Re: The Corporate History of the SwatKats

From: chance <chance_at_unix.infoserve.net>
Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 18:59:13 -0700

>Oh! I see! So the reason for cancellation was because they weren't making
>any profits to make new eps! So basically, they ran out of money.

Well, more like they didn't want to wait until they were making money, or
thought that it was too late to recuperate from all the marketing foul-ups
before the show's popularity began to slip. They didn't figure on TCN though,
and now it's a whole new ball game.

WRT "running out of money", I understand that the terminally tepid "Captain Planet"
hasn't generated money for a couple of years now (and I'd have a hard time believing
that it *ever* generated revenue - even the low-investment DIC variety). The toys
are sold off at cost by retailers stuck with large inventories, yet TPS kept feeding it
cash because of Ted's personal support of the program. After all, you don't cancel
the boss's favourite toon if you want your pension to stay intact. I think it boils
down not so much to the show itself, but which potentate you have in your corner
pulling for you. CP has Ted Turner (and by extension various Atlanta Yes-men
charged with making certain decisions), and "SwatKats" only had the fans, Hanna-Barbera
production staff, and some TPS people who obviously didn't want to make certain
comments at the time for fear of their positions.

With "Cartoon Network" broadcasting the kitties worldwide, and the program's
popularity on that network, Turner has a chance both at redemption and recovering
some of the money spent on the program. They could start with things people would
actually buy, like another run of posters, T-shirts of the main cast - a run of toys that *looks*
like the characters - all kinds of stuff. Do limited runs of each first and back them up
with an ad blitz on TCN (perhaps coincidental with a "Superchunk" NOT featuring
WCW wrasslers), and the announcement that there will be new episodes for fall (the
incomplete three that are sitting on the shelves). By announcing new eps, you've just
pushed the show back into the "current" category without a huge capital outlay (all
the hard work had already been done pre-cancellation), and you've got a viable
program standing by if "Jonny" doesn't pan out for 65. Even if they don't want to
do the eps, maybe promise something akin to that OAV "Cyber-Insects" thing
with Kats instead, and take things one step at a time from there. The "step"
is the important thing.

There *is* a market for licensed goods out there - just not the ones that were the
progeny of all the foul-ups and clueless decision-making. What's worse is that
Tedco knows it, and *still* won't listen to those folks who realize that Kats - out
of the entire H-B back-catalogue - has the best potential for revival. In fact, they
just had some meeting or other to talk about which show(s) to bring back, and
someone suggested the Kats. It wasn't the first time, but the TPS execs won't
hear of it. I suggest they make it an open question via some "call-in and vote" thing
on TCN, or perhaps via something on Amerika On-Hold or the animation newsgroups.
I think the results to a questionairre worded as follows would be a foregone conclusion:

"Hey TCN fans! Which would you like to see more eps of??"

1) "Captain Planet"
2) "Scooby Doo"
3) "The Jetsons"
4) "The SwatKats"
5) "Magilla Gorilla"

I don't think TPS will do it because they're afraid of the outcome.

_____________________________________________________
"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"
_____________________________________________________

Received on Tue May 28 1996 - 22:30:06 PDT