The Death of Justice League Unlimited

NOTE:  This essay is an updated version of a June 24, 2006 article of mine from The Justice League Watchtower.  It has since been annotated and updated with new information.  A lot of this is dated but hidden within is an explanation as to why Justice League Unlimited (and sister series Teen Titans) got cancelled despite high ratings and a devoted fanbase.

And now the truth comes out.

This past week [circa June 2006] saw an article published at Newsarama about the apparent demise of Cartoon Network’s Krypto the Super Dog, which is the last DC-related property currently airing on the network (the DCAU reruns on Boomerang notwithstanding).  The article had this interesting little tidbit, provided by a “very well-placed” anonymous source at Warner Bros. Animation (which is odd, considering the long-running rumors that their animation department no longer existed [UPDATE: Or, at the very least, was experiencing significant issues at the time]):

[Cartoon Network] wants to focus on their own properties.  […]  While I can understand this, I think that Krypto needs saving.  I know it’s not necessarily the most popular show on CN, but it is a WB Animation / DC property, and so saving it could have very positive repercussions on the long-term DC / CN relationship.  We weren’t able to save JLU or Teen Titans because we didn’t know that they were ending until [it was] too late.  But if we act now to start a “Save Krypto” letter-writing campaign to the powers-that-be at CN, it might make a huge difference in the future of the show.  Plus, it shows CN there is a large fan base for the DC properties on their network, possibly paving the way for a return to CN of several other DC properties. (qtd. in Fritz)

(UPDATE: The part about “not knowing” of the impending demise of JLU and Teen Titans is incorrect—according to a January 25, 2006 post on Paul Dini’s LiveJournal page, Glen Murakami and Bruce Timm confirmed the end of both series over dinner with Dini the evening prior, following the record of special features for the Superman:  The Animated Series, Volume 3 DVD set.  In effect, the creative teams knew of the cancellations over a month before the official announcement on March 1, 2006, during Cartoon Network's upfronts [Allstetter].)

Okay, first things first:  even if they didn’t know for sure that the series was going to end, they certainly had an idea that there was trouble ahead.  It’s apparent that both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network are going through a period of corporate maneuvering—the old guard steps down (or is removed), new management comes on board, and the “fresh faces” bring with them their plans for restructuring / rebranding / overhauling their respective company.  These can be blatant changes (Cartoon Network now airs live action films) to the subtle (the change from the Cartoon Network logo to “CN” is about as transparent as Kentucky Fried Chicken changing its brand name to “KFC”).  In addition, I’ve heard uncorroborated rumors about the restructuring of the animation divisions, as well as public commentary from Toon Zone’s (UPDATE: now Anime Superhero’s) staff about these changes in management and strategy (see here and here).  Now, I possess no pretension to being “in the know,” but I do know what I can see with my own two eyes, and this is what I’m seeing:  Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network allowed Justice League Unlimited to die a slow death because of issues involving money and corporate logic.  And damn it, I really can’t argue with their reasoning.

Despite strong ratings, toy sales, and critical acclaim, Justice League Unlimited suffered from programming decisions that some may consider questionable.  Already subjected to a Saturday night time slot, one-time-only airings, and minimal promotion, Season Three made an unusual debut in September 2005 with “I Am Legion” and “Shadow of the Hawk” both premiering on September 17th (at 10:00pm and 10:30pm EST, respectively) and “Chaos at Earth’s Core” and “To Another Shore” airing on September 24th (same airtimes as prior).  After that, there was nothing for several months until, after some back-and-forth programming, “Flash and Substance” aired on February 11, 2006, and the remaining eight episodes aired back-to-back at 10:30pm EST the following weeks, with the only major interruption being a month-long Hayao Miyazaki marathon.  It was during their October-February hiatus that we began to hear the reports of the series’ cancellation, and Bruce Timm posted this somewhat cryptic comment on February 24, 2006 on the Toon Zone (UPDATE: now Anime Superhero) message boards:

I can’t really get into the reasons why Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited were cancelled—not about to air my dirty laundry here (not that it’s really all that dirty anyway)—[but] it’s not always just about money and ratings.  If it were as simple as that, it’d make total sense, but while economic issues are certainly a part of the story, there are many other factors as well.  It’s a complicated business, and I don’t pretend to understand it fully myself. 

I can’t speak of Titans, but JLU’s ratings have been just fine, thank you very much.  “I Am Legion” and “Shadow of the Hawk” were CN’s no 1 and no. 3 top-rated shows for the week they aired, and with very little promotion.  I haven’t yet seen our more recent numbers, but I’d imagine they’re in roughly the same ballpark.  Toy sales are solid, apparently:  my sources at Mattel tell me there are at least [three] more major waves of new figures due over the next 18 months.  Doesn’t sound like a failing revenue stream to me. 

