Saturday Morning Cartoons Are But a Sweet, Sweet Memory

[JohnnyTheFox]

https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/...-are-but-a-sweet--sweet-memory-192052477.html

So, I was potty training my daughter this past Saturday. Going outdoors was not in the cards -- I wanted (needed!) her within 20 feet of a potty at all times. But what to do? How to entertain an ornery toddler for hours in a city apartment on an unseasonably warm day?

And then it hit me -- Saturday morning cartoons.

I turned on the TV only to discover that the beloved product-placement-heavy 'toons of my own youth were no longer on the big networks. In fact, they weren't anywhere. While the cartoon exodus has been going on for years, this past Saturday morning was the first weekend in 50 years with no morning cartoons of any kind on American television's major networks. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Why? The FCC's rules regarding required educational programming played a big part, Gizmodo reports. In the '90s, the FCC started requiring networks to air several hours of educational programming per week. NBC and CBS buried their cartoon efforts in the '90s. ABC held on until 2004, before giving up the ghost. The CW was the final holdout with The Vortexx.


Networks afraid of messing with their prime-time slots found it easiest to cram this required programming in the weekend morning slot. The actual educational content of this live-action programming is sometimes debatable, but it meets the letter of the law.

Cable television and specialty channels also contributed to the extinction, offering kids-focused entertainment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Think Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.

Before you start singing "Goodbye, Scooby Doo" to the tune of "Candle in the Wind," there are (and probably always will be) cartoons a plenty on cable television and streaming devices.

But for Gen Xers who loved waking up at 6:00 am on Saturdays, eating chocolate cereal and then vegging out in front of the TV while your parents begged you to go outside, those days are but a memory.

Future generations will never know the joys.

 

[Phoenix]

Man did I ever love waking up early and settling in for a full morning just overflowing with awesome cartoons! We had the best ones, too, way back in the mid to late 60's and early 70s, back when real cartoons were real cartoons and before all the PC and nanny state crap to dumb therm down kicked in. Saturday morning cartoons, RIP.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Man did I ever love waking up early and settling in for a full morning just overflowing with awesome cartoons! We had the best ones, too, way back in the mid to late 60's and early 70s, back when real cartoons were real cartoons and before all the PC and nanny state crap to dumb therm down kicked in. Saturday morning cartoons, RIP.

Superfriends... Few others... Can't remember lol

 

[big dog cowboy]

But for Gen Xers who loved waking up at 6:00 am on Saturdays, eating chocolate cereal and then vegging out in front of the TV while your parents begged you to go outside, those days are but a memory.

The good old days. Including no remote control or cable TV just crank the knobs on the black and white 17" and hope the rabbit ears were doing thier job.

 

[kimrose]

The good old days. Including no remote control or cable TV just crank the knobs on the black and white 17" and hope the rabbit ears were doing thier job.

That's why grown ups had kids back then. To turn the channels so they didn't have to get up. lol. I used to just park right in front of the tube, so I didn't have to get up either. lol.

The way I see it, though, the cartoons today suck anyway. The old ones are still the best. Scooby (before Scrappy era), Tom & Jerry, Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Heckle and Jeckle, Foghorn Leghorn, Mighty Mouse, Speedy Gonzalez, Speed Racer, Bugs Bunny, all the Looney Tunes gang, etc. How could today's drama and Japanese crap compete with that? Although in the late 90s-00s era, I did love the Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd n Eddy. Especially Courage.

I guess cartoons are a bygone era. The kids today are too focused on their cellphones and ipads to pay attention to the innocence and beauty of youth, anyway. And on that note, I guess we shall let Porky Pig lead the eulogy as we mourn the loss of our beloved Saturday morning and after school old friends:

 

[joseephuss]

The great thing about today's tech is all these cartoons are available to watch on Saturday mornings or at any time. You can find them on YouTube. Netflix is carrying Tom & Jerry.

