Saturday Morning Cartoons Are Dying Off

FoxNews.com ^ | Wednesday, April 03, 2002 | Michael Y. Park

[gubamyster]

NEW YORK

[Dimensio]

Dying off? I thought that they were dead already. I'd only recently noticed that the network programming for Saturday mornings weren't what they were when I was young -- but once I noticed it I realised that it had been that way for some time.

[bluesagewoman]

I was more of a Looney Tunes and Mighty Mouse buff, myself.

[foreverfree]

"For kids growing up in the '60s and '70s, the unifying thing was that we all watched the same shows, more or less," Burke said. "We didn't really have that many choices; we were locked into those three networks, they recycled the programming and a tremendous amount of it came from Hanna-Barbera."

And an only slightly less tremendous amount of it came from an outfit called Filmation ("Archie", "The Brady Kids", "The New Adventures of Gilligan", plus the live action "Shazam" and "Isis".

foreverfree

[general_re]

I hated the Smurfs, even before I knew they were French.

OTOH, I remember getting up on Saturday mornings quite well, getting a bowl of cereal, and tuning to channel 4 (KDFW in Dallas) to watch CBS run the Warner Bros. 'toons. I always knew the fun was over and the day had begun when "Soul Train" came on (or was it "Solid Gold"?) ;)

[general_re]

OMG, I remember "Shazam". Weren't they the ones who did that "Tarzan" cartoon also?

[The Green Goblin]

I always knew the fun was over and the day had begun when "Soul Train" came on (or was it "Solid Gold"?) ;)

It was Soul Train. Of course, as soon as we hit puberty Soul Train suddenly seemed a lot more interesting...

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

So many happy hours in front of the boob tube, watching "Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny Hour", "The Fantastic Four", "Space Ghost", "The Mighty Heroes" et al...anyone remember when comics would put in centerfold teasers from CBS touting their new Sat Am lineups? How that would tantalize me!

[HamiltonJay]

ABC is about the only network still broadcasting any Cartoons on saturdays in my area. The other networks are all news on saturday morning. The real killer is Cable.. with cartoons on every day all day just about on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon there is little reason to watch on Saturday morning. Especially just average run of the mill fair.

I still believe a Sat. morning cartoon show could be successful, but it would have to be good, and fresh, and not simply 20 cartoons shown over and over every week. Alas all new cartoons are being developed by or explicitely for cable (caroon network mostly) and other than Disney/ABC, it doesn't appear the other networks are even trying and ABC's attempts are fair at best.

[knarf]

MY Saturday morning fare was Roy Rogers, Rin Tin Tin, a couple of Looney Toons, Sky King, Lone Ranger and the Range Rider.

Then we went off to the movies for a 'Blob' or 'Tarantula'- type movie. (.35 admission)

Somewhere around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, we got our bikes parked and went down into the woods (summertime) and built the treehouse or smoked our first stolen cigarettes in it.

I never took to Scooby Doo.

[patent]

I'm pretty sure that Saturday Morning Cartoons dying off is a sure sign of the end times, its all in Revelations somewhere. Regardless:

In the face of that, the Smurf king of Saturday mornings, NBC, pulled out of the animation game entirely, filling its airwaves with live-action programming that was considered educational — most notably the teen show Saved By the Bell.

When you see someone describe "saved by the bell" as the most notable EDUCATIONAL programming I think we have problems.

patent

[Lib-Lickers 2]

Johnny Quest staring Tim Matheson,,,,,,

[HamiltonJay]

Hey, just for the recore NEW SCOOBY DOO cartoons are coming! Stay tooned.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

By the time Scooby came around, I was off the toons...now some new Roger Ramjet cartoons would really float my boat!

[Windsong]

For a trip down memory lane:

Yesterday Land

[Bommer]

Saturday morning cartoons were garbage. Most of the Hanna/Barbera cartoons were crap and unfortuniately still have a life on the cartoon network. But compared to what? Kids were less exposed to garbage on that 1 morning then all the adults were exposed to 7 days a week on primetime!

[general_re]

Ah, we're jogging memories now. I still remember the opening animation, along with the announcer - "It's the Sooooooouuuulllll Trrrraaaainnnnnn!" ;)

[Future Snake Eater]

Can't forget GI Joe and Transformers. BTW, there was a cartoon on Saturday mornings (I think on CBS) that had a live-action opening of some garage band piling into their pickup truck, then they get hijacked into some funky cartoon world with fairy/sprite thing who gets really strong when she sneezes, the truck became a weird vehicle on some train tracks in this world...does ANYONE have a clue as to which show that was?

[oyez]

How should I know. I never even open the comics any more. Since Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbs, and Far Side no longer grace those once fair pages. Even the old standards have new low talent creators. I used to go the funnies for a smile but now days I will be insulted long before I find something worthy of a smile.

Save pulp. Discontinue the comix.

[Sabertooth]

Check out this old thread...

Saturday Morning
Golden Age
The 11 Greatest Shows of All Time