Everyone has heard of the madcap surreal humor of Regular Show and it's no secret that I rate it very highly, but it's not the first cartoon to do this humor. Earlier than that we had Angry Beavers.
Here is a show about Beaver brothers Norbert and Daggett, one of whom voiced by Sabrina the Teenage Witch's resident cat Salem. After moving out of their family home the brothers find a spot to build a dam and begin there many adventures in the real world but said real world pretty much involves everything older teens are supposed to do in this situation which is goof off.
The cartoon showcases their many surreal adventures which consist of space travel, B-Movie nightmares, becoming discostars and becoming hipsters with their stupidly long teeth; now some of those plot points sound similar to Regular Show and you'd be right.
These days many of the pop culture images and completely absurd plots in Regular Show wouldn't be acceptable ten years ago but the Angry Beavers were doing just that, the only major difference is time. You see the 90s was very much an era that never had it's own running theme so anything went back then.
If you want to bring back disco, make B-Movie horror films seem awesome or collecting cereal boxtops for a street sweeper, then the 90s was the right era for it. Heck even a stump with a drawn on face was considered a major character in this cartoon.
I don't rate it as the best cartoon, in fact it even missed my top 100 cartoon list but I do however rate it as one of the most important. You see an "anything goes" premise can only work when you embrace it as the normal and Angry Beavers was one of the first shows to work with that style and succeed; granted there were earlier cartoons like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life both of whom equally weird but those two function on a different concept.
So that's Angry Beavers; you know I can't help but laugh at the amount of beaver quotes this show had; my personal favorite is still Muscular Beaver.
So why is a good show axed when bad shows still get season after season?
Well these examples may put a few things to rest.
1. Invader Zim
Everyone's favorite psychotic alien in one of Nicktoons darkest & funniest shows of all time.
Why Cancel?: Nickelodeon claimed it was low ratings, the real reason was that Invader Zim frequently broke its budget and became too expensive for the Network to make.
Aftermath: It's staff would later be hired for Avatar the Last Airbender.
2. Class of 3000
A performance arts college led by Andre 3000 of OutKast. Decent animation and decent music.
Why Cancel?: Cartoon Network claimed it was too expensive to make, the real reason came when Andre 3000 was sued for plagiarism which ultimately sealed it's fate.
Aftermath: It was the last cartoon to be made under the old Cartoon Network banner which led up to the events of the 2007 Boston Bomb Scare which cost former head Jim Samples his job, what followed was a few years of crap Cartoon Network.
3. Warner Bros 90s Cartoons
Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain, Hysteria, all of Warner's finest from that era.
Why Cancel?: Some guy named Jamie Kellner decided to scrap the range claiming it wasn't right for the channel's image to have cartoons appealing to grown ups. Ironically this also happened to the Avengers cartoon.
Aftermath: Warner Bros have not been the same since.
4. Cancelled without reason
Danny Phantom, El Tigre, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, Juniper Lee, American Dragon, Young Justice, Megas XLR, Swat Kats & Samurai Jack.
Why Cancel?: In some cases poor time slots, in others it simply dropped off the channel for no reason. For Swat Kats, Ted Turner claimed it was too violent. Samurai Jack's chances look slim for a comeback following Mako's death and because Samurai Jack needs his voice but not other voices it poses quite a problem.
5. Gargoyles
Core of Disney's epic run of tv cartoons in the 90s.
Why Cancel?: Fell out of Disney's favor and ended up being drawn by a different animation house.
Aftermath: Disney seem to do this a lot with these kinds of shows, the same fate befell many of the shows I've mentioned along with the likes of WITCH & PB & J Otter.
6. Adult Swim Cartoons
Anything not Venture Bros or Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Why Cancel?: Adult Swim is too poorly run to sustain cartoons properly, some never made it pass episode one. In the case of Titan Maximum which had better ratings than many of it's staple shows, creator Seth Green felt that Robot Chicken was more important.
7. Classic British Cartoons
It's worthy of note that many of our classic cartoons, mostly stop motion shows like Postman Pat, Bagpuss & Camberwick Green are notoriously short.
Why Cancel?: They were never cancelled, the shows were really that short.
Wallace & Gromit our best cartoon has only had four episodes, one movie and numerous shorts in 24 years and it frequently wins awards no problem.
Explain: We British don't do filler, also helps that British shows tend to have all episodes filmed in a series before broadcast.
8. And an Anime Example
The original Gundam Series
Why Cancel?: Surprisingly poor ratings cut the show to 39 episodes forcing creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to improvise an ending.
Aftermath: Rerun figures were better and with new editing and cuts was redone into a film trilogy before Zeta Gundam's release.
