Saturday Morning Cartoons Are Dying Off

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

[Sabertooth]

Hanna Barbera was always crap.

How about their superhero stuff from '66 thru '69?

Space Ghost? The Herculoids? Mighty Mightor?

Frankenstein Junior, Gulliver, Shazzan, The Arabian Knights, etc?

[Some hope remaining.]

So I unpacked my adjectives...

[Future Snake Eater]

I was a youngin' not too long ago, that's for sure. I can relate to the reruns of "Superfriends" and "Scooby Doo" and "Smurfs" like this article says, but "GI Joe" and "Transformers" for my TV fix and "Star Wars" for my movie fix is about all I ever really needed (the "Star Wars" thing hasn't changed though :-) ).

Yeah, I watched anime before I even knew what on Earth it was. Like "Sabre Rider and the Star Sheriffs" and "Voltron." Then I found "Akira" in the early to mid-90s and the rest is history. I moved on to "Dragonball Z" and my current fave "Cowboy Bebop" (an EXCELLENT show by any standards).

[Charles Martel]

Give me The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, or at least a good violent wabbit hunt.

Amen. :-)

Lyrics to "What's Opera, Doc?"
Featuring Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc), and Elmer Fudd (Arthur Q Bryant)

Elmer: Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.
(spoken) WABBIT TWACKS!! WABBIT HOLE!!
(thrusting spear) KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT!

Bugs: (spoken): Kill the wabbit?

Elmer: YO HO HO! YO HO HO! YO HO...

Bugs: Oh mighty warrior of great fighting stock
Might I inquire to ask eh... what's up doc?

Elmer: I'm going to kill the wabbit!

Bugs: O mighty warrior, 'twill be quite a task
How will you do it, might I inquire to ask?

E: I will do it with my spear and magic hewmet.

B: Spear and magic hewmet?

E: Spear and magic hewmet.

B: Magic hewmet?

E: Magic hewmet!

B (spoken, disparagingly): Magic hewmet.

E: Yes, magic hewmet, and I give you a sample!
(exit Bugs at warp speed)

E (spoken): That was the wabbit!

(Then a chase, followed by:)

E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, you're so wovely.

B: Yes, I know it, I can't help it.

E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, be my wove...
(A dance, then... )

E: Weturn, my wove... a fire burning inside me...

B: Return my luv, I want you always bee-side me.

E: Wove wike ours must be...

B: Made fer you and fer me...

E & B : Return, won't you return my love... for my love is yours.

(While singing, they embrace. Bug's helmet falls to the ground... revealing his ears)

Elmer (spoken, outraged): I'll KILL the wabbit!!

E (spoken): North winds bwow, south winds bwow. Typhoons, Hurricanes... Earthquakes!! SMOG!!!!!!

E (spoken): Thunder, wigtning, stwike the wabbit!!

(Lightning flashes, striking in the distance -- now moving in, we see the limp and lifeless form of Bugs -- a drop of water clings to a crushed flower)

E: What have I done?.... I've killed the wabbit... Poor wittle bunny... (sob)

(Bugs is carried off in Elmer's arms... )

B (spoken): Well, what did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?

------------------- The End... That's all Folks -------------

[general_re]

"Tarzan" was cool because he branched out a bit, and dealt with more than just your standard poachers-in-the-jungle type things - battling evil space aliens and such, IIRC ;)

"Conjunction junction, what's your function?"

[hawkeye101]

"At that time there wasn't MTV original programming or cable programs catering to teens and 'tweens, so (NBC) developed programs targeted toward teens with pro-social messages," NBC spokeswoman Lisa Burks said.

I think they forgot the "-ist" at the end of social.

[Hoosier Patriot]

Give me The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,

Yes indeed! Some great minds behind that show, and some laughs thrown in for the parents as well.

Bullwinkle:
Spider, spider, on the wall
Have you no brains at all?
Can't you see that wall's been plastered?
Get off that wall, you silly ......

Rocky:
Bullwinkle!

[HeadOn]

Hey - believe it or not, those are, or were, touring in LIVE ACTION versions. My son's class went to see Schoolhouse Rock Live last year. Go figure.

[Some hope remaining.]

I can remember getting up early on Saturdays to watch Super Friends. I didn't realize until much later that Super Friends (like many of the more modern cartoons) are almost entirely environmentalist propaganda.

I can't remember now all the toons I used to watch most but I do remember H R Puff-n-Stuff, Hong Kong Phooey, Super Friends, Land of the Lost, a little Fat Albert, and many more I'm sure.

My primary incentive in getting up as early as I did, however, was to get in as many cartoons as possible before Dad or Mom came in the living room and said, "Ok, that's enough cartoons. Time to clean your room/go play outside/whatever other activity adults viewed as more useful than watching cartoons."

[steve50]

Yep, some pretty damn good writing to be aimed at 10 year olds. I wonder if that series is available on VHS or DVD? I'll bet it could have a good run in syndication again.

[Salgak]

You want good comics on pulp ??? Try Liberty Meadows. Of course, you'll have to buy it at your local comic store, as Frank Cho got tired of dealing with the newspaper syndicates. . .

[general_re]

Oh, man - so this is going to be a '70's cheese-fest thread then?

I remember Sid and Marty Krofft. One of the funniest things I have ever seen was an episode of "Mr. Show" on HBO a few years ago - they did a wickedly nasty parody of H.R. Pufnstuf ;)

[AppyPappy]

That's because there was only 25 story-lines that they recycled for each series.

[mamelukesabre]

Land of the Lost
Rocky and Bullwinkle
the three stooges
yogi bear and booboo
the cisco kid
hop a long cassidy
chip and dale
zoro
Abbot and costello

[WhiskeyPapa]

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can,
Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!

In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime,
Like a streak of lght, he arrives just in time!

Listen, bud, he's got radio-active blood!
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead!

In the end, he's ignored, action is his reward!
To him life is a great big hang up, wherever there's a bang-up, you'll find the Spiderman!

[codebreaker]

Schoolhouse Rock, 'How a Bill Becomes a Law'-Superfriends, Jutice League ...truly the Golden Age of Saturday Morning!

[Dales]

I remember when it hit me that cartoons were dead as far as the networks are concerned. I was babysitting my brother's kids, and we turned on the Saturday morning cartoons. They had the latest incarnation of the Bugs Bunny show on ABC, and they had managed to edit out all of the violence from the Roadrunner.

No cloud of smoke when the Coyote hit the ground after falling off the cliff- you would only see him a step away from the edge and it would cut back to the next scene.

You would see "instant hole" land right in front of him, but not him step into it.

It was pitiful.

Made me pine for the days of the old Pink Panther shorts, where the bad guy would fall off a ladder while carrying a gun, and not only would he splat while landing, they would have him land on a conveyor belt, the gun would bonk him on the head, and then the gun would land on the conveyor belt and start bouncing, shooting him in the arse each time it hit the belt.

Those were the days.

[Joe Driscoll]

Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.