In 1990, the Children’s Television Act was launched to lower the number of ads that a network could direct toward children during cartoons. This was the beginning of the demise of cartoons on network television that would culminate with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which substantially regulates children’s television. This would impact network programming throughout the 2000s, but before that, the networks gave kids an explosion of new original content.
Some of the most memorable original content could be found on Kids’ WB. Let’s take a look at the network’s seven best ’90s cartoons!
Freakazoid!
Freakazoid! was another show produced by Steven Spielberg. It was created by the team that brought us Batman: The Animated Series and developed by the team behind Animaniacs. It ran for 2 seasons with 24 episodes on Kids’ WB.
The show is about a teenager, Dexter Douglas, who enters in a computer sequence that turns him into a crazy superhero who battles supervillains with comical effects. It has the sense of humor you could find in Animaniacs, with lots of pop culture references, like Jimmy Stewart impressions, breaking of the fourth wall, and slapstick.
Mike Allred, creator of the comic book Madman, was apparently not happy with the show. From design to character traits, he was told by one of the show’s creators, Bruce Timm, that Madman was used with open books during production. Allred’s biggest irk was that he wasn’t mentioned or compensated. He contacted Spielberg about the issue but never received a reply.
