LTA: Logo Video Series

Logos, yeah, I'm a logo enthusiast, and I get saying that would raise some suspicions, so much so I need to address it. There is a logo community, but there are two parts to it. The first part is the kooks, you know, the scary logo, spoofing logo, Greeny Phatom for a deep cut, low end spectrum types, also know one guy who staged a fake lawsuit against a YouTuber that made fun of him, while ironically being guilty of theft himself. If you're curious to what that's like it may be lost to the ether, wish you were there.

I've been involved, for the most part, since 2010, back when I was a member of the now defunct Closing Logos Group. My interest in logos come from the creativity many have, they can add a little extra layer of personality to whatever they're attached to. I belong to the more nuanced sector of the logo community, that is, one that actually seeks to identify, discuss, and above all, nix the scary logo bullshit. If you wanna be more specific, it's essentially two ends of a spectrum.

Along with various uploads of logos on YouTube, some bigger names took it a step forward. They created video series relating to logos, and I promise you it's nothing like what you may expect. Unfortunately, most of these had fallen through the cracks, ending prematurely or the creators had removed their videos. I was able to see a bulk of these so at least I have some recollection to go by.

That said, here are four logo centric series I know about.

Spoofin' Network

Created by LogicSmash with supervision by Shadeed A. Kelly/ShaDeed329, the first logo series I recall finding. It began in 2008 and lasted for four episodes, and for the time it had some decent effort put into it, well more effort went into the opening and closing presentation, because the middle's results don't always match.

The series is basically a compilation of logos, those of which are altered based on the theme of the episode. The first episode centered on colorization, applying filters to black and white logos, or logos that already had color and they decided to mess with it. Man, colorization is easier than I thought it would be. The second episode featured audio swaps, using music from logos and pasting them into other logos based on how well they fit, which upon closer inspection some don't land as well. The third episode was also audio-centered, featuring piano covers of various logos and... it's not really amazing, interesting idea but... meh. The fourth episode just had the logos played in reverse, and that's it.

I think what sets this series back is its over-ambition in certain areas, no doubt the most effort is put into the opening and closing joints. It's to the point I feel like one of the guys behind this has taken it too seriously, like, fine it's your videos, but give me something more than this. Still like the series though, goes to show how ambitious people can be in the community, and as far back as 2008 it says a lot. I was a bit critical of the minimalist nature of the episodes, but that just means it held up better than most videos like it.

Now, the series was headed by, or at least executive produced by someone who would turn out to be problematic, Shadeed. Shadeed was a major figure at the old Closing Logos Group, until he was outed for his vicious attitude and other instances of internal drama. And yeah, based on what I saw of him he had a bad attitude, he had yelled at me three times, twice when I was starting out on the CLG Wiki and once on Instagram when I asked if a video that talked about him would be reuploaded when the uploader was moving to another channel.

Shadeed would drop off the face of the earth in 2018, and leaning heavily into the big company persona, treated it like such. The videos were removed from his channel but archives are out there if you wanna see for yourself. At least I can leave happy knowing Shadeed wasn't necessarily the creator of the series, just a producer.

Logo Mysteries

This was one of two series created by then popular logo content creator SCMediaWorks. As the name implies, the series centered on mythical logos, those that are suggested to exist, but no evidence exists to prove it, bringing together verified clues and ideas to potential whereabouts. However, the series also seeks to debunk certain myths that were not substantiated or there is evidence against them.

There were three episodes released, one of which made use of a guest star, Logo Archive, themed around Australian logo mysteries. The videos were taken down by SCMediaWorks some time ago, same with other logo centric videos, and I was about to declare the episodes to be lost, but it turns out someone had posted the episodes onto the Internet Archive.

Now, I was going to post the episodes on YouTube, but as I uploaded the first part, apparently a previous reupload was taken down due to a copyright removal request, and at that point I wound up privatizing two other uploads I made, in the event SC has lost his mind and is trying to wipe these videos out, or there's some drama I don't know about, or this all happened long ago but broken upload systems are forever. If nothing else most of the videos are on the archive already, and I'm gonna contribute videos that didn't make it on beyond the Wayback Machine, because my account there could use some content.