Now, I will point out that this next paragraph is not about Titans or JLU, but in the past I’ve seen networks deliberately sabotage their own top-rated shows, for a variety of seemingly random, petty, or just plain bizarre reasons, and from speaking to friends of mine in both the animation and live-action sides of the business; it’s not at all an uncommon story.  The stuff that goes on behind the scenes is positively surreal at times—and I’ve only experienced a small fraction of it personally—sometimes simple logic and / or common sense just doesn’t enter into it. 

That said, I’ve got no beef with CN whatsoever.  Honestly, I’m almost relieved JLU is over (for the moment, anyway).  It was frankly an exhausting show to do, hard to write, extremely labor-intensive to produce … this season and the last especially.  With such an action-oriented show, after a while it becomes really had to keep trying to top yourself, to keep pushing the envelope for hyper-active action sequences, upping the epic scale, etc.  And honestly, I’d rather get off-stage while the audience is still having a good time, before the show just starts running in place / jumping the shark / what-have-you. 

Since the very beginning, Cartoon Network’s been nothing but great to us overall, gave us almost unlimited creative freedom to do the show the way we wanted to do it, and bottom-line, that’s the most important thing; if they kept moving our time slot all over the place or didn’t give us as much promotion as some of their own, home-grown shows, so what?  Ultimately these shows will live on in DVD and whatever home video format comes next, and in future syndication, etc.  I’ve actually been spoiled rotten by the experience; I only hope that whatever project I work on next, I’ll have patrons who are half as easy-going and non-meddlesome as the folks at CN have been. (b.t.)

As for the Warner Bros. Animation side, I found this little nugget of information on the [now-defunct] TitansGo.net; it’s an excerpt from a podcast created by Teen Titans voice actor Wil Wheaton (which can be accessed here; a partial transcript here).  Here he’s speaking, of course, in regard to Teen Titans, but I suspect that JLU could also apply here: 

Some new people came into Warner Bros. Feature Animation—new bosses—and as part of their “We’re here, we’re the bosses, get used to it,” they had all of the existing shows come in and re-pitch—the producers and writers had to come in.  It didn’t matter if the show had been on the air for 10 years or 5 years or if it had only run 3 episodes—they had to come back in and re-pitch it. (Wheaton)

Now, setting aside the rumors that Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network’s animation studios have merged [UPDATE: something that finally happened in October 2022; Lang], it’s pretty apparent that, for reasons that are their own, Warner Bros. appeared to not be terribly interested in continuing the series.  This could be because Justice League and Justice League Unlimited had cumulatively passed the magic syndication number of 52 episodes (the suits treat them as separate shows only when it’s convenient).  To better explain this aspect of the business, the following is a February 26, 2006 post from the Toon Zone (UPDATE: now Anime Superhero) message boards by DCAU alumni Boyd Kirkland:

Originally, the magic number for a series to reach to allow for syndication was 65 episodes.  That number was derived this way:  most syndicated shows are rerun 5 days a week, so if you had 65 [episodes], your reruns would last 13 weeks before being recycled again.  This means each episode would run 4 times a year (52 weeks divided by 13).  The assumption was that most kids would watch the same thing [four] times a year without tiring of it. 

Later, to save money (and by presumably testing kids in the target demographic), it was decided that kids wouldn’t mind watching the same thing 5 times a year, so they only needed 52 episodes for syndication (52 [episodes] divided by 5 days a week = 10.4 weeks; 52 weeks [per] year divided by 10.4 weeks = 5 reruns per year).  This same thinking affects how many episodes are normally ordered for a weekly show (like those running on Saturday mornings).  The networks used to order 26 episodes so that they would only be rerun twice a year, but later changed that to 13, believing that kids will watch the same things 4 times a year (is this all sounding too much like a math lesson?). 

Of course, once the magic number of 52 is reached, there’s nothing to prevent them from making more, so long as the show is profitable.  Animation is so expensive to make, however, that they are usually deficit financed, and companies hesitate to […] go too far into debt before seeing a return on their investment.  Thus, if merchandising and other revenue streams are not making up the cost of production, they will stop at 52 and hope to recoup their investment in syndication and video releases. (Boyd Kirkland)

However, it’s more likely that individual issues led them to put the kibosh on future seasons.

For Warner Bros. (and, by extension, DC Comics), who are busy prepping their characters for a variety of projects on the large and small screens, Unlimited poses problems in regard to the rights issues of its enormous supporting cast.  As previously seen with the controversial Bat-Embargo and the loss of Aquaman, and associated characters, to the will-it-be-picked-up-or-won’t-it Mercy Reef pilot, the screen rights to the characters cannot be easily divided between multiple projects (with some exceptions, such as Batman himself being shared between Unlimited and Kids' WB!'s The Batman).  As Paul Dini recounted on his aforementioned LiveJournal page:

I had heard people were getting more territorial with certain DC characters (no more Joker in JLU, for instance), but I didn’t know the details.  I knew two years ago when I left, that as heroes (and their villains) got snapped up in live movie options, it tended [to limit] their appearances elsewhere.

