How Boomerang lost it's dedicated fanbase for good

 Hi everyone. This is how Boomerang quickly became one of the most iconic blocks and television channels produced by Turner Entertainment to one of the worse, competing with the current state of Cartoon Network.

So Boomerang first started as a block on Cartoon Network in 1992. Then, when the new millennium came, it gained its own individual TV channel in 2000. The block promised to air "classic" Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as The Flinstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, and other household names in the cartoon world. The television channel aired exactly those cartoons, with dedicated bumpers that featured the toys and other merchandise for those shows.

Unfortunately, the channel had lost its charm in the year 2015, where Turner Entertainment chose to completely rebrand it. The Boomerang-shaped logo was retired, even though there was a slogan tied into it, "it's all coming back to you", referring to the nostalgia and memories of watching those shows, most likely in your childhood if you were part of the target demographic for the tv channel. Even though the new bumpers of the rebrand share one thing in common with the older ones, and its being multicolored, the graphics were more minimalistic, and more generalized. It can air on any channel related to Cartoon Network. It didn't have a distinct feel compared to the older bumpers.

I understand that change is necessary, especially because it has been almost 20 years since they are airing the same kind of bumpers on repeat, with changing commercials that change with the times, but I truly feel like this change is unnecessary. Many fans online were disappointed, and created petitions online to revert the channel back, but none were successful in its purpose.

Maybe the change of content in it's programming was to appeal to a more younger demographic, by eliminating the older Hanna-Barbera shows that were earlier mentioned, and showing them at a extremely smaller rate than previously, and airing more classics that were previously on the channel before, like Tom & Jerry.

The original bumpers set a good tone and atmosphere for the channel because just like in those cartoons, you'd never know what's going to happen next in these bumpers. The reason for rebranding seems generally unknown, besides wanting to air more advertisements in general.

Apparently, streaming for this channel will shut down on the 30th of September, this year. As a fan of this channel and the older versions of Cartoon Network, I saw this coming. They should've honestly shut down the channel in 2015 instead of rebranding it, so that the memories of the older fans who've been there since the beginning of the channel wouldn't be ruined by this new whole artistic identity change. Yes, they were repetitive, but there was comfort in that.

I believe Turner Entertainment also became more close minded in it's marketing for this channel, because streaming for this channel is only available in the United States, while the channel used to be available in so many different countries. I mean if there's a will, there's a way for people that aren't American to watch their cartoons, but still..

The Boomerang channel helped me become more open minded and perspective of how the cartoon world once was. Instead of just squinting my face and saying 'this is old, change the channel', I became more open minded about what people of the past used to enjoy. I was also able to bond with older people by reminiscing about these cartoons. Whoever was in charge of the rebrand, didn't understand Boomerang's appeal at all and maybe they should've interviewed a few fans of the channel, someone outside of the company and business world for this channel rather than just rebranding it right away, because what matters the most is the viewers. It's not just the view count without their opinions..

Why would they make something retro, modernized? It's just completely changing its nature to be it's polar opposite. It's hard for me to let go of the channel because I've made lots of memories watching the programming, especially the holiday bumpers. I would drink hot chocolate while watching the holiday specials, and that gave me a feeling of being included, as I missed out on a lot of Cartoon Network's older holiday celebrations when the channel was in it's best era (2000-2007) (Yes I know Cartoon Network has a lot of different best eras, but I personally enjoy the bumpers from that era, the most). 

Well, that's it for now.

Signing off now.

Bye Bye Boo