RIP Saturday Morning Cartoons

[King Kamala]

http://www.slashfilm.com/saturday-morning-cartoons-dead/
I'm surprised a bigger deal hasn't been made of this. I guess not. People old enough to care about this ending aren't up at 8 A.M. and people young enough to actually watch Saturday morning cartoons are probably watching cable. Today was the first Saturday without Saturday morning cartoons in 50 plus years. The last holdout CW ended their Saturday Morning cartoon block last weekend.

http://youtu.be/xMDBW0XoIig

 

[Baby Shoes]

Obama's America

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

With cartoons on cable, on demand and the internet, I'm surprised it took this long to happen.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

With cartoons on cable, on demand and the internet, I'm surprised it took this long to happen.

This. There's an entire network dedicated to cartoons on basic cable (and fuck what anybody says, most of their current originals are great), a couple other ones on expanded packages, and Nickelodeon still has a few going.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

My nephews still watch cartoons all the friggin' time on TV; there's always cartoons on these days, no matter what time/day it is, really.

That said, I'm curious if this was a local thing only, or if everyone experienced this: For a long period of time, whatever the best cartoon of the day was (I know it was Ghostbusters for a while, then Ninja Turtles, and eventually Batman TAS) , it would air at noon on weekdays. I think there was another cartoon on after it usually, but I can't recall properly. I *do* remember, for a period of years, going to my babysitter's after school and asking "didja tape it?" as soon as I walked in.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

With cartoons on cable, on demand and the internet, I'm surprised it took this long to happen.

This. There's an entire network dedicated to cartoons on basic cable (and fuck what anybody says, most of their current originals are great), a couple other ones on expanded packages, and Nickelodeon still has a few going.

Well, fine, I'll say it anyway, then: those cartoons are all shitty, though.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

My nephews still watch cartoons all the friggin' time on TV; there's always cartoons on these days, no matter what time/day it is, really.

That said, I'm curious if this was a local thing only, or if everyone experienced this: For a long period of time, whatever the best cartoon of the day was (I know it was Ghostbusters for a while, then Ninja Turtles, and eventually Batman TAS) , it would air at noon on weekdays. I think there was another cartoon on after it usually, but I can't recall properly. I *do* remember, for a period of years, going to my babysitter's after school and asking "didja tape it?" as soon as I walked in.

That may be a Canadian thing: in northern Illinois, back when I last needed a babysitter (early '80s), there was no such thing as cartoons on during the middle of the weekday. You couldn't even watch cartoons on PBS, unless you count Sesame Street as a cartoon. Hell, even Nickelodeon only had Pinwheel on at that time of the day.

 

[tekcop]

Yeah, there were no cartoons on broadcast TV during the middle of the day. I less than fondly remember the dark period from about 7AM to 3PM where my choices were soap operas, PBS stuff, or Jerry Springer-like shows back when I was around 8-10.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Yeah, there were no cartoons on broadcast TV during the middle of the day. I less than fondly remember the dark period from about 7AM to 3PM where my choices were soap operas, PBS stuff, or Jerry Springer-like shows back when I was around 8-10.

You had choices? When I was on summer vacation, it was one of my "chores" to record my mom's soaps (my sister and I alternated weeks), and "edit" out the commercials.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

With cartoons on cable, on demand and the internet, I'm surprised it took this long to happen.

This. There's an entire network dedicated to cartoons on basic cable (and fuck what anybody says, most of their current originals are great), a couple other ones on expanded packages, and Nickelodeon still has a few going.

Well, fine, I'll say it anyway, then: those cartoons are all shitty, though.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Well, you're closer to my son's age than you are to mine, so maybe it's a generational thing.

 

[alfdogg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywTZ3xgReiM

NEVER FORGET

 

[Jingus]

Well, fine, I'll say it anyway, then: those cartoons are all shitty, though.

Are you made of schadenfreude? Did they grow you in a lab?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Why, because I don't like what passes for cartoons on CN? Is that not allowed?

 

[Youth N Asia]

I was always up way too early just to make sure I wouldn't miss cartoons in the morning. I'd often sit through The 700 Club because it was often on before the cartoons. Sometimes old Little Rascals and Three Stooges episodes would be on instead.

