After accidentally revealing the news to a handful of trade publications on earlier this week, Weigel Broadcasting and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) formally announced the forthcoming launch of their classic cartoon television network MeTV Toons on Thursday.
The channel will debut in June on broadcast stations across the country and on free, ad-supported streaming television platforms, and will include dozens of classic animated series like “Tom & Jerry,” “The Flintstones,” “Johnny Quest” and “Scooby-Doo.”
MeTV Toons builds off a Saturday morning cartoon block that has aired on Weigel-owned MeTV for several years now, which consisted primarily of animated shows from Warner Bros. MeTV Toons will expand on this idea by incorporating other Warner Bros series into the mix, along with shows from Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony’s Columbia Pictures and others.
A teaser trailer published online Thursday offered insight into the shows that will appear on MeTV Toons when it debuts this summer, which will include:
- Betty Boop
- Bugs Bunny & Friends
- Casper the Friendly Ghost
- Freakazoid!
- Huckleberry Hound
- Inspector Gadget
- Johnny Quest
- Josie and the Pussycats
- Magilla Gorilla
- Popeye
- Rocky & Bullwinkle
- Scooby-Doo
- Secret Squirrel
- Speed Racer
- The Flintstones
- The Jetsons
- The Smurfs
- Tom & Jerry
- Top Cat
- Touché Turtle & Dum Dum
- Underdog
- Wacky Races
- The Woody Woodpecker Show
- Yogi Bear
Some shows like “Freakazoid!” and “Wacky Races” have not appeared on broadcast TV in years, while others like “The Smurfs” and “Johnny Quest” previously aired on Boomerang, WBD’s retro cartoon cable channel. Some shows like “Tom & Jerry” and “The Flintstones” continue to air on Boomerang, calling into question the long-term fate of the cable channel now that Weigel has licensed the shows for its own free TV network.
“We are honored to work with the amazing team at Warner Bros. Discovery and others on this network to bring together a truly incredible collection of the world’s best known and most loved classic cartoons, creating a new destination for everyone to discover or rediscover the sheer joy of watching cartoons on TV,” Neal Sabin, the Vice Chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, said in a statement contained in the news release.
Sabin went on to say that the channel will contain “a tremendous amount of variety,” and that the entire programming slate will consist of classic animated series.
“Neal and the team at Weigel have been long-standing and innovative licensing partners of Warner Bros content for decades,” said David Decker, the President of Content Sales at WBD. “Having some of the studio’s most iconic animated characters all available in one place is not only great for fans of classic animation, but also just super fun.”
MeTV Toons is tentatively scheduled to launch on June 25, and will be available on Weigel-owned digital broadcast stations in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and St. Louis, among others. Weigel is also working to secure distribution of MeTV Toons on non-Weigel stations in other markets. The company did not say which FAST platforms will carry a streaming version of the channel.
Weigel operates a number of digital broadcast networks, including MeTV, MeTV Plus, Catchy Comedy, Heroes & Icons and Story Television. It operates three other networks through various joint ventures: Dabl and Start TV are programmed in partnership with Paramount Global, while the retro film network Movies! is programmed with Fox Corporation.
Weigel’s digital broadcast networks are carried nationally via two streaming services: Philo and Frndly TV.
