Cartoon Network Studios

Cartoon Network Studios, Inc. (abbreviated as CNS or CN Studios) is an American animation studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Group division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1994 as a division of Hanna-Barbera, it primarily produces and develops animated programs and shorts for Cartoon Network and its programming blocks Adult Swim and Cartoonito, in addition to streaming service HBO Max. Notable shows produced by Cartoon Network Studios include Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ben 10, Chowder, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Clarence, We Bare Bears, Craig of the Creek, and Infinity Train.

In 1996, Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System, which owned Cartoon Network and Hanna-Barbera at that time. In 1997, Hanna-Barbera consolidated its operations with Warner Bros. Animation, moving into their facilities in 1998, where Cartoon Network Studios also operated briefly. Hanna-Barbera closed permanently in 2001, and Warner Bros. Animation has managed its intellectual property to this day, occasionally using the Hanna-Barbera brand as a label.

In 1999, Cartoon Network acquired a large building in Burbank, California, to serve as the headquarters for Cartoon Network Studios after its effective separation from Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Animation. This was due to the need for Cartoon Network Studios to become an independent entity dedicated to creating original series, while Warner Bros. Animation focused on existing IPs. The studio opened on May 22, 2000, and operated in those facilities for over 20 years.

In the 2020s, after multiple corporate mergers, the studio was consolidated into Warner Bros. Animation, and continued to operate as a separate division, although it was relocated to Second Century Development as the company's new headquarters on August 1, 2023. Sam Register, the president of both studios in Burbank, California, also leads Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe (formerly Cartoon Network Studios Europe) in London, England, alongside Vanessa Brookman.

In the 20th century, animation as a medium became popular on television. Hanna-Barbera became the premier studio for small-screen animated programs, launching a dominant series of Saturday-morning fare, including Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and more. By the 1980s, cable television was developed, with businessman Ted Turner one of its pioneers. Turner founded several cable channels and also acquired vast film libraries, and in 1991, his company signed a joint deal to buy Hanna-Barbera. The Cartoon Network was developed as a cable outlet to air these animated properties, which largely consisted of H-B reruns. As the channel grew in subscribers, executives at the Atlanta-based company sought out original programming to supplement its catalog. Other animation-heavy cable channels, including Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, respectively founded Games Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation as internal divisions to develop original programming. The network's first attempt at original content was Space Ghost Coast to Coast, with the division of Cartoon Network in charge switching to production of adult-focused programming as Williams Street.

Cartoon Network Studios originated in 1994 as a division of Hanna-Barbera that focused on producing original programming suitable for children for the network. Hanna-Barbera had been located on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles since 1963, and housed the studio, its archives, and its extensive animation art collection. Its first productions included What a Cartoon! (1995), an anthology series of short subjects serving as pilots for new CN programs. The first of these, Dexter's Laboratory, launched in 1996 and was an immediate success, with creator Genndy Tartakovsky becoming a longtime associate of the company. The same year, Turner Broadcasting System was merged with Time Warner, and Hanna-Barbera closed its Cahuenga campus, relocating to Sherman Oaks Galleria in nearby Sherman Oaks, where Warner Bros. Animation was located. Over the course of this transition, the Cartoon Network Studios branding was briefly phased out, with newer programs, including Johnny Bravo (1997) and The Powerpuff Girls (1998).

On July 21, 1999, Cartoon Network officially started the studio to separate itself from the complete folding of Hanna-Barbera into WBA. Following the death of the studio's co-founder William Hanna in 2001, Cartoon Network Studios took over the animation function of Hanna-Barbera. The network acquired a three-story 43,000-square-foot facility located at 300 N 3rd St. in Burbank, California to house its new offices, previously a commercial bakery, and prior to that, the location of a Pacific Bell telephone exchange. According to Cartoon Brew, the network spent around $1.2 million to renovate the building. The network took counsel from its top cartoonists, Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken, on the site of its new studio, as well as design proposals for its offices.

In March 2000, the network began to transfer its production offices, and on May 22, 2000, the studio was christened by veteran animator and animation advisor Joseph Barbera with a bottle of champagne. The building's official opening came on August 24, 2000; former DiC and Nickelodeon employees Brian A. Miller and Jennifer Pelphrey were hired to manage the studio. Mike Lazzo, then head of programming and development, designed a pirate flag, with a skull bearing the channel logo in its teeth, that flew over the building for several weeks before local police threatened action over its lack of permit; this logo was later to be used by the network for its nighttime programming block Adult Swim. Its artists quickly took to its stairwell with doodles and other graffiti that filled over its twenty-year history; it was also home to a mural by artist Ian Anderson titled Mazeway to Heaven. The first new productions at the new offices included Samurai Jack and Time Squad (both 2001). In 2001, Lazzo called the studio "the Termite Terrace of today."