The A-Team
It would only happen a few times a year.
During my youth, when my parents would tell my brother and I we were going to visit our grandparents’ apartment in Brooklyn, we would be thrilled. There are a lot of awesome things that come with visiting grandparents — seeing people who unconditionally love you without ever getting mad at you and often sneak you treats when your parents aren’t watching. But what was so great about traveling the hour and a half from my house to my grandparents’ is that they had something we never had: Cartoon Network.
Cartoon Network had a pretty stellar lineup of shows in the late ’90s and early 2000s that I would devour while I sat cross-legged on my grandparents’ linty tan carpet in front of their outdated television set. The Powerpuff Girls taught my younger self about feminism in the form of three tiny, crime-fighting girls. Ed, Edd n Eddy provided me with endless laughs with its stupid and somewhat bleak humor. Courage the Cowardly Dog charmed me with its surrealist and slightly horrific portrayal of middle America, a place I was far removed from and might still be a little scared of.
Compared to other child- and young adult-oriented television channels, Cartoon Network had some strong competition. Nickelodeon was triumphant in its comedic shows, such as the Saturday Night Live-lite program All That and Friday night’s weirdo animated feature KaBlam!. Disney championed its always-ridiculous yet heartwarming and entertaining original movies series. But I could watch those any day of the week. What made Cartoon Network so special was that I was only given the opportunity to watch these shows, which I loved so dearly, only a few times every year.
These were the golden days of my youth. I would get a thrill watching the gang of Powerpuff Girls try to save Townsville or when Dexter of Dexter’s Laboratory could only repeat the phrase “Omelette du fromage.” Around the time I entered middle school, my parents changed our cable network, and I had all the access to Cartoon Network I wanted. But it was too late; I had already moved past enjoying animated television shows and on to teenage dramas such The O.C. The novelty had worn off, and my days as an occasional Cartoon Network junkie had been left in the past.
But recently I received word that all of my favorite shows from the network had been made available on Netflix for everyone’s streaming pleasure. It’s been long enough that I can delightfully revisit the past obsessions of my youth and appreciate them in a new light. Besides, I need something for procrastinating during finals week.
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