Graphic designer Pierre Bernard has a regular segment on LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN where he rants about things that annoy him. Last Friday, LATE NIGHT ran a segment about Bernard’s visit to Vancouver and his appearance on the LARRY AND WILLY radio show. When the interviewer asks him if there’s anything that’s bothering him at the moment, Bernard responds:

Actually yes. One of my big things is the Cartoon Network. I love watching that at night. For some bizarre reason, at 12:30 on the Cartoon Network they’re airing SAVED BY THE BELL.The reason why I watch the Adult Swim is because a lot of their programming is Japanese anime. I mean, I had a problem a while back when they took COWBOY BEBOP off the air. I complained about that. And all of a sudden now they’re putting this real TV show, a TV show which I spent years avoiding. I’m hoping this is not going to be a future trend.

While it’s easy to laugh at Bernard’s comments, he makes an extremely valid point: Cartoon Network is on the fast-track to alienating its core viewership, namely dedicated animation fans like Bernard who tune in for anime, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network originals like POWERPUFF GIRLS and SAMURAI JACK. The YouTube video of the LATE NIGHT segment is below. Bernard’s Cartoon Network complaint begins at about 2 minutes, 15 seconds into the clip. (Video removed from YouTube by NBC).

Earlier coverage of Cartoon Network’s decision to begin producing and airing live-action series: 1, 2, 3, 4