In order to facilitate the upcoming crop of DC-related movie and television projects, they needed the rights back to their heavy hitters.

(UPDATE: Obviously, this changed in recent years, as a more relaxed policy allowed for multiple representations of DC characters to appear concurrently. For example, Green Lantern Hal Jordan appeared on Young Justice [2010-2013] and Green Lantern:  The Animated Series [2011-2013] while appearing in his 2011 feature film, and the Flash had a television series on the CW [2014-2023] while appearing in feature films Batman v Superman:  Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad [2016], Justice League [2017], and The Flash [2023].  But this appeared to be policy back in 2006.)

As for Cartoon Network, it largely boils down to money.  In regard to animated television properties, the companies get their money from licensing and marketing, and Cartoon Network gets more money back from their own homegrown shows than they do shows that are from other studios (or utilize characters owned by other companies).  So, even though Cartoon Network and DC Comics are both owned by the same parent company, CN still needs to pay licensing fees to DC to use their characters.  Based on this logic, it should come as no surprise that the Newsarama article mentioned above came out the same week that it was announced that Cartoon Network had inked a major licensing deal with Mattel designed to capitalize on their original programming (“Cartoon”).  Based on this activity, it would appear that Cartoon Network is 1) trying to broaden its audience by airing more than animation, and 2) altering its approach by looking to the Nickelodeon model (own all the licensing rights to your shows, market the hell out of them).  Simply put, they’d rather air and promote the show they can make the most money on.

Again, I’m no expert, but these are the answers I came up with.  There was no grand conspiracy to end the series; they did what was best for their companies.  I don’t blame them, but it still sucks.  Still, even without Cartoon Network, I guess there’s hope for future material, as there have also been reports this week of future Timm-related projects [UPDATE: most likely the line of DC animated original movies], which may or may not tie into DCAU continuity [UPDATE: some did, some didn’t].  Whether or not they feature our beloved territory or blaze a new frontier, we’ll be in good hands.

Works Cited

Allstetter, Rob.  “Cartoon Network Upfronts.”  Comics Continuum.  Comics Continuum.  1 Mar. 2006.  <http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0603/01/index.htm>. Accessed 27 Jan. 2023.

Boyd Kirkland.  Comment on “What is This 52 Episode Rule?”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  26 Feb. 2006.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/what-is-this-52-episode-rule.4074351/#post-61632511>.  Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

b.t.  Comment on “Why Teen Titans Was Cancelled.”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  24 Feb. 2006.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/why-teen-titans-was-cancelled.4074471/#post-61633761>.  Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

“Cartoon Network, Mattel Sign Licensing Accord.”  Los Angeles Times.  Los Angeles Times.  14 Jun. 2006.  <https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jun-14-fi-calbriefs14.3-story.html>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Cruz, Eileen.  “I’m Not Mad, Cartoon Network.  Just Disappointed.”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  10 Nov. 2005.  <https://animesuperhero.com/not-mad-cartoon-network-just-disappointed/>. Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

DarkLantern.  Comment on “The Official ‘Justice League Unlimited’ Speculation Thread, Part 4 (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  26 Jan. 2006.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/the-official-justice-league-unlimited-speculation-thread-part-4-spoilers.4044551/page-6#post-61092621>.  Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

Dini, Paul.  “Night Ramblings.”  King’s Chronicles.  LiveJournal.  25 Jan. 2006.  <https://kingofbreakfast.livejournal.com/15770.html#comments>. Accessed 26 Jan. 2023.

Fritz, Steve.  “Krypto to the Doghouse?”  Internet Archive.  Internet Archive.  1 Jul. 2006. <https://web.archive.org/web/20060701223907/http://www.newsarama.com/AniShorts/Ani277.html>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Harris, Jeff.  “How to Ruin TV Animation in Seven Easy Lessons.”  Internet Archive.  Internet Archive.  30 Jul. 2005.  <https://web.archive.org/web/20060720202100/http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=4875>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Lang, Jamie.  “Cartoon Network Studios, As You Know It, is Gone Thanks to David Zaslav.”  Cartoon Brew.  Cartoon Brew, LLC.  12 Oct. 2022.  <https://www.cartoonbrew.com/studios/wbd-merge-cartoon-network-studios-warner-bros-animation-222123.html>. Accessed 22 Jul. 2024.

Mickey.  “Miyazaki Movies Join Cartoon Network Spring Line-Up.”  Internet Archive.  Internet Archive.  14  Mar. 2006.  <https://web.archive.org/web/20060721155834/http://www.animated-news.com/archives/00004688.html>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Wheaton, Will.  “Radio Free Burrito Episode 4.”  Internet Archive.  Internet Archive.  19 Jan. 2006.  <https://web.archive.org/web/20060810195438/http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2006/01/radio_free_burr.html>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and DC Comics.