Kids WB Retrospective (Part 1): Attack the Block (Episode 7)

[@WildDieWoodard]

Fun stuff! I was a Writer/Producer with Kids' WB from 1995 through 2005! So many great memories of my time there.

[@DarkManX16]

Thank you sir for keeping me entertained during my childhood

[@mariocreates3772]

I have so many questions I want to write down and get answers

[@BrianAwesome]

@WildDieWoodard, 1) How was it competing with Fox Kids (and eventually Toonami) ? 2) Which was your favorite out of the Real Big Three (Kwb, FK, and Toonami) ? 3) What was it like to work with Charlotte Fullerton, who formally worked on Fox Kids ? 4) How did you feel about the Max Steel Vs Action Man rivalry, and why wasn't there ever a crossover ? 5) Is it possible for these animated Blocks to come back in this day and age (considering that tv is still alive with cnn, sports, etc.) ?

[@MasterAdam100]

You helped make Saturday mornings special for me growing up. Thank you! You should be proud of your work!

[@LazyPirate8]

Thank you sir for creating my childhood.

[@jaybewavy]

Looks like I'm gonna be binging all these videos now 😭💜

[@TheIkranRider]

Same here.

[@Nick-du7cc]

Same as well

[@swagkirby3449]

11:59 Animaniacs pointed this out in one of their joke credits; they said “On the WB, big kids go first; in reality, big kids sleep in”

[@EthanCrossMedia]

Nice, that you reuploaded this. Man, the block still brings me nostalgia from the 2000s.

[@DBTUni2024]

I was quite disappointed when Kids' WB discontinued without any fanfare or a montage, just like the WB did. Growing up mostly in the 2010s, I have fond memories of hearing about Kids' WB, which was a beloved Saturday morning block filled with animated shows like Pokémon, Batman: The Animated Series, and Animaniacs. While I didn't get to experience it firsthand (since I was born in 2011), I did catch some of the successor blocks like Vortexx on The CW and a bit of KidsClick. Those were the good old days of TV! Sometimes I miss those times before Nickelodeon started filling the airwaves with non-stop SpongeBob SquarePants marathons and movies all day. Don't even get me started on Nicktoons, which seems to air SpongeBob all day, every day. Wouldn't it be amazing if time travel could take us back to those joyful days of Saturday morning cartoons and discovering new animated adventures?

[@BrianAwesome]

The Wb itself, did end with a night of pilots. They also had actor montages.

[@DBTUni2024]

@BrianAwesome That's what Kids' WB shouldn't have DONE! But No!

[@jish55]

Honestly, it wasn't until Kids WB obtained the sole rights to pokemon that allowed for it to basically dominate the saturday morning block. Sure, it had some other fan favorites, but it wasn't that go to channel at first. Then throw in the new DC lineup, Yugioh, Cardcaptors, and Jackie Chan Adventures, and it became so prevelant that it was damn near impossible to go to Fox or Disney because you didn't want to miss the 10 shows that played back to back.

[@MasterAdam100]

True. Fox Kids did have X Men though. But Kid WB had the Batman and Superman cartoons and later on, Batman Beyond and Static Shock.

[@andrejg4136]

Pokemon is what caused Kids' WB to shift into third and fourth gear, just like how Power Rangers did for FOX Kids. Funny how the proper positioning of two Japanese programs (Super Sentai edited into Power Rangers, and Pokemon getting a dub that was a fair deal better than a lot of anime dubs before it, content notwithstanding) allowed the new new-kid networks to completely dust the original Big 3; though to be honest NBC had tapped out before Fox really got into gear.

[@bradyanderson6311]

@@MasterAdam100 X-Men Evolution on Kids' WB was another story.

[@GoogalyB]

You really need more attention. Seriously, only 848 views? You deserve more.

[@bencemeitert5146]

Born date?

[@TobeyFairre7861]

It only took Ash Ketchum two decades to become a "Pokemon Master" and one could argue that he still hasn't, nor will he ever, do that. He beat the Alola League in 2019, but to me, that's a league similar to the Orange Island League (a filler arc, but one of the show's best imo) so until he becomes a champion of a league like Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, etc. he won't be a "Pokemon Master". No matter what someone thinks of my opinion here, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu toys sell super well in the US, so they're not going to get rid of Ash and Pikachu any time soon. Goodness, what a force Pokemon has been for the world.

[@andrejg4136]

Alola was the feature region of a whole ass game series, it counts. But it would be interesting to see Ash go back to old regions for a mini-series where he takes on the old Leagues again. He probably has some renown now as a dude that consistently T8s in these huge-ass tournaments.

