Cartoon Network Fridays [Talkback to the Producers/Writers]

[Long Haul]

We at Cartoon Network Fridays would like to see what you guys think of our new approach to the night. We are interested in seeing your feedback on the hosts (Tommy and Nzinga), the bits (Long Haul, Rev Chase and Motor Baby, What's that Baby Lookin' At, and soon, Diner Lady) and the kids in the audience.

Let us know in this thread.

[Red]

....and you are who?

[Brian Cruz]

....and you are who?

Like it says in his profile, he's Andy Merrill, one of the writer/producers for Fridays.

[zmanjz]

Hmmm... I generally only watch Fridays when there's a Movie of some sort that I haven't seen yet.

When I was an undergrad, I tended to watch CCF more (and I really liked having some of the characters from the shows as hosts.)


But the new fridays, with the kids and live hosts and everything is not bad, but not what I'm interested.

Cartoon Cartoon Fridays had more of a segue after Toonami was over, that if I was busy I'd let it run in the background. The New Fridays is noticible enough however that I'd probably put on MSNBC and watch Hardball.

(But then as a 23/M I'm seriously outside the intended demographic. so what can I say. If I had my way, CN would be nearly all Adult Swim, Toonami and Looney Toons.)

I guess one thing that would get me to watch would be if Voice actors ever show up (I never miss a Conan O'Brien where someone like Dan Castellaneta or other VAs appear.)

[Duke]

I honestly haven't watched as much Fridays as I have wanted, but from what I've seen, the new hosts are a lot better than seeing the Mayor say the same things he's said the past 20 times he's hosted for 4 hours.

BTW, love the intro.

[zmanjz]

BTW, love the intro.
Ok, the Intro's pretty cool too. ;)

[Tienshin]

I am by a large margin outside the targeted audience, but for what it's worth.

The hosts are good likable types that come across well on screen, and if the intent was to have "personalities" versus "characters" I think you guys hit the mark. The bits are for the most part entertaining, at first I was caught off guard by how they seemed to randomly just pop up, but that I guess that adds a festive element to the equation. Also "whats that baby looking at" is probably my favorite of the current crop.

I am indifferent to the kids in the audience, but I imagine that helps the target demographic relate to the programming and the CCF presentation (omg, that could be me!), so why not. Along those lines, I have always thought having the adults present and mingling with the kids (not including roles in bits) was out of place.

[Ben]

Since I'm here, I've only seen one thing from the new CCF, the Whiskers clip on the website where he says Red Ruby Grapefruit. It reminded me of the Goon Show intro where Greenslade says, "And now, a word from our sponsor," and Seacombe says, "Blood orange!" "Next week another word. But first--"

Totally random and 100% useless to you. But what can I say to the man whose songs and voices I imitated to make myself popular (or at least freakishly amusing, which was good enough for me) as an adolescent? I dunno. Suggestions? What would you like to have said to you?

Thanks for making my Saturday afternoons full of weirdness. May the red line continue to go up!

[Obi]

It's pretty good. A bit insane, but I sort of expect that from someone whose worked for Williams Street. ;)


IMO, the best part is the soap opera spoofs. Seeing Tommy and Nzinga all dressed up and overacting is great.


And as Duke said, the intro is great.


(Hm...guess I don't have much to say.)

[Discloner]

Its all around fun.

At first the thought of live action hosts kind of threw me off. I mean, we'd been getting Cartoon hosts on a cartoon network for quite some time, and something as foreign as live action on the network seemed very similar to what Nick was currently doing.

Needless to say I didn't want CN to go in that direction.

After a while though I warmed up to the hosts and the overall presentation. That opening kicks, and the pure random humor always makes me laugh, or gets my attention if I've just got the tv on for background noise. More recently Rev Chase and Motor Baby, have got me laughing pretty hard...partially because I hadn't a clue what the heck was happening, but also because they reminded me of Walter and Perry.

It seems like you engage the kids who are on-stage for the presentation as well, which is another good thing. I'll also agree with Duke that the host's soap opera skits always make me smile.

Overall I'm pleased with the way things turned out for the Friday night block. Like someone else mention, it definetly beats listening to the Mayor or Dexter say the same thing for the 100th time. The humor and interaction are much diffrent from that of Nick's live action hosts. Which is a good thing. :p

And for those who don't care about presentation, and tend to pay more attention to the shows, the block's pretty much covered. LOVED 'Party Wagon', and I've enjoyed numerous Cartoon Cartoons and various specials on the block as well.

