Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

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llj
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Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by llj »

The CW network cancelled their Saturday Morning cartoon block about 3-4 weeks ago, the last cartoon block of its kind. Now it's a bunch of educational nature shows for kids. This cartoon block basically ran a bunch of kids' anime and a couple of superhero cartoons for the past few years. Of course, this doesn't count all-cartoon cable stations which technically stlll are airing cartoons on Saturday mornings, but the idea of non-cable networks running cartoons on Saturday officially ended with the death of CW's Vortexx block.

I often wonder what the state of TV cartoons for kids is these days. What are kids into? What's the new buzzworthy cartoons kids watch these days? I haven't heard of any phenomenons for a number of years now. Sure, I hear about stuff like Adventure Time, but it often seems like more adults watch it than kids. Maybe cartoons aren't that popular with kids anymore.

To be honest, I think kids go online these days to watch stuff. It's a lot more fragmented now, kids' viewing habits.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by greg »

I've never heard of the CW Network. I figured that Saturday Morning cartoons died over a decade ago. It really was something special for us. Growing up in the '80s, some stations would preview their upcoming lineup Friday night before the new fall season began. Whether alone, with my sister, or with friends, watching Saturday morning cartoons was a wonderful experience.

But then stupid Dan Rather would interrupt our precious cartoons to announce some boring crap we couldn't care less about. What was he thinking? "Hey Mom! Dad! Come quick; Dan Rather just appeared on the TV! It must be pretty important. Please come look and watch!" Yeah, right.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by SteveH »

greg wrote:I've never heard of the CW Network. I figured that Saturday Morning cartoons died over a decade ago. It really was something special for us. Growing up in the '80s, some stations would preview their upcoming lineup Friday night before the new fall season began. Whether alone, with my sister, or with friends, watching Saturday morning cartoons was a wonderful experience.

But then stupid Dan Rather would interrupt our precious cartoons to announce some boring crap we couldn't care less about. What was he thinking? "Hey Mom! Dad! Come quick; Dan Rather just appeared on the TV! It must be pretty important. Please come look and watch!" Yeah, right.
The CW comes from blending Paramount's UPN with Warner Bros. The WB. It's a 'part time' syndication package run by stations unaffiliated with the Four Majors.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by davemerrill »

there's been a lot of sad-panda stuff from thirty-somethings about how terrible it is that there aren't cartoons on Saturday morning any more. I haven't seen any complaints from kids, or from the parents of those kids, who can now dole out TV on an as-needed basis, rather than be subject to the whims of whoever is programming the television stations.

Yup, it was fun to watch Saturday morning cartoons, but now we can watch cartoons Saturday morning or evening or afternoon or Tuesdays at 1:00am or whenever and whereever we feel like it. I can only imagine how gloomy things must be at the ad agencies with the sugary breakfast cereal accounts.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by SteveH »

davemerrill wrote:there's been a lot of sad-panda stuff from thirty-somethings about how terrible it is that there aren't cartoons on Saturday morning any more. I haven't seen any complaints from kids, or from the parents of those kids, who can now dole out TV on an as-needed basis, rather than be subject to the whims of whoever is programming the television stations.

Yup, it was fun to watch Saturday morning cartoons, but now we can watch cartoons Saturday morning or evening or afternoon or Tuesdays at 1:00am or whenever and whereever we feel like it. I can only imagine how gloomy things must be at the ad agencies with the sugary breakfast cereal accounts.
It's not Sat. Morning Cartoons if it's not on one of the Original Three. (ABC, CBS, NBC)

The problem with the programming block on the CW is, nobody knew it was there. Many stations dumped it for infomercials.

It's been gloomy at the Ad agencies for years, since the FCC cracked down on cereal and toy ads. Without that massive (and it was frightening HOW massive it was) ad buy revenue the entire concept of KidVid (weekday afternoon slots as well as Sat AM) withered and died.

But I question that whole "Now they can watch anything at any time" biz. Not all families have the full course of channels, so they may have Disney but not Disney XD, the probably don't have The Hub, blah blah. Tying up the computer so Little Johnny can watch MLP (because Hasbro can't figure out what to do with GI Joe for JACK S**T) isn't gonna fly because there's eBay auctions to watch and pron to download. ;)

And maybe that's part of what's wrong with kids today. The ritual of 'destination programming' is gone. The shared experience of all the 'cool' kids watching the same show at the same time every day and then talking about it the next, that's gone.

Who knows. so many things end up coming back around, maybe something really strange will happen in 5 or 10 years. Maybe infomercials will be banned and local stations will scramble to find programming. Maybe afternoon Kidvid will return, and Sat. night creature feature programming will arise from the grave. Probably not but hey.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by davemerrill »

I can't say what other parents do, but I know my sister lets her little boy watch very little TV, and what TV there is is usually Yo Gabba Gabba off the Netflix, which they get through a Wii.

