Why CBS Canceled Its Garbage Pail Kids Cartoon Before A Single Episode Aired

It's difficult to explain the Garbage Pail Kids to those who weren't there. 

Functionally, the Garbage Pail Kids — created by Art Spiegelman, Mark Newgarden, and John Pound in 1985 — served as a parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids, the biggest toy product of the mid-1980s. The Cabbage Patch Kids were merely huggable, soft-bodied baby dolls with Kewpie faces, but they took the world by storm, selling out during Christmastime and becoming hugely coveted the world over. To lampoon the phenomenon, Spiegelman, Newgarden, and Pound invented a line of trading cards wherein cute-faced, Cabbage Patch-like children could be seen in a horrid state of mutilation. The Garbage Pail Kids — each with their own punny name — were depicted being exploded, mutated, murdered, or covered in vomit, snot, and pus. They were pointedly revolting, and served as an act of naughty punk rock defiance against an obnoxiously pillowy pop phenom. 

The Garbage Pail Kids became a phenomenon unto themselves, however. The trading cards sold incredibly well, and strong-stomached children of the 1980s bought and swapped them with the utmost enthusiasm. New sets of 100 cards came along every few months for two full years, climaxing with the release of "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie" in 1987. That film was made on a shoestring budget and envisioned the Garbage Pail Kids in live-action, using strange animatronic masks. It's often considered one of the worst movies of all time, which is perhaps fitting for the Garbage Pail Kids. 

In 1987, CBS also tried to produce an animated "Garbage Pail Kids" TV series, which, as one might guess, fizzled out pretty much right away. The boycott of the show and its swift cancellation were discussed in a 2016 oral history in Mental Floss.

The Garbage Pail Kids were hardly the only "gross" form of entertainment at the time. Madballs sold well at Toys "Я" Us, kids could make gross bugs and snakes out of plastic, and pus was a mainstay of children's entertainment. Making a TV series out of the Garbage Pail Kids was actually a wise idea. Kids loved the GPKs, after all, because it pissed off their parents. Teachers regularly banned GPKs in classrooms, citing the overuse of violence and snot. Finally, many kids thought, here is something for kids and kids alone. If it angers adults, then it's good. 

The premise of the "Garbage Pail Kids" TV series was a little strange. It followed five ordinary kids who could, when needed, transform into gross, vomiting Garbage Pail Kids characters. Cartoon veterans Tara Strong and Cree Summer starred as various characters, including Patty Putty and Clogged Duane. Noam Zylberman played Split Kit, Michael Fantini played Elliott Mess, and Alyson Court played Terri Cloth. The series was co-written and directed by Bob Hathcock and written by Flint Dille. 

Hathcock spoke of the series in Mental Floss, and he recalled that parents were protesting the series before it even aired. He and his crew had put together a full season of 13 episodes, but there were complaints about how gross it was, Hathcock said, and that made advertisers nervous. As he said: 

"There was a boycott in the Bible Belt against the cards, network, and advertisers and this caused CBS to chicken out and pull the show before it aired and before anyone saw a frame of film. We made 13 episodes."

Not a single one aired in the United States.

Hathcock mentioned that he visited with the Topps Company, which printed the Garbage Pail Kids, and Topps assured him that they had talked to child psychologists about the cards, and how they were actually a healthy means for kids to explore their fears; here's a horror story of what happens when you sneeze too much. That sort of thing. 

Judy Price, the vice president of children's programming at CBS at the time, recalled the controversy well, saying that the protests were directly responsible for making advertisers nervous. There was no way, it seemed, that "GPK" was going to air in the U.S. In her words: 

"[The cancelation] basically born out of the fact that advertisers got nervous, affiliates got nervous, and that's what happens when you have interest groups. If we had gone on air with it, it's likely affiliates might not have carried it, and some advertisers might have pulled out."

Hathcock noted that he and his crew spent $1.5 million to make the show, and it was canceled before he was done making the first 13 episodes. The producers kindly allowed him to finish, thinking it would be useful to have a whole show for any potential future use. "Garbage Pail Kids" still never aired in the U.S., only showing in the UK in 1988. Hathcock added: 

"We could not use the really gross stuff. The show got pulled anyway. The protest was about the cards, and they never saw a frame of film. If they had seen the show without prior knowledge of the cards, there would have never been a problem." 

It's a pity, as the show sounds far more tame than the cards. The show finally came out on DVD ... in 2006. A new movie is said to be in development.