Cartoon Network's original cartoons, first branded Cartoon Cartoons, grew out of its What a Cartoon! shorts showcase and ran from Dexter's Laboratory in 1996 to Ben 10 in the mid 2000s. Each show is its own world, from Townsville to the cul-de-sac to Nowhere, Kansas, made by creators with strong individual styles, and together they define a lot of late 1990s and 2000s cartoon nostalgia. A handful ended with a real finale or a later revival; most simply stopped.
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No. 01 · 1996 · Series
Dexter's Laboratory recap
Dexter is a boy genius with a thick accent who has built an enormous secret laboratory behind a bookcase in his bedroom. His parents never notice it, but his older sister Dee Dee, a tall, cheerful ballet lover, gets in every time and wrecks whatever he is working on with one push of a button. His rival is Mandark, a cackling genius from his school who wants to destroy the lab and has a crush on Dee Dee. Most episodes are short, self-contained clashes between Dexter's plans and Dee Dee's chaos. The first two seasons, 1996 to 1998, also include segments about Dexter's lab monkey, secretly the superhero Monkey, and the Justice Friends, superheroes sharing an apartment. The series is meant to end in 1998, but the TV movie Ego Trip (1999), in which Dexter travels through time to meet his future selves, leads into a revival from 2001 to 2003 with a new team, a new look and a new voice for Dexter.
How Dexter's Laboratory ends
The final episode is "Comedy of Feathers" in November 2003, in which Dexter has to take Dee Dee to the zoo and she tries to rescue an ostrich, with disastrous results. It is an ordinary episode rather than a planned conclusion. The original intended finale is "Last But Not Beast" (1998), where Dexter accidentally frees a giant monster in Japan and has to team up with his family, Monkey and the Justice Friends to stop it.
No. 02 · 1997 · Series
Johnny Bravo recap
Johnny Bravo is a muscular, vain young man with a tall black pompadour and sunglasses who talks like Elvis and lives with his mother, Bunny, in Aron City. Each episode he tries to pick up women with flexing, karate poses and awful lines, and each time he is rejected, often by being beaten up. Recurring characters include Little Suzy, a chatty girl next door who adores him; Carl, a nerdy acquaintance; and Pops, who runs the diner. Johnny is clueless rather than mean, and the jokes come from his total lack of self-awareness, along with cameos from Hanna-Barbera characters and real celebrities. The show runs four seasons from 1997 to 2004. Creator Van Partible makes the first season; seasons 2 and 3, from 1999 to 2000, are made by a different team with a softer, more slapstick tone; and Partible returns for the fourth season in 2004, which leans heavily on celebrity guest appearances.
How Johnny Bravo ends
Johnny Bravo ends without a finale. The last episodes, "Johnny Makeover" and "Back on Shaq", air in August 2004, and Johnny is still single and still striking out. A later TV movie, Johnny Bravo Goes to Bollywood, sends him to Mumbai to prove he is still a star, where he gets caught in a plot to murder Bollywood's biggest actor; it premiered in India in 2009 and in the United States in 2011.
No. 03 · 1997 · Series
Cow and Chicken recap
Cow and Chicken are sister and brother, born to two human parents who are only ever seen from the waist down. Cow is a large, sweet, simple-minded cow who loves her brother; Chicken is a short-tempered, cocky chicken who tries to look cool at school and keeps ending up humiliated. Their recurring tormentor is the Red Guy, a devil-like figure who wears no pants and appears in a different disguise each episode, as a teacher, a salesman, a judge or a doctor, to trick them. Cow also has a superhero identity, Supercow, who speaks Spanish. The humour is crude and absurd, with lots of gross-out jokes. The show runs four seasons, from 1997 to 1999, and each half hour originally includes a segment of the spin-off I Am Weasel, about a heroic weasel and his rival, the dim baboon I.R. Baboon, which later becomes its own series.
