Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoon

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Many Western cartoon series have had original runs lasting 65 episodes, because 65 episodes equals 13 weeks (or three months) of material to syndicate at one episode per weekday. This is because of an FCC rule that requires syndicated shows to run for at least 13 weeks, but also because these cartoon series are often not renewed for a second season. (Those which are renewed may have 65 additional episodes, or fewer if they are mixed in with repeats from earlier seasons.)

This was typical with cartoons produced for first-run Syndication, and adopted as policy by the Disney Channel (which has a similar 65-episode cutoff for its live-action Kid Coms) and Kids WB, although some syndicated shows did air weekly originally. It is now increasingly difficult for shows to achieve this goal, since most have gone with a smaller episode number due to the economy.

It should also be noted that this trope really only applies to cartoons aimed towards children, rather than Adult cartoons.

See also Twelve-Episode Anime and British Brevity, both of which should remind fans of any of the shows listed here of how lucky actually they are. For some shows that went well past 65, see Milestone Celebration.

Examples of Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoons include:

Retired at 65

Renewed after the original 65 episodes

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Sixty-Five-Episode_Cartoon?oldid=2001531"