Saturday Morning Cartoons.. where'd ya go?

coltyhuxx

coltyhuxx

CAGiversary!
Does anyone remember at the beginning of a new season they would have a program on, friday EVENING (!), talking about and showing clips of all of the new Saturday morning cartoons. My comics had been talking about this event, these new shows, for weeks now. This is when I would be a freak to my parents, begging and pleading for exclusive television rights that evening. "But you're going to watch those cartoons tomorrow morning...", "Yes, exactly...now please, help me!"

I used to block out my entire morning in advance; try and wake up around 6:30 am when, generally, the weaker (although sometimes cool obscure) cartoons were shown. I would pretty much hang through until the memorable graphic and accompanying tune to "In the News" came on, or OG Readmore, which was the sign that the morning marathon was over. It was a six hour MEGADOSE of cartoons. The cliche bowl of cereal in tow, with a TV listing on my knee. And no parents in sight.

For those that might recall, there were these peak hours, where the best and biggest were on from about 8:30am- 10:00am where you had to make some very very hard decisions. This would range from premieres to the bestsellers. So, am I heading over to ABC for some Popeye and Sons, or maybe a little NBC Alftales or CBS, Muppet Babies? There were about three serious cartoon networks at this time, and they were firing on all cylinders this one day of the week and in these hours, core hot.

Then cable came along.. the Saturday "event" declined. I'm curious to see what peoples thoughts are on the topic.. I imagine a lot of the younger CAG'ers are psyched on the options they have now - as it looks like after school hours are packed with cartoons. You can watch cartoons at midnight now.. it's pretty cool. In the early 80's this option didn't exist.

However, I still feel like somehow the experience may be diluted, perhaps by scope of options, in comparison to these huge "event" Saturdays. There was just so much energy poured into that day of kids programming :bouncy: - it just felt much bigger.

nbcsaturday.jpg
 
Every Saturday Morning, I go through withdrawl because nothing is on now. The cartoons nowadays are terrible, and most channels even have the news on early in the morning. I remember when I couldnt decide what to watch because there was so many shows on at once. Ehh, the good old days..:whistle2:(
 
They still have cartoons on Saturday morning??

WB completely killed its after school cartoons, I think they show ER and something else now.
 
I do miss my Saturday cartoons I gave up on them about 2 years ago when the Fox Box and WB started churning out crap. I want my Bionic Six, Silverhawks and all the rest.

Thanks OP for the back in the day trip but now I feel like I'm missing something.
 
blame the over protective parents who think there is too much violence in cartoons.NBC had some good cartoons on saturday, til they gave it up. Now we are left with watching pokemon and other crap on WB.
 
Yeah, I really miss those Sat. morning marathons too. During the week before the new cartoon season, me and my sisters would beg our mom into getting us a TV guide for that Sat. morning, so we could plot out the entire schedule. Many comprimises were made about what to watch, and our mom supervised the process and in the end, she would give some corny speach about "working together and making comprimises so everyone gets a little of what they want and everyone is happy" bull-crap, but yeah, I guess I did learn something after all.

I think I saw the end coming when NBC pulled their cartoons for a bunch of live-action teen-crap trying to gain the success of their Saved by the Bell show. That was about the time Fox had gained the upper hand in Sat. cartoons. Then their stuff got to be crappy and everyone headed over to the WB's cartoon line-up.

After that, I dunno, I stopped watching TV about 3 years ago, and even today I maybe watch only about 2-4 hours of TV per week at the most.

Sigh. I wish one of the many cartoon cable networks would add a block of old-school "guys" cartoons like GIJoe, Transformers, Thundercats, Voltron, Silverhawks; stuff like that. I'd definatly tune in every now and then to watch some of those.
 
I blame Disney for buying abc, when that happened TGIFriday's went to shit and then Saturdays soon followed. I remember getting up hella early to get my fix but nowadays I can't even get out of bed @ 11.
 
[quote name='Krymner']Yeah, I really miss those Sat. morning marathons too. During the week before the new cartoon season, me and my sisters would beg our mom into getting us a TV guide for that Sat. morning, so we could plot out the entire schedule. Many comprimises were made about what to watch, and our mom supervised the process and in the end, she would give some corny speach about "working together and making comprimises so everyone gets a little of what they want and everyone is happy" bull-crap, but yeah, I guess I did learn something after all.

I think I saw the end coming when NBC pulled their cartoons for a bunch of live-action teen-crap trying to gain the success of their Saved by the Bell show. That was about the time Fox had gained the upper hand in Sat. cartoons. Then their stuff got to be crappy and everyone headed over to the WB's cartoon line-up.

After that, I dunno, I stopped watching TV about 3 years ago, and even today I maybe watch only about 2-4 hours of TV per week at the most.