[@infinitedreamer9359]

@@andrejg4136 I know this comment was 4 months ago,but I'm still gonna reply:For me, the reason Alola doesn't count as a league win is the skill level of most of the participants. Most of them were still in trainer school and still very inexperienced as trainers, compared to Ash who's been through six(or seven) whole regions at this point with years of experience under his belt. Sure, he won, but it didn't feel satisfying as it was like Ash was beating up on little kids. It was was basically an easy ride for him. If him winning the Aloha league was a writer response to the backlash of the BS way he lost in Kalos,then it wasn't a good one. And speaking of Alola, it never made sense to me as a premise to stick Ash in a trainer school, when he's been shown through the series to be already very experienced and doesn't need the learning. I think the idea of a Pokemon trainer school could work as a spinoff,but not with Ash as an MC in it. And while Orange Island was much better in that regard, I still don't count it because it's not a canon region from the games. But yeah,it would be interesting to see something like Ash rechallenging old Leagues.

[@bencemeitert5146]

Born date?

[@PipimiOden]

hey tobey guess what

[@joniivee]

Good on you for reediting this! Watching it for the first time rn and loving it.

[@GreyWolfLeaderTW]

Lots of people my age and slightly older were Fox Kids. Ironically enough, while I saw a bit of Fox Kids (particularly for the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Digimon, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Beetlejuice, and a little remembered show called Xyber 9: New Dawn), I primarily watched Kids' WB, Cartoon Network, the Disney Afternoon/Toon Disney, and Nickelodeon (typically in that order of time committed/shows followed). Three-Fourths of why people liked Fox Kids was because of the WB shows on the block: Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, Batman the Animated Series, et cetera. So when Warner Brothers decided in 1995 to make their own children's cartoon programming block on their cable network, most kids (like myself) followed them over. And then there was this little thing called Pokemon. When Warner Brothers got exclusive rights to air new episodes of the show first from 4Kids Entertainment partway through the Indigo League, Kids' WB exploded. For about three glorious years, from 1998-2001, Kids WB was *THE* king of Kids' Afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. Everything from reruns of Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, Spider-Man the Animated Series, Batman TAS, Superman TAS, to new shows, including Batman Beyond, Freakazoid!, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Men in Black the Series, Jackie Chan Adventures, Xia Lin Showdown, X-Men Evolution, Earthworm Jim, Static Shock, the Zeta Project, and Histeria!. But as time went on, Kids' WB started running into issues. They were losing viewers outside of just Pokemon (and even Pokemon began tapering off as it reached the Master Quest season of the Johto League), and from 2001 onwards, only Jackie Chan Adventures, Pokemon, and a new addition, Yu-Gi-Oh!, could keep up steam to become shows with more than two seasons. Lots of one-off and short-lived experiments came and went rapidly after 2001. A cutdown season of Cardcaptors, averages to below average shows like The Mummy Animated Series, Ozzy and Drix, Mucha Lucha!, Detention, Generation O, Max Steele, Cubix: Robots for Everyone, Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, Johnny Test, and a short lived airing of the early 2000s Astro Boy. There was a brief bright spot here or there, like Toonami's brief double-casting from Cartoon Network to Kids' WB for two years that brought Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and brand-new shows that did better like What's New Scooby-Doo?, but it was becoming obvious that Kids' WB was playing second fiddle to Warner Brothers other cartoon-centric channel, the immortal Cartoon Network. Kids' WB was beginning to compete against and cannibalize its own sibling channel, from which a number of shows including The Batman, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Teen Titans, Samurai Jack, and the Powerpuff Girls would be briefly borrowed. By 2006, the writing was on the wall. Many older Kids' WB shows had found more success on Cartoon Network in reruns than they initially did on Kids' WB, and even later seasons of Pokemon were doing way better when allowed on Cartoon Network, so Kids' WB was folded into the CBS partner channel The CW, with most of the animated shows going over to Cartoon Network. The Kids' WB name would survive for a while as the name of Warner Brother's Streaming service, but by 2008, The CW also folded what little survived of the kids cartoon programming block, and Kids' WB past into immortal memory, just like its former rival Fox Kids.

[@andrejg4136]

Kids' WB should be seen as the prime example of why dedicated OTA Programming blocks were doomed once Cable shifted into third gear at the turn of the millennium. There was no reason for TimeWarner to split their child and young teen audience like they were from '01 to '04, someone got a clue and said "Let the cartoons lead on the cartoon channel, and let the dramas and comedies lead on the broadcast station." As sad as it may be, that was ultimately the correct decision.