Though it seems SCMediaWorks sought to move away from logos, I have a theory to why the series was not kept, and that is owed to drama that occurred in 2018. A user by the name of Supermarty-O, a veteran of the community, had made a name for himself with rare logo finds, one of which being an old talk of the community, a Columbia Pictures Television logo with a Coca-Cola Company byline... uh, Coca-Cola had some film and television stakes at the time.

It would soon be revealed that most of Marty's finds were fake, including the Columbia logo, and it would apply to other logos credited to him, such as a PolyGram Television logo that was used as a basis for the first episode of Logo Mysteries, albeit not the main topic. That aside a bunch of logos would be disproven over the years and since said logos were considered to be open mysteries, well, why keep it around?

But whatever the case, it was a good idea, perhaps marred by false leads and amateur research he had to go off of. However, that isn't to say there have been some discoveries made from it, most of the logos covered in Logo Mysteries have been found years since, like the Greater Union Distributors and MGM Television logos. There is a place for Logo Mysteries, hope somebody can bring it back someday because there will always be some loose ends that need to be tied.

Though there may be a darker reason why they're gone and will continue to be gone.

SCMediaWorks Top 10

Speaking of SCMediaWorks. This is fairly straightforward, all that changes is the topic of each list. There were four lists I remember, obviously logo related, Top 10 annoying logos, wasted logos and... scary logos. Yeah, he hopped on that trend, I'm not a fan of it, it's immature, and a lot of the choices he made were either weird or incredibly predictable. But I'll give him this, when he found out someone mocked his scary logo video he took it well, he can take a joke at least.

Most of the lists were definitely, you know, of their time, back when certain changes were recent, though some things were bound to change since. On the other hand some aspects held up, like how certain logos are annoying to see constantly... and that's all I got. Of the surviving lists are his Top 10 Annoying Logos, Top 10 Wasted Logos and Top 10 Scary Logos. I remember watching his list of the Top 10 Worst Logos (whatever it was called), but it looks like nobody archived it yet, hoping that changes because that was my favorite one.

As a side-note, he had taken down most of the videos, setting some to private and others to unlisted, and to my surprise he is copyright striking public uploads. It happened to me. Guy's a fucking hoarder. Look I get why, but I did it so people can have access to videos they used to watch. If you intended to bring back the videos yourself then fine, but if you just strike public uploads down while keeping them inaccessible, we're two individual sides of an evil coin. This would explain why YouTube uploads of Logo Mysteries as well are hard to find because he flagged down re-uploads of them as well.

Stephen, if you don't want people cutting in on your property, make an archive, put up videos you don't want anymore so people can see them. If you try to bury them it will just make people want to find them even more, classic case of the Streisand Effect, never meet your heroes. But then again YouTube isn't the only place to find videos, and I'm not gonna say where.

I'm just waiting for him to rear his head and lecture me on stealing, and if you are gonna come round here Stephen... can we just have a simple conversation, I'm receptive, just give me your reasons, I'll give mine, that's it.

Okay good? Let's move on.

Reconstruction Zone/Rebrand the Brand

Those were CLG Wiki era series, now we're going into the AVID era. By this point the AVID wiki had launched a YouTube channel, and along with any logo updates, why not spice things up with some original content, while taking advantage of those who have the tools to make their own logos? They have two series as of this writing, and given the concepts are similar, let's cover them both.

Rebrand the Brand is a competitive showcase, where people would create logos for existing companies, their contributions being ranked by the end. Fairly simple premise, but it works. You have a playing field for people to make their own logos and you can essentially go crazy with how you want to make yours. It's a good way for people to refine their skills and see how others do the same. It leans into why I stuck with the community, because logos are a gateway. When it comes to making or editing logos it can sharpen your skills in design, editing, whatever have you, help unlock skills you had no idea you had. There is some serious application to be had, good on AVID.

Reconstruction Zone is similar to Rebrand the Brand, but they take a different direction. The series focuses on recreating logos that have been deemed lost, based on certain clues to how said lost logo played out. It also includes characters and some comedic banter between them. Good to add a little extra personality, and the models they use are surprisingly varied, from 2D stills to a fully animated 3D model, the latter of which representing one of two of AVID's mascots, really trying to make the brand stick but no complaints there. Points made about Rebrand the Brand can apply here too.

