MeTV

MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television programs from the 1950s through the 2000s.
The network's origins date to January 6, 2003, when it was started as a programming block on Chicago station WFBT-CA. On January 1, 2005, the television station became a full-time MeTV affiliate, renamed WWME-CA. In March 2008, the station was available outside of the Chicago market for the first time, as a subchannel on Milwaukee station WDJT-TV, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 15, 2010.
== History ==
On January 2021, the network started to air two blocks called Toon In With Me and Saturday Morning Cartoons. Both consist of classic Warner Bros. cartoons alongside Popeye, Betty Boop, MGM, and Tom and Jerry shorts. This made MeTV the first station in over twenty years to air these cartoons outside of Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and the first non-Warner Bros. Discovery-owned station in the United States since ABC to air Looney Tunes shorts since The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show ended its run on 2 September 2000.
The network also airs a MeTV+ exclusive block, Sunday Night Cartoons, which consists of reruns of certain shorts. However, even though the latter does reruns, it is known to also air new cartoons, restored or unrestored.
From May 2021 to April 2023, MeTV aired Pink Panther, The Inspector, and Roland and Rattfink shorts from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. In December 2021, the Columbia/Screen Gems cartoons and Paramount's Color Classics shorts made their debuts on "Toon In with Me". In June 2022, the block started airing Paramount's Superman shorts.
On 2 September 2023, MeTV began airing color cartoons produced by Walter Lantz Productions, including Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, and other Lantz cartoons, on both the Saturday Morning block and Toon In With Me.
On 1 May 2024, Weigel Broadcasting Co. announced a collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery to launch MeTV Toons on 25 June.https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/metv-toons-network-launch-weigel-broadcasting-warner-bros-discovery-1235988916/https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/here-comes-metv-toons/
== Censorship ==
In stark contrast to other free-to-air and basic cable channels, such as ABC, CBS, the WB, FOX, Nickelodeon, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang (particularly in the United States), MeTV airs the Warner Bros. shorts uncut for slapstick violence, gun violence, dark humor, dangerous behavior, scenes of characters being hanged, strangled, or lynched; scenes featuring suicidal behavior and actions; scenes of characters attempting or committing homicide; scenes of characters ingesting dangerous chemicals or abusing drugs, including alcohol and tobacco; sexual, rude, or obscene references; and scenes featuring mild bad language or references to rude gestures. In addition, shorts featuring or starring characters now considered controversial, such as the Drunk Stork, Chuck Jones' dysfunctional Three Bears family, Speedy Gonzales, and Pepé Le Pew are shown uncut and uncensored on MeTV, rather than being seldom aired or banned. However in the case of Speedy, majority of the shorts aired are the ones paired with Daffy Duck due to less stereotypical depictions present in these cartoons, although at least two cartoons with Sylvester has aired.
However, MeTV still edits and bans the Warner Bros. shorts for outdated racial content, including use of racist language, caricatures, and imagery, when featured on the Toon In with Me and Saturday Morning Cartoons blocks, though, as seen below, there have been exceptions. MeTV+'s Sunday Night Cartoons block edits the shorts for outdated racial content as well. Occasionally, the shorts will air uncut and be prefaced with a disclaimer that tells viewers that some of the content featured is a product of its time and may be considered offensive to modern audiences, but will be shown anyway because editing these problematic scenes is similar to denying their existence in the first place.
== Newly restored cartoons ==
"Toon In with Me", "Saturday Morning Cartoons", and "Sunday Night Cartoons" mostly air restored and remastered versions of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, using the HBO Max releases as necessary. This includes the airing of various restored prints of cartoons that were never released to DVD or HBO Max. As these restorations were done by the same oversea companies that restored the HBO Max shorts, they may contain errors that are similarly featured on the HBO Max restorations. The newly aired restored cartoons includes the following:
* "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!" (1931) (for SNC)
* "Honeymoon Hotel" (1934) (for TIWM)
* "Those Were Wonderful Days" (1934) (for TIWM) (original ending card restored)
* "Why Do I Dream Those Dreams" (1934) (for TIWM) (original ending card restored)
* "The Miller's Daughter" (1934) (for SNC) (original ending card restored)
* "Shake Your Powder Puff" (1934) (for TIWM) (original ending card restored)
* "Pop Goes Your Heart" (1934) (for TIWM)
* "Country Mouse" (1935) (for SMC)
* "I Wanna Play House" (1936) (for SMC)
* "Porky's Pet" (1936) (for TIWM)
* "Don't Look Now" (1936) (for TIWM)
* "Picador Porky" (1937) (for SMC)
* "Porky's Garden" (1937) (for TIWM)
