The Era of Saturday Morning Cartoons Is Dead

A little late by houstonbofh · 2014-10-04 15:14 · Score: 4, Funny

After 2 days of discussion I am kinda done with this topic. So much for leading the pack.

not quite by jaymz666 · 2014-10-04 15:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

billions still watch TV. Not quite dead yet

Re:not quite by reanjr · 2014-10-04 15:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

But those people are typically too poor to have high speed internet. They don't spend money. That's why everything is reality TV now. Anything else is too expensive to produce because the ad dollars just aren't there.
Re:not quite by jaymz666 · 2014-10-04 15:43 · Score: 4, Informative

Except for Game of Throne, and The Walking Dead, and True Blood, and The Good Wife, and Big Bang Theory and a whole host of other shows that somehow still get made and watched.
Re:not quite by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 15:48 · Score: 1

But those people are typically too poor to have high speed internet. They don't spend money. That's why everything is reality TV now. Anything else is too expensive to produce because the ad dollars just aren't there.
Better to be a cable subscriber. You pay for thousands of channels you'll never even want to watch, and you pay to be advertised to. I say this is a big step forward compared to broadcast tv. /end sarcasm
Re:not quite by Macrat · 2014-10-04 15:50 · Score: 2

Except for Game of Throne, and The Walking Dead, and True Blood, and The Good Wife, and Big Bang Theory and a whole host of other shows that somehow still get made and watched.
That's not "TV," it's cable.
Re:not quite by jaymz666 · 2014-10-04 15:56 · Score: 3, Informative

You might want to check your sources there. At least two of those shows are on regular TV stations.
Re:not quite by torsmo · 2014-10-04 17:25 · Score: 1

Smart people do not own TVs
Well, it seems there aren't very many smart people in the world.
Re:not quite by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 19:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. As someone with 12 years in the industry (why I am posting anonymously) it isn't that people aren't watching TV. People watch loads of TV, and if you want to watch cartoons on saturday morning you can. You can watch one type on Nick, another type on Disney, another type on Cartoon Network and... the issue is that the households with kids who decide not to get cable aren't large enough now to justify the expense vs profit.
There are two things going on here:
1. Profit-seeking.
This is cost/revenue stuff. If you can get $5 million for 10 million viewers with production costs of $4 million, you've just made $1 million. If you can get the same viewership while spending $1.5 million on cheaper programming, you've just made $3.5 million. And remember, these types of numbers aren't just about total viewers, you get much better ad prices for different demographics... an example might be The Office, which never had spectacular ratings yet the ratings it did have skewed towards affluent and younger. They could license cartoons instead of paying to have them made, but have decided they make more running other stuff.
2. Market fragmentation.
There will never be another Cheers, where 50-75% of the country watched the finale, or where everyone at work the next day had watched last night. They still watch boatloads of TV, they simply have 180+ channels to do it on hence why niche (and yes, cheaper) programming is a valid way to focus *unless* you are a network. Everyone wants as many viewers as possible, in the most desired-demos possible... but due to fragmentation, you can still win the night by targeting a specific niche, whether ethnicity or class or gender (gender, being 50/50, is often the better bet).
Re:not quite by Mashiki · 2014-10-04 22:29 · Score: 1

Really? I live in Canada, and none of those show up on regular TV stations(in my area) they're all on cable. In canada at least 25% of households also use netflix as their primary source for said shows as well and it's increasing.

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Re:not quite by Megane · 2014-10-05 01:46 · Score: 1

Then move to the border near a major US city* and get an ATSC television. I'm pretty sure the CRTC hasn't gone quite as far as jamming US broadcast TV.
*That's a joke, son, you're supposed to laugh. I know that's basically only Vancouver and the Toronto/London areas.

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Re:not quite by jaymz666 · 2014-10-05 03:12 · Score: 1

Why? It's one of the highest rated shows on TV and the cast get paid a lot of money to be in it. Whether you like it is irrelevant.
Re:not quite by jedidiah · 2014-10-05 07:01 · Score: 1

That is a pretty retarded argument. "It's good because it sells well". That's the same argument you can use for Microsoft and McDonalds and GM.
The fact that people will watch it for free is no good indicator of quality.

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Re:not quite by jedidiah · 2014-10-05 07:06 · Score: 2

It only gives you a reason to be a smug pretentious jackass to total strangers who's opinions don't have any real significance anyways.

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Re:not quite by jaymz666 · 2014-10-05 07:10 · Score: 1

That people will watch it instead of something else that is also for free, or doing something else that is free, is.
Re:not quite by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-05 08:29 · Score: 1

Also in the industry, also posting anonymously.
It's not just the 180 TV channels- it's the competition between Internet streaming, video games, and the overall internet itself that eat away at the traditional media spend. The tradeoff is way, way more interesting and better targeting. That being said, I still don't think anyone has truly figured out how to get the best bang for their buck in digital spending. These deals are still being done by people and even the best ROI analytics never give anyone a complete picture, like the one traditional ad folks are used to getting (or rather, everyone just settled on what Nielsen said, regardless of how accurate it was). The fact is that the media world is very far from any of the stability it had pre-internet.

You're right that we're never going to see another Cheers. No one really wants to admit that in the industry. No one wants to admit that reaching "millenials" is impossible. The opportunity is to reach that smaller group of people that would actually want whatever you're promoting. As we see more and more streaming online, we'll see more and more brand awareness dollars shifting as well.
I think I just started ranting. Sorry.
Re:not quite by Mashiki · 2014-10-05 09:17 · Score: 1

I am in Durham Region Ontario near Toronto, where are you?
I'm in Oxford currently, in one of the dead zones. I can get CityTV because Woodstock has a repeater, global comes in if you're lucky.

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Re:not quite by Grizzley9 · 2014-10-05 12:38 · Score: 1

That is a pretty retarded argument. "It's good because it sells well". That's the same argument you can use for Microsoft and McDonalds and GM.
The fact that people will watch it for free is no good indicator of quality.
I also believe they used the same argument for Two and a half men.
Re:not quite by ebvwfbw · 2014-10-06 14:55 · Score: 1

billions still watch TV. Not quite dead yet
Still keeping idiots busy. 1950s time wasting system.
Of course, that beats the 2000s idiot time wasting system. Responding to people on slashdot.

Re:Well.... by Teresita · 2014-10-04 15:25 · Score: 1

I blame the death of Saturday Morning programming on almighty ISIS.

It's ok by sayfawa · 2014-10-04 15:28 · Score: 1

We still have Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

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Cost of video on demand by tepples · 2014-10-04 15:31 · Score: 1

If Saturday morning cartoons have been replaced with cartoons on demand served over wired broadband, then how should people outside the service area of wired broadband justify the cost of moving into the service area of wired broadband? Some people in my own extended family are stuck on satellite Internet with its 10 GB/mo cap.

Re:Cost of video on demand by houstonbofh · 2014-10-04 17:05 · Score: 1

Just download instead of stream. Actually, that is a better answer for places with broadband too with all of the throttling (we don't throttle! Really!) going on... Sure there is the legal thing about it, but it works.
Re:Cost of video on demand by tepples · 2014-10-05 05:16 · Score: 1

Downloading is good if you often rewatch a particular or if your ISP doesn't run the meter during the wee hours. But if you watch something only once, downloading uses just as many GB as streaming.
Re:Cost of video on demand by houstonbofh · 2014-10-05 16:45 · Score: 1

But no skips... None.
Re:Cost of video on demand by mattack2 · 2014-10-06 07:37 · Score: 1

Which is one reason why the vast majority of time, I download to my iPad from my Tivo instead of stream, even when I'm at home... (The other reason is so I can skip commercials with far less latency.) This is mostly for watching shows while I'm walking on my treadmill -- use an iPad.
Though it is a VERY VERY VERY small minority of shows, in the Xfinity app, I do see that _some_ shows are allowed to be downloaded.

An end of an era... by SternisheFan · 2014-10-04 15:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

I was born in '59, basically raised on TV. In fact I was my family's walking TV Guide. Cartoons then were mostly the repeats of what were shown in theaters. Heckle & Jeckle cartoons were strange, Bugs Bunny 'toons were un-uncensored, and U.S. militarily bent. Tom & Jerry's violence would never be shown today, too much violence in them. A lot of the gags when those cartoons were made then tried to entertain the kids and the adults, with double entendres that would never be allowed to be shown to today's kids. Somehow, we survived.

I can remember turning on the TV early Sunday morning, before anyone else in the house was awake, and after the early morning test pattern went by, Davey & Goliath would fill my mind with 'magical images' of a wondrous, magical, moral world. It was a very nice time to grow up in, at least until the grownups woke up, but I digress.

R.I.P., Saturday morning cartoons. I guess it's all real news for the kids of today...

Re:An end of an era... by SternisheFan · 2014-10-04 16:57 · Score: 1

Tom & Jerry's violence would never be shown today, too much violence in them
I've still seen it is on TV as recent as a year ago, the old ones even with some of the somewhat racial stereotyping that got removed from other old cartoons.
That's rare to see on TV today, and I guarantee that those cartoons are sanitized for today's audiences. We used to regularly see Our Gang shows uncensored on television that were accepted in their day. There's no way those shows would be aired today, they were much too racist for todays standards. And screw LSD,, if you wanted bizarre, drugged out images, find some old original Max Sennet, Disney, or Heckle and Jeckle cartoons to trip out on, all aired then. Just try to find the originals now, if you can I'll buy them off you (offer invalid where I live).
Re:An end of an era... by Dahamma · 2014-10-04 19:06 · Score: 1

Tom & Jerry's violence would never be shown today, too much violence in them.
Eh, maybe not on Saturday morning, but have you ever watched the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, etc? It's still there...
But I agree and am saddened by the loss of the true Saturday morning cartoon today. Hell, even after I was beyond-college-age I still liked to drag my ass out of bed on Saturday in the 90's to watch The Tick, X-Men, Pinky and the Brain, and the few other cartoons that kept the faith.
Re:An end of an era... by tlhIngan · 2014-10-04 20:23 · Score: 1

R.I.P., Saturday morning cartoons. I guess it's all real news for the kids of today...
No, cartoons are still around. We call them "animated" these days because they're not just limited to hand drawn and animated art, but also include CGI and other types.
And I thought the Saturday morning cartoons (something I remember doing in the 80s) were dead when the likes of Cartoon Network and other networks that showed cartoons all day 24/7 cropped up. There was no reason otherwise to wake up early on Saturdays to catch cartoons when you can turn on the TV and catch it at any time.
Oh well, what kids will do is just sleep in - no reason to wake up early on Saturday morning.
Re:An end of an era... by MouseTheLuckyDog · 2014-10-04 22:17 · Score: 1

Nah. Those were moderate.
The show you wanted to watch for that real psychedelic experience you needed to watch one of variants of the BJ and Dirty Dragon Show. Now that was bizarre!
Re:An end of an era... by Reziac · 2014-10-06 05:30 · Score: 1

...followed by Fireball XL5 and topped off by reruns of live-action shows like Sky King.
Great, now I feel like I'm comin' up 60 for real!!

