What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons?

Lyrical · 04-08-2008, 05:23 PM

I sat down a few weeks ago to look for Saturday morning cartoons, and none of the networks were showing them. Here in Atlanta, WB shows its Saturday morning cartoons on Sunday morning. Other than that, nothing on the networks. As a kid, my fave pasttime on Saturday mornings was to watch cartoons. I would get up at 5am and watch them until noon. What are the kids supposed to do now? Homework or something? Its an outrage.

Agree or disagree?

What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons? - Associated Content

What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons?

By Lee Andrew Henderson, published Mar 30, 2008

When I was just a boy I hated school. Teachers, school work, kids other than me. All of these things were annoying. I always had one thing to look forward too though. Saturday Morning cartoons. Unfortunately the days of Saturday Morning cartoons are now dead. Every once in a while I'll hear people wonder, "Whatever happened to Saturday morning cartoons?" Well I am here to answer that question. These are the eight reasons that Saturday morning cartoons are a thing of the past.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Kids Grow Up Faster

In the year 2007 kids grow up faster than they did in 1987. Not grow up faster physically, most kids I know are twerps. But the kids now face things in the real world at a much younger age. They grow up so fast that it is no longer cool to watch cartoons once you're 10 years old.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Cartoons are For Adults

If you think about a lot of the cartoons beings made, most of them are being made for adults. Shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama are not for young kids.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Home Video Popularity

If you think back to when you were a kid, assuming you weren't a kid like five years ago then home videos were probably not as huge as they are today. Sure you probably had a video or two that you liked but now kids are practically raised on videos rather than Saturday morning cartoons.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon

Thanks to Disney, Nickelodeon and especially Cartoon Network, there are cartoons on every hour of the day, every day of the week. Saturday morning is no longer the only time of the week that cartoons are available.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the Internet

The internet offers some great things and so bad things. One of the good things about the internet is if you want cartoons you can find them somewhere at any time. Try going to YouTube and search for your favorite cartoon. Chances are you'll find a couple of episodes or at the very least a few clips.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission requires that every broadcast station in the United State show at least three hours of educational and informative television every week. Networks aren't going to show these programs during the day while kids aren't at home and they aren't going to air them at night instead of their prime time shows. So they put them on Saturday mornings instead of cartoons.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Japanese Anime

Networks are getting lazy. Once they saw that Japanese Anime was popular they decided to just steal a bunch of Japanese Animes instead of making their own cartoons. Unfortunately most animes aren't kids shows so they don'ot come on Saturday mornings.

Saturday Moring Cartoons are Dead Because of Video Games

When I was 7 years old Saturday morning consisted of Transformers and G. I. Joe on the television. By the time I was 10 years old Saturday morning was spent with the Super Nintendo and Genesis. The video game industry increases more and more every year and kids are replacing Scooby Doo and Fred Flinstone with Mario and Zelda.

Astrocreep · 04-08-2008, 06:29 PM

saturday mornings were the bomb for cartoons, thundarr the barbarian, superfriends. wonderama, Plastic Man, Tom n Jerry, Saturday Morning movies like Miss Switch is a Witch and then Smurfs!! saturday afternoons were better tho, they had all the kickass kung fu movies. the show was called saturday drive in or whatever and it had this little theme music. ahh good old days. i agree video games killed the cartoons, whenh i got nintendo i completely abandoned superfriends for Mario.

Malakriss · 04-08-2008, 07:04 PM

I attribute the death of saturday morning cartoon to the same phenomenon that is killing most of the entertainment industry. Lack of originality and artistry that entertainers are supposed to hone through dedication to creating their work.

They got greedy, they got lazy, and they want quantity instead of quality.

Cybsled · 04-08-2008, 07:17 PM

Saturday Morning Cartoons also had far more broadcast restrictions. That's why stuff like Gargoyles got neutered when it ended up a Sat morning cartoon eventually. ReBoot used to make fun of it during the ABC Sat morning broadcast years. For instance, Dot wasn't able to kiss Enzo on the check because they thought it might be construed as incest. No, I am not joking.

