Boomerang (TV channel)

Boomerang is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner. Originating as a spinoff of Cartoon Network (which originated Boomerang as a programming block in 1992), Boomerang specializes in a blend of classic and contemporary animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives with a family-friendly approach, including Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Powerpuff Girls, and Scooby-Doo, along with repeats of shows still in production on Cartoon Network like Teen Titans Go! and The Amazing World of Gumball.

As of February 2015, approximately 43.6 million households (37.5% of those with television) receive the channel.

History
Much of the programming that made up the core of Boomerang's lineup was originally part of TBS's Disaster Area, a block of children's programming that aired on that network from 1997 to 1999. Boomerang had originated a programming block airing on Cartoon Network that debuted on December 8, 1992. It was aimed towards the generation of baby boomers, and was similar to the Vault Disney nostalgia block that would debut five years later on the Disney Channel. It originally aired for four hours every weekend, but the block's start time had changed frequently. The Saturday block moved to Saturday afternoons, then back to the early morning, and the Sunday block moved to Sunday evenings. Eventually, Boomerang was shortened by an hour, reducing it from four hours to three each weekend. Turner Broadcasting System eventually converted Boomerang into a standalone cable channel that debuted on April 1, 2000. The Cartoon Network programming block was reformatted to air cartoons in production during a certain year (The Flintstones and Top Cat for 1961, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Scooby-Doo for 1969, et al.). The block was often simulcast with the Boomerang channel on Saturday mornings until 2004. The Boomerang channel initially carried a looping programming format that rotated each week.

Once Boomerang launched as its own channel, on-air promotions for the channel aired at the end of every program within the Cartoon Network block, in attempt to increase visibility for Boomerang. In October 2004, all of the older programming on Cartoon Network, including Looney Tunes, Baby Looney Tunes, and shows from Hanna-Barbera migrated to Boomerang. On October 2 and 3, 2004, nearly four months after the relaunch of Cartoon Network, the Boomerang programming block was replaced with the then-debuting Adult Swim. Boomerang consisted with an everyday lineup of older reruns of classic anthology series such as The Popeye Show, Tom and Jerry, The Bob Clampett Show, ToonHeads and programs formerly seen on Boomerang such as Super Globetrotters. Looney Tunes aired on Cartoon Network for the last time officially on those dates, and would not return to that network until March 14, 2011, when Cartoon Network added two hour-long blocks of Looney Tunes shorts in a run-up to the debut of The Looney Tunes Show.

Boomerang originated as a commercial-free channel, being financed solely by subscription fees and product tie-ins. In order to fill out a half-hour block (Boomerang programming follows a strict half-hour scheduling format), breaks between programs featured promotions for Cartoon Network and/or Boomerang programming (in the latter's case, most of the bumpers are several years old), occasional advertising for DVD products from Warner Home Video, various animated shorts, and eventually public service announcements for Cartoon Network's "Stop Bullying: Speak Up" initiative. Advertising time for cable and satellite providers is leased to some providers such as Dish Network, through insertion by those providers.

During its looping format, which lasted through December 26, 2004, its broadcast day began at 8 a.m. (Eastern Time), with programming being repeated three times a day in eight-hour blocks. Monday through Thursdays featured a variety of half-hour and hour-long animated series; "monthly feature" cartoons were shown all day on Fridays, in which one cartoon was featured for each Friday of a given month for 24 consecutive hours. On January 1, 2005, this block became known as "monthly character of the month", and began to air on weekends from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern (the block was eventually named "Boomeroyalty" in March 2007, which ran until the fall of 2012). On Saturdays, cartoons from a select calendar year were broadcast. Boomerang's promotional slogan, It's All Coming Back to You, used on the channel itself, was one of nostalgia that accurately reflected its programming of the time (in promotions on Boomerang and especially Cartoon Network, the channel is referred to as "Boomerang from Cartoon Network"); actor and television host John O'Hurley has served as continuity announcer for most of the channel's promotions. In September 2008, Cartoon Network began to feature increased promotion for Boomerang, including two promos that aired on January 1, 2009. Between intermissions, Boomerang would air a bumper, followed by two advertisements (one for either Dish Network or DirecTV, depending on the provider, followed by a regular commercial, a classic short and a "Wedgie," a series of original animated shorts that originally aired on Cartoon Network).

For many years, Boomerang generally did not show live action series, with the exception of The Banana Splits, which had a semi-regular place on the channel's schedule through approximately 2011, and the Cartoon Network game show Hole in the Wall, which aired intermittently from 2010 to 2011. However, in October 2011, the channel acquired the cable rights to the 1960s live-action series The Munsters and The Addams Family (1964 version) and airing the two sitcoms in prime time, before being removed from the schedule after Halloween (both series returned to the Boomerang lineup in October 2012 and 2013). Because most of the channel's content consisted of archived television programs produced before the advent of high-definition television, Boomerang does not currently maintain a high definition simulcast feed.

On February 4, 2014, as part of the company's 2014 upfronts, Turner Broadcasting announced that Boomerang would become advertising-supported, and seek additional international distribution.

On January 19, 2015, the U.S. version of Boomerang was relaunched as part of a global rebranding effort and will offer original programming for the first time; the relaunched channel will continue to emphasize its archival programming but with a greatly increased emphasis on the archive's most popular brands and an explicitly family-friendly approach, in the hopes that Boomerang can become a "second flagship" on par with the main Cartoon Network channel.

