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

(+) Yeah! (+)

you know that write-up is not as bad as i expected for a show based on trying to sell footwear

#86: Rugrats Sequel Ruined By Creepy Artstyle

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"Oh, hi Angelica!"
"I'M NOT ANGELICA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

Before you ask, I'm not talking about All Grown Up, the ten-years-later sequel to Rugrats that fans have a generally lukewarm relationship with. That show just used the show's regular artstyle. I'm talking about Rugrats: Pre-School Daze, which actually didn't premiere in America until 2008, three years after it premiered in the United Kingdom for some reason. It takes place after Rugrats, chronicling the adventures of Angelica, Susie, and their friends in pre-school. It's actually not awful, and if it just looked like the last two Rugrats shows, it wouldn't be anywhere near this list. No, it's here because of the incredibly creepy artstyle the show used for its characters, particularly Angelica and Susie. I mean, just look at them. Were they supposed to be cute? Obviously, the artstyle is likely an attempt to get away from the somewhat controversial Clasky-Ksupo look, with its weirdly-shaped faces and mouths way down on the characters' chins, but tell me, is this any better? It's an overly Disneyfied, creepy dollhouse looking thing, and seeing screenshots of it immediately turned me off from wanting to watch any of the show's four episodes (it didn't last long at all). The super big eyes and ultra rosy cheeks looked just plain wrong on these characters we've seen for years in their distinctive artstyle. Maybe if this is how they looked from the start, it wouldn't come off as bad, but compared to the originals it looks almost lifeless, making it jarring to see the characters moving around and emoting like they do. This artstyle was absolutely a choice, and it was the wrong choice, and the fact that it remained a mini-series instead of a full-on show bears that out. It might've been fun to see Angelica and Susie grow up as friends together, but we won't get to see that, and the decision to turn them into creepy dolls for this project is likely a big reason why.

that art looks exactly how I would expect 'Rugrats art-style, but try to make it genuinely good instead of good for being unique' to look

I'll maintain the Rugrats were always creepy rather than cute, but holy shit that remake looks terrible. It is like they kept all the worst aspects of Clasky-Ksupo but removed any artistic merit from it.

RySenkari posted...

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.

Reading made me think of a new prediction:

Loonatics Unleashed. The cyberpunk, superhero, anime-inspired show starring the Looney Tunes characters. A baffling decision from every angle.

Loonatics Unleashed would probably merit a spot on this list either way, but it explicitly did not star the Looney Tunes characters, they were all their descendants, which probably made it even less appealing

I didnt even know Pre-School Daze existed

Grand_Kirby posted...

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 >_>)

Grand_Kirby posted...

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 >_>)

This

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

that art looks exactly how I would expect 'Rugrats art-style, but try to make it genuinely good instead of good for being unique' to look

Definitely think rugrats was a product of its time. The art is absolutely bad but given it debuted in 1991 the art isnt especially odd compared to other 80s cartoons

Oh I doubt it's on this list but it would certainly be on my personal list but the character assassination of everyone in Beast Machines was pretty extreme imo. Lots of people still talk favorably about Beast Wars and heck we even have a live action one out now! But Beast Machines is still mostly never mentioned among Transformers discussions due to various problems with the show. Really think only 1 character isn't hurt by their appearance in both shows and even then I don't necessarily think they benefit either.

PrinceKaro posted...

I'll maintain the Rugrats were always creepy rather than cute, but holy shit that remake looks terrible. It is like they kept all the worst aspects of Clasky-Ksupo but removed any artistic merit from it.

This 100% too. Even as a kid I thought the Rugrats artstyle was creepy and I wonder if it contributed to my parents not wanting us to watch it (could have been the name too) but that didn't stop us from watching it lol

Rugrats certainly has an unusual art style but man, the opening is straight-up sakuga

#85: R-Rated Saturday Morning Cartoons

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You know, for kids!

