El-Kabong

So in giddy anticipation of the Schoolhouse Rock DVD that gets released today, and the worked up over the news of the Land of the Lost boxed set, last weekend I decided that I'd do something I hadn't done in several years now. I decided that I'd get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, get my big bowl of Honeycomb, and watch Saturday morning cartoons.

I settle in, pour the milk, flick on the TV and. . . . nothing. Sports. News. Sports news. Infomercials. More sports. Everything on the map under the sun but kids shows. Oh sure there was Fox kids with a two hour block of Pokemon, followed up by a two hour block of Digimon, followed up by like six hours of Dragonball Z - but that was about it. Checking the TV listings for the last couple of weeks (and the next couple of upcoming weeks) reveals that this is NOT a fluke, and that cartoons no longer exist.

What the hell? Where did Saturday morning cartoons go?

Where did the days of surfing back and forth between the Big Three go - that if you didn't like My Little Pony, you could bail off and catch He-man just next door (surfing back, of course during the commercials. Must have maximum entertainment, right?) I mean, it wasn't THAT long ago when I was still watching Saturdays - probably, what 1999 or so, Pinky and the Brain, Superman/Batman and Escaflowne were the last couple of series I watched. Hell, at the very least I'd have thought that the Loony Toons would have been running until the sun grew cold - but even they've fallen off the radar.

I mean, I'm not so naive (or optimistic) to think that Superfriends or Smurfs would still be running in todays market - but a complete lack of anything? Saturday morning was our common bond in the 70's and 80's -

I weep for today's children.

Dimension X

Did you try the Cartoon Network?

Here's their schedule for next Saturday morning (aug. 31).

Cat

It was a few years ago that I first started noticing the decline of Saturday morning cartoons. One of the local networks stopped carrying cartoons on Saturday and instead shows a 3 hour news show. I couldn't believe it! It has increasingly gone down hill over the years. I remember getting up as early as 6:30am on Saturdays and would watch cartoons until 11 or 12 in the afternoon! All the weird stuff used to come on early mornings, like Smurfs and Alvin and the chipmunks, then mid morning Super Friends, Tarzan, Zorro would all come on and the the morning would end up with 2 hours of Looney Tunes. There was no need to go outside on Saturdays until after all the cartoons were done for the day. Now, all cartoons basically suck butt. Pokemon, Digimon, Card Captors and a variety of other cheap japanese imports. What happened?

Cat

Blaster1

I know. There used to be cartoons on from about 5am on until 11am on Saturdays and Sundays, but now it is just crap. I guess networks assume most people have cable and get the kids channels now like Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.

Rascal

Maybe kids stay up late Friday night watching "R" movies, so they don't get up in time for Sat. morning cartoons.

So, do they still have cartoons weekday afternoons, or did those go away as well?

I too have many cartoon memories....

Lampei

Buzz Lightyear is my only afternoon cartoon I watch.

Mopower

From what I've seen CBS and ABC has shows for 3 year olds. NBC has teen live action crap. And FOX has Pokemon, Digimon, and a bunch of other shows with magical cards and crap like that. I wouldn't be happy if I was a kid. But now that most kids have cable or satillite why would you watch the big four networks anyway?

Andalusia

Oh Saturday morning, you used to be a glorious past-time. But time has changed you, my friend. I can't even recognize the vast wasteland you've become.

Rypro 525

i thought pokemon came on the wb network, did they change it.

sho kosugi

Fox Kids (or ABS Family, I forget which) shows the 90's Spider-man, X-men, Hulk, as well as Spider-man and his Amazing Friends, & Big Guy & Rusty on Sat morning


Can't beat that.

freedexter

No, it's on the WB. It's pretty easy to confuse Digimon and Pokemon, you know, with the "mon" and all. They also have a "new" Scobby-Doo series coming next month.

After "Saved by the Bell" ended, I don't think anybody watched NBC's teen lineup, "TNBC". Most of those shows borrowed storylines from each other, so it was the same plot, different pretty face. That's why it's ending, I think the Discovery Channel is replacing the line up. CBS also got rid of all their stuff, and Nickelodeon will air some of their programming. Same thing with ABC, now they will air a good deal of what Disney Channel has. Then again, they are only changing from "Disney's One Saturday Morning" to "ABC Kids". I forgot what FOX was doing, but they will also replace their stuff due to low ratings.

B.A.

Do kids these days even know what a Smurf is? if not, I think that is tragic.

I think the Saturday morning cartoon marathons gradually started to decline in the '90s as the after-school cartoon hours during the week picked up steam, particularly the Disney Afternoon w/ good shows like the Gummi Bears, Duck Tales (Woohoo!), Chip 'n Dales Rescue Rangers, Tale Spin, the late great Darkwing Duck, etc...and then the WB afternoon shows took over like Tiny Toons, and the excellent Pinky and the Brain. Mind you, these shows were all quality 'toons, but why in the hell couldn't they put them on for six hours (at least) on a saturday morning we will never no.

I still am mad at the tv execs and parents who decided crap like Blues Clues, and so forth, was a good idea for the children (who shouldn't watch too much tv, which is funny because kids watch more tv now, when I was a kid the only time I watched tv was on a Saturday morning, or when HBO had on Fraggle Rock)

I am like the rest of you, who are old enough anyway, that long for the glory days when you could wake up on a Saturday morning before the parents, before the sun and sit on the floor glued to the tv and the aforementioned three networks for hours, only to get up to eat (in front of the tv, too)pancakes, eat cereal, and pee if you dared miss anything

now I am depressed

Mister Beefhead

Saturday morning cartoons! Oh, how I mourn for you.

