Remember Kats on Jets?

Hello there, I'm Ace_AttorneyFan800, or if you wanna call me Tina Arnold, and this is.... a little something different. While watching JoshScorcher's latest video where he talked about the "Top Ten Video Game Franchise Killers" talking specifically about video games that ultimately lead to the downfall of specific video game franchises like Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Metroid Other M, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Tony Hawk Ride, and Duke Nukem Forever but did make note that while DMC 4 did leave the series in an 11 year long limbo, not counting the reboot, everything turned out good for DMC with DMC 5 but the 11 years long limbo was enough to put it on the list.

And it got me thinking. Haven't cartoons suffered the same kind of fate where one REALLY bad episode, one REALLY bad season, or overall timing lead to its demise? If you pay attention to the landscape, you'd notice that indeed there were a few times where a cartoon franchise ultimately died due to one bad episode, one bad season, or overall release timing leading to its demise. And that's what I'm doing here, specifically one cartoon in particular.

Remember the 80's Ninja Turtles? How couldn't you, I even remember watching some of it on a DVD containing Season 1 episodes plus some Season 10 episodes on it. But like with everything that's popular there's always gonna be flies that try to copy its success without knowing what made the original so great in the first place or in some cases coming out LONG after the fad has died down and thus making itself look like a laughing stock?

Swat Kats was never one of those.

That's right. A copycat, no pun intended, that actually managed to be just as good as the 80's TMNT was, and hell, even OUTLIVED the Fad. Swat Kats was released back in 1993 and ran on The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, as well as TBS Superstation as a part of the Sunday Morning In Front Of The TV block from 1993 to 1995. The series took place in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated by anthropomorphic felines, known as "kats". The titular SWAT Kats are two vigilante pilots, codenamed T-Bone and Razor, who possess a state-of-the-art fighter jet with an array of weaponry. Throughout the series, they face various villains as well as competition from Megakat City's militarized police force called the Enforcers.

Said villains include the time altering/time traveling Pastmaster, the former mob gang leaders turned into near unstoppable robotic killing machines Mac and Molly Mange known only as the Metalikats, the snake who wants to turn a whole city into a swap slash breeding ground for mutated monsters Dr. Viper, and the kat who lead to the SWAT Kats becoming who they were in the first place, Dark Kat. But these are only the recurring villains. There are a LOT of one-off villains that were quite memorable too like the Ci-Kat-A, an alien race that can turn you into a bug-kat hybrid by a simple bite, a Russian Kat who leads an entire army of female pilots and even tried to seduce one of the SWAT Kats named Turmoil, and even a creature MADE ENTIERLY OF CRYSTAL.

From memorable characters like the SWAT Kats themselves, Mayor Manx, Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs, Lieutenant Felina Feral, Commander Feral, and Dr. Abby Sinian, gorgeous looking visuals, and places, you'd be hardpressed to NOT find the show amazing. It's a blend of action and comedy on par with the Original Teen Titans if not surpassing it. Hell! It even became the number one syndicated animated show of 1994! But you may be wondering if it's so awesome, how come it was canceled? That, unfortunately, has to go to Ted Turner himself. Remember when I said TIMING is sometimes a factor to cartoons being canceled? That was the case for SWAT Kats. During the Early to Mid '90s, Congress was having serious worries that cartoons were starting to get too violent and Ted Turner was not at all pleased with the level of violence in the cartoon, leading to the delay of its merchandising and its eventual cancellation. He then went on record in front of Congress in a 1995 interview after the show's cancellation, stating that "We have more cartoons than anybody: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, the Smurfs, Scooby-Doo. They're nonviolent. We don't have to worry that we're encouraging kids to kill each other - like SOME of the other cartoon programs do."

You know, it's boneheaded decisions like that, that really makes you realize what ultimately lead to Ted losing the Monday Night Wars too. YOU APPROVE THE DAMN THING, YET YOU DON'T LIKE ITS VIOLENCE?! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER TED! Makes me wonder just what his thoughts were regarding the fact that once violence was no longer a worry and it was okay and started becoming more rampant in cartoons in the late '90s, specifically if he thought that canceling SWAT Kats was the second biggest mistake he ever made. But due to how early it was canceled not many people remember it nowadays. And it's honestly kinda sad since it really wasn't given a chance.

But not all hope was lost, it continued to rerun throughout the '90s and eventually Boomerang until 2013. And even afterward, in 2015, creators Christian and Yvon Tremblay announced a Kickstarter campaign to revive SWAT Kats, under the name of SWAT Kats Revolution, and if possible, a 70-minute film, one day after the campaign began, the Kickstarter successfully reached its first funding goal of $50,000, needed for production of concept art and promotional material, which the pair had aimed to use to help them find an investor who would be interested in helping with the revival. The simple fact it raised 50,000 on DAY ONE really showcased just how dedicated the fans were in seeing the SWAT Kats back on the air. The campaign ultimately ended on August 22, the same year, with $141,500 pledged, and managed to pass another goal of $100,000 to help create a 2-minute-long trailer of how the series should look. Other goal tiers included $200,000 to produce a 22-minute episode while a pledge total of $1,000,000 would've allowed them to do a mini-series of five episodes. Their highest pledge, $1.5 million or more, would've helped them to make the aforementioned 70-minute film of the SWAT Kats. Later on February 17, 2016, the Tremblay Brothers confirmed they had started development on the trailer, which they would show to TV companies in order to have the green light for production on SWAT Kats Revolution. Christian Tremblay, along with Warner Animation, even managed to convince Warner Bros. to bring back SWAT Kats on the Boomerang Channel/Cartoon Network, but were unable to convince the parent network to commit for a new series, and thus they passed on the project. However, Tremblay is currently working with investors to create independent episodes of SWAT Kats that will be available online for streaming.

Plus, they've even got a YouTube channel you can follow along with a few Websites you can visit if you're curious.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXNOMLwHr0ncR6fYzPW8dAg
https://swatkats.info/
https://megakatcity.com/

I'm Tina Arnold, and I hope you enjoyed this little blog I made.