EDITORIAL: "How Did 'Ollie's Pack' Get to Be Sent to Nicktoons, and What Should We Do to Prevent This From Ever Happening?"

Tonight, we were awaken to some news that may well be surprising to everyone: OLLIE'S PACK, after a full year of being on Nick, will air new episodes in graveyard 3:00 AM slots next month on Nicktoons.

I know Nickelodeon is known for shifting its ORIGINAL cartoons to Nicktoons when the ratings get to be too dismal for it; what surprises me about Nick doing this to OLLIE'S PACK is that Nickelodeon technically did not have a hand in producing the cartoon.

Rather, the series was produced by YTV, which has incidentally served as the Canadian home of most every cartoon that came out of Nickelodeon since 1994. All Nick did was arrange to get the rights to borrow it from YTV—a reversal of their usual deal. https://www.corusent.com/properties/ollies-pack/

I believe some of you will all be shocked to see that THIS is how Brian Robbins repays YTV for letting them borrow that show, which received a wealth of praise from the animation community when it debuted just over a year ago.

"Animation community" is the key word here because it was practically the only place one would have heard of a program such as OLLIE'S PACK. Most ordinary folks would have not really thought about seeing it, and major news organizations are indifferent at best to its existence.

One might make the argument that MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC, ANIMANIACS, THE LOUD HOUSE, THE CASAGRANDES and MIRACULOUS—great shows all—have gotten more press coverage and are more successful. That much is true.

But the reason why they are more successful, and have more press coverage, is because people in the animation community who got into them told regular people about the shows, and then regular people watched the same shows that the animation community was watching.

And then regular people became fans of the shows too. For instance, I've been known to sport a LOUD HOUSE shirt at visits to a Total Wine & More store on Oracle Rd. and a Safeway on Prince Rd. I've seen employees at both who said things along the lines of "We love this show too!"

It surprised me to encounter those sightings, and the same fact may very well surprise you as well. But surprises such as that in real life are a measure of how well a cartoon does, even in a climate where streaming and digital antennas have rapidly supplanted cable television.

My suggestion to those who read this thread is this: if you have a great many wonderful things to say about a cartoon, spread that kind of positive word-of-mouth and recommendation to as many regular people as you possibly can.

When positive word-of-mouth about an animated program spreads from someone in the animation community to an average person, it ensures that the series will have a successful run on its network, and maybe even more than that.

Also, series producers may want to inform newspapers, magazines, cable news channels, entertainment news programs, and other major news organizations about a cartoon you love and what it is about. They will be more interested in it and will cover it when-and-however possible.

Keep this in mind the next time one of the big three animated networks (Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel) either debuts a cartoon or threatens to put it on alternative channels (Nicktoons, Boomerang, Disney XD).

It may prevent situations of the type that occurred with OLLIE'S PACK from ever occurring again.