Comments on: RIP Saturday morning cartoons

RIP Saturday morning cartoons

Small Dollar — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:47:19 -0800

Vortexx, the last non-E/I children's Saturday morning programming block on broadcast television, is ending this fall.

By: xtian

xtian — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:52:07 -0800

Whaaa?

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:52:29 -0800

If anyone else was unfamiliar with "E/I", it stands for "educational and informational".

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:54:52 -0800

How on Earth are they supposed to sell cheap plastic toys now?

By: MartinWisse

MartinWisse — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:57:06 -0800

On cable, apparantly.

By: Joakim Ziegler

Joakim Ziegler — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:57:30 -0800

neckro23: "How on Earth are they supposed to sell cheap plastic toys now?" Celebrity tie-ins.

By: NoxAeternum

NoxAeternum — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:59:19 -0800

They don't need the broadcast blocs anymore, because there are other ways to show their wares. Why do you think Hasbro went halvsies with Discovery on a network?

By: xtian

xtian — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:01:30 -0800

I just can't imagine being a kid, waking up, and going straight into playing with your toys. Cartoons are a buffer to the weekend. A mark for the end of the school week....

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:05:51 -0800

oh. my. god. i don't have a tv, but ... oh. my. god. - no saturday morning cartoons on network tv? wow, do i feel old and out of touch - when did this happen?

By: Kevin Street

Kevin Street — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:08:18 -0800

Everything is on demand now. Even little kids know how to stream cartoons.

By: NoxAeternum

NoxAeternum — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:11:49 -0800

Well, there are still Saturday morning blocs. It's just that they're not on the Big 3 anymore, but on cable networks geared towards airing that sort of content (CN/Hub/Nick/etc.)

By: mediocre

mediocre — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:20:50 -0800

If its any consolation, E/I has a pretty broad application. I've seen My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Saved By The Bell aired as E/I recently. So it's not like strictly cartoony cartoons like Camp Candy are going away.

By: running order squabble fest

running order squabble fest — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:25:48 -0800

RELUCTANTLY HEALTHY: Comedy actress Judy Greer shares special tips and advice on how to stay healthy while on-the go. Whut.

By: Trochanter

Trochanter — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:27:28 -0800

How on Earth are they supposed to sell cheap plastic toys now? The entire movie industry? (Get the Django Unchained Sam Jackson with exploding kneecaps!)

By: Our Ship Of The Imagination!

Our Ship Of The Imagination! — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:29:20 -0800

Eh, good riddance. I would have loved to be able to watch what I want when I want when I was a kid. I bet that way I would never have had to see that sports cartoon with Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan and could have simply watched Reboot over and over like I was meant to.

By: mediocre

mediocre — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:32:04 -0800

Philistine! Bo Jackson was also part of that team!

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:35:34 -0800

Dr. Pol Pot: Join Dr. Pol Pot as he gives viewers a unique look into the care and treatment of nearsighted agrarian workers.

By: pashdown

pashdown — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:38:58 -0800

My kids have "Annoying Orange" and "Minecraft" cheap plastic toys. The Internets is a 24/7 Saturday morning.

By: namewithoutwords

namewithoutwords — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:55:44 -0800

My kids have "Annoying Orange" and "Minecraft" cheap plastic toys. The Internets is a 24/7 Saturday morning." Quoted For Truth. As Ernest Cline explained, kids today have no idea how good they have it. (audio somewhat NSFW in certain moments)

By: Gringos Without Borders

Gringos Without Borders — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:29:57 -0800

oh. my. god. i don't have a tv, but ... You know who else didn't have a TV?

By: mr. digits

mr. digits — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:48:11 -0800

Winsor McCay?

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:51:06 -0800

adolf hitler? godwin!

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:56:49 -0800

> You know who else didn't have a TV? Is this a joke I would need a TV to understand?

By: SharkParty

SharkParty — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:17:07 -0800

For me, a lot of my weirder (and therefore better) TV memories revolve around being puzzled or hateful towards the oddball shows that would probably not make it in an on-demand entertainment universe... like I get a lot of wistful mileage out of shitshows like Denver the Last Dinosaur and Beverly Hills Teens. In fact I am not entirely sure that Street Frogs would have even existed in today's world and that's not a timeline I want to live in.

