Cartoons ruined by executive meddling.

[Zeke63]

I feel like bleach and naruto were extended for way too long.
But i wouldn't be able to tell yu details because I stopped reading them ages ago.

I don't know about Bleach but Naruto (the manga that is) is still going lol. They're at what I can only assume is the "final" climax of the entire story, and they've been at it for the last 30 chapters or something. It's nuts.

Anyway to answer the OP's question, Season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I don't know whether "meddling" is the right word but the majority of that season was bland and uninteresting bar just a couple of stand-out moments, meanwhile Season 1 and Season 2 were literally BRIMMING with awesome moments and can still have me giggling like a madman when I watch them today.

Legend of Korra is good on it's own, but completely shrivels in comparison to it's predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender. And unfortunately it IS in a position to be compared to it's predecessor which is why I (for the most part) found it pretty mediocre, and downright TERRIBLE when everything took a fucking dive in the last episode.

Well the original had at least the first 20 eps to ground itself before getting extended out to its 60. Now that Korra has been given a longer life span, I can only expect things to improve with the extra wiggle room.

Korra really lacked a Sokka character, Bolin tried, but be was moreso clumsy than sarcasm. If the original series didnt have Sokka it wouldnt have been anywhere near as good.
But im biase for series with strong female protagonists (especially toned ones, dem shoulders), I will publicly humailiate myself for female protagonists.

Your enthusiasm is interesting. Cause i though korra really excellled due to its concision. I know a lot of fans think it was underdeveloped but i think the opposite. Its the same reson these last episodes of young justice are so intense and good. Im actually worried korra will suffer from extension

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

MLP:FiM after S1. Don't get me wrong - I still really do enjoy all 3 seasons so far and am among the few who think that S3 was overall better than S2, but something changed in the show a long time ago that started with Lesson Zero (a good episode that set a bad trend for the series). I don't know if executive meddling caused it however, but it hasn't been quite the same in a long time. The show just doesn't feel as lighthearted as it used to.

I think what you are alluding to is the fact that Lauren Faust stepped down from Executive Produce to Consulting after season one.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

It's a pity you're just limiting this to cartoons since there's a comic series based on a video game that I feel is suffering despite having a beloved fancomic writer on staff now...all because the guys who own the original video game are pulling all the strings and not letting him use his creativity. *glares at SEGA for not letting Ian do his thing with the Sonic comic*

CAPTCHA: no means no

Alright...I won't go into it then.

 

[ASan83]

Wacky Delli, that copped a lot of flak. Especially melting the polar ice-caps with an orbiting laser to flood the studio, that was a bit excessive.

I really do miss Wacky Delly. That mayonnaise tribute episode was a thing of genius.

OT: Have to go with the old school Transformers. "We've just made all these new toys, but how do we shoehorn them into the show... I know! Let's kill off Optimus Prime and all the other main characters the kids love! I bet everyone will love Rodimus Prime just as much, if not more!"

...Then again, it's still better than anything Michael Bay ever crapped out, plus Leonard Nemoy as Galvatron kicked all kinds of ass, so I guess it all evens out.

 

[el_kabong]

I'd have to go with Clerks: The Animated Series. So, there were 6 episodes completed. ABC decided to run the episodes out of order starting with episode 2. Episode 2 was a flashback episode...which means that they are flashing back to an episode that hadn't even aired yet.

So, yeah, no surprise that people didn't get it.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Alicorn Twi-

Oh, we already? We already. 'Kay.

Really, though, that episode was what made me finally fall out of love with the series. I mean, Jesus, Hasbro, get your shit together. If you have to make her an alicorn princess, then sure, whatever, but could you please do it for reasons that are different from the problems Twilight deals with every week? Maybe, I don't know, not the exact same ones that Discord gave her? Just puttin' that out there.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I don't want to start an argument with this post, but I'm gonna say Alicorn Twilight. It might be too early to say for sure, but I am extremely concerned what this might do to season four.

Only four posts down the page and someone brings up FiM! I think that's a record for me!

OT: MLP, though the roots for this lie as far back as Season 2. Previously I had thought Faust left the show solely to promote her other project, Galaxy Girls (a decision I disagree with more out of ideology than anything else). However, Faust leaving was but the point where Hasbro marketing set in, and rather than improving the show, slowly and poisonously lead to it's own derailment. However, this show is still on the air, so it's more of a Generation/TV Zombie than anything else.

TF Prime could head down this road too (don't tell me the Predacons in Season 3 AREN'T a toy mandated decision), however what keeps it off the list is the fact that Season 3 is going to be the final season, and 2014 will have a Sequel show of sorts into production.

The BIG one I was going to bring up though is Green Lantern. Just as the show was actually getting good, it gets the axe. Combined with the DC Nation block bump into January and various other decisions, I'm of the opinion that CN was screwing over the show from it's very inception.

See Also: Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes (why yes we're still bitter about it, why'd you ask?), Heavy Gear (the ENTIRE PREMISE was changed because Executives thought that "kids wouldn't get it") and Max Steel (which got slowly and progessively worse past the first Season, to the point where I commonly kept asking "Gregg Wiseman helped write THIS?!").

