10 Years Ago: Stuart Synder Quit His Job At Cartoon Network

[JUS28]

On March of 2014, former CN president, Stuart Synder, had a falling out with then Turner president David Leavy. Whatever that was, he left Cartoon Network for good. 4 months later, Christina Miller was named the new president of Cartoon Network.

Looking back, I don't know why fans keep saying that Synder was the bad guy for bringing in live-action shows (it all started under Jim Samples, anyway). Yet when Christina became the new president, people want her dead for overexposing Teen Titans Go! It's ridiculous!

But still, Synder DID turn Adventure Time into a successful franchise. Yes both Synder and Miller aren't perfect, but they're not evil folks. I think it's time we owe both of them an apology.

By the way, here's the article:

Farewell To Stu Snyder, The Man Who Tried To Make Cartoon Network Cartoon-Less

In a world of dumb animation execs, Stu Snyder made a sincere effort to be the dumbest. He was the genius who led a campaign to remove cartoons from Cartoon Network. Now, he's leaving Cartoon Network.

www.cartoonbrew.com

 

[Goldstar!]

Looking back, I don't know why fans keep saying that Synder was the bad guy for bringing in live-action shows (it all started under Jim Samples, anyway)

I'm not proud of this, but I was one of those people. Back then, I was very much anti-live action on Cartoon Network and was one of the loudest protesters. But of course, I look back on that time with a touch of embarrassment. Looking back, I now realize that 24 hours is a long time to program for, and Cartoon Network, like any basic cable channel, needed not only original programming, but cheap original programming. Animated shows are not only more expensive to produce, but they take longer to produce than live action shows. A network can whip out 2 or 3 episodes of a live action series in the time that it takes to produce 1 episode of animated series.

I've mentioned this before, but CN Real wasn't an inherently bad idea. Under the right direction, the block could have worked. The main problem with CN Real was that with the exceptions of Unnatural History and Tower Prep, most of the shows on CN Real were reality based, and while it's true that unscripted shows are cheaper to produce, kids for the most part, aren't into reality TV. The only non-scripted shows that kids gravitate to are game shows. If WB had aired some live action shows that were based on animated properties (EX: Filmation's Shazam! or the Adam West Batman series) or were at least cartoon-adjacent l(EX: The Aquabats Super Show and the Sid and Marty Krofft shows), CN Real might have lasted another couple of years. As for Tower Prep and Unnatural History, those shows were actually pretty well received, despite their not being cartoons. Those shows were canceled because they both were watched more by young girls than young boys, and Snyder wanted CN to be "boy-centric, girl-inclusive", so anything that was perceived as being a "girl's show" had to go.

Yet when Christina Miller became the new president, people want her dead for overexposing Teen Titans Go! It's ridiculous!

Yeah, Teen Titans Go! was run into the ground when it made it's debut on CN, that's true, but the same can be said about Johnny Test when that was the hot new show that was loved by 10-year-old boys but hated by everyone else. And the exact same thing was happening with Phineas & Ferb over on Disney Channel and with SpongeBob Squarepants on Nickelodeon. The fact of the matter is that networks wouldn't spam their "it" shows into the ground is kids didn't keep coming back to watch them every time. Look at how long reruns of Charmed and Supernatural were running on TNT. Lots of channels do this. It's not just a CN thing. Sure, it's annoying, but at the same time, you can't entirely fault the networks for running what they think their target audience wants to see.

 

[Silverstar]

Given the current dismal state of the American Cartoon Network, I'm sure now there are people who are nostalgic for the Stuart Snyder era. I think we owe both him and Tom Ascheim an apology.

 

[Ace]

I agree with anyone that although I hated the focus on live action Stu Synder knew what the problem was and that problem was the lack of perceived maturity cartoons had.

I think I understand why kids would feel that way because there really wasn't much good effort put into animation at the time. This was a time in the late 00s-early 10s when Nick seemed to be treating cartoons as more like cheap colorful distractions for children than anything of quality. The more recent cartoons on CN in the late 00s were more middle of the road in quality and never did anything to remove that preception.

I think he did a lot by greenlighting shows that would eventually carry them for the first half of the decade, bringing Total Drama and 6teen to USA and not treating them to an afternoon burn off was a smart decision.

