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-   -   Why Invader Zim was cancelled (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=220494)

Brockoli May 30th, 2010 6:21 AM

Why Invader Zim was cancelled
 
1. Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.
2. It didn't attract the age group it was supposed to. It was basically made for 9 to 12-year-olds but was liked by teenagers and adults.
3. There is a hidden image of GIR covered in blood in some of the episodes. You can see it clearly in the opening of "Mortos De Soulstealer".
4. Nickelodeon kept making Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Invader Zim, add changes in the episodes and Jhonen got sick of it and quit.
5. It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.

Trap-Eds May 30th, 2010 8:48 AM

Yeah, and?

I liked that show. Kinda like a darker Billy and Mandy for Nickelodeon. :D

Reina May 30th, 2010 9:19 AM

A real shame, Invader Zim was quite the amazing show 3: Wait, I take that back, not was- it still is! Gotta love that gir.

EmeraldSerenade May 30th, 2010 10:02 AM

The show was a little strange... but I thought it was cool ^^
A few of my friends owned GIR shirts.

My brother is afraid of the show though Dx

Spinor May 30th, 2010 10:30 AM

I thought it was pretty weird, that's why it didn't appeal to me :(

BUT, I have good news. The Mexican channels still bother to show this for some reason... -_- I dunno, the Mexican television is weird enough with their Novelas.

Volroc May 30th, 2010 11:53 AM

i thought it was brilliant
but you know americans, they so mind-f***ed bout tryin to stop kids from knowin bout death and crap they become afraid of their own shadows :P
i rather think it is a load of BS, the people who cancelled it, are probably the same people who work for 4Kids who butcher every anime they get their hands on (examples: pokemon, yugioh 5Ds, yugioh GX, one piece(til they lost rights to one piece) which they should lose rights to all the others and be shut down)

._____. May 30th, 2010 12:02 PM

Invader Zim was weird but it was still funny. :D

Sollace May 30th, 2010 12:08 PM

Invader Zim was the best kids show I've ever. Seen. There's still a VERY active collection of fans on deviantART. I happen to be one of them.

I remember someone found out that Jhonen once said "Invader Zim is dead to me" or something along those lines. That being said, the IZ universe has been toyed with very much by fans. It's all very interesting. People have made pretty serious story lines and fan characters, even fan species, for the show.

jon328 May 30th, 2010 12:08 PM

i disliked that show a lot

Eldrei June 1st, 2010 2:08 AM

Invader Zim is really funny. It's been years since I've seen Invader Zim...

shookie June 1st, 2010 6:50 AM

I love(d) Invader Zim. It was pretty much the only thing I watched in sixth/seventh grade.
While I'm sure those other reasons are valid, #5 is really the only one that's gone uncontested and is cited by nearly everybody as for why it was cancelled.

Kid Coma June 1st, 2010 1:41 PM

Invader Zim has been one of my favorite shows since it came out. I watched it all the time when I was younger, when I found out it was canceled I wasn't really surprised, but I was really angry.

Tyrantrum June 1st, 2010 10:54 PM

Invader Zim is amazing, and if teenagers loved it so much, and he didn't want to make changes, they should have moved it to Teen Nick, instead.

locoroco June 1st, 2010 11:43 PM

yeah i think the same it was kind of creepy and maybe a lil to dark but it was definitely funny hehehehe good times good times.......

Haza June 2nd, 2010 1:57 AM

I actually really loved this show. It was just my taste, thought it could have been more popular.

Sydian June 2nd, 2010 6:45 PM

It's not dead though. You can't walk into a Hot Topic and not see a shirt or some accessory with GIR. It's impossible. This show, even though it's cancelled, is still shelling in money. Nice.

Shadow June 3rd, 2010 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sydian (Post 5850022)
It's not dead though. You can't walk into a Hot Topic and not see a shirt or some accessory with GIR. It's impossible. This show, even though it's canceled, is still shelling in money. Nice.

That is how Nickelodeon works now. They support a show for a season or two, cancel it, but continue to make and profit off of merchandise and using the characters in advertisements. I guarantee you that the suits in Nickelodeon are getting the vast majority of the profits from that merchandise compared to the people who actually worked on the show.

