Cartoon Network Won't Make Shows About Real Girls Because It Doesn't Sell Enough Toys [VIDEO]
2013.12.20
Tower Prep was a live action show that got cancelled in 2011 after just one season. The show was about teens with special abilities who go to a special school to develop those skills.
Paul Dini is the creator and writer behind the Cartoon Network show. In an interview with Kevin Smith's 'Fatman on Batman' podcast, Dini says they pushed back against his development of his female characters because they couldn't figure out how to make money out of it:
That's the thing, you know I hate being Mr. Sour Grapes here, but I'll just lay it on the line: that's the thing that got us cancelled on Tower Prep, honest-to-God was, it's like, "We need boys, but we need girls right there, right one step behind the boys"—this is the network talking—"one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as the boys, but right there." And then we began writing stories that got into the two girls' back stories, and they were really interesting. And suddenly we had families and girls watching, and girls really became a big part of our audience, in sort of like they picked up that Harry Potter type of serialized way, which is what The Batman and [indecipherable]'s really gonna kill. But, the Cartoon Network was saying, 'Fuck, no, we want the boys' action, it's boys' action, this goofy boy humor we've gotta get that in there. And we can't—' and I'd say, "But look at the numbers, we've got parents watching, with the families, and then when you break it down"—"Yeah, but the, so many, we've got too many girls. We need more boys."
It's like, "We don't want the girls because the girls won't buy toys." We had a whole… we had a whole, a merchandise line for Tower Prep that they shitcanned before it ever got off the launching pad, because it's like, "Boys, boys, boys. Boys buy the little spinny tops, they but the action figures, girls buy princesses, we're not selling princesses."
The show was eventually replaced with another shown called Level Up (currently on hiatus) which was a program about "goofy nerds fighting CG monsters". It kind of makes us miss they days when PowerPuff Girls was still around.It's like, "We don't want the girls because the girls won't buy toys." We had a whole… we had a whole, a merchandise line for Tower Prep that they shitcanned before it ever got off the launching pad, because it's like, "Boys, boys, boys. Boys buy the little spinny tops, they but the action figures, girls buy princesses, we're not selling princesses."
More Articles
Copyright © Fooyoh.com All rights reserved.