Why Invader Zim was cancelled

I used to love this and Dexter's Lab.
 
Brockoli said:
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.
Click to expand...

Yup. Now Nickelodeon plays tween drama shows. We don't get quality shows like that anymore. :(
 
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?
 
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;
 
Okami Chi said:
Yup. Now Nickelodeon plays tween drama shows. We don't get quality shows like that anymore. :(
Click to expand...

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

TheAppleFreak said:
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.
Click to expand...

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......

Presea said:
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;
Click to expand...

Agreed, nick has been shoving it down our throats for 10 years already......
 
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
^^Uhh, are you talking about this site:

https://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...?
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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

Brockoli said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

Zoroark-Nightmare said:
I watched three episodes.
Three. I HATED the show.
Click to expand...

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

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)
Click to expand...

It's called "realism", but there are a few things in the shows depiction of the planet that were quite unrealistic

It's just.. the gangsterness and bullying and ... just..
Yeah.
Click to expand...

Uh, I don't recall that.....

I totally understand why it was cancelled, and I am GLAD it was.
Click to expand...

Viacom should have thought twice before hiring a guy known for an adult comic book called "Johnny the Homocidal Maniac"
 
Last edited:
Agent Clank said:
I know..
cartoons are not like they were back then :(
Click to expand...

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
 
Masterge77 said:
Avatar ended on an unresolved cliffhanger,
Click to expand...

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

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
Click to expand...

https://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...
 
Apparently, simple humans, Nicktoons Network is beginning to reair Zim on July 4th. VICTORY FOR ZIM!!!
 
I still have a Gir plushie...not wrong for an eighteen year old university student is it?
 
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top