It's a great business maneuver until they piss off enough fans...
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5841175)
1. Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.
2. It didn't attract the age group it was supposed to. It was basically made for 9 to 12-year-olds but was liked by teenagers and adults.
3. There is a hidden image of GIR covered in blood in some of the episodes. You can see it clearly in the opening of "Mortos De Soulstealer".
4. Nickelodeon kept making Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Invader Zim, add changes in the episodes and Jhonen got sick of it and quit.
5. It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.

1. Parents don't like Bugs Bunny anymore.
2. This was a problem from the start, yes. Nickelodeon was quite idiotic to go to the creator of a comic named Johnny the Homicidal Maniac to create a children's cartoon.
3. Nickelodeon never actually found out about that until well after it was canceled. Repeats on NickToons TV still have Bloody GIRs in them for years afterward (and still may).
4. Jhonen didn't quit. He did build up a hatred towards Nick, but continued to work on his son of a television show until it was canceled. He also got into fights with executives often, apparently. Sadly, he has given up on Zim afterward to the point that he's been quoted as saying that if you mention Invader Zim to him he will punch you in the face.
5. This was partly in fault from number 2 and also partly Nick's fault. They constantly shifted the time the show was on and never announced when it would be on until the last minute. The only reason we ever saw the Halloween episode was due to it being on U Pick (and later DVD) as they never actually scheduled it to be played.

Masterge77 June 7th, 2010 6:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5841175)
1. Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.

It was a little creepy for childrens show standards, but then again, look at Flapjack.....

Quote:

2. It didn't attract the age group it was supposed to. It was basically made for 9 to 12-year-olds but was liked by teenagers and adults.
They cancelled Zim because of one: money, and two: because most of it's audience (teenage nerds in high school) was far from it's target audience (7+), suprisingly enough, the same thing happened (and is still happening today) to South Park, yet IT'S STILL RUNNING (target audience: young adults, actuall audience: teenagers in junior high school who are now becoming violent, foul mouthed, sexual, and disrespective to their parents because of watching the show so much), HOW COME SOUTH PARK GETS TO KEEP RUNNING WHILE INVADER ZIM GETS CANCELED DESPITE BOTH BEING OWNED BY THE SAME COMPANY (Viacom)!!?!!?

Me? I loved Zim, I was actually part of the target audience, my mom watched it and liked it too, shame it was short lived, but you know what else was short lived and has a fandom of the same size, but yet got it's target audience? SONIC SATAM!!!!!

Quote:

3. There is a hidden image of GIR covered in blood in some of the episodes. You can see it clearly in the opening of "Mortos De Soulstealer".
I did not discover the bloddy GIRs until recently, about a month ago

Quote:

4. Nickelodeon kept making Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Invader Zim, add changes in the episodes and Jhonen got sick of it and quit.
False, he continued to work on the show until he got into various fights with Nickelodeon and Viacom executives, which he then gave up, he says that he will punch anyone in the face who mentions Zim to him (he does not really mean it, he's just going through a mid-life crisis)

Quote:

5. It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Trap-Eds (Post 5841409)
Yeah, and?

I liked that show. Kinda like a darker Billy and Mandy for Nickelodeon. :D

Yes, but Billy and Mandy came about a year or two later, and ran for much longer, it was also more successful..........

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volroc (Post 5841787)
i thought it was brilliant
but you know americans, they so mind-f***ed bout tryin to stop kids from knowin bout death and crap they become afraid of their own shadows :P
i rather think it is a load of BS, the people who cancelled it, are probably the same people who work for 4Kids who butcher every anime they get their hands on (examples: pokemon, yugioh 5Ds, yugioh GX, one piece(til they lost rights to one piece) which they should lose rights to all the others and be shut down)

Pokemon is no longer dubbed by 4Kids, Taj Produvctions does it, but it does worry me, as some of the dubbing has been very 4Kids-like (Movie 11 is a BIG example, and one of the more recent episodes had a character voiced by Jason Griffith)........

Brockoli June 7th, 2010 6:33 AM

Someone should get Jhonen to read this thread. I know its going to do Jack**** but I want him to do it anyway.


EDIT: What I don't understand is why they didn't move it to adult swin or something

Trap-Eds June 7th, 2010 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5861317)
Someone should get Jhonen to read this thread. I know its going to do Jack**** but I want him to do it anyway.