First Blood was an intense, violent, at times tragic movie about a Vietnam veteran named John Rambo who is unfairly persecuted for being a drifter, and who launches a campaign of terror against the small town that chased him away. RoboCop was a gritty, dystopian action film about a futuristic Detroit ravaged by crime, and a cop brutally murdered by gangsters and resurrected as a cyborg police officer tasked with wiping out criminals by any means necessary. These films both earned every last bit of their R ratings, and yet... network executives saw fit to make Saturday morning cartoons about them. Of course, they've been making toys of R-rated films for years, but adapting the stories of R-rated films into family friendly fare is a far more difficult task, and in the 1980s and beyond, cartoons such as Rambo: The Force Of Freedom and RoboCop did just that. Of particular note is the former, which was pointed out even at the time of its release to be potentially controversial fare. It saw John Rambo leading a task force of soldiers on secret missions around the world to battle a deadly terrorist organization. In terms of plot and characterization, it's thus closer to the more action-oriented (but no less violent) Rambo: First Blood Part II. Even so, the show excised many of the themes from the films, such as Rambo's persistent PTSD. Sylvester Stallone was said to be furious that the Rambo films were made into cartoons, but he was powerless to stop 65 episodes from being made before the show's run ended. RoboCop had a much shorter run as part of the syndicated Marvel Action Universe block, and while it didn't quite butcher its source material to the same degree as the Rambo cartoon, it still saw its violence significantly toned down, and characters like Clarence Boddicker given much lesser roles. While an R-rating certainly doesn't keep kids from seeing movies, and there's no doubt that Rambo and RoboCop were both seen by millions of kids, the level of alteration and outright watering down that had to be done to turn these R-rated films into G-rated shows makes you wonder why they didn't just go the Beetlejuice route and adapt a nice, safe PG-13 film instead.

#84: Clarence Creator Can't Keep His Hands To Himself

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That's Skyler Page in the bottom right.

Back in 2014, cartoonist Skyler Page had a lot going for him. He'd had a successful stint on Adventure Time, and now he was getting his own show: the Cartoon Network animated series Clarence, which was shaping up to be a hit for the network. Unfortunately, it all came crashing down after a fellow Adventure Time animator, Emily Partridge, accused him of sexual assault. Later on, more accusatory tweets, claiming that Page had groped numerous women. Soon, he was fired from Clarence, even from voicing the show's titular character, and his career in the animation industry was over. One of the animation industry's rising stars, out of the industry and he hasn't been back sense. What a waste of potential, and all because he believed his position of power gave him the right to put his hands on his fellow workers in ways that obviously made them extremely uncomfortable. This is, of course, a sad trend in the industry, Page wasn't the first to be busted for it and he won't be the last. This was even before #MeToo became a thing, so you know how egregious the behavior had to be for these accusers to come forward. Skyler Page had the chance of a lifetime, and threw it all away, to the detriment of one of the more unique cartoons of its day (it continued on without him, but was never the same, and ultimately ended in 2018). Let this be a lesson to anyone hoping to make it big in animation: you don't have the right to put your hands on anyone, period.

#83: The Mighty Mouse Cocaine Scandal

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Even if this WAS coke, this is way down on the list of controversial things Ralph Bakshi characters have done.

In 1987, the Mighty Mouse cartoon IP was revived as Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. Helmed by Ralph Bakshi and staffed by a talented crew including John Kricfalusi and Andrew Stanton, the cartoon, though not a major ratings success, was quite well received critically, and is said by some to be the first "modern" cartoon, its visual style inspiring some of the best animated shows of the 1990s, and also inspiring a number of later animators to get into the medium. However, the show would run into a great deal of controversy due to an episode called "The Littlest Tramp", in which Mighty Mouse handles a crushed flower while thinking fondly of a girl he'd helped. As he sniffs, the flower dust is blown up into his nose. The scene, believed to be harmless by many at the studio, was actually flagged by an editor due to his concern that it made Mighty Mouse appear to be snorting cocaine, but after John Kricfalusi (this won't be the last time we'll hear about him on this list) waved off these concerns, Bakshi agreed to include the scene, and indeed, CBS's own Standards and Practices department also signed off on it. The scene aired innocently at least once, but later in the show's run, a member of the American Family Association protested the scene as a part of a general protest against Bakshi himself (who was well known for directing the adult cartoon movie Fritz the Cat back in 1972). The issue became a public controversy, and, this being at the height of the "Just Say No" era, CBS was forced to take notice. By all accounts, the flower scene was totally innocent, but ultimately it had to be edited out of future broadcasts of the episode. Though CBS ultimately stood by Bakshi after the AFA called for him to be fired, the event seemed to sour him on televised animation, as he wouldn't return to it for a decade, and when he did, it was to direct an adult animated miniseries for HBO. The whole controversy was incredibly overblown and a troubling sign of things to come in terms of how much power these religious advocacy groups had over TV networks, particularly when it came to children's animation. Despite Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures being a groundbreaking animated series, in many ways, this one small scene ultimately became the show's biggest legacy, an enormous shame when you consider the level of talent that worked on it.

#82: Steven Universe Canceled Over Gay Wedding

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"You did it. You got your wedding. What did it cost?"
"Everything. ...but the cake was delicious!"