By: thelonius

thelonius — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:21:26 -0800

/pours bowl of King Vitamin for homies

By: bleep

bleep — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:28:32 -0800

Denver, the last dinosaur, showed you a world you never saw before! How is that not educational?

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:29:48 -0800

As much as I liked Saturday morning cartoons, they were dead the day the networks started ripping the credits off the Looney Tunes episodes, showing bits and pieces but never full episodes. It was downhill from there. My son has known how to find cartoons on Netflix for years now. Good cartoons, no advertising, it's a win all around.

By: running order squabble fest

running order squabble fest — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:31:26 -0800

Philistine! Bo Jackson was also part of that team! [A single tear rolls down animated Bo Jackson's face. "Bo knows baseball... but who knows Bo?", he asks the sky.]

By: branduno

branduno — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:59:22 -0800

Here is what used to happen to me as a kid in the mid nineties: The new season of Gargoyles is premiering on Saturday morning. Great! TV Guide or whatever says it will premier on such-a-day at whatever o'clock. I'm up and ready! I turn on the TV... and instead an adult panel discussion show called Puerto Rican Panorama has preempted it. It's not on for the rest of the morning either. Or the rest of the month. I cannot tell you how much, as a kid, I was looking forward to the third season of Gargoyles, and to have it preempted for a world events panel show was harrowing. This same thing happened when I tried to watch Mega Man. Never mind that both the Saturday morning version of Gargoyles and Mega Man turned out to be awful! I didn't even find that out for ages afterward, because I could never figure out when or if they were ever on! Streaming services would have saved me a lot of grief as a child; I'd have been able to find out shows I wanted to watch were terrible right away, instead of having to wait months or years, building up the idea of the show in my head. I don't know that the traditional scheduled Saturday morning program block has much place in today's world, and I can't say I think that's a bad thing.

By: codswallop

codswallop — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:09:58 -0800

I don't know that the traditional scheduled Saturday morning program block has much place in today's world, and I can't say I think that's a bad thing. You were a kid in the 90s? You're way too young to be so cold and heartless.

By: strangely stunted trees

strangely stunted trees — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:13:41 -0800

Do kids nowadays even know what broadcast TV is?

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:19:06 -0800

In fact I am not entirely sure that Street Frogs would have even existed in today's world and that's not a timeline I want to live in. I know! People don't even believe me when I tell them about Street Frogs, but it was part of the Comic Strip along with Karate Cat, Camp Mini-Mon and (best of all) Tigersharks.

By: branduno

branduno — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:22:08 -0800

You're way too young to be so cold and heartless. I was really disappointed that they preempted Gargoyles. That's the kind of thing that sticks with you.

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:38:39 -0800

All I remember about Saturday mornings was waaay too little Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, waaay to much goddamn motherfucking Smurfs. At this very moment my kid is watching his way through one of the PowerRangers series on Netflix. It's ridiculous but harmless, and no toy commercials other than the show itself. You know what I just found on Netflix? ALL OF BEAKMAN'S WORLD. I loved the hell out of that show, but seemed to just miss it most of the time. And it's still really good; tight jokes and good science. And a guy in a rat suit. I haven't gone to look but what would really make my day is if they get Hey Vern! It's Ernest, one of my favorite unappreciated kids' shows ever.

By: 1970s Antihero

1970s Antihero — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:41:35 -0800

Pours a box of Lucky Charms.

By: Meep! Eek!

Meep! Eek! — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:47:27 -0800

Hulu just put up the old Star Trek The Animated Series. You can't go back, but you can be nostalgic. And I think I'll make my cereal Quisp.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:00:32 -0800

So what of that boon companion, that men called Grape Ape? To whom shall we look for protection, if not those stalwarts of the Justice League and their poorly-drawn flying sequences when responding to far-off danger? With the venerable Olympic games and World Cup soiled by base greed, cannot I look to the Laffalympics for a shining light of hope? It is to weep.

By: Ndwright

Ndwright — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:00:51 -0800

I can't imagine a childhood in which I could just see all the X-men cartoon episodes in a row without having to watch those interminable Savage Lands bits on seemingly endless repeat. It would have been heavenly. A boy can dream.