I do think Synder's opinion on girl centric programming would be his achilles heel because that was one thing that kept them from being on the same level as their competitors Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. They forgot that PPG was their biggest hit back in the day. They needed a more gender-neutral direction.

 

[JMTV]

Looking back, I don't know why fans keep saying that Synder was the bad guy for bringing in live-action shows (it all started under Jim Samples, anyway).

To be honest with you, I don't really watch live action shows on Cartoon Network as a kid, but I don't really hated them as much as everybody else does.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of CN Real either, but I can understand why this block exists. Nick and Disney was doing very well with their live action shows, so of course CN wanted to get that piece of the pie. And with animation being expensive to produce, live action is more quicker as the network needs to put new content as much as possible, even if just made for a song. Like @Goldstar! said, the concept of CN Real could work if it was given the right direction like making live action shows that featured superheroes or cartoons or at least cartoon-adjacent. The problem is the execution was just terrible.

To be fair, the CN Real shows themselves weren't horrible, and it had its moments, but it just don't belong on a animation channel. At least Out of Jimmy's Head does "feel" like a Cartoon Network show, but that's not say much since that show has piss-poor execution too.

Yet when Christina became the new president, people want her dead for overexposing Teen Titans Go! It's ridiculous!

I don't hate Christina Miller, but I'm not a big fan of her either. With that said, I'm not gonna crap on her just because she's overexposing Teen Titans Go. It's not really her fault. It's more likely the higher ups at Turner Broadcasting grabs Vinshu by his ball-sack who was forced to air Teen Titans Go 24/7.

The people who are in charge of Cartoon Network, both the studios side and the actual broadcasting side, are passionate about it. They love all the shows there. What shows being pushed over others? It's not a reflection at all towards to the employees feel about every individual show. Hell, I'm pretty sure Christina Miller burned out a lot of Teen Titans Go too for all we know, but her and her team, they're in a situation where if the ratings continues to dwindle, advertisers are gonna go bye-bye. So, it's hard for them to take those risk.

Then again, CN also had a history of over-airing a popular show to death before TTG. Remember Johnny Test? I'm surprised people forgot about that.

Plus, say what you will about CN in 2017, at least they still had other shows you can watch.

But still, Synder DID turn Adventure Time into a successful franchise. Yes both Synder and Miller aren't perfect, but they're not evil folks. I think it's time we owe both of them an apology.

Thank you. Both them and Tom Aschiem deserves a huge apology.

 

[Red Arrow]

I remember seeing the Stuart Snyder photos with devil horns. So childish.

I liked Stuart Snyder at the time and now I like him even more. He gave green light to every CN original from Adventure Time (2010) to We Bare Bears (2015). Those cartoons were fantastic and nearly everything after it just didn't ring a bell for me.

Of course, it was easier for me to ignore CN Real because we almost didn't get any live-action here in Europe. However, even in the USA, the channel largely kept its focus on animation. I guess the hatred was the largest in 2009, when so many cartoons were getting cancelled and it was unknown that 2010 was going to be so amazing. I was still 11/12 years old back then and too young to grasp any of it. However, I do think most of the Stuart Snyder haters weren't that much older.

I remember being so excited when Christina Miller became president and she said in an interview that she wanted more international coherence. Yes, we are finally going to get something closer to the American Cartoon Network! Little did I know that she meant spamming Teen Titans Go and Gumball internationally But as much as I hate the spamming and as much as I don't like Christina Miller's bunch of cartoons (aside from Craig of the Creek and Infinity Train), I didn't hate Christina Miller either. She obviously did her best and that's something I can't say about, for example, Cyma Zarghami and Brian Robbins. (And no, I don't hate Brian Robbins either. I do hold a grudge against Cyma Zarghami because of the way Nickelodeon treated its teenage actors)

As for Micheal Ouweleen*, I think it has become painfully clear that while he is the "president" of Cartoon Network, he still has to follow the orders of the people higher up the corporate ladder. And they probably have to follow the orders of the shareholders or something. Keep in mind that Discovery Warner Bros is in crippling debt. The shift towards cartoons for younger children is super disappointing, but understandable under those circumstances.

(*It's a funny surname. It means Old Leen in Dutch, with Leen being a female given name)

 

[5YearsOnEastCoast]

10 years already passed since Stuart Snyder quit CN? Time flies by.

