Question for those who are familiar with Boomerang scheduling

[Hey Steve]

Hi, I am new to these forums, and this appears to be the most appropriate place to seek answers to my questions about Boomerang scheduling.

I have regularly checked Boomerang's schedule since Fall of last year, specifically to see what Popeye shorts they air. I did not find out until a couple of months a go that my parents actually have Boomerang as part of their cable lineup from AT&T U-Verse.

Back in the Fall and all the way through January, I have noticed Boomerang was mostly scheduling the color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios. Once I found out my parents have Boomerang on their cable lineup, they were more than happy to DVR the daily showings of Popeye, but each time I visit, I have noticed the majority of the airings have been the redrawn versions of the Fleischer shorts. I have all the Fleischer shorts in black & white on DVD, so I don't need to record them off Boomerang. The main reason I asked my parents to DVR Popeye shows is so I can obtain the color Famous shorts that aren't on DVD yet.

The last 3 months, Boomerang has been cycling through all the redrawns and showing very few of the color shorts from Famous. I have noticed they are now actually bundling the shorts together into half-hour episodes. Looking at the scheduling for Boomerang, they are going through the same cycle of Popeye shows for the third time in a row. Needless to say, almost all of the Popeye shows my parents recorded for me were deleted without even viewing because hardly anything that is airing is anything I had actually wanted.

Is it normal for Boomerang to runs cycles like this? Cycling through a batch of episodes so many times before they set them aside to let another batch of episodes air? Or, is it possible that Boomerang has decided to no longer show the Famous Studios Popeye shorts? I hope that I haven't missed my chance to tape them.

[Tobias]

Boomerang doesn't pay any attention to the episodes they air, or in what what order they air. A few examples:

The Addams Family: When they aired the show a few years ago, they skipped over at least two episodes for several cycles. It was only after the third cycle that apparently someone noticed that two episodes were missing and added them back in.

Pound Puppies: When the show premiered last year, 'Wagga Wagga' was in the normal rotation. Then when the show left for a few months and then returned, the airing order got messed up and S1 episodes were airing in the middle of S2 and 'Wagga Wagga' was missing completely.

The Smurfs: We're still missing a bulk of the later episodes, and possibly some earlier ones.

I'm sure Boomerang's aired all the episodes you said were missing from the rotation, it's just a matter of time before whoever's running things realizes that the episodes haven't been making it to air.

[Hey Steve]

OK, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope they go back to the other batch of "episodes" once the current batch completes its third cycle.

As far as I am concerned, almost all of the Popeye shorts I want to tape have made it to the air last Fall. There are a total of 108 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios. 3 of them won't air due to racial stereotyping, and 12 of them have been in the current rotation of episodes. That leaves 93 of them I am waiting for, which is enough to fill 24 half hour shows.

As for the current rotation, one thing I did not exactly make clear in my original post is that I have noticed that the selection of shorts per showing is not random. Someone actually has put together half-hour showings consisting of usually 4 shorts each. It is set so that it will always be the exact same shorts airing in the exact same order. They also do seem to have organized it so that these Popeye shows do air in a specific order.

[Starvengers]

The 2 times I actually caught that episode it aired in Spanish.





Pound Puppies: When the show premiered last year, 'Wagga Wagga' was in the normal rotation. Then when the show left for a few months and then returned, the airing order got messed up and S1 episodes were airing in the middle of S2 and 'Wagga Wagga' was missing completely.