By: droplet

droplet — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:11:37 -0800

I thought Saturday morning cartoons died in the late 90s, no? Alas. The only cartoon shows I liked back in the day were the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and Schoolhouse Rock. That Hanna-Barbera style limited animation drove me nuts, though I wouldn't know why until I had a couple classes on it at uni. I preferred live action. For me it was all about the Saturday morning Krofft shows in the 70s to Pee-Wee's Playhouse in the 80s. If you asked me at 3 or 4 what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have sworn it'd be a Bugaloo.

By: TheSecretDecoderRing

TheSecretDecoderRing — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:29:20 -0800

Wikipedia actually has the season schedules for past Saturday mornings. I dunno when the 80s golden age began, but 1984 looked pretty good. It's weird how I have no memory of a lot of those shows, or of the agony of having to strategize over what show to watch per time slot.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:31:56 -0800

I thought CW was entirely a cable channel anyway. Shows what I know about TV anymore.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:37:18 -0800

Saturday mornings were fun, but Sunday mornings were all about Rocky & Bullwinkle before the sun was up.

By: boilermonster

boilermonster — Fri, 30 May 2014 20:58:20 -0800

I was too old to like the bugaloos ,they were roundly mocked in my circle. The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse were awesome ,and so was Pee-Wee. The stuff I grew up with was Stop that pigeon and Wacky Racers.

By: madajb

madajb — Fri, 30 May 2014 22:45:58 -0800

My PBS station still has a traditional (well, except for the" sell lots of plastic crap" part) Saturday morning. Tomorrow morning is: Sesame Street Curious George Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That! WordWorld Bob the Builder Cyberchase The Electric Company Though, like a lot of folk's children these days, my kid can't really conceive of not being able to watch exactly what she wants to watch exactly when she wants to watch it.

By: symbioid

symbioid — Fri, 30 May 2014 23:24:50 -0800

pyramid termite: "oh. my. god. i don't have a tv, but ... oh. my. god. - no saturday morning cartoons on network tv? wow, do i feel old and out of touch - when did this happen?" I dunno - it seems like it's been that way since the late 90s. I can recall sitting down around 1998, flipping on the tube saturday and it was like Pee-Wee's comeback show, Saved by the Bell(?) or some other sorta live action thing, and honestly if there was any cartoon it was pretty shitty, because I felt like there was NOTHING on besides those few live action shows. I think the last bit of real saturday morning cartoons was the early-mid 90s. You still had a lot of afterschool cartoonage with digimon/pokemon and other assorted things, but I think between the intertubes, other entertainment options (video games, portable devices, netflix, dvds, and the expansion of cable to many places that previously didn't have a lot of access (I grew up in the countryside in the 70s-90s and didn't have access to much beyond the big 3/4 and a few local stations, and if i was lucky I got some stuff from Chicago or Milwaukee on a beautiful summer day)) Times change. It's a real fucking shame, frankly. Saturday morning cartoons had some awesome shit (but to be fair, they had some really horrible shit). In some ways I think the cartoons that are out these days are definitely more sophisticated and mature, but then I see the reboot of Voltron and think we took a step backwards. Which is a damn shame, because I had such high hopes. And, if we're talking Saturday Morning Cartoons, I can't go without linking to DJ Z-Trip's "Breakfast Club (featuring Murs & Supernatural)"

By: symbioid

symbioid — Fri, 30 May 2014 23:27:33 -0800

boilermonster: "I was too old to like the bugaloos ,they were roundly mocked in my circle. The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse " OH man - I grew up in a fundie house, and my church had a radio station and there was some sort of "Media analysis" magazine we got (probably James Dobson? I dunno some bullshit fundie thing). I remember reading the article gasping at the horrible Ralph Bakshi and his infiltration of the youth and how clearly Mighty Mouse did cocaine in one of the new episodes and we must morality police our saturday morning cartoons! Ah yes, of course... Wikipedia has an entry... Remember Pirates of Darkwater? That shit was the fucking bomb for its time!

