The Corporate History of the SwatKats
Edo wrote: (and I got four chances to make sure)
>I think that they doesn't interested on kats, and letting people think that "violence" is the reason SWAT Kats got cancelled, so that it will be a cover up for their own true reason on cancelling the Kats.
Seems that it's "reasons" as opposed to "reason", but the laughable public statements
made by Turnerco immediately post-cancellation cannot be counted among them. If
some highly-placed folks did try for a coverup of sorts, they did an incredibly
incompetent job of it. Even Joe Average Fanboy can work out for himself that
something ain't Kosher (er...sorry Lt. Feral) when all his friends draw "Turbokats" during
recess, yet he hears Great Uncle Ted decry "low ratings" as the reason for scrapping
it. Hmm...somethin' don't compute. Also, kids in schools across the U.S. couldn't
buy so much as a T-shirt of the guys (compare that to all the "Goof Troop" stuff out
there), so many of 'em did "SwatKats" T's in art class. Can you imagine Ted
telling a roomful of such kids that the reason for cancelling the show is because
it "isn't selling enough merchandise"? Each and every one of them would walk up
to Ted and say "tell my mom where we can buy stuff! I don't draw as good as you!".
>Remember when the Tremblay brothers propose the guys to Disney and then Disney says no because they want to do a human show instead. I think that the same thing happen to H-B, maybe that H-B got its own agenda on how they gonna do their cartoons, and the Kats aren't in it.
I asked someone in the industry if they could get an answer from someone - anyone - in
the Turner power-loop concerning "low ratings" and the "real reason" for the cancellation.
I got something similar to the following - not attributed - but interesting nonetheless:
"Well, we had no problem with the ratings, but the merchandising was so far behind
(the program), and we had no support (from Atlanta?) while it caught up."
Certain execs roll their eyes at renewal suggestions because they'll be exposed as
incompetent by people above them who'll naturally ask why they suddenly want to
re-start a program they advised cancelling in the first place, and the following chain
of events might become ammunition for a few pink-slips.
(Remember, these folks are professional business executives. Don't start laughing
until you reach the end.)
1) TPS, in public, stated that they didn't need to go after a broadcast network
to carry the show or start in on merchandising right away because Turner
Marketing Sr. Vice President John Walden felt that "because of our outlets -
TBS, TNT and TCN - we already have enough support to effect production".
FOX would've slotted the program at 8:00 am Western, where Turner
could only manage 5:30 - 6:30 am in the West through TBS and various
syndication efforts (what's the good of having the fastest car in the race
if you show up hours *before* the race, and leave when it's just starting?)
Everyone else in the kid-tv biz told Turner that marketing had to be
in place *before* the first airing, but the TPS people were new at it, and
kept saying "well..we'll see"; a fatal mistake they refused to admit publicly,
yet acknowledge *by name* when asked about marketing efforts for "The
Real Adventures of Jonny Quest".
2) "Relative to the time periods, those two shows ("SwatKats" and "Two Stupid
Dogs") did a better job of improving kids audience then anything else introduced
this past ('93) fall." -- TPS exec Steve Lablang. That year everyone else
led with tired formula action-adventure, and Turner's "SwatKats" took
no prisoners. From August 30th 1993 to the end of the Neilsen sampling
period on March 17, 1994, "SwatKats" was the #1 animated show. "Exosquad"
was something like 17th - if memory serves - yet was selling enough toys
to keep Universal grinning through another season. "SwatKats" hungry fans
didn't buy a single toy during the same period - Turner marketing people hadn't
made any - and were suddenly painfully aware that their earlier arrogance in not listening
to industry people telling them to get their marketing house in order prior to
air was costing them untold amounts of money in terms of lost sales potential.
Parents, after all, have to put *something* under the tree, and that "something"
had to come from a competitor during the height of the all-important first season.
3) The urgency of the marketing situation is not lost on some of the execs and Kats
crew, and they realize that for the first time in their careers, they're at the helm
of a great show that is in the bizarre position of having virtually nothing on the
shelves. A "style guide" is created to show around to potential licensees, and
someone figures a comic would be a good idea. Turner has an alliance with
Harvey comix, but after a series of delays, the Harvey situation becomes an
untenable mess and plans are shelved. Toys - surely the priority in any marketing
scheme - are hurriedly designed and shopped around to manufactureres. The
good and experienced ones like "Playmates" are already fully committed at such
a late date or come in too expensive for Turner's tastebuds. Further complicating
the situation is endless revisions of the action-figure designs in order to achieve
a compromise between the artistic vision of the Tremblays, the budgetary concerns
of Tedco, and the realities of the assembly-line.
