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Cartoon Page 04

At 12 p.m. ET on October 1, 1992, Cartoon Network was launched as an outlet for Turner's considerable library of animation, and the initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros cartoons, the 1933–1957 Popeye cartoons, MGM cartoons, and Hanna-Barber cartoons. At first, cable providers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit carried the channel. 

The channel opened with an introduction by the very first program that Cartoon Network ever broadcast was a Bugs Bunny cartoon from 1946 titled "Rhapsody Rabbit. By the time the network launched, Cartoon Network had a 8,500 hour cartoon library. From its launch until 1995, the network's announcers said the network's name with the word "The" added before "Cartoon Network", thus calling the network The Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network was not the first cable channel to have relied on cartoons to attract an audience. Nickelodeon had paved the way in the 1980s. On August 11, 1991, Nickelodeon had launched three "high-profile" animated series: Doug, The Ran & Stumpy Show, and Rug rats, further signifying the importance of cartoons in its programming. 

The Disney Channel and the Family Channel had also included animated shows in their programming, as did USA Network, whose Cartoon Express was widely popular. In each of these cases, until October 1, 1992, cartoons were only broadcast during the morning or the early afternoon. Prime time and late night television hours were reserved for live-action programs, following the assumption that television animation could only attract child audiences, while Cartoon Network was a 24-hour single-genre channel with animation as its main theme.