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What killed it? by kuzb · 2014-10-04 15:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

Simple. They made shit and kids didn't want to watch it. They butchered shows so badly and made so many rules that it was impossible to make anything other than shit.

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Speaking for myself by fyngyrz · 2014-10-04 15:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

I don't think the Internet killed Saturday morning cartoons. I think corporate-inspired churn in pursuit of ever more income pushed out some very lovely and entertaining cartoons in favor of what was, quite frankly, awful junk. Poorly drawn, badly scored, badly scripted, and almost uniformly missing the hilarious innuendo and subtleties that were present in your typical 'toon from the nineteen-fifites and -sixties.

I would *still* be willing to sit down for a morning of road runner, bugs bunny and crew, daffy duck, foghorn leghorn, jetsons, flintstones, pepe le pew, and so on. I would have encouraged my kids to watch. But it all went away, I "encouraged" my kids to ignore the television entirely (with a lock and key), and that's part of the story of how broadcast television completely lost one family. Toons were definitely part of the problem. Between that, and the evolution of news from at least somewhat "this is what's happening" to almost entirely "this is what you should think", broadcast television became exceedingly unwelcome in my home. Cable went soon after.

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Re:Speaking for myself by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 16:25 · Score: 1

Indeed. I support that argument. It is far between that I find a new cartoon as good as the ones from the early 2000's as well. Sheep in the Big City. Courage the Cowardly Dog. The first few seasons of Dexter's Labratory or even the original run of Powerpuff Girls or Teen Titans. Teen Titans Go is precisely a symptom of the degradation you mentioned.
At least Cartoon Networks seems to have some idea some of the time on what to do. Space Dandy was fantastic. Not a saturday morning cartoon, though. Need more Animaniacs and Freakazoids and The Tick type shows. DC can put out some great cartoons, but I doubt they'd want to front the financing for that.
Re:Speaking for myself by Greyfox · 2014-10-04 16:32 · Score: 2

You mean generally racist or ultra-violent cartoons? By the time I started watching cartoons in the mid 70's, most of the really racist stuff wasn't being played anymore, but last time I rolled through Europe, Cartoon Network was playing a lot of the older Warner Brothers cartoons. I thought I pretty much knew the score there, but that was a bit of an eye-opener. Simpsons in German when you're jetlagged out of your skull is really fun, though.
Most of the cartoons of the 70's were crap. Remember the old Spider Man or Star Trek cartoons? They didn't seem like they ran that long. I'm pretty sure the writers used a lot of LSD. Justice League and Scooby Doo were just formulaic crap. I don't recall the Flintstones or Jetsons being overtly bad, but I don't remember them being particularly good either. And that was the A list. Once noon rolled around, things went from bad to worse. I had to get that in there somehow.
As bad as all that was, though, it was worse in Japan. I lived my first 5 years in Japan. Anime depicting decapitations and blood everywhere seemed to be kids' fare there in the early 70s. Somehow they still all seemed to end up growing up less fucked-up overall than we did. Assuming that you consider them getting vending machines with used panties and us getting the mass-murder-of-the-week club them growing up less fucked up. Seems like things went slightly better over there to me.

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Re:Speaking for myself by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2014-10-04 16:36 · Score: 1

I miss the original Funky Phantom and Jabberjaw.
Those were truly the highlights of a distant, golden era...

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Re:Speaking for myself by BarbaraHudson · 2014-10-04 16:47 · Score: 2

I would *still* be willing to sit down for a morning of road runner, bugs bunny and crew, daffy duck, foghorn leghorn, jetsons, flintstones, pepe le pew, and so on. I would have encouraged my kids to watch.
A lot of those cartoons (particularly the road runner ones) entered an era of self-censorship (OMG we can't show the coyote getting blasted to smithereens) that if you hadn't seen the original, the re-runs are confusing.
That was an age of innocence that we just can't seem to re-create.

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Re:Speaking for myself by witherstaff · 2014-10-04 16:49 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've been happy with Phineas and Ferb. Sure it's Disney, still it's just oddball enough to make it worth watching. The main characters are engineers finally something neater than Handy Smurf or the doozers.
Re:Speaking for myself by HalAtWork · 2014-10-04 16:51 · Score: 1

That and Nickelodeon is where kids rule.

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Re:Speaking for myself by ShanghaiBill · 2014-10-04 17:22 · Score: 1

I think corporate-inspired churn in pursuit of ever more income pushed out some very lovely and entertaining cartoons in favor of what was, quite frankly, awful junk.
Your nostalgia is misplaced. I watched cartoons in the 1960s, and other than the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour, it was crap back then too.
Re:Speaking for myself by KalvinB · 2014-10-04 17:27 · Score: 2

In the mid 1990's the government mandated that children's programming be educational.
That killed every good cartoon on network TV. Cable isn't subject to those laws. Corporate greed is killing those shows though for the reasons you listed. Also, cable just isn't a big money thing for the average show. They don't have the budgets that network shows have.
I buy box sets of the good shows so my daughter can watch them when she wants. And the best part is no ads and there are rarely still existing products so she's not being sold anything even passively.

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Re:Speaking for myself by BancBoy · 2014-10-04 17:38 · Score: 2

In the mid 1990's the government mandated that children's programming be educational.
Did they really? I was under the impression that they mandated a certain amount of Educational/Informative Children's Programming be shown per week. Hence the Sunday morning cartoons in the time slot when the network didn't have any sporting event or important programming to show.

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Re:Speaking for myself by Dahamma · 2014-10-04 18:34 · Score: 1

I would *still* be willing to sit down for a morning of road runner, bugs bunny and crew, daffy duck, foghorn leghorn, jetsons, flintstones, pepe le pew, and so on.
Most of that was never actually Saturday morning cartoon fare (except occasionally in reruns). So I'm not sure how qualified you are to comment on it ;)
But I agree that the Internet did not kill Saturday morning cartoons. It was a coincidental two-pronged attack of 24-hour kids/cartoon cable channels and the horribly sad but true fact that Saturday morning informercials just paid better.
Re:Speaking for myself by Dahamma · 2014-10-04 18:40 · Score: 4, Interesting

Why does everyone keep using the Flintstones as an example of (good or bad) Saturday morning cartoons!?
Flintstones was a prime time ABC show in the early 1960's. If you think of it in *that* context is was a trend-setting and brilliant forerunner to the current (and mostly over the hill) prime time family-unit cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy...
Re:Speaking for myself by epyT-R · 2014-10-04 20:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

So what? Everything must be PC, sterile, and conflict free? This attitude is the reason TV, movies, (and probably games soon) are so goddamn boring. They all play out like soaps now.
Re:Speaking for myself by Pseudonym · 2014-10-04 20:55 · Score: 4, Informative

I say this as an Australian: All the good cartoons these days seem to be Canadian. Check out Total Drama, Almost Naked Animals, and Kid vs Kat for a few good examples.

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Re:Speaking for myself by Pseudonym · 2014-10-04 20:56 · Score: 2

So you didn't watch Rocky & Bullwinkle and Roger Ramjet, or you were too young to get the Cold War satire?

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Re:Speaking for myself by sjames · 2014-10-04 21:04 · Score: 2

Actually, in the '60s and '70s all of that was Saturday morning fare. It was bundled up into an hour long show with a small bit of newly done 'glue' to hold it together. It was re-runs, but all new for the audience they targeted. The various cartoons came and went, but the Warner toons were a constant.
Re:Speaking for myself by whereiswaldo · 2014-10-04 21:28 · Score: 1

Interesting - I was just going to say that the 80s were the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons! I guess it didn't bother me that they were "advertisements" as you say. I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons faithfully every single weekend. As for today, I wish there were good prime time cartoons that were kid friendly.
Re:Speaking for myself by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 21:40 · Score: 1

phineas and ferb is the best cartoon on television and one of the best ever. unfortunately, being a disney original, it has a pre-programmed shelf life; and at 4 seasons produced (the 4th airing on disney xd not disney channel), it is all but done.. already lasting longer than the 3 seasons or 65 episodes normally allowed for a disney channel original series.
so long as dan and swampy continue coming up with ideas and the cast wants to continue, i see no reason why this timeless series can't continue indefinitely.. the fan base and viewership is definitely there to support the series, as is merchandising sales and theme park tie-ins, and it has tremendous rewatchability, a rarity these days on television.
Re: Speaking for myself by Ginger+Unicorn · 2014-10-04 23:26 · Score: 1

I remember watching those cartoons being re-aired in the 80s, I found them tedious. Likewise any hanna-barbera stuff. I loved all the warner bros stuff and tom & Jerry, etc from the 40s & 50s though. In retrospect the glorified action figure advertisements that I grew up on like he-man, transformers, thundercats, turtles were all probably crap. Mysterious Cities of Gold is probably still quite good.

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Re:Speaking for myself by TheRaven64 · 2014-10-04 23:36 · Score: 1

I enjoyed Roger Ramjet when I was 6. I saw them again about a year ago and was astonished at how much I'd missed as a child. Definitely designed for parents to watch with their children.

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Re:Speaking for myself by flyneye · 2014-10-05 00:45 · Score: 2

I look at the Yellow Submarine cartoon and think " I bet they used a lot of LSD"
I look at the old spider man and Star Trek cartoons and think" I bet they used a lot of antacid".