It's an attempt to make things more professional, and they're going about it the best way they could, good on them.

Final Thoughts

Much like how company logos evolve, the same can be said for logo series. From basic editing showcases, to discussions of ongoing lost media cases, to top 10s when they were at their peak, to more professional editing showcases with some occasional extras. It all serves to build upon a dedicated niche community, one built upon company logos, one that can be gradually expanded in more ways than one. It goes to show how dedicated people can be to the niche, and I'm all in for it, makes it all the more worth it in the end.

They found the TAT logo

 For every group, niche, community, on the internet or off, there is bound to be one urban legend attached to it. Something that seems odd, but also has some basis in reality. When it comes to the logo community there are many myths and urban legends that have been investigated over the years. Say what you will about them, but they've done some good work, they get shit done all in the name of preservation, and for every logo that has been deemed a myth, a lot of them have been cracked over the years, and more recently, what is perhaps the most elusive logo of all time has finally been found, for real. This is the story of the T.A.T Communications Company logo.

After ending his partnership with Bud Yorkin in Tandem Productions, Norman Lear would launch T.A.T. Communications Company with Jerry Perenchio. Lear was a legend in his own right, though mostly undone based on what had come out about him, but that's beside the point. If a show had the right amount of episodes, they could be sold off for syndication, and, well, this is Norman Lear, practically every show he was involved in back then had multiple seasons with multiple episodes.

Lear would elect to have reruns of his series distributed under his own labels. The Tandem series would be distributed under PITS Films, while TAT would distribute shows they produced themselves. After a few years, Lear and Perenchio would acquire Avco Embassy Pictures and would rebrand TAT under the Embassy Television name, folding PITS into it as well.

The PITS and TAT logos would gradually be phased out in favor of Embassy's logo, then over the years a series of sales and buyouts would see Embassy's catalog getting acquired by Sony, and if you know Sony you know what that means... a slaughter... for every one of its past identities. While some captures of logos that would otherwise be plastered over were at the very least rediscovered or not removed, TAT wasn't as lucky. It was gone. PITS was spared from this by pure luck, as TBS reruns had used old syndie prints for their airings, but there was no trace of TAT's.

For years, all people had to go by was personal recollections, and they would shape what was believed to be the actual logo. Now, one's memories are incredibly unpredictable. How you recall something would change depending on how old you were or what was going on with you. I'm speaking from experience, a lot of what I remember either didn't happen the way I remembered it or got embellished, and I think that went for people who hedged guesses to what TAT's logo actually was.

I won't fault anyone for going with what was essentially an unverified lead, but that's all they had to go by. If you knew about the PITS logo, and for logo enthusiasts back then it was impossible not to since there was an upload of that logo as early as 2006, one may assume the TAT logo shared some of its qualities. I mean come on, it was the late-70s, an era of taping before a live studio audience and conservative budgets, you seriously think we were gonna get an elaborate closing logo this time?

Now, for guesses to what the logo was like there were some simple guesses, like a star just rising up against a printed on card background. Because this was easy to replicate, and because the logo was becoming notable at that point, people began to make mockups, which is all well and good but... two things. One, they were amateur and often made by small children, and two, there were people who would often pass these logos off as the real thing.

While it didn't stop efforts to find the logo, it made things a lot more annoying. A classic case of clout chasing, no community is immune to it. By then, the search had gone cold for many years with no new leads coming forth... until a partial capture of the logo surfaced and disproved earlier theories. There is an animated TAT logo, there's an idea to what it was like, but the search was far from over.

As the logo community would work to try and become more professional, and distance themselves from certain portions of it, they would rebrand themselves under the Audiovisual Identity Database, and with it, try to build a social presence that extended to YouTube. Worth bringing up because of a dedicated series the channel hosts, Reconstruction Zone, where TAT Communications served as the basis for the first episode. People would create mockups for lost logos to provide a visual basis for them, and holy shit they didn't fuck around with it. Really putting their best players forward.

From there, the search otherwise stayed cold... and then the logo was finally found. The finder, Bored's VHS Pile, would discover the logo at the end of a rerun of The Jeffersons recorded on betamax, it was finally over, and not a single ounce of skepticism, it was one for one with whatever was there on the partial find.

