It's sad that this hilarious material with so much effort put into it was so under appreciated and in some cases, became lost media. I'm glad Doug is giving them the credit they deserve.

I love how Critic gives recognition to the smallest things in media that no one would really talk about with a very interesting art style

The main reason these bumpers were so fun to watch was because it portrayed a shared universe and, as demonstrated by the MCU years later, the audience _love_ seeing the characters of their favourite shows being familiar with each other

Fred isn't sitting at the girls' table, it's the blondes' table! Yes, Judy is a platinum blonde. The greatest Cartoon Network bumper of all time: Raven and Mandy on the bus.

Because we can’t wait for November’s commercials.

The Bumperville era of Cartoon Network was the last peak of kids animation for me. There are so many shows from the late 90’s to mid 2000’s that defined my childhood.

It's wild how these 30 second Cartoon Network bumpers have better writing than the entire season of Valma.

Nick and Disney Channel had some good ones, but CN will always hold the crown for bumpers. The amount of nostalgia rewatching CN bumpers gives me hits hard, especially the city ones.

I absolutely love the 'fantastical world actually has a lot of bureaucracy and mundanity" trope. Seeing cartoon characters clocking into work as Toons, or sitting around the lunch room with all the other toons. I love the contrasting worlds.

A super simple bumper that ALWAYS impacted me was watching Ed Edd n Eddy walk into the sunset with that cool chill music. It just felt like they were walking home together after a wild day of scams and craziness, it struck me and always stayed with me.

These bumpers made cartoon network unique and it really felt like the character we love all live in the same world

I feel like Cartoon Network bumpers defined so much of my childhood. These bumpers gave the shows we watched that much more life, and more than that, they made these animated characters feel real. Like, we all knew the characters were animated cartoons, but the bumpers gave the network a feeling like these beloved childhood icons really existed in their own shared space, and every once in a while, we got to catch a glimpse into their world behind the scenes. There was a magic to seeing our favorite cartoons just existing and dealing with grounded down-to-earth problems. Despite usually being outlandishly different from one another, you really felt a natural chemistry between certain characters that gave the world a timeless feeling. Imagine seeing Bojack Horseman in a bumper; it wouldn’t feel out of place because everything just naturally fit in the Cartoon Network universe, and it made you wish you could go there. It was the godfather of what adult swim would eventually become with their own bumper style: uncannily relatable.

These bumpers have stuck with me for decades. They’re probably why this was my favorite channel as a kid.

I remember how mind blown I was to see all those characters interacting with each other. I think an idea like that would have made a great show.

I didn't get Cartoon Network until 2004. I was born in '91 so I'd see some of it at friends houses. But MAN, summer 2005 on CN was the BEST summer on TV! Those bumpers were AMAZING. The "Now Youre Getting Warmer" song still lives rent free in my head.

Nostalgia hits hard with this one. WB Discovery needs to bring this type of bumpers back. The Cartoon Network theatre bumpers always got me excited to watch a movie on tv.

I am so glad I was a kid during that time. The CN shared universe was so charming.

The bumpers were one of the many things I loved about the old Cartoon Network! Such simpler times that was back when the network had shows people actually liked and watched. I miss the good old days!

My favorite CN Groovie was the one where they did Jabber Jaw as a 90’s grunge/Ska band. At the time I really appreciated the parody and watching it now it’s amazing just how 90s that thing really is.

What I loved about these bumpers was the combination of cartoon styles. If you look at the bumper with Eddy and Captain Plant at 9:08, you can see Eddy's shaky black line which was part of his shows style while Captain Plant's black line is solid. At is an attention to detail which back then was amazing.

Fun fact: The actor in the no shirts, no shoes, no service promo is Sab Shimono which people might remember him as Lord Norinnaga from the 1993 teenage mutant ninja turtles 3 or you'll remember his voices as Uncle from Jackie chan adventures.

Those bumpers made me appreciate the Paramount Plus ads even more! Seeing characters from random franchises interact and using the mountain as the setting is genius!

I actually saw Scooby Doo project recently. It earned a whole bunch of awards and deserved all of them. All the bumps after the ones in this video stopped being so creative so you really didn't miss anything. The Fridays opening they used from 2003-2007 where it's a faux one shot through Cartoon Network's studio was one you didn't mention, and the song they used was so catchy. I think after Turner and Betty Cohen left the network they started to decline.