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Re:Speaking for myself by jbengt · 2014-10-05 01:11 · Score: 1

I was just about to say the same. Also, most of the best Bugs Bunny 'toons and other Looney Tunes were originally movie shorts made to play in the theater.
Re:Speaking for myself by Somebody+Is+Using+My · 2014-10-05 01:13 · Score: 1

I disagree; it wasn't the quality (or lack thereof) of the cartoons that killed the Saturday Morning block, or at least not directly. It was dedicated children's-TV channels available on cable. TV studios - and advertisers - no longer found it profitable to spend so much time and money when that market was already captured by channels that were focused entirely on their wants. NBC, CBS and ABC just couldn't compete with Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and the Disney channels.
If it was a lack of quality that killed Saturday Morning Cartoons then that block should have died in the 70s and 80s. Though we may look upon them now with nostalgia, shows like the Snorks, Pound Puppies (and pretty much anything made by Hanna Barbera) were terrible in every aspect, from their animation, to their characters, to the story and pacing. But as kids, we didn't care because a) we were too young to discern, and b) where else were we going to get four straight hours of cartoons? If we even noticed how bad the shows were, still it wasn't going to keep us from watching. Quality was not the decisive factor in our viewship.
Nowadays, kids /do/ have another option and, unwilling to pay the cost for better shows, the competition drove the broadcast channels out of the market. But had that option not existed, even were the OTA networks still showing crap like "Penelopy Pitstop" or the "PacMan Power Hour" we still probably would have Saturday Morning cartoons today.
Re:Speaking for myself by Megane · 2014-10-05 01:20 · Score: 1

I think you should put "educational" in scare quotes. Some of the crap that gets the E/I tag (aka HEY LOOK WE'RE SHOWING THAT EDUCATIONAL STUFF, SEE?) is hard to call either educational or instructional. Especially those "teens do teen things at school" sitcom shows (well "sit" anyhow, not much comedy). Mostly it's just three hours of "wildlife" (aka look at these random cute and token non-cute animals) shows. Which are also shoehorned onto the weather sub-channels on Sunday mornings. One of the channels here plays something called "Tomorrow Today" which seems to be some sort of Australian science snippets show that I was unable to trace the origins of. (and it's produced in 4:3 too) But at least it's showing actual science-y stuff, and not teens-being-teens. (TOOOOOTALLY TEEN!)
Another part of the downfall was when it was outlawed to advertise toys along with the show that those toys were based on, when a bunch of soccer moms got in a snit about that. That certainly reduced the interest in creating more than a few shows. Meanwhile, in Japan, that certainly hasn't hurt the chirlrrrrrren.
And we must also not forget the after-school block that was big in the '90s. I guess those got killed off by courtroom shows, adult talk shows, and celebritard gossip shows, because that's what I see when looking back to last Friday afternoon in my MythTV schedule (which was harvested from the actual OTA guide info).
But really, I'm going to have to say that pervasive cable TV and cable-only networks in the US was what really happened. Why get up early Saturday morning (or rush home after school) for your toons, when there are multiple channels showing them 24/7?

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Re:Speaking for myself by Megane · 2014-10-05 01:34 · Score: 1

And then there was the Sid & Marty Krofft stuff. Particularly the acid-trip-mascot-costume stuff like H.R. Pufinstuff (which I was surprised to recently find out was a recycled mascot from the San Antonio Hemisfair world's fair).
But on the other hand, they did do Land of the Lost, which seemed to have some sort of back-story behind those crystal panels, but I was never able to watch it regularly enough to figure it out. All I remember is the girl would always do something stupid, get lost and/or almost killed, but still somehow solve the plot of the week. Someday I need to find and watch that show properly. Those sleestak hisses were both stupid and cool, and so were their costumes, about on the level of Doctor Who stuff of its day (as if we would have known about Doctor Who back then).

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Re:Speaking for myself by ButchDeLoria · 2014-10-05 01:43 · Score: 1

Why even turn on the TV, when you can stream or download the shows in better quality on your desktop/laptop/fucking smartphone?
Re:Speaking for myself by CronoCloud · 2014-10-05 01:44 · Score: 1

I remember watching Smurfs and loving it. Loving Smurfs? Yes, because it was one of the best cartoons out there. Think about it for a while. A world where Smurfs was a good cartoon.

90...minute Smurfs. Imagine a Smurfs show where they start off early with short simple comedy bits intended for the younger kids...then as the show passes they start throwing in stuff for the older kids. The last half hour was usually a single more complex plot, usually involving Gargamel, Yohan and Peewee, and was usualy darker in tone.
Smurfs had something for everyone.
Re:Speaking for myself by St.Creed · 2014-10-05 02:05 · Score: 1

I loved that - the double meanings in almost every sentence, the hilarious take on nationalism. Wow.
I also liked Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, and Transformers :)

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Re:Speaking for myself by CohibaVancouver · 2014-10-05 02:42 · Score: 1

I don't think the Internet killed Saturday morning cartoons. I think corporate-inspired churn in pursuit of ever more income pushed out some very lovely and entertaining cartoons in favor of what was, quite frankly, awful junk. Poorly drawn, badly scored, badly scripted, and almost uniformly missing the hilarious innuendo and subtleties that were present in your typical 'toon from the nineteen-fifites and -sixties.
I'm a Gen-Xer born in 1967. Saturday Morning in the good ol' days (early-to-mid 70s) had a large share of crap, mostly forgotten today...

Josie & the Pussycats / The Grape Ape / Gilligan / Planet of the Apes / Waldo Kitty / Space Nuts - And that's just off the top of my head. None of this stuff was particularly highbrow, the Filmation-style animation would be laughed at today....
Re:Speaking for myself by fhage · 2014-10-05 05:21 · Score: 1

My adult daughter introduced me to P&F and I've fallen in love. Like many Disney and Pixar films, the dialogue and plots are written to appeal to both kids and their parents. The adult characters and oddly interlocked subplots in P&F make it a favorite "comfort show" of mine. The dialogue is witty, often very comical and always fully of great sci fi and cultural references. Be sure to catch their Star Wars and Marvel super hero crossover episodes.
(I suspect Dr Doof reads slashdot for ideas on how to improve his robot; Norm)
Re:Speaking for myself by Megane · 2014-10-05 06:04 · Score: 1

But I do stream/download them, from the OTA signal. And (usually) in the maximum quality that you can get them (almost 6GB per hour). Most ISPs would have a shit fit if you tried to download .ts files all the time. And I'm not sure how you expect to watch HD with 5.1 audio on a shitty smartphone.

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Re:Speaking for myself by 0100010001010011 · 2014-10-05 09:23 · Score: 1

You should check out what PBS has offered.
Dinosaur Train is hands down one of the coolest intros to an animated TV show ever.
Re:Speaking for myself by Dahamma · 2014-10-05 10:15 · Score: 1

Yep. Just goes to show you the best and most enduring children's/young adult entertainment is usually when adults don't specifically try to "write for" children (which usually means "write down to" them). Just as true now (Harry Potter novels, Pixar movies) as it was back then...
Re:Speaking for myself by Dahamma · 2014-10-05 10:54 · Score: 1

Actually, in the '60s and '70s all of that was Saturday morning fare. It was bundled up into an hour long show with a small bit of newly done 'glue' to hold it together. It was re-runs, but all new for the audience they targeted. The various cartoons came and went, but the Warner toons were a constant.
The Flintstones and Jetsons were both originally prime time animated sit-coms in the early 60's. Later they were either moved to morning or syndicated in re-runs and re-made as basically totally different kid-centric shows.
And all of the early Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc (Hannah Barbara) cartoons were created for and first shown in the theater as shorts. Not only that, the first appearance of Bugs Bunny, etc on TV (which was the old cartoon with some new "glue", as you said) was an ABC *prime time* show called "The Bugs Bunny Show".
Sure, they were eventually syndicated, then even later remade for kids, and moved to Saturday mornings. But the point is these "great Saturday morning cartoons" everyone is talking about were NOT at all created as such. Which is probably why they were so good. Generally entertainment created specifically for kids is awful, since the adult writers don't write "for" them, they write "down to" them. And kids are much more perceptive than they think, so they notice it.
I guess another way to think of it is the "Era of Saturday Morning Cartoons" is not just recently dead as the article states, it's just recently *buried*. It limped into the 90's and died at some point in that decade after they cancelled the last few smart generation-spanning shows like The Tick, X-Men, Animatiacs, Pinky and the Brain, etc.
Re:Speaking for myself by The_Rook · 2014-10-05 11:32 · Score: 1

none of the cartoons you describe "road runner, bugs bunny and crew, daffy duck, foghorn leghorn, jetsons, flintstones, pepe le pew" were designed for children. the loony tunes/merrie melodies cartoons (bugs bunny and crew) were created for theatrical distribution and the jetsons and flintstones were sitcoms intended for primetime broadcast.
if you're thinking of cartoons with smartly written scripts and were written for children perhaps you should have mentioned "rocky and bullwinkle". sure the animation was cheap, but that's the limitation of teevee budgets.
you're right about the corporate churn, though. hardly any saturday morning cartoons went for more than a half season or so. just not enough time for a series to find a voice or for the writers to get a feel for making it good.

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Re:Speaking for myself by sjames · 2014-10-05 15:03 · Score: 1

I agree. The truly great cartoons were those that were also meant for adults to enjoy. Though not a Saturday morning toon, the spirit lasted a while longer due to the Powerpuff Girls. Once again, produced for all ages.
I still can't resist a Tick moment on laundry day.
Re:Speaking for myself by dgatwood · 2014-10-05 15:26 · Score: 1

phineas and ferb is the best cartoon on television and one of the best ever. unfortunately, being a disney original, it has a pre-programmed shelf life; and at 4 seasons produced (the 4th airing on disney xd not disney channel), it is all but done.. already lasting longer than the 3 seasons or 65 episodes normally allowed for a disney channel original series.
That's an understatement. Depending on how you count episodes, they just aired episode 219, and went over the 65 episode limit halfway through the second season. But if you count them in pairs, I guess it's more on the order of 110. Either way, they're way, way past that limit.
Disney got a lot of flack for Eisner's automatic 65-episode cancellation policy a few years back—I half expected Lizzie McGuire fans to march on the studios with pitchforks and torches—so it came as no great surprise that as soon as Eisner stepped down, that policy got shot in the head. I'm not sure if Iger officially changed the policy or if he has just been a lot more willing to allow exceptions to it than Eisner was, but either way, the result is the same.
Kim Possible was one of the first animated shows to break the rule, back in 2007; it ran for an extra 22 episode season past 65. And a lot of the more popular live action shows have broken the 65-episode barrier since Eisner's departure as well—That's So Raven at 100, Wizards at 106 + movies, Suite Life at 158 (in total, though both the original and the spin-off exceeded the 65-episode limit individually as well), Hannah Montana at 98 + movie, etc.
So a big, hearty "thank you" to Roy Disney and friends for jerking a knot in the bureaucratic train wreck of a company Eisner had turned Disney into, and for putting someone in the driver's seat who lets shows run their course.

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Re:Speaking for myself by darenw · 2014-10-05 20:24 · Score: 1

Yellow Submarine! Pfah. Try Pink Elephants on Parade from Disney's Dumbo.
Nothing like that made in the last decade or so, unless you look into Spike & Mike's stuff.
Re:Speaking for myself by Veretax · 2014-10-06 04:40 · Score: 1

I think the issue now, is cable networks are now so ubiquituous. Consider this you have

Nickelodeon
Nick Jr (Toons for Tots)
Nick Toons (Generally for upper elementary to HS kids)
Boomerang
Cartoon Network
Disney
Disney XD
Disney Jr
Sprout (PBS's All kids network I think)
The Hub

Did I miss any?