Blide · 04-08-2008, 07:45 PM

It is amazing how much the animation quality in American animation has dropped over the years. The early 90s had better quality animation than what we have now, they just continue simplifying characters till you get shit like the Powerpuff Girls that looks like a 12 year old drew it. The only improvement I can think of in American cartoons are the colors are richer. Just look at that new Transformers series, it looks like an abortion compared to G1 which has not even aged that well. Anime is essentially doing the complete opposite of the NA animation, their animation look insanely good now, especially big budget shows like Macross Zero. The only real exception is shows put out by Marvel and DC like Avengers and Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans falls right on the edge. The only original show on Cartoon Network that looks decent animation wise which isn't anime is Ben 10, I'll admit I'd probably like the show if I was younger.

I'd place most of the blame on Cartoon Network and Disney. Cartoon Network for mainstreaming shit like Powerpuff Girls and Disney for relying on Pixar to make all their movies at the cost of their traditional animation. Nickelodeon looks to at least be trying to improve the situation with shows like Avatar.

homsar · 04-08-2008, 07:47 PM

Man I wish I could still watch Xmen, spiderman, and all those shows still. Justice league and superman series are pretty good though.

Wash · 04-08-2008, 09:25 PM

Saturday morning cartoons are dead? =/ That's really depressing.

Tom and Jerry, how I miss you and your incredibly violent ways.

Armadon · 04-08-2008, 09:28 PM

Maybe kids are lazy and don't wake up to watch Saturday morning cartoons anymore.

k^M · 04-08-2008, 11:44 PM

king arthur and the knights of justice, whoever canned that show over a decade ago should be shot

Korioni · 04-09-2008, 12:01 AM

I was way to old to do so, but I still watched the first couple seasons of xmen: evolution and Digimon. Good fucking stuff.

Nebuchadnezzar · 04-09-2008, 01:58 AM

I always thought coming home from school and watching that 2 hour block of cartoons on fox with spiderman/xmen/batman was more awesome than saturday cartoons.

kcxiv · 04-09-2008, 04:20 AM

My nephew is 10 and he loves him some Cartoon network. Kid has boxing 5 times a week becuase he likes it. He plays football and he watches good ole toons. So i am gonig to say i dont agree with at 10 its not longer cool to watch it. Thats horseshit.

Opulis · 04-09-2008, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astrocreep

thundarr the barbarian

Ariel...Ooklah...RIDE!

Thundarr was beyond radical.

Dice Rex · 04-09-2008, 04:25 AM

Yeah, the 2 1/2 hour after school block of HeMan, SheRa, GIJOE, Transformers, Mr Gadget was great until mom got home, then run outside and play for a couple hours till dinner, then eat, homework, and bedtime.

If I was growing up today, I can imagine it would be 2 1/2 hours of porn until mom got home, then WoW until dinner, eat, act like Im doing homework, but really play WoW. Watch some more porn, then sleep when I pass out.

Video Games/Porn killed cartoons. Why would I want to sit and watch Tom and Jerry when I could be playing TF2 or chatting it up in the Barrens?

blizzak · 04-09-2008, 04:34 AM

Censors deciding the old WB cartoons like Bugs Bunny were too violent and removing so much violence that the stories made no sense didn't help either. My kids couldn't follow wtf was going on in WB cartoons til I loaded some up online so they could see them in their entirety. Hillbilly hare FTW