How Cow and Chicken ends
Cow and Chicken ends without a finale in August 1999. The last episodes, "The Cow and Chicken Blues" and "The Ballad of Cow and Chicken", are musical segments in which a blues singer and then the Teacher and two classmates tell wild stories about the siblings and the Red Guy. Nothing is resolved, and the show has not been revived, although I Am Weasel continued on its own until 2000.
No. 04 · 1998 · Series
The Powerpuff Girls recap
Professor Utonium tries to make the perfect little girls out of sugar, spice and everything nice, but accidentally adds Chemical X and creates the Powerpuff Girls: Blossom, the bossy, smart leader; Bubbles, the sweet, sensitive one; and Buttercup, the tough fighter. They live with the Professor in Townsville, go to kindergarten, and fly off whenever the Mayor calls on the hotline. Their villains include Mojo Jojo, a genius chimpanzee who was the Professor's lab assistant; Him, a high-voiced demon; the Gangreen Gang; Fuzzy Lumpkins; Princess Morbucks; and the Rowdyruff Boys. Ms. Bellum actually runs the city. Each episode is a self-contained story with a narrator who opens and closes it. The series runs six seasons, from 1998 to 2005, and The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002) tells their origin, when the town first rejects the girls and Mojo Jojo uses them.
How The Powerpuff Girls ends
The original series ends without a finale; the last episodes air in March 2005, with no closing story. A 2009 tenth anniversary special, "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!", serves as a farewell: Mojo Jojo gets the Key to the World and actually makes it better, gets bored with peace, and brings back crime so the girls can beat him again. A CGI special followed in 2014, and a rebooted series with a new cast ran from 2016 to 2019.
No. 05 · 1999 · Series
Ed, Edd n Eddy recap
Three boys named Ed live in a suburban cul-de-sac in Peach Creek. Eddy is the short, loud leader who invents scams to get money from the neighbourhood kids so he can buy jawbreakers; Edd, called Double D, is the polite, clean, clever one who builds the gadgets; and Ed is the huge, simple, cheerful one who loves gravy, comics and monster movies. The other kids, including Kevin, Nazz, the strange Rolf, Jonny and his plank of wood, Jimmy and Sarah, Ed's bossy little sister, mostly reject the Eds, and the three Kanker sisters chase them romantically. No adults are ever seen. Episodes almost always end with the scam failing and the Eds punished. The show runs from 1999 to 2009, with the kids starting junior high in later seasons, and Eddy's often mentioned older brother is built up as a legend he wants to live up to.
How Ed, Edd n Eddy ends
The series ends with the 2009 TV movie Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show. After a scam goes badly wrong, the whole cul-de-sac hunts the Eds, who run away to find Eddy's brother. The brother turns out to be a bully who beats Eddy up, and Eddy admits his scams were all to make people like him. The other kids side with the Eds against the brother, and the Eds are finally accepted.
No. 06 · 1999 · Series
Mike, Lu & Og recap
Mike, an eleven-year-old girl from Manhattan, goes to the tiny tropical island of Albonquetine as a foreign exchange student. The island's small population lives by its own odd customs and traditions. Mike becomes close with two local kids: Lu, a loud, spoiled self-styled princess who bosses everyone and her turtle Lancelot around, and Og, a seven-year-old boy genius whose inventions often set off the plot. Episodes follow Mike sharing modern American habits with the islanders, the islanders misunderstanding them, and the three getting into small adventures on the island and its neighbouring islets. The tone is gentle and storybook-like. The show runs two seasons, from 1999 to 2001, after a 1998 pilot, with 26 half hours, each split into two stories.
How Mike, Lu & Og ends
Mike, Lu and Og ends without a finale when Cartoon Network cancels it after two seasons. The last broadcast is in May 2001, with "The Three Amigas" and "Sleeping Ugly", in which an island elder accidentally wakes a hag princess with a kiss and regrets it. Mike is still on the island when it stops, and her exchange year is never wrapped up.