[@kooarchived]

23:12 This was the time when cartoony-styled cartoons moved to big networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

[@andrejg4136]

Yeah it was a weird inversion, CN was becoming ever so much more about CN and Warner inhouse production, and Kids WB was becoming a broadcast anime and American action block. Like even the shoujo (girl-oriented) anime they had in Sailor Moon and Cardcaptors were mahou shoujo (magical girl) where you can sell the now ancillary boys demographic on watching cute girls fight monsters (even if you wouldn't say that out loud).

[@bradyanderson6311]

​@@andrejg4136Sailor Moon is demanded for ABC.

[@gloewild7983]

If you 24 or 25 yrs of age you grew up on this 💯

[@andrejg4136]

I'm now 37, I can still say I grew up with it, but of course I don't see it the same way someone who was elementary school age then would. (Yu-Gi-Oh! was the last big franchise where I felt that kind of 'childhood' attachment while I was still in public school)

[@mraaronhd]

@@andrejg4136same. Yugioh seemed like the natural successor to Pokémon, and it was the last show I really got attached to on KidsWB.

[@switchspeedster2671]

I must rewatch the other parts before the other parts before seeing Part 3

[@BrianAwesome]

@athemocracy, Unlike the "Monday Night (Wrestling) Wars", I don't think that Fox Kids and Kwb were both ever at their peaks at the same time. Fox Kids' (original) peak ended after '96 - '97 (when Batman left for Kwb), as Kids' WB had reached their peak by their '97-'99/2001 "Heavy Duty Dubbas" time period.

[@skuljumper]

I really hope he can get his views back. This dude should be at like 100K subs+

[@xandad5312]

Nice retrospective- I believe you have more of my work on your channel than I do. :) It's funny because I'm seeing stuff I did that I hadn't thought about in years. That "tower re-skinning" @ 16:30 - that was one of the very first projects I did with Kids WB. I painted all those backgrounds, roto-ed the characters, and composited everything. Fun stuff- thanks for the showcase.

[@vongolajames]

I hope it never goes away again ;D

[@bencemeitert5146]

Every commenter fucking born date???????

[@BrianAwesome]

@athemocracy, So Histeria had remained/finished on KWB in 2000,.. even though they got rid of "The Big Cartoonie Show" ?

[@mraaronhd]

I remember watching KidsWB some before Pokémon, but nothing really kept me hooked on it. It wasn’t until I started getting into Pokemon when KidsWB took over my Saturday mornings.

[@christiantucker2061]

I Remember watching yugioh in the afternoons when i come home from school then it would go off and then maruy would come on i was a kid tv was so good back then dang man i really miss it so badly.

[@silveryote1]

YOU NEED MORE VIEWS! These videos are FANTASTIC!!! :3

[@Tsureiki]

Man, this is great. I had totally forgotten about Toonami on WB. It was always so weird looking.

[@bradyanderson6311]

And weekdays never got better.

[@fyrewatermelons]

I was never a Fox Kid growing up (I don't even remember my Fox affiliate having it), I was a KidsWB Kid.

[@bassmantjox1299]

And A Cartoon Network kid too?

[@fyrewatermelons]

@@bassmantjox1299 Yes. -Fred Fredburger

[@bassmantjox1299]

I wish I was there when kids WB was still there and Old enough for old CN, Cause I was born in 3-19-09

[@kooarchived]

@@fyrewatermelons You remember the Yes era too? ^^

[@andrejg4136]

I think I was a Warner Media Kid & Teen in total during this era, because I was 10 when Kids WB started and Cartoon Network finally found its footing in '95, so by time that we get to Kids WB Afternoon and CN Afternoon (through Toonami) being sister blocks in 2001, I was already aging out technically, but I hung around just to see what all the fuss was about. I'm glad I did because I have thoroughly enjoyed my anime otakudom and general animation fandom as an adult, one of the things that I feel kinda grounds me personally. (Yes I used the words otaku-dom and grounded in the same sentence, sue me)

[@supergodzillaxvlogs3044]

Hi Thanks👍Happy To Watch You’re Videos🥳

[@thezenitsufan1249]

Kids WB was, in my opinion, the definitive Saturday morning block

[@bradyanderson6311]

Not big enough.

[@DarkInception]

Batman Beyond, Pokémon, X-men Evolution I loved waking up and watching Kids WB on Saturday AM

[@jordanhowell7798]

I wish I was American so I could've experienced Kids WB as a kid in the 2000s.

