16 Years Ago Today, Cartoon Network Was Saved By Its Biggest Show Ever (& Nickelodeon Missed Out)

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16 years ago today, on April 5, 2010, Adventure Time made its debut with Cartoon Network and completely changed the course of animation history. It’s not the first series to evolve from wacky weekly adventures to a much more intense, serialized story, but it was one of the first notable releases to do so. It not only changed the kind of shows we’d get to see with Cartoon Network in the years that followed, but quite literally saved the channel’s reputation after its disastrous attempts at focusing its efforts on live-action shows.

Adventure Time Premiered on Cartoon Network 16 Years Ago Today

Courtesy of Cartoon Network

Adventure Time has some famous origins among animation fans. Originally created by Pendleton Ward, it made its debut with the Nicktoons as a short as part of Random! Cartoons back in 2007. This pilot ended up not being picked up by the channel despite the fact that it had gone viral with fans online at the time, and eventually Cartoon Network decided to pick it up for a full series order. It was then a few years later that Adventure Time would make its full debut with Cartoon Network, and the channel was never really the same.

Because while Cartoon Network had its main anchor franchises in the past like The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, and more during its peak, this wasn’t the case for the late 2000s. The channel was struggling to reach that same level of influence through that era, and had some experiments that really rubbed fans the wrong way. The final years of this phase saw Cartoon Network introduce a few new live-action series as part of the failed “CNReal” endeavor, and fans saw it as the blatant attempt to copy Nickelodeon’s own live-action show success that it was.

Thankfully, 2010 saw Cartoon Network begin to shift away from this strategy with a return to showcasing original animated projects. Adventure Time was by far the only from this era to make a stamp (as Regular Show aired later that Fall and is currently preparing for a revival of its own), but it was the first of a major wave of change. Helping in this matter was the fact that it felt entirely different than everything seen before, and was massively popular with a new wave of fans. It was pretty much impossible to avoid Adventure Time‘s influence at the time.

Adventure Time Is Still Huge With Cartoon Network

Courtesy of Cartoon Network

It’s wild in retrospect to realize that while Cartoon Network failed at copying Nickelodeon with its CNReal initiative, it ended up getting a massive victory over the channel with Adventure Time. The animated series ran for eight seasons, and brought its story to an end after all that time. It didn’t start out with the intention of telling some grand fantasy story, but grew over time to steadily introduce more of that lore (and breaking hearts in the process). And that kind of changed how fans watched animated shows.

The evolution from its episodic adventures to a full blown narrative is the format that became the norm for Cartoon Network shows from then on. We’d see 2010s hits like Regular Show, Steven Universe and more follow that kind of format, and they were such a success that Cartoon Network is bringing them back after all these years with new projects. It’s the same for Adventure Time as while it ended its original story, the series never really went away. It’s been kept alive with new streaming specials, spinoffs, sequels, and even a new feature film now in the works.

Adventure Time hit at a very crucial time for Cartoon Network. The internet had been changing how fans were interacting with their favorite shows, and the animated series not only offered a ton of unique characters but an entire mystery box of potential to theorize over and dig into. The fandom became entrenched with the series as it continued, and it changed how Cartoon Network approached the 2010s overall. Now that it’s been so many years later, it’s clear that Adventure Time is still the king.

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