EDIT: What I don't understand is why they didn't move it to adult swin or something

Adult Swim is part of Cartoon Network...They probably coulda moved it to Teen Nick. *shrugs*
I'm pretty sure the show was canceled just because it was too "dark" for the kiddies and Nick didn't want to get sued by "angry" parents. :P

jjeangi June 7th, 2010 7:24 PM

I used to love this and Dexter's Lab.

Robert Conley June 8th, 2010 6:56 PM

This show completely appealed to me as a 9-12 year old. Of course the only show my parents never let me watch at that age was South Park so I guess they didn't care how "dark" it was because it was on Nickelodeon.

Okami Chi June 8th, 2010 7:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5841175)
1. Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.
2. It didn't attract the age group it was supposed to. It was basically made for 9 to 12-year-olds but was liked by teenagers and adults.
3. There is a hidden image of GIR covered in blood in some of the episodes. You can see it clearly in the opening of "Mortos De Soulstealer".
4. Nickelodeon kept making Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Invader Zim, add changes in the episodes and Jhonen got sick of it and quit.
5. It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.

Yup. Now Nickelodeon plays tween drama shows. We don't get quality shows like that anymore. :(

TheAppleFreak June 8th, 2010 7:10 PM

When I found out that Zim was being sold on iTunes, I went out and downloaded the entire series ASAP. I love that show.

Really, I see the cancellation being due to three reasons:
1) Demographics
The dark nature of the show didn't appeal to a lot of the target audience, which helped lead to its downfall.
2) Production cost
Anyone watching the show could tell that there is tons of CGI. If you don't believe me, look at "Room With A Moose" or the intro to "Zim Eats Waffles." That costs serious money there.
3) Inside disagreements
Vasquez vs. Viacom. Need I go on?

Presea June 9th, 2010 2:19 AM

I loved Invader Zim, it was one of the strangest cartoons nick had(other then ren and stimpy), now all I see are reruns of.. sponge bob... over and over o_o;

Masterge77 June 9th, 2010 7:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Okami Chi (Post 5865721)
Yup. Now Nickelodeon plays tween drama shows. We don't get quality shows like that anymore. :(

Yeah, the last good show Nick had was Avatar, oh, and the Penguins, but blame Network Decay

Also Disney Channel suffered the same fate years earlier, now look at it

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAppleFreak (Post 5865735)
Anyone watching the show could tell that there is tons of CGI. If you don't believe me, look at "Room With A Moose" or the intro to "Zim Eats Waffles." That costs serious money there.

Yeah, back then, CGI was millions out of someones pocket, thankfully, it's cheaper now

It's a little thing that's common in 2D animation called Conspicuous CG, and often, it can easily become Nightmare Fuel......

Quote:

Originally Posted by Presea (Post 5866365)
I loved Invader Zim, it was one of the strangest cartoons nick had(other then ren and stimpy), now all I see are reruns of.. sponge bob... over and over o_o;

Agreed, nick has been shoving it down our throats for 10 years already......

Brockoli June 9th, 2010 2:21 PM

I have this idea for a custom verison of the true last Invader Zim episode that was suppossed to air a month ago (the video is probably going to turn out bad, but I'll try it). Dib and Gaz take on the entire armada (where Zim plays into that, I was going to make up entirely). If Zim had been on just about any other channel I wouldn't need to. Where can I get the software to put the images and dialouge screens together and convert it all into video.

Brockoli June 13th, 2010 9:29 AM

I have just seen Zim: Doom Manifest, and I could tell it was going to suck in under the first ten pages. I was going to suffer Powerpuff D all over again. Damn PPG was good, it wasn't your average girl show. But that comic was crap, but once you start something you know you're going to be cursed to finish it. Plus, every comic on that site takes a month to put up ONE page. How could it take ONE month to draw a page from a SAGA and put it up on the internet, no matter how detailed. You don't even have come up with a new idea, you just have to pick up where you left off. There are 4 weeks in a month and say, 12 pages in you average monthly comic book. At the same rate, that's 3 comic books for every page in a comic on that site.
I'm not good at math, but you get the idea.

Trap-Eds June 13th, 2010 12:56 PM

^^Uhh, are you talking about this site:

http://zim.snafu-comics.com/?comic_id=0

I haven't read this comic yet, but from what I've read in this site already I'm betting it's gonna be good.

