In the late 2000s, Cartoon Network began airing three teen-oriented, Canadian animated series in the United States. These shows -- 6teen, Total Drama and Stoked -- were all created by the duo Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis. Produced by Fresh TV, the cartoons originally aired on Canada's Teletoon network before becoming mainstays of Cartoon Network's lineup for a time. Their effect on the network as a whole can be seen to this very day.
The first of show to come to Cartoon Network was the Total Drama series, which premiered with Total Drama Island in Canada in July 2007 before making the jump to the States in June 2008. Total Drama Island is essentially an animated version of Survivor, following a group of unsuspecting teens who enter a TV game show -- hosted by Chris McLean -- only to be subjected to dangerous and humiliating challenges. One contestant is eliminated each week, with the last camper standing being given a cash prize. As such, the show is fairly reliant on continuity, which helped it stand out from the other, more episodic animated sitcoms airing on Cartoon Network at the time.
Total Drama Island was succeeded by Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, Total Drama All-Stars and, finally, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island. The Cartoon Network airing actually overtook the Teletoon airing at one point, with Pahkitew Island concluding its stateside run in July 2014 -- four whole months before the series finale aired in Canada. The main series was quickly followed by a spinoff, Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, which ran for a single season. Once again, this show aired in the U.S. first, coming to Cartoon Network in 2015 before being broadcast on Teletoon in 2016.
Despite first coming to the States over a decade ago, Total Drama managed to maintain its presence on Cartoon Network. A second spinoff series, Total DramaRama, premiered on the network in September 2018 ahead of its Teletoon launch the following month. The show is currently in the midst of its second season and has been renewed for a third. Moreover, Cartoon Network and HBO Max recently announced they would be reviving the original Total Drama Island for two new seasons, though it's unclear when it will arrive.
This brings us to 6teen, which Cartoon Network began airing in October 2008 -- four months after the U.S. arrival of Total Drama Island. While promotional material billed it as a new series from Total Drama's creators, 6teen actually came first, originally premiering on Teletoon all the way back in 2004. In fact, before Cartoon Network ever got ahold of 6teen, Nickelodeon aired the show's first season in the U.S. from late-2005 to mid-2006.
6teen opens on a group of five teenage friends -- Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, Wyatt and Jude -- who head to their local mall with the intention of landing their first summer jobs. In the pilot episode, the group welcomes their sixth teen, Caitlin, who has to get her first job in order to pay her wealthy father back after maxing out his credit card and getting cut off.
6teen is definitely more episodic than Total Drama, though it does still have a sense of continuity, featuring character development and multi-season arcs. For instance, relationships begin and end, as well as certain main characters changing jobs over time. There's also a fairly hilarious running joke where Jonesy is unable to keep a single job for more than one day and finds himself working at a different store in each episode.
6teen originally ran on Teletoon for a total of four seasons, beginning in November 2004 and ending in February 2010. Seeing as how the show did not premiere a new season every year, the U.S. airing was able to catch up fairly quickly, with Cartoon Network airing the final episode of 6teen in June 2010. While there are currently no known plans for the show to get a full revival like Total Drama Island, the original voice cast did reunite for a PSA mini-episode in September 2018, which aimed to raise awareness for that year's U.S. midterm elections.
Finally, we come to Stoked, which is probably the most esoteric of the three shows, as it was on TV for the shortest amount of time, making it the most difficult to stream online these days. Not to mention the fact that it never actually finished its run in the States. Stoked premiered on both Teletoon in Canada and on Cartoon Network in the U.S. in the summer of 2009, with an Australian premiere coming in 2010 thanks to ABC3.
The show's premise is very similar to that of 6teen. Although it's set against the backdrop of a beach resort, rather than a shopping mall. In short, Stoked follows Reef, Fin, Emma and Broseph, four surfers (or, aspiring surfer, in Emma's case) who get summer jobs at a popular hotel to obtain access to its beach. They quickly make friends with Johnny, who runs the front desk. The freshman staff also get a new co-worker in Lauren (aka "Lo"), who -- not unlike 6teen's Caitlin -- is cut off and forced to get a job by her father, the owner of the hotel, after a party she throws causes massive damage.
Stoked's core crew seeks to spend every moment they're not working riding the waves, all while avoiding the notorious wrath of their manager, Andrew Baumer, whom they affectionately refer to as "Bummer." Like 6teen, the show is fairly episodic, though it has a number of through lines. Furthermore, while Stoked is a lot like its predecessors in both its aesthetic and style of humor, it does have a few things that make it stand out, such as its licensed soundtrack, which features songs by artists like Anarbor, Morgan Mayer and even All Time Low.
Stoked's first season ran for a total of 26 episodes, premiering on Teletoon in June 2009 and concluding in June 2010. Similarly, Season 1 premiered on Cartoon Network in July 2009 and ran until July 2010. However, Cartoon Network only aired the season's first 22 episodes, with the remaining four going unaired in the States. Season 2 never aired in the U.S. at all and was exclusive to Canada and Australia.
While Stoked may have fallen by the wayside as far as the U.S. is concerned, it was still a fine show in its own right. What's more, the impact it, 6teen and Total Drama collectively had on Cartoon Network and its viewers cannot be overstated (and their theme songs weren't too shabby either). The sheer excitement surrounding Total Drama Island's return and continued fan demand for 6teen revival are evidence enough of these shows' enduring appeal.