List of Programs Broadcast By The WB - Cartoon

Cartoon

• Baby Blues (2000) – In 2000, Baby Blues was adapted into an animated cartoon, which aired on The WB Television Network, produced by Warner Bros. Television and Warner Bros. Animation, with the overseas animation done by Rough Draft Studios for the first 5 episodes, then Sunwoo Entertainment for the rest of the episodes, for a few weeks in the summer, from July 28, 2000 to August 25, 2000. The animated version featured Darryl and Wanda raising the infant Zoe as their first child, as distinct from the comic strip's storyline at the time which showed Zoe as the older sister to Hammie. Mike O'Malley voiced Darryl, while Julia Sweeney played Wanda. The Baby Blues television series differed from the comic strip by focusing on Darryl and Wanda's relationship with the Bittermans, a neighbor family with three children (Rodney, Megan, and Shelby); Kenny, Darryl's co-worker; and Bizzy, the babysitter for Zoe. Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott had little creative control over the animated version. The WB typically aired two episodes each week, thus enabling eight different episodes to be shown in the five-week run, but abandoned plans to air additional episodes which had been completed. Previously unaired episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, and on TeleToon in Canada. The show was canceled after 13 episodes. A second season's run of 13 episodes was produced but never aired.

• Freakazoid (1996) – Freakazoid! premiered on Kids' WB Saturday lineup on September 9, 1995. During its run, Freakazoid! came across problems of appealing to its target demographic, young children. Tom Ruegger said that Freakazoid! had done poorly in ratings because the audience that the series gathered was older than the target audience. Also, Freakazoid! ran into timeslot problems. Writer John McCann said that the timeslot of the series changed frequently: "They put it at eight o' clock in the morning, three-thirty in the afternoon, they shifted it all around; we couldn't even find it, and we wrote the thing". The series ran on Kids' WB until February 14, 1997, when it was canceled due to poor ratings, airing only one complete season and part of a second season. The second season episode "Hero Boy" later won a Daytime Emmy Award. Rugg said the series' demise was the result of a combination of people not understanding the series, timeslot changes, appealing to the wrong demographics, and that "(...) there aren't a lot of Nielsen boxes in federal prisons. Had there been, I'm telling you, we'd still be on the air today". Bruce Timm said that the series still has a cult following of fans who ask him questions about the series whenever they meet him.

• Invasion America (1998) – Invasion America is an animated science fiction miniseries that aired in the prime time lineup on The WB Television Network and later as a part of the Kids' WB programming block. Produced by DreamWorks Animation (then part of DreamWorks proper, now its own company), the series was created by Steven Spielberg and Harve Bennett, who also served as executive producers.

• Mission Hill (1999–2000) – Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 episodes were produced. The show was put on hiatus by the WB Network after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned to the WB in the summer of 2000 but was canceled after four additional episodes. The show went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Teletoon's "Teletoon Unleashed" block, Cartoon Network's popular late night programing block, Adult Swim and Too Funny To Sleep, a late night programing block on TBS.

• The Oblongs (2001) - The show premiered on April 1, 2001 on The WB but failed to find an audience. On May 20, 2001, The WB aired "Disfigured Debbie", the second episode produced, as the season finale, leaving five episodes unaired. A fan of the series who was writing an episode guide at TV Tome informed creator Angus Oblong of the show's cancellation and rallied fans of the series to petition and encourage the network to renew the show. Ultimately, the petition was unsuccessful. In August 2002, the series found a home on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, where it received high ratings when many fans discovered the series for the first time.

• Pinky and the Brain (1995–1996, 1997) – Pinky and the Brain first appeared as a recurring segment on the animated series Animaniacs, another show produced by Steven Spielberg. On September 14, 1993, Pinky and the Brain premiered on television in the episode Win Big, which aired on the FOX Kids network. On September 9, 1995, Pinky and the Brain were spun off onto their own half-hour series on Kids' WB, with each episode consisting of one or more segments, including some of the segments from Animaniacs. The first season of the show was scheduled in a prime-time slot from September 10, 1995 through July 21, 1996 as part of the new WB Network lineup, and as a result, tended to have more jokes and humor aimed to adults rather than children. Due to poor ratings, subsequent seasons were moved to Saturday mornings as part of the Kids' WB programming block. Even though they had their own show, they still had several shorts in Animaniacs after they got the show, they still appeared in the shows intro, and often appeared in cameo appearances. Around 1997, the overall structure within the WB Network changed, including the placement of Jamie Kellner as head of the Kids WB programming. Along with this came pressure on the writers of the show to back off on the idea of world domination and to include more characters on the show. The episode "Pinky and the Brain ... and Larry" was a response to this pressure, attempting to show the heads that the show was fine as it was and that Pinky and the Brain worked together as a comedy duo- each balancing each other out with their flaws and personalities- and a third character (or any extra characters at all) would be out of place and unnecessary to the plot. At this point, Peter Hastings, a key writer for the series, decided to quit the show out of anger and protest, with his last script being, "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town, Again!" directly addressing the issue of networks trying to retool shows that otherwise work already. With increased pressure from the WB network, the series was retooled on September 19, 1998 into Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, in which Pinky and the Brain were owned by Tiny Toons character Elmyra Duff; the unusual change in format was even sarcastically noted in the altered title song, with lyrics such as "It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?". The show lasted for 13 episodes, 6 of which were shown whole and 7 of which were chopped into segments and aired as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show.

• The PJs (2000-2001, acquired from Fox) – 42 episodes aired during the show's three-year run. Each took over two months to produce, owing to the laborious stop-motion process. After two seasons on Fox, the show moved to The WB in 2000. Its high budget and declining ratings led to its cancellation in 2001; the final three episodes were not aired until 2003.