As a little tidbit relating to Reconstruction Zone, JacopoTheAwesomeBoy's take on the logo, though not one-for-one, was the closest to what the actual logo turned out to be.

For my perspective, I didn't expect much for the TAT logo and my suspicions turned out to be right. I assumed the logo would just appear via a zoom out transition, with the star vanishing entirely, but no, it just settles between the top of the T and the A.

This was just one of many rare logo discoveries made by the logo community. It goes to show that when the situation calls for it, they can truly get shit done. It's more than just finding a logo, it's all in the of preservation, unearthing rare material and the thrill of the hunt, and just think, it was all accomplished before the end of the year.

Glad to see that the era of fake TAT logo finds is behind us, and all that time and effort wasn't for nothing, so with that said... what's next?

The Worst Last Season (on Cartoon Network)

Nothing lasts forever, and it couldn't be more applicable when it comes to television. Whether a show dies too soon or goes on for so long it loses what made it special to begin with. When you stick with a show for so long you tend to pick up on certain things, so when you're suddenly hit with that quality drop, it's far from pleasent.

Prologue

You may come into a series with two perspectives, either as a long term fan who’s witnessing the degradation or sudden oddity in real time, or someone who came in after the damage was done and are oblivious to the issue. This would determine where you stand with a series with no sense to the general consensus.

A big example is The Simpsons, which I’d be a fool not to bring up given the context. You can see it as a show losing its way if you were watching from the start, or if you came in later on you can adjust to the quality because, at least for a majority of the 2000s episodes the negatives weren’t noticeable compared to much later.

Some shows have problems that you can’t really pick up on unless you had been watching since the beginning, you have no idea how reviled the seasons may be, and against those who do you'd be preaching to the choir. And that is both my relationship with certain classic Cartoon Network shows, and my mentality.

The Prime Examples

Back during the checkerboard era, I'd like to call it, there were two things people took umbrage with, the Chris Savino era of Dexter's Laboratory, and the fourth season of Johnny Bravo. No comment on PowerPuff Girls since I want nothing to do with that show and I was never able to see much of a difference. I want to go over these because when I get to the main topic I know some people will be like "Oh what about these other late seasons?"

I watched Dexter's Laboratory in the 2000s, by this point both the Tartovsky and Savino eras had run their course and I was able to see a bit of each era. Aside from the animation and art direction, and keep in mind I was a kid back then, I didn't really notice anything wrong. I knew it was different, but the problems weren't as obvious to me. Of course certain gags you wouldn't see in the older seasons and the joke quality may vary, but it wasn't terrible. Dare I say even if I saw the entire series in order back then I wouldn't be phased. I get since this was worked on by Chris Savino, you know, outed as a creep people are much harsher to his episodes since they have no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But in the event you think I'm speaking in defense of a predator, one, I'm not nor do I ever intend to. Two, on the allegations let's do some math. Savino was outed in 2017, the report against him claimed his actions span back to at least a decade. That means Savino went dirty in 2007, long after his time at Cartoon Network. Therefore, as far as I know, nothing bad happened during his time on Dexter's Laboratory, and thus it is easier to separate the show from him. Under no other circumstance would I play devil's advocate like this.

Of course a show declining doesn't hinge solely on a change of leadership. Johnny Bravo is a special case where its sudden changes did more good in the longrun. Van Partible was around for the show's first season and would be gone for the second and third. In that time, new characters were introduced, existing ones had their traits or designs altered and certain aspects like celebrity cameos and talking animals were reduced.

The new seasons had its critics, Partible included, but overtime it seems people grew to accept them, especially given how the fourth season would turn out. Partible would helm it, trying to bring the show back to its roots while keeping aspects from the previous ones, and it didn't work. It somehow fared worse than the previous seasons, and most aspects criticized were those part of the first season.

In a way, the reception of the fourth season is kinda tragic, Partible had the rug pulled from under him, and in trying to bring back his vision and respect the previous one, you get the idea. Looking into it, I actually remember watching two episodes from this season, three if one of the episodes had Huckleberry Hound at the end, and I thought the episodes were fine, it's not horrible but something had been clearly lost. It's clear Partible was a fan of Hanna Barbera's shows and wanted to embody them the best way he could, but the timing of the fourth season muddled it. Maybe the whiplash is what threw people off.

