Saturday Mornings are Dead.

[lonewolf23k]

Well, it finally happened. Saturday Morning Cartoons are a thing of the past. I flipped on my local Fox affiliate to see what was on when I woke up, and to my surprise, what did I see?

...Infomercials.

FRICKIN' INFOMERCIALS!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

First it was NBC, then CBS, and then ABC, and now, now finally Fox...

The only place to get Saturday Morning Cartoons anymore are the all-cartoon networks, apparantly. And God Only Knows how long that's going to last... :frown:

[XS23]

Cartoon Network and Toon Disney, dude. They're our only hope!

[lonewolf23k]

I live in Canada. I get YTV and Teletoon instead. ...They're my only hope.

...But still, I'll always pine for the CBS/NBC/ABC Triad of Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineups of my Youth, now gone forever... :frown:

[Super Samurai]

Well besides those other networks mentioned, you also still hace the CW, although I'm not sure how long that will last.

[shades of eternity]

did a little searching and found this

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/business/media/25kidstv.html?fta=y

words fail me.

most of what they were producing was crap, but was kinda enjoying biker mice from mars.

this reminds me of when nbc did something similar and it does not please me.

[Donald M.]

A huge part of what made Saturday Mornings special was that there was nowhere else to go for cartoons.

Sure, some of your local UHF channels ran cartoons during the day, but you were at school. At best on weekdays you could catch an hour or so of cartoons in the afternoon when you got home from school. When I was a kid that was mostly Looney Tunes, Hannah Barbera and other more obscure stuff like The Mighty Heroes, Tennessee Tuxedo and Cool McCool, all great stuff, but all old stuff that I didn't appreciate as a kid nearly as much as I would come to as an adult. All the really good syndicated weekday-afternoon stuff didn't show until I was almost too old to appreciate any of it.

Saturday Mornings were kid time though. 7am to Noon was out time, three channels of wall-to wall cartoons to choose from.

Now, depending on your cable provider you can choose from up to four channels that dedicate most or all of their daily airtime to animated programming. That's not even counting the two all-Anime channels floating around out there.

All the sort of stuff that would once have aired on Saturdays now airs on these channels.

While it's sad to see the traditional Saturday Morning cartoon block come to an end, it's hard to really mourn it when you can watch a cartoon at any time on any day on one of several cable channels.

[Legato]

Cartoon Network and Toon Disney, dude. They're our only hope!

Disney dont even call it Toon Disney anymore. Heck they are slowly getting to the point that they dont show cartoons themselves.

Right now only Nick and CN are the only ones we have

[The Black Guardian]

My local CBS and NBC affiliates show cartoons on Saturday mornings and early afternoons. And yeah, there's CW... or the ABC/Disney stuff like Hannah Montana (not a toon, but it's kid stuff).

[xgeek52]

*sighs*

those were indeed the days...you woke up and it was wall to wall cartoons until about noon...then (at least where i lived) it was westerns...

but economics got in the way...it's more expensive to produce a cartoon today, so we're reduced to disney and the cartoon network...

but what i would give for a bugs bunny, or a merrie melodie...i would even settle for a weekend dose of mighty mouse...

[Tien Long]

For me, what was great about Saturday mornings was that there weren't just action cartoon shows available for viewing. Rather, there were different types of entertainment which catered to many different interests. My Saturday mornings had kid news and entertainment shows like "Not Just News" or "Scratch" and science/cultural/educational shows like "Bill Nye the Science Guy," "Beekman's World," or "Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?" There were comedies like "Eek! The Cat," "Animaniacs," and "The New Adventures of Doug." Of course, all of that was scheduled during the beginning or tail end of Saturday morning, leaving the juicy middle for "Spider-Man," "Superman/Batman," and the "X-Men."

In the end, the programming on Saturday mornings was diverse and varied, which in the end made for diverse and varied kids. Indeed, in one morning, I could be a scientist, a comedian, an explorer, and a hero. That's something I'll miss about Saturday mornings, the chance to see the world through different eyes.

[Donald M.]

*sighs*

those were indeed the days...you woke up and it was wall to wall cartoons until about noon...then (at least where i lived) it was westerns...

Where I lived it was cheesy monster movies. Ah, Creature Double Feature, how I miss ya!

[Surtur]

Hmm..I seem to still see cartoons on the CW and UPN, as well as 7 and 5 sometimes. I grew up in the early-mid 90's and there always seemed to be cartoons on in the morning and after school. This was before the time of all those cartoon cable channels available with on demand. Shame there isn't as much anymore.

Still, Friday nights are looking pretty good on Cartoon Network..at least as good as we can hope for. But then there is the probably of you not usually being around on that night to actually watch what's on.

[arp2008]

Disney dont even call it Toon Disney anymore. Heck they are slowly getting to the point that they dont show cartoons themselves.

Right now only Nick and CN are the only ones we haveWow. These truly are looking like the end of days. I feel bad for youngsters who won't be able to enjoy Saturday mornings as I and many others did.

