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

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm kinda bummed Beast Machines didn't make the list. I mean, I had largely assumed it wasn't going to make it once we got to the top 50 but man if you want some incredibly dumb choices to make to your previously very successful franchise decision, that was up there.

I mean the follow up Unicron Trilogy was infinitely worse but like that was just innately bad TV more than dumb.

This was really fun to follow along with, so thanks for posting it. Great topic!

Suggestions for the 100 dumb game events list:

• Any game that releases in a buggy, unfinished state. Maybe pick a really egregious example or group them all up in one entry, as you could fill an entire list with just these.
• The Devil May Cry reboot going out of its way to antagonize fans of the original series.
• The absolute warzone that was the discourse surrounding Hogwarts Legacy. That made The Last of Us 2 discourse look civil!
• Gamergate. Regardless of whether you thought it really was about ethics in gaming journalism or that was just an excuse for harassment, the event itself has to be a candidate for the top 10 at least.
• Daikatana's marketing campaign, specifically "John Romero is about to make you his b*****"

I loved Beast Wars. But, for whatever reason checked out of Beast Machines after like 2 episodes. I don't recall if those episodes were really that bad but it sounds like it was best to get out early anyways.

Thanks to everyone for all the support, I didn't think this list would become so popular but I'm glad it did and that I decided to post it here :)

I'd be really excited to see someone do a 100 Dumbest list for any medium! A video game list would be awesome to see.

Like Lea, Beast Wars is one of my favorite shows as well. I rewatched it recently and it holds up, early CGI graphics and all. I hated Beast Machines as a kid but thought maybe I could appreciate it more as an adult and well...while it's not as bad as I thought as a kid there's really not a lot of good in there though there's some interesting ideas but it just falls flat. I absolutely loathe the Maximal redesigns as well so that doesn't help.

Great topic, thanks so much for doing this.

I promised a regional dumb thing when CNReal appeared so heres what happened to Toonami in the UK and Ireland:

So, in the early 2000s Cartoon Networks Toonami block spun off into its own channel in several markets, showing a lot of the same anime as the US block with western action cartoons as well. Overall the aesthetic was very similar to the US Toonami brand. The channel did pretty well for a number of years, the audience was growing, and things seemed to be going pretty well until in early 2006 they announced a rebrand with this truly terrible ad -
https://youtu.be/h3vbdOZUV5A
which turned the slick futuristic aesthetic into giggling cartoon blob monsters, and announced a slate of live action sitcoms and reality shows. In other words, trying to turn the whole thing into The Disney Channel, but worse (some of the shows even ran on Disney in the US). Needless to say, the ratings tanked and the channel was effectively shuttered just over a year later.

The wild thing is, this happened before live-action things like Re-Animated aired on Cartoon Network in the US, and years before CN Real. In other words Turner had already tried the pivot to live-action in an English speaking market before they tried it in the US and it had already bombed. Why they kept trying for years is beyond me.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Beast Machines literally featured an episode where Rattrap, the most anti-Predacon robot in existence, willingly protects Megatron from a possible assault while he's vulnerable while Megatron, the dude who's known for stacking the deck, stabbing allies in the back, and hates the idea of "honor", decides to willingly let all the Maximals go when they're all trapped in his Citadel.

It's like motherfuckers did you even watch Beast Wars? And let's not get into what they did to Rhinox.

LightningStrikes posted...

Great topic, thanks so much for doing this.

I promised a regional dumb thing when CNReal appeared so heres what happened to Toonami in the UK and Ireland:

So, in the early 2000s Cartoon Networks Toonami block spun off into its own channel in several markets, showing a lot of the same anime as the US block with western action cartoons as well. Overall the aesthetic was very similar to the US Toonami brand. The channel did pretty well for a number of years, the audience was growing, and things seemed to be going pretty well until in early 2006 they announced a rebrand with this truly terrible ad -
https://youtu.be/h3vbdOZUV5A
which turned the slick futuristic aesthetic into giggling cartoon blob monsters, and announced a slate of live action sitcoms and reality shows. In other words, trying to turn the whole thing into The Disney Channel, but worse (some of the shows even ran on Disney in the US). Needless to say, the ratings tanked and the channel was effectively shuttered just over a year later.

The wild thing is, this happened before live-action things like Re-Animated aired on Cartoon Network in the US, and years before CN Real. In other words Turner had already tried the pivot to live-action in an English speaking market before they tried it in the US and it had already bombed. Why they kept trying for years is beyond me.

Holy fuck, they were proudly airing Parker Lewis Can't Lose in 2006???? That is possibly the dumbest thing I've seen in this entire topic.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Holy fuck, they were proudly airing Parker Lewis Can't Lose in 2006???? That is possibly the dumbest thing I've seen in this entire topic.

