‘Regular Show’ Warned Us of the Dangers of Streaming Eight Years Before David Zaslav Dumped the Show from Max

Under Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s continued campaign of content erasure, animation fans mourn the destruction of Planet Nielsen.

In case Zaslav’s reputation among the cartoon community wasn’t low enough already, the controversial executive’s regime made a surprising and surreptitious move this week that sparked outrage across numerous online fandoms. Following the latest updates to the Max streaming library, seven Cartoon Network shows have disappeared from the premium streaming service, with Ben 10, Steven Universe, the 2016 Powerpuff Girls revival, Amazing World of Gumball, We Bare Bears, Chowder and Regular Show all pulled from service without so much as a “leaving soon” notice.

Now that the entire entertainment industry is firmly sliding on a downward slope following the peak of streaming, it seems that no TV series — no matter how beloved or endlessly quoted — is safe from the content cuts that have become company-wide policy under Zaslav’s leadership. However, fans of J.G. Quintel’s beloved, offbeat animated sitcom Regular Show have to admit that they should have seen this coming and copped some DVDs:

Sadly, the striking of Regular Show and other beloved cartoon comedies from the streaming library is just the latest move in Zaslav’s relentless antagonizing of animation fans. When Zaslav canceled the already completed and already acclaimed film Coyote vs. Acme, classic Warner Bros. cartoon fans (and numerous filmmakers) campaigned to convince Warner Bros. Discovery to allow the director of the film Dave Green to court other distributors. But despite Netflix, Amazon and Paramount all submitting bids for the movie, Zaslav declined to sell it, electing to take the tax cut instead.

Then, this past August, Zaslav made the move to close down the classic cartoon streaming service Boomerang. Ironically, in the announcement that Boomerang would shut down its servers for good, Warner Bros. attempted to spin the move as a customer-friendly consolidation, writing, “Starting September 30th, you can watch fan-favorite Boomerang shows alongside Max’s full catalog of iconic series, hit movies, fresh originals, breaking news and family favorites including The Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans Go!, Lego Batman and more!” As noted above, The Amazing World of Gumball was one of the shows that Max quietly pulled from its service this week.

When Warner Bros. Discovery nuked the entire Cartoon Network website in the same month that they announced the end of Boomerang, the writing was on the wall that, despite what Zaslav’s PR department may claim, the Max catalog wouldn’t be cartoon-friendly for much longer. Now, with the pickings growing slimmer and subscription prices higher than ever, it’s time for fans of any animated show to invest in some high definition, Zaslav-free physical media, just as the Nielsonians would have wanted.