[The Black Guardian]

*sighs*

those were indeed the days...you woke up and it was wall to wall cartoons until about noon...then (at least where i lived) it was westerns...

but economics got in the way...it's more expensive to produce a cartoon today, so we're reduced to disney and the cartoon network...

but what i would give for a bugs bunny, or a merrie melodie...i would even settle for a weekend dose of mighty mouse...
Of course, parental advocacy groups helped by hobbling the animation industry's revenue stream. The expense of producing cartoons wouldn't be that big a deal (and in many ways, technology has reduced the cost), but parents complained about marketing toy lines and content that the kids liked.

And the home video market, cable, even the IntarWebs helped drive Saturday morning cartoons into the grave... or at least into a persistent vegetative state.

[TomServoFan]

I feel bad for youngsters too.

[Legato]

I feel bad for youngsters too.

Yeah. I remember back in the day when I used to look forward waking up on the weekends just so that I can tune into my favorite saturday morning cartoon show.

Although unlike today in the 80's-early 90's thare was a better selection of cartoons when compared to the late 90's and through most of 2000.

[Michael P]

Things suck now. Weren't things better then?

[AdamYJ]

They aren't what they once were. That's for sure. I remember when a Saturday morning cartoon block would host a number of different shows made by different producers. You could go from watching something from Disney, to a Hanna-Barbera show to something from DiC all on the same channel.

However, we must press on. There are some small sources of Saturday morning toonage left to us (CW4Kids, for example. That new show Huntik looks interesting, plus there's the live action Kamen Rider Dragon Knight). The essence of Saturday morning was that it was a time when kids could kick back and relax after a long week of school and celebrate the weekend. I think, if we keep that in mind, the Saturday morning spirit in all of us will live on. :biggrin:

[Crowforge]

Youtube.com

[J. Robb]

I feel bad for youngsters too.
I sure don't. If you asked me when I was little whether I'd prefer saturday morning cartoons or cartoons all the time, I know what I'd choose.

[the goddamn batman]

Did everyone miss Donald's post?

The simple fact is that Saturday morning cartoons aren't needed anymore. There's entire fucking channels dedicated to nothing but cartoons.

There's still Saturday Morning cartoons... they're on the cartoon channels... on Saturday Mornings... or, like, every other time of the day every day of the week.

[2-4-5_Trioxin]

Well in this day and age of violent games being the reason behind every bad action (atleast according to parents and politicians who just want to point their finger at something rather than face the reality that not every kid is perfect or turns out good or sane) kids make it wouldnt be long before cartoon violence would start to fade as a result of it. Classic classic cartoons like bugs bunny were often racist (according to most supposed PC people who like to tell us all what to think) and was violent so even those went away slowly.

So what ended up with was far worse like pokemon, sponge bob and so on. Sure it was less violent but it was just utterly mindless garbage that made me feel like my gray matter shrunk just watching it. Id rather have a kid watch gi joe, shirt tales, garfield, exo squad, centurions, m.a.s.k, captain n and so on than watch something that is just thoughtless filler and makes no sense at all. Sure gi joe wasnt exactly a work of genius but atleast you had basic good vs bad, you had a overall theme to the show, each show had some sort of story to it and dialouge.

Most kids today have no interest in stuff blowing up, classic sense of good guys and bad guy, machines that turn into robots, a family of hawk like people who have adventures in outerspace. Thats all been washed away by stuff like digimon and yugioh.

But like anything else the times change. Disco is gone, big hair bands are gone, mullets gone, nudeless television, good healthcare, prell shampoo in the glass bottle, free washrags or towels when you bought laundry detergent, glassware with gas purchases all gone for better or worse.

[2-4-5_Trioxin]

Did everyone miss Donald's post?

The simple fact is that Saturday morning cartoons aren't needed anymore. There's entire fucking channels dedicated to nothing but cartoons.

There's still Saturday Morning cartoons... they're on the cartoon channels... on Saturday Mornings... or, like, every other time of the day every day of the week.

Their are not alot of channels and very few of them show good stuff. What like cartoon network? I dont want to watch ben 10, like 7 different pokemon shows, or old cartoons that arent really old cartoons where its just updated versions of old stuff. They show like maybe 5 cartoons from when I was a kid but its stuff Ive seen a billion times. Its all this new stuff that is not what we are talking about here, were talking about saturday morning cartoon stuff, all that is just junk churned out by CN.

Even nickelodeon has a bunch of half assed cartoons, very few real saturday morning cartoons and like 7 hours of george lopez everyday.

So yeah we the post, but I didnt pay it any mind because its not what were talking about.

[the goddamn batman]

Their are not alot of channels and very few of them show good stuff. What like cartoon network? I dont want to watch ben 10, like 7 different pokemon shows, or old cartoons that arent really old cartoons where its just updated versions of old stuff. They show like maybe 5 cartoons from when I was a kid but its stuff Ive seen a billion times. Its all this new stuff that is not what we are talking about here, were talking about saturday morning cartoon stuff, all that is just junk churned out by CN.

Even nickelodeon has a bunch of half assed cartoons, very few real saturday morning cartoons and like 7 hours of george lopez everyday.

So yeah we the post, but I didnt pay it any mind because its not what were talking about.

It's exactly what you're talking about.

