Last week we looked at the TV movie. I forgot the series was available legally on YouTube, and by two sources. Filmrise has the rights to distribute but because Flash Gordon is owned by Kings Features Syndicate they also have the series up. I decided tonight to bring up the entire first season, the serialized one, not the second season where executive meddling led to two stories per half-hour episode and the unnecessary addition of…
Sorry, Gremlin. On another show I might have liked you, but you don’t fit here.
I don’t even hate Gremlin the baby dragon. He just feels so unnecessary that I wouldn’t have missed him had he not been there. He didn’t add anything to the story, and while I could maybe find a use I don’t remember any stuffed animals of him being sold, so he didn’t even fulfill his marketing purpose while having no narrative purpose. Killing the serial format (probably so they could be lazy and air the episodes however they wanted) was what really ruined the show for me, though. That’s why the embedded playlist below is made from the Comics Kingdom posting. You’ll only see the intro once but you can stop at any outro, and after the embed I’ll link to where you can see it to continue for yourself.
The playlist, if it’s still up when you get here, has all of season one and the first episode of season two. It introduced Gremlin so you know what I’m talking about, but it also has an important wedding (no spoilers for newcomers), so I felt like including it. Enjoy.
How Paramount Warner Brothers Discovery Etc. Could Use Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon
In case you haven’t heard, David Zaslav bought the former AOL Turner Time Warner Brothers Othernames only to sell it off. He had planned to keep his Discovery Network stuff I think, but long story short Paramount fought for the whole thing. Certain Hollywood types are fighting it because it’s only okay when Disney tries to buy every piece of media in the world…on second thought, that’s all political BS we don’t care about on this site. Skydance, who bought Paramount, is still working their way around the world trying to get the merger confirmed because they have branches in other countries. As of this writing it’s the UK’s turn.
Cord Cutter News is of the opinion that a huge sticking point is that Skydance would then own two of the big names in TV children’s programing, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. According to this article in particular it looks like Skydance has stated that if this is a dealbreaker anywhere they’d be willing to sell of Cartoon Network. Thus far every country, including the US, hasn’t been all that concerned. That’s because they’re both separate networks with their own target audience and content. Nickelodeon is strictly a kids channel until the US kiddies are in bed, and then goes over to Nick At Nite. Cartoon Network ends around the same time and Adult Swim takes over. Nickelodeon still has a Nicktoons channel in the US while Cartoon Network ended Boomerang, their former home for older cartoons when the channel took on more and more new shows.
Their only competition come from classic cartoon channel MeTV Toons, free streaming channels like WB’s own Cartoon Rewind, a binge/marathon channel which is only on Amazon Prime and only has like six shows or something on repeat, and Kartoon Channel, which has finally started getting some good shows like the 2003 He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe reboot. Plus you have show-exclusive channels and of course on demand options. Still, let’s act like the UK and any remaining countries are okay with Skydance owning both channels and their spinoffs…of which Cartoon Network has none in the US but Boomerang is still an option in other countries. The question is how could they restructure those channels and still make them unique destinations for kids entertainment?
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on June 26, 2026 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged animation, Cartoon Network, cartoons, commentary, HBO, kids TV, Nickelodeon, Paramount+, Skydance Media.
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