That said, you have my opinion on the big examples of Cartoon Network's big fall offs back then, but what do I consider to be the worst offender personally?

Ed, Edd n' Eddy's Fifth Season

It's important to keep Dexter's Labortory and Johnny Bravo's later seasons in mind, in regard to what caused either to turn out the way they did. Creator shifts, falling behind the times, you know. This is a case where the creatives and staff largely remained the same, the series had remained in date by the time its last season debuted in 2005, I mean to be fair it didn't get delayed like Johnny Bravo did, it just took a little less than a year for EEnE. The time was right, the hands were the same, otherwise owed to the show being one of the few CN originals of the time to not be produced in-house, and you know what that means...

No excuses, no outside factors, no shakeups, no new characters that turned out to be terrible, no new actors, at most just a series surrendering to its traits.

Ed, Edd n' Eddy stood the test of time for many reasons. Taking Looney Tunes, Tex Avery, whatever have you gags and throwing them into a contemporary setting, one that the characters would occasionally break apart. There're few other shows like it which allowed it to become an all time classic.

The series had maintained some level of consistency throughout its run, I mean besides some portions of the first season, which is understandable as by then they were trying to find their legs. With consistency, it's a blessing and a curse, because by then certain expectancies are set, and if they aren't met then it can sour the experience. You can not deliver, or you can over-deliver, such is the case.

By the mid-2000s I began watching Cartoon Network more frequently so I was able to see the fifth season episodes when they were new, while checking out the older episodes when reran beforehand, I remember watching the Best Day Edder marathon so I'd have no excuse not to remember the series. I had a sense of what the series was like, and I went into the fifth season with decent anticipation.

Like many things, it wasn't obvious at first, but overtime cracks began to show, all for the worst. I hated the episodes, and it came pretty close to me turning my back on the entire series and characters. It looked right but felt wrong, similar yet different, what went wrong?

Again what went wrong?

The fifth season marked a number of changes with the series. Previously the series was produced with cel animation, being one of the last cartoons to use the style, but overtime would transition to digital ink and paint. Technically it started with the Christmas special Jingle Jingle Jangle which aired in 2004, but it aired after the fourth season had ended, so, transitional period and all that.

I bring this up because, from what I heard, Danny Antonucci stuck to cel animation by choice, so it's weird to see him switch it up. Must be a victim of reverse psychology, maybe somebody felt the style better suited the physical comedy, maybe he was forced to switch due to budgetary and time concerns, or maybe he just wanted to experiment with the process just to see what gives. Whatever the case he can do what he wants, the animation isn't the problem here, at most just leaning into other issues I'm about to bring up.

On the surface, it seems the fifth season delivered on the general core of the series, slapstick and crazy gags. However, they kinda fumble the bag with this because of how often the gags happen and the aftermath of each. Not to say the previous seasons episodes didn't go all out, but even they had a tiny bit of restraint. In this case they went full cartoony, you see gags you likely wouldn't see in the previous season, key word here is likely. I dunno, watch an episode from each and you may notice something's off.

The use of the gags here feels more cynical, for the lack of a better term. They just occur without much thought behind them, as if someone just took the gags on their presence alone and threw them in just because. There's putting things in with thought, and putting things in because, and the frequency of which, even being able to predict what would occur based on what's happening, dulls the experience, it shows a series is just phoning it in close to the finish line and want desperately to preserve fan interest. Nothing feels as out of pocket as it did in previous seasons, the gags feel more straightforward, and when you're in a cartoony world where anything is possible, the magic wears off. I'm going on about this because the gags are what made Ed, Edd n' Eddy so unique, so I sorta need to get into it.

Going back to the animation I also noticed the facial expressions, certain gestures look a lot more weird, like after four seasons seeing these characters make faces I never expect to see elsewhere. In some cases, it looks cursed, just because you have the power that doesn't mean you should always use it, especially recklessly, and if it just suddenly comes about after so long. Not to say the visuals are the only reason the season is so bad, but we'll get to that soon.