[@spongebobplushiestuff8612]

As someone who was born in 06 and is American, I was too young, it was shut down when I was 2 😵, I did have great memories with ABC kids tho

[@superdupersubby]

I'm from 1994 and it was an absolute blast to watch everytime, certain commercials really just spark a warmth of nostalgia.

[@maxamillion5175]

I cannot express just how important Pokémon and Yugioh we’re back then. They dominated many of my Saturday’s. Jackie Chan adventures and DC shows were lit too.

[@andrejg4136]

While I can't say "don't feel sad for not being there", at the very least a lot of the programming was well preserved and many of the interstitials, commercials, and bumpers (bookends to frame the programs during said breaks), are up on KZbin. Just like me with peak 80s cartoon stuff, I can't know it personally (too young), but I can see why so many forty and some fifty somethings have such fond memories of 80s Saturday Mornings.

[@juord]

I’m American and I was born in 2004 and I missed out on KidsWB lol. I grew up with CW4kids and mostly Vortexx which came after KidsWB and after Warner Bros’ WB Network merged with CBS’ UPN to become the CW. I definitely wished I grew up in the 90s to experience KidsWB

[@kaplisisdx8651]

While WB would go on to have a great library of animation series thanks to cartoon network's legacy, i also like the more " exclusive" feel of the early Kids WB. They really tried to create their own image, their own universe of superhero and comedy cartoons

[@blueblur2273]

Agreed. I think that also played a part in hurting them as well. While those who didn't have cable got to see shows they were missing out on. Those who did have cable had no reason to check in and watch a show they already watched on CN. So it hurt them in the long run.

[@SSJ491]

Both Fox Kids and Kids' WB children program blocks that I started watching Saturday morning cartoons in late summer of 1995 as a toddler back then during my preschool/elementary school years. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was the very first show that I started watching Fox Kids on July 1995, and Animaniacs was the very first show that I started watching Kids' WB on September 9, 1995 during my childhood years.

[@bradyanderson6311]

@@SSJ491 you wished it aired MGM's Little Rascals.

[@SSJ491]

@bradyanderson6311 MGM's Little Rascals? Sorry, I didn't watch it as a kid back then.

[@bradyanderson6311]

@@SSJ491 TNT aired it as you forgot.

[@gorillazzilla]

Oh man, this WB advert bumper is on my VHS copy of Pokémon the Movie.

[@issybella66]

Here in Australia we had our own version of kids WB it was a bit different to the American version we had hosts and the line up was different we had shows like Ben 10 , Batman and Scooby doo mystery incorporated the block started in 2006 after the American one had ended

[@DLCOrganization]

"Channel Umptee-3"? They must have had an EVER-SO-CLEVER way of keeping the show away from airing in the East Coast, because I, who watched Kids' WB religiously, have NEVER seen this show on the Saturday block.

[@andrejg4136]

I keep forgetting that show exists, and then I see it in obscure 90s show compilations and I'm like "Oh wait that was a thing wasn't it" and then I forget about it until I see it again. It's like a ship passing in the night I guess, in my mind.

[@DLCOrganization]

@@andrejg4136 -- I contend this show had to have been from the early 2000s, not the late '90s.

[@pennysanchez7656]

Well, this cartoon is one of the many cartoons of being a victim of being treated poorly by the network, probably its one of the shows to fulfill the E/I requirements (since it has educational content) that had terrible ratings and Kids WB had no other choice but to cancel it.

[@misterzygarde6431]

Anyone remember watching reruns of Static Shock, Batman TAS, Superman TAS, and Pinky and the Brain on Jetix? When it was before Disney bought Marvel. Also I do vaguely remember watching the Hoenn saga of the Pokemon anime when I was 2, I’m not sure it was a rerun on Cartoon Network or if it was on Kids WB.

[@bencemeitert5146]

Born date?

[@bradyanderson6311]

@@bencemeitert5146 Static came to Disney XD, not Jetix.

[@bencemeitert5146]

@@bradyanderson6311 Your born date? 80's? 90's?

[@bradyanderson6311]

@@bencemeitert5146 I'm 29 until November 4th.

[@MrGabeanator]

One Saturday morning and kids wb that’s my childhood Saturday mornings

[@arielfangirlmendez]

Do they put every celebrities on kids wb like *nsync and backstreet boys?

[@andrejg4136]

Haha, man cross promotion was always a thing...

