The Header should be showing significant changes that reflect all the shows the Cartoon Network began to add and/or create year by year. In 1997, the channel was now home to brand new material created by the Hanna-Barbera Studio thanks to Ted Turner bringing it back from its zombie state.
After launching Dexter’s Laboratory the year before as it was the first winner of the What a Cartoon Show! Other past candidates made their debut to form a cool prime-time block: Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken and I Am Weasel. Rounding out their newer stuff were syndicated gems everybody loved: Animaniacs, Freakazoid! and Speed Racer. They began branching out into Anime with Gundam, Sailor Moon, G-Force and Vampire Hunter D.
Many other lovable shows would follow: The Powerpuff Girls (the network’s first licensing bonanza); Courage the Cowardly Dog; Ed, Edd & Eddy; The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Evil con Carne, Time Squad, Sheep in the Big City, Kids Next Door, My Gym Partner is a Monkey, Samurai Jack, Camp Lazlo, etc.
Eventually, all the new stuff was often premiered on showcase program called Cartoon Fridays amongst “reruns” of the back catalog they accrued. For a while, a character like Johnny Bravo or Bubbles would be the host. Years later, Cartoon Network added young adults to MC with kids in the audience, similar to Nickelodeon’s weekday afternoons. Before Fridays ceased, a cool band was booked to perform a couple songs: I think OK Go was on but the only one I remember by name clearly was Cute Is What We Aim For.
As the Twenty-first century was under way, the Cartoon Network began to stealthily test the waters with their more “adult oriented” fare by airing new and daring shows in the middle of the night, when only insomniacs or graveyarders were watching. After ten years, The Simpsons, King of the Hill and South Park’s success proved that American adults were good with animated SitComs for the first time since The Flintstones in the Sixties.