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We Remember: Kids WB



With the end of Saturday Morning cartoons back in 2014 people remember the blocks from more popular stations like Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC. However they don't remember much of Kids WB. While it is fondly remembered as being part of the western anime craze, which while Toonami aired it first, Kids WB made it more accessible to kids. But let's start at the beginning. 


Kids WB first aired on September 9th 1995 and was home to Loony Toons, Steven Spielberg shows like Animaniacs and Freakazoid, and Superman the Animated series. This remained the same with some new shows like Road Rovers, Men in Black, and the New Batman/Superman Adventures. This was until 1999, then the channel exploded with new shows and what many will call their first taste of anime that wasn't Toonami. In 1999, Batman Beyond started and the weekend following that, Pokemon started airing in the states. 

                                      

By September of 1999, most of the block was Pokemon, both for weekend and weekdays. In 2000, another anime show made it's way on the block, Cardcaptors. By the end of 2000, anime has taken up almost half the block with just those two shows. Up until September 2001, anime's influence was scaled back as DC animation took off. At the end of September though, another large anime series made its way to the block, Yu-Gi-Oh. The anime presence on the block was scarce for 2002 as Cardcaptor made its way out, the anime scene was down to the big two being Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. For weekdays, anime was prevalent, and even had shows from Toonami airing, usually Dragonball Z, though over time became more of their action block, on May 2004 with Megaman NT Warrior being the third anime show in rotation. As time went on shows went in and out, though at the tail end of Kids WB, it was more of a shell of itself. Then on May 17th 2008, Kids WB ended its original run.


The final nail in the coffin came when it was announced that UPN and The WB would merge into The CW and on September 16th 2006, Kids WB lasted a couple years after the merge and on May 17th 2008 was gone. As another Saturday Morning block took its place, on May 28th 2008, CW4Kids, then on August 14th 2010, it was re-branded to Toonzai, on August 18th 2012 Toonzai ended and was replaced with Votexx until September 27th 2014 when the block and in turn Saturday Morning Cartoons came to an end. However it isn't all lost, in Australia Kids WB is still around.and it started the same day it ended in the US. It is the same as the American block, though this is hosted by human hosts.


Kids WB was the new kid on the block at the time it came out. It didn't stand out too much from the other blocks like Fox Kids and One Saturday Morning, but 1995 and 1996 their bumpers were more traditional like the other blocks, however from 1997 until their first major change in it took advantage of that to make its own identity with being creative about with how they took advantage of a studio setting with cartoon characters interacting with each other and the logo of the block. While the idea isn't new, they went about it in a way that they could stand out a bit more. However while other blocks either fell off or changed style, Kids WB kept it until the tail end of its run. Between the special themed weekends and idea for its bumpers in the later years this block is a special one. 

Looking back on Kids WB alone, it was the last stronghold of the Saturday Morning cartoon block, even after the change in 2008. Kids WB while in the crowd at first, grew into its own and flourished to slowly become the last stand for a legacy of American television. That is why we should remember Kids WB. 


                      

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Benjanime Posted on Aug 02, 2019 at 03:40 PM

I think what ruined Saturday morning cartoons for me was when 4kids started dubbing more anime after pok'emon, I understand some edits they made were necessary, but some others really bothered me.

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