Keep up the good work. :)

[CookieS]

I run the Fridays site at Toon Zone, and needless to say I love the sense of chaos you brought to the block Andy. I love that fact that you feel like you're flipping through channels, but you're actually watching one show. The random images and short one-liners (sometimes one word) are my cup it tea. It reminded me a lot of the Brak Show, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast actually. One thing I would include more of are the cartoon-crossovers. Things where Tommy or Nzinga enter a cartoon "world" and do silly things. Also vice-versa, by having the cartoons come on the set (as they are in the intro). I've always said that Cartoon Network's on-air department does the best a live-action/cartoon interactions since Roger Rabbit. I'd love to see more.

As for the already existing segments, I love them. The visually lure of puppets is unstoppable. Also love the crazy toys. I say use Tommy and Nzinga in more crazy ways. The soap opera is wonderful. When is the Friday's poetry slam going to be? LOL. Give us more. More anvils. More giant mallets. More guests (instead of kids, how about all dogs? All people named Ralph? Hell paint your thumbs blue and have a Mucha Lucha match. Craziness is your ticket!

[InsoMniaC]

Well, I guess I like it.....But my head hurts after seeing all the random things.

[Killtacular]

I think that you guys need to bring back a couple of the interstitials like Captain Linger, The Wonder Twins, Baby Thundarr, etc, and work them into a Fridays night.. make new ones too, of course. Well, maybe not The Wonder Twins, but I think kids would really like the Baby Thundarr interstitials. They're silly enough to make them laugh.

I'd also hope that Soup2Nuts gets to keep doing Show & Tell because I don't want to see their relationship with CN get severed. It'd be nice to see an extended (5-7 minute) Show and Tell episode one night.

[Rouge12]

I think that ya'll are really taking a great approach to Fridays, instead of just airing plain stuff that shows the characters running around and such. I like the randomness of it, now. Tommy and Nzinga are really pretty good hosts, I didn't really like them all that much at first, but they are better than what Fridays had before. (An announcer.) They are alot more interactive.

The segments that have just started showing up are great and show that ya'll put time, effort, and creativity into Fridays. The kids are okay, and it is nice that some kids get to take part in their favorite shows. I hope that ya'll continue to do the shorts and I hope that they are great.

[Wanted]

You work for CN, LongHaul? Tell 'em to put up newer JBV Toonami music at Toonami.com.

Anyway, the presentation is great. Keep it up. Just don't change too much.

[Killtacular]

You work for CN, LongHaul? Tell 'em to put up newer JBV Toonami music at Toonami.com.
He doesn't work in that area, and I will tell you right now: Stop. It's not relevent to this discussion.

[Nin-Nin69]

More crazy puppet action and Speed Racer skits.

[jeffrey 228]

Unexpected welcoming Andy and I might add you seem pretty fimilar from some where that I have seen your name from but that is another story and I hope you will enjoy your stay here at ToonZone, and to answer to part of that Question,

I only Watch Fridays if I am eaither bored or there is new Ed, Edd , n Eddy on the show, and that I think the hosts(Tommy and Nzinga) are doing since pretty good from the extange of just an announcer type stuff from about 7 months ago, but is there any other hints of other suggestions that we might be looking at so to make Fridays a bit more better and stuff, I hope you are able to reply soon, and thanks dropping by the forums and hope you will be here to give us details on it. :)

[Duke]

I'll also agree with Duke that the host's soap opera skits always make me smile.
Because I love being technical, I didn't actually mention the skits (I had completely forgotten about them until it was mentioned earlier), Obi mentioned them.


Like someone else mention, it definetly beats listening to the Mayor or Dexter say the same thing for the 100th time.
That "someone else" was me. :)

[Wanted]

He doesn't work in that area, and I will tell you right now: Stop. It's not relevent to this discussion.Okay, okay. Don't take it too harshly.

[Thad Komorowski]

Just asking, Andy, but why are there so many classic cartoon characters in the CN Fridays opening, when about 90% of them don't even air on the network anymore???


-Thad

[Killtacular]

Just asking, Andy, but why are there so many classic cartoon characters in the CN Fridays opening, when about 90% of them don't even air on the network anymore???


-Thad
As I said in another thread, the producers love classic cartoon characters. The programmers don't. Some of the producers used to be programmers, but that's no longer the case. People in charge of programming now have no idea which way is up, coming up with the most convulted primetime schedule in CN history, and an absurd, broken structure to weekday programming.

I hope that eventually Adult Swim will be fully grown enough that Mike Lazzo can step back up to general CN senior VP of programming and get things fixed. But.. probably not gonna happen. Not with the current people in place.

