HBO never was just for fans of "Dream On" and "The Hitchhiker"

One of the many silly things about this ongoing HBO/MAX/Discovery/Warner saga is the idea that HBO Max would dump a bunch of animated and family titles, proclaim that the service was getting out of that realm (after burying a lot of that content on its platform), then rebrand mere months later and announce it was investing heavily in animated and family titles.

The reason given was that parents were uncomfortable with the "HBO" name in association with any kind of family programming but NOW it's all better with the new "MAX" name...even though many parents probably still associate that with Cinemax, the pay cable alternative for folks who thought HBO wasn't adult enough. But what's this about HBO being a turnoff for parents? This new concept ignores decades of the premium channel cranking out acclaimed and popular shows like...

And what about movies like...

And what about the seasonal specials like...

And that's just the Eighties!

It's amusing that so much of the messaging from the revamped company seems to want to "blame" the HBO identity, when the vast majority of complaints I hear since the merger are HBO fans dreading the "garbage" Discovery programming colliding with the Warners and HBO catalogue.

Well, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that Discovery executives who are running the joint don't want to mention how many people are repulsed by that "brand." I don't buy the idea that HBO is some kind of bogeyman for parents preventing them from hunting for kid shows on streaming, though, and I think that's a weak explanation.