by Tears (?) » Sun May 11, 2014 7:36 pm
Not to get too wonkish about this*, but I wonder how MLP's durability over some of the Hasbro's biggest moneyspinners is about the changing dynamics of kids' tv and franchising and stuff.
Maybe it's simpler than that though, it seems like disruptive titles sneak through when the status quo is uncertain, and that's not so much about the state of kid's tv as it is about how young the Hub network is. Like as much as piracy is threatening dvd sales etc, it seems like the market for selling lumps of plastic to young girls is pretty evergreen**, so it's not like Hasbro's core strategy has changed since the eighties. In fact, by having lumps of plastic as the lynchpin of its whole business, Hasbro's actually in a pretty secure position right now, compared to record labels and movie distributors etcetera.
But still, MLP seems to have benefited from the convergence of quite a few rare circumstances. Hasbro launched this new network, and they were desperate for material to put on it, which led to a few flagships like MLP and a bunch of other stuff that was slightly baffling for a young kids' channel - Dan Vs, Aquabats, old gameshows.
Then you had a franchise that had been dormant for years and had so little interest that it didn't matter what happened to it, which meant that a creator from more alternative cartoons was suddenly in the frame for the sort of show that would usually have a journeyman industry writer filling out 20 minutes of show to give a reason to market toys.
The only reason that even worked is that the show was old enough that someone like Lauren Faust could have grown up with it in the first place and have affectionate associations with it.
So you had a really good writer pouring a lot of heart and love into reviving an old show, and with enough of a free hand to allow her to realise her desire to make a positive feminist show to give young girls strong, resonant characters to identify with.
Then it came out at a time when the internet was widespread and fast enough that people could like something, share it, rework it with videos and home-brew animation and songs and art and share that too. The existence of youtube and connection speeds that allowed people to watch episode-length video online also gave the show a reach beyond the relatively modest footprint of the Hub Network itself.
And not to get too deep into the "new sincerity" thing or whatever, but MLP did seem to appear at a time when people were ready for a show like this, that was positive and sincere and outright gooey at times without undercutting itself, but also smart and witty and sort of aware of how it was allowing itself to be that gooey.
And not to cast judgement on whether this was a good thing or a bad thing (good in a couple of ways, bad in a lot more I guess?), the unlikely adult following did lead to it getting coverage way beyond its viewing figures would suggest, with front-page stories in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and endless coverage on Wired and other places.
Oh, and shout out to Hasbro's own incompetence too! Lots of smaller networks have a way better grip on where their shows appear - try searching for episodes of the Venture Bros on youtube, they disappear almost immediately - but thanks to how slow a big corporation like that is to respond to stuff and thanks to their lack of experience with the whole area of internet virality, the show was able to spread and grow pretty much in spite of them.
And I guess that all adds up to a show with no potential for huge blockbuster movie franchises like Transformers and GI Joe have ending up as the longest-running tv series in Hasbro's history.
A lot of coincidental stuff had to intersect to get us to where we are now, but we're still here with our stupid horse anime.
*so to get quite wonkish about this, I guess.
** They can sell MLP merch everywhere in the UK even though the show barely airs (I'm not even sure if it still airs over here)