In 2018, Steven Universe was riding high. There had just been an epic wedding special between Ruby and Sapphire, and now Steven and his friends were heading off to space to battle the Diamonds. It was supposed to be amazing, and it was, only... there would only be six more episodes left. Yes, despite good ratings and a huge presence on social media, Steven Universe was already dead by the time "Reunited" aired. The episode featured the highly anticipated wedding between Garnet's component gems Ruby and Sapphire, a wedding that Rebecca Sugar and her team had fought for for years, only for Cartoon Network to refuse until finally relenting in 2016. Coincidentally, that's when the team was told "oh, by the way, after that you're not getting any more episodes". Rebecca had to fight tooth and nail just to get the six episodes in which the Diamonds are defeated, episodes that while generally considered to be good, are also considered quite rushed, with the Diamonds going down far too easily and without really dealing with any of the issues stemming from their actions. As it turns out, the initial plan was for two more seasons, with a lot more buildup to the final Homeworld confrontation, but after approving the wedding, Cartoon Network nixed those plans, forcing Sugar to scramble. They did eventually greenlight Steven Universe Future, which had its own share of problems owing to a somewhat condensed order of episodes, but Steven Universe, while beloved by fans and critics alike, wasn't given the extended run that its fellow quirky fantasy show Adventure Time enjoyed. Though Cartoon Network may have had its reasons (mostly due to anti-LGBTQ bigotry in foreign countries airing the show), that's no excuse for forcing Rebecca Sugar to make the cruel choice between telling the one story she wanted to tell and telling all the rest of them. Even with how far the networks have come in allowing LGBTQ creators to tell their stories, there's still a long way to go, even if those stories prove to be popular.

RySenkari posted...

#93: Cartoon Network Recasts The Powerpuff Girls

Just to add to this, all villain and secondary characters had their voice actors return making this extra ??.

Also their removal of Miss Bellum. Trying to say they didn't want her type of character in the show (you know, a strong and smart woman named after the brain?)

Yeah that sucked, though now I wonder if all the filler was in part due to Rebecca Sugar not wanting to skip over the wedding plotbeats in an earlier season.

#81: Steven Universe Fan Artist Driven To Suicide Attempt For Drawing Rose Quartz Skinny

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Rose Quartz just wanted to fit into a size 10, and everybody lost their minds!

Back-to-back Steven Universe moments cap off the first one-fifth of the list, and what we have here is one of the craziest examples of fandom gone way off the rails. Back in 2015, the artist Zamii070 posted some innocent Rose Quartz fanart on Tumblr, in which the character was depicted as being slightly skinnier than her normal incarnation... and was immediately accused of fatphobia for doing so. During this whole incident, people also scoured her art gallery for other pictures and signs of anything problematic, digging up past artwork to use as evidence of racism and pedophilia among other things. The dogpiling continued on both Tumblr and Twitter, until a few days later, the artist posted a message that she was "going to sleep forever". Most people responded with horror and concern, while some either claimed Zamii was being overdramatic or even celebrated the news. Not only was Zamii personally harassed, but others set up their own Tumblr blogs just for the purpose of roasting her. Fortunately, it turned out that Zamii had decided to seek help instead, and they ended up being okay in the end. Despite this, the damage had already been done. When Ian Jones Quartey, co-producer on Steven Universe chimed in with "let people draw what they want", he was dragged by the mob as well. While the Steven Universe fandom had had issues with fan toxicity before, it was this incident that stained the entire fandom with a "toxic" label it hasn't been able to rinse off since, and still holds a place of infamy amongst internet fandom incidents.

Wtf internet

Drawing childrens cartoon characters as sexy is fine but drawing them as thin is evil apparently

Just another reminder that fandoms are the worst.

I'm enjoying this topic a lot. The writeups are fun and really diverse. I'm learning a lot too!

Also I gotta say, I am surprised that that one is only at 81. Easily one of the more notorious instances of toxic fandom out there. I was only lightly aware of Steven Universe and the fandom around it at the time yet that still got on my radar and Im sure Im not the only one out there. The rest of the list must be pretty bad then!

rwlh posted...

I'm enjoying this topic a lot. The writeups are fun and really diverse. I'm learning a lot too!

Gotta echo this. I'm not a children's TV viewer at all, it just wasn't in the DNA of my family, growing up, so most everything here is new to me! Really interesting.

Oh well there's no way baking needles in the cookies to give to the fanartist you hate isn't making it on the list now.

A Saturday morning cartoon based on Aliens was also planned at one point, but ended up being cancelled before release, possibly because someone involved saw sense and realized that a hard R sci-fi horror series wasn't appropriate material to adapt as a children's cartoon.

