MovieChat Forums > Invader ZIM (2001) Discussion > What's the REAL reason this show got can...

What's the REAL reason this show got canceled?


I have heard so many stories over the years. Jhonen ended it himself because he was sick of working with Viacom. Nick loved it, but canceled it because of low ratings. Jhonen and Nick both hated it. Parental complaints got it booted off the air (this one I seriously doubt). I'm sure Jhonen himself stated the reason in some interview or another, but it's been years since I read them and many of them are now offline.

Even so, I still love this show. I watch the entire series every now and then and feel some vague sense of melancholy after watching the final (Christmas) episode. I always think it's better to have a little of something that kicks ass instead of having a lot of something that ends up sucking, but I still wonder how it would have been if they had been allowed to finish the series (and yes, I do know about the series finale they had planned), and what it would have been like if another channel entirely had commissioned it. Oh well.

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The shows cancellation could have been because of two factors, one the episode in which Zim in order to appear human began taking the organs of his fellow classmates. Or it could have been becuase he called the Nickelodeon director of programming a "c*unt."

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Could also have been that Nazi flag they dropped in the final/Xmas ep

Arwen
www.jimcaviezel.us
www.speakerdemon.com

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Look up The Nickolodeon Debacle on [edit:]youtube. Someone on the Rocko board posted it, and it's basically the story of a real life guy who snuck into Nickolodeon and managed pitching for a new series... but also found out the real reason why Invader Zim was cancelled.

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On what website can an account of the Nickelodeon Debacle be found?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x39CrACq3Qo

This is part 2b (4), But it's the part about Invader Zim. About 2 minutes in.

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Thank you for providing the link.

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the episode in which Zim in order to appear human began taking the organs of his fellow classmates.

that was a cool but sick episode what was the name of it? i forget. :(

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Well, this might be too late, but it's Dark Harvest.

Don't get eliminated!

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"one the episode in which Zim in order to appear human began taking the organs of his fellow classmates."

That was one of the first episodes they aired in 2001. They made new episodes until 2003. Plus they were quiete a few more disturbing episodes later on.

Passengers will refrain from killing my soul! ~Bus Driver Stu Benedict

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I'm thinking it had more to do with someone at nickelodeon finding out about Johnen's other works (JTHM) after the fact . The show had good ratings, and there has been more graphic (Ren and Stimpy), and more suggestive (Rocco's Modern Life) shows on nickelodeon. The last time I saw Zim aired it was on a nightly run on Nicktoons at like 3:00 AM. So my theory is that they didn't want children to google @JohnenV and finding his other stuff, and then having angry parents mad at them for having such a disturbed person do a show for them. But thats just my personal theory

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alienkid, my question did someone at Nick not do a background check or look at Jonan's prior work. If they had they might not have hired them for a kids network. That being said I don't see how Invader Zim is any darker than say Rocko's Modern Life. Infact I would say that RML was worse because it was in a non-fantasy context where as Invader Zim's dark humor is easier to get away with because it's science fiction.

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I'm just glad it was easy to take off the region lock from my DVD player as it's only available on Region 1 (or was back in the day when I bought these)

"TUNA??!!!"
"Gir I feel I now know enough about human affection - I HATE IT!"
"Oh no, it's too late they've turned into a book! I TOLD THEM THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!"

feckin' genius!

Sadly, last I heard Jhonen said he was done with TV.

Oh, and Squee is an awesome companion to JTHM - I love Happy Noodle Boy


Andy
justbychanceband.com

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if you have the full set dvd of IZ from Anime Works theres interviews and commentary with the cast and johnen talking about the cancellation of the show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
just u me + the doughnuts <3 SPENCER- SON

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The reason for cancellation was none of the above. It was DEFINITELY NOT Dark Harvest, as that episode aired as an early episode of season 1, and the show did very well by Nick's standards the whole way through, so it wasn't ratings. The whole thing about Nick not knowing his prior background in comics is false, as this was something of his basis for being hired in the first place (he already had a cult following by that time). The stuff about parents complaining turned out to be unfound and just an internet rumor. Nick and Jhonen had some creative differences pretty much from the very beginning, but it really peaked when a script featured GIR covered in 'blood' as a plot point (it was going to turn out to be pizza sauce, of course). Nick did not allow him to do the joke, so he inserted slides of the infamous 'GIR covered in blood/pizza sauce' as a joke, secretly, starting around mid season 2. When Nick found out what he did, they fired him immediately, mid-production of several episodes (which is very rare for a show to stop production that abruptly. Most of the time if a show is canceled they finish the episode(s) that are in mid and post production).

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[deleted]

I like this story the best: http://www.questionsleep.com/mindspill/?p=1229

¸«¤º°»«ëÕ|{¥(V)°º¤»¸
I can't understand your crazy moon language.