No. 07 · 1999 · Series
Courage the Cowardly Dog recap
Courage is a small, pink, very frightened dog who lives with an elderly farm couple in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas. Muriel, a kind Scottish woman, found him abandoned as a puppy; her husband Eustace is a cranky farmer who mocks Courage and shouts "Stupid dog!" Every episode, something terrifying arrives at the farmhouse: ghosts, curses, aliens, mad scientists, monsters and strange visitors, and Courage, despite being scared of everything, is the one who saves Muriel, and usually Eustace too. He gets help from a sarcastic computer and runs into recurring villains such as Le Quack, a con artist duck, and Katz, a smooth cat who runs various businesses. The show mixes slapstick with real horror imagery and some sad, quiet episodes. It runs four seasons, from 1999 to 2002, after a 1996 short called "The Chicken from Outer Space".
How Courage the Cowardly Dog ends
The last episode, "Perfect" (2002), has Courage confronted by a strict teacher figure who embodies his own doubts, and he learns from a fish in the bathtub that he is fine as he is. It is not a story finale, but it is the closing episode. Courage returns in a 2014 CGI short, The Fog of Courage, and in the 2021 film Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog.
No. 08 · 2001 · Series
Samurai Jack recap
A young samurai prince is about to destroy Aku, a shapeshifting demon, when Aku throws him into a distant future where Aku rules the world. The people there call him Jack. Armed with a magic sword that can cut Aku, Jack travels through a world of robots, aliens and monsters, looking for a time portal to take him back to the past and undo Aku's rule. Each episode is mostly self-contained, often with little dialogue, and Aku keeps sending assassins and robots after him. Recurring allies include the Scotsman, a loud, red-bearded warrior. Seasons 1 to 4 run from 2001 to 2004 and end without Jack getting home. Season 5, on Adult Swim in 2017, picks up 50 years later. Jack has not aged, has lost his sword, and is haunted by visions. He is hunted by the Daughters of Aku, seven assassins raised by a cult, and one of them, Ashi, changes sides after learning the truth about Aku.
How Samurai Jack ends
The original run stops in 2004 with no ending. Season 5 concludes it in 2017. Jack recovers his sword and falls in love with Ashi, who turns out to be Aku's daughter. Aku possesses her, but Jack frees her, and Ashi uses her inherited powers to take them back to the past, where Jack destroys Aku. As their wedding begins, Ashi fades away, since Aku's death means she was never born. Jack later finds peace in a forest of cherry blossoms.
No. 09 · 2001 · Series
Time Squad recap
In the year 100,000,000, history has drifted off course, and a three-member Time Squad works from a satellite orbiting Earth to fix it. Officer Buck Tuddrussel is a muscular, reckless and lazy cop; Larry 3000 is a fussy robot built as a translator, who is useless now that all of Earth speaks one language; and Otto Osworth is an eight-year-old orphan and history buff whom they adopt because he is the only one who actually knows how history is supposed to go. In each episode they travel to a historical figure who is doing the wrong thing, such as an inventor who has taken up a different career, and push them back onto their proper path. The show uses broad comedy about famous people and events. It runs two seasons, from 2001 to 2003, with 26 half hours, each split into two stories.
How Time Squad ends
Time Squad ends after two seasons without a planned finale. The last story, "Orphan Substitute" (2003), has the orphanage take Otto back, and Tuddrussel and Larry, unable to fix history without him, botch a Christopher Columbus mission before going to rescue him. The squad is back together when the show stops, history is still drifting off course, and there is no final mission or send-off for the three time cops. It has not been revived.
No. 10 · 2001 · Series
Justice League recap
Following Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League brings together seven heroes after an alien invasion: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern John Stewart, Hawkgirl and the Martian Manhunter. They work from the Watchtower, a satellite above Earth. The series runs two seasons, from 2001 to 2004, mostly in two- and three-part stories against villains such as Vandal Savage, Darkseid, Lex Luthor, the Injustice Gang, Brainiac and the Legion of Doom. It develops the team as characters: Wonder Woman's break with her people, the Flash's jokes and courage, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's romance, and Batman's distrust of everyone. In the two-part "A Better World", the League meets an alternate version of itself that has taken over the world after Superman kills Luthor, a fear that carries into the sequel series.