SO I think the issue, isn't that sunday morning cartoons are gone. People have migrated to other services that fill their niche, and away from Broadcast Television mostly. It had become rare that anything on Broadcast TV on Saturday was worth watching, that I hadn't already seen.
Re:Speaking for myself by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:37 · Score: 1

Poorly drawn, badly scored, badly scripted, and almost uniformly missing the hilarious innuendo and subtleties that were present in your typical 'toon from the nineteen-fifites and -sixties.
Warner Brothers cartoons and the successful Hanna-Barbera cartoons you mentioned were not typical cartoons in that era. The typical cartoon in that era _was_ "poorly drawn, badly scored, badly scripted and totally missing in any innuendo and subtleties", often a lot worse than what you see today, in fact.
It only seems different because we only remember the 10% of cartoons from that era that were actually good... you know... like the ones you mentioned.
TV quality does ebb and wane, but it really wasn't such a stark difference as you portray. There was a lot of crap back then too.

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Re:Speaking for myself by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:42 · Score: 1

Remember the old Spider Man or Star Trek cartoons?
Yeah, having watched the 1960s version of Spider-Man was quite a letdown. It wasn't that good, and started really getting weird when Bakshi got more involved. On the other hand, the music was great and the theme song remains, in my opinion, one of the best ever.
The Star Trek animated series on the other hand was a different beast. Yes, the production values were really cheap, but the stories were generally very good, and the writers included several people who wrote for the Original Series, and other prominent SF writers like Larry Niven. Plus, it did have the original cast doing the voice-acting, which was a definite plus.

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You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Re:Speaking for myself by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:51 · Score: 1

So you didn't watch Rocky & Bullwinkle and Roger Ramjet, or you were too young to get the Cold War satire?
Those shows were brilliant, but they were the exception rather than the rule.

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You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Re:Speaking for myself by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:59 · Score: 1

The 80s suffered too much from political correctness because of concerns of "TV violence", etc. The real renaissance happened in the early 90s when a lot of shows were created that no longer talked down to the audience like so much of the 80s fare did. Shows like "Ren and Stimpy" broke a lot of taboos and opened the way for a lot of really good stuff that wasn't just dumb kids' stuff. OK, maybe it was still dumb, but it was _good_ dumb.

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You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Re:Speaking for myself by ebvwfbw · 2014-10-06 14:48 · Score: 1

Ever look at them again? Fog Horn, Bugs, Jetsons, they all stand the test of time. Courage - sadly not so much. Three Stooges - for the most part not so much. Then there was outright crap.
Fog Horn - Boy, I Saaay Boy - boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball! Man, classic! I know people about as sharp as a bowling ball.
Then there's the manufacturing songs by an orchestra.
Re:Speaking for myself by Pseudonym · 2014-10-07 18:45 · Score: 1

Sturgeon's Revelation applies.

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Re:Now there's Caturday and Youtube by tepples · 2014-10-04 15:35 · Score: 1

Until it gets taken down due to several big media companies' dog-in-the-manger copyright policies.

Looney Tunes by p51d007 · 2014-10-04 15:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

Looney Tunes, Bugs, Elmer Road Runner etc...THOSE were cartoons. What happened is the political correctness destroyed them. Speedy Gonzales, nope, making fun of Mexicans, Sylvester, Elmer, nope, makes fun of someone with a speech problem. Then you run into the whole "too violent" problem. Daffy walks into a shotgun blast from Elmer, the Coyote falls off a cliff, hits the ground and an Acme safe falls on him, too violent. Even the reruns the cartoon network use to show have been butchered. They show the coyote at the edge of a cliff, then on the ground a few seconds later. Oh yeah and the video games, crap on tv isn't violent? Political correctness destroyed the Saturday morning cartoon along with instant access streaming, and political correctness is destroying America and the rest of western civilization along with multiculturalism.

Re:Looney Tunes by fyngyrz · 2014-10-04 15:45 · Score: 1

amen, brother.

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Re:Looney Tunes by the_Bionic_lemming · 2014-10-04 16:01 · Score: 2

No, it's cultimulcharism.
The cults are mulching America.

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Re:Looney Tunes by mlts · 2014-10-04 16:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

There is also the fact that cartoons were not obviously just advertisements for products. Yes, there was merchandising... but a Bugs Bunny cartoon stood alone... it wasn't something made to sell a Bugs doll or an Elmer-Fudd styled blunderbuss.
There is also the quality difference. The 1950s backdrops that were painted by hand versus crap where the characters barely move when dialog happens. It is nice to see a mouth move, not a square or triangle flash when a character makes dialog. Mainstream animation is junk for the most part.
The sad thing, there are still quality artists out there. You just don't see their animation work on TV because their work isn't selling something or is part of a merchandising campaign to get kids whining to their parents for yet another made-in-China toy that ends up tossed in the trash in less than a few months.
Re:Looney Tunes by C0R1D4N · 2014-10-04 17:08 · Score: 4, Informative

First off, Speedy Gonzalez is LOVED in Mexico, he's a cultural icon there, not a stereotype (his slower cousin maybe not as well received). Also there was a recent show that featured all the characters and definitely as enjoyable or more enjoyable for adults.
Re:Looney Tunes by robbiedo · 2014-10-04 17:23 · Score: 1

How about "El Kabong?"
Re:Looney Tunes by vux984 · 2014-10-04 17:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

Looney Tunes, Bugs, Elmer Road Runner etc...THOSE were cartoons.
And flinstones and jetsons... but while the looney toons violence is timeless... the flintstones humor hasn't aged well.
And Rocket Robin Hood and Hercules were from the same era and were shit.
Point is not everything pre-1970 was good, even if it was the golden age.
But yeah, the 70s and 80s had some hits ... smurfs, transformers, tom and jerry etc... but sure the end of the 80s was pretty bad... Smoggies remains fixed in my mind as the pinnacle of PC schlock.
But it rebounded, those died off, as even kids wouldn't watch them. And lots of 90s cartoons are solid ... from Tiny Toons and Animaniacs to Talespin, Darkwing Duck, The Tick, Dexters Lab....
And there's lots of good shows on today. Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Phineas and Ferb to name a few...
Political correctness destroyed the Saturday morning cartoon
In a word no. What destroyed the "Saturday Morning Cartoon" is quite simply that the majority of people who want to watch cartoons have cable or satellite with 24 hour cartoon networks. It wasn't the internet or political correctness or streaming.
When I was a kid, saturday morning was about the only block of cartoons I could watch we lived around them in a sense. My kids? Have cartoon network, and ytv... they aren't going to even think to switch it to NBC or something for a 4 hour block once a week...
The internet and streaming, sure just more nails in the coffin, but it was already dead.
And Political correctness? Sure it set cartoons back in the late 80s, but its been 20 years since; and there are cartoons out now that are better than ever.
Re:Looney Tunes by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 19:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

There is also the quality difference. The 1950s backdrops that were painted by hand versus crap where the characters barely move when dialog happens.
Do you know what killed the quality animation?
Saturday morning cartoons.
The early cartoons were shown in movies. When they switched to TV, they needed so much more new cartoons that it just wasn't possible to have any quality in the animation anymore.
When you think of 1960s and 1970s Saturday morning cartoons, don't think about the Looney Tunes that were made in the 1940s for movies. Think about Top Cat, Snagglepuss, Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har, Magilla Gorilla, Atom Ant, and all the other mass-produced drock from Hanna-Barbera.
Re:Looney Tunes by MMC+Monster · 2014-10-04 22:55 · Score: 2

Think you hit it on the head with Cartoon Network and other cable offerings.
Why would kids limit themselves to that three hour block on Saturday mornings when they can watch whenever they want on CN?
Cable TV killed the Saturday morning cartoons.

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Re:Looney Tunes by CrimsonAvenger · 2014-10-04 23:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

Which has little to do with the Political Correctness Police in the USA.
If the PC crowd decided that Speedy ought to be offensive to Mexicans, then it WAS offensive to Mexicans (by definition, even if Mexicans enjoyed it thoroughly).....

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"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Re: Looney Tunes by Ginger+Unicorn · 2014-10-04 23:29 · Score: 1

Multiculturalism literally made America.

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Re:Looney Tunes by Megane · 2014-10-05 02:04 · Score: 1

Speedy Gonzales, nope, making fun of Mexicans
Never mind that Speedy Gonzales "remained a popular character in Latin America. The Hispanic-American rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens called Speedy a 'cultural icon'". It was the corporate gringos who decided that it was offensive, and their white guilt made them sweep Speedy under the rug.

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Re:Looney Tunes by amiga3D · 2014-10-05 02:14 · Score: 1

Ooooooh! Dad-Nab it! I have no mod points!
Re:Looney Tunes by amiga3D · 2014-10-05 02:20 · Score: 2

Why does everything have to be about the two mafias. Can't we leave the fucking politics out of any discussion. What has damaged this country more than anything is the two mafias that alternate control in DC. We switch from tweedle-dee to tweedle-dum both with great promises but things only get worse while they tell us how much better off we are. The side out of power actually cheers as the side currently in power fucks the country up. They are happy because they know that when side A screws up side B will soon have it's chance to fuck things up. A plague on both your houses.
Re:Looney Tunes by wiredlogic · 2014-10-05 02:58 · Score: 1

The original Looney Toons were meant for adult consumption as shorts before a feature movie. That's why so many of them have pop culture references to things kids of the era wouldn't get. Especially the censored ones that never get played on TV these days.

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Re:Looney Tunes by Cid+Highwind · 2014-10-05 04:01 · Score: 1

So they're just like the 1970s cartoons with one real animator and an army of terrible inbetweeners that you're getting nostalgic for, but with more accurate color...

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Re:Looney Tunes by PPH · 2014-10-05 05:18 · Score: 1

Do you know what killed the quality animation?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

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Re:Looney Tunes by bledri · 2014-10-05 07:57 · Score: 1

Looney Tunes, Bugs, Elmer Road Runner etc...THOSE were cartoons. What happened is the political correctness destroyed them. ...
Yup, that's why a Looney Tunes sitcom with all those characters, including Speedy Gonzales was produced between 2012 and 2014. Damn political correctness, killed Looney Tunes. Or maybe, entertainment has moved on and it just didn't get decent ratings.
As far as the original Looney Tunes cartoons, I grew up on those. Don't let nostalgia cloud your thinking. If I had access to all the forms of entertainment available now, I would not have watched so many Looney Tunes repeatedly. But it was the only game in town. Is it really so surprising that children in 2014 are not enamored by cartoons made between 1930 to 1969? Is it so surprising that after running in syndication for over 40 years that a cartoon might just be played out?
Naw, let's blame whatever cultural phenomenon we currently find annoying for everything. That's what our grandparents and parent did, it must be right!