But anyway, isn't that a bit off topic...?

Brockoli June 13th, 2010 1:34 PM

Maybe you're right. At least you don't have to read 12 pages of PPG's first day of school before you get to the actual fighting. Plus, its more about the relationship between Dexter and Blossom than action. I want to see PPG's beating up giant robots god dammit! Not that romance crap. Also, it seems that every cartoon character in existence either appears or is referenced. I know its a cartoon crossover but how many cartoons do you need.

Masterge77 June 16th, 2010 7:34 AM

I found some more information out:

Executive Meddling was the real culprit here— If you did not know, Jhonen Vasquez was a comic artist best known for an adult graphic novel series called "Johnny The Homicidal Maniac", with that, the network was unprepared for Zims' dark humor. Many who know of JTHM expected Zim to move to MTV, but before that could happen, the executive meddling apparently had made Vasquez mad enough to tell Nickelodeon (and all of Viacom and MTV Networks) to "go to hell" before storming out of the company. No one has seen him since then, or knows what he is doing now, but rumor has it that he is still working on Zim to this day, waiting for the right moment to get his revenge on Viacom.....

More info I found out is that someone on a forum I found, I forget it's name, told me that a mother, who noticed her son loved the show and looked into Vasquez's other work (Johnny the Homocidal Maniac), had orded a petition to cancel the show. Rumor also has it that Vasquez was forced by Nick to make new episodes for them secretly and privately in a small room, which drove him mad.

I admit, Zim was pretty dark, violent, and creepy for kids show standards (It was pretty much as far as a TV-Y7 show can go before turning TV-PG), but I don't think it was THAT dark, violent, and creepy.
It should also be noted that Nick is aggressively clinging to Zim's rights and still putting him, Dib, and Gir in their video games as small cameos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5867630)
I have this idea for a custom verison of the true last Invader Zim episode that was suppossed to air a month ago (the video is probably going to turn out bad, but I'll try it). Dib and Gaz take on the entire armada (where Zim plays into that, I was going to make up entirely). If Zim had been on just about any other channel I wouldn't need to. Where can I get the software to put the images and dialouge screens together and convert it all into video.

If Zim lasted a couple of years, like, 3-4 seasons, that would definetly be how the ending would be........

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoroark-Nightmare (Post 5867702)
I watched three episodes.
Three. I HATED the show.

It does not matter if you like it or not, this thread is about why it was cancelled, not about it in general

Quote:

Dark and gory, not... a kid's show. The people in the show were ugly and disgusting... too much downtown-LA theme for me. D:
(no offense for people who live there)
It's called "realism", but there are a few things in the shows depiction of the planet that were quite unrealistic

Quote:

It's just.. the gangsterness and bullying and ... just..
Yeah.
Uh, I don't recall that.....

Quote:

I totally understand why it was cancelled, and I am GLAD it was.
Viacom should have thought twice before hiring a guy known for an adult comic book called "Johnny the Homocidal Maniac"

Agent Clank June 16th, 2010 8:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Okami Chi (Post 5865721)
Yup. Now Nickelodeon plays tween drama shows. We don't get quality shows like that anymore. :(

I know..
cartoons are not like they were back then :(

Masterge77 June 16th, 2010 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Clank (Post 5886171)
I know..
cartoons are not like they were back then :(

Zim, Avatar, and Danny Phantom were the last good shows Nick had, and all of then had terrible fates, Avatar ended on an unresolved cliffhanger, Danny Phantom had it's third season rushed quickly, yet had a proper ending, and Zim was hated to death by most parents......

Of all three, they have huge fandoms, and Zim suffered the worst fate

Trap-Eds June 18th, 2010 9:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masterge77 (Post 5886547)
Avatar ended on an unresolved cliffhanger,

Huh? They had an epic series finale. "Ozin's Comet".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aScrqWDK4rQ&feature=player_embedded

Quote:

I admit, Zim was pretty dark, violent, and creepy for kids show standards (It was pretty much as far as a TV-Y7 show can go before turning TV-PG), but I don't think it was THAT dark, violent, and creepy.
It should also be noted that Nick is aggressively clinging to Zim's rights and still putting him, Dib, and Gir in their video games as small cameos
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExecutiveMeddling

Poor Vasquez. Big companies will do the craziest things to get money, and then crazier things to avoid getting sued for whatever they did in the first place...

wolfeydawg June 21st, 2010 6:29 PM

Invader Zim is on Nicktoons lol. just started today i was so excited!!! lol

A Pixy June 21st, 2010 6:55 PM

Yes, yes, Invader ZiM was amazing, yada, yada, yada, one of the greatest cartoons of the decade, blah, blah, blah, unique in its strange, sick sense of humour, etc.