I do remember hearing about how much hate he got back in the day... and yeah people online treated him as Devil. Yeah him as president as CN was far from perfect, but compared to certain other CEOs of entertainment industries, it could have been a lot worse. I recall that the biggest thing against him was introducing live-action shows to CN. Tho it is questionable if that was his decision. I recall what RebelTaxi once said about this debate, that it doesn't take a single person to run a network. Like yeah there were live action shows during his time, but live-action were on CN before he became the president. I mean weren't there live action movies shown during Jim Samples era starting in 2005 and Re-Animated movie and then Out of Jimmy's Head got greenlight during his tenure. Granted this at least seems more exclusively for CN USA feed (I don't remember any live-action stuff being shown on CN in late 2000s in Serbia, tho I saw some live action stuff in early 2010s like Level Up), but at least 75% of people online seem to focus more on CN USA.

So would live action shows not happen even if Stuart Snyder wasn't president of CN? Yeah you might say CN Real wouldn't exist, or at least not in form we know it, but like was CN Real his idea or was that idea of some other higher-up? Granted I don't know what was his stance on live-action shows on CN were back then.

Also funnily enough despite backlash against him, under his regime, he greenlighted some of not just successful CN shows ever like Adventure Time and Regular Show, but they were also some of the most acclaimed cartoons ever made.

 

[Markus Nelis]

Whether you like Snyder or not, he made a new era of great animation in the 2010s with the most successful Cartoon Network shows of all time. Adventure Time, Regular Show. Gumball is still ongoing. He was at the beginning meh but in 3 years it all turned to be great.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

The day that Cartoon Network died.

 

[Frank]

The funniest thing about the Christina Miller era is how little they aired Steven Universe. By the end of the 2010s, SU was the highest rated show on CN, but for some reason reruns were rarely aired. Was there any reasons why reruns of SU were so rare?

 

[Fone Bone]

The funniest thing about the Christina Miller era is how little they aired Steven Universe. By the end of the 2010s, SU was the highest rated show on CN, but for some reason reruns were rarely aired. Was there any reasons why reruns of SU were so rare?

Because it was serialized. Reruns of serialized shows do poorly in ratings.

 

[JMTV]

Because it was serialized. Reruns of serialized shows do poorly in ratings.

That, and Cartoon Network decided to drop episodes on Steven Universe on to their app and website before it gets to air on TV, but you got to get a cable log-in for you to watch it. Even if they premiered new episodes exclusively on cable, they promoted it with little to no fanfare.

Keep in mind, this is back before the streaming wars was a thing.

Heck, Steven Universe is not only one has accessibility problems. I heard Adventure Time, Regular Show and Uncle Grandpa has this problem towards their tail end of their run.

This was during a time when CN was promoting their cable log-in app back in the mid 2010’s. CN wants their app as not as addition to cable, but as a replacement to cable due to the target demographic don’t watch cable TV anymore. That’s why aired new episodes onto the app before they get to air on TV.

To be fair, it’s not a horrible idea since I do understand Miller’s method of adapting with the times, but the execution was just poor.

 

[mqg96]

Everyone here has made so many excellent points. I was also one of those pundits as a teenager in the late 00’s and early 10’s, who was immature on YouTube comment sections and said nothing but negative things about Stuart Snyder.


Now… I look back, think back, and realized what we had back then ‘til it was gone. Stuart Snyder did make mistakes but so did Jim Samples. Stuart Snyder also had lineups on CN that appealed to all ages, in a way you had not seen since the Powerhouse years. Nothing against the City era which I enjoyed but CN mostly targeted kids more during that time. I can confidentially say now based on the majority of (former) opinions back then. Jim Samples was overrated while Stuart Snyder was underrated.


We can talk about or debate about which period had more variety/selection of shows, what period had the quality over quantity, or what time we were in before or after streaming took over.


