No More Saturday Morning Cartoons In America.

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**Breotan**

Rest in peace, childhood. I shall shed a tear knowing that kids today can never experience that weekly cartoon ritual we had when we were children.

http://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-first-weekend-in-america-with-no-saturday-m-1642441646/+kellyconaboy

Robert Sorokanich wrote:This Is the First Weekend in America With No Saturday Morning Cartoons

Saturday morning American broadcast TV was once animation's home field. Filling a cereal bowl with artificially colored sugar pebbles and staring at the tube was every kid's weekend plan. Not any more: For the first time in 50-plus years, you won't find any animation on broadcast this morning. It's the end of an era.

Yes, The CW, the final holdout in Saturday morning animation, ran its last batch of Vortexx cartoons last weekend. This week, where you once saw shows like Cubix, Sonic X, Dragon Ball Z and Kai, Digimon Fusion, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, you'll instead find "One Magnificent Morning," a block of live-action educational programming.

It's the end of an era, but it's been a long time coming: NBC ditched Saturday morning cartoons in 1992, CBS followed suit not long after, and ABC lost its animated weekend mornings in 2004. The CW, a lower-tier broadcast network, was the last holdout in a game that the Big 3 left long ago.

What killed Saturday morning cartoons? Cable, streaming, and the FCC. In the 1990s, the FCC began more strictly enforcing its rule requiring broadcast networks to provide a minimum of three hours of "educational" programming every week. Networks afraid of messing with their prime-time slots found it easiest to cram this required programming in the weekend morning slot. The actual educational content of this live-action programming is sometimes debatable, but it meets the letter of the law.

But more importantly, with hundreds of cable and satellite channels to choose from that don't have to abide the FCC's guidelines, ~~whippersnappers~~ kids these days can get their animation fix any day of the week. With the rise of cable and satellite, advertisers no longer had to cram all their kid-aimed commercials into the four-hour Saturday morning block. When the money left Saturday mornings, so did the cartoons.

Add in mobile streaming from Netflix, Hulu, and the like, and you'll realize that the spoiled brats we're raising today don't even need to dash to the TV in time to catch the opening credits. They can just watch whatever, whenever. Sheesh.

Still, there's something a little hollow about the notion that we woke up this morning to an America bereft of broadcast 'toons. I guess we all had to grow up sometime.

**timetowaste85**

No more Saturday X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man cartoons? Where is the rage quit life gif meme. We need it, stat!!

This is fething bull gak.

**Ouze**

The title is a little inaccurate. I think it might be more accurate stated as "No more Saturday morning cartoons on OTA TV". Now, there's a full channel of 24/7 cartoons on cable, right?

It was a ritual for me too - also when I came home from school. I'd have a dollar from my mom that I saved from lunch, and there was a bodega on the corner where you could spend it wisely: you could buy a 25 cent drink, aka the "Quarter Water", and some combination of 25 cent cookies and bags of nacho Bravos (round doritos), or if I had an extra quarter, a slice of pizza. Then, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters.

Then Godzilla movies on Sunday and the WPIX movie of the week.

**Gogsnik**

The same thing happened over here when the Labour government removed the requirement for broadcasters to provide so much children's TV, naturally they got rid of all the cartoons strait away. So where once you could have watched an hour of cartoons after school on BBC1 and then switched to BBC2 for two hours of Star Trek, Fresh Prince et cetera, now you have Cash in the Attic... :(

So many great cartoons in the 80's/90's. That's without all the drivel about Tom and Jerry and the like being racist, violent, promoting smoking et cetera.

I don't have a TV anymore so I don't have to watch the crap they put out these days and I haven't missed any of it.

**George Spiggott**

What killed it? That you can now get Children's TV channels that are constant cartoons, every day of the week that are still running at 9pm (or later) at night.

**d-usa**

NBC had cartoons on this morning, so OP is a liar!

But yeah, like the article said: there is lots of cartoons available every Saturday morning on lots of channels. But it's almost completely gone in over-the-air networks.

**Jihadin**

Still have cartoon network..

**Breotan**

Not the same.

**Jihadin**

Sucks to be this generation

**Smacks**

My Saturday mornings watching TV were always interspersed with my granddad complaining that I should be outside playing, and that there was no TV when he was a kid. Maybe it's just part of getting old, that we feel the need to bemoan and pity the new generation for not doing exactly what we did.

**Frankenberry**

Well thank god we've got 'pregnant at 13','generic -reality- show about housewives that are ho-bags #12', and 'Fox News'.

Man, I just realized that I'll be telling my kids about in 'my day' there were great cartoons on every Saturday morning, or hell, by the time I have kids I might be talking about EVERY morning.

**TheMeanDM**

Cartoons not educational?!?!

I call bull on that!

Captain Planet taught us all about treating our planet nice. He taught environmental responsibility. He helped create new warriors to fight for the planet.

But now the Captain has a sad....

**Barzam**

When they stopped airing cartoons after school, that did it for me. I'm honestly surprised it's taken them this long to get rid of them entirely.