EDIT -

Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles. The executives didn't know if they wanted to market the show to kids or to fans of the R-rated movie it was based on. (It shares more with the movie than the book before anyone tries to correct me)

What resulted was a show that was of two minds. One episode would have threats of mind wiping and indoctrination propaganda, and another episode would have guys saying lines like "really deep doo-doo."

It's a great show, but it never finished, ending the series on a cliffhanger before a finale that never saw the light of day.

Oh christ, one of my favourite shows growing up. How'd I forget about this? O_O

 

[Dygen Entreri]

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Is that good? Is that the one where the opening episode features this super villain that can manipulate gravity? I'm a bit apprehensive of Marvel cartoons since most of them, in my current frame of mind, feel vapid. I mean the same can be said with most comic book cartoon adaptations but I dunno the only marvel cartoon I really ever fell in love with was X-men the Animated series even if I couldn't properly follow the plot I friggin loved that show.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes is awesome. I bought the entire first season on DVD after watching it on Netflix, and I still re-watch the episodes often. The first five episodes are all introductions to the main characters and help set up the world they are in, and the sixth and seventh are their first team up against "Graviton." Then you've got plenty of adventures against villains like Loki, Kang, Ultron, the Masters of Evil and the groups Hydra and AIM. Great animation, great storytelling. The second season isn't quite as good, but still fun. If you have Netflix you have my instant recommendation.

OT: Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime. Animated was going to have a forth season, but it was cut off with no one realizing that the end of season 3 was the finale until a long while after. More recently, the increadible Transformers Prime, which so far is the best version of Transformers ever, will be starting it's third season soon. I can't say it's going to start sucking for sure, but I am very nervous just based on the most recent toys released for the upcoming season. I'm really afraid that the only reason that they are doing the "Beast Hunters" plot line that is coming up is just to sell more toys. I know, Transformers, toy commercial, but both Animated and Prime (so far) have stayed away from that kind of marketing.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Korra really lacked a Sokka character, Bolin tried, but be was moreso clumsy than sarcasm. If the original series didnt have Sokka it wouldnt have been anywhere near as good.

Korra lacked a Sokka character, an Iroh character, a Katara character, etc etc. What I'm pointing out is that no show "requires" any type of character to be interesting, it is free to do its own thing. But it has to do its own thing really well. For me Zuko+Iroh were the bread and butter of Aang's story just as much as any of the other main characters, it's highly unfair to say "it wouldn't have been good if it weren't for X character" because there was a whole list of characters who made the show what it was, Sokka was good but not the be-all/end-all of characters.

But im biase for series with strong female protagonists (especially toned ones, dem shoulders), I will publicly humailiate myself for female protagonists.

So how would you react if I said that I found Azula as a more likeable character than Korra? She wasn't a protagonist and was still more enjoyable to watch than seeing Korra doing stupid pointless hormonal teenage shit.
Hell, Katara and Toph top all of them and both were still only "side" main characters. Korra gives female protagonists a bad name lol. She spent most of the show doing nothing other than digging herself into shit, and finally got rescued by Aang in the last 5 minutes of the last episode....and he basically fixed EVERYTHING while the antagonists comitted suicide. Jesus H Christ. I wanted Korra to jump off that cliff to make something interesting happen.

Different strokes for different folks I geuss? I mean Hell, I cant even bear to watch 5 minutes of MLP without projectile vomiting from the nuclear radition level of cuteness and people talk about it like its Half Life 2 or something.

I funkin' enjoyed the Legend of Korra and im going to be clapping like a retraded circus seal when the new episodes pop up on Pirate Bay. Despite the foibles with Korras character I find her loads better than a majority of female game protagonists (or just game protagonists reagrdless).

 

[Jfswift]

I actually liked the new thundercats show, having grown up with the original only to find it was stopped abruptly after the first season. It's not officially cancelled afaik, still in limbo but it might as well be.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

The higher ups (Mainly Jeph Loeb) changed the second half of season 2 from what was planned by the creators. It was felt that the show was becoming to serialised so people couldn't drop in and out, and that the focus had drifted to far from the "Main Three" (Thor, Cap and Iron Man). They even brought in new, and in my opinion worse writers. So an overarching plot point about the demon Surtur was dropped and interesting ideas like Yellowjacket's instability were abandoned in favour of episodes about the main characters where the status quo was always re-established.

One of the most infuriating changes made was that Spider-Man appeared in one episode, and they had gotten the voice actor from Spectacular Spider-Man to reprise the role. After he had gone in and recorded everything and the episode had been mostly animated, the show was put on hiatus for the second season so they could premier it along side the movie and their new Ultimate Spider-Man show. I don't know the exact behind the scenes details, but the VA from Ultimate Spider-Man was brought in and dubbed over all of the lines. No one, not even the original actor or some of the people who worked on the episode knew that this had been done until it aired.

And after all that, they cancelled it anyway in favour of a new show more in line with the movies.

