Toonheads (and the historical preservation of cartoons)

[diet_orange]

Growing up, one of my favorite shows was this program called "Toonheads" that served as a "historical showcase" of older cartoons that were in the wheelhouse of Turner Broadcasting/Warner Bros

It kind of lit a passion in me that cartoons, along with a lot of other things, were art and deserved to be preserved, warts and all

Unfortunately, as far as I know, Toonheads only exists today via copies made from VHS tapes and is not a part of the greater HBO Max catalog as it should be. Which is a shame

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

These cartoons do need to be preserved in their own ways, I liked the animation, no doubt that the company might have it sealed away in a vault of sorts, but as far as preserving it goes, Toonheads might not be preserved in the public domain state rather than the company's state.

 

[Adrastia]

It might be a copyright issue that prevents it from being streamable from an official source. Cartoon anthologies tend to have this issue.

 

[Segadude113]

Disney had something similar called "Ink and Paint Club" which used to air at like 5 in the morning. It would show all the older Disney animated cartoons.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

RIP Boomerang.

 

[diet_orange]

RIP Boomerang.

I loved Boomerang, but I also was totally against separating classic cartoons from the main CN channel (they did still have The Bugs And Daffy Show on CN for a long time).

There is Me TV Toons on the old Rabbit ears if you can get it. The station that has it here has impossible reception

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

Companied will only make older works of fiction accessible if lands it's in the corporate sweet spot:
1. To not be in the public domain
2. None of the animators/Creators signed contract which provides them royalties
3. The property hadn't been used as a tax write off.
IE: The product is bared from being re-released as it was sold thee state. The only way it could be re-distributed is if the previous owner purchases it back from the state. (This never happens. RIP Megas XLR/Sym-bionic Titan)

That's the depressing reason why so much old media is lost.
If a corporation can't exclusively profit from a work (Hence my inclusion of royalties, they're THAT petty :( ) then they would rather it be lost to time.
Then there the argument over retroactive censorship/political correctness which can & has nuked certain media.

It's super cool that Toonheads exists!
But it's a dying form of distribution.

 

[Segadude113]

Companied will only make older works of fiction accessible if lands it's in the corporate sweet spot:
1. To not be in the public domain
2. None of the animators/Creators signed contract which provides them royalties
3. The property hadn't been used as a tax write off.
IE: The product is bared from being re-released as it was sold thee state. The only way it could be re-distributed is if the previous owner purchases it back from the state. (This never happens. RIP Megas XLR/Sym-bionic Titan)

That's the depressing reason why so much old media is lost.
If a corporation can't exclusively profit from a work (Hence my inclusion of royalties, they're THAT petty :( ) then they would rather it be lost to time.
Then there the argument over retroactive censorship/political correctness which can & has nuked certain media.

It's super cool that Toonheads exists!
But it's a dying form of distribution.

i think if nobody is able to own and distribute it, it should be made public domain for free. Otherwise it's being hoarded instead of making any kind of profit. I get that creators want to hang onto their work and don't want anyone else making money off of their creation with bootleg DVDs, but at the same time they aren't selling it themselves and the networks get pissy about it. The only way would be to either pirate it to preserve it or to find some legal loophole to make it public domain. Music rights was one of the reasons we couldn't get a release of Megas XLR.

 

[werewolfx]

https://archive.org/details/toonheads good chunk of em on archive

 

[diet_orange]

Would like to mention that starting today, Tubi has the entirety of the Looney Tunes catalogue on it's service. These are not individual episodes however and are usually three a piece. Started with "My Green Fedora" and absolutely love the simple usage of two-tone color in the short

 

[Kamako]

The old Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies material is some of the most potently creative and expressive animation I have ever seen to this day.

 

[diet_orange]

The old Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies material is some of the most potently creative and expressive animation I have ever seen to this day.

Lady In Red is pretty great too. I think it's Bob Clampett animating with Friz Freleng directing?