If you were born in the early to mid-90’s or before that, you probably remember these features of Cartoon Network, such as Cartoon, Cartoon Fridays, Cartoon Theater, Toonami, and possibly Toonheads Trivia. You may also recall when the logo spelled out the whole network name instead of just “CN.”
For me, Cartoon Network was at its golden days in the early 2000’s. It started in the early 90s, with old shows, like The Flintstones. When I watched Cartoon Network as a child, I would view shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory, The PowerPuff Girls, and Johnny Bravo. Some of my favorites also included Ed, Edd n’ Eddy and Tom and Jerry.
As for the cartoons that came out in the 2000s, the only one I truly developed interest in was Codename: Kids Next Door. In fact, that show was the first one from my childhood for me to gain interest in at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, after years of having moved on from it, as well as others from my youth.
I continued to watch Cartoon Network… until the time I was finishing elementary school in 2004, when the format and other details changed overnight. The logo became CN instead of the whole words spelled out, the narrator for the channel was replaced, and there would be commercials after the shows’ opening themes and before the episodes began.
There were also new shows that didn’t please me or others, especially the live-action shows. The channel also apparently got rid of Cartoon, Cartoon Fridays and replaced it with Hub-Hub Thursdays. Someone in a YouTube comment made a very good point when he or she said, “Kids stay up late on Fridays, not Thursdays.”
Many of those born in the late 98s and on probably appreciated and accept the shows that Cartoon Network aired since the mid-2000s. Then streaming become more popular, so the shows from Cartoon Network are now on HBO Max.
The good news is that I can watch episodes of the shows I watched in my youth. And best of all—I can select which ones. This goes for anything else I enjoyed, whether it was when I saw it as a kid, or an adult.