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Re:Looney Tunes by bledri · 2014-10-05 08:11 · Score: 1

Which has little to do with the Political Correctness Police in the USA.
If the PC crowd decided that Speedy ought to be offensive to Mexicans, then it WAS offensive to Mexicans (by definition, even if Mexicans enjoyed it thoroughly).....
No way could a cartoon in syndication for over 40 years be played out and irrelevant to children with nearly infinite entertain options available on demand. Seriously, why would someone born in 2004 and that has had entertainment available on demand bother with Saturday morning cartoons? Damn that political correctness giving people on demand entertainment!
If there were money to be made playing Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings, someone would do it. And are we really getting upset that children aren't sitting in front of the T.V. for hours on end watching broadcast cartoons on Saturday mornings? I'm not saying their doing anything "better" with their time, but seriously. This is something to give a shit about as if it's a bad thing?

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Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Re:Looney Tunes by jsepeta · 2014-10-05 12:06 · Score: 1

also nobody can take a fucking joke anymore. fat guy getting hit by a bus? HILARIOUS. oh no, we're making fun of fat people now.
That, and crass commericalism. Looney Tunes came out without all that merchandise that modern cartoons now require. Fuck the TMNT, bring back Marvin the Martian.

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Re:Looney Tunes by Master+Moose · 2014-10-05 13:24 · Score: 1

Agreed, There is little worse than people who get offended just because they think that they should be offended. This goes doubly so for people getting offended on behalf of others

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. . .gone when the morning comes

Real news by fyngyrz · 2014-10-04 15:39 · Score: 1

R.I.P., Saturday morning cartoons. I guess it's all real news for the kids of today...

You found real news on broadcast or cable television? When is it on, and what network or channel? I must view this beast, formally thought to be utterly extinct!

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I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.

Re:Real news by houstonbofh · 2014-10-04 17:06 · Score: 2

R.I.P., Saturday morning cartoons. I guess it's all real news for the kids of today...
You found real news on broadcast or cable television? When is it on, and what network or channel? I must view this beast, formally thought to be utterly extinct!
It is a reality show next season. They will take a CNN and a Fox newscaster and lock em in a cage until only one is left reporting.
Re:Real news by MrNaz · 2014-10-04 17:43 · Score: 1

They will take a CNN and a Fox newscaster and lock em in a cage until only one is left reporting.
I'll avoid that. I don't think I could stomach such brutality.

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I hate printers.
Re:Real news by amiga3D · 2014-10-05 02:10 · Score: 1

They could take the FOX chicks and do jello wrestling. That would probably do good ratings.
Re:Real news by fyngyrz · 2014-10-05 07:40 · Score: 1

mea culpa, I meant "formerly", and I can spell it just fine. Pure brain fart. Far worse than a spelling error, actually. :/

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I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.

Re:Saturday morning cartoons are dead... by fyngyrz · 2014-10-04 15:44 · Score: 1

...Long live... Saturday afternoon Kung Fu movies

You know, for a regrettably short time, one of the dish network (or DirecTV, I forget) channels was all martial arts movies, all the time, seeming to specialize in the no doubt less expensive B&W productions from China, Japan and Korea. That was a blast. Of course it didn't last long. Esoteric in the first place, and the quality was, to be kind... highly variable. But still. :)

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I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.

hmmm by Charliemopps · 2014-10-04 15:47 · Score: 1

Today was saturday... and this morning my 6yr old was watching cartoons.

Granted, it was on youtube... but still.

Saturday Morning? by darkain · 2014-10-04 15:47 · Score: 1

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have QUBO on broadcast OTA TV. Why limit yourself to Saturday mornings when you can have a 24/7 cartoon station? At times this station has been known to play shows like He-Man/She-Ra and Star Wars: Clone Wars, so overall not too bad! (though it is primarily a station for preschoolers during the day)

Everything is dead by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 15:50 · Score: 1

First it was gaming, now it's morning cartoons.
At this point I think this has more to do with clickbait than anything else

SMBC by AikonMGB · 2014-10-04 16:01 · Score: 1

I think Zach Weinersmith (http://www.smbc-comics.com/) would disagree :)

Oh my God! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 16:03 · Score: 1

They killed Kenny! You bastards!

Re:Well.... by Jhon · 2014-10-04 16:10 · Score: 1

Nope. It was Electra woman and Dyna girl. And maybe Wunderbug.

Game of Throne by jd · 2014-10-04 16:15 · Score: 1, Funny

Is porn with some swords and sorcery. Which means you can't focus on either.

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Re:Game of Throne by TheRaven64 · 2014-10-04 23:40 · Score: 2

I gave up part way through season 2. I think it's the only adaptation of a book where they've managed to tell the story more slowly than the novels. The casting was well done, but they really needed to work on the pace.

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I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Re:Game of Throne by AnotherBlackHat · 2014-10-05 03:19 · Score: 1

It's not porn ... it's HBO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUBiOOx0Pxw

Re:Well.... by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2014-10-04 16:37 · Score: 1

Dr. Shrinker. Captain Kool and the Kongs.

Those were the pains we endured, to get a glimpse of Electra Woman's spandex-clad thighs...

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Never been known to fail..."

Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by Joe_Dragon · 2014-10-04 16:45 · Score: 1

Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations make more with infomercials / sports on the weekends.

Re:Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by C0R1D4N · 2014-10-04 17:06 · Score: 2

It's so hard to believe they can make more off of infomercials. Cartoons had to have ten times their ratings easily. Even with parents usually just throwing ToonDisney/Nicktoons on and leaving it on all day nowadays.
Re:Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by BancBoy · 2014-10-04 17:46 · Score: 2

Many cartoons WERE infomercials.

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Re:Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by Megane · 2014-10-05 02:00 · Score: 1

Sports is (and always has been) an afternoon thing on Saturday. Well after 11am anyhow in the Central time zone, which I guess might mean a 9am game in Pacific.
Looking back at my MythTV's harvested OTA guide info, I noticed that "Good (Morning|Day) ($CITY|America)" seems to be one of the shows that takes up a lot of Saturday morning time slots. All four major networks and their local affiliates have some kind of morning newsy block starting at 6am, followed by the obligatory E/I block. It's one of those things that the more desirable demographics will turn on and leave on as they go around the house, and the commercials will play with nobody nearby to hit the mute button.

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Re:Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by PPH · 2014-10-05 05:23 · Score: 1

Right. And when consumer protection laws were enacted to prevent most of the heavy-handed marketing to children, cartoons made less economic sense.

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Have gnu, will travel.
Re:Cable channels killed it and the OTA stations by Chris+Mattern · 2014-10-06 01:38 · Score: 1

It's so hard to believe they can make more off of infomercials. Cartoons had to have ten times their ratings easily.
With cartoons, the station had to pay the producer to show the program. Sometimes quite a lot. With infomercials, the producer pays the station. Stations doesn't care what the ratings are, and really, neither does the producer. All the producer cares about is how many orders get phoned in.

Good. by RevWaldo · 2014-10-04 16:47 · Score: 1

Let's face it, Saturday morning cartoons from the 60s to the 80s were 90% garbage. The animation revival in the 90's, along with more channels dedicated to cartoons, changed all that, for the better.

In Memoriam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

.

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Re:Good. by ultranova · 2014-10-04 22:25 · Score: 3, Insightful

Let's face it, Saturday morning cartoons from the 60s to the 80s were 90% garbage.

90% of everything is garbage. It's just that the oceans of time wash it out, leaving only the gold nuggets. Of course, an actual ocean will also have the same effect, which is why anime became such a hit in the West.

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Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Re:Good. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-05 04:27 · Score: 1

Is anime a hit in the West? I guess that also explains Bollywood's popularity in the West then.
Re:Good. by RevWaldo · 2014-10-05 06:13 · Score: 2

Of course my 90% figure was being generous. But really, what gold nuggets? Sure you may have some nostalgia for old episodes of Scooby-Doo or The Superfriends, until you actually go back and watch them and you realize that the makers figured that kids will watch any poorly-made crap they threw up on the screen. And sadly, they were right.

.

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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Re:Good. by RevWaldo · 2014-10-05 06:23 · Score: 1

90% of the cartoons that were made solely for Saturday morning are crap regardless of the era.
I say nay nay! In the 90s, the networks (particularly the WB) began the realize that the game had changed and started to up the ante with the likes of Batman: The Animated Series and halfway decent Dragonball Z redubs.

.

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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Re:Good. by david_thornley · 2014-10-06 07:18 · Score: 1

You don't think Rocky & Bullwinkle constituted a gold nugget?

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"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes

Re:News for Nerds by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 16:56 · Score: 1

Millenial detected.

Infomercials killed saturday morning cartoons by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 16:58 · Score: 1

Infomercials are a profit center, with no cost basis to the networks or local stations.

Re:Well.... by C0R1D4N · 2014-10-04 17:00 · Score: 3, Informative

Animaniacs should be considered E/I. To this day I can point out Lake Titicaca on a map if I have to.

FCC with E/I Killed Saturday Cartoons by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 17:18 · Score: 1

FCC mandated that TV be educational and informative on all channels. So now stations had to run crappy E/I programing at 6 AM instead of starting their cartoon line ups.

Thanks again FCC

Re:FCC with E/I Killed Saturday Cartoons by E-Rock · 2014-10-04 17:41 · Score: 1

When I was looking to see when the football games started this morning it was all home gyms and face cream infomercials. I'm not sure a reasonable person would call those either educational or informative.
Re:FCC with E/I Killed Saturday Cartoons by Megane · 2014-10-05 02:08 · Score: 1

Then those stations probably run their E/I on Sunday mornings.

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Re:Well.... by sjames · 2014-10-04 17:20 · Score: 1

I do hope I'm not the only one who can't help giggling when the news turns to the Middle East these days.

Perhaps Shazam can help?

Of course not... by nitehawk214 · 2014-10-04 17:39 · Score: 1

In the US there are like 5 cable channels that show cartoons 24x7 (including Saturday morning and classic toons). Nik, CN, and Disney all have new shows that air on Saturdays.

On top of that, Disney owns ABC, and has a couple of their own cartoon channels. Why would they compete with themselves?

Yes, this is a problem for those that don't have cable, but between dedicated cable and internet programming, this is more of a sign that the traditional on-air networks are becoming more marginalized that they cannot (or will not) to after this market.