Sigh. I wish one of the many cartoon cable networks would add a block of old-school "guys" cartoons like GIJoe, Transformers, Thundercats, Voltron, Silverhawks; stuff like that. I'd definatly tune in every now and then to watch some of those.[/quote]

For how much I talk about TV, I don't watch it anymore either. Been about six years w/o cable. Occasionally I see stuff on the net, or DVD but I'm pretty behind ;)

About three years ago I made a spontaneous plan to get up early and see what was on Saturday mornings. Got all this breakfast stuff too... Guess what was on.. NOTHING... i was mortified (for today's kids more than my own nostalgia). I went on the Net to find out some answers. It's true, they are gone - there are many reasons why.

I agree with your post and I think it's only a matter of time before some network has substantial regular broadcasts of those great 80's cartoons. Sunbow alone, for instance, had Spiderman + Amazing Friends, The Hulk, Joe, Transformers AND Dungeons and Dragons. Great animation/art direction. Good to great stories.. GREAT source material... great music themes across the board. Quality stuff, for a cartoon (esp considering near fascist restrictions on violence and content).

Let me give you an example: about two years ago they were airing G.I. Joe on one of the Cartoon channels (right before the Rhino DVD's came out) but at like 11pm at night... (wtf?!) They started tuning in at this one bar I frequent (and I was super psyched because it had been ages since I'd seen them). Anyway I'm telling you, every red-blooded man (all different types hang out here, toughs, arty students etc etc) in that room from ages 21-35 was transfixed. People were calling out the names of the various Joes with impressive recollection. You could just hear people turning to their neighbor saying "Man, that was a damn good show".. and you know what it was. I think if those involved in the creation of that show twenty years ago could see the reaction of this bar filled with people they would have been touched.

It's fun to watch cartoons on DVD by yourself but I was (am?) really into the community of it. It's fun when you can talk about what was on last night or to watch them with a bunch of your peers.
 
true, saturday mornings aren't worth waking up earily for anymore. Most of the stuff now is dubbed japanese cartoons. I was getting my animated series Fix with JL/JLU but now that its ending this saturday......who knows whats to watch on saturdays, maybe cops?
 
Oh man I miss saturday morning cartoons. Getting up at 6:30 in the morning to watch great shows. Cap'n Cruch in my underwear and just great shows until 10 or 11 in the morning. Then playing games or going outside to play with all of the neighborhood kids.
 
I stopped watching Saturday cartoons after they canceled Batman. I saw one or two eps of the new one, but I didn't like that one too much.
 
Where'd Saturday Morning Cartoons go?

HELL!

With cartoons, in general.
 
You had to pick and choose your cartoons in the morning? I'd wake up, pop a VHS in the VCR in the kitchen to record ABC, another VHS in the VCR in our family room for CBS, and I'd watch FOX. NBC was in there somewhere. But my Saturday morning sounds just like yours....

...though I'd have 2-4 bowls of cereal.
 
I remember watching Street Sharks, Biker Mice From Mars, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Masters of the Universe, Mighty Max, Transformers, Super Mario Bros Super Show, Power Rangers, Spider-Man, and Dragon Ball Z among other shows every Saturday morning. Later on, Beetleborgs, Digimon, Monster Rancher, and Adventures of Batman and Superman came on, and I watched those. But now, I'm not sure if it's just my taste or if the actual quality of the shows has declined, but I find that I can't watch anything early in the morning besides the new TMNT and One Piece/Shaman King. All of the other shows on most stations just suck.

There are no more weekday cartoons, and it's really a letdown. If you take a look at a lot of kids, it's quite obvious that they aren't studying or excersizing from 3 to 5. Why take them off the air? Jackie Chan Adventures was a good show. Or maybe they could show more of Avatar and One Piece.

It's no coincidence that the quality of Saturday morning and weekday cartoons and the American lifestyle has declined respectively to one another.

Bring back the good cartoons. Save America.
 
[quote name='CrimGhost']Blame Anime, im serious.[/quote]

Not anime. It was Power Rangers, Saved by the Bell, City Guys (and other live action shows).
 
[quote name='Brak']Where'd Saturday Morning Cartoons go?

HELL!

With cartoons, in general.[/QUOTE]

Too late, I already said that.
 
I have to agree, the cartoons they show on Saturday morning really do suck. It's also a shame that no one shows any after school cartoons too. This thread brings back many memories, especially after checking out that retro site.
 
I watched cartoons mostly on weekday afternoons. I slept in on the weekends.

Fox Kids with stuff like Spider-man, Batman the Animated Series, X-men, Tiny Toon Adventures, Eek the Cat, The Tick, Bobby's World, Taz-Mania, and Animaniacs. The Disney Afternoon with Ducktales, Tale Spin, Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top