[@daghettoghost5539]

The og Pokémon was lightning in a bottle and I was there for it and after they came out with all the contentions I quit watching it I haven’t seen another Pokémon series since 2003 and I will die on that hill kids wb was what raised me as a little kid I found an old vhs with Batman beyond and mib the animated series on it I’m pretty sure from 1999 I wish I still had it that combined with Yu-Gi-Oh and many others was home for me for may year u have unlocked a lot of my childhood I forgot about thank you rip to our childhood home ladies and gentlemen we will forever remember it with smiles laughs and tears Rest In Peace kids WB thank you for all the fun and laughs

[@BrianAwesome]

It woulda' been nice if Freakazoid, AND Tazmania was also on "The Big Cartoonie Show" (alongside the other Steven Spielberg shows).

[@memeelfman324]

When part 3 (edit: oh yeah it’s today)

[@GatorRay]

Damn Warner Bros is REALLY trying to forget the DCAU happened given that both you & a KZbinr I follow named J got hit for using footage from shows in that universe (The latter did an entire retrospective on it BTW I recommend giving it a watch)

[@andrejg4136]

you have a class of executives who will go to their grave thinking animation is a worthless medium for serious storytelling. The DCAU should have been well into it's 4th phase by now. Yeah the Timm-verse wasn't gonna last 30 years but DC related animation should be a far more solid footing for television given how DC is supposedly important for WarnerMedia.

[@stereo-k4x]

can you do an attack of the block on fox kids

[@aaronstevenson4136]

What the hell is umpteenth 3?

[@pennysanchez7656]

So, Channel Umptee 3 is about this talking ostrich who wants to make a TV channel to show the world is awesome after he pulled out of his head out of the ground one day. And so he and his animal friends which include a snail and a mute gopher run a private and illegal TV station, where they teach viewers about various subjects (it is an E/I show after all) while avoiding being thwarted by the Frumps who would want to shut them down so they can take over but they fail every time. Sadly, due to lackluster ratings on the network, Kids WB had no other choice but to pull the block and searching the series is hard to come by. The sad thing is, at its current state, Channel Umptee 3 is extremely hard to find, not helping that the show didn't last a whole year before it left, and the best bet is going through Internet Archive to see some of the episodes.

[@bendyman1809]

This is a re-upload also first

[@athemocracy]

Indeed it is. I had to adjust/remove sections of the video that were copyright claimed by WarnerBros.

[@bendyman1809]

@@athemocracy understandable

[@CosmicSponge2004]

@@athemocracy I Assume Those Were Just Straight Show Clips

[@SoranErdeOld]

@@CosmicSponge2004 I’m surprised that WB still cares about Kids’ WB if that’s the case, especially since they abandoned it in 2008 to let 4kids do their block (The CW4kids) where the former used to be.

[@andrejg4136]

@@SoranErdeOld They might not care about the programming blocks, but they will fight you to death over footage if they really want to push it. It just be that way sometimes...

[@burrybondz225]

Why did flx buy animanics in the early 90s? The whole thing is a WB commercial.

[@nhieltesorero2963]

Like

[@humblegrind8]

Damn I wish I wasn't born in 99

[@andrejg4136]

Don't be mad that you were born in the wrong year, but be glad you have people with enough solid memory and storytelling capacity to show you what it was like before your 'time'. I'm the same way about 80s cartoons. I was too young to know them for myself in the time that they premiered, but the combination of reruns, re-releases, and people 10+ years older than me telling me whats up has clued me in to a degree I feel like, I get it even if I can't get it completely for myself.

[@aaronstevenson4136]

nobody cared for rescue heroes.

[@devinmcgee5265]

5/5

[@ModernMedusa]

I think another KZbinr stole your line about Pokemon being more popular that fidget spinners, fornite etc. combined lol. I just watched it before this 🤣

[@andrejg4136]

Peak Pokemania was absolutely goddamn insane. Yes Pokemon as a mature multi-media franchise makes more total revenue now than it did then, but you can never underestimate what novel-ness does for you in terms of mindshare with the public.

[@blueblur2273]

@@andrejg4136 Yep it's like how Wrestling makes more money now but was way hotter back in the 90s

[@brandongovreau9218]

In the future when Holograms get perfected does anyone else want to ask Konami to please make Yu-Gi-Oh a reality with real hologram monsters hologram trap cards hologram spell cards like it is in the Yu-Gi-Oh anime trust me Konami you would get so rich you would make Pokemon blush

[@andrejg4136]

I mean, at the rate we are going, it will be easier to implement AR style duels like in ZEXAL than 'hard'-light holograms in Duel Monsters. TBH we're right on the edge of what was featured in VRAINS with VR Duels in a fantastical sub-space.

[@ghostface1628]

One of the best times not to have cable

[@blueblur2273]

Sure but you missed out on a lot if you didn't have it neither.