Cartoon Network's first original show was The Moxy Show (produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons) and was first aired in 1993. The first series produced by Cartoon Network was Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1994), but the show mostly consisted of "recycled animation cels" from the archives of Hanna-Barbera, being an ironic deconstruction of a talk show. It featured live-action guests, mostly consisting of celebrities which were past their prime or counterculture figures. A running gag was that the production cost was dubbed "minimal". The series found its audience among young adults who appreciated its "hip" perspective.
Kevin Sandler considered that Space Ghost Coast to Coast was instrumental in establishing Cartoon Network's appeal to older audiences. Space Ghost, a 1960s superhero by Hanna-Barbera, was recast as the star of a talk show parody. This was arguably the first time the Network revived a "classic animated icon" in an entirely new context for comedic purposes. Grown-ups who had ceased enjoying the original takes on the characters could find amusement in the "new ironic and self-referential context" for them. Promotional shorts such as the "Scooby-Doo Project", a parody of the The Blair Witch Project, gave similar treatments to the Scooby gang. However, there were less successful efforts at such revivals. A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild (1999) featured new takes on Yogi Bear's supporting cast by John Kricfalusi. Their "tasteless" humor, sexual content and lack of respect for the source material was rather out of place among the rest of the Cartoon Network shows. These shorts do not seem to have much of a fan-following and the network rarely found a place for them in its programming.
In 1994, Hanna-Barbera's new division Cartoon Network Studios was founded and started production on What-a-Cartoon (promotionally known as World Premiere Toons). This show debuted in 1995, offering original animated shorts commissioned from Hanna-Barbera and various independent animators. The Network promoted the series as an attempt to return to the "classic days" of studio animation, offering full animator control, high budgets, and no limited animation. The project was spearheaded by several Cartoon Network executives, plus John Kricfalusi and Fred Seibert. Kricfalusi was the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show and served as an advisor to the Network, while Seibert was formerly one of the driving forces behind Nicktoons and would go on to produce the similar animation anthology series Oh, Yeah! Cartoons and Random Cartoons.
Cartoon Network was able to assess the potential of certain shorts to serve as pilots for spin-off series and signed contracts with their creators to create ongoing series. Dexter’s Laboratory was the most popular short series according to a vote held in 1995 and eventually became the first spin-off of What a Cartoon! in 1996. Three more series based on shorts debuted in 1997: Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and I Am Weasel (the latter two as segments of the same show; later, I Am Weasel was separated and got its own show). These were followed by The Powerpuff Girls in 1998 and concluded with Courage the Cowardly Dog and Mike, Lu & Og in 1999. The unrelated series Ed, Edd n Eddy was also launched in 1999.
These original series were intended to appeal to a wider audience than the average Saturday morning cartoon. Linda Simensky, vice-president of original animation, reminded adults and teenage girls that cartoons could appeal to them as well. Kevin Sandler's article of them claimed that these cartoons were both less "bawdy" than their counterparts at Comedy Central and less "socially responsible" than their counterparts at Nickelodeon. Sandler pointed to the whimsical rebelliousness, high exaggeration, and self-consciousness of the overall output, while each individual series managed to be "visually bold and energetic" in its own way.
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