04-08-2008, 05:23 PM	#1 (permalink)
Lyrical Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2,683	What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons? I sat down a few weeks ago to look for Saturday morning cartoons, and none of the networks were showing them. Here in Atlanta, WB shows its Saturday morning cartoons on Sunday morning. Other than that, nothing on the networks. As a kid, my fave pasttime on Saturday mornings was to watch cartoons. I would get up at 5am and watch them until noon. What are the kids supposed to do now? Homework or something? Its an outrage. Agree or disagree? What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons? - Associated Content What Killed Saturday Morning Cartoons? By Lee Andrew Henderson, published Mar 30, 2008 When I was just a boy I hated school. Teachers, school work, kids other than me. All of these things were annoying. I always had one thing to look forward too though. Saturday Morning cartoons. Unfortunately the days of Saturday Morning cartoons are now dead. Every once in a while I'll hear people wonder, "Whatever happened to Saturday morning cartoons?" Well I am here to answer that question. These are the eight reasons that Saturday morning cartoons are a thing of the past. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Kids Grow Up Faster In the year 2007 kids grow up faster than they did in 1987. Not grow up faster physically, most kids I know are twerps. But the kids now face things in the real world at a much younger age. They grow up so fast that it is no longer cool to watch cartoons once you're 10 years old. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Cartoons are For Adults If you think about a lot of the cartoons beings made, most of them are being made for adults. Shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama are not for young kids. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Home Video Popularity If you think back to when you were a kid, assuming you weren't a kid like five years ago then home videos were probably not as huge as they are today. Sure you probably had a video or two that you liked but now kids are practically raised on videos rather than Saturday morning cartoons. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon Thanks to Disney, Nickelodeon and especially Cartoon Network, there are cartoons on every hour of the day, every day of the week. Saturday morning is no longer the only time of the week that cartoons are available. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the Internet The internet offers some great things and so bad things. One of the good things about the internet is if you want cartoons you can find them somewhere at any time. Try going to YouTube and search for your favorite cartoon. Chances are you'll find a couple of episodes or at the very least a few clips. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission requires that every broadcast station in the United State show at least three hours of educational and informative television every week. Networks aren't going to show these programs during the day while kids aren't at home and they aren't going to air them at night instead of their prime time shows. So they put them on Saturday mornings instead of cartoons. Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Japanese Anime Networks are getting lazy. Once they saw that Japanese Anime was popular they decided to just steal a bunch of Japanese Animes instead of making their own cartoons. Unfortunately most animes aren't kids shows so they don'ot come on Saturday mornings. Saturday Moring Cartoons are Dead Because of Video Games When I was 7 years old Saturday morning consisted of Transformers and G. I. Joe on the television. By the time I was 10 years old Saturday morning was spent with the Super Nintendo and Genesis. The video game industry increases more and more every year and kids are replacing Scooby Doo and Fred Flinstone with Mario and Zelda.

04-08-2008, 07:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
Cybsled Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,216 +14 Internets	Saturday Morning Cartoons also had far more broadcast restrictions. That's why stuff like Gargoyles got neutered when it ended up a Sat morning cartoon eventually. ReBoot used to make fun of it during the ABC Sat morning broadcast years. For instance, Dot wasn't able to kiss Enzo on the check because they thought it might be construed as incest. No, I am not joking. __________________ Training the citizens of Norrath from 1999-2003!

04-08-2008, 07:45 PM	#5 (permalink)
Blide Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 617 +3 Internets	It is amazing how much the animation quality in American animation has dropped over the years. The early 90s had better quality animation than what we have now, they just continue simplifying characters till you get shit like the Powerpuff Girls that looks like a 12 year old drew it. The only improvement I can think of in American cartoons are the colors are richer. Just look at that new Transformers series, it looks like an abortion compared to G1 which has not even aged that well. Anime is essentially doing the complete opposite of the NA animation, their animation look insanely good now, especially big budget shows like Macross Zero. The only real exception is shows put out by Marvel and DC like Avengers and Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans falls right on the edge. The only original show on Cartoon Network that looks decent animation wise which isn't anime is Ben 10, I'll admit I'd probably like the show if I was younger. I'd place most of the blame on Cartoon Network and Disney. Cartoon Network for mainstreaming shit like Powerpuff Girls and Disney for relying on Pixar to make all their movies at the cost of their traditional animation. Nickelodeon looks to at least be trying to improve the situation with shows like Avatar. Attached Images Last edited by Blide : 04-08-2008 at 08:17 PM.

