Operation Impending Doom 2 Was Doomed From The Start.

The cancellation of Invader Zim is a subject I’ve always wanted to write about, and with the release of the new Netflix special, Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, now seems like the perfect time to do it. The way in which the show was done away with, as well as the merchandising boom that happened after it was pulled had only served to further the confusion surrounding its departure. Usually when a show is cancelled that’s it, it get’s pulled and it’s over. Invader Zim was different in that it slowly sputtered out, but more on that later. There have been numerous theories as to what the exact reasons were for Zim to be taken off the air, and some hold far more truth than others. Everything from bloody subliminal imagery (unlikely), to butting heads with the executives over creative vision (more likely), to the fact that it was just so darn expensive to make (most likely)… I would say that ultimately the blame lays squarely somewhere in a blurred mess of network incompetence, short-sightedness, and the fact that the show came out about 10 years too early.

The Beginning of the End is the Beginning

In order to really understand the circumstances of this show’s end, it helps to understand that there were some glaring issues going all the way back to pre-production. Y’see it all started when the bigwigs over at Nickelodeon decided that their network for young children (usually between 6-10 year olds) should create a block of edgier programming targeted at 11-15 year olds. Now this alone wasn’t a bad idea. I can say that as someone who was maybe 11-12 at the time I was moving away from Nickelodeon myself. The real issue here was the lack of planning and follow through. Firstly, they decided that the premier show slotted for this block should be the creation of Jhonen Vasquez, a 22 year old (at the time they approached him) with no TV experience and who’s career at that point consisted of violent, bloody comic books targeted exclusively towards older (mostly goth) teens and adults. Sounds like a perfect candidate for a kid’s cartoon in my book. I know it worked out for the better, but c’mon… From pre-production through the show’s finale there are numerous examples of the show’s creative staff attempting to push the limits of what the network would allow (and sometimes doing it anyway), and while there aren’t too many examples of direct conflict, it’s not hard to imagine this wearing down both sides. One particularly notable example of this was the “God Save The Dib” campaign, where the network execs wanted to replace the character due to his trenchcoat (they were worried people would draw connections to Columbine) and when this didn’t work they said the character simply wasn’t interesting enough, leading to a redesign campaign.

There were also many general issues with excessive violence and even character deaths being written out of the show, often sarcastically (I’m looking at you Hamstergeddon), and then there was the whole “Bloody GIR” image that was placed in several episodes, although this has achieved myth status since Nickelodeon apparently wasn’t even aware of it prior to the show’s cancellation. These things alone wouldn’t be enough to kill a moderately successful show, however, so let’s look at some of the other factors.

Timing Is Everything

As I mentioned before, they planned for a block of programming, what we got was Invader Zim and nothing else. As a result, we ended up with this odd little show that didn’t quite fit where they put it, between Fairly Oddparents and Rocket Power. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the show wouldn’t really fit in better anywhere else in their programming schedule at the time. The issue was made even more apparent after the show was put on hiatus during the first season. When they brought it back they moved it to a different time slot, and another, and another… It would continue to be shifted around and aired sporadically with almost no promotion. I personally remember having to constantly keep my eyes and ears peeled to see if there was a new Zim episode airing that week, and figuring out if I would be able to watch it if it was. I even remember a few occasions where I would come home from some weekend activity only to catch the last 2 minutes of an episode I didn’t even know was airing. In fact, being a kid at the time, I didn’t even hear that the show was cancelled so my dumb ass kept on the lookout for new episodes for YEARS after the fact. It’s no wonder that when Nickelodeon announced plans to cancel the series due to poor ratings the fans were outraged. Can you blame them? In the fans’ opinion the low ratings were the direct result of the inconsistent scheduling, which brings me to the next reason the show didn’t make it.

Low Ratings… Sort of.