Dude, I don't know how old you are, but I'm willing to bet you're not the target demographic for cartoons anymore.

You should, in fact, think kids cartoons are garbage. If you were and adult when you were a kid, you'd probably think cartoons were garbage then, too. Looney Toons doesn't count.

Seriously, are you still getting up on Saturday morning and eating cereal in your footy PJ's while watching cartoons all morning? Maybe you should grow up and get over the loss of saturday morning cartoons. I personally haven't cared in about 18 years and can't imagine why an adult would care.

[shades of eternity]

yeah, unfortunately there is a grain of truth to what was said above

the 90's was the silver age of cartoons.

after that, with the exception of the dcau and avatar, not much will come close in western cartooning.

hell, I just found out wolverine and the x-men jumped from ytv to the cartoon channel (which I dont get...grumble)

[Vidocq]

I feel bad for youngsters too.

Ah Screw them, they don't even know what they are missing. To them the Idea of a non cgi Ninja Turtles movie would seem ridiculous and The Batman and Brave and the Bold IS Batman and anything else is old junk. Now they don't have great Cartoons, just crappy teenage musicals that will likely rot their minds into thinking that highschool is really like that and then WHAM! Puberty hits like a ton of bricks, just when they were expecting singing and dancing. Damn Disney Channel and it's Musicals. :evilangry:


Arhh see what they do, Now I feel like a Grumpy Old Man, AND I'M 19!

[AlistairCrane]

In the early 90s, I used to love...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

New Kids on the Block (no laughing!)

Wizard of Oz (based on the movie)

Denver the Last Dinosaur

Ghostbusters

The REAL Ghostbusters

this strange anime Wizard of Oz

...hmm, that's all that's coming to mind right now.

[FanboyStranger]

I watch kids (9, 8, and 7) on a weekly basis, and they, like me, want to watch College GameDay. Now by no means will I say those three boys are representative (and my family as a whole consists of hardcore college football junkies), but they'd rather watch football than GI Joe.

[The Black Guardian]

It's exactly what you're talking about.

Dude, I don't know how old you are, but I'm willing to bet you're not the target demographic for cartoons anymore.

You should, in fact, think kids cartoons are garbage. If you were and adult when you were a kid, you'd probably think cartoons were garbage then, too. Looney Toons doesn't count.

Seriously, are you still getting up on Saturday morning and eating cereal in your footy PJ's while watching cartoons all morning? Maybe you should grow up and get over the loss of saturday morning cartoons. I personally haven't cared in about 18 years and can't imagine why an adult would care.
Never did have footy PJs, but I would definitely get up, eat cereal, and watch them... but instead, I buy all of those classic cartoons on DVD so I can watch them whenever I want. More than half of my DVD collection is devoted to cartoons.

But I still buy and enjoy superhero comics, so...:tongue:

[Howard Allan]

*sighs*

those were indeed the days...you woke up and it was wall to wall cartoons until about noon...then (at least where i lived) it was westerns...

but economics got in the way...it's more expensive to produce a cartoon today, so we're reduced to disney and the cartoon network...

but what i would give for a bugs bunny, or a merrie melodie...i would even settle for a weekend dose of mighty mouse...

We get Teletoon Retro as a channel up here. We get Merrie Melodies, Porky Pig, The RoadRunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends, The Super Friends and many other old standards all day, every day.

[Howard Allan]

yeah, unfortunately there is a grain of truth to what was said above

the 90's was the silver age of cartoons.

after that, with the exception of the dcau and avatar, not much will come close in western cartooning.

hell, I just found out wolverine and the x-men jumped from ytv to the cartoon channel (which I dont get...grumble)

It'll probably stay on YTV too. You'll just be a season ahead of the Teletoon ones. YTV seems to be good that way.

[4thHorseman]

It's not only Saturday mornings that have been ruined, but the after school cartoons also. You had about two hours of cartoons every weekday between 3 and 5. It's depressing.

[Kaos]

Yeah, no wonder kids are being lazy not getting out of bed. There's no reason to get up.

[Donald M.]

To sum up, cartoons have been ruined because they aren't the same as they were when we were kids.


:rolleyes:

[AdamYJ]

I sure don't. If you asked me when I was little whether I'd prefer saturday morning cartoons or cartoons all the time, I know what I'd choose.

He's got a point.

Most of the kids who are around now never even had the Saturday morning cartoons like we did. I'm sure they're feeling fine about it. You can't miss what you never had.

For us, it's pretty much just nostalgia.

[Kaos]

To sum up, cartoons have been ruined because they aren't the same as they were when we were kids.


:rolleyes:

Nah there's a lot of good cartoons out there.

They just don't get played enough.

[ultramandingo]

.......wheres sid and marty krofft when you need em

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/264/krofftiu7.jpg (http://img266.imageshack.us/my.php?image=krofftiu7.jpg)

[Spidey-kid1]

Wow. These truly are looking like the end of days. I feel bad for youngsters who won't be able to enjoy Saturday mornings as I and many others did.
Me too.

This saddens me. I miss KidsWB the most. That, and Fox Kids. Not 4Kids though. I'm not sad about 4Kids at all.