The end of an era! I guess kids can watch cartoons pretty whenever they want these days, so it’s not a big deal, but when I was a kid, that was pretty much it for us! That and the occasional prime-time Peanuts special.
The new cartoons in September helped me and my sister alleviate the despair of going back to school…
http://www.toonzone.net/2014/05/exclusive-traditional-saturday-morning-programming-ends-fall-saban-brands-pulls-plug-vortexx/
Wiki sez Astroblast is “an American 2D CGI animated series” that “will begin airing on NBC Kids Saturday morning programming block, October 4, 2014.”
I remember watching Saturday morning kids’ programs back in the '50s, but I guess a lot of them were live-action shows like Sky King and Roy Rogers. The first morning cartoon series I remember is The Jetsons; I’m sure I watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, Top Cat, The Flintstones, and Jonny Quest mostly in the late afternoon or evening. They really were the best; the ones that started coming out in the late '60s were lame even to my 10-to-12-year-old mind. (I loathed The Archie Show!)
ST: TAS was the only thing I watched on Saturday mornings in the '70s.
I won’t even mention the '80s, when cartoons started to be based on the products they were pushing, had the crappiest possible writing and animation, and subjected little kids to non-stop blaring rock music. No wonder so many adults are all but brain-dead today!
Saturday morning cartoons! Awesomeness, when I was a kid. (And don’t get me started on Schoolhouse Rock!) I can still sing a bunch of the theme songs.
When my husband (Andy L) was a kid, one morning his brother woke him up yelling, “It’s quarter after 9! We’re missing the Saturday cartoons!” They raced to the TV. Turns out it was 2:45 a.m. His brother hadn’t learned to tell time very well yet.
The only ones I really liked were the Warner Brothers repackagings of their old theatrical cartoon. But I’d watch everything else anyway: mainly Hanna Barberra dreck “Uh-oh Chango!”). At the very end of the morning, Kukla Fran & Ollie would come on for us bitter-enders with live action foreign kids movies, but that was often when Dad’s sports started.
The local channels would play the stuff on weekdays after school that the networks turned their noses up at, which was sometimes pretty good: original Fleischer Popeyes, surrealistic Felix the Cat, and Rocky & Bullwinkle.
So what else are the Dull Four going to run on early Saturday mornings? “Waffles - The Reality Show!” or more infomercials?
They sure don’t make 'em like this anymore:
Still one of the best TV themes ever! :o
Every network shows college football on Saturday mornings anyway.
So, are you saying that Saturday morning cartoons will Animal’s voice “Go bye bye.” Animal’s voice?
That was the cream of the crop, that’s for sure.
Hey, I *liked *the Splits! And Danger Island was goofy fun.
I remember Saturday morning cartoons starting as early as 8 AM (I think they were still “local” cartoons, though – rebroadcasts of Crusader Rabbit (great stuff that was originally made by Jay Ward, before he did Rocky and Bullwinkle, although most of the ones I saw were post-Ward) or the abysmal Dodo – the Kid from Outer Space. But soon enough the networks started running huge lineups of cartoons that filled the day from 9 AM until after 1 PM. A lot of it was wholly forgettable (who remembers The Beagles? or the Lone Ranger* cartoon?) A lot opf it was recycled from prime time stuff (The Jetsons, Johnny Quest). They did rerun a lot of WArner Brothers classics, but they also made some new stuff (a lot of the Road Runner cartoons that ran on Saturday weren’t Chuck Jones originals – and you could tell). They reran MGM’s Tom and Jerry, too. Those were highly variable. The 1940s one were great, but some of the later ones were of abysmal quality.
And there were the endless variations on superheroes. And Wacky Races and its spinoffs. And the occasional Gary and Sylvia Anderson “Supermarionation” show like Fireball XL-5.
They started scaling back when the Baby Boomers bump passed, but there were still Saturday cartoons for the Boomers’ own babies after that. It’s hard to believe it’s completely gone.
Actually, it’s only the kids whose parents have cable who can still watch cartoons when they like; the ones who don’t have cable can’t.
Huh. I thought these were gone years ago.
I loved Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s. We also had cartoons after school on weekdays.
What the hell is Tree-Fu Tom, then?
NBC still has that, and Make Way for Noddy.
Not exactly He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but a last gasp I suppose.
PBS has cartoon programming all day until 6:00 pm when BBC News starts. You have to be quick with the channel changer because they usually lead with someone on their knees in an orange jumpsuit.
Or kids who’s parents have an internet connection.
Since every cartoon ever made is either on YouTube,torrents,cable Netflix or on DVD, the need for Saturday morning cartoons has been steadily dropping for the 10-15 years. Along with an aging population, this day was coming sooner rather than later.
Yes! I remember watching Supercar on Saturday mornings in what must have been the summer of 1963. :o