Patrick said the ska-themed JabberJaw video did so well it paved the way for more musical shorts.
That idea started the Cartoon Network Shorties series, featuring modern visual renditions of characters like Hanna-Barbera's happy alligator Wally Gator and JabberJaw, the talking shark. 'We had so much commercial time available because we didn't have big advertisers at that point.'īy the late '90s, Patrick said the objective was to make old cartoon characters have a contemporary feel. It was just about trying to get onto as many different cable systems as possible,' Patrick told Insider.
'The ratings didn't matter as much in those early days. The department helped make blocks like 'Cartoon Cartoon Fridays' and 'The Big Game.' He tasked Steve Patrick and his creative services department to create content to creatively fill time between the network's popular shows. Groovies was a product of Michael Ouweleen, then-creative director at a fairly new Cartoon Network and now-president of Adult Swim. The series started in the early days of Cartoon Network when they failed to secure advertisers In the decades since, as box TV watchers grew into social media users, YouTube videos from the Cartoon Network Groovies series have seen millions of views with nostalgia-filled comments.