Oh I'm going to miss Young Justice. I really hope that the creators knew or suspected that this was the last season so we get a conclusion and not a cliff hanger ending.

Jeph Loeb is an idiot. What's worse is he has talent as a writer but his good stuff is drowned out by the utter crap work and decisions.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I feel like bleach and naruto were extended for way too long.
But i wouldn't be able to tell yu details because I stopped reading them ages ago.

I don't know about Bleach but Naruto (the manga that is) is still going lol. They're at what I can only assume is the "final" climax of the entire story, and they've been at it for the last 30 chapters or something. It's nuts.

Anyway to answer the OP's question, Season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I don't know whether "meddling" is the right word but the majority of that season was bland and uninteresting bar just a couple of stand-out moments, meanwhile Season 1 and Season 2 were literally BRIMMING with awesome moments and can still have me giggling like a madman when I watch them today.

Legend of Korra is good on it's own, but completely shrivels in comparison to it's predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender. And unfortunately it IS in a position to be compared to it's predecessor which is why I (for the most part) found it pretty mediocre, and downright TERRIBLE when everything took a fucking dive in the last episode.

Thank You! Someone else who was disapointed with Legend of Korra. Everyone else seems to think it is perfect but I fould most of the characters irritating and only 2 (Tensin and Toph's kid) good. none of the new ones even aproch the level of awesome that The Last Airbender did. Also, I may just be me but the fight scenes seem to be smaller and look slower. most of the characters are ment to be master benders but they seem to get their arse kicked every 5 mins and never seem to pull off the kinds of moves the original guys could.

 

[headbanger97]

Despite the amount of guff it usually gets, I actually liked the Star Wars The Clone Wars animated show... For like the first 2 seasons. I don't know what happened, but somewhere down the line someone decided that in a show all about a war, we can't actually watch people get killed. So now we have all these dumb plots involving people not getting killed. It just took away any fun the show had.

 

[Cheesus Crust]

I guess Invader Zim since it just got outright cancelled because they didn't like the older demographic the show got popular with.

Speaking of, inb4 alicorn Twilight.

Pastulio! Look into the eyes of Pastulio!

 

[Cheesus Crust]

Thank You! Someone else who was disapointed with Legend of Korra. Everyone else seems to think it is perfect but I fould most of the characters irritating and only 2 (Tensin and Toph's kid) good. none of the new ones even aproch the level of awesome that The Last Airbender did. Also, I may just be me but the fight scenes seem to be smaller and look slower. most of the characters are ment to be master benders but they seem to get their arse kicked every 5 mins and never seem to pull off the kinds of moves the original guys could.

While I disagree with most of what you said I can see where you're coming from. They did get their arses kicked every now and then but that's part of the character development. It would suck ass if they had just won every single confrontation. Besides the losses were meant to showcase how fast korra grew as a character. None of the chiblockers tricks worked twice on korra.

But as the person you're quoting and I both agreed, lets wait beyond the first season. The first season felt too fast that's why I think it put a lot of people off. They had to squeeze in so much into the story with such a limited amount of time.

I think Korra is great but far from perfect. I don't hate so much as I dislike Bolin all he ever does is try to be funny and since a lot of characters are funny in their own right he seems to add little to no value to the show. I do like chief beifong though.

 

[Cheesus Crust]

Your enthusiasm is interesting. Cause i though korra really excellled due to its concision. I know a lot of fans think it was underdeveloped but i think the opposite. Its the same reson these last episodes of young justice are so intense and good. Im actually worried korra will suffer from extension

Interesting input. I myself liked that conciseness that you're talking about but some of the things just felt really rushed. Okay just to clarify, the thing that annoyed me the most about the very quick pacing of the story was the romantic plot tumor. Its like one minute he has a girlfriend the next its head over heels for Korra. I do like how each episode of the show managed to move several plot threads forward whilst moving the main plot forward. Each episode really had an impact on the story's overall progression.

I don't think we need to be afraid of over extending though. From what I saw on wiki the next few season will only be a few episodes longer. Hopefully they hit the golden mean in terms of conciseness and story devoplment.

 

[Dangit2019]

I guess Invader Zim since it just got outright cancelled because they didn't like the older demographic the show got popular with.

Speaking of, inb4 alicorn Twilight.

Pastulio! Look into the eyes of Pastulio!

"I'll just keep my eyes shut!"

"Oh, you'll need to breathe sometime..."

"Wait, what? AHHHHHHHHH"

That show was undoubtedly the best part of my middle school years.

 

[shadyh8er]

My childhood friend Dexter's Laboratory. It was supposed to end after Ego Trip, but NOPE! And to add further insult, the character models got worse.

 

[EmperorZoltan]

Spectacular Spiderman. I understand the difficulty with the constantly changing of hands for the spiderman licencing, but can't we all just agree that this show was freaking amazing and didn't deserve to suffocate to death like that...

I mean comon, in the end all we got was a crappy spiderman movie reboot.... and I lose my faviroute spiderman cartoon!