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I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust

Re:Of course not... by nitehawk214 · 2014-10-04 17:41 · Score: 1

Though I should not be so surprised or outraged that a gizmodo article shows no research, critical thinking, or effort.

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I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust

Sad but good riddance by Virtucon · 2014-10-04 17:46 · Score: 3, Insightful

When I was growing up cartoons meant something. Like Daffy Duck getting his head blown off or the Rabbit outwitting the dumb hunter. Saturdays were filled with the Coyote and the limitless bounty afforded him by ACME for any device necessary to attempt at catching the Roadrunner. I always wondered who delivered out in the middle of the desert and why he got it so fast? Shit now most of what I've seen from the 70s and up were warmed over commercials that were more about marketing to kids than really having fun. Sure there were the "educational" shows that came along but those were few and far between; the rest being tripe not worth even the electricity used to watch them, much less the brain drain.

When I saw Daffy's head getting blown off "censored" now it made me sad really because you can't blow up a cartoon duck anymore? Where has my country gone. So goodbye Saturday Morning cartoons full of marketing shit and hello Hentai Anime.

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Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"

e/i killed it. by Deathlizard · 2014-10-04 18:08 · Score: 1, Troll

All they could legally put on the air after e/i enforcement was stuff that PBS would run, and most of it was PBS Rejects so bad you'd wish you were watching PBS.

Remember that TV is not allowed to entertain kids anymore. It has to Educate them. Showing violence like Ninja Turtles just encourages kids to make Nunchucks out of sticks and beat each other senseless, and that's Bullying! and Bullying is Bad!! We need to rise above hate and teach kids that sharing is caring and what a Black-Tuffed Marmoset is instead of petty moral and life lessons from Baby animals with an overactive imagination, Mythical blue creatures that are three apples high, or various hero teams.

The More you Know...

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In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!

Re:e/i killed it. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 21:10 · Score: 1

The two longest running (in my memory) Kids TV series in Germany are "Löwenzahn" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus", both more or less educational programs that combine (in different ways) entertainment and education.
I particularly loved "die sendung mit der maus".
Best part was the introduction where they told you what would be shown in that episode. That introduction would then be repeated exactly again, but in some random world language. I loved hearing how various languages sounded while having a vague idea of what was said (as it was the same as said a minute earlier in german).

Re:Well.... by Jhon · 2014-10-04 18:22 · Score: 1

He's a mad man with an evil mind!

Re:Well.... by JustOK · 2014-10-04 19:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

Scrappy Doo had a paw in the downfall too.

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rewriting history since 2109

Still alive here in Australia by jonwil · 2014-10-04 19:37 · Score: 1

All 3 commercial networks as well as the ABC (government owned station) air cartoons on various of their channels on Saturday Morning (and at other times of the day/week for that matter)

Heck, its 5:30pm here and one network is airing an episode of Scooby Doo...

Re:Rose Glasses by bspus · 2014-10-04 19:49 · Score: 2

"Road runner was entertaining, and I don't recall any overt racism or sexism, but it is just silly violence for the sake of violence and I think we can do better for our children." It is clearly slapstick violence, and I believe even kids can tell the difference. I understand the concerns but at some point we have to admit that children cannot be shielded from absolutely everything. At some point, overprotecting them can have other undesirable consequences and I have a feeling we are already very close (if not past) that point

Re:Rose Glasses by mrbester · 2014-10-04 19:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

So it was fine for you to watch and enjoy them as a child but not for a child today because you subscribe to the ridiculous "imitation" dogma? Are you a violent racist wife-beating asshole or just an asshole?

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Re:Rose Glasses by BlackHawk-666 · 2014-10-04 20:03 · Score: 1

I tend to agree with you. I just wish there was a little more substance and less slapstick...hell, even the same amount of slapstick and some substance to boot!

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All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Iron Curtain by SharpFang · 2014-10-04 20:04 · Score: 4, Interesting

If you think the cartoons from 70s were crap, that means the Iron Curtain worked well, "protecting" the west from any positive imagery from the Eastern Bloc.

You should really watch some toons made in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union. Dozens of excellent, funny, well-animated toons that were friendly, didn't promote violence, and were fun to watch even for adults. Reksio, Wolf and Hare (Nu pogodi!), Krteek, and lots of other titles that would leave Hana Barbera in the dust and could easily compete with Disney's shorts - if only given a chance.

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Re:Iron Curtain by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 20:59 · Score: 1

Growing up in Germany, a huge amount of Kids TV turned out to be Japanese (Heidi & Co, animated) or Eastern Bloc stuff, especially Polish and Czechoslovakian.
Almost everything live acted was from eastern europe. Some great series (I particularly remember a series about time travellers from the future that came back to the 80s. Their time machine/capsule was built as a Mistubishi Pajero I believe =) ).
Re:Iron Curtain by bossk538 · 2014-10-05 00:50 · Score: 1

My wife tries to have my son watch all these Soviet-era Russian cartoons. I honestly can't think of anything more namby pamby and insipid as those children's animation, with dreadful production values. There's a reason nobody voluntarily watches that stuff anymore - and it has nothing to do with not being "given a chance".
Re:Iron Curtain by jedidiah · 2014-10-05 04:14 · Score: 1

Nu Pogodi really isn't that impressive for it's time. Plus the whole communism thing greatly curtailed production. Hanna Barbara was nothing if not productive.
Communism didn't give people the chance, that's kind of the point.
No one was free to do their own thing either on the high end (Disney) or on the low end (Hanna).
3 networks, four hours of programming, decades of shows.
And Nu Pogadi is more like a crude version of Tom & Jerry if anything.

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A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:Iron Curtain by excelsior_gr · 2014-10-05 05:40 · Score: 1

Bolek and Lolek!
It aired in Greece and was loved by everyone!
Re:Iron Curtain by Grishnakh · 2014-10-05 09:00 · Score: 1

This exchange reminds me of people who try to push Christian movies and music: "people don't give it a chance", etc., when everyone else think it's namby-pamby, insipid crap with awful plots/lyrics and dreadful production values.
Re:Iron Curtain by Pseudonym · 2014-10-05 12:29 · Score: 1

Pat & Mat. Trust me on this one.

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sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Re:Iron Curtain by doccus · 2014-10-06 05:01 · Score: 1

I think the west's saturday morning cartoons were simply a make-work program for the sound effects crew. Boy were they noisy. You KNEW it was saturday morning lomng before you smelled the french toast because of the road runner and sylvester and elmer fudd episode crashes and explosions etc. And yeah, OK, I'm a little older than GenX, but that's what I remember ;-)
Re:Iron Curtain by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:49 · Score: 1

There's good "Christian" music out there. The difference is that it made by accomplished and talented musicians who choose to make music with a Christian theme, because that's the kind of music they want to make. I think most Christian music is made by people who chose the medium to create the message, as opposed to people who had mastered the medium and decided to use it for the message. Of course, this is no different from any other kind of music... Sturgeon's Law law applies here just like everywhere else.

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You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Re:Iron Curtain by Grishnakh · 2014-10-06 05:54 · Score: 1

The only good "Christian" music I've heard is by artists who are musicians foremost, and happen to be Christian and wove some of that into their lyrics, just like every lyric-writing musicians puts some of themselves into their lyrics. But I wouldn't call this "Christian music", because it's not overtly Christian, isn't played on Christian Radio or in churches, and isn't explicitly designed for Christian audiences. "Christian music" is its own genre, and it's just like what you said: it's made by people who chose the medium to create the message, it has an agenda, which is to spread and reinforce Christianity.
Re:Iron Curtain by Hognoxious · 2014-10-12 01:54 · Score: 1

There's good "Christian" music out there.
Agreed. I highly recommend Bach, Handel & Palestrina.

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."

Re:Rose Glasses by TuringTest · 2014-10-04 20:14 · Score: 2, Interesting

While I enjoyed those older cartoons as a child, now, as an adult I can totally see why they are no longer screening. They were rife with racism, violence, sexism and other crap that I wouldn't wan pumped directly into my child's brain.

On the other hand, you watched them and grew to know it as crap. Your children, not being exposed, will not learn to recognize it, and as adults they may be more likely to fall prey to it.

There's something to be said about playing with risky or shameful behaviors in safe environments - it's the natural way for learning to face the darkest aspects of life.

--
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I'd argue that's not the case by Gordo_1 · 2014-10-04 20:27 · Score: 1

I see where you're coming from, but why did 'corporate-inspired' awful junk work through the 70s and 80s then? We watched tons of it and I can say, in retrospect, that it was mostly thrown together tripe with few redeeming qualities (though some of it elicits nostalgic feelings for me). About the best of it were the Japanese conversions, though cheaply dubbed and often spliced to the point of near incomprehensibility, they tended to go a bit deeper with character development.

Here are some cartoons I recall watching either Saturday mornings or some other time during the week (albeit from Canada):
Scooby Doo
Saturday Supercade (?) -- shows based on early arcade characters like Pacman.
FatAlbert
Voltron
Strawberry Shortcake
Transformers
The Real Ghostbusters
Dungeons and Dragons (the one where they were stuck in some D&D world).
Battle of the Planets (G-Force?)
GummiBears
Smurfs
DuckTales
Robotech
ThunderCats

Re:I'd argue that's not the case by jbengt · 2014-10-05 01:14 · Score: 1

Hey, Duck Tales wasn't that bad.
Re:I'd argue that's not the case by St.Creed · 2014-10-05 02:08 · Score: 1

Robotech was great. When I was in high school I tried to get my hair looking like the hair from the guy that comes back to save the Earth on RDF 3 (the expedition back to Earth that gets horribly mauled by the aliens). Ah, the things we do in puberty :)

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Re:Rose Glasses by markass530 · 2014-10-04 20:55 · Score: 2

Perhaps if you removed the sand from your vajajay and then watched all those shows you might enjoy them a bit more

Kids would rather play games by drinkypoo · 2014-10-04 21:52 · Score: 1

Kids would rather experience interactive entertainment. Even from amazingly young ages they are saying "No" to do you want to watch this, and picking up the tablet (or whatever) and playing games instead. About fucking time. I expect to be old and gray before the curve catches up.

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"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"

Re:Rose Glasses by DNS-and-BIND · 2014-10-04 23:11 · Score: 1

When you go through life looking for racism everywhere, even in cartoons, you're going to find it. It is a poor witch-hunter who cannot find witches.

It is an especially poor witch-hunter who cannot find racism in Japanese cartoons. Seriously? Zero diversity. And yet you think it's OK for your kids to watch...if you even have any.

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Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!

Re:Well.... by Chiller · 2014-10-04 23:41 · Score: 1

Animaniacs should be considered E/I. To this day I can point out Lake Titicaca on a map if I have to.

