MovieChat Forums > Meitantei Conan (1996) Discussion > 'Fox Family' had first shot at this -- i...

'Fox Family' had first shot at this -- in 2000!

posted 20 years ago by sjcobert
4 replies | jump to latest

Believe it or not, Fox Family Channel (the cable network now known as ABC Family) had a chance to broadcast this show under its literal English title, "Detective Conan", back in 2000. It looked as if everything was set, and Fox Family even advertised that it would be part of their "Fox Kids" lineup.

Well, Fall 2000 arrived, and Detective Conan was nowhere to be seen. From what I've been able to dig up on the 'net, in February of 2001 it was announced that FF had never received the rights to air the show and the plans to air it had been scrapped. The official reason given was that there was an issue with the violence on the show.

One source - not an official or authoritative source, mind you - claims that Fox still owns the North American copyrights to the show title "Detective Conan" and the character names. That is supposedly why the show had to be renamed "Case Closed" and Shinichi Kudo is now Jimmy Kudo, Ran Mouri is now Rachel Moore, etc. The same source claims that Conan Edogawa is still Conan Edogawa because the "Conan the Barbarian" people own the rights to the name Conan and Fox couldn't lay claim to it. (Sounds kind of flaky to me...)

[–] Kartoon_Wurley 20 years ago

Ah, legal licensing ugliness. Dontcha just love it?

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nes_star 19 years ago

--One source - not an official or authoritative source, mind you - claims that Fox still owns the North American copyrights to the show title "Detective Conan" and the character names. That is supposedly why the show had to be renamed "Case Closed" and Shinichi Kudo is now Jimmy Kudo, Ran Mouri is now Rachel Moore, etc. The same source claims that Conan Edogawa is still Conan Edogawa because the "Conan the Barbarian" people own the rights to the name Conan and Fox couldn't lay claim to it. (Sounds kind of flaky to me...) --

I can tell you one thing: The part about Conan's name having copyright issues because of Conan the Barbarian is blatantly false. You can't copyright a name. You can copyright a CHARACTER, which isn't the same thing.

Conan Properties Inc. (the company that owns the rights to Conan the Barbarian) can prevent people from making a barbarian named Conan, but they can't prevent people from making fictional characters named Conan who aren't barbarians.

If that was the case, then DC Comics would have to pay royalties to the Chester Gould estate for having a character named Dick Grayson (Chester Gould was the inventor of detective Dick Tracy).

[–] brandon_harwell 19 years ago

Well, when was Fox known to do things right other than with 24? They cancelled Harsh Realm and Dark Angel claiming low ratings when they both had good ratings for the channel and time slot. Fox has always had a bit of a high opinion of itself, but its shows still average about 3.0 with only four or five shows shooting above that mark.

They always jump the gun and cancel shows without giving them a chance. It's no surprise they would pass up on Case Closed because of their own ignorance.