Why did the shows end?

[JTurner954]

How come they stopped making Batman: The Animated Series, the animated Superman series, and Batman Beyond??

Were the ratings low? Were the writers and staff sick of making episodes?? What is the official explanantion?

[Naraht]

Originally posted by JTurner954
How come they stopped making Batman: The Animated Series, the animated Superman series, and Batman Beyond??

Were the ratings low? Were the writers and staff sick of making episodes?? What is the official explanantion?

Fox cancelled B:TAS
WB Cancelled TNBA & BB

[Bird Boy]

Batman:TAS was moved over to Kids WB! to sorta promote "Batman & Robin". WB decided they wanted new episode, and TNBA was ordered.

Superman:TAS was cancelled beacuse of low ratings (I think anyway).

And Batman Beyond was only officially cancelled a couple months ago. The reason no new episode were made was (so we think anyway) because:

With the Return of the Joker edit fiasco, supposedly Timm and Dini got in a huff and didn't wanna work on the show anymore.

So, that's why.. :)

-BB

[Clayface]

Actually, Batman Beyond wasn't cancelled - it just wasn't renewed. WB ordered a number of episodes, and they got all the episodes they ordered. They just chose not to order any more episodes.

[JTurner954]

Originally posted by Clayface
Actually, Batman Beyond wasn't cancelled - it just wasn't renewed. WB ordered a number of episodes, and they got all the episodes they ordered. They just chose not to order any more episodes.

Why would they choose not to have more episodes?? Were the ratings bad or something??

If The Animated Series was cancelled, why?

[James Harvey]

The only show that was really cancelled was Superman, so they could make more Batman Beyond episodes. The rest just finished out their original contract and were never renewed. FOX didn't renew Batman after 85 episodes. WB didn't renew Batman after 24 episodes. And WB did renew Batman Beyond are 52 episodes. But WB cancelled Superman after 54 episodes so prodeuction could be focused on Batman Beyond.

[Maxie Zeus]

A similar question came up some time ago. I'll just quote from my reply in that thread:

Short answer: Economics. A network or studio will make new episodes of a hit series only as long as it is profitable to. In the case of BTAS, STAS and BB profitability ceases after about 65 episodes.

Long, tedious answer:

When a program is created for network broadcast, it has a two-stage revenue stream: money from the network that purchases the original broadcast rights, and later money from syndication when the show is sold directly to individual TV stations or to cable networks.

Now, the network makes money off of advertisements; since the rates it charges for ads are a function of ratings, and ratings are always higher for new material than old, the network will always be interested in new episodes (so long as the show as a whole is doing well), and will purchase them from the producing studio.

In syndication there is no premium for new episodes. Instead, TV stations simply look for a popular show with enough episodes in the library so that the repetition of material will not be too bad. Therefore, there is less incremental value in each new episode, and stations will not pay a premium for a series with a large library.

Now, series that are produced for networks (like "The Simpsons") can generate large libraries from their network runs, and do quite well in syndication with those libraries. But shows that are produced for syndication only have only the one revenue stream, and one with a definite cap on potential earnings.

Thus, the producer of a syndicated series has an interest in capping his investment by producing only a limited number of episodes. If, say, he produces a series with 65 episodes, he will have a library large enough to syndicate. If he produces more than that number he will burden himself with extra costs with no guarantee of generating extra revenues based simply on the presence of those extra episodes.

That, for instance, is is why cartoon series produced in the 80s (even the hit ones) have such a small number of episodes: it would have cut the profits on the show to produce any more.

Now, BTAS originally ran on Fox, and so could probably be recognized as a "network" show: it was purchased by Fox from an outside supplier and Fox made money off of advertisements. (Actually, WB probably did to; if the compensation package was the standard one, WB was paid--in part--with commercial time it could sell itself.) WB insisted on making at least 65 episodes, so that it would have something to syndicate if Fox pulled the plug early. But Fox had an interest in seeing new episodes made, and had them made: an additional 20 (under the title "The Adventures of Batman & Robin").

Things changed somewhat when Warners launched KWB and relocated all their shows onto their own network. Being itself a unit of Warner Bros. (just like the animation division), when it came time to decide whether new episodes were needed the studio looked to its own bottomline. And on balance, I suspect, they discovered that profits could be maximized by producing only a limited additional number of episodes for the network; after that, each additional new episode would lose more in production cost that it would gain in network viewership and ad revenues. In other words, when the network and production studio were all under the same roof, the syndication model came into effect: The network's gain from a new episode was more than offset by the loss to the studio in creating the new episode.

I don't know that for a fact, but it is a reasonable surmise.

Certainly, it would explain why KWB treats non-WBA shows like MiB and Pokemon with greater deference: as a network, KWB is more interested in new shows for itself than in the economics of the total package, and so will keep a show like MiB and Pokemon in production. By contrast, with BB it has to fully finance the program and its overhead in order to get the new episodes.

BTW, sometimes relations between networks and studios get very strained for just the reasons outlined. Networks pay studios less money than it takes to produce an episode; the studio recoups the loss in syndication. But as the library fills up, the studio's chance of recouping the cost from each new episode diminishes, and the studio will insist on the network picking up a greater share of the production cost. Eventually, even if the show is doing well and the creative staff is willing to continue, a show can simply become uneconomical to produce, for both the studio and the network. In such a circumstance, even a fertile hit series may get cancelled.