It's between Bolivia and Peru. :-)

Obligatory by Dogtanian · 2014-10-04 23:58 · Score: 3, Funny

If you think the cartoons from 70s were crap, that means the Iron Curtain worked well, "protecting" the west from any positive imagery from the Eastern Bloc. [..] You should really watch some toons made in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union.

I dunno... I hear that "Worker and Parasite" didn't play too well with US audiences ;-)

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Re: Obligatory by slick7 · 2014-10-05 01:56 · Score: 1

Just look at the 24 hour news coverage, especially politics. better than Tom and Jerry or the Roadrunner.

--
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.

No more appointment TV by blackfeltfedora · 2014-10-05 00:13 · Score: 2

Saturday morning cartoons weren't killed by the internet, they were killed by the DVR. My kids only recenlty became aquainted with the concept of "you have to wait for them to show the next episode". Saturday mornings at our house are devoted to binge watching a week's worth of Pokemon, Gravity Falls, and Phineas & Pherb.

Re:No more appointment TV by Megane · 2014-10-05 02:23 · Score: 1

Saturday morning was killed by cable, but the DVR will be the nail in the coffin. Unless maybe you ran a house-wide DVR server thingy that could embargo episodes one per week until after a specific time (which could still allow for pausing and backing up to see something again). This would of course have to be of old-but-good shows that you can't get firehosed five days a week. And not just Saturday morning, you could do this with various prime-time blockbusters of the past to show them on weekday evenings.
And waiting a week for a new episode of animation isn't completely dead, it's just gone underground to the people watching new episodes of anime from Japan. Yesterday morning I watched a live (untranslated) stream of the new episode of Log Horizon with a 4chan thread. (Then I watched the sub a couple of hours later when the usual suspects came through.) There's twenty-four more weeks of waiting to see what happens next week. Ironically, by the time the sub is ready in the US, it's... Saturday morning!

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SlashDot Remographics by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-05 00:26 · Score: 1

The comments to this article clearly indicate a change in the demographics of /. readership. Most of you are complaining about Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner and Willie E. Coyote, Flintstones, Spiderman, Scooby-Doo, etc. are proof that today's adults are over-sensitive, boogie-man behind every tree, morons. Undoubtedly you're the same lot who prefers Elementary starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Lu, rather than The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke. The same lot who prefer the modern Hawaii Five-O to the original 1970s series starring Jack Lord; the producers of the modern rendition admitted the original series would be too cerebral for today's audience.

Thankfully, the new cartoons Fairly Odd Parents and Kid versus Kat still capture the magic of cartoons from the golden age of cartoons. I admit that despite being an adult I enjoy watching Fairly Odd Parents and Kid versus Kat. I watched Inspector Gadget during the 1980s.

Re:SlashDot Remographics by Megane · 2014-10-05 02:34 · Score: 1

I know you're halfway trolling, but...

Undoubtedly you're the same lot who prefers Elementary starring Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Lu, rather than The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke.
You can add that new show "Forever" to the list. The main character and female sidekick are almost clones of JLM and LL's characters, with the "two hundred year old man" trope added in. I didn't want to like it, but added a record rule for it before the first episode ended. And I'll admit to liking the first season of Elementary, but the second season has languished in my DVR. It does have one major advantage over the BBC Holmes in that I actually get episodes of it every week as opposed to needing cable or waiting until PBS gets around to showing a few.

The same lot who prefer the modern Hawaii Five-O to the original 1970s series starring Jack Lord
I literally can not watch new Five-O. I tried a couple of times, but it's way too edgy and angsty.

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Re:Rose Glasses by BlackHawk-666 · 2014-10-05 01:04 · Score: 1

I'm currently watching Sword Art Online and Hamatora, perhaps you can point out the racism to me.

--
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Re:Rose Glasses by BlackHawk-666 · 2014-10-05 01:09 · Score: 1

TLDR;

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All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

No longer special by Chelloveck · 2014-10-05 01:18 · Score: 1

It has very little to do with the Internet. Saturday morning cartoons were killed by entire cable TV networks devoted to cartoons all day, every day. Saturday morning lost its special status as the one time of the week you could binge on cartoons.

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Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.

TV is not dead by Lawrence_Bird · 2014-10-05 01:20 · Score: 1

When "Dancing with Stars" pulls 12.8M in the number 10 spot and a 8.3 rating, there are still a lot of people watching broadcast TV. The highest ranked prime time cable show that was non-football pulled 4.1M with a 2.5 rating. Netflix has about 45M subscribers. Their most popular showing, House of Cards was estimated to garner about 15% viewership (by one ISP on day), so thats in the 6M ish range.

So while internet based viewing may have put a dent into broadcast (and cable), they are still the heavy weights by a good margin.

Re:Rose Glasses by jbengt · 2014-10-05 01:32 · Score: 1

It is clearly slapstick violence, and I believe even kids can tell the difference.

You're belief is incorrect, for younger kids, anyway.

So in the US, it was all cartoons, all the time? by Dogtanian · 2014-10-05 01:37 · Score: 1

Assuming that you consider [the Japanese] getting vending machines with used panties [..] less fucked up.

From what I've heard, those *did* exist (and still do to a limited extent), but even at their peak weren't remotely as common nor as prominent as most people in the west seemed to believe. Apparently most of the ones around were associated with nearby sex/erotica shops, i.e. generally more out-of-the-way locations.

Back to Saturday morning cartoons... I get the impression that this is (or was) an American cultural phenomenon(?) In the UK, both the BBC and ITV showed a lot of US import cartoons when I was a kid, but my primary memory of those is of them being shown on weekday afternoons, after school. I don't recall them ever being generally referred to as "saturday morning" cartoons here.

Indeed, that's probably because though Saturday morning television on the two main channels (BBC1 and ITV) *was* aimed at kids, it was primarily in the form of circa three-hour magazine shows like Tiswas, Swap Shop, Going Live!, SMTV, etc. Those generally included lots of different segments and features. Though they did include some cartoons as part of the mix, that was never the sole focus- far from it, it's certainly not what I associate with them.

This was pretty much the standard "Saturday morning" format here from the mid-70s until the decline of such programming on the main channels in recent years.

I get the impression that this format wasn't so common in the US, at least not in the "golden era" the "Saturday morning cartoons" nostalgia seems to be harking back to. Though I understand that many cartoons were shown as part of "The [Main Feature Character] Hour" and the like (where a number of cartoons were tied together under the banner of the most well-known one), that's still basically "all cartoons" and somwhat different to the live format shown on UK TV.

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Re:Well.... by Megane · 2014-10-05 01:39 · Score: 1

And Bat-Mite.

Apologies to anyone who had happily forgotten about that little runt for years. But the "scrappy sidekick" trope was never not stupid.

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Winston by BlackHawk-666 · 2014-10-05 01:39 · Score: 1

Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Re:The Simpsons live on by BonThomme · 2014-10-05 01:43 · Score: 1

Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mattel_and_Mars_Bar_Quick_Energy_Chocobot_Hour.jpg

Re:So in the US, it was all cartoons, all the time by Dogtanian · 2014-10-05 01:47 · Score: 1

Additional; I should also have made clear that the magazine shows referred to were mostly live (and hence obviously live-action, not animated), obviously contrasting with the primary animated US model, and that the earliest of them- Tiswas- apparently grew out of attempts to liven up the continuity between the mish-mash of kids shows shown on early-70s Saturday morning ITV.

The balance of humour, style and gimmickry varied between the different shows, but they all followed the basic template to some extent.

You might find this article informative (though I suspect that unless you were actually there at the time, you probably won't want to read *that* much on the subject!)

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Re:Saturday morning cartoons are dead... by ganjadude · 2014-10-05 01:54 · Score: 1

theres a new channel on time warner called El Ray which tends to show a lot of martial arts movies, (along with x files which always makes me happy)

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Re:Well.... by CronoCloud · 2014-10-05 01:57 · Score: 1

to get a glimpse of Electra Woman's spandex-clad thighs...

Dude, that's like Deidre Hall! She was the "everymom" on Our House and still plays Dr. Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives. /me does a Drake Hogestyn impression: "Dooooooooooc." (raises eyebrow)

Re:Well.... by CronoCloud · 2014-10-05 02:03 · Score: 1

"I thought we agreed to never speak of him again."

When the franchise itself pokes fun at him as unlikeable... that's saying something.

Ta da da da da da! Puppy Powah! (His original voice actor gave him a bit of a Brooklyn accent)

Re:Saturday morning cartoons are dead... by CronoCloud · 2014-10-05 02:07 · Score: 1

Saturday morning cartoons! (& Saturday afternoon Kung Fu movies, & Thanksgiving day Godzilla marathons...)

You talking about the old USA Network, back when it was still pretty much a "superstation"? Don't forget Commander USA, "USA ^UP^ All Night", and Monstervision/100% Weird over on TNT.

TBS doesn't even show the Beastmaster anymore. Get off my lawn.

Saturday sleep in by mathemaniac · 2014-10-05 02:33 · Score: 1

That's why I sleep in on Saturday's.

Saturday Morning Soccer by Christopher_G_Lewis · 2014-10-05 02:41 · Score: 1

Seriously? The three hours of Saturday morning soccer that I'm forced to drag my three kids to killed any sort of opportunity for any TV watching on a Saturday.

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Re:PBS by wiredlogic · 2014-10-05 02:54 · Score: 1

I just wish our PBS station would stop polluting the Create channel with cartoons all through the evening.

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TV is dead? by BringsApples · 2014-10-05 02:58 · Score: 1

TV is dead. Long live the Internet.

One word:
Football

And it's on, on Saturday.

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Samurai Jack by ArcadeMan · 2014-10-05 02:59 · Score: 1

Samurai Jack had one of the best nerdy reference ever made in a cartoon.

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Re:Space Dandy is Japanese though. by Khyber · 2014-10-05 03:26 · Score: 3, Insightful

"On the other hand, as a modern (japanese) equivalent of Space Quest,"

Nope. SD is pretty much Cowboy BeBop with Excel Saga mixed in.

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There were lots of Flintstone cartoons by rsilvergun · 2014-10-05 03:58 · Score: 1

created for Saturday Morning Cartoons. Check out the wikipedia page. For a lot of us young'uns they later series aired on Saturday Morning were our first exposure to Fred and the gang.