How Justice League ends
The final story is "Starcrossed" (2004). Hawkgirl's people, the Thanagarians, arrive claiming to defend Earth, but they plan to destroy it. Hawkgirl, who was their spy, turns on them; the League sacrifices the Watchtower to stop them; and Hawkgirl leaves the team. The story continues in Justice League Unlimited (2004 to 2006), with a much larger League, which ends with "Destroyer", in which the heroes and Luthor fight Darkseid.
No. 11 · 2002 · Series
Codename: Kids Next Door recap
Five ten-year-olds form Sector V of the Kids Next Door, a worldwide secret organisation of children who fight the tyranny of adults and teenagers from a huge treehouse. Numbuh 1, Nigel Uno, is the serious British leader; Numbuh 2, Hoagie, builds the vehicles out of junk; Numbuh 3, Kuki, is sweet and loves Rainbow Monkeys; Numbuh 4, Wally, is short and angry; and Numbuh 5, Abby, is the cool second in command. Each mission, labelled with a backronym like Operation: P.I.R.A.T.E., fights enemies such as dentists, broccoli, curfews and bedtimes. The main villains are the Delightful Children from Down the Lane and their father, known only as Father. Every operative is decommissioned at thirteen and has their memory erased. The show runs six seasons, from 2002 to 2008, and builds a large mythology, revealed in the TV movie Operation: Z.E.R.O. (2006), about the organisation's history and Nigel's family.
How Codename: Kids Next Door ends
The finale, "Operation: I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S." (2008), is told by the adult members of Sector V, whose decommissioning has been reversed so an unseen interviewer can ask about their last mission. As kids, they joined a citywide hunt for the Delightful Children's birthday cake, and afterwards Nigel was chosen as Earth's first agent of the Galactic Kids Next Door and left the planet. Kuki and Wally turn out to be married, the interviewer is Father in disguise, and Abby pulls out a KND communicator, hinting that the team are still operatives and will see Nigel again.
No. 12 · 2002 · Series
Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? recap
In a retro early 1980s version of the suburbs, where robots are part of everyday life, Robot Jones is a boxy robot boy who attends Polyneux Middle School to study human behaviour. Each episode takes a part of ordinary teenage life, such as gym class, music, dancing or friendship, and has Robot try to understand and copy it, usually getting it slightly wrong because he takes everything literally. His friends are Socks, Mitch and Cubey; his crush is Shannon Westerburg; and the Yogman twins, Lenny and Denny, try to sabotage him. His parents and the school staff, including Principal Madman, are a gallery of oddballs. The show runs two short seasons, 2002 and 2003, with 13 episodes. In season 1, Robot speaks with a computer voice; network executives disliked it, so in season 2 an actor, Bobby Block, voices him and re-dubs the first season.
How Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? ends
Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? is cancelled after two seasons without a finale. The last episode, airing in November 2003, contains "Summer Camp" and "Rules of Dating", with Robot still trying to impress Shannon. Creator Greg Miller's longer plan, in which Robot would grow up and robots would rise up, was never made, though Robot later appears in cameos in other Cartoon Network shows.
No. 13 · 2003 · Series
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy recap
When the Grim Reaper comes to take Billy's dying hamster, Billy's friend Mandy challenges him to a game of limbo, and Grim loses. As a result, he must be their best friend forever. Billy is a cheerful, extremely stupid boy, and Mandy is a cold, ruthless girl who never smiles and gets what she wants; Grim is a skeleton with a Jamaican accent who wants out. Episodes use Grim's scythe and supernatural friends for horror and fantasy plots, often ending with someone destroyed or trapped, since the show has little continuity. Recurring characters include Irwin, a nerdy boy in love with Mandy; Billy's dim father Harold; Mandy's fearful parents; General Skarr, a villain turned neighbour; and Hoss Delgado, a monster hunter. The show starts in 2001 as half of Grim and Evil, becomes its own series in 2003, and runs to 2007, with two TV movies, Big Boogey Adventure and Wrath of the Spider Queen, in 2007.
