.

HaRRicH posted...

I wouldn't put that just on children's shows and it makes me wonder why that business model caught on for channels.

As capitalism makes the modern world go 'round, I imagine it has something to do with bulk rates for purchasing the timeslot.

Tag

Yeah even with my favorite cartoons or shows there's no way I'd want to watch 12-24 hours of it in a row. I have a need to watch something in order so I wouldn't even be able to take a break!

Damn yeah I absolutely should have guessed the blatant racism is Transformers. Kasem voiced a ton of characters in the show too including Cliffjumper, one of the original Autobots, and one of the few who survived the movie massacre. Not sure if they were going to continue to feature him but without Kasem, he faded into the background like all the other old Transformers.

RySenkari posted...

(though some aspects of the show would get rolled into a Laverne and Shirley animated series, if you can believe it)

Now this I've got to see.

RySenkari posted...

#26: The Socialist Democratic Federated Republic Of Carbombya

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/4/AAAG8cAAEovK.jpg
Do the camels get to vote?

There have been LOTS of offensive stereotypes in cartoons over the years, but this just absolutely takes the cake. The Socialist Democratic Federated Republic Of Carbombya was featured in the 1980s Transformers cartoon, and... just look at it. Just look at the name. Apparently based on Libya, with its leader Abdul Fakkadi based on real-life Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Carbombya (shudder) plays an antagonistic role in several early Transformers episodes as a xenophobic, villainous nation frequently working with the Decepticons. It's not just a one-off joke, either: the country's residents are also walking stereotypes, saying things such as "I swear on my camel" and the like. Even back in the 1980s, it's absolutely insane that they got away with this. I know cartoons used to get away with a lot, but this is over the top even for the time. Voice actor Casey Kasem (who was of Lebanese descent) agreed, as he left the show due to the racist stereotypes portrayed in episodes featuring Carbombya. It's especially egregious that a show featuring a character like Optimus Prime, one of the most heroic cartoon characters ever created, could engage in such base racism and stereotyping, but there you go.

This is amazing. Its like if they had a bad guy country named Stabistan, thats so outwardly racist its incredible.

Tag

rwlh posted...

Now this I've got to see.

The show was Laverne and Shirley in the Army. Like the Happy Days one it got them both to reprise their roles (at least until they fired Cindy Williams from both the animated show and the sitcom after she sued Paramount for making her work on her pregnancy due date). In the second season it became Laverne and Shirley with the Fonz, where Fonzie became a mechanic at the army base. It was also paired with a Mork & Mindy animated series (the two original shows being spinoffs of Happy Days to begin with).

#25: Julia Vickerman's Creepy Tumblr

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/0/AAAG8cAAEoxc.jpg
And the internet is forever.

Julia Vickerman was an animator and writer who worked on shows like Clarence and the 2016 Powerpuff Girls reboot before getting the chance to direct her own show, Twelve Forever, revolving around the adventures of an imaginative 12-year-old girl named Reggie. However, before the show even debuted, Netflix fired her, ostensibly due to disputes between her and show staff. Later on, far more disturbing allegations would come out, including a series of creepy Tumblr posts culminating in a post where Vickerman admitted to stalking a 14 year old boy at a carnival. These posts were punctuated with a number of disturbing musings, including "if only his mom hadn't been there", and hashtagged with "pedophilia". These came to light after Vickerman's firing, but obviously they put even more controversy on the show itself, and though Twelve Forever would carry on with a new showrunner, with Vickerman distancing herself from the show, it was still canceled after just 25 episodes, with many blaming the controversy. Vickerman has also written controversial Powerpuff Girls scenes, including a scene with two of the girls twerking. While the scandals surrounding figures like John Kricfalusi and Chris Savino have certainly made headlines, what makes Vickerman's scandal even more disturbing is the fact that these posts were out in the open, while it took years of investigation and allegations to bring down Kricfalusi and Savino. That someone would be so open about such disturbing fantasies is incredibly troubling, particularly coming from the director of a children's cartoon. While Vickerman later stated that she was "just joking" when she made the posts, they reveal a pattern of extremely disturbing behavior. It is a shame for Twelve Forever, an extremely charming and creative show, but one wonders if Netflix may have dodged a massive bullet by cutting her loose so early.

RySenkari posted...

#30: Toons In Space!

Wait so what in particular has happened since 2003 to get it on this list? I'm sure that cartoons still do space parodies to some extent but you only mentioned things from the 70s and 80s.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Wait so what in particular has happened since 2003 to get it on this list? I'm sure that cartoons still do space parodies to some extent but you only mentioned things from the 70s and 80s.

Not much, but the 70s/80s space cartoons were still bad enough to earn it a relatively high spot on the list. Remember, counting only kids' show stuff, it was #2 on the 2003 list.

#24: Merch-Driven Cartoons Take Over 80s Animation

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/2/AAAG8cAAEoxo.jpg
They'll keep blasting you with the Care Bear Stare until you buy the toys.