**Eilif**

Not really a shame, but it feels that way to me. I have fond memories of Batman, GIJOE, TMNT and Exo Squad. There were some great cartoons in the REALLY early hours of Saturday morning.

Now that I have a 4 year old of my own, the only time he gets to watch cartoons is on Saturday morning. Of course that usually means watching Thomas and Friends on Netflix or whatever is on PBS.

Flipped through the cartoons on broadcast TV a while back and it doesn't seem like he's missing much. I'll just keep on using Neflix and when he's old enough I'll break out my DVD set of Batman the Animated series (the first few years before it went to poop).

**Raven911**

Feth the FCC.

I have some great memories with cartoons on Saturdays and after school.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Eilif wrote:
Not really a shame, but it feels that way to me. I have fond memories of Batman, GIJOE, TMNT and Exo Squad. There were some great cartoons in the REALLY early hours of Saturday morning.

Now that I have a 4 year old of my own, the only time he gets to watch cartoons is on Saturday morning. Of course that usually means watching Thomas and Friends on Netflix or whatever is on PBS.

Flipped through the cartoons on broadcast TV a while back and it doesn't seem like he's missing much. I'll just keep on using Neflix and when he's old enough I'll break out my DVD set of Batman the Animated series (the first few years before it went to poop).

Netflix rocks. My 3 Yo daughter loves Jem and the Holograms!

**hotsauceman1**

There are some great cartoons for kids, they are just hidden by gak. Mlp:fim, tmnt, transformers, korra, a few preschool shows that aren't slowed exist too.

**Kelly502**

Scooby Doo, Flintstones, Bugs Bunny. Weekdays was Gilligan's Island after school. I think it was just about right, about 3 hours of Saturday cartoons, and around a half hour on weekdays after school.

**Breotan**

Some were cartoons, others were live action shows. I grew up during the Sid & Marty Krofft era and while you may fear those shows as adults, the subversive nature of them is far better for mental health than toy commercials like GI-Joe, Transformers, or "message" shows like Captain Planet.

**Bromsy**

As much as I loved cartoons back in the day - and I did - Avatar is probably the best overall cartoon that has even been. It's definite that it's that and Gargoyles in the number one and two spots, but damned if I can be sure.

**Hordini**

I'm not that bothered, honestly. I enjoyed watching Saturday morning cartoons, and I have fond memories of cartoons in the afternoon after school (and in the mornings before school for that matter...nothing like the original Power Rangers to wake you up in the morning when you're a kid). That said, Cartoon Network has been king for awhile, and I've really never had a need to bemoan the loss of Saturday morning or afternoon cartoons on broadcast TV.

Long live the king.

**Easy E**

Kids don't have time to sit and watch cartoons on Saturday. They have to be doing homework to prepare for the mandatory testing!

**Grey Templar**

Raven911 wrote:
Feth the FCC.

Indeed.

Education is for during the week while they're in school. The weekend is for having fun and relaxing.

**d-usa**

Grey Templar wrote:
Raven911 wrote:
Feth the FCC.

Indeed.

Education is for during the week while they're in school. The weekend is for having fun and relaxing.

How dare the FCC enforce the law!

Good thing the FCC doesn't require that the educational programming (all 3 hours worth!) be aired at any specific day.

But hey, let's blame the FCC for the decision made by congress 20something years ago and for the inability by the networks to squeeze in 3 hours of weekly education somewhere other than Saturday morning.

**Jihadin**

Bromsy wrote:
As much as I loved cartoons back in the day - and I did - Avatar is probably the best overall cartoon that has even been. It's definite that it's that and Gargoyles in the number one and two spots, but damned if I can be sure.

Ppfffttttt Robotech..characters were killed off in that one
GI Joe...something was always getting blown up and "Knowing is half the battle"

**daddyorchips**

probably a good thing. since the 80s cartoons have been nothing more than adverts for toys masquerading as entertainment. perhaps the world will be a less ignorant place in twenty years.

**Jihadin**

Might be consider extreme violence by today standards.

Tom and Jerry is now consider a racist cartoon now because of episodes containing Maame Two Shoes

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**paulson games**

Jihadin wrote:
GI Joe...something was always getting blown up and "Knowing is half the battle"

Ahh good old GI Joe

**Da krimson barun**

This reminds me of a few years ago when here in ireland rte 2 only had the simpsons on for a cartoon when I got home.It was..sudden.I still get annoyed by the live action crap that appears when I accidently change the channel.Imagine...years of whatever the hell I liked then and suddenly BOOM!some aweful show about surfing and the "sleepover club".But in ireland we still has many cartoons in mornings so ha! We has pinky and the brain many disney club and things!

**Deadnight**

Bromsy wrote:
As much as I loved cartoons back in the day - and I did - Avatar is probably the best overall cartoon that has even been. It's definite that it's that and Gargoyles in the number one and two spots, but damned if I can be sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lEx9r5enZsk

nope.

batman always wins.

**Jihadin**

paulson games wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
GI Joe...something was always getting blown up and "Knowing is half the battle"

Ahh good old GI Joe

Sheesh give me a break....