Here’s how I look at it. The casual audience focuses on the original programming… the programming animated inside the home studios. That matters most. Those are the series that gets the most advertisement, promotion and attention. There are former kids (now adults) who had extracurricular activities or sports after school, who didn’t even get to experience weekday Toonami or Miguzi. Some parents had more restrictions. So the Primetime slots for original programming was the only time they could watch cartoons…

Betty Cohen brought in those iconic original Cartoon Cartoons. Many of those started off on World Premiere Toons… others started off on the Big Pick Show. You still see merchandise for those at the Cartoon Network store today. Stuart Snyder’s early 2010’s original programming.. super iconic for all ages. Became cultural phenomenons. You see those merchandise everywhere as well. I’m sorry Jim Samples, the City era was very creative… but outside of a few, why was most of your original programming lackluster for much of the mid 00’s and late 00’s? Why did so many of these series only lasted a season or two, and I hardly see any merch or shirts for these compared to Cohen or Snyder’s originals? To me, this matters big time.

 

[aegisrawks]

He turned out to be MUCH better than people give him credit for. Sure he did the INFURIATING CN Real era and my friend Chibi Goku thinks he cost Precure a chance to premiere in the USA but he is MUCH better in hindsight.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

Everyone here has made so many excellent points. I was also one of those pundits as a teenager in the late 00’s and early 10’s, who was immature on YouTube comment sections and said nothing but negative things about Stuart Snyder.


Now… I look back, think back, and realized what we had back then ‘til it was gone. Stuart Snyder did make mistakes but so did Jim Samples. Stuart Snyder also had lineups on CN that appealed to all ages, in a way you had not seen since the Powerhouse years. Nothing against the City era which I enjoyed but CN mostly targeted kids more during that time. I can confidentially say now based on the majority of (former) opinions back then. Jim Samples was overrated while Stuart Snyder was underrated.


We can talk about or debate about which period had more variety/selection of shows, what period had the quality over quantity, or what time we were in before or after streaming took over.


Here’s how I look at it. The casual audience focuses on the original programming… the programming animated inside the home studios. That matters most. Those are the series that gets the most advertisement, promotion and attention. There are former kids (now adults) who had extracurricular activities or sports after school, who didn’t even get to experience weekday Toonami or Miguzi. Some parents had more restrictions. So the Primetime slots for original programming was the only time they could watch cartoons…

Betty Cohen brought in those iconic original Cartoon Cartoons. Many of those started off on World Premiere Toons… others started off on the Big Pick Show. You still see merchandise for those at the Cartoon Network store today. Stuart Snyder’s early 2010’s original programming.. super iconic for all ages. Became cultural phenomenons. You see those merchandise everywhere as well. I’m sorry Jim Samples, the City era was very creative… but outside of a few, why was most of your original programming lackluster for much of the mid 00’s and late 00’s? Why did so many of these series only lasted a season or two, and I hardly see any merch or shirts for these compared to Cohen or Snyder’s originals? To me, this matters big time.

You could make An argument that he's the best President in Cartoon Network history.

 

[JMTV]

You could make An argument that he's the best President in Cartoon Network history.

Better than Betty Cohan? I wouldn't go that far. Better than Christina Miller? I agree.

 

[Daikun]

Stuart Snyder had an interesting tenure on CN. The first half of his time there was one of CN's worst eras, and the second half was among CN's best. I think he really listened to the criticism regarding the network's miserable state at the time and made a surprising turnaround.

 

[colomb]

As for Tower Prep and Unnatural History, those shows were actually pretty well received, despite their not being cartoons. Those shows were canceled because they both were watched more by young girls than young boys, and Snyder wanted CN to be "boy-centric, girl-inclusive", so anything that was perceived as being a "girl's show" had to go.

New episodes of Tower Prep overall averaged below 1 million viewers, significantly lower than even acquired programming, and Dini's original excuse was that Adventure Time's success convinced them to stick to cartoons, no reason to believe Dini there.

 

[aegisrawks]

New episodes of Tower Prep overall averaged below 1 million viewers, significantly lower than even acquired programming, and Dini's original excuse was that Adventure Time's success convinced them to stick to cartoons, no reason to believe Dini there.

Yeah I agree. If shows with over 1 million viewers get cancelled its not unheard of cancelling a show that underperforms.

 

[wonderfly]

The day that Cartoon Network died.

I checked, and that's not on my list of "The 10 Deaths of Cartoon Network".

If you can backtrack to a year prior (in March/April of 2013), when "Green Lantern" and "Young Justice" and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" ended on Cartoon Network (and then "Teen Titans Go" premiered), that might be close to when it "all went wrong".