During the 1980s, we gradually crawled out of the late 70s cartoon nadir, but at what cost? Apparently, the cost that practically every Saturday morning cartoon of the era was made just to sell toys. From Rainbow Brite to Care Bears to He-Man to Strawberry Shortcake to Transformers, a slew of cartoons invaded the airwaves that were explicitly designed to sell toys to children. How could you tell? Endless characters, endless varieties of the same character, a parade of villains, tons of weapons and gadgets at every turn, all seemingly with an action figure set to debut the week after it aired. Hey, the 1980s were the era of "greed is good", after all. Still, the quality of cartoons certainly improved (gotta keep kids' eyeballs on the screen to sell them toys, after all), and some of the most beloved IPs of all time came out of this era, so what was the problem? The problem, of course, was that companies got too greedy. As the decade wore on, the in-show advertisement got more and more blatant, the cartoons got more and more formulaic, and the toys got more and more complex. This attracted government attention, and it's not hard to argue that the 1980s toy-driven cartoon boom led directly to the massive regulations of the early 1990s that eventually killed Saturday mornings for good (but more on those in a later entry). In addition, the huge success of the merch-driven cartoons of the 1980s led to a focus on merchandising, even to the detriment of other aspects of quality cartoons. This created an environment where if cartoons didn't sell enough merch, they were canceled despite ratings or critical acclaim, even when there was barely any merchandise to buy at all. Greed might be good, but too much of a good thing is always bad, and for all the good cartoons we got out of this era, it may not have been worth the damage done to the industry.

RySenkari posted...

Vickerman has also written controversial Powerpuff Girls scenes, including a scene with two of the girls twerking.

This explains so fucking much.

RySenkari posted...

#24: Merch-Driven Cartoons Take Over 80s Animation

It's so frustrating too as a lot of these shows had a lot of potential too! Wondering if Optimus Prime's death will be touched on in a separate entry since this entry is basically the whole reason the movie was made! Despite the high production values it was basically a vehicle to introduce the next wave of toys while eliminating the previous waves.

I feel like everyone who complains about corporate greed today needs to be reminded of 80s children cartoons

#23: The Bat-Embargo

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/3/AAAG8cAAEox9.jpg
Because kids get super upset if they can't tell Liam Neeson from a guy in a cartoon.

The Bat-Embargo refers to a controversial policy enacted by Warner Brothers around the time of the 2005 launch of Batman Begins, in which, with the exception of Batman himself, Batman characters couldn't be used in one production if they were also used in another. This meant, for example, that Robin couldn't show up in anything except The Batman once it debuted in 2004 (productions like Teen Titans were grandfathered in, but only as long as their own productions lasted), Joker and Harley Quinn could no longer appear in the DCAU (since they also showed up on The Batman) and Ra's al-Ghul couldn't be in the DCAU anymore because he was the villain in Batman Begins. This controversy mostly effected shows like Justice League Unlimited, limiting writers to using backshelf Batman villains such as The Clock King. The policy confused and angered fans, in part because it was inconsistent, in part because it didn't restrict other DC properties like Superman and The Flash, just Batman related works. In addition, its reason for being enacted (kids might be confused by two different versions of the same character) also didn't seem to make sense, and also insulted the intelligence of children. The policy put the nail in the coffin of any hope of reviving Teen Titans for a sixth season, because once production had ended, Robin wouldn't be able to be brought back even if fan petitions were successful in getting production re-started. Though the Bat-Embargo has softened somewhat, elements of it actually remain to this day, with Batman characters notoriously being more difficult to get rights for compared to other DC characters, hinting at the continued existence of a "soft Bat-Embargo". It did force Justice League Unlimited writers to be more creative rather than leaning on the same old Batman characters like The Joker, but at the cost of some potentially juicy storylines involving Renee Montoya or the League of Assassins. While the Bat-Embargo may have had a hidden silver lining here or there, its hamfisted implementation and ultimately its dumb reason for existing in the first place have earned it the deserving ire of DC fans everywhere.

#22: Ember McLain's Biggest Fan Commits Mass Shooting

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/7/AAAG8cAAEoyV.jpg
It's quite possible some of you followed this before he did the unthinkable.

One of the most popular and enduring Danny Phantom characters was Ember McLain, a rocking ghost girl with a tragic backstory. Her unique (and beautiful design), excellent voice acting performance (by Tara Strong, who for some reason didn't sing Ember's theme song), and her theme song itself, simply known as "Remember", endeared her to millions of fans... including one particularly disturbed fan whose name won't be mentioned here out of respect to his victims. This fan was obsessed with Ember, to the point where he created a web series called "Ember's Ghost Squad", which he hoped to turn into a full fan cartoon. However, his more benign fantasies and fanart were mixed in with disturbing fantasies of escaping to an animated world beyond our own, which, as the years went on, he began to see violence as his way of achieving this goal. He even animated himself and one of the characters from Ember's Ghost Squad committing a fictional massacre, before going on to do so in real life on the night of June 7, 2017. He murdered three people at his workplace before taking his own life, in one of the most senseless acts of evil ever perpetrated by someone so heavily involved with a cartoon fandom. His actions not only destroyed his own life as well as three innocent lives, but put a permanent stain on both the Danny Phantom series and on Ember, the character he claimed to love. It's still difficult to bring up the character of Ember in many fandom circles without someone bringing up the shooting, an absolutely horrific thing for Ember to be remembered for, and a sad reminder that we live in a country where fandom can cross over into horrific violence, with the easy availability of deadly firearms to the mentally disturbed making it an all too familiar reality.