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Fri, 30 May 2014 23:45:06 -0800

It's both sand and kind of funny to me, because I think as far as members of the Reconstructionist generation are concerned, Saturday morning cartoons kind of petered out in the 80s, when ABC and NBC stopped showing rival "Saturday Morning Preview" specials in prime-time around the time school started. (Although I see they continued for years afterwards on ABC.) By the time "'90s kids" were old enough for Saturday morning cartoons, NBC had already put Today on seven days a week. We were already on our first wave of Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia. I didn't even realize any broadcast network of any tier was still doing a Saturday morning cartoon block. The kids I know crank up the on demand Adventure Time or what have you before they even pour a bowl a cereal.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Sat, 31 May 2014 00:35:22 -0800

Children's programming on Saturday mornings rose to prominence on the broadcast networks in the early 1960's with the likes of Captain Kangaroo, Mighty Mouse Playhouse, Top Cat, and The Bugs Bunny Show. Just as an aside, the 1960s cartoon Top Cat seems to have had a cult following in Mexico and other Latin American countries (shown as Don Gato y Su Pandilla). In fact, in 2011 they made a Top Cat movie which was a hit.

By: TheSecretDecoderRing

TheSecretDecoderRing — Sat, 31 May 2014 00:50:42 -0800

Seems like Fox kept the Saturday morning thing going in the mid-90s with stuff like the first X-Men, and the Tick. I guess by then cable was pretty standard, so kids had enough channels for them all day, every day, and it stopped being worth it for the networks. Even in the mid-80s, though, we did have Nick and (what was then) Disney, but there was still never any hesitation in waking up before sunrise to watch the network shows on Saturdays. It was an event you waited all week for, even if it was reruns. And when they randomly showed kids' fare in the afternoon, that was a whole 'nother level.

By: ShutterBun

ShutterBun — Sat, 31 May 2014 01:01:35 -0800

Let me just say: ZOINKS!

By: madajb

madajb — Sat, 31 May 2014 01:14:32 -0800

oh. my. god. - no saturday morning cartoons on network tv? wow, do i feel old and out of touch - when did this happen?" They slowly been phased out since the Children's Television Act in 1990. (Revised in 1996, so the mid-90s were the beginning of the real decline) Basically, the stations are required to air Educational/Informative (E/I) programs, and the place they dump them is Saturday morning. The FCC also enacted very strict rules on commercial tie-ins during programming, so you can't, for instance, air commercials for GI Joe cereal during the GI Joe cartoon. This is also why every now and again, they air that "For a copy of our children's report, please visit our station" blurb.

By: xtian

xtian — Sat, 31 May 2014 04:01:40 -0800

pyramid termite wow, do i feel old and out of touch - when did this happen? When the dot com bubble burst in 2001 in CA, I found myself regressing to childhood mentality and income. I recall Bionicle and VeggieTales were well animated and had interesting characters. But I was also Replaying Adult Swim, so I prolly have a distorted memory. The funny thing was I kept thinking I wasn't getting up early enough to see the really good cartoons...hmmm...

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Sat, 31 May 2014 05:37:47 -0800

It's a shame that in 20 years time 30 year olds will be nostalgic for the wrong damn GI Joe movie.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Sat, 31 May 2014 06:32:31 -0800

People don't even believe me when I tell them about Street Frogs I have all sorts of crazy nostalgia for Street Frogs, simply because I witnessed its existence. I feel the same way about The Harlem Globetrotters Meet Snow White. If you can make an impressionable seven-year-old kid scratch her head, you know you've created something seriously bizarre.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Sat, 31 May 2014 08:38:34 -0800

It's called Disney Junior now.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Sat, 31 May 2014 08:49:04 -0800

Saturday mornings were *all* about the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner cartoons. And other cartoons, too, but Bugs and friends were the best. You could tell the cartoons were over for the day when Candlepin Bowling came on. But in the afternoon, there was still the Creature Double Feature to look forward to for cheezey 60's sf.

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Sat, 31 May 2014 09:00:52 -0800

It's weird how I have no memory of a lot of those shows, or of the agony of having to strategize over what show to watch per time slot. Man, looking at that Wikipedia page, I remember my 1984 Saturday morning viewing strategy: Snorks, Pink Panther, Muppet Babies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kidd Video, The Littles (though sometimes I'd watch Mr. T instead), Bugs Bunny. In 85, I tended to go for the CBS Storybreak over Kidd Video.