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Re:There were lots of Flintstone cartoons by Dahamma · 2014-10-05 10:11 · Score: 1

created for Saturday Morning Cartoons
No it wasn't. *From* the Wikipedia page: "The show premiered on September 30, 1960, at 8:30pm, and was an instant hit.".
Sept. 30, 1960 was a Friday. And 8:30pm isn't what most people would call "morning".
What you were watching was reruns or remakes, not the original Flintstones. So I think my point still stands. The original was targeted to adults in the early 60's (they even had the cartoon characters advertising cigarettes!) which may be why kids didn't really understand it that well. And the remakes/etc, were mostly crap spewed out for kids (with none of the more mature references or Honeymooner parodies), but that shouldn't detract from the original.
Re:There were lots of Flintstone cartoons by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:54 · Score: 1

The original Flintstones show ran in prime-time for 5 seasons, but has been in reruns for the 50 years since. However, they made a number of spin-offs for Saturday morning, most of which were not very good (perhaps none of them were very good, I don't recall). I think they were making new Flintstones shows even up into the 80s, although I'm sure Wiki can tell you the details.

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Re:There were lots of Flintstone cartoons by ConceptJunkie · 2014-10-06 05:56 · Score: 1

"The Jetsons" only lasted one season in the 60s. They made more in the 80s, keeping the show more or less the same. The new episodes weren't as good as the original, but they were at least less dated.

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Bugaloos? by AndyKron · 2014-10-05 04:12 · Score: 1

But they still have the Bugaloos, right?

Nope. by Cid+Highwind · 2014-10-05 04:14 · Score: 1

They mandate a whopping three hours a week (oh! tyranny!), and that law has been in effect since 1990.

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TV is dead, by sa1lnr · 2014-10-05 04:22 · Score: 1

Paperless Office and The year of Linux on the desktop. :)

Kids sleep in? No they don't . . . by Latent+Heat · 2014-10-05 04:22 · Score: 1

The original idea behind the Saturday AM cartoons is that the kids are up early on Saturday AM whereas the parents get to sleep in.

The reason kids are up bright an early because they have an enforced bedtime so the parents (ahem) can get some quality time . . . with each other.

Teens on the other hand will want to sleep in because they are left to their own bed time, they may be up late either because of social activities, extracurricular activities such as sports, or if they are obnoxious grinds, they may have to study that much if they want to do all the homework the teachers pile on students these days. Also, teens start to need more sleep at a time when our school and social cultures lead them to sleep less.

TP for my bunghole by tepples · 2014-10-05 05:46 · Score: 1

Isn't Lake Titicaca where they had that imperforate anus outbreak? "Where I come from we have no bunghole."

Re:Saturday morning cartoons are dead... by zippthorne · 2014-10-05 05:52 · Score: 1

That happens with every cable channel. They bootstrap with something cheap, and then go through a phase where they have better access to the thing they are supposed to focus on, then they make their own shows, then they realize that if they're making their own shows, it would be cheaper to just air wrestling and reality tv shows than to actually produce something.

For instance Syfy, which started out showing Forbidden Planet and Gamara reruns, at one time had a show with incredible effects done by the Jim Henson company, and now is down to a show about people competing in one-off puppetry contests hosted by the Jim Henson company, and the requisite something night wrestling show (a quasi-reality show starring stunt-men instead of using stunt-men to produce movies and such)

At least they change their name every time they make a change to be more disappointing. Is there anything educational on TLC any more?

The weird thing is that a lot of cable channels are under the umbrella of one of the big networks, so it makes little sense why instead of pursuing their respective niches, or abandoning the channels, they all go for the same "broad appeal" crap.

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I thought it was because of Disney and Nick by Orion+Blastar · 2014-10-05 07:26 · Score: 1

making their own cartoon channels and then the Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Most kids watch cartoons on Youtube these days. Either that or they find a website that hosts free Anime cartoons.

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Re:Well.... by Fear+the+Clam · 2014-10-05 07:44 · Score: 1

Bat-Mite? Surely you mean "Rabid Cousin Oliver."

I miss Looney Tunes (the originals...) by Assmasher · 2014-10-05 08:18 · Score: 1

God bless 'em...

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Re:OT: Used Panties by Bengie · 2014-10-05 09:09 · Score: 1

Still about the same now. I was just watching some youtube videos from people in Japan, and they found some vending machines selling large bottles of sake with no verification. The cigarette machines all had age verification systems built in.

It's happening in the real world, but ... by ubrgeek · 2014-10-05 10:15 · Score: 1

Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice ...

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Re:So in the US, it was all cartoons, all the time by Oakey · 2014-10-05 10:16 · Score: 1

All the best cartoons were shown on Saturday mornings either during Going Live / Live& Kicking or the ITV equivalent; X Men, Spiderman, The Racoons, Animaniacs, Batman: TAS, Rugrats, Mysterious Cities of Gold and a heap of others I probably forget.

Then there was Disney Club on Sunday which had Gummi Bears, Tailspin, etc

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Re:So in the US, it was all cartoons, all the time by Dogtanian · 2014-10-05 11:03 · Score: 1

All the best cartoons were shown on Saturday mornings either during Going Live / Live& Kicking or the ITV equivalent; X Men, Spiderman, The Racoons, Animaniacs, Batman: TAS, Rugrats, Mysterious Cities of Gold and a heap of others I probably forget.

Yeah, but the point is, they were still far from being solely focused around the cartoons- those were just a part of the whole.

As I mentioned, I don't strongly associate cartoons with Saturday morning TV, but the examples you give were more late-1980s and 1990s, by which point I would have been in my teens and losing interest in such shows, so perhaps things had changed by then, or maybe it's just how I remember things. My primary memory is a bit earlier than that (i.e. the 80s alone, I'm old enough to vaguely remember Tiswas, just!), though I do recall SMTV being on circa the late-90s/early-noughties and from what I remember of that, it was still far from focused on the cartoons- there was a lot of Ant and Dec and Cat Deeley doing comedy and messing about as well.

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HALLELUJAH!!!! by greggman · 2014-10-05 12:30 · Score: 1

Yea!!! We no longer have 2 or 3 networks as the gate keepers for all cartoons. Kids are no longer limited to cartoons only 6-9 and 3-6 on weekdays and 6-11 on Saturdays.

Today's kids have Cartoon Network, The Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon 24/7. They've got Youtube, and Vimeo, and CrunchyRoll and 50 other cartoon sites. They've got smartphones and tablets and digital cameras and notebooks that allow them to easily make their own cartoons.

I'm glad Saturday morning cartoons are dead. That was a symbol of the old guard's limited world. I'm happy it's gone

Tron Uprising was awesome by danknight48 · 2014-10-05 12:37 · Score: 1

Only cartoon i've actually enjoyed as an adult (eg: since i was 10 years old):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

And, they cancelled it....
But in 4 years time, i'll be able to rewatch it with my son, whooo!

Not Sure It Matters. by 13Echo · 2014-10-05 13:17 · Score: 1

We all get hung up on nostalgia, but lots of good cartoons are perfectly accessible via Netflix, Amazon on Demand, and PBS on Demand. I think that's the problem. It's just a sign of people moving away from network TV and soon cable as well. The Saturday morning cartoon is gone because all of the content has moved away from network TV to on-demand services.

The causes of death were several by RubberDogBone · 2014-10-05 16:47 · Score: 1

The causes behind all these are several. In the 80s, there was a big push for so-called program length commercials, glorified toy ads. A lot of US fondly remember these shows decades later so it can be argued about the value if the shows being far beyond ads for toys.

The pressure to crack down on these programs -and corresponding flops in the fickle toy markets- caused fewer cartoons to be made, fewer for networks to air and also fewer for independent stations to run in the mornings and afternoon. This used to be a mainstay with multiple channels in some cities throwing out the best shows they could get to compete with each other. My town had three stations which fought for every show and bought anything they could find.

At the same time, the Fox network began picking up these independent stations to form their network, meaning the syndicated cartoons that did exist now had many fewer outlets to air, which caused even less of them to get made in the first place. My town had a series of musical chairs that resulted in the two biggest cartoon-airing stations dropping all their programs, cold. The third stations couldn't afford to buy them so basically they went away entirely locally.

And also around the same time, Cartoon Network launched and began picking up viewers that way. Nickelodeon responded and Disney with DXD, but no matter where they watched, in large part once kids went over to watching cartoons on cable, they never went back to broadcast stations looking for cartoons. And then after a few years, they forget they ever existed anyway.

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Re:Another tragedy... by wcrowe · 2014-10-06 02:03 · Score: 1

Ha! I saw some people on FB this weekend who were actually, seriously blaming this on Obama. I thought, "Haven't you guys been paying attention? This has been going on for years."

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Flintstones & Jetsons originally prime time sh by peter303 · 2014-10-06 02:27 · Score: 1

Then evening cartoons disappeared in the 70s and 80s to be restarted by Fox Simpsons, King of the Hill, etc in 90s.

TV Died at My House Because..... by LinuxLuver · 2014-10-06 06:56 · Score: 1

... I realized how little value it provided for the huge amount of time it consumed. Especially the news. If I want to be fed lies by omission and half-truths I'd rather talk to my kids.

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Re:Well.... by david_thornley · 2014-10-06 07:12 · Score: 1

I loved his appearance in the live-action movie, though.

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Don't forget Qubo... by Shirley+Marquez · 2014-10-06 09:09 · Score: 1

Qubo is a broadcast network; it's on the air as a digital sub-channel anywhere there is an ION network station. (Though there are some major cities with no ION station, and some cable systems, notably Comcast, don't carry their sub-channels.) But that's a bit too non-mainstream for Gizmodo to have paid attention to, and in any case the programs are forgettable.

TV is dead. Long live the Internet. by iq145 · 2014-10-06 14:12 · Score: 1

A little depressing, since i grew up with those toons. But on the other hand... YES! i like it. Entirely true. So long, TV. We won't miss you much! The four greatest inventions of mankind that have forever changed the world for the better: 1) The Wheel. 2) The Plow. 3) The Printing Press. 4) The Internet.

Gravity Falls by Kyusaku+Natsume · 2014-10-06 19:52 · Score: 1

Is another incredibly brilliant show from Disney.

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Re:Rose Glasses by drinkypoo · 2014-10-07 01:45 · Score: 1

So it was fine for you to watch and enjoy them as a child but not for a child today because you subscribe to the ridiculous "imitation" dogma?

So it's wrong to want your children to be better than you are? To benefit from your mistakes? The claim was that he enjoyed them, your straw man is that it was "fine".
Logical fallacy detected, comment invalidated. And you are shitting on that handle, not like anyone will care in 100 years, or 100 seconds.

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shape of a pear, shazam! by Hognoxious · 2014-10-12 02:05 · Score: 1

I remember the Banana Splits Show which was more or less a wrapper for loads of cartoons - Arabian Knights was one, I think.

Now whether or not that was before SwapShop & Tiswas I don't know. I reckon I'm a bit older than you, but not that much.

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The Era of Saturday Morning Cartoons Is Dead

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