RySenkari posted...

#29: Spamming One Show All Day, Seven Days A Week

Can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but I probably would have been more receptive to TTG if it wasn't for this. It still isn't a great show, by any stretch of the imagination, but CN's insistence on promoting it felt like salt in the wound. Instead of seeing it as a some harmless fluff after watching a particularly heavy episode of Adventure Time, it just felt like being force fed candy over and over and over ... The show was already pretty controversial as it is! Idk what they were thinking. Even a marathon of a good show would be too much!

I kinda feel like that should be higher than number 22 since I'm hoping that the 21 remaining entries aren't also about actual murder

oh hey, I know about #23 and #22, might be getting to more familiar territory...

Bat-embargo animation impact even further impacting the live-action action, just thinking of Smallville and 10 seasons of no Batman-related characters whatsoever, but I guess that gave way to Green Arrow as a replacement character which (indirectly?) led to the whole Arrowverse on CW.

The embargo in JLU was less noticeable considering Season 2's storyline and Season 3's overabundance of villains making the Batman ones missing less notable, but... still notable.

hombad46 posted...

I kinda feel like that should be higher than number 22 since I'm hoping that the 21 remaining entries aren't also about actual murder

Oh, I definitely debated putting that one much higher. I also debated not including it at all (it's not so much dumb as it is just plain evil). I kinda split the difference putting it where I did: it's dumb in the sense that it's senseless, but in terms of impact on the industry itself, it doesn't compare to some of these other incidents that are either more famous or more "dumb" in the traditional groan/"what were they thinking?" kind of way. I feel like it has to be mentioned in any list of infamous animation/children's tv incidents though. Obviously I know it's going to be controversial either being only at #22 or even being on the list at all.

Ah, yeah that's fair.

skulltrumpets posted...

Can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but I probably would have been more receptive to TTG if it wasn't for this. It still isn't a great show, by any stretch of the imagination, but CN's insistence on promoting it felt like salt in the wound. Instead of seeing it as a some harmless fluff after watching a particularly heavy episode of Adventure Time, it just felt like being force fed candy over and over and over ... The show was already pretty controversial as it is! Idk what they were thinking. Even a marathon of a good show would be too much!

It's "Your new favorite show!" though!

But yeah, really dislike this particular trend.

#21: Milli Vanilli On Mario

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/5/8/AAAG8cAAEoyq.jpg
"Thank you, Mario, but our princess is in another- princess is in another- princess is in another-"

One of the most bizarre and ultimately ill-advised cartoon guest star appearances ever took place in the 1990 episode of The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3, called "Kootie Pie Rocks". In it, Princess Peach plans to go to a Milli Vanilli concert, but those plans are dashed when Wendy O. Koopa (also known as "Kootie Pie" in this adaptation) kidnaps the two band members and demands that they give her a private concert. Hilarity ensues, largely due to Milli Vanilli's terrible voice acting (they voiced themselves in this episode, and boy if this wasn't a clue that there was no way they were really singing those songs, here you go), and their monotone reactions to Wendy threatening to turn them into accountants. Literally, she zaps them, they cry out "we're nerds! This is terrible!" in the most hilarious accent imaginable, and they finally relent to perform for her, only to be rescued by Peach and the Mario Bros. just in time. They return to their concert to perform for their new pals, Mario, Luigi, and Peach, and the episode ends with a quick snippet of their hit song "Girl You Know It's True". This episode was already pretty bad, and even IF we hadn't found out all that stuff about Milli Vanilli just weeks later, it'd be at the very least an honorable mention for this list, but with the scandal breaking when it did and immediately making their guest appearance incredibly short-sighted and ill-timed, this episode became one of the most infamous in animation history. The producers scrambled to "fix" the episode by cutting out Milli Vanilli's music and replacing it with generic music from the show, which only made it more hilarious, and also censored references to the band's songs within the show's dialogue, an extremely overblown reaction to a fairly silly scandal (compare the Milli Vanilli scandal with what some of the animators on this list have done, for example). Milli Vanilli's appearance on The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 looks silly in retrospect, and the show's move to censor the episode after the scandal just makes it look even sillier. Maybe the show's production staff wanted to avoid blame for bringing on Milli Vanilli in the first place, but instead of editing the episode so that it barely makes sense, maybe they should've just blamed it on the rain?

Had no idea about the Ember murder thing, but man thats fucked up.

Yeah, hard to talk about that incident. Just needlessly tragic.

If Ive learned anything from this so far its that Nickelodeon sure has a lot of crazy attached to it whether its animators or show runners or whoever being messed up. Kinda stains a lot of the nostalgia for the shows

Commenting on #30, I need to post the Gilligan's Planet theme song. It's hard to believe it's real even when you're watching it:
https://youtu.be/MagAchLlJP4

(They built a wooden rocketship?!)

Grand_Kirby posted...

(They built a wooden rocketship?!)

It's crude, but it could fly.