History of animation

1919-1929?
In 1919, Pat Sullivan made Master Tom (later renamed Felix the Cat), which was the first cartoon series, running for over 10 years through the 1930s. Felix was the very first widely-marketed character, making him a very known cartoon. Felix the Cat lost popularity with the arrival of sound film in the 1920s.

1929?-1961 (Golden age)
In 1928, the The Walt Disney Studio, under the names of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, released the first cartoon with sound, Steamboat Willie, also introducing Mickey Mouse to the world. Mickey soon became the most famous character in the world until the arrival of Mario in the 1980s. In 1926, the Warner Bros. animation studio opened, and the first Looney Tunes cartoon was released from them in 1930. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons, Looney Tunes focused more on the dialogue and story.

The theatrical cartoon became unpopular by the 1950s and the rise of television. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera opened a television animation studio in 1957 and their first show, The Ruff and Reddy Show, was unsuccessful, but their second show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, was successful, having a spin-off, Yogi Bear, in 1961. Yogi Bear was more popular than Huckleberry Hound, and the silver age of animation began.

1987-2008 (Renaissance)
In the 1980s, the television animation giants that dominated the Silver Age (Hanna-Barbera, Filmation) were struggling. Filmation released their last production, Happily Ever After in 1993, and Hanna-Barbera still produced television shows until 1997, when they were fully rebranded as Cartoon Network.

The Disney Channel released Disney's first fully animated show based on Mickey Mouse, DuckTales, in 1987. This was soon followed by CBS releasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the same year, and Garfield and Friends in 1988. The longest-running animated sitcom, The Simpsons, began on December 14, 1989 on Fox, and it started a large trend that continued through the 2010s.

Nickelodeon, the first children's television network, released three "Nicktoons" on August 11, 1991, Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show in that order.

Cartoon Network was launched by TBS in 1992 to show the Turner-owned library of Looney Tunes cartoons, along with Hanna-Barbera shows.