The "Powerpuff Girls" series debuted on November 18, 1998, and was the highest-rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history at the time. During its run, the series consistently scored the highest rating for an original series each week for the network across a wide range of demographics—from young children to adults. In October 2000, Cartoon Network credited the series for its Friday night prime time ratings win among cable networks. By the end of 2000, merchandising based on the series encompassed a whole variety of products, including T-shirts, toys, video games, lunchboxes, and dishware. Concerning the show's success, Craig McCracken has stated, "I thought it would get on Cartoon Network and college kids would watch it and there would be a few random T-shirts out there in the rave scene or in record shops. But I had no idea that it would take off to this extent." Following the series' fourth season, the closing of Hanna-Barbera Productions and the death of its executive William Hanna in 2001, McCracken left it to focus on his new animated series, "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", leaving Chris Savino to take his place while production of "The Powerpuff Girls" was moved to Cartoon Network Studios. The show's last original run episode was on March 25, 2005; in all, six seasons were made. Cartoon Network had offered to give McCracken and Savino a seventh season of the series, but they believed six was enough, and that the series had run its course. Much of the people who worked on the new seasons also worked on seasons 3 and 4 of "Dexter's Laboratory", but included other new crew members, such as Thurop Van Orman, who then created "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" in 2008.