The final toy design ignores the first schoolyard rule of cartoon-related toys: "if they
don't look like they do in the show, I won't buy them", and a Turner exec who knew
better rubber-stamped the final design for production, despite obvious shortcomings
pointed out by everyone equipped with a finger and a voice. Out of the choices
available for a manufacturer, Tedcom settles on Remco - a third-string toy company that
hadn't produced an ac/adv action-figure for over six years. Turner is non-committal about
promotional promises, and Remco is hesitant to produce action figures for Christmas '94
at the risk of being trampled under by the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" marketing
juggernaut under the control of Bandai and FOX. "Well...we'll wait and see" reared it's ugly
head yet again, and nothing was ready until June the next year. "SwatKats" had
entirely missed out on its SECOND Christmas without selling a single action figure.
The SNES game is similarly delayed.
"Exosquad" meanwhile is being kept around by Universal because it sells toys. The
ratings are well-below those of the 'Kats, but have become immaterial for the moment.
4) The only licensee to make it to market on schedule has been Gordy Toy - a Taiwanese
outfit offering a line of generic toys in custom packaging. Gordy ships some plastic
$2 items to U.S. stores with "SwatKats" stickers and fancy packaging being the only
link to "SwatKats". Not surprisingly, this type of thing doesn't exactly enthrall katfans,
and sales "aren't up to expectations". On the other hand, American Arts and Graphics
secures a license for "SwatKats" posters, and they sell out nationwide as soon as
fans are aware of their existence. Turner had done precisely one promotional
venture with the "White Castle" chain East of the Mississippi, and most people weren't
aware there was *any* merchandise to be had aside from the "target-punch" thing
they got free with their meal!.
The second season is now underway, and the quality of the series has gone nowhere
but up. Where the program is airing in reasonable timeslots, the numbers are more
than satisfactory, and Turner is petitioned on a regular basis to improve the Western
slots for the program which are still 6:05/6:35 am. "SwatKats" hasn't been able to
sell a single toy so eager katfans can play Razor and T-Bone between airings, but
*still* maintains a viewership above other offerings that have. Turner takes out a
full page ad in the summer trades promising "SwatKats" fans that the marketing
*will* arrive, along with new episodes of the series. Katfans are patient, and
the amount of fan-interest at conventions, furry-cons and elsewhere convinces
most of us that Turner realizes the program is popular, and will back it to the hilt.
Turner execs begin to look at the balance sheet as the second-season footage begins
arriving from overseas. TPS gets a look at the budget required to produce a first-class
animated series, then looks at the returns under the "licensed goods" column and
finds a serious inequity. The second season is ordered shaved down to 10 episodes
from the standard 13 in another instance of "well...we'll see". Problem is, Remco
can't hit market until June '95, and the HudsonSoft SNES game won't get to shelves
until some time after that. Christian Tremblay tries to get a comic off the ground
with "Dark Horse", but it falls through during a subsequent meeting. Turner now
has an alliance with Archie Comix who express an interest in doing a Kats title,
but TPS refuses based on "well...we'll wait and see".
(For those of you that don't know, animated series like "SwatKats" don't make money
by simply being on the air, the companies involved only make money through
the sales of licensed goods, and revenue from toy sales accounts for about
90 percent of it. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was successful because
the Green Guys were on everything from underwear to ironing board covers - not
because of the ad revenue generated from broadcast.)
5) Rumours begin circulating around the industry that "SwatKats" is going to be
cancelled, but these are readily dismissed by old hands who point out the
lapse in rational thought-processes that would need to precede such an event.
Certain people in the Turner chain-of-command begin leaking information to
other certain people, and the rumour gains strength. The program's second
season is now in air, still holding good numbers, and has been the subject
of glowing reviews in "Toon" and elsewhere. The staffers are high on the program,
and "Emmy Task Force!" posters featuring the guys begin to surface on bulletin
boards in the halls of Hanna-Barbera: testimony to the fact that many believe they
have not only a good program for the masses, but an Emmy contender to boot.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Turner high-ups have been presented with a balance
sheet showing huge expenditures and no revenue from merchandising. The
Atlantans take the figures at face-value, and the program is faulted for
the non-performance of the executives responsible for the marketing credo
"well...we'll wait and see". Hanna-Barbera is told to halt production in the
middle of episode 10, and to be prepared for heavy layoffs. A column
appears in "Comics Scene" announcing the cancellation - ironically roughly the
same time the Turner ad promising "action figures, video games, the works!"
hits print in "Animation Magazine". The Tremblays learn of the cancellation
from the press. Fred Seibert and either Bill or Joe tell them the cancellation
stuff is "bullsh*t", and that they "hadn't heard anything".
In here somewhere likely fit the information I got anonymously so long ago
through e-mail:
"Turner always hated the program" and "Someone suddenly realized how violent it
really was."