* "I Wanna Be a Sailor" (1937) (for TIWM)
* "Porky's Hero Agency" (1937) (censored, for SMC)
* "Love and Curses" (1938) (for SMC)
* "A Feud There Was" (1938) (for SMC)
* "Gold Rush Daze" (1939) (for TIWM)
* "Bars and Stripes Forever" (1939) (for TIWM)
* "Believe It or Else" (1939) (censored, for SNC)
* "Porky's Hotel" (1939) (for TIWM)
* "The Good Egg" (1939) (for SMC)
* "Cross Country Detours" (1940) (original titles and ending card restored, for SMC)
* "The Chewin' Bruin" (1940) (for SNC)
* "Circus Today" (1940) (for SMC)
* "Calling Dr. Porky" (1940) (for TIWM)
* "Holiday Highlights" (1940) (for TIWM)
* "Slap Happy Pappy" (1940) (for SMC)
* "Porky's Baseball Broadcast" (1940) (censored, for TIWM)
* "The Timid Toreador" (1940) (for SMC)
* "Joe Glow, the Firefly" (1941) (for TIWM)
* "Porky's Prize Pony" (1941) (censored, for SNC)
* "Aviation Vacation" (1941) (censored, for TIWM)
* "Sport Chumpions" (1941) (for TIWM)
* "Notes to You" (1941) (for SMC)
* "The Henpecked Duck" (1941) (for SMC)
* "Daffy's Southern Exposure" (1942) (for SMC)
* "The Sheepish Wolf" (1942) (for SMC)
* "Hop and Go" (1943) (censored, for TIWM)
* "Hiss and Make Up" (1943) (for SNC)
* "Tale of Two Mice" (1945) (for TIWM)
* "Daffy Doodles" (1946) (for SMC)
* "The Eager Beaver" (1946) (for TIWM)
* "Hobo Bobo" (1947) (for TIWM)
* "The Foxy Duckling" (1947) (for TIWM)
* "Doggone Cats" (1947) (for SNC)
* "A Hick a Slick and a Chick" (1948) (for TIWM)
* "Henhouse Henery" (1949) (for TIWM)
* "Awful Orphan" (1949) (for SMC)
* "Mouse Mazurka" (1949) (for SMC)
* "Golden Yeggs" (1950) (low pitched, for TIWM)
* "His Bitter Half" (1950) (for TIWM)
* "Ballot Box Bunny" (1951) (for TIWM)
* "There Auto Be a Law" (1953) (for TIWM)
* "A Street Cat Named Sylvester" (1953) (for SMC)
* "Catty Cornered" (1953) (for TIWM)
* "Of Rice and Hen" (1953) (for TIWM)
* "Punch Trunk" (1953) (for TIWM)
* "Drafty, Isn't It?" (1957) (for SMC)
* "Feather Bluster" (1958) (for TIWM)
* "Dog Tales" (1958) (for SMC)
* "The Dixie Fryer" (1960) (for SMC)
* "Trip for Tat" (1960) (for TIWM)
* "The Mouse on 57th Street" (1961) (for TIWM)
* "The Rebel Without Claws" (1961) (for SMC)
* "The Last Hungry Cat" (1961) (for SMC)
* "Fast Buck Duck" (1963) (for SMC)
* "Aqua Duck" (1963) (for TIWM)
* "Dumb Patrol" (1964) (for TIWM)
* "War and Pieces" (1964) (for SMC)
* "It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "Cats and Bruises" (1965) (for SNC)
* "Roadrunner a Go-Go" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "Moby Duck" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "Well Worn Daffy" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "Chili Corn Corny" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "Go Go Amigo" (1965) (for TIWM)
* "The Astroduck" (1966) (for SNC)
* "Mucho Locos" (1966) (for TIWM)
* "Daffy Rents" (1966) (for TIWM)
* "A Squeak in the Deep" (1966) (for SMC)
* "Daffy's Diner" (1967) (for TIWM)
* "The Music Mice-Tro" (1967) (for TIWM)
* "Speedy Ghost to Town" (1967) (for SMC)
* "Rodent to Stardom" (1967) (for TIWM)
* "Go Away Stowaway" (1967) (for TIWM)
* "Fiesta Fiasco" (1967) (for SMC)
* "Skyscraper Caper" (1968) (for SMC)
* "See Ya Later Gladiator" (1968) (for TIWM)
* "The Chocolate Chase" (1980) (for SMC)
* "The Night of the Living Duck" (1988) (for TIWM)
* "Carrotblanca" (1995) (for SMC)
== Notes ==
* Shorts featured on Toon In with Me are presented in their original aspect ratio, whereas shorts featured on Saturday Morning Cartoons use the 14:9 ratio the network uses for full-frame TV series.
* The network has aired the following shorts unrestored on their first airings as a restored print was not made available at the time of their airing. In these cases, the latest available dubbed print was used, a print from the latest home media it was released was used, or if the short was never released on home media, the same print used for Turner networks such as Cartoon Network and Boomerang were used. Some of the shorts would later be restored for future home media releases.
** "At Your Service Madame" (1936)
** "Porky the Wrestler" (1937)
** "Get Rich Quick Porky" (1937)
** "A Day at the Zoo" (1939)
** "Screwball Football" (1939)
** "Of Fox and Hounds" (1940)
** "Aloha Hooey" (1942)
** "Ain't That Ducky" (1945)
** "Peck Up Your Troubles" (1945)
** "Catch as Cats Can" (1947)
** "I Taw a Putty Tat" (1947)
** "A-Lad-In His Lamp" (1948)
** "Holiday for Drumsticks" (1949)
** "Each Dawn I Crow" (1949)
** "Beanstalk Bunny" (1955)
** "Pappy's Puppy" (1955)
** "Unnatural History" (1959)
** "What's My Lion?" (1961)
** "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" (1965)
** "Snow Excuse" (1966)
** "Feather Finger" (1966)
** "Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol" (1979)
* "The Prize Pest" and "Muzzle Tough" are aired as their 1998 dubbed prints, despite restored versions of the cartoons existing.
* "Freeze Frame", "Fright Before Christmas", "The Yolks on You" and "Daffy Flies North" were aired unrestored on the network, even though these shorts are already restored on HBO Max. This is due to the prints being used being cut portions of their specials they originate from instead of the short by itself.
* "A Broken Leghorn" airs with its widescreen print from the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Foghorn Leghorn & Friends: Barnyard Bigmouth DVD for unknown reasons.
== References ==
Category:2021
Category:TV Channels
Category:2022
Category:2023
Category:2024