TheAppleFreak June 21st, 2010 7:17 PM

Apparently, simple humans, Nicktoons Network is beginning to reair Zim on July 4th. VICTORY FOR ZIM!!!

wolfeydawg June 22nd, 2010 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAppleFreak (Post 5900932)
Apparently, simple humans, Nicktoons Network is beginning to reair Zim on July 4th. VICTORY FOR ZIM!!!

as i said they started yesterday! not July 4th!

Virtual Chatot June 22nd, 2010 12:44 PM

I still have a Gir plushie...not wrong for an eighteen year old university student is it?

TRIFORCE89 June 22nd, 2010 7:10 PM

Is that first post is a series of options, I'm going with numbers 1 and 5.

Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.
It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.

Not hitting your target audience isn't uncommon for "smart' children's cartoons. Look at the 90s lineup of WB cartoons. Look at SpongeBob. A large young-adult following, but those shows unlike Invader Zim (and unfortunately Freakazoid, I loved that show) didn't have enough children viewing thereby deeming them not toyrific enough or marketable.

Melody June 27th, 2010 2:31 PM

Honestly, I think they shouldn't have split Nickelodeon into two networks anyways. TeenNick sucks because all they do is tween drama, which Disney does. >_> (And copying Disney is bad, because you ALWAYS FAIL HORRIBLY)

Seriously, only the 12-15 year olds really enjoy the stupid tween crap, the rest of us just roll our eyes at it.

That being said, It's stupid that Nick canceled the show when they could have just aired it on TeenNick and let the creator of the show do his own thing. I honestly didn't like Invader Zim at first, but at that time in my life I felt Nick was seriously in Network Decay already and thus I hated ALL of their cartoons released in that time frame because I was like. "Nick fails so hard now, whatever happened to the good stuff like Rugrats?"

Redstar June 27th, 2010 2:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brockoli (Post 5841175)
1. Parents never liked the show and thought it was too dark and violent for children.
2. It didn't attract the age group it was supposed to. It was basically made for 9 to 12-year-olds but was liked by teenagers and adults.
3. There is a hidden image of GIR covered in blood in some of the episodes. You can see it clearly in the opening of "Mortos De Soulstealer".
4. Nickelodeon kept making Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Invader Zim, add changes in the episodes and Jhonen got sick of it and quit.
5. It wasn't getting high ratings from 9 to 12-year-olds.

Actually, Nickelodeon hired Vasquez specifically to create a show aimed at teenagers and young adults. Children were never the intended demographic, yet they still pulled the plug because they wanted the show to attract children too.

Nyu~♥! June 29th, 2010 9:22 AM

it was funny but too scary for me when I was little. .XD I was squeamish. Istill don't like it because it's so dark.
I knew that there was controversy about it's darkness.. i just knew it.

Oh well D: where I am, it's back.

EmeraldSerenade June 29th, 2010 10:47 AM

I have a Gir plush, but I'll be honest: That show gave me nightmares ._.

Cynic Kaka July 17th, 2010 2:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masterge77 (Post 5866847)
Yeah, the last good show Nick had was Avatar, oh, and the Penguins, but blame Network Decay

Also Disney Channel suffered the same fate years earlier, now look at it



Yeah, back then, CGI was millions out of someones pocket, thankfully, it's cheaper now

It's a little thing that's common in 2D animation called Conspicuous CG, and often, it can easily become Nightmare Fuel......



Agreed, nick has been shoving it down our throats for 10 years already......

:/ Honestly, if you didn't link to TVTropes, and actually just replaced those links with, "the networks are going downhill", "CGI", and "dudewtfomg is that", it'd be more of a realistic argument.

Invader ZIM was an amazing show. It doesn't matter if it ended. We still have it in our hearts.


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