The return of “Warner Communications?”: Time Warner to spin off Time, Inc.

Mar 072013
 

Tiny Toon Adventures' Warners logosSome might recall the big merger between Warner Communications (owners of Warner Bros. studios) and Time, Inc. (publishers of “Time,” “Life,” and other magazines) back in the late 80s. After almost 25 years of “matrimony,” it looks like Time Warner is looking to spin off its Time, Inc. side, in the name of pushing its TV/video/motion picture side of things as future money-makers versus, well, print media like “Time.” Despite that Time wasn’t losing money, apparently the “print media is dead” meme, general corporate profit-mindedness, and a proposed previous sell-off deal falling through have prompted Time Warner’s decision.

There’s no indication what the now-Time-less Time Warner will rename the remaining company, if anything. I presume “Warner Communications” might be an option; it’s the name used between the early 70s and the late 80s for the Warner side of things. However, given media types aren’t particularly nostalgic/emphasize youth at extreme lengths (and that it’s been almost 25 years since they used “Warner Communications”), they’ll probably go for something more “2013.” “Warner?” “Warner Corporation?” Just plain “Warner Brothers, Inc.?”

On the comics and animation side of things, expect status quo. For animation fans, the animation studios, cable TV networks, and film libraries are all exclusively on the Turner and Warner Bros. side of the company. For DC Comics fans, it’s been under the Warner side of the company (and corporate cousins of Bugs Bunny) since Warner Communications’ predecessor “Kinney National Company” bought DC in 1967.

(Useless trivia: “Kinney” was a former cleaning services/parking garage company that for some reason expanded into media ownership. Warner Bros. until 1967 was run by the actual Warner siblings it was founded by/named after, though by 1967, only Jack L. Warner (the “J.L.” that Daffy Duck refers to in the Looney Tunes short “The Scarlet Pumpernickel”) was left. With the death of the old-school studio system, etc., Jack L. Warner sold the company to Seven Arts Productions in 1967, and retired a few years later. The merged company (briefly named “Warner Bros.-Seven Arts”) was bought by Kinney in 1969, and eventually renamed “Warner Communications” in 1972.)

Teletoon Retro holds favorite cartoon characters poll (for Canadians only)

Nov 132010
 

Teletoon Retro logoCanadian cable channel Teletoon Retro is currently running a contest (limited to Canadians only, unfortunately) to vote for your five favorite cartoon characters. Teletoon Retro is a companion channel to Canada’s Teletoon (Cartoon Network’s Canadian analogue), airing reruns of older classic cartoons, similar to the US’ Boomerang. In Teletoon Retro’s case, however, they seem to air a larger variety of programming than Boomerang, as well as put more effort into promotional efforts, such as this contest. Per Canadian content requirements, Retro also airs several Canadian-made cartoons (“Rocket Robin Hood,” “The Raccoons,” etc.).

The five characters with the most votes will each see a 24-hour marathon of their cartoons during “Boxing Week,” the week that Boxing Day falls on. (Boxing Day, which is on December 26, is a day-after-Christmas holiday the non-US English speaking world celebrates.) Finally, one voter will be selected to win a trip for four to see “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony” in one North American city. As for the poll nominees, there’s a large variety of classic characters, ranging from Bugs Bunny and Bullwinkle to Superman and the Transformers. (A full press release is posted on Cartoon Brew).

There’s also a running tally of the current top 10 vote-getters. So far, to my surprise, Bugs Bunny is in the lead in first place, followed in order by: Scooby-Doo; Optimus Prime; Batman; Spider-Man; Fred Flintstone; Tweety; Megatron (another Transformer); Inspector Gadget; and Bumblebee (yet another Transformer). A brief web search suggests the contest is getting some attention on a few Transformer fan-sites, which might explain three of the 10 slots going to the shape-shifting robots. Still, I’m pleased to see that the Looney Tunes are still popular enough to win two slots so far, along with the Flintstones.

Since I’m not Canadian, I’m not eligible to vote (or even receive Teletoon Retro), but for any Canadian readers, feel free to cast your vote in the contest; voting closes December 6. If I *could* vote, my five choices would be:

  1. Bugs Bunny
  2. Bullwinkle
  3. Superman
  4. Fred Flintstone
  5. Wile E. Coyote

I had a hard time choosing a fifth selection… there’s so many classic characters to choose from!