How The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy ends
The series ends without a finale in November 2007. The last episodes include "El Dia De Los Muertos Estupidos", in which a Mexican wrestler turns out to be Billy's long-lost twin, and "Heartburn", in which Mandy briefly becomes kind until Irwin kisses her. That month also brings a crossover with Codename: Kids Next Door, and the 2008 Halloween spin-off special Underfist follows Irwin, Jeff, Hoss and others.
No. 14 · 2003 · Series
Teen Titans recap
Robin, Batman's former partner, leads a team of young heroes who live in Titans Tower, a T-shaped building on an island near Jump City: Starfire, an alien princess learning Earth customs; Cyborg, half human, half machine; Raven, a quiet half-demon who keeps her emotions locked down; and Beast Boy, a jokey green shapeshifter. Episodes mix silly comedy with serious superhero drama, and each season has its own story arc. Season 1 introduces the mastermind Slade, who becomes Robin's obsession. Season 2 follows Terra, an earth-mover who joins the team, falls for Beast Boy and betrays them for Slade, before sacrificing herself and turning to stone. Season 3 focuses on Cyborg and the H.I.V.E.; season 4 on Raven's father, the demon Trigon, and her destiny to destroy the world; and season 5 on Beast Boy and the Brotherhood of Evil, which hunts young heroes worldwide. The show runs from 2003 to 2006.
How Teen Titans ends
The last episode, "Things Change" (2006), has Beast Boy find a girl who looks exactly like Terra at a new school; she insists she is not who he thinks and leaves him, unresolved. The episode before it, "Titans Together", wraps up the season by defeating the Brotherhood of Evil with dozens of young heroes. A TV movie, Trouble in Tokyo (2006), sends the team to Japan, where Robin and Starfire finally become a couple.
No. 15 · 2004 · Series
Megas XLR recap
In the year 3037, humans are losing a war against the alien Glorft. A resistance pilot named Kiva tries to send their prototype giant robot, Megas, back in time to change the war, but it lands decades too early in a New Jersey junkyard, where Coop, an overweight slacker with a gift for machines, finds it and rebuilds it with a muscle car for a head, calling it Megas XLR. When Kiva arrives in the present to reclaim it, she finds Coop has wired the controls to a video game style setup only he can use, so she stays to train him. With his friend Jamie, Coop fights the Glorft, led by Warmaster Gorrath, and many other monsters and invaders, usually destroying large parts of the city along the way. The show is a parody of giant robot anime and runs two seasons, from 2004 to 2005, after a 2002 pilot.
How Megas XLR ends
Megas XLR is cancelled after two seasons for low ratings, so the Glorft war is never resolved. The final story, "Rearview Mirror, Mirror" (2005), takes Coop to a mirror dimension ruled by an evil version of himself; Megas is wrecked, and Coop has the alternate Jamie destroy the dimensional gate to trap the evil Coop between worlds. The episode closes with Coop back home, wrecking the city again.
No. 16 · 2004 · Series
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends recap
Mac, eight, is told by his mother that he is too old for his imaginary friend Blooregard, a small blue blob called Bloo. He finds Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a huge Victorian house where friends whose children have outgrown them live until they are adopted by new kids. Bloo moves in, and Mac visits every day after school so Bloo will never be put up for adoption. The house is run by the elderly, energetic Madame Foster; her imaginary friend, the strict rabbit Mr. Herriman; and her granddaughter Frankie, who does most of the work. Bloo's housemates include Wilt, a tall, polite basketball fan; Eduardo, a huge, timid monster; and Coco, a bird-like creature who only says "Coco". Mac's brother Terrence bullies him. Later seasons add Cheese, a dim, chocolate milk-loving imaginary friend. The show runs six seasons, from 2004 to 2009.
How Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ends
The finale, "Goodbye to Bloo" (2009), has Mac's family announce they are moving, and everyone at Foster's gets a goodbye day with Mac except a hurt Bloo. Then it turns out Mac is only moving to an apartment next door, so nothing changes, except that Cheese has to move into Foster's. The series closes with the house being erased as the theme plays backwards.
No. 17 · 2005 · Series
Camp Lazlo recap
Lazlo, an endlessly upbeat spider monkey from South America, attends Camp Kidney, a run-down summer camp for scouts. He shares the Jelly Bean cabin with Raj, a timid elephant, and Clam, a small, quiet albino rhino; together they are the Bean Scouts. The camp is run by Scoutmaster Lumpus, a selfish, short-tempered moose who wants a quiet life and is driven mad by Lazlo's enthusiasm, with his kind assistant Slinkman, a banana slug. Other campers include Edward, a grumpy platypus, and the dung beetles Chip and Skip. Across the lake is the girls' camp, Acorn Flats, where the Squirrel Scouts include Patsy, a mongoose with a crush on Lazlo. Episodes are self-contained, about camp activities going wrong. The show comes from Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, and runs five seasons, from 2005 to 2008. Its hour-long special "Where's Lazlo?" won an Emmy.
How Camp Lazlo ends
Camp Lazlo ends without a finale. The last episodes, including "Peace Frog" and "Lumpus' Last Stand", air in March 2008, and the summer at Camp Kidney never comes to a close. There is no last day of camp or departure story: Lazlo, Raj and Clam are still in the Jelly Bean cabin, and Lumpus is still trying to get through the season. The show has not been revived, and the Emmy-winning "Where's Lazlo?" special remains its only long-form story.
No. 18 · 2005 · Series
Ben 10 recap
Ben Tennyson, ten, sets off on a summer road trip across America with his grandfather Max and his cousin Gwen in an RV, the Rust Bucket. On the first night, Ben finds the Omnitrix, a watch-like alien device that crashed to Earth, and it locks onto his wrist. It lets him turn into ten alien heroes, among them Heatblast, Four Arms, XLR8, Diamondhead and Grey Matter, though it times out at awkward moments. He uses it to fight Vilgax, an alien warlord who wants the Omnitrix, along with villains such as Kevin 11, Dr. Animo and the Forever Knights. Over four seasons, from 2005 to 2008, Max is revealed to be a retired member of the Plumbers, a secret organisation dealing with aliens; Gwen develops magic powers; and Ben glimpses his adult future self, Ben 10,000. The TV movie Secret of the Omnitrix (2007) unlocks more of the device.
How Ben 10 ends
The last canonical episode, "Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10" (2008), has Ben, Gwen, Max and a young Plumber's grandson defend the Plumbers' base at Mount Rushmore against a team of old villains led by the Forever King, and Ben destroys the energy source they steal. The story continues in Ben 10: Alien Force (2008), five years later, with a teenage Ben, Gwen and a reformed Kevin searching for the missing Max.
Common questions
What is the Old Cartoon Network story so far?
Cartoon Network's original cartoons, first branded Cartoon Cartoons, grew out of its What a Cartoon! shorts showcase and ran from Dexter's Laboratory in 1996 to Ben 10 in the mid 2000s. Each show is its own world, from Townsville to the cul-de-sac to Nowhere, Kansas, made by creators with strong individual styles, and together they define a lot of late 1990s and 2000s cartoon nostalgia. A handful ended with a real finale or a later revival; most simply stopped.
Where did Old Cartoon Network leave off?
Ben 10 (2005) is the latest. The last canonical episode, "Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10" (2008), has Ben, Gwen, Max and a young Plumber's grandson defend the Plumbers' base at Mount Rushmore against a team of old villains led by the Forever King, and Ben destroys the energy source they steal. The story continues in Ben 10: Alien Force (2008), five years later, with a teenage Ben, Gwen and a reformed Kevin searching for the missing Max.
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