Supermax was a Czech cable television channel that featured mostly animated television programs for teens and preteens. It started broadcast on 22 November 1994 (together with HBO Czech and Max1 – now Spektrum TV) and without any commercials. Supermax was completely taken off the air on 15 September 2004 and replaced by the children channel
Minimax
Minimax (sometimes Minmax, MM or saddle point) is a decision rule used in artificial intelligence, decision theory, combinatorial game theory, statistics, and philosophy for ''minimizing'' the possible loss function, loss for a Worst-case scenari ...
that was launched earlier on 1 January that year and
Fox Kids
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized in all caps) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a j ...
that later rebranded to Jetix on 1 January 2005.
The channel was designed by Stephen Cohen, along with "Max1", as part of a package to attract sales to Czech and Slovak cable TV operators. It was based in Prague and initially was pre-recorded in 3-hour segments on long-play VHS tape cassettes which automatically switched and re-wound to create a 12-hour broadcast schedule. During its lifespan it aired numerous shows (over 200), mostly English shows
dubbed into Czech. One of the most memorable series was ''Cybernet'' (pronounced "Kybernet") that showed reviews and screenshots from upcoming games and still airs around in parts of the world time to time. "Bláznivé sporty", a show made completely of homemade videos which showed hilarious situations at sport events was also popular. Other featured shows were Friends,
Fresh Prince of Bel Air,
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...
,
G.eek,
Animaniacs
''Animaniacs'' is an American Animated series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, musical television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company ...
,
Fly Tales
''Fly Tales'' is an animated comedy television series that was made in 1999. It featured the short adventures of a young, curious, friendly fly. The fly would get into sticky situations in settings such as a kitchen, a museum, a gumball machine, ...
,
Pinky and the Brain
''Pinky and the Brain'' is an American animated sitcom created by Tom Ruegger for the Kids' WB programming block of The WB, as a collaboration of Steven Spielberg with his production company Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Ani ...
,
Thundercats
''ThunderCats'' is a media franchise, featuring a fictional group of cat-like humanoid aliens. The characters were created by Tobin Wolf and featured in an animated television series named ''ThunderCats'', running from 1985 to 1989, whic ...
,
Silverhawks,
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a children's horror anthology television series created by D. J. MacHale and Ned Kandel. The original series aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from August 15, 1992 to February 3, 1996, and also o ...
,
Count Duckula
''Count Duckula'' is a British children's television series, children's animated comedy horror television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall Films, Cosgrove Hall Productions and produced by Thames Television as a spin-off of ''Dang ...
,
The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
''The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'' is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation which aired from September 9, 1995 to February 5, 2000 on Kids' WB. The final episode, containing the segments "The Ta ...
,
Tom and Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...
,
Ric Der Rabe,
Jumanji
''Jumanji'' is a 1995 American fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston from a screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor, and Jim Strain, based on the 1981 children's picture book by Chris Van Allsburg. The film is the first ins ...
, The Mask Animated Series,
Student Bodies
''Student Bodies'' is a 1981 American parody slasher comedy film written and directed by Mickey Rose. A spoof of slasher horror films such as ''Halloween'', '' Friday the 13th'' and '' Prom Night'', ''Student Bodies'' was the first film to s ...
, Conan Adventurer,
Tigersharks
''TigerSharks'' is an American animated series, animated children's television series developed by Rankin/Bass and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1987. The series involved a team of heroes that could transform into amalgams of human and ...
,
Galaxy Rangers
''The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers'' is an American animated space Western television series created by Robert Mandell and produced by Transcom Media, Inc. and Gaylord Entertainment Company. It was broadcast in syndication between 1986 and ...
,
Transformers G1, Heartbreak High, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ocean Girl,
Doug
Doug is a male personal name (or, depending on which definition of "personal name" one uses, part of a personal name). It is sometimes a given name (or "first name"), but more often it is a hypocorism (affectionate variation of a personal name) whi ...
,
CatDog
''CatDog'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon. The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furred conjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and t ...
, So Weird, Spiderman, Biker Mice from Mars, WildC.A.T.S. and many more.
The channel showed
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
movies on Easter Day, yet this practice was stopped some years ago. Also on Easter day the channel showed a dubbed version of
Rock and Rule .
At the end of its run, it showed the sitcom ''
Kenan & Kel
''Kenan & Kel'' is an American sitcom created by Kim Bass that originally aired on Nickelodeon from August 17, 1996, to May 3, 2000. Set in Chicago, the series follows mischievous Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and his happy-go-lucky best frien ...
''.
The channel ceased broadcasting on 15 September 2004 at 9:30pm due to lack of agreement on both parties involving its broadcast and because of lower ratings.
The channel's cancellation and replacement by Minimax and Fox Kids spurred a great upheaval by many loyal fans. Most of them argued that Supermax featured better and more mature shows.
References
{{Reflist
External links
A 1997 video promoting the channel, showcasing most of the channel's programming at that timeSupermax logo, animation
Defunct television channels
Television stations in the Czech Republic
Television channels in Slovakia