Programming
Historically, Boomerang avoided overt channel drift and, despite adding newer content to its library, continued to air programming from the breadth of its archives. As of spring 2014, however, most of its archival programming has been relegated to graveyard slots while the daytime schedule has increasingly been dominated by programming from the 1990s and later. Only Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, The Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-Doo, and The Garfield Show have permanent places on the schedule as of December 2014; a few shows, such as The Flintstones, Pokémon, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and The Smurfs are usually on the schedule but are periodically taken off the schedule for brief periods, or have their slots on the schedule shuffled around. Most other programs aired by Boomerang stay on the schedule for several weeks, then are rotated out and replaced by other programs.

Not all of the Time Warner animation library is currently available to Boomerang. A portion of the library that includes the WB-produced animated series from the 1990s that were produced in collaboration with Steven Spielberg (including Tiny Toon Adventures and most of Animaniacs), and most properties involving Batman and Superman (including the DC Animated Universe), is put out for license to other networks; those properties most recently aired on the Hub Network from late 2012 until that network's demise in October 2014. Boomerang also occasionally licenses programming from other distributors, such as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which rejoined the lineup for a short run in August and September 2013. The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon shorts, which were dropped by Boomerang since 2007, returned to the schedule on October 5, 2013.

Although Boomerang's programming philosophy was originally intended to showcase classic cartoons, it started to added some newer shows in recent years. On January 1, 2012, the channel began airing episodes of Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville, which ended in February 2013. On November 17 and 24, 2012, Boomerang aired new episodes of Ben 10: Omniverse, before their telecast on sister channel Cartoon Network. Boomerang reintroduced the "Wedgies" series of animated shorts (which air in-between shows) in 2013. Boomerang also began airing Teen Titans Go! and The Amazing World of Gumball on December 1, 2014, alongside their airings on Cartoon Network. Numb Chucks was picked up by Boomerang for first-run broadcast in the United States on January 10, 2015, after initially having been announced for Cartoon Network.

Programming blocks
Because of Boomerang's fluid schedule, programming blocks will air for a few months, then be removed from the schedule, only to be added again a few months later.

Current

 * Boomerang Theater – Boomerang's movie showcase block; it is shown on weekend mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Eastern; Looney Tunes shorts fill out the 10:30 a.m. slot as needed.

Seasonal programming blocks

 * Captain Planet – In observance of Earth Day, Boomerang airs a marathon of the animated series (which was produced by Turner Program Services).
 * Mother's Day – A recent marathon obervance by Boomerang, on the holiday, the channel airs cartoons featuring mothers, such as Jane Jetson-focused episodes of The Jetsons, and Wilma Flintstone-focused episodes of The Flintstones.
 * The Boomerang Christmas Party – This block, which airs each December, features a collection of Hanna-Barbera Christmas specials (such as The Powerpuff Girls: Twas the Fight Before Christmas, Yogi's First Christmas, Christmas Comes to Pac-Land, Casper's First Chrismas, The Jetsons' First Christmas and The Flintstones' Christmas).

Former blocks

 * Boomeraction – One of the first blocks to air on Boomerang, its programming focused on action-adventure shows including Thundarr the Barbarian, Teen Titans, Samurai Jack, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, The Pirates of Dark Water, Jonny Quest, The Secret Saturdays, Ben 10 and Ben 10: Omniverse. It was also one of the only Boomerang blocks to air across international feeds, including the United Kingdom, Latin America, and Australia versions of the network. The block was removed by June 2, 2014, as all programming from the block left the schedule.
 * Boomerandom – This block aired each weekend from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time from 2008 to 2010, and featured two hours of episodes of a single program. The selected programs were picked by the "Boomerandom drawing machine".
 * Boomerang Zoo – This one-hour block featured pre-1970 Hanna-Barbera/Warner Bros. television shorts, culled mainly from the H–B funny animal series (such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound,  Atom Ant, Magilla Gorilla,  Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, and Pixie & Dixie and Mr. Jinks). It was the only block to air on both the American and European versions of the channel after the 2004 rebranding of Boomerang Europe.
 * Boomerock – This block, which aired in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Flintstones in 2010, consisted of a marathon of the classic animated series.
 * Boomeroyalty – This weekend mini-marathon of shows focuses on a particular character that changes every month, similar to the former Super Chunk block on sister network Cartoon Network. "Boomeroyalty" concluded on July 2013.
 * Scooberang – This continuous block featured every episode of each Scooby-Doo series (which were aired in chronological order), beginning with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It also aired some feature-length Scooby-Doo films, including Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers and Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. "Scooberang" no longer airs on Boomerang. However, various series iterations of the Scooby-Doo franchise air on the channel several times daily.
 * Those Meddling Kids! – This 90-minute block featured series produced by Hanna-Barbera and/or Ruby-Spears, all of which follow the formula of a group of mystery-solving teenagers or young adults (such as Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Fangface, Clue Club and Speed Buggy).
 * Halloween block – This block aired during the month of October, and included Halloween-themed programs such as Scooby-Doo, Casper, The Addams Family (in its live-action as well as animated incarnations), Beetlejuice, The Funky Phantom, Goober and the Ghost Chasers and The Munsters. This is notably the only time that Boomerang regularly aired any live-action programming, particularly as The Addams Family and The Munsters have aired on the channel each October since 2011. The Halloween programming replaced the annual Scooberang block in 2011 and aired again in 2012 and 2013; it was not brought back in 2014 when the channel began to change focus.