Finally, Time-Warner could learn much from how Teletoon Retro’s handled in improving Boomerang, which is in need of updating. Unfortunately, that’d also require Time-Warner to learn how to improve Cartoon Network first, a network that’s perpetually in third place behind Nickelodeon and Disney Channel in ratings. Losing the live-action reality shows and third-rate live-action movie flops (“Son of the Mask?” “Most Valuable Primate?”) and airing a more diverse range of animated programming on CN and Boomerang would go a long way. Additionally, fixing their ill-conceived, half-baked lack of corporate unity between the Warner Bros. and Turner divisions and bringing Looney Tunes (and/or its modern spinoffs such as “Taz-Mania”) back in a regular timeslot would also help, especially with a new Looney Tunes show now in production.

Looney Tunes to return to Cartoon Network (not a hoax, dream or imaginary story)!

Nov 052009
 
After looking through online TV guide Zap2It.com, I’ve discovered that after several years’ absence from American TV airwaves, Looney Tunes is finally coming back to Cartoon Network. Not only are we getting a six-hour marathon of the shorts on Sunday, November 15 (from 1 PM to 7 PM EST), but they’re also being aired on a weekday morning slot from 11 AM to noon EST starting Monday, November 16.

I have no idea if this is permanent, or just a one-week affair. Still, the return of Bugs and company to TV is long overdue, and greatly welcomed (given I never cared much for “Tom and Jerry”, the sole old-time cartoon besides Scooby-Doo that’s still a fixture on non-digital cable TV). Perhaps somebody at Time-Warner is trying to build up excitement for the new Looney Tunes series being aired on TV next fall, or Turner and Warner Bros. have settled whatever money/rights squabbles they’ve had that prevented the shorts from airing (from what I’ve read online; what an idiotic way to run a conglomerate…), or maybe the ratings from airing the occasional LT compilation movie or the “Howl-oween Special” last week were better than expected.

Either way, good move, Cartoon Network—now if it could just get rid of those reality shows…

While I was gone…

Aug 032008
 
Here’s a few items I missed the chance to remark on while I was gone this week:- More rumors of what the newly-revised iPods will look like. I’d assume Apple won’t be going with a “rotate the unit for a wider screen” bit a la the Sandisk Sansa e200 line unless they redesign the scroll wheel somehow or somehow make a Nano version of the iPod Touch…

- On the success of MeTV in Chicago/Milwaukee, Weigel broadcasting of Chicago is pairing up with MGM to bring to the entire nation “ThisTV”, which will be a national network airing on broadcast TV station’s digital subchannels as a 24 hour a day service, mainly running old movies and TV shows from MGM’s library. Or whatever aspect of it that Ted Turner/Time-Warner doesn’t own, I’d assume (thus no “Tom and Jerry”). Said service will also include children’s programming (i.e. cartoons) to meet the E/I requirement and (judging from the description) other non-E/I cartoons, all from Cookie Jar Entertainment (a big Canadian children’s entertainment company that makes “Arthur” and owns a rather large library of shows via various recent mergers, including “Inspector Gadget”).

Apparently MeTV will stick around in the Chicago/Milwaukee area alongside this new channel, but should be interesting to see non-E/I cartoons possibly return to the nation’s broadcast-TV-airwaves again on a visible daily basis (even if it’s shows like “Johnny Test”). Can’t imagine the newly-enlarged Cookie Jar just sitting on all its newfound media properties (a la Warner Bros. with Looney Tunes and various old shows, given the way it generally mismanages Cartoon Network and Boomerang)…

 

Superman’s creators’ heirs reclaim part of Supes’ copyright

Mar 302008
 

A court has just given the heirs/estates of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman, partial copyright control over the character:

Ruling Gives Heirs a Share of Superman Copyright – New York Times

While this seems to settle (barring the inevitable attempt by Time-Warner to overturn this decision) the Superman lawsuit, there’s still the Superboy one to be settled—particularly whether or not “Smallville” is considered a Superboy series or just a show with, erm, “young Clark Kent before he became Superman” (which, well, is pretty much what Superboy *is*…).

While I still believe US copyright lengths are way too long (and could stand to be *shortened* rather than lengthened as the article infers could happen again in 20 years), it’s nice to see the heirs/creators likely getting some of the benefits (aka money) off of the Man of Steel’s lucrativeness.

Court TV becomes “Tru (Generic) TV”

Dec 312007
 

An article (Update, 12/30/12: article deleted) about CourtTV as of January 1st becoming “TruTV”, with various remarks “justifying” this move toward yet another cable channel becoming as generic and bland as TBS and TNT have become (“clear identities”? I suppose, if rerunning “Home Improvement” and “Law and Order” 8 times a day counts…). Of course, CourtTV/TruTV is also owned by Time-Warner, the same people who’ve managed to run Cartoon Network into the ground and generic-ize it as well (via running live-action programs and movies), so maybe their viewpoint on all this isn’t surprising.