I'd suggest that these would be from somebody privy to conversations
that took place at TPS HQ while they were discussing injecting more cash into
the show until the merchandise caught up, and others countering that
since Ted's idea of the perfect cartoon was "Captain Planet", that no funds would
be authorized to prop up Kats regardless of the circumstances. This is kind of
backed up by the expensive acquisition of the rights to the rather violent property
"Nexus" (and its subsequent abandonment), and public statements by Chairman
Ted with regard to all the violence in "other cartoons".
6) (Disclaimer time: there are some names inferred below. None of the information
comes directly from any of these people for the purposes of attribution/retribution.
Bark up another tree if you've come a-lynchin'.)
The problem with faulting the program for the failings of the Turner Marketing folks
isn't lost on Hanna-Barbera staffers from Executive producer on down through
the ranks of the background artists - many of which have had a lot of experience
in Kid-TV - who realize that a huge injustice is taking place. A number of the
Hanna-Barbera high-ups petition Turner Programming Services to look at the
facts and reconsider, but TPS turns a blind eye to the facts and insists on pursuing
a course of action they perceive as causing the least amount of embarrassment to
the Turner executive structure. They miscalculate badly. Hanna-Barbera
boat-rockers are told to live with it or find work elsewhere. Some do both.
Turner executives arrive at Hanna-Barbera to announce dismissals - including about
half the background department and much of the SwatKats design team. Many of
the departing staffers ask why they're being canned for creating a program with
good ratings, but Turner execs are quick to transfer blame to the program itself.
One of the departing staffers actually stood up in the boardroom as the litany of
dismissees was being read out, and pointing to the TPS blue-suits across from him
said:
"Why the Hell don't you fire THEM! We DID our jobs!"
Some of the Kats team who aren't fired immediately later quit in disgust. One
of the execs orders the last episodes completed just shy of animation in order
to be "humane" to crews fired through no fault of their own, and fully realizing
that in the event someone eventually realizes the show should go back in production,
that there's something held in reserve which could be quickly brought to air.
7) Leaks start appearing in the Good Ship Turner, and product info is sent to a few
of us for distribution to other fans by those knowing full well that Turner intends no
marketing - and don't want to see them get away with a self-fulfilling prophecy by
having late marketing efforts hurriedly swept under the rug.
Turner sees the upcoming product information and some difficult cancellation
questions based on insider information, and Atlanta begins a witch-hunt. They look
in all the wrong places, but the immediate fallout results in no Kats fan-mail being
answered, all attempts at improved fan-relations by H-B people being stymied
at the next level, and no Kats-related phone calls being returned. Kats videos,
games and Toys *do* eventually hit the shelves, but they aren't up to scratch, and
the show is taken off TBS and syndication just as the stuff makes it to market.
Turner Home Video calls the video sales "disappointing", but fails to take into
consideration that there's been next to no advertising, and even the large chains
such as "Blockbuster" are barely aware of their existence. The penetration of
the toys and SNES game into most markets is in the order of nil. Some Turner
people readily point to the disappointing sales figures as backup for the decision to
cancel, but ignore an awful lot of culpability in the process. A vast "SwatKats" article
and episode guide containing Hanna-Barberian quotes is slated to appear in "Animato!",
but certain staffers quoted in it decline permission for the attributions based on fears
of corporate fallout.
8) "SwatKats" performance internationally on "The Cartoon Network" turns a
few heads, as does the amount of fan-mail arriving at the "toonnet" address.
Turner reps promoting other shows at various conventions across the U.S.
are forced to fend off more "SwatKats" questions than they're prepared for.
People at various levels of "The Cartoon Network", Hanna-Barbera, and
even Turner Programming Services begin asking why such a show was
cancelled in the first place, and everyone comes up with a different answer.
Ludicrously, "Cartoon Network" is told that the program is dead because of
"low ratings" - an answer that Turner people earlier realized wouldn't be
swallowed by even the lowliest 10 year-old!
It turns out that each time Turner gets a "new guy" in a programming position,
that the first thing they do is ask Turner Programming Services about reviving
"SwatKats"! Tedco seems willing to listen to any "revival" suggestions from
these people they spent so much effort hiring, *providing* the suggestion
isn't "SwatKats". I gather TPS will have to include a new question on their
application forms from now on:
"Will you mention SwatKats?"
...just to weed out potential boat-rockers.
Whew. That was fun. What's the cure for carpal-tunnel syndrome? Scotch?
It's been suggested that Turner Programming Services execs responsible for
some of the mess are recalcitrant concerning renewal 'cuz little details like the
above would get out. Well, they're out. Now what?
If I left out anything, make an appointment to spank me. The line forms outside.
_____________________________________________________
"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed
antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters,
through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in
the winter of 1925. Endurance, Fidelity, Intelligence." -- "Balto"
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Received on Tue May 28 1996 - 10:40:57 PDT
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