AKA Cartoon Network
Encyclopedia
AKA Cartoon Network was a slot in the Cartoon Network UK
weekday evening schedule from 1999 to 2000, between 7 and 9pm on weekday evenings. The slot consisted of repeated shows such as Tom and Jerry
, Looney Tunes
and Cow and Chicken
. In addition, the slot included an original show called Cult Toons, broadcast only on Friday evenings.
'AKA' Stings and Cult Toons material would consist of Hanna-Barbera
owned footage, prominently from the 1960s and 1970s (Such as Wacky Races
, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
, The Banana Splits
(including Arabian Knights
and Danger Island
), Hong Kong Phooey
, Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, Harlem Globetrotters
). More contemporary material included Cow and Chicken
and Dexter's Laboratory
.
For example, common features of the re-edited cartoons would include repeated footage (when a character would say "You can say that again" the previous line would often be repeated), freezing the footage (usually after a line such as "Hold everything!" or "Stop!"), overdubbing voices (including randomly replacing lines with the theme music to The Godzilla Power Hour
), and repeating a line or sound effect and adding drum beats and record scratches over it, turning it into a brief hip-hop song.
The start of an episode of The Gary Coleman Show
would often feature halfway through the show, edited so that lead character Andy LeBeau would suddenly explode
a few seconds in. It would then end abruptly over a 'Technical Difficulties' caption, with a dramatic music sting.
Another example, suddenly cutting to a clip of a martial arts
film if a character got angry. In addition, in an episode featuring the Super Furry Animals
, the opening titles of Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! were edited so that all mentions of "bears" were replaced with themselves saying "furry animals".
Prominent material however would be live-action films ranging from blaxploitation
to Bruce Lee
, as well as footage of celebrity interviews and turntable DJs created especially for the show. Special guests on the show included Super Furry Animals
, Cast
, Kele Le Roc
, London Towers
, Keith Duffy, Gay Dad
, 21st Century Girls, Rick Witter
, Courduroy
, WCW
Nitro Girls, Regular Fries
, The Jungle Brothers
, Rio Ferdinand
, Trev Sinclair
, Reef
and Zach Shaw.
Tom Guest worked extensively on the show as a music producer. He later worked on a variety of products, including Cartoon Network
and Nickelodeon
commercials and idents in the early 2000s; A number of The Simpsons
promotions for Channel 4
; and background music for Pro Pinball:Big Race USA
and MTV Base
.
The end credits of each episode would reveal the programme's UK origin by sampling a clip of Velma Dinkley
from an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
saying "Made only in England
!", interrupted after each word by record scratches and clips.
Cartoon Network (UK)
Cartoon Network, commonly abbreviated as CN, is a British television channel available on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and UPC Ireland. Distributed by Turner Broadcasting System Europe , the channel primarily shows animated programming and was launched in the UK and Ireland as Cartoon Network...
weekday evening schedule from 1999 to 2000, between 7 and 9pm on weekday evenings. The slot consisted of repeated shows such as Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
, Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
. In addition, the slot included an original show called Cult Toons, broadcast only on Friday evenings.
'AKA' Stings and Cult Toons material would consist of Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
owned footage, prominently from the 1960s and 1970s (Such as Wacky Races
Wacky Races
Wacky Races is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Wacky Races ran on CBS from September...
, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that premiered on CBS on September 13, 1969. The show lasted two full seasons, with a total of 17 half-hour episodes produced and released, the last first-run episode airing on January...
, The Banana Splits
Banana Splits
The Banana Splits were four comedic animal characters who featured in a late 1960s children's variety show made for television. The costumed hosts of the show were Fleegle , Bingo , Drooper and Snork .The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was an hour-long, packaged television program that featured both...
(including Arabian Knights
Arabian Knights
Arabian Knights is an animated segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series is based on Arabian Nights, a classic work of Middle Eastern literature.-Plot :...
and Danger Island
Danger Island (TV series)
Danger Island is a live-action adventure serial produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast in 1968 as a segment on the Banana Splits Adventure Hour...
), Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey is a 16-episode Hanna-Barbera animated series that first aired on ABC Saturday morning from to . The main character, Hong Kong Phooey, is a superhero who uses Chinese martial arts to fight crime. Hong Kong Phooey is the secret alter ego of Penrod "Penry" Pooch, a "mild-mannered"...
, Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters (TV series)
Harlem Globetrotters was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and CBS Productions, featuring animated versions of players from the basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters....
). More contemporary material included Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
and Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios . The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions...
.
Cult Toons
Cult Toons (Also referred to by Exceeda as 'AKA Cult Toons') was a series of 30-minute slot experimental alternate comedy VJ (video jockey) videos, directed by Xavier Perkins and Brett Foraker. The inclusion of seemingly irrelevant and obscure clips from films and cartoons gave the show a very surreal and non sequitur quality.For example, common features of the re-edited cartoons would include repeated footage (when a character would say "You can say that again" the previous line would often be repeated), freezing the footage (usually after a line such as "Hold everything!" or "Stop!"), overdubbing voices (including randomly replacing lines with the theme music to The Godzilla Power Hour
The Godzilla Power Hour
Godzilla is a 30-minute animated series co-produced between Hanna-Barbera Productions and Toho in 1978 and aired on NBC in the US and TV Tokyo in Japan.The series is an animated adaptation of the Japanese Godzilla films produced by Toho...