The fifth season marked the introduction of a new frequent setting, Peach Creek Jr. High. I get incorporating new scenery to increase potential plot ideas and locales, but I feel like this sorta undid another core aspect of Ed, Edd n' Eddy. Timelessness. The previous seasons had occurred throughout the summer, with little indication of progression. Of course you may argue that the series had occurred throughout summer break and it ended at that point, but that just raises the question on how much time occurs past each season, especially since Summer breaks in Canada are shorter than the United States'.

While there were signs of progression such as characters getting more mature, though this was toward the season 4 finale which was originally set to be the series finale, poetic in a way, even stuff like birthdays, the passage of time was a bit more subtle. We didn't see any true monthly progression until, uh yeah, the fifth season. So on one hand it's a bold move that could bring more opportunities, but on the other hand it could just be pointless.

Pointless, in that aside from the location little else is different. Now sure you have some gags that fit with the setting, but others do not. The setting is what it is, a setting, and one that doesn't have as much thought put into it. What do I mean by that? How about the fact that Sarah and Jimmy, younger than the other characters, go to the same school? Is this normal in Canada, this has confused me for years. You have to do a lot more than just have them go to class and hop on a school bus for this setting to have any meaning.

Now yes, stuff like grades, school sports, gossip, those do occur... in their dedicated episodes. One thing that has remained true to the series is that everything essentially occurs in a bubble, nothing that happens in one episode would be of any consequence in the other. It's safe to say these events are meaningless, and you only have to go by the experience of one episode, one or so, very dire, episodes, getting ahead of myself.

Let's talk flanderization, an inevitability for shows running too long. Characters are generally reduced to their basic traits by this point, or said traits are exaggerated in order to inspire more plots, jokes, whatever have you. It happened here, though not as obvious with most characters it shows with others. The worst victim of this has got to be Ed, who has either become a lot more dumb, or just too annoyingly happy a lot of the time, or perhaps both. I mean it was a point that Ed was dumb, but not to that extent, just surrendering to his interests and, of course not being the brightest bulb in the socket. You have to see episodes from either season to really understand this.

Other characters tend to go in and out of this, some like Sarah and Kevin tend to be more, I dunno, maniacal in most episodes, other times they act as they did time before. The Kankers while already the antagonists, are a bit more, well, antagonistic. In the past the Kankers usually turn up close to the end of the episode to throw a wrench in Eddy's scam or whatever he's doing, or just for a quick gag. You could argue they took the role of the school bullies, and if so what does that make Kevin... well, aside from the jock I guess. Jonny 2x4 has always been the weird one, and it feels like this has been amped up to eleven in most episodes, okay one. In situations like these they're worse depending on the episodes they occur in.

Eddy is more or less the same as he was, aside from being more loud in some cases. There was one or two times where Eddy became more antagonistic, and this was with Kevin during the booster shot episode. I can see this as Eddy having been pushed around by Kevin for so long he finally snapped and wanted to get some revenge, and after the whole Skipper business, can you blame him? Since he is among the few characters that changed the least, it isn't fun when he is on the receiving end, and this occurs a lot throughout the season. Okay yes this was also par the course for the previous seasons, but this just feels off, especially against the other changes.

But of all the characters Edd is the worst of them all here. In a lot of the episodes it feels like he has a more antagonistic role most of the time, combined with an air of condescension that I can't even get behind. Sometimes I feel like Edd has had enough of Ed and Eddy and is doing what he can to break from the group, which kinda makes sense since the rest of the Cul de Sac tend to favor him more than the others. Of course though, everything occurs in a bubble, so it's just one or many unpleasant experiences to go through. Edd gets his way, why should I care? One selfish act to counteract another, Kevin asked you the time and you take that as a reason to save him from a driver club in a garbage can?

Back then I hated Kevin so to see that episode end as it did hit hard, hence the overreaction if you found one.

A show is only as good as its characters, and it's one thing for them to under deliver, but if you've known about them for years and see the under delivery, you can't just let it pass, nobody has for any show like it. This is a case where the characters suck a lot of the time, and so do the episodes. The fifth season had the most bad episodes compared to others. And for further perspective, while the lowest rating an episode of the show got was a 6.0, if you look at a list of the show's episodes on IMDb, lowest ratings first, if you discount the more infamous episodes from previous seasons, almost all of the spots belong to episodes from the fifth season, these episodes rate the same as the worst Ed, Edd n' Eddy episodes, and the lowest rated episode of the entire series came from the fifth season.