The bumper (although officially the musical bumpers were known as “Groovies”) Circles become even better when you realize the whole thing is inspired by a key point of animation: the walk cycle. To summarize, a walk cycle is not only a good way to practice animation, but a walk cycle is a great way to establish a character’s attitude/personality: for example, you notice how Courage walks? He almost hops in a way, he’s very jumpy, and that’s illustrated by the way he walks! It’s incredibly well thought out. ….or maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to talk about little animation tidbits, I dunno.

The Cartoon Network city will always be my favorite since I grew up with that era. I’ll always be blown away when I see cartoon characters from one show interact with another character from a different show.

I would 100% love to see this go on as a series :3

They should definitely do more of these for other networks. Like Doug said, they’re a dying art-form.

I remember loving these bumpers as a child, and I still think they hold up extraordinarily well. Looking back on them now, they kind of have the same energy you'd find in parody comics drawn by fans on Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Like basically just funny scenarios that aren't meant to be thought of in their respective series, they're just funny isolated instances people probably thought up in the office and wanted to give it a visual form others enjoyed. Funny how that kind of energy hasn't really changed, it's just conveyed through different mediums now.

These bumpers made the characters feel alive, that's what made them so freaking awesome to watch

Putting all these characters in modern suburbia is genius. It basically gave the writers freedom to portray our zany characters as normal people being actors in their own shows. Cleverly done CN. BRING THIS WRITING BACK!!!

12:21 I think I have the answer for that. So, my husband's grandpa is always saying to us "You kids have fun" or something on the same vein, even though we are adults. And often in stories/media when a young rookie is faced with a problem, often a much older adult would be condescending and ask "What would a kid like you know about this?" Even though they are adults. So the villains of Scooby Doo series always calls them kids because 1) They are younger than them, and 2) The "kids" should not, in the villains minds, have figured out their elaborate schemes.

8:52 ... oh ... oh no ... not the bagel ... it already did enough ...

CN City was always my favorite of the CN bumpers. I just thought it was cool to see all these cartoon characters just coexisting in this world together; working off each other, hanging out, or clashing (like when Dexter made fun of Professor Utonium for being locked out of his car). It was fun, and as a kid, I always liked to pretend I lived there.

Please make this a regular series, these works deserves to be noted and remembered

Thank you Doug! You totally unlocked such awesome nostalgic memories for me!! I can't believe I forgot about Soul Coughing's " Walk around in circles!" I was totally obsessed with it! The Scooby bumpers were also everything! So, in case I didn't make it clear, YESSS!, please do more of these nuggets of awesomeness!!

Doug has nothing but my utmost respect and admiration over showing how Cartoon Network bumpers of the 90s and early 2000s featuring classic cartoons from the 40s and 70s coming together with the CN-produced 90s shows. Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, AND CN Studios characters coexisting makes these bumpers the highlight of the channel. Some long since lost. Respect.

One of Doug’s best videos in awhile. I fondly remember these bumpers very well. It made each channel feel like it’s own little world. Good to see it’s more than just a few people who loved all the effort put into them.

Cartoon Network was awesome back then, they advertised and promoted shows, some new, some old, in so many unique ways. I remember always looking forward to Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.

I recently had an ex-Cartoon Network production artist give a presentation in my University class. He worked for CN at this time period. He told the story of how the main writing/production office had a 24/7 open bar available to all staff. I'm pretty sure alot of these bumpers were created from that lol.

19:28 And here I thought the existence of the Animaniacs Hip Hop Christmas album was weird.

YES! More of these bumper episodes, please! The REALLY weird ones were on MTV! They weren't afraid to experiment with those. I'm sure adult swim still has bumpers.

Man, this really hits me right in the Nostalgia. This brings back so many good memories as a kid. They don't make them like they used to anymore.

"Wise Papa Smurf, corrupted by his own power! Can no leader go untainted?!" is forever burned into my brain. Also, "Solomon Grundy want pants, too!" The song and the short that spawned it. "A pair of pants! A decent pair of pants!"

Also pay attention at 13:00. This is re-enacting of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" painting.

I’m 26 I’m so happy to have witnessed this golden era of cartoonnetwork instead of being exposed to TTG as a young kid, I feel bad for the generation that missed out on such a incredible era

These felt like an after-hours, behind-the-scenes thing and watching all the characters "break character." Loved them.

This is the best video you’ve put out in years. Classic Nostalgia Critic greatness. Please make more like this!

Soo much nostalgia. I thought it was pretty neat seeing how they made it seem like all the cartoon characters were just coworkers at one big studio and then later like it was just a big city. Made you think about what the characters would really get up to outside of their respected shows or if they ran into characters from other shows. As for the music bumpers, I absolutely loved Circles. The band also did a Betty Boop themed bumper to the song I'm Rolling (If I remember correctly). One of my favorites though was the Josie and the Pussy Cats one still to this day.