By: flyingsquirrel

flyingsquirrel — Sat, 31 May 2014 09:01:19 -0800

Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of my childhood in the 70s! Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones... but usually I was awake before they started, and watched Frederick K. Price doing his early televangelist schtick until the 'toons started. (This was probably a New York/tri-state regional thing.) I remember being just as fascinated by him as by the cartoons; as an adult now I can see that he was just another cartoon. Ah, the days of 13" TVs and faux wood and knobs and static and cereal and camping out under the pullout couch early in the morning with my pillow and my blankie when visiting my dad at his dingy apartment in the city... I actually feel really grateful that I got to experience all that. Well, the TV part anyway. The divorce/only-child thing kind of sucked.

By: downtohisturtles

downtohisturtles — Sat, 31 May 2014 09:07:43 -0800

Muppet Babies vs. Gummi Bears vs. Camp Candy? I don't know how I ever made a decision...

By: DirtyOldTown

DirtyOldTown — Sat, 31 May 2014 09:17:27 -0800

I started to do an entire rant to my family this morning on Saturday morning cartoons, about how inconceivable it would to a kid today that we only got cartoons once a week. Kids these days don't know how good they have it, that kind of thing. Then I remembered my partner grew up in communist Romania and they had twenty minutes of cartoons every week.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Sat, 31 May 2014 10:29:48 -0800

emjaybee: You know what I just found on Netflix? ALL OF BEAKMAN'S WORLD. Damnit. I had things to do this weekend.

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Sat, 31 May 2014 12:36:26 -0800

PenDevil: “It's a shame that in 20 years time 30 year olds will be nostalgic for the wrong damn GI Joe movie.”

On the other hand, they won't fondly remember Far Out Space Nuts, so…

By: TheSecretDecoderRing

TheSecretDecoderRing — Sat, 31 May 2014 14:12:58 -0800

Not just GI Joe, but even more so, Transformers. Along with a long list of other franchises destroyed by Hollywood. In retrospect, a lot of those old cartoons may not be as good as they were at the time. Yet for some reason these modern movie adaptations never improve on it, which wouldn't seem that hard to do.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 31 May 2014 14:37:51 -0800

I actually think the Sommers G.I. Joe film is entirely successful in that it feels like a big budget, live action Saturday morning cartoon. Very silly and charming. The Transformers franchise, on the other hand, is just unpleasant from top to bottom.

By: happyroach

happyroach — Sat, 31 May 2014 15:57:59 -0800

The Speed Racer film was actually an excellent recreation of the TV show...which is why movie audiences looked at it and said "What the hell IS this?" For me, Saturday morning was: "Ohboy! I'm gonna watch Space Academy!" "Daddy's "sick" again, so we're going to watch the PGA finals." For afternoon, it was "Ohboy! I'm gonna watch the monster movie marathon!" "Daddy's still under the weather, so we're going to watch tennis. Go play in the yard for the next two hours." 80s: "Fuck Saturday morning, where it's at its 3:00 Monday thru Friday, because that's when ROBOTECH is on!" Now I'm gonna go inside, and watch 3 hours of "Chaika the Coffin Princess", and then maybe "Rodan". I didn't even have to get up this morning. Life is good.

By: Alexandra Kitty

Alexandra Kitty — Sat, 31 May 2014 16:41:32 -0800

How on Earth are they supposed to sell cheap plastic toys now? Cartoons and talk shows are just one big advertising broken up by smaller advertising in between...

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 16:37:33 -0800

re: Disney, I spent the weekend with my young nephew, who appears to watch nothing but Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and I have to say that it's a goddamn shame what they've done to Captain Hook. He's not even as scary as Snidely Whiplash anymore. He is simply a hapless character who gets chastised by irritating children in fake pirate clothes whenever he weakly attempts to do something un-neighborly. I am not even a big fan of Peter Pan (book or movie) but I still dislike what's been done to it. It's the same dynamic in shows like Dinosaur Train and SuperWhy: "Let's remove all traces of darkness from these things (like the fact that carnivorous dinosaurs ate other dinosaurs instead of being friends with them, or that there were actual villains in fairy tales), and instead use them to teach saccharine life lessons." It's like evil corporate fan fiction; let's take established characters and turn them into puppets to say whatever banal thing we like regardless of the violence it does to the original narrative.

By: flyingsquirrel

flyingsquirrel — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 19:18:23 -0800

Apropos of nothing, I bought a vintage early 1970s Underdog juice glass at our local flea market today, and it made me inordinately happy.