04-08-2008, 07:47 PM	#6 (permalink)
homsar Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Redding, Ca Posts: 1,475 +14 Internets	Man I wish I could still watch Xmen, spiderman, and all those shows still. Justice league and superman series are pretty good though. __________________ Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes. Duke: Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay.

04-09-2008, 01:58 AM	#11 (permalink)
Nebuchadnezzar Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 1,651 -2 Internets	I always thought coming home from school and watching that 2 hour block of cartoons on fox with spiderman/xmen/batman was more awesome than saturday cartoons. __________________ I eat grass like an ox and shat like a fox.

04-08-2008, 06:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
Astrocreep The Undead Shaman Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: NYC Posts: 3,118	saturday mornings were the bomb for cartoons, thundarr the barbarian, superfriends. wonderama, Plastic Man, Tom n Jerry, Saturday Morning movies like Miss Switch is a Witch and then Smurfs!! saturday afternoons were better tho, they had all the kickass kung fu movies. the show was called saturday drive in or whatever and it had this little theme music. ahh good old days. i agree video games killed the cartoons, whenh i got nintendo i completely abandoned superfriends for Mario.

04-08-2008, 07:04 PM	#3 (permalink)
Malakriss Your lack of intelligence is an insult to humanity. Get a fucking clue Join Date: May 2002 Location: Obviousville Posts: 2,650	I attribute the death of saturday morning cartoon to the same phenomenon that is killing most of the entertainment industry. Lack of originality and artistry that entertainers are supposed to hone through dedication to creating their work. They got greedy, they got lazy, and they want quantity instead of quality.

04-08-2008, 09:25 PM	#7 (permalink)
Wash A bar in Peru Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 187 -15 Internets	Saturday morning cartoons are dead? =/ That's really depressing. Tom and Jerry, how I miss you and your incredibly violent ways.

04-08-2008, 09:28 PM	#8 (permalink)
Armadon Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 96 +0 Internets	Maybe kids are lazy and don't wake up to watch Saturday morning cartoons anymore.

04-08-2008, 11:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
k^M AoE Hazzard Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 307 +4 Internets	king arthur and the knights of justice, whoever canned that show over a decade ago should be shot

04-09-2008, 12:01 AM	#10 (permalink)
Korioni "Critic" is such a dirty word Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 686 -55 Internets	I was way to old to do so, but I still watched the first couple seasons of xmen: evolution and Digimon. Good fucking stuff.

04-09-2008, 04:20 AM	#12 (permalink)
kcxiv Manny, Manny, Manny Join Date: May 2002 Location: Central Valley, Cali Posts: 3,191	My nephew is 10 and he loves him some Cartoon network. Kid has boxing 5 times a week becuase he likes it. He plays football and he watches good ole toons. So i am gonig to say i dont agree with at 10 its not longer cool to watch it. Thats horseshit. __________________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72HNX6bJ2ag www.halcyonaffinity.org

04-09-2008, 04:25 AM	#14 (permalink)
Dice Rex Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 225 +1 Internets	Yeah, the 2 1/2 hour after school block of HeMan, SheRa, GIJOE, Transformers, Mr Gadget was great until mom got home, then run outside and play for a couple hours till dinner, then eat, homework, and bedtime. If I was growing up today, I can imagine it would be 2 1/2 hours of porn until mom got home, then WoW until dinner, eat, act like Im doing homework, but really play WoW. Watch some more porn, then sleep when I pass out. Video Games/Porn killed cartoons. Why would I want to sit and watch Tom and Jerry when I could be playing TF2 or chatting it up in the Barrens?

04-09-2008, 04:34 AM	#15 (permalink)
blizzak Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 98 +3 Internets	Censors deciding the old WB cartoons like Bugs Bunny were too violent and removing so much violence that the stories made no sense didn't help either. My kids couldn't follow wtf was going on in WB cartoons til I loaded some up online so they could see them in their entirety. Hillbilly hare FTW

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