[Jimmy Kustes]

I would like to see some packaging where it was a cartoon in itself. Sort of like what you are doing with Fridays but more like a micro-series. This way the packaging would be more influenced by cartoonists than ad agencies & marketing directors.

Thanks for asking for our feedback!

[Discloner]

Because I love being technical, I didn't actually mention the skits...That "someone else" was me. :)
Shhhhh! :p Just nod and take the credit and nobody will be the wiser. ;)

[Red]

Whoo! A Producer ^_^.

God, I'd love like a "classic cartoon" for 30 minutes every Friday's. But I doubt you guys can do anything about...(Unless you bribe the programmers :D)

Do more Bad Clay Fables! Those rule.

[ThePeterNetwork]

What state is Fridays taped? I think Nickelodeon U-Pick occupies the same MTV studio that TRL does because I sometimes see Manhattan skyscrapers outside the office windows of the studio, but I just can't place the studio where Fridays is filmed.

[Duke]

What state is Fridays taped? I think Nickelodeon U-Pick occupies the same MTV studio that TRL does because I sometimes see Manhattan skyscrapers outside the office windows of the studio, but I just can't place the studio where Fridays is filmed.
I thought all of Nick's stuff was filmed down in Orlando at Universal Studios, or did they move?

[Jeff Harris]

I thought all of Nick's stuff was filmed down in Orlando at Universal Studios, or did they move?Nah, they didn't move. They just don't use Universal for the live shows anymore. TeeNick and U Pick are both done in Times Square. It's a family destination now.

But enough about the orange network. Gotta talk about the checkerboard one.

I was kind of antsy about live-action fare as a major part of Cartoon Network Fridays. I mean, come on, Cartoon is the network's first name (it's middle name is Yancy). Then, the more I saw it, the more I dug it, especially when y'all started using the Laugh In-like quick cuts. Brilliant! Whose idea was Milkman? Seriously, that's some twisted stuff.

I'd like to see something like Tommy and Nzinga going into a cartoon world of sorts. Gotta go beyond the confines of live-action now and then.

How about showing some of those old "What A Cartoons!" from back in the day? Better yet, how about airing certain shorts with an online poll to back up the choices? For example, one week could have:

"What kind of cartoon do you want to see?"

a) One with a man in a polar bear suit
b) One with a talking taxicab
c) One with a giant potato

The online audience picks that one and the one with the most votes get played along with two other shorts. That's good for that rerun half-hour. Makes it fresh and slightly unexpected.

All week long, CN shows mostly action in prime time. Don't get me wrong, I love action, but I'd like to see a little comedy, a little silliness. CNF should be silly, yet smart. So far, so good.

[Matthew Hunter]

I really love that opening to the show with all the characters...but like Thad said, most of them don't air on the block, or on the rest of Cartoon Network for that matter. I think it needs some classic cartoon content...maybe some Daffy Duck cartoons after Duck Dodgers, or classics as filler? I just hate it that my favorite cartoons, the classics like WB, MGM, Fleischer, etc. have all but disappeared from Cartoon Network without explanation. I want 'em back!

Oh, and I love beans.:brak:

-Matthew

[Father k of CN]

:dexter: :bubbles: :bcup: :knd4: :general: :general: :general: :general: :deedee: :blossom: :knd1: :sheep: I rember when they had that promo with old f in the beginning & it spun aroud & there was talking & the end It was the new logo :general: :knd1: :knd4:) :( :yawn: ;) :p :cool: :rolleyes: :mad: :eek: :o :shrug: :sad: :anime: :sweat: :confused: :evil: :bosko: :moon: :moon2: shateeeee:

[William C. Maune]

As with Jeff, I was also skeptical of live-action hosts on "Cartoon" Network. However, I was pleasantly suprised when Fridays debuted and I think the block has continued to improve. Since the block is going to live-action route, I think one of its biggest strengths is that it clearly distinguishes itself from Nick's live-action hosts. Nick's hosts seem to try to hard to be cool, while Fridays forgets the posturing and instead just concentrates on being funny, as it should.

What I enjoy best about Fridays is the random insanity. I look forward to the segments between shows and such, just to see what happens. The jokes fly fast and furious without giving the viewer enough time to recover before the next one hits. Doing things "live" seems to be a big things these days, but by taking advantage of the things that can't be done with a live broadcast Fridays squeezes more fun out of the time constraints.

My only suggestion is something you probably have no control over which is to bring back Sheep. It's my fiance's favorite Cartoon Cartoon and one of my favorites as well. Otherwise, keep up the random silliness, it's great!