So while many people may hold the fifth season in decent regard, it seems it doesn't hold up as well against the previous ones. IMDb basically serves as a community domain hence why I'm going by that site's metrics. But that aside what do the episodes have to offer?

An episode that feature the most gratuitous signs of bodily abuse, one where Edd decides to throw Eddy for a loop by calling him a no neck chump for reasons I'll never know, an episode where Eddy wants to be the center of attention at a football game and Ed just lets Eddy get taken away at the end, one where Edd goes mad trying to find a shower, and given how he acts most episodes it was so bad I actually didn't hate the episode back then.

Not to say every episode was a total miss, it's just that they weren't as good as previous ones, at most easy to get through. Among the stand outs are Cool Hand Ed for the high stakes premise, Every Which Way But Ed just for how absurd it was even though it got kinda stupid by the end, and I don't mean Ed flashing back too far I mean Eddy's reason to trap them there, is a quarter gonna mean anything by the end? I mean to Eddy yes but, you get the point. There is one more but I'll save it for later.

Back to the lesser end, of course there's the fact that what is widely considered to be the worst episode in the entire series, just so happened to be a season 5 episode. Smile for the Ed. The episode embodies the worst aspects of the season, over-exaggeration, throwing Eddy under the bus when he hasn't tried to do the same to others, and flanderization on Kevin's part. Come to think of it, most of the older episodes people hate had Eddy on the receiving end when he hasn't done anything to warrant it, again most because for at least one or two you could argue Eddy acted first. It isn't the case for that episode, not even most other episodes this season, even instances where he does they're not at the expense of others, hence how a lot of them feel off by comparison.

Also fun fact, Smile for the Ed was the only episode to not be directed by Antonucci, which goes back into how consistent things had been for the series, and why I'm so disappointed with the season. The feelings just grow for so long that you can't help but lay it out when the time comes.

But that's the journey, what's the destination and would said journey be worth it? The season finale would see Edd being framed as a bully due to a series of coincidences. The fact that Edd is losing faith in himself for hurting others, had the events of other episodes been kept in mind, had we seen the effect of Edd essentially leading Eddy on this would've helped validate a bulk of the season. Of course I'm not asking for some melodrama, I mean an instance where Edd and Eddy try to eek each other out only to piss off everyone in the making and show they belong to each other as friends.

That aside though, a lot of people considered the episode to be a satisfactory closing, they beat the Kankers and everyone's happy... at least that's how it seems. At least to me, the end of the episode was a bit underwhelming. Sure Eddy got the Kankers away, but they weren't the cause of the conflict, rather caught in the middle of Edd's coincidental beatings. Sure Eddy finally sticks up against them, but it doesn't hit like it should.

Not to mention the end loses more meaning since this was followed by an episode from the un-produced sixth season, and it had little to offer beyond a piss joke, but on a better note they had the opportunity to pay their respects to Paul Boyd, the animator for the series' opening titles.

But What About the Movie?

I know people are gonna bring up Ed, Edd n' Eddy's Big Picture Show. It's a great movie, wanna make that abundantly clear. It is a perfect finale to the series and it actually greatly impacted the characters for the better. We will never know what's under Edd's hat but we got to see Eddy's brother at least.

But on the topic of Edd's hat, I have a theory on what's under it. Remember the 2004 Fat Albert movie, when the group got back into their own world and Dumb Donald had his had off, and they saw there was literally nothing under there, I think the same could be said there. The eds are surprised at nothing being under Edd's hat, Eddy was just exaggerating and Ed questions if the lack of occupied space is causing pain.