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In the end the specifics are vague, but it's safe to assume that Nick thought that the show was too adult for their target demographic, which is of course going to lead to censorship by the network and consequently to creative differences. Then, when these issues are piled on top of rising production costs as the show gets a bigger budget, as well as slight decreases in ratings between seasons (as inevitably happens with most shows as they continue on), Nick probably started thinking that it wasn't worth it to keep the show on.

However, an important thing to remember is that Nickelodeon is essentially corporate greed incarnate. Everything about them screams capitalism and exploitation. Many shows have been canceled before their time on Nick, but Nick never gives accurate reasons as to why, and that's because they like to milk a show for all its worth even after its cancellation. Take the Angry Beavers cancellation for example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNWRQL6Wej4 explains it well, especially if you click the link in the description); as it turns out, when Nick cancels a show they make huge bank by keeping its status vague and then cleaning up on showing reruns and selling merchandise/DVDs/Digital releases, the profit from which people like Vasquez never see any money from. And the messed up part is that after a long break of not showing episodes, people are content just watching these reruns because they get excited about the possibility that Nick might be bringing the show back. Case in point: look at all the posts in this forum of people spreading rumors that Zim is coming back because Nick suddenly started showing reruns again, out of nowhere. Nick is making big money on this mentality, and they foster it.

Bottom line: With the problems Nick was having with both Vasquez and the nature of the show, Zim was worth more canceled than continued, due to the possibilities of DVD re-re-re-releases, merchandising, and reruns. It's just like with artists--once they hit their prime and get famous, they're worth more dead than alive. The "poor ratings going into the 2nd season" excuse is obviously bogus, because Nick canceled the show after the 1st episode of the 2nd season.

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I've heard many reasons and the one I'm more likely to believe is this:

Nick's sponsors didn't like the show, so Nick asked for some changes (including more school time, less Dib...for some reason, and so on) and Jhonen, not wanting to sacrifice his vision, decided to just stop doing the show and left. Nick was trying more to appease their sponsors, but to not get rid of Invader Zim entirely.

So from this story it's partially Jhonen's fault and part the sponsors fault, but quite frankly...I don't blame Jhonen at all. I have a very obscure webcomic and I've been asked by some readers to change certain things and I won't do it. It's not something like censoring or whatever, it's story changes. Unless I like the idea, I'm not going to use it. So I understand exactly where he's coming from.

_______
Life is a journey,
Time is a river,
The door is a jar.
--Harry Dresden

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i would just say, that was it was talked about the cancellation, was in part creative differences (nick censoring like parts of all the 2 season) and that some kid somewhere (witch this hit the news and make the parents go beserk just because they di not liked the show) that a kid somewhere in a school took a knife or something and took the guts out of another kid (or his little brother i dont know) he did not kill him or her but still it went pretty close apparently. and the kid blame the show for "giving him the idea" from the dark harvest episode where zim takes out human parts for himself.
personally i think the last (the almost murder kid) was kinda stupid since a few years later the simpsons did a halloween episode where the father of the nerd scientific guy from sprinfield its bring back to life (he was dead by a crazy shark attack and the nerd guy preserved him frozen) he decides to go shopping new organs (specially first the ones that the shark bite off and the nerd guy replaced with a machinery on his abdomen) that was way creappier than the dark harvest episode and the simpsons got like 10 more seasons and no sensorship (aldo it is almost never re-run on any network, there has been years i did not watch it again it is very rare to watch it) so i think that kid blaming the show was the final coffin nail on the show. probably thats why they censorship the blood out of GIR. they where afraid of anyone claiming anything like that again. to be quite honest nickelodeon its a "soft" channel for very young kids and this was not the place for it.
even so, if it where made by a regular network for adults, it would be way gruesome and it would have sucked. it works as a cartoonish dark humor. but as a serious show with a backround dark humor... it is too much. imagine dark harvest with on-screen the bodies of the kids getting open, the gore of the glood bursting out and the bones get open to take out organs. not to mention in this scenario the kids would die, since i recall zim took out organs and replace them with random objects that do similar stuff that the organ that he took (like a toy to replace a dumb girl`s brain i think) so i think we must appreciate what we got rather than what we would get.
and i saw in many sites leaked partially finished 2 season episodes and even the scripts for the ones never made (that fans have done with raw animation and fans voices) and to be quite honest, it suck. maybe was the censorship but zim was like a backround secondary character that was more idiot than beofre, and dib was like a super heroe that stopped any zim plan before zim could even try to develop the plan in his mind. all the other aliens characters where almost no existant, and GIR appeared in like 1 episode and in the rest, if it wasnt infront of the TV it was not there at all.
there is even 1 partially finished episode (fully finished by fans) where Dib forgets about zim and goes to work with his father and they are 2 awesome scientifics.
zim pretty much lost his willing to conquer earth and was about to take off to oblivion. to the last minute dib just out that he does not want to follow his father steps, and zim comes out of nowhere faking he was one step away from taking over earth with a lunatic plan. dib`s beat the sh*t out of zim and the earth its once again saved???

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nah, if jhonen quit nick wouldve hired someone else to finish season 2.

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