 

[Phoenix]

Oh man, The Herculoids, Space Ghost, Speed Racer, Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr & the Impossibles, Fantastic Four, Spider Man, Samson and Goliath, Mightor, Jetsons, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny & Road Runner Hour, etc. Even our own Mutley

 

[BigStar]

I remember having to wait out the TV evangelist to get to my Thunder Cats and Ghostbusters. Cartoons shifted from being sketch type shows (Bugs, Tom & Jerry, etc.) to focus on dramatic/comedic series with continuing plots (like TMNT, Ghostbusters, etc following the Flinstones/Jetsons model.) I think that killed some of the randomness/spontaneous outlandish fun that was so appealing with the earlier toons (Wile E. Coyote) was lost when marketing and toy placement become much more prominent.

 

[burmafrd]

and of course who cannot forget the cheapest cartoon of all time

CLUTCH CARGO

 

[Future]

The bigger tragedy is that Sportscenter is a shell of what it used to be.

 

[DallasEast]

The way I see it, though, the cartoons today suck anyway. The old ones are still the best. Scooby (before Scrappy era), Tom & Jerry, Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Heckle and Jeckle, Foghorn Leghorn, Mighty Mouse, Speedy Gonzalez, Speed Racer, Bugs Bunny, all the Looney Tunes gang, etc. How could today's drama and Japanese crap compete with that? Although in the late 90s-00s era, I did love the Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd n Eddy. Especially Courage.

Oh man, The Herculoids, Space Ghost, Speed Racer, Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr & the Impossibles, Fantastic Four, Spider Man, Samson and Goliath, Mightor, Jetsons, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny & Road Runner Hour, etc. Even our own Mutley

I enjoyed (and still do) all of the shows listed above EXCEPT Scooby Doo.

I can't STAND Scooby Doo.

Whenever I hear "Scooby Dooby Doo" or "You meddling kids" my eye starts to twitch.

Worse, my wife is a HUGE Scooby Doo fan. She makes me watch the show whenever she's pissed off with me.

I think my best experiences involving Scooby Doo were parodies of the show in Venture Brothers and Robot Chicken episodes, showing the Scooby gang getting the ax. Hopefully one day some anti-drug campaign will force Hanna Barbara to stop making or re-broadcasting Scooby Doo shows. It's crazy how a couple of potheads like Shaggy and Scooby with super munchies have lasted this long without some sort of moral backlash is really nuts to me. Nothing else explains their inhuman hunger and the show did originate during the 60's after all.

And that's my crazy rant for the day.

 

[Phoenix]

showing the Scooby gang

"Scooby gang" to me means this

 

[MichaelWinicki]

"Scooby gang" to me means this

I remember watching the first Scooby Do series back in like '69.

 

[DallasEast]

"Scooby gang" to me means this

Me too. I pester my wife a lot, saying the real Scooby Gang would have easily made mincemeat out of Dog and Co. BTVS is one of my all-time favorite shows.

Seeing posted images at work can be a pain sometimes. I guess "cosmiccomix.com" is a filtered website for my company's internet, so I see a big red X. My workaround is right clicking on the X, find the web address of the image and type it into my iPhone web browser to view the image. Another mystery to me is why my iPhone will sometimes only show [ IMG ] regardless whether the phone is connected to the hospital's WiFi or not.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

When ever I heard this on Saturday morning, I knew everything was right with the world.

​

 

[Doomsday]

Spider-Man, Super Friends, Richie Rich, Johnny Quest, Popeye and Thunder Cats were some of my favorites.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Bugs Bunny, Schoolhouse Rock, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Tarzan, Scooby Doo Justice League of America were my favourites

 

[RonSpringsdaman20]

Thanks...

I used to be excited for the preview shows that would come on, showing what new cartoons were coming on for the upcoming season....

 

[WV Cowboy]

I guess cartoons are a bygone era. The kids today are too focused on their cellphones and ipads to pay attention to the innocence and beauty of youth, anyway.

I bet even the kids of today would love to watch the old cartoons if they were on, .. but they aren't on anymore and so they never get to see them.

They are stuck with the crap that is on now.

 

[RonSpringsdaman20]

I remember having to wait out the TV evangelist to get to my Thunder Cats and Ghostbusters. Cartoons shifted from being sketch type shows (Bugs, Tom & Jerry, etc.) to focus on dramatic/comedic series with continuing plots (like TMNT, Ghostbusters, etc following the Flinstones/Jetsons model.) I think that killed some of the randomness/spontaneous outlandish fun that was so appealing with the earlier toons (Wile E. Coyote) was lost when marketing and toy placement become much more prominent.

lol