I think this is a fantastic new segment. Bumpers are definitely the unsung heroes of channel programming during the 80's, 90's, and 2000's.

Please make this into a regular segment, this feels like something we would have seen years ago during classic nostalgia critic seasons. Please alot more of these!

That one bumper with the Legion of Doom arguing about needing more equipment and demanding them from Lex is one that hubby and I will always remember, as we routinely quote the phrase: "I JUST WANT SOME PANTS! A DECENT PAIR OF PANTS!"

Hope this keeps up! My favorite thing was the when the CN city would update with the seasons. The Halloween and Christmas ones were all good!

Holy crap, this is the definition of Nostalgia, my memories of these where so deeply buried that I had forgotten they ever existed until I recognized every bumper

The bumpers were like a behind-the-scenes look at the characters on Cartoons Network when on their downtime. It reinforced the idea of Toons working and taking multiple takes to make the cartoon episodes and shorts in "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit?". Now that I think about it more they were Hamming up Vilma in the early 2000s a fair amount not just in these Bumpers. I remember an add or bumper mini-series where Cartoon Network identified Vilma as it's sun, not just a star. The bit was they'd string together a bunch of connections either cosmetic or otherwise with a bunch of not-so-related characters to any member if Mystery Inc "WHO SOLVES MYSTERIES WITH VILMA!"

My favorite ones were the "CN Staylongers" that parodied Survivor. It was seriously funny having those characters trapped on an island together.

I loved the TMBG song for Courage, really glad to see it get a shoutout here as a huge fan of TMBG. I do remember a lot of these bumpers as a kid and seeing them again brings out some pleasant nostalgia for how good some of them really were. It's really impressive the effort they put into these short little crossover ideas that were just meant to fill time between commercials and how easily missable they'd be, but if you did see them, it stuck with you. Definitely feel this treatment should be given to the other channels as well. I know Nickelodeon had some memorable ones for sure but fascinated to see who else.

Bumpers like these actually give people a good reason to keep watching during commercial breaks. They made me really wish I could actually visit Cartoon Network and meet all these characters in person. And yes, I would love to see you make more videos like this.

These Bumpers will always live in my heart for how brilliant and amazing they were and being so different from what we saw at the time

To this day, I'm always thankful for the early and mid 00's for Cartoon Network throughout my childhood, 2001 up 'til 2006. The 2nd half of the Powerhouse era & the true City era!

It's nice to hear you talk about this. I have a distinct memory of one of the groovies called "Jabberjaw" where one of the band members is kidnapped in the middle their concert by robots and they defeat the villain by putting him in a sticky sandwich. There was also one called El Kabong Rides Again.

Cartoon Network had some of the most creative bumpers ever back when I was a kid. My favorite though being “Cartoon Network City” from the mid 2000s. As a kid, I loved them. Seeing the many characters from Cartoon Network interacting with each other was a joy. And as Doug said, it was more cozy and welcoming.

Just can't say it enough how awesome CN was in its first 10-plus years, and what a privilege it was to grow up during that era. With all the classic cartoons, modern cartoons and Toonami anime, these bumpers were just the icing on the cake! Don't forget Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. I have rewatched quite a few of the bumpers on KZfaq over the years, but I can't really say what my favorite bumper was cuz there's just too many to pick. One of my favorites that was not shown here was when Speed Racer knocks the Mystery Machine off the road because Scooby was driving instead of Fred for some reason ("Dogs should not drive").

If I could describe these bumpers they were basically like seeing toontown and every cartoon character onscreen in who framed roger rabbit just seeing every Cartoon Network character from different shows onscreen together while doing mundane things like going to work, going grocery shopping or just hanging out in the same neighbourhood was just so cool to see as a kid!

Velma is actually 15 the Scooby Gang are meant to be in their high school years, the Pup Named Scooby Doo is when they were in Elementary School. Dexter is said to be between 6-8 yrs of age though, and Johnny Bravo is in his 20s

I think in the years following what you described here, Cartoon Network and other channels would have sets of bumpers that would change year to year. Disney Channel actually had one summer of bumpers that were actually pretty creative. They portrayed all the characters, both animated and live action, sharing space at a sleepover. I always liked the idea of all the Disney Channel characters sharing the same space. I’d love to see an episode about the Disney Channel bumpers, as well as others for a full-blown series here.