), and repeating a line or sound effect and adding drum beats and record scratches over it, turning it into a brief hip-hop song.
The start of an episode of The Gary Coleman Show
The Gary Coleman Show
The Gary Coleman Show is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera that originally aired on NBC during the 1982-1983 season.-Synposis:...
would often feature halfway through the show, edited so that lead character Andy LeBeau would suddenly explode
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
a few seconds in. It would then end abruptly over a 'Technical Difficulties' caption, with a dramatic music sting.
Another example, suddenly cutting to a clip of a martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
film if a character got angry. In addition, in an episode featuring the Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...
, the opening titles of Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! were edited so that all mentions of "bears" were replaced with themselves saying "furry animals".
Prominent material however would be live-action films ranging from blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
to Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
, as well as footage of celebrity interviews and turntable DJs created especially for the show. Special guests on the show included Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...
, Cast
Cast (band)
Cast are an English rock band from Liverpool, formed in 1992 by John Power and Peter Wilkinson after Power left The La's and Wilkinson's former band Shack had split...
, Kele Le Roc
Kele Le Roc
Kele Le Roc is a British pop, UK garage and R&B singer.-Career:Le Roc began singing at the age of three, and she attended Langdon Comprehensive School in East Ham. She first found widespread acclaim in 1995 with the underground hit "Let Me Know"...
, London Towers
London Towers
London Towers was a professional basketball team based in London, England. They were one of the most successful and recognised British sports teams of the 1990s, collecting many titles in the British Basketball League as well as regularly competing in European competitions such as the Euroleague...
, Keith Duffy, Gay Dad
Gay Dad
In 2001 the leading single from Transmission - "Now Always and Forever" - was released. It fell just short of the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. An extensive UK tour was followed by a limited edition single "Harder, Faster". The third single "Transmission" was released just before the album came...
, 21st Century Girls, Rick Witter
Rick Witter
Rick Witter is a singer, songwriter and frontman of the York-based Britpop band, Shed Seven.He was educated at Huntington School, York.-Professional career:...
, Courduroy
Corduroy (band)
Corduroy were a four-piece acid jazz outfit based in London, formed around twins Ben Addison and Scott Addison , who were previously in Sire Records act Boys Wonder . Joining the twins in the band were Richard Searle and guitarist Simon Nelson-Smith...
, WCW
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
Nitro Girls, Regular Fries
Regular Fries
Regular Fries were a 7-piece psychedelic rock band, formed in London, England in 1997. Their style was surreal and infused with the space age. Although chart success eluded them they received rave reviews in the music media from NME, Rolling Stone and Loaded, who were once moved to call them "the...
, The Jungle Brothers
Jungle Brothers
The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. The group began performing in the mid-1980s and released its first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in July 1988...
, Rio Ferdinand
Rio Ferdinand
Rio Gavin Ferdinand is an English footballer. He plays at centre back for Manchester United in the Premier League and for the England national football team...
, Trev Sinclair
Trevor Sinclair
Trevor Lloyd Sinclair is an English former professional footballer. Sinclair was a versatile winger, able to play on both the left and right flanks who played in the Premier League and made twelve appearances for the England national team.He retired in 2008, after a nineteen-year professional...
, Reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
and Zach Shaw.
Tom Guest worked extensively on the show as a music producer. He later worked on a variety of products, including Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
and Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
commercials and idents in the early 2000s; A number of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
promotions for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
; and background music for Pro Pinball:Big Race USA
Pro Pinball
Pro Pinball is a series of four pinball computer games developed by Cunning Developments and produced by Empire Interactive, released between 1996 and 2000. The four games of the series are: The Web, Timeshock!, Big Race USA, and Fantastic Journey...
and MTV Base
MTV Base
MTV Base is a 24-hour music and general entertainment channel from MTV Networks International. The channel focuses primarily on music from the world of R'n'B, hiphop, reggae, soul and urban. The MTV Base brand first launched in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland on July 1, 1999,...
.
The end credits of each episode would reveal the programme's UK origin by sampling a clip of Velma Dinkley
Velma Dinkley
Velma Dace Dinkley is a fictional character in the American television animated series Scooby-Doo. She is prone to losing her glasses. She is usually seen wearing a baggy orange sweater, short pleated skirt , knee socks, and Mary Janes...
from an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Scooby-Doo, Where are You!
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is the first incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. It premiered on September 13, 1969 at 10:30 a.m. EST and ran for two seasons on CBS as a half-hour long show. Twenty-five episodes were produced...
saying "Made only in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
!", interrupted after each word by record scratches and clips.