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Script vs Board driven shows

For the next writing of cartoons journal, I’ll talk about the difference between script and board driven shows.

I think Ren and Stimpy was the one the made board-driven cartoons popular (even though they still mainly draw rather than write most of the time). Rocko’s Modern Life and SpongeBob were the next cartoons to have this format. Script driven cartoons on the other hand is everywhere.

So I decide to make a list of cartoons from Nick/Disney/Cartoon Network that has either of these formats…

Script Driven Cartoons

Nickelodeon

Doug

All Klasky Csupo shows (x7)

KaBlam!

Hey Arnold!

The Angry Beavers

Oh Yeah! Cartoons

CatDog

SpongeBob (since season 9.2)

All Butch Hartman shows (x4)

Invader ZIM

ChalkZone

All CGI animated shows ()

Koh Avatar shows (x2)

Cat scratch

The X’s

El Tigre

The Mighty B!

Breadwinners

The Loud House

Disney (not counting Marvel)

All cartoons until Phineas and Ferb had been script format, which is hard to believe that it never happened before that show. But these are just the cartoons from Disney made after P&F that are script driven:

KB: SD

Motorcity

Gravity Falls

Randy Cunningham

Wander Over Yonder

Penn Zero

Pickle and Peanut (first 10 episodes)

Cartoon Network

Dexter’s Lab (first 2 seasons)

Cow and Chicken/I.M. Weasel

Johnny Bravo

The Powperpuff Girls (original, first few seasons)

Mikey, Lu, and Og

Ed, Edd, n Eddy

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Sheep in the City

Early Billy and Mandy

Codename Kids Next Door

Foster’s

Hi Hi Puffy

JL

All Ben 10 series

My Gym Partner’s a Monkey

Squirrel Boy

Generator Rex

Gumball

Clarence

Board Driven Cartoons (with a total of number of such shows we had comparison in the end)

Nickelodeon

Ren and Stimpy

Rocko’s Modern Life

SpongeBob (seasons 1-9A)

My Life As a Teenage Robot

Sanjay and Craig

Harvey Beaks

Disney

Phineas and Ferb

Fish Hooks

Star Vs the Forces of Evil

Pickle and Peanut (rest of the show)

Cartoon Network

Dexter’s Lab (last 2 seasons)

The Powerpuff Girls (last few seasons)

Billy and Mandy

Camp Lazlo

Chowder

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

Adventure Time

Regular Show

Uncle Grandpa

Steven Universe

We Bare Bears

The Powerpuff Girls (reboot)

See the difference? Nick and Disney seems to lean more on the script driven shows while Cartoon Network is starting to prefer more on board driven shows.

Script driven are done a script and the credited writer writes the script. I’m not sure what happens where there’s more one writer, but I’m sure he/she sometimes tweak the script. Board driven shows are different. From what I heard, they don’t start from script. Most of the writers are also storyboard artists, so in these shows, they write and draw at the same time.

So what do you prefer? script driven or board driven format? Comment to answer. I prefer both of them. It gives both actual writers and artists to give thoughts through writing.