After mentioning there'll be more John Kricfalusi later on the list, and the mention of bending the rules occasionally in the introduction, I'm starting to wonder if the Ren and Stimpy adult version will make an appearance. It's not a children's show itself, but it is children's show adjacent.

As someone who finds this term completely overused..

..That Rugrats animation is cursed.

Also everything I'm hearing about Steven Universe is exactly why I've never taken part in a single "fandom"

Also "Beast Machines" wasn't terrible, but it was needless and really never needed to exist. It was a show that tried to capitalize on the popularity of Beast Wars, but didn't understand what made it popular in the first place. Then they tried to get edgy with the characters and it went further in the wrong direction.

#80: Crash & Bernstein

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Thank God he didn't try building himself a girlfriend.

If you watched Gravity Falls on Disney XD, you were probably "treated" to plenty of advertisements for Crash & Bernstein, which came out around the same time. If I reminded you of those ads, I'm sorry. Crash & Bernstein is a comedy in which a boy named Wyatt who lives in a house with three sisters wishes for a brother and is given the opportunity to build a best friend puppet at Build A Bustie Workshop for his 12th birthday. This puppet, named Crash, comes to life and becomes Wyatt's brother. This concept has been explored before, most notably in the early 2000s Nickelodeon sitcom Cousin Skeeter in which the protagonist's wacky cousin is a puppet character, but Crash & Bernstein honestly makes Cousin Skeeter look like The Muppet Show in its prime. Crash's antics, where he's constantly destroying things, taking over Wyatt's interests, and cracking jokes that fall flat pretty much instantly, are annoying from the word go, and only get worse as the series progresses. Even though Crash and Wyatt do bond quite early on, it's often hard to see why Wyatt puts up with his puppet brother out of anything more than sheer desperation. The show also relies heavily on gross-out humor, which can get rough in a cartoon but in a live-action show is almost always intolerable. The theme song is a rap song that starts out obnoxious but soon turns torturous, and the show also utilizes an "extreme" sports motif that was played out more than a decade before its release. The show is just bad overall, and, living up to its namesake, crashed and burn(stein)ed less than two years after its debut. While its failure didn't have any long term impacts on Disney XD as a whole, it's certainly etched itself into the memories of anyone who tuned into the channel during its run, even if they mercifully stayed away from the show itself.

I remember enjoying Cousin Skeeter actually. Whatever this thing was was WAY past my time.

Were any of the cartoon series adapted from Disney animated films disasterous enough to make this list? The only ones I ever remember watching with any kind of regularity were Aladdin and Timon & Pumbaa and elementary school me thought they were perfectly fine for what they were.

Does anyone else remember the animated STARSHIP TROOPERS kids cartoon?

I do remember that. Wasnt that kinda good? Seems Verhoeven was involved with that one as well.

Underleveled posted...

Were any of the cartoon series adapted from Disney animated films disasterous enough to make this list?

The disney spinoff shows are generally thought of as being above average in terms of quality, I'm not sure why you would bring them up.

PrinceKaro posted...

The disney spinoff shows are generally thought of as being above average in terms of quality, I'm not sure why you would bring them up.

Um I think it says it in my post - I didn't watch most of them and have no idea what the general opinion of them is.

#79: Arnold Takes Off His Helmet On Pluto

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You think that looks painful, you should see Neil deGrasse Tyson's head right now.

Back in 1994, The Magic School Bus animated series premiered with an adaptation of perhaps the most famous book in the series, in which the bus goes out into space and explores the solar system. It's a pretty normal trip, as far as the Magic School Bus goes, but soon things go off the rails thanks to the presence of Arnold's annoying cousin Janet, and soon Ms. Frizzle gets separated from the bus, and the kids get lost in space. Eventually, they end up on Pluto (which was a planet back then!), and Janet (who'd been collecting samples from each planet and generally being a massive nuisance) insists on staying on Pluto until she'd found her samples, which had fallen out of the bus. Now, at this point, Janet is wearing out her welcome pretty quickly, and Arnold is trying to figure out what to do... leading to one of the most horrifying (or hilarious, depending on how twisted your sense of humor is) moments in cartoon history: Arnold takes off his helmet, causing his head to instantly freeze solid. In addition to traumatizing a generation of children, this is... not what would happen if you took your helmet off on Pluto, since there's no atmosphere to actually transfer the cold (actually, thanks to the New Horizons mission, we know there IS an atmosphere on Pluto, just a very thin one). I mean, you'd still die, just not like that. But... let's take a moment to think about this for a second. Arnold got so annoyed at Janet's antics that he was... willing to commit suicide to get her back on the bus? He couldn't have just had the class physically drag her onto the bus? It's not like Pluto has a lot of gravity... but... yeah, Arnold gets taken back to Earth VERY quickly and he ends up with a head cold and that's the episode. Overall, the episode was a fine adaptation of the book, right up until that last sequence where things totally went off the rails. Somehow, The Magic School Bus survived that infamous scene to get numerous seasons and become one of the most beloved PBS cartoons of all time, so in the grand scheme of things it didn't hurt the show, but it still gets remembered whenever we think of the series, and Arnold's insane moment of stupidity will definitely live on as one of the most WTF? moments in all of animation.

