>Nick actually wanted Invader Zim to be the huge hit instead of Fairly OddParents. They ordered Zim for 20 episodes and Fairly OddParents for just 6 initially>Despite the suits wanting Zim to be the bigger hit, FOP became that insteadI feel like Invader Zim both came out at the perfect time with how early 2000s it is, but when it came to Nick, I feel it would've done better on Nick had it premiered in the mid 90s rather than in 2001. By 2001, the type of show Zim was felt much more suited for Cartoon Network.
>>155993796Honestly, CatDog and Invader Zim to me always felt like odd ones in Nick's lineup during this time. CatDog in particular feels like a show that came out in 1995 or 1996 rather than 1998. Both of them feel like shows that probably would've thrived better on Cartoon Network. According to Broadcast and Cable Magazine, CatDog took til October 1999 to even crack the top 25 cable ratings charts (and unlike CN, Nick had many shows get into those ratings charts) and I don't think Zim made it into those charts since it was bigger with older audiences than it was with the audience Nick wanted. Also, Nickelodeons lineup by then had gotten more wholesome and safe, for lack of a better word. I get people say Fairly OddParents was a cynical and mean show, but oddly enough, Fairly OddParents never felt as mean as CatDog or as morbid as Zim. It probably also helps OddParents was super charming. I heard somewhere someone said Angry Beavers and Invader Zim would've thrived better on Cartoon Network and they probably would have. Angry Beavers did pretty well in ratings and got into top 25 cable ratings often during 1997-1998, but the Nick higher ups didn't like the show.
>>155993796Considering Zim was basically sabotaged, that's a bit ironic.
It still baffles me to this day that someone at Nick was like "The dude that made Johnny the Homicidal Maniac? Give him a kids show!" then proceeded to censor the fuck outta most of it.
>>155995396Zim, CatDog and Angry Beavers were CN shows, Robot Jones was a Nick show.
>>155995443Considering how CN execs felt about Billy and Mandy, I doubt that Zim would've fared that much better under them, but who knows, it could've gotten lucky like Billy and Mandy did.
>>155993859Zim did find a niche audience, but CatDog was just an odd choice, clearly made by underground-comix-esque guys. It was deliberately ugly and off-putting, with a mean sadistic sense of humor. The only people I can see liking it are guys who are into underground comics or Spumcc-style animation, or autists who grew up with catdog and have it as their special interest.
>>155993796Considering how they ended up fucking Zim over, I imagine something must have happened between the greenlight and the actual episode premiers. Maybe change in leadership. It was clear they vastly favored Fairly Odd Parents once the show actually came out.
The fact that invader zim didn't get several seasons and multiple movies is frankly evidence that we're living in a doomed timeline
>>155995745During the original run, there were controversies, and the show ended up exceeding its budget. By the time Nickelodeon expressed interest in more episodes, Jhonen had already moved on, limiting his involvement to comics and the film that eventually landed on Netflix.
>>155995745The comic books are pretty fun though
>>155996018The comic books are fun, but they're very much not the same. The writing is a lot more random and the characters will often be rather flanderized when compared to the show, which is probably what led directly into florpus where everyone barely even acts like themselves and zim is basically just an generic cartoon movie villain
>>155993859>1995 or 1996 rather than 1998I guess that's a huge difference if you're a zoomer that was born after 2007
>>155993796Pretty sure Zim won. Do you see ANY FOP merch? No.
>>155995396It's always been rumored that IZ was greenlit by a rogue executive who disagree with his colleagues who were all "fuck cartoon network, they aren't a threat to us" just as Cartoon Network and Toonami itself became a huge threat to Nickelodeon and started taking a huge chunk out of their viewership.When they found out what he did and fired him, it was too later to stop Invader Zim as it was too far long into production so they basically sabotaged it untill 911 happened and gave them their out to cancel it.
>>155995745Shouldn't have marked it for kids when they were afraid to watch it
>>155996922The fandom it spawned seems to prove that wrong
>>155996922The execs censored the shit out of it and kept moving the time slot around, it was doomed almost from the get-go.
