The Simpsons started it all. © Fox Broadcasting Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Age of Prime Time Animation has arrived with a vengeance, and the toons are set to take over our nights. Series such as The PJs, Dilbert, Futurama, Baby Blues, Home Movies, Family Guy, and The Downtowners are marching to our small screens in unprecedented numbers, and there are more purportedly in the works. Every network, it seems, wants to take a crack at an animated series, and this begs the questions: Is this a trend, a fad, a product of genuine audience demand, part of a cycle, or an act of enlightenment (or desperation, for that matter) by the networks? One thing is certain -- there is a set of causative factors behind this rush to prime time deserving of some exploration.

However, there is one caveat. This topic can only be explored, not explained. I have long ago concluded that television executives make their decisions based on some bizarre combination of studio politics, sponsor pressure, focus-group feedback, buzz, hype, spin, the conviction that the public's collective IQ hovers in the double-digit range and the recollection of any concept that has ever worked before. This might explain, say, The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer. On the whole, the industry is as unpredictable as Marilyn Manson at a debutante ball. This holds even more true when decisions are made on the basis of "narrowcasting" to specifically designated, minutely defined demographic sectors.

The Stage Is Set
To no one's surprise but the network's, the public proved to be smarter than anyone had predicted. The 1998 network television season opened to great fanfare, but by mid-season, nearly half the offerings had gone unlamented to well-deserved graves, and old favorites were losing viewership as well. The Big Three [ABC, CBS, NBC] suffered in particular. They watched in dismay as cable stations and newer, independent networks stole a march on them, slight as it was. It was obvious to indies such as FOX, UPN, and WB that the same tired sitcoms, which consisted largely of put-downs and witless sexual innuendo, would not pull television into a new Golden Age, much less keep viewers entertained for long. One of their solutions was to try their luck with prime time animation. It now appears that this nostrum has turned into a major formula for success. Or so it is hoped...

This move was not as risky as it seemed; for one thing, prime time animation had begun to hold its own in the 1990s. There had been prior efforts, to be sure, but most of them failed miserably and are now long-forgotten by the general viewership. This decade was by far more auspicious for prime time animation due to several factors: a larger and more knowledgeable fan base, technical improvement of the medium, increased availability of overseas facilities, and a surfeit of both animators and the schools which were training them. In other words, there was a confluence between a multifaceted boom in animation and a decline in traditional TV viewing habits, creating a case of "prime" timing. The first meaningful shot was fired in 1990 when Matt Groening landed The Simpsons in prime time territory, but that shot was not truly felt until that show broke the prime time animation longevity record previously held by The Flintstones. A sponsor could now begin to trust a toon for the long run.

King of the Hill. © Fox Broadcasting Company. All Rights Reserved.

Big Gains
Of course, Homer and family were not alone; Mike Judge scored (huh-huh) a major hit with Beavis and Butthead, and this series birthed a prime time spinoff that commands a devoted following today -- Daria. Scarcely had Beavis and Butthead giggled over their last Def Leppard video when Judge struck again with King of the Hill. Comedy Central launched a popular, long-running show of it's own featuring Squigglevision superstar Dr. Katz, but truly broke the bank with Matt Stone and Trey Parker's South Park. Of all these series, South Park gave the greatest indication that a hot animated series could bring in ratings bigger than Colorado and earn more merchandising cash than a mountain of salty chocolate balls. Now that animation (after many years of consignment to Saturday morning backwaters) was seen as a lucrative draw, the inevitable happened.