I remember my friends and I noticing them slipping away a few years back..actually, like six or seven years back. What the heck happened? I mean, I remember when the saturday morning cartoons were such an event that there would be previews for the new season's shows on the previous friday night...

Can we ret a sound off of all the saturday morning cartoons everyone remembers? Good or bad.

Garfield and Friends
The Real Ghostbusters
The Smurfs
Galaxy High
Saturday Morning Storybreak (or something like that)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Gummi Bears
Loony Tunes
Dungeons and Dragons
Pole Position
The Snorks
Camp Candy
Teen Wolf
The Incredible Hulk
Muppet Babies
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Beetlejuice
Captain N
Inspector Gadget
Pee-wee's Playhouse (not a cartoon)

That's all I can remember offhand. Oh man, to be able to have just one more saturday morning, circa 1986, sitting cross-legged on the floor two feet from the TV...

I remember that when you got up really early (like 4:30) you'd have to watch stuff like Picture Pages and The New Zoo Review until the good stuff came on at 7:00...

Man, I'm bummed now.

UAIOE

Don't forget the ALF cartoon.


This sucks...the greatest thing about Saturdays is gone.

I never got up early enough for the good stuff. Sometimes (way back...like 1990-1) i would get up for the Super Mario show.

As i got older (around 12 or 13) i would always get up late and end up watching the X-men cartoon.

That X-men cartoon rules. I'm not even a huge X-men fan and i still watched that cartoon.


Now i understand why todays kids will grow up unhappy and petulant...no Saturday Cartoons

WarriorPrincess

I like Teamo Supremo on ABC on Sat mornings (if you like the PPG or dexter's lab you might like it, too). It's just that the cartoons air from like 5 am to 8 am now and that's pretty much it outside of the cartoon specialty stations (CN, Boomerang, Disney, etc.).

But I feel your pain - we children of the 70's and 80's lived in a golden saturday morning era.

Oh, and I too am SO excited to have picked up Schoolhouse Rock today - time to go watch some more!

Jackskeleton

they died out. I noticed this some years back when out of no where, all the sat. morning cartoons sucked arse. it just got a whole lot worse.

I guess I grew up.

El-Kabong

Well, I got a chance to watch most of Schoolhouse Rock yesterday - oh man, did that bring back memories. I'd forgotten how cool they all are. Even the brand new one they did just last year rocked.

Favorites from years past -

Well, anything Sid and Marty Kroftt touched was pure gold in my eyes. Land of the Lost, of course - but Lost Saucer, Far Out Space Nuts, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, HR Pufnstuf (tho I must admit that it wasnt my favorite) - they all rocked.

There was the filmation live action stuff too - Ark 2, Jason of Star Command, Isis and Shazam. Those were helluva fun, too - and I'd pay top dollar to have them on disc.

Transformers and GI Joe dominated the early 80's for me - tho I was more of a Joe man m'self. I do have to give mad props to Nickelodeon and their constant airing of Dangermouse. Thank god for my region free player, so I can still enjoy my DM.

But of everything that I was addicted to, the king of Saturday Mornings has to be the Real Ghostbusters. My first exposure to J. Michael Straczynski's amazing gift of storytelling. I would gladly kill three people of Columbia home video's choosing to get this series on disc.

Andalusia

Yeah, "Real Ghostbusters" was good stuff, especially in the first season, when Lorenzo Music was doing Peter's voice. And before it became more of a kiddie show based around Slimer.

mllefoo

You just can't beat The Drak Pack, Gilligan's Planet, and Dark Star.

I used to get up at the butt crack of dawn, start out watching The Pink Panther, any Hanna Barbera piece of crap, Looney Toons, Fat Albert, Sid and Marty Kroft crap, some of the live action stuff like Isis, and Shazaam!, and the TV would eventually get turned off when Soul Train came on. By then it was 1pm and my mom was pushing me out the door with that tired old "you need fresh air" line.

I have a theory about Saturday Morning Cartoons. The big four stopped showing the toons because the generation who grew up on the toons stopped getting up early enough to watch. Then that generation all got cable and wind up watching it all on Cartoon Network anyway.

I still don't understand the appeal behind Rugrats or Hey Arnold. Invader Zim is pretty cool though.

iggystar

Man, those were the days. I watched them all, the good, bad and ugly. Strawberry Shortcake, Mr. T, The Snorks, Fat Albert, Wacky Racers, Super Friends, Captain Caveman, Pac-Man, Punky Brewster. The Saturday morning schedule was so big that the networks would air a fall preview special highlighting the new shows. I loved Saturday mornings. It's not the same now, my daugther can watch 'toons 24-7. It takes the specialness out of anxiously waiting for Saturday when you can watch Spongebob anytime.

sexy_overlord

Conspiratorial Government Guy #1: "Apparently our plan to get kids outside on weekends by bombarding them with stupid shows has backfired catastrophically. The kids are just adapting to become lamer and stupider."

Conspiratorial Government Guy #2: "Pika? Pika-pika!"

Conspiratorial Government Guy #1:

big whoppa

Blame the oversaturization of mindless cartoons the other six days of the weeks.

Most of the cartoons these day don't come close to being as memorable as when I was a kid. Yes, there was a some crap too but there was something special about Saturday morning toons back then.

UAIOE

Yes there was something magical about Saturdays back then.

It was the weekend...no school for 2 days and an entire morning full of stuff to watch...it was good.

Even the begining of the afterschool bombardment of toons didnt hurt the Holy Saturday lineup....why has it affected them now? Are kids not good enough to get up at 5am and lay around till noon watching cartoons? Maybe they spend thier mornings playing Playstation.

Slightly off topic here...is Tiny Toons played anywhere on TV nowadays? I'm aching for a TT fix...anywhere? WB, Cartoon Network?