Go out and play: Fox dumps its Saturday morning cartoons for infomercials
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Home
If there was any justice, someone would have blown up my TV with some animated dynamite made by the Acme company. But instead, I read about it in the paper.
Saturday morning cartoons haven't been what they used to be for a long time, but now they're even less so. The New York Times reported earlier this week that the Fox network has ended its Saturday morning cartoons.
Even as the father of two little girls who love cartoons, I had to shrug. A lot has changed since my generation sat in front of the TV all Saturday morning.
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BEIJING - AUGUST 21: Ali Isayev of AZE (red) competes against Disney Rodriguez of Cuba (blue) in the men's 120kg freestyle wrestling event held at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium during Day 13 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 21, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Opera tenor Placido Domingo and actor Andy Garcia attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Opera tenor Placido Domingo and actor Andy Garcia attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Actor Andy Garcia, actress Jamie Lee Curtis and Disney's Oren Aviv attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Actor George Lopez and opera tenor Placido Domingo attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Recording artist Brian Littrell and son Baylee Littrell attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Recording artist Brian Littrell, son Baylee Littrell and wife Leighanne Littrell attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Actress Alyssa Milano and actor George Lopez attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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HOLLYWOOD - SEPTEMBER 18: Rusco, Angel and actress Alyssa Milano attend the after party for the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on September 18, 2008 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
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Wall-E the robot poses for photographers on the red carpet at the premiere of the film Wall-E in Berlin on September 18, 2008. The animated film produced by Disney and Pixar is set to open in the German cinemas on September 25, 2008. AFP PHOTO DDP / MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/AFP/Getty Images)
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At any rate, according to the Times, Fox executives said that children's programming wasn't viable on network television because of the competition from cable channels. Instead, they're going to air... ugh... infomercials.
While I think that they have a point -- certainly, my daughters are regular watchers of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Boomerang -- Saturday morning cartoons died along time ago, and from what I can tell, the networks used cable as an excuse. They simply abandoned kids for cheaper programming: the news.
As an amateur Saturday morning cartoon historian, I can tell you that the death knell for Saturday morning cartoons was August 1, 1992, the day that The Today Show began airing its show on Saturdays. Five years earlier, they had started running on Sundays. Saturdays achieved their world domination goal of making every day about Today. I had just graduated from college in the summer of 1992, but I remember that a little part of my childhood died that day.
When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, Saturday mornings were like Christmas in my household, especially during the fall, when the new cartoons debuted. Literally, my younger brother and I would wake up at 7 a.m.., tear down into the living room and sometimes be glued to the TV until around noon.
Yeah, there's something kind of sick about that, if I think about it too deeply, but it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. Three networks, all showing cartoons and competing for kids' affections. Jabberjaw, Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, the live-action series Shazam!... The All-New Popeye Hour... Fat Albert... Superfriends. They even turned the ABC's sitcom Happy Days into a Saturday morning cartoon.
And lest our minds turn to complete mush, there were the wildly successful Schoolhouse Rock educational cartoons, that taught us how a bill became a law, and about adverbs and other useful lessons. Meanwhile, CBS had a brief news show for kids, crammed in between the cartoons and commercials, called In the News. As author David T. Z. Mindich says in his book Tuned Out, "While millions of kids were being entertained, they were being informed about national politics and world events."
Looking back on it, a lot of effort went into Saturday morning programming. But then, as I said, The Today Show came along and ruined it. (No offense meant to Matt, Meredith, Al, and the rest of the gang.) And five years later, CBS brought in their own Saturday morning news show, and to ABC's credit, they hung on until 2004 and then started running Good Morning America on Saturday mornings.
Not that there aren't some cartoons airing on network television on Saturday mornings. CBS has a block of cartoons airing, including Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. CW airs cartoons like Spider-Man. ABC has a lot of Disney live-action fare like That's So Raven.
So Fox is going to infomercials now. Fine. Whatever. But it's a decision made by adults, and in my opinion, it has nothing to do with children watching cartoons on cable. If they weren't watching, it was probably due to the type of cartoons that were being aired. So blame the decision to dump Saturday morning cartoons on the economy if you want. Blame it on the changing nature of society. Blame it on the fact that Saturday morning cartoons is no longer a cultural phenomenon, the way it once was. But, please, don't blame it on the kids.
Geoff Williams is a freelance journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
11-28-2008 @ 2:20PM
Lea said...
As a kid of the 90's, I grew up with One Staurday Morning on ABC. That program was GREAT. Now all they have are those boring live-action Disney shows. Kids today are being deprived of good television.
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11-28-2008 @ 6:32PM
Tanna said...
I KNOW! I loved one Saturday morning. I also grew up in the late eighties and 90's. Pepperann, Doug, Recess....classics!
11-28-2008 @ 11:09PM
Andrea said...
I loved Saturday morning cartoons......I remember sitting in front of the TV for hours....ah the good ol days. Here's the real question...Does anyone remember TGIF that aired on Friday nights? That was the best!!!!!!!!
12-02-2008 @ 11:03PM
krystal said...
one saturday morning was the shiz! me & my sister would watch it every saturday. recess, pepper ann, the proud family, the weekenders... they were the best. i don't know why they ever got rid of them! i'd still watch it now if it was on the air. fact is, cartoons just aren't good anymore. i miss the classics like tom & jerry & bugs bunny, merry melodies & looney tunes. they don't make cartoons like that anymore. the cartoons that kids watch today are totally brain dead... i can't stand to watch even five minutes of it. no plot, cheap animation, and nothing but low-brow fart jokes.
i weep for the future.
