Remember the golden age of digital cable cartoon channels?

[HunterMon17]

Back in the day if you had analog cable TV, you essentially got 4 channels to watch cartoons: PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. This was where all the current cartoons aired their new episodes, along with limited reruns of recently ended shows.

If you had a digital cable box though, it was a whole different ball game. You got to have extra channels, including Discovery Kids, Toon Disney, Noggin, Nick GaS, Boomerang, Nicktoons Network, and PBS Kids Sprout. This was where you could find syndicated reruns of cartoons from the main 4 channels, many including shows that were no longer airing there, along with limited original series.

Those days didn't last though. Around the mid-2010s, those digital cable channels started phasing out a lot of the older syndicated reruns, and instead aired more recently ended shows and original content, most of which were rejects from the main 4 channels.

 

[DonkeyKongSong]

Nicktoons took an interesting direction in the late 2000s/early '10s. Apparently, Dragon Ball Z Kai was a sleeper hit for the network so they tried to rebrand in an action direction (Speed Racer: The Next Generation and Wolverine and the X-Men preceding it seemed to have been an attempt at that, plus they started spamming Avatar the way the regular net does SpongeBob) and they acquired LBX, Monsuno, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, Power Rangers, Huntik, but very few of those were able to replicate the success of Kai and they just reverted back to comedy.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Yes I do, except that my cable package didn’t have boomerang. Also I don’t remember Noggin or Nick Gas playing that many cartoons....

 

[wonderfly]

Back in the day if you had analog cable TV, you essentially got 4 channels to watch cartoons: PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. This was where all the current cartoons aired their new episodes, along with limited reruns of recently ended shows.

If you had a digital cable box though, it was a whole different ball game. You got to have extra channels, including Discovery Kids, Toon Disney, Noggin, Nick GaS, Boomerang, Nicktoons Network, and PBS Kids Sprout. This was where you could find syndicated reruns of cartoons from the main 4 channels, many including shows that were no longer airing there, along with limited original series.

Those days didn't last though. Around the mid-2010s, those digital cable channels started phasing out a lot of the older syndicated reruns, and instead aired more recently ended shows and original content, most of which were rejects from the main 4 channels.

I guess I had what you call "analog cable TV". My parents had "Dish Network" though, and that had all of the extra channels you referenced.

So what's the time period for this "Golden Age" you mentioned, from Early 2000's to Mid 2010's? Seems like kind of a long "Golden Age". I mean, Boomerang launched all the way back in 2000, and "Toon Disney" launched in 1998. The "best years" for those channels were in the early 2000's, I think....

 

[HunterMon17]

I guess I had what you call "analog cable TV". My parents had "Dish Network" though, and that had all of the extra channels you referenced.

So what's the time period for this "Golden Age" you mentioned, from Early 2000's to Mid 2010's? Seems like kind of a long "Golden Age". I mean, Boomerang launched all the way back in 2000, and "Toon Disney" launched in 1998. The "best years" for those channels were in the early 2000's, I think....

Discovery Kids/The Hub: 1996-2014
Toon Disney/Disney XD: 1998-2012
Noggin/Nick Jr: 1999-2012
Nick GaS/The N/TeenNick: 1999-2009
Boomerang: 2000-2015
Nicktoons: 2002-2013
PBS Kids Sprout: 2005-2013

 

[wonderfly]

Discovery Kids/The Hub: 1996-2014
Toon Disney/Disney XD: 1998-2012
Noggin/Nick Jr: 1999-2012
Nick GaS/The N/TeenNick: 1999-2009
Boomerang: 2000-2015
Nicktoons: 2002-2013
PBS Kids Sprout: 2005-2013

Okay, well, I would still say the "Best years" ("Golden Age"?) for most of those networks was from 1999 to 2005, roughly.

 

[LinusFan303]

I didn't really have those channels in the most of their existences ., My Discovery kids expose before 2007 was on NBC, that's where I enjoyed Time Warp Trio and Kenny the Shark, etc.. I had gotten the full channel in late 2007. I had Nick Gas before it died and then had the N, I did like the N. I had Toon Disney before it died, (common theme) Never really got ot see Nicktoons network in it's really good stage , sadly. Never ever had Boomerang, Comcast seemed to be against having it.

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

All I've got were week-long glimpses from a preview channel via Adelphia in the mid-2000s (Nicktoons Network, Toon Disney) and other sorts of occasions (like the Hub, which was only available on a TV set that was mostly used by my parents). Our cable provider post-Adelphia has been Comcast, so I also have yet to see Boomerang.

I recorded Toon Disney overnight one time, as it was back when the channel aired Garfield and Friends in the night owl hours (too late for me at the time).