Yep and actually they later ran an ad going whoa, look how retro this is! so obviously they got that as criticism. I just remember watching the original rebrand ad and wondering what they were thinking.

You could tell the writing was on the wall a few months earlier when they let Naruto go to a rival network!

LightningStrikes posted...

Great topic, thanks so much for doing this.

I promised a regional dumb thing when CNReal appeared so heres what happened to Toonami in the UK and Ireland:

So, in the early 2000s Cartoon Networks Toonami block spun off into its own channel in several markets, showing a lot of the same anime as the US block with western action cartoons as well. Overall the aesthetic was very similar to the US Toonami brand. The channel did pretty well for a number of years, the audience was growing, and things seemed to be going pretty well until in early 2006 they announced a rebrand with this truly terrible ad -
https://youtu.be/h3vbdOZUV5A
which turned the slick futuristic aesthetic into giggling cartoon blob monsters, and announced a slate of live action sitcoms and reality shows. In other words, trying to turn the whole thing into The Disney Channel, but worse (some of the shows even ran on Disney in the US). Needless to say, the ratings tanked and the channel was effectively shuttered just over a year later.

The wild thing is, this happened before live-action things like Re-Animated aired on Cartoon Network in the US, and years before CN Real. In other words Turner had already tried the pivot to live-action in an English speaking market before they tried it in the US and it had already bombed. Why they kept trying for years is beyond me.

My favorite part of that entire ad was the guy shouting Looks good to me at just a teenage girl standing there.

unexciting AND creepy!

masterplum posted...

My favorite part of that entire ad was the guy shouting Looks good to me at just a teenage girl standing there.

unexciting AND creepy!

EASY TIGER!

Finally finished the first topic (beat the purge, woo). I'm looking forward to the top 30.

Excellent list, thoroughly enjoyed reading through this.

While only for a select fanbase here, I'm contemplating compiling a list of dumb events/angles/decisions in the last 25 years of pro wrestling

ZeroSignal posted...

Excellent list, thoroughly enjoyed reading through this.

While only for a select fanbase here, I'm contemplating compiling a list of dumb events/angles/decisions in the last 25 years of pro wrestling

Yes please

ZeroSignal posted...

Excellent list, thoroughly enjoyed reading through this.

While only for a select fanbase here, I'm contemplating compiling a list of dumb events/angles/decisions in the last 25 years of pro wrestling

Do it

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Radical how the same phenomenon can occur across the nation in different variants.

I hate you, you hate me
We hate each other can't you see
With a great big punch and a kick from me to you
Won't you say you hate me too

(less creativity with that one but it's the one I knew!)

This is crazy.

The one I heard on the school bus (and sadly participated in singing occasionally) was:

I hate you, you hate me
Let's get together and kill Barney
With a knife and a gun and a bullet to the head
Won't you say that Barney's dead

I most definitely was a Barney lover in my very early childhood. I think my 4th birthday party was even Barney and Friends themed, but I had to do a lot of growing up between pre-k and kindergarten. I feel like somewhere buried in the deep recesses of my faulty memory banks is a recollection of one of my elementary school teachers going around the class and asking children what their favorite program was and another kid mentioning Barney only to get snickers and chuckles for it. I was already a shy and insecure kid. For the sake of my blossoming mental health I had no choice but to leave that part of my life behind.

I think something similar may have happened in regards Santa Claus, but this time I feel like Imight've been that kid who believed in him just a little too long. Oh God this topic has opened a veritable Pandora's box of childhood memories and now I just want it to close.

GenesisSaga posted...

Oh God this topic has opened a veritable Pandora's box of childhood memories and now I just want it to close.

Then why bump it?

Cuz I'm not done reading yet, duuuuh

Oh I see what you meant. I want to close the trauma box, not the topic itself. The topic is great despite the sad memories it's drudging up! It's like a trainwreck ya know? You probably should tear your eyes away from it, but you can't help but watch the spectacle. Anyway I've only got 3 pages left to read through and then we can let this one go.

I'm sure Charon will be very interested in the future wrestling topic

This was nuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs2sI1sBupY

I didn't say it before but this was a great read from start to read. Well researched and presented, with plenty of variety. Nicely done!

Bump for rereading

BTW, I've got the entire list (#100-#1) posted here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y6p5DoR7HmnqY3oFZ4eLKnW_lRcvTWKA/view?usp=sharing

The pictures/captions are gone but all the text remains for an easy read.

All finished. Thank you so much for taking the time to research and compile this list, Ry. It was several weeks' worth of fun reads and I feel like a learned a lot. Dan Schneider's reign of terror is the most fitting #1 I can think of, but hoo boy The Owl House cancellation would've been a great deal higher than #100 for me personally! It was such an influential and important show gone way too soon, and Dana and her crew deserved far better than to have her story condensed for some BS reasoning. I'm just glad she was able to give it an ending at all if not the proper version.