OMG!!! I'm literally about to burst into tears!!! I remember these SO MUCH as a child! No joke, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE! Cartoon Network had the BEST Bumpers to date! Nothing beats them for me! Seeing all the cartoon network characters, new and old ones communicating with each other was SO MUCH FUN!!! I never liked commercials, but when it came to Cartoon Network, I was always looking forward to the bumpers, no matter how many times I've seen them! The original music scores for the cartoons are also classic! The song "Circles," C'mon! How can you not bump your head to it!?! It's a shame kids these days have no idea how good cartoons really were back during the early and mid 2000s. I feel so old and nostalgic after watching this! Thank you, Doug! THANK YOU SO MUCH! These Cartoon Network Bumpers will ALWAYS remain in my childhood and will NEVER die!

This was a fun episode to check out. I love how you went in depth with all this stuff that Cartoon Network put out. All the memories came flooding back. I would love to see what you can find with the other networks like Nickelodeon and Disney, those would be fun to check out as well!

Who else remembers the good ol' days of Boomerang where they ran nothing but vintage cartoons and all the ads were entertaining vignettes, animations, and the guys in charge literally just losing their minds filming vintage toys? Which, upon realizing, a lot of the animations were from the Cartoon Network bumpers. It's kinda cool they chose to preserve them like that. At least for a while definitely loved the Josey and Pussy Cats short.

I loved these commercials growing up, and they were so many great ones. It really created the idea that all my favorite cartoon characters actually knew one another. And there were so many classic groovies, too. My favorites were, Jabberjaws, The Courage the Cowardly Dog, Incredible Shrinking Day, and Josie and the Pussycats.

I loved the bumpers. They even released a CD with the bumper songs, and CN show theme songs.

Time Warner merged w/ Turner in 1995, AOL merged w/ Time Warner in 2000, by the time the Eddy & Captain Planet bumper aired Ted Turner had ZERO control or power over Cartoon Network. He was seen as a joke.

16:44 I only ever saw this bumper once and I legitimately thought they were promoting a special that I missed out on (at least that's what I thought when I was 9, I forgot about it all these years)

I LOVED THESE AS A KID omg This is already one of my favorite NC's by title alone! I always felt that these bumpers were vastly underrated & overlooked.

The CN, Toonami, Adult Swim bumps have been unmatched - they deserve all the props. Have a bunch of them saved to my hard drive in the best quality I could find.

Hey Critic! I just wanted to drop a comment and say thanks for making this awesome video about Cartoon Network TV bumpers! As someone who had grown up in a rural area with not many friends or outlets, I spent a lot of time watching TV, especially Cartoon Network. Those bumpers were such a big part of my childhood, and it's amazing to see how much the powers that be cared about the creative presentation of the network. Knowing that they paid artists and actors more to make the bumpers really shows how much they wanted to establish the network in a concrete way. Sometimes I miss the old days of Cartoon Network when everything felt so special and unique. Watching your video brought back all those memories and made me feel nostalgic (lol). I really hope we can see more "Bumper to Bumper" segments in the future. It would be cool to learn more about the bumpers from different channels that had similar presentations. Thank you so much for creating this video and for all the work you do, Critic! Keep up the awesome content!

I can't believe I almost forgot about these. Between CN, Nick, and Disney, I remember Cartoon Network having some of the most creative bumpers. The way they showed characters outside their own shows and interacting with other characters I remember being pretty unique. I liked how they weren't always just flashy and purely slapping the logo in your face; they put in the extra effort to create a hub world for these characters to "calm down" in.

I remember the Jabberjaws song bumper as well as the Johnny Quest bumper where they are playing a board game. So creative and inventive. The music ones were always my favorite.

There was something so great about watching these bumpers and knowing that someone actually put craft and detail into them and tried to make them the best they could be

8:45-I wish the Cartoon Network Characters could have done that to Velma from HBO max’s Velma.

I would love to see this as a series!

I always love when the NC tries to do something new cause it shows that you can still change no matter how long you've been doing the same thing

You already did a Toonami episode but I'll still point out that Toonami was a whole nother CN series of bumpers that they went above and beyond with. They really put in a lot of effort.

I like the fact that Fred Flintstone in the gas station commercial has a farmer's tan. That is to say, the parts covered by his shirt (or whatever you call that) is pale while his arms, legs, and face are tanned. That's a bizarre level of attention to detail.

I loved watching these as a kid!! ❤ They were so funny and allowed the characters who wouldn't interact normally to do so to hilarious effect. I also loved the songs they made. Will. I. Am's song with Dexter was one of my favorites along with "Signal in the Sky" for the Powerpuff Girls.