Oh yeah that was definitely a horrible writing decision.

I have never forgotten that episode for that one crazy moment.

RySenkari posted...

this is... not what would happen if you took your helmet off on Pluto, since there's no atmosphere to actually transfer the cold (actually, thanks to the New Horizons mission, we know there IS an atmosphere on Pluto, just a very thin one). I mean, you'd still die, just not like that.

This part is actually addressed in the episode itself. At the end of every episode of the show, they had a segment when a character representing the show's producer addressed both creative liberties the episode took, and occasionally some of the more incredulous elements that were actually accurate, and I remember this being one of the things they addressed in this episode.

GavsEvans123 posted...

After mentioning there'll be more John Kricfalusi later on the list, and the mention of bending the rules occasionally in the introduction, I'm starting to wonder if the Ren and Stimpy adult version will make an appearance. It's not a children's show itself, but it is children's show adjacent.

could be, but could also be about him grooming and having sex with underage girls

RySenkari posted...

#79: Arnold Takes Off His Helmet On Pluto

I loved that episode helmet and all. Shoulda just left Janice on Pluto tbqh

Honorable mention to the episode where the kids get ejaculated on by salmon

RySenkari posted...

#79: Arnold Takes Off His Helmet On Pluto

Wait, isn't this list supposed to be for stupid things?

For the longest time I thought that was what happened if you took your helmet off in space all because of that episode. I actually didn't know it was the very first episode though!

Underleveled posted...

Were any of the cartoon series adapted from Disney animated films disasterous enough to make this list? The only ones I ever remember watching with any kind of regularity were Aladdin and Timon & Pumbaa and elementary school me thought they were perfectly fine for what they were.

Most of them were pretty good, but The Emperors New School is one of the worst cartoons I have ever seen.

hylianknight3 posted...

Most of them were pretty good, but The Emperors New School is one of the worst cartoons I have ever seen.

oh fuck I forgot about that one

hylianknight3 posted...

Most of them were pretty good, but The Emperors New School is one of the worst cartoons I have ever seen.

Both the series and the DTV sequel were really depressing, just milking all the best jokes from the original film to death. At least Eartha Kitt was still having fun as Yzma.

Oh geeze Arnold traumatized me

#78: The Zenon "Zequels"

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Is it safe to say that these movies "zuck"?

We're staying in space for our next entry on the list, and let me preface this by saying that there are numerous Disney Channel original movies that could've made this list, but since I didn't want a dozen DCOMs potentially clogging the bottom half of the list, I'm focusing on two in particular, one of which absolutely never should've been made, and those would be Zenon: The Zequel, and then, inexplicably, Zenon: Z3. The Zenon trilogy were three movies based on the illustrated children's book Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century, the first of which was made in 1999 and starred Kirsten Storms as the eponymous Zenon, a girl living in 2049 on a space station. That first film was decent enough, a bit formulaic but ultimately inoffensive, but the sequels absolutely rank among the worst Disney Channel Original Movies ever made (and that is a major accomplishment). 2001's Zequel loses a lot of the original's charm, featuring an alien subplot that relies heavily on numerous characters passing the Idiot Ball back and forth, Zenon's insufferable rival Margie managing to be even more annoying than she was in the first film, and just terrible comedy dialogue all around. The fact that this second Zenon film was so bad didn't stop a third film from being made, and that one sees some magical moon goddess appearing for some reason and threatening to destroy everyone, an even more contrived plot than the second film. Ultimately, the two Zenon sequels aren't on this list just because they're bad, but because they represent the Disney Channel movie methodology of the time: any remotely popular movie would get a hastily made sequel which would be invariably worse than the original, and some would even get a second sequel, with Z3 by far the worst of the bunch and probably representing the pinnacle of bad DCOM movie ideas in general. It really wouldn't be until High School Musical 2 that there would be a Disney Channel original movie sequel even remotely worth watching, but despite this, Disney continued cranking out sequels, with the worst of the worst DCOM sequels making even their 90s animated movie sequels look good. The fact that there are actually some good Disney Channel original movies out there (and not just the ones based on their animated properties) make the bad ones all the more baffling, especially when the sequels turned out to be so consistently awful.