According to Nickelodeon, the show was performing poorly in the ratings. The problem is, it really (probably) wasn’t. There isn’t much data on the overall ratings floating around online from what I could tell, all you can really find are examples of Nickelodeon claiming the show performed poorly with their core demographic of 6-11 year olds, which might be the only metrics Nickelodeon was keeping at the time. Since Invader Zim was intended to be part of a block aimed at older kids (even if the rest of that block never materialized) this seems a lot like punishing the show for doing exactly what they had intended for it to do. The show was quite popular among it’s intended age group, if not the network’s, as was evidenced by the fact that Nickelodeon had tried shopping it around to other stations like MTV. It’s funny though, there were less popular shows on Nick that didn’t get the boot, the main difference being that these shows were far less expensive to produce.

C.R.E.A.M.

Dolla Dolla bill y’all. At the end of the day, Nickelodeon is a company (well, a subsidiary of a company, but still) and they have bills, salaries, and expenses to pay. Not to mention investors and such to keep happy. For those of you that don’t know, animation is very expensive, and 3D animation back in 2001 was even more so. On average one minute of 3D animation back then was estimated to cost between $1000-2000, and even though Invader Zim may not have been fully 3D that might have actually made it worse, since the show made such great efforts to blend together the 2D and 3D animations so well. Uncompromising artistic vision with regards to the shows visuals lead to possibly one of the most uniquely good-looking cartoons of the time, but also one of the most expensive. While Invader Zim’s numbers certainly weren’t the worst on the network, it wasn’t pulling in anywhere near the crowds of say, Spongebob Squarepants or Fairly Oddparents (the series that debuted on the same night), both of which could be produced for far less money. What’s more, the station was also producing another 3D show at the time, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which was guaranteed to be a bigger ratings draw among their core demographic and was sure to fit in perfectly with their other programming. I’m sure that in terms of operating budget something had to give, and in the corporate world profits take precedence over artistic vision. That being said, Nickelodeon should have realized that ratings and ad revenue are only ONE source of income from a cartoon, I think they overlooked the one thing that would have kept Invader Zim earning strong profits despite the ratings… THE MERCH!

Enter The Hot Topic!

One thing that really struck me when Invader Zim was airing was that there really wasn’t much merchandise available for it. The occasional t-shirt or lunch box maybe, although I don’t remember there being any at all. Even searching online really quick I couldn’t find anything about Zim merch being made before the show was cancelled, it seems as though they didn't start putting things out until after the fact. Maybe if Nickelodeon knew how to freaking monetize the show properly it wouldn’t have been cancelled! Then along came Hot Topic, which absolutely flooded the market with Invader Zim merch in the almost two decades since it was cancelled. Sales of which were so good that Nickelodeon decided to put out the rest of the produced episodes of the second season in 2006, and have been trying to work out a revival since about 2010. Despite being much-maligned by many of the goth, punk, and metalhead kids I grew up with who were Invader Zim fans at the time, I really have to credit Hot Topic with one thing: ~~being the only place I could get skinny jeans back then~~ keeping Invader Zim in the public conscious. The series wouldn’t have been able to maintain and grow its cult following were it not for the fact that you can’t walk into a mall anywhere without seeing something Zim-related. I even have family members that were born after the show was cancelled that still watched the entire series without being pointed to it. (They would have been, eventually… by me.) There’s also the possibility that the only reason the merch sold well was because of the show being cancelled, rather than despite it. Scarcity is a funny thing (drought and famine excluded) in that it can drive demand to far higher levels than one would normally expect, so maybe the reason the merch started selling so well was because it was the only place for fans to get their Zim fix… until now!

Enter The Florpus

When an Invader Zim Netflix special was announced my jaw dropped. I know the series was already back in comic book form, but I had figured that if they were going to bring it back in animated form it would have happened years ago. Despite the happenings of the past few weeks, with Invader Zim AND Rocko’s Modern Life dropping specials on us, these revivals don’t happen every day… nevermind the fact that they both ended up being so well done. No spoilers, but the best part about this one is that it’s just more Zim, no tacked on nostalgia trips, no updating for the times, just the same Zim you grew up with… and it leaves the door open to possibly MORE Zim in the future, which is always good. I’m hoping we’ll end up getting to a group Enter the Florpus review at some point soon, if not I’ll write one myself. At any rate if you haven’t watched it yet I would highly recommend it!