I'm also surprised that this didn't happen sooner. As a kid it was pretty much NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS. I'm glad I didn't have the choices that kids have today.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

The choices kids have today has made it so shyte like Stone Protectors doesn't happen.

 

[chuck415]

It's been dead for a while now anyway. With DVR and Netflix my kids can watch any cartoon they want anytime they want. I envy them and pity them at the same time.

 

[CanadianGuitarist]

Yeah, there were no cartoons on broadcast TV during the middle of the day. I less than fondly remember the dark period from about 7AM to 3PM where my choices were soap operas, PBS stuff, or Jerry Springer-like shows back when I was around 8-10.

You had choices? When I was on summer vacation, it was one of my "chores" to record my mom's soaps (my sister and I alternated weeks), and "edit" out the commercials.

It's not keeping me up at night, but I still feel guilty about something along those lines:

My great grandmother was already retired when I was born in 1984. While my mom and dad were still together, they both worked days (for the most part), so my great grandmother would watch us at her place fairly often in the summer. Nanny always watched All My Children on CBC at 1pm and Another World on CTV at 2pm. One day, the Blue Jays were playing an afternoon game on CTV, which I wanted to watch, so I didn't bother to tell her Another World was also on NBC at the same time. I still feel kinda badly about it, and this happened in 1992.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

How'd you pick up American channels, too? Did you grow up by the border, or is that just how y'all roll in Canada?

 

[CanadianGuitarist]

Yep. I live in St Catharines, Ontario. It's only about five minutes from the U.S. as the crow flies. 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

 

[Lazgistics Supervisor]

You love our freedom that much, huh?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Yep. I live in St Catharines, Ontario. It's only about five minutes from the U.S. as the crow flies. 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

I picked up Rochester and Buffalo from across Lake Ontario. Hell, I could get Buffalo on the antenna at my cottage in the Kawarthas.

 

[Incandenza]

There was a brief period when I was a child where we didn't have cable. There were plenty of programs to choose from on Saturday mornings, but Sundays were dire. I would end up watching Sesame Street, a show I was at least a year or two too old for at that point. Eventually we got cable, so I was able to watch the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons TBS would run on Sundays.

But this thread is about Saturday morning TV, isn't it?

 

[King Kamala]

I'm in a Wikipedia wormhole and finding out that Tales From The Crypt had not one, not two but three Saturday morning kids show adaptations (including a game show version).

Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Tales from the Cryptkeeper - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Uh...this is probably even more inexplicable than RoboCop and Rambo getting Saturday morning cartoons. Did people confuse children being terrified of the Cryptkeeper as them really wanting to see him?

 

[tekcop]

I was really into them at the time tbh. Wonder how they hold up.

 

[Brocklock]

Tales From The Cryptkeeper was streaming on Tubi. Don't know if it still is.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I'm in a Wikipedia wormhole and finding out that Tales From The Crypt had not one, not two but three Saturday morning kids show adaptations (including a game show version).

Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Tales from the Cryptkeeper - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Uh...this is probably even more inexplicable than RoboCop and Rambo getting Saturday morning cartoons. Did people confuse children being terrified of the Cryptkeeper as them really wanting to see him?

Goosebumps was hot in 1992 and onward, so execs looked for more spooky properties to get in on the action is my guess.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Also, kids always enjoy horror-themed/tinged cartoon stuff even going back to the Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Aah! Real Monsters, etc. Throw that with getting an IP that can be made "kid friendly" simply because it's a cartoon and voila.

Even in the modern-day there's been shows like Danny Phantom, Adventure Time, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, etc.

 

[Valeyard]

Keep em. Kids today are missing the good shit like Biker Mice From Mars.

 

[King Kamala]

Listening to the TV Guide podcast I occasionally listen to and man, some Xers sure like to falsely assume Saturday morning cartoons stopped existing after they grew up. I'm not going to lie and pretend they didn't peak in the '80s but they were definitely still fairly relevant up until at least the late '90s.

I will not abide by this Fox Kids and ABC's One Saturday Morning erasure. I'm going to stomp a Sonic Youth CD in protest.

Looking up Wikipedia, I'm amazed to discover One Saturday Morning lasted until 2011! Although it looks like it mostly aired Disney Channel reruns from '06 on. Fox Kids only lasted until 2002. I would not have predicted Saturday Morning programming lasting almost a decade longer on ABC than FOX.