In 1996, Time Warner purchased Turner Broadcasting, and with it the Cartoon Network. The Cartoon Network gained access to the complete Warner Bros. cartoon library, which had not been under one owner since 1957. The Cartoon Network also joined an alliance with The WB which gave them rights to WB cartoons from the 1950s to the 1980s, and newer cartoons like Road Rovers, Swat Kats, 2 Stupid Dogs, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Pinky and the Brain, and Tom & Jerry Kids.

Time Warner changed the direction of Hanna-Barbera Productions (the production studio now known as Cartoon Network Studios), and focused the studio exclusively on creating new material for the Cartoon Network channel (which were baptized Cartoon Cartoons). These productions include: Dexter's Laboratory (1996), Johnny Bravo (1997), Cow and Chicken (1997), and The Powerpuff Girls (1998) (all of which were shorts, previously launched on What a Cartoon with the creative work of Hanna-Barbera Art Director Jesse Stagg), and more recently Codename: Kids Next Door (2003), Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004), and Camp Lazlo (2005). To free up air time for new shows, the listed classics were retired.