I can't believe how many of these I had forgotten, and I was a Cartoon Network kid growing up. This hit my nostalgia in the best way.

I love these old bumpers. It really brought the Network alive. Please keep doing more bumper videos like these!

I spent a considerable amount of time finding playout software, getting all the shows and bumpers and commercials, and completely building old cn from the ground up just to relive this joy.

Really liked this! You took something people took for granted and shined a well deserved spotlight on it. Wasn't even nostalgic for me because I didn't see these when they first aired but it's a great kind of "historical record" that this channel specializes in. Sure it took a lot of effort to make but am very down for more of these!

Cartoon Network City’s bumpers were great even the music was catchy and unique with each character being presented.

I really love it when characters from different worlds interact with eachother. I remember Sony did this a lot with the PS3 commercials and the old CN bumpers give that similar vibe

Back during the glory days of Cartoon Network these bumpers will always bring a smile to my face, i hope the Critic does a part two of this and show the rest of the bumpers.

Doug, you were right for tuning out after the City era. The bumpers got stale after 2006. I know people talk about the "Cartoon Network Renaissance" of the 2010's, but after Toonami ended in 2008, and after "Ed, Edd n Eddy" ended in 2009, Cartoon Network ended for me. EDIT One small correction: The "Summer 2007" era bumpers (that only lasted for 3 months) were fun. But after that, it was all downhill.

There's actually over 2 hours of CN City bumpers/interstitials. Literally a movie's runtime. The level of quality of the CGI for 2004-2006 was also pretty freakin' incredible.

Mr. Walker…. THANK YOU. I love your channel, truly. Watching all of you guys do your skits, reviews, re-writes, month marathons, etc. really is a pleasure. I will admit though, this was the first time that the Nostalgia Critic really made me feel, well, Nostalgic lol. This video brought a tear of joy to my eye, and gave me goosebumps. I’m 27, but today I felt over 20 years younger. I owe you and your team a huge thank you for that! 😎🎉❤ As for what I’d like to see next, well what if the Nostalgia critic took a look back at himself? Your ups, your downs, and all arounds. Reminiscing on the AVGN feud, The Joker’s brother Melvin, The forgotten Demo Reel, and even good Ol’ Rachel. Let’s get Nostalgic for the Nostalgia Critic. 😎

This video was a real gust of fresh air, I really enjoyed your work here, Doug! I would love more of these! I didn't grow up in the US so I am very interested in the TV culture form there, I never knew of these bumpers

Watching the mid-200s bumpers with all the characters wandering throughout town definitely took me back to my childhood. Kudos to you, Nostalgia Critic! :) And yes, more bumper videos, please! Maybe one channel whose bumpers you should look at is Fox Kids. Back in the late 90s, early 2000,s their bumpers mostly entailed questions and answers that reveal intriguing real-world trivia. Those bumpers were where I discovered what the biggest chocolate bar was, or the longest taxi ride was, or even how seahorses have babies. Give those a watch. You might find them fascinating. :)

Seeing all these characters from different shows and different eras interacting together always had this fantastic 'Roger Rabbit' vibe where the characters you know and love are just kind of these bit actors trying to make ends meet in the real world, dealing with all the mundane problems most people have to deal with on a daily basis. It seems like such a simple idea, but it was a genius move on the part of whoever came up with it. As for ones you forgot to mention, I always loved the 'Groovies' with Jabberjaw where 'The Neptunes' are like this ska band from the late 90's. That song they play has lived rent-free in my head for decades. I'd definitely love to see you do a whole series about bumpers from other networks.

I can definitely see this working as a spinoff. I too have a fascination with bumpers on children's networks. I can't really explain why; I think that bumpers give channels their identity and that some effort was put into these bumpers to make them memorable almost as the shows the channels are on whether it be catchy music or characters from different shows interacting with each other. For instance, I remember the CN City bumpers growing up and I'm glad that they were acknowledged here. I would like to see coverage of the history of bumpers on Nickelodeon and Boomerang.

My favorite bumper was Braniac getting ignored by the Legion of Doom and when he had enough of being ignored he shouted that all he wanted was a pair of pants and Solomon Grundy piggyback saying "Solomon Grundy want pants TOO!!!"

The bumpers are definitely things I miss about scheduled tv compared to streaming. In fact, I would love if these streaming services like Disney+ would let me program shows as 2 hr blocks that pull from the selected shows like a true Disney Jr experience for my kids or 2 hr block of after school Disney Afternoon. I feel that would help me introduce my kids to more shows than we presently can