11-28-2008 @ 2:37PM
Vcrozas said...
I HATE informertials and me and my famil won't watch FXO Sat am.
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11-28-2008 @ 2:47PM
justsaying said...
Fox had saturday morning cartoons? Imagine that!
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11-28-2008 @ 3:05PM
YOUNG KID AT HEART said...
EVERY CHANNEL SHOULD DROP THE CARTOONS ON SATURDAY. BRING BACK THE OLD ONES THEY WERE MUCH BETTER . LOVED THE ROAD RUNNER KIDS NOW DAYS NEVER HEARD OF THE ROAD RUNNER. WHAT A SHAME
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11-28-2008 @ 3:10PM
Rob said...
When Bugs Bunny went off the air on Saturday mornings, this country begain to fall apart like everything Wylie Coyote ever bought from ACME.
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11-28-2008 @ 8:12PM
Ron said...
I agree Rob. Saturday mornings were all about the Cartoons. It's the same with the Holiday Programs now. Most of the programming is on cable now. I remember being a kid During the month of December, and waiting for all the Holiday Cartoons that would come on each week on the 3 Major Networks. Those were the good old days, and I'm glad I was a kid in that era.
11-28-2008 @ 3:13PM
Jgar said...
Wow! I can remember when Saturday mornings were really the only time that cartoons were on. We didn't have it like the kids have it today with networks all about them. There were afterschool shows between 3 & 4 (or 4 & 5 - I'm too old to remember). I remember the bill becoming a law, too. Then they used to have those occasional after school specials that dealt with "issues". I still remember one of the last ones I saw about a high school athlete that was gay.
I haven't thought about those in years! I'm going to tell my kids about it and see if they look at me the same way I looked at my parents when they told me TVs used to just be black & white or that a horse and buggy delivered the milk.
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11-28-2008 @ 3:17PM
V. Jones said...
I remember when The Little Rascals, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Superman, (George Reeves) and all the great cartoons from the Golden Age of cartoons (40s and 50s) were shown every Saturday morning and everyday after school in the 50s and 60s. I really miss Spanky, Alfalfa, and the rest of The Little Rascals most of all. It was a wonderful time. There was violence in these shows, well except for slapstick comedy.
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11-28-2008 @ 3:22PM
el said...
What a drag! I'm half a century & remember the 'Toons on Saturday AM. My Hubby's 9 yrs younger & watched the classics with his Aunt as she LOVED cartoons. I miss Bugs, Wile E. the Stooges/the Rascals,Tex Avery & Tom & Jerry UNCUT! New 'Toons are a waste & I'd NEVER watch that filler. Bring back Toonheads! There are NO more WB or MGMS now. Infomercial$? ZZZZZ.
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11-28-2008 @ 3:23PM
V. Jones said...
Sorry. The above should read, "There was NO violence in these shows, well except for slapstick".
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11-28-2008 @ 3:24PM
RobTheBlogger said...
Tis a sad day but it was inevitable. Now how are children suppose to act like children? Parents today seem to shove education and sports down their throats. I enjoyed watching saturday morning cartoons and playing nintendo (8-bit).
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11-28-2008 @ 6:37PM
faye said...
Unfortunately, kids these days don't have the luxury of acting like kids ......
11-28-2008 @ 8:16PM
Cacao said...
Saturday morning and daily cartoons were such a joy. I have always encouraged my children to enjoy cartoons and shows that were not only educational, but brought some laughter. So as often as I can, I find and buy the DVD's of all those wonderful programs. Bugs Bunny, Popeye, School House Rock. If someone knows if the AfterSchool Programs are available from ABC, Please let me know.
11-28-2008 @ 3:38PM
Vikki said...
my three year old knows the road runner . . he points to him and says Mama, that's Beep-Beep dot com!!!
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11-28-2008 @ 3:37PM
kyle akers said...
fox also announced with their other announcement they lost a couple million viewers because noone likes those sad ass infomercials
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11-28-2008 @ 3:40PM
Sophia said...
Is the TickleMe Plant real or just an animation
You be the judge!
It's sad they are not showing cartoons but the new ones are low on the creative scale anyway. I am growing a plant with my kids that MOVES when you Tickle It! Yea there is a cute animation about the TickleMe Plant at the site but the real fun is in growing your own. My kids spend just a little less time watching tv as they tend to their new animated
TickleMe Plant that closes its leaves and lowers its branches when Tickled. They call it their Pet Ticklemeplant! I found it at Http;//www.ticklemeplant.com
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11-28-2008 @ 3:48PM
SUSAN said...
TV cartoons bgan going downhill in the late '60's, when the great classics starring Bugs, Daffy, Popeye, and Tom & Jerry were replaced by cheap, violent crap churned out like sausages by Hanna-Barbera.
Even after parents protested and the violent content was removed, TV was still inundated with HB cheapies, ususally featuring obnoxious teenagers who NEVER change their clothes (phew!), NEVER attend school, have NO adult supervision, and spend their time chasing crooks and solving mysteries--along with their "funny" pets. From what I've seen on CN, quality has definately not improved: cf ED, EDD, AND EDDY, FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS, and worst of all, THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY.
Seems that in the cartoon world, creativity and imagination has gon the way of the Beta Max.
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