Toonami - History

History

Toonami was Cartoon Network's primary action-animation block. The block, which made its world premiere on Monday, March 17, 1997, initially replaced Power Zone, Cartoon Network's most recent incarnation of the Super Adventures block which had been a staple on the network since October 1, 1992. Toonami was originally a weekday afternoon cartoon and action block hosted by Space Ghost villain-turned-producer Moltar at the Ghost Planet Industries building from 1997 to July 9, 1999.

On Saturday, July 10, 1999, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami with a new environment, the Ghost Planet Spaceship Absolution, and a new host named T.O.M.. The night also introduced the Toonami Midnight Run late night block which was originally a five-hour Saturday night block (technically Sunday) at midnight EST until March 2000, when it moved to weeknights in an hour-long format until January 2003.

In 2005, Toonami was added to the TV and video on demand kids' package for VNL's HomeChoice (now TalkTalk TV). Broadcasting for the channel involved using advanced MPEG-4 compression technology, the first TV channel in the world to do so.

On Saturday, April 17, 2004, Toonami was moved from weekday afternoons to a Saturday evening slot, where it aired regularly for five hours starting at 7 p.m. EST. Beginning October 27, 2007, it was cut back to two hours starting at 9 p.m. EST. On September 20, 2008, Toonami aired its final broadcast. However, on May 26, 2012, Toonami was brought back as a Saturday midnight action block on Adult Swim.