In the mid-'80s, an interesting deal was struck between animation factories such as Lorimar Telepictures and Filmation Associates and a host of independent cable stations. These advertainment producers offered merchandise-spun programming such as Thundercats and He-Man to these stations for free, in exchange for nothing more than air time. The stations, unable to afford other syndicated reruns, leapt at the opportunity to cheaply fill their afternoon slots. Eventually, the stations received percentage returns on sales of the tied-in toys in their broadcast area. It was the dawn of a new era in children's programming.
More than a decade later, the online world is offering its obligatory new wrinkle to the bargain. JP Kids and Yahoo are reportedly developing an animated television series based on the megadirectory's kids site, Yahooligans, starring itinerant avatars, evil "Spam Boys," and actual Web sites. Whether sites with cartoon spokespeople will be overrepresented is still uncertain. Also uncertain are the opportunities for sites still lacking in toon icons but flush with promotional capital.
It's too early to tell what the extracurricular economic dynamics of this project might be, but as a pure brand-building exercise, it should succeed in ways its high-tech, high-concept cartoon forebear Reboot never dreamed of. Tracking conversions of TV viewers to site browsers is quite a bit easier than tracking viewer conversions to Toys "R" Us shoppers, if not yet quite as lucrative. Still, should Yahoo choose to be the first site to offer branded plush dolls and action figures, it might find that online commerce is not the dead end some people claim.
It's not difficult to see all children's programming being tied into online sites in the coming decade, notwithstanding even a total failure of the much-heralded TV-Web convergence. It would certainly prove more manageable than a similar phenomenon in adult programming. Unlike children, grown-ups have that annoying tendency to create fan and anti-fan sites, with soundbites, GIFs, and a host of other unauthorized trademark violations. The kids, on the other hand, could be taught from an early age to surf only when they're spoken to. The worst-case scenario might be the common tendency of children to eventually tire of their playthings and throw them away. As long as the toy they toss isn't the Web, this way-new dawn might just last an entire season.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