Shain's brother's kids were watching DVDs of "Despicable Me" and "Ponyo" and every once in a while David would haul out one of those public-domain collections and they'd watch an old Toonerville Trolley cartoon.

There didn't seem to be a set TV time, it's a thing that happens when Mom's ready for it to happen. And I do think moms appreciate it.

Of course when the kids get 12 or 13 they get their own tablets and smart phones and then it's video of whatever, whenever, all the time. That's the market to aim for these days, I guess.

Honestly, when I think of the hours and hours my brother and I spent glued to the box, I shudder. I think our nieces and nephews are going to be a little more socialized than we were.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by SteveH »

I really don't know about the 'better socialized' part.

We've seen it at cons. People sitting on the floor texting while the swirl and pageant all around them is just white noise. The new wave sitcom joke of people sitting around a living room texting back and forth to each other. It's a very private and individualized public thing.

'socialization' is going to mean something very very different in the near future. The forgotten term 'people skills' may have to be dusted off and rebranded.

It's good for a Mom (or Dad) to be able to control what a child watches and when, but there was a kind of comfort in the old way. Little Johnny lived to watch Ultraman at 3 PM. That's a half hour of pre-programmed 'not minding the kid' time available. The one-time nature of that program means it can be held over the child's head as incentive to perform tasks like 'get the homework done' or 'make sure you've cleaned your room' and so on. It imposes an unalterable deadline that encouraged promptness. And again, the shared experience of all your friends watching the same show at the same time and being able to talk about it. I know you've written about just exactly that, Dave. :)

"Hey, did you watch the new Ultraman Moe?" "Naw, I'll get it later" Conversation status: ABORTED.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by davemerrill »

I know I've written about everybody in the neighborhood watching Speed Racer, but I won't say that that was somehow better or worse than whatever it is kids do these days. After all, the neighborhood kids were out playing baseball or cops and robbers in backyards before it was time for Speed Racer to come on the TV, and after Speed Racer was over, it was back outside.

You can, after all, hold a show as incentive when it's streamed, or when it's on a DVD, or when it comes on at 3pm, take your pick, parents. I hear this a lot from people who grew up in the 1990s, that the local video rental, rather than the local UHF station, was the magic place that entertainment came from.

Parents on this board will have to enlighten us as to what the 8-year olds are up to these days, how they use television as a reward or an incentive. All I got is a cat and unless there's a show on that happens to have a scene with a lot of chirping birds hopping around, she don't care.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by llj »

All I know about kids these days is that overall they are in worse physical shape than kids in previous generations. Rising obesity rates due to more sedentary lifestyles and all that. :lol:

I've seen some recent polls asking kids what they watch, and more and more the responses seem to indicate online-only shows or youtube personalities I've never heard of before.
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Re: Saturday Morning Cartoons officially dead in the U.S.

Post by SteveH »

davemerrill wrote:I know I've written about everybody in the neighborhood watching Speed Racer, but I won't say that that was somehow better or worse than whatever it is kids do these days. After all, the neighborhood kids were out playing baseball or cops and robbers in backyards before it was time for Speed Racer to come on the TV, and after Speed Racer was over, it was back outside.

You can, after all, hold a show as incentive when it's streamed, or when it's on a DVD, or when it comes on at 3pm, take your pick, parents. I hear this a lot from people who grew up in the 1990s, that the local video rental, rather than the local UHF station, was the magic place that entertainment came from.

Parents on this board will have to enlighten us as to what the 8-year olds are up to these days, how they use television as a reward or an incentive. All I got is a cat and unless there's a show on that happens to have a scene with a lot of chirping birds hopping around, she don't care.
Fun but weird fact:

This summer I paid particular attention to neighborhoods as I drove mom around and I went on supply runs. Lots and lots of houses with obvious 'kid sign'. Not ONCE, all summer long, no matter the time of day or which neighborhood I was in, did I encounter a group of 'locals' running around playing and laughing and all that crap. Not on bikes, not on foot, nothing.

It's like a freaking ghost town. Like all the children are gone. Yet, again lots of evidence, bikes and Power Wheels vehicles and skateboards and such scattered hither and yon.

The only time I saw any gatherings were a cluster of 4, all 'tweens', all with phones, all with their backs to each other, just standing at a street corner. Made me think of some mashup of Village of the Damned and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I recall that part of my childhood clearly. Along the street there were 'friend clusters', almost like gangs, and we played apart but at the same time. And sometimes the 'clusters' would merge and drift apart. The street was BUSY with kids back then.

So it's kinda strange.
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