Back on topic though, the movie works as a finale, but does it justify the existence of the previous season? No. As I mentioned before little that occurs in each episode would be of any consequence to the other. Little occurred in the fifth season that was worth calling attention to in the movie. I mean, aside from the argument toward the middle, but even then it would only work out if it was Eddy turning on Edd not the other way around. Either they deemed Edd to always be in the right, or they wanted to ignore what happened last season. If you have the fifth season in mind it also undercuts the impact of the fight because you're led to believe this was years of mistreatment boiling over, but Edd for the most part was the instigator, who just suddenly chose when to get upset, and we're supposed to pick Edd's side and Eddy must realize what he has done wrong.

Kinda broken honestly, and probably the reason why not everything needs to be kept in mind.

What I'm trying to say is that you almost don't need the fifth season, when the movie does a better job at ending things off. The digital ink and paint also helps give the movie more of a theatrical edge for a television film and makes the entire thing feel more grandiose, for a lack of a better term. Interest in the show had persisted to this point, was the fifth season made to keep the seat warm in the meantime? Who knows?

Final Thoughts

It was in the mid-2000s that I had begun to see certain things more critically. I had my favorites, and I was slowly getting things I outright hated. Ed, Edd n' Eddy's fifth season unfortunately fell into that light for me.

I had known the series well up to that point, so to see how everything was handled in the fifth, it wasn't a good experience and it hasn't got better for me looking back at it. I'd like to consider myself open minded when it comes to shows, especially overlong or underwhelmingly concluded ones. I'm willing to speak fairly to the Savino era Dexter's Laboratory episodes because they could've been a lot worse and just had the unfortunate artifact of riding off of the previous seasons, on their own the episodes are otherwise fine enough, some good even. I can even speak fairly to the fourth season of Johnny Bravo because the creator got back into it too late, and wound up alienating those who came into the series in its middle seasons, I'd even speak well of said middle seasons because they benefited the show in the long run.

But the fifth season of Ed, Edd n' Eddy, the creatives remained the same, it was brought down by decisions that ultimately didn't work. It brought out the worst in me, much like it brought out the worst in each of the characters. It felt like something was lost in the way, and when they tried to prove otherwise it just felt more cynical. It felt like a new crew was given a very literal outline of the series and took it as is without any other thought, even though nothing changed behind the scenes.

It feels worse because Ed, Edd n' Eddy is one of the quintessential classic Cartoon Network shows, dare I say more so than others like Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, maybe not as much as PowerPuff Girls given how much of a push the network gave it, but enough that it had provided ten years of content. With a milestone like that you need the quality to back it up, and one or a few bad episodes can be forgiven, but if they account for the bulk of one season, you'd think they wanted the show to end at season four and they did season five out of protest in the hopes this would end things. Either that or they wanted to do Big Picture Show but another season was included in the deal.

Whatever the case, the fifth season was hit with an inevitability that plagues many shows like it. Falling into the same pitfalls as others, a drop in episode quality and character writing quality. Had the series kept going it would've probably gotten worse, as we've seen with other shows that went on for too long, few had broke that curse.

The fifth season essentially served as a warning to what would've happened had Ed, Edd n' Eddy kept going. It's rare for a show to get better the longer it goes, and if we got what we did with the fifth season, no telling what more surprises we'd get later on. The proposed sixth season already got off to a pretty mid start, just saying.

But yeah, of all the Cartoon Network shows that have such middling final seasons, Ed, Edd n' Eddy's fifth pissed me off the most. With Dexter's Laboratory, if there were any changes to the characters they were either not noticeable or handled better, at most I only saw major downgrades to Dad, Dee Dee maybe, the worst is only noticeable if you know the older seasons well enough. With Johnny Bravo ironically it was when the personalities were otherwise reverted and the first seasons sensibilities were restored that people turned on the series.

Whatever the faults, they were much worse with the fifth season of Ed, Edd n' Eddy, there is nothing that can convince me otherwise, they would've been better off just releasing the movie after the fourth season, it would have the same intended effect. No show's season has upset me more back then than it, something was truly lost, or the worst things drowned out the good, not helping that two of the three top billed had suffered the worst.

But if you like the fifth season, good on you, glad you found some enjoyment in it and I'm not here to change that. Compared to other shows that had lost their good faith due to going on for so long, at least Ed, Edd n' Eddy was put down before it could get worse, we dodged a bullet, clearly.

At the end of the day, you can have the same heads on board, but you can't always keep the quality up forever. Know when to put the horse down.