Need Help: Law in the 80's that Ended our favorite cartoons?

Deleted 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 54340	Ok, correct me if I'm wrong here....I'm having a hard time finding an answer on Google. Back in the afternoon cartoon heyday of the 1980's...every cartoon on the air (with the exception of the Galaxy Rangers it would seem), was basically a 1/2 hour commercial. Then, by 1988 and 1989, mostly all of the cool boys-toys commercials were off the air, or only being aired in syndication in the early morning hours or evening hours on local independent stations or on, say, USA Network. I can't even tell you what cartoons were on in the afternoon in 1989, I'd have to wager: Almost none! Certainly not the cool ones like MASK, Thundercats, Centurions, Inhumanoids and so forth... So my question is this: WASN"T the afternoon "commercial" cartoon killed off by some ruling in government that affected how much educational programming a TV had to show in a given timeslot?? I was discussing this with a friend and I said "yeah, there was some law passed that changed the type of content a broadcaster could show between certain hours, which basically killed GI Joes and Transformers and stuff", but for the life of me I can't find any PROOF of that I hope I'm not talking out my @ss here!!! Can anyone help me on this one? As I recall by 1989 most of the afternoon cartoons had been replace dwith shows liek SAVED BY THE BELL, and other shows that were basically for really young kids to teach morals and lessons. IE: no GI Joe, no Transformers, no Bravestar, no Galaxy Rangers....in short: NO VIOLENCE. Is this actually true? And if so can someone link me to an explanation of what happened? I need to back up my assertions here

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Jason43 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 1799 Account Disabled	I'm not sure about that. In the early 90's, you started seeing after school shows like Power Rangers, VR Troopers etc that were basically violent, non educational toy commercials. I also seem to remember FOX showing afternoon cartoons up until a few years ago. I still think that the death of the afternoon cartoon(as well as saturday mornings) mainly has to do with the rise of cable and satelite. By the late 80's/early 90's, the majority of families had one or the other. Its tough to get kids to tune into afternoon cartoons when they have channel after channel of 24 hour cartoons. I'm sure that the growing popularity of afternoon talk shows like Springer, Jenny Jones etc also helped.

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Deleted 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 54340	Well Hasbro paid for GI Joe and Transformers....and I'm pretty sure the Guest Poster is hitting on what I was thinking about...... I do believe I read about this in a book on the Toy Industry which I gave away to a friend to read....they mentioned something about it, thats got to be where I read it. Maybe you guys remember better than I do, but I thought that the only afternoon cartoons on in, say, 1989 would have been shows like COPS and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What are some others that were hot in 89'...??? When were SilverHawks on??? Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, Inhumanoids...all of these were gone by 89.

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

retrocop 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 162	I don't know of any law but I do know that cartoons in the afternoon did not stop in '89. In my area they still showed afternoon cartoons on my local channels until 1996. Channels went away from this in like 1997 they started airing more adult oriented shows. In my area here's the lineup from 3:00-5:00 now: 3:00 - CBS Affiliate - Dr. Phil (Starts at 2:30) (90 Min) NBC Affiliate - Judge Joe Brown (1 hour) FOX Affiliate - Judge Hattchet (1 hour) ABC Affiliate - General Hospital UPN Affiliate - Cops(1 hour) WB Affiliate - Pokemon 3:30 - WB Affiliate - Mucha Lucha 4:00 - CBS Affiliate - People's Court (1 hour) NBC Affiliate - Judge Judy (1 hour) FOX Affiliate - Family Fued (1 hour) ABC Affiliate - Oprah UPN Affiliate - Cops(1 hour) WB Affiliate - Yu-Gi-Oh! (two 30 min episodes) As you see not much chioces for children. Bring back the f*cken cartoons. I remember when I wanted to run home from school so I wouldn't miss any of my favorite cartoons. Now run home for what?

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Disney Collector 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 628	This law must have only been USA based cos we never had anything like it in the UK (that im aware of)
	Every time I visit RetroJunkit seems to change. Just glad the people dont. Come on Vertex and Mod Gang, sort out my contributions
	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Deleted 8 years 3 months ago Posts: 54340	I was going through another one of my tapes, and I accidentally taped an afternoon in like 1990 or 91 or something (couldn't tell date)...and there was a CONAN cartoon on. I forgot about that one completely, course I never watched it. I'm just trying to remember what was on in 1989......I'm thinking the reason I don't remember much from 89 afternoons was because there wasn't anything on that caught my interest.....ie: it was probably aimed at younger viewers...(????). NinjaTurtles is the only thing I can think of that would have definately been on... And yeah, laws generally tend to stick to their respective countries

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Mamij 7 years 2 months ago Posts: 13	anyone remember The Centurions PowerXtreme, this show had great action and now the fans have the chance to sign the petition to help the people who owns the show to release the whole series on DVD at: www.petitiononline.com/6600F please sign it fans and help us get the DVD released!

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Sunriser 7 years 2 months ago Posts: 7684	Me wrote: There is a law that requires childrens television to contain an educational aspect, but it's very wide open. The little moral lesson at the end of GI Joe was all that it took to comply, so most shows were in compliance anyway. I think most of the shows dropped off because the networks found that catering to an older audience provided more income. There are still a ton of 'toons on, they're just aimed at us and not the kiddies, and therefore don't have the educational requirement. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. The "shifting" of cartoon subject matter didn't have much to do with the new requirements. After all, Pokémon came to the US in 97/98 I think, and that's a HUGE product endorsement show. I can't remember too many examples of the "boy toy/action hero" shows you're talking about that were on in the afternoons except Batman(s), Superman, X-Men, and Power Rangers/VR Troopers. But there were quite a few on Saturday mornings. I don't know about cable. 1989 was when they implemented The Disney Afternoon, though, and most of the other channels didn't have afternoon cartoons for a while (then the WB came onto the scene and Fox also started airing afternoon cartoons in the 90s.) So that could be why you remember it that way. But like I said, it was up to the networks, not the law. They eventually went back to afternoon cartoons.

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

Deleted 7 years 2 months ago Posts: 54340	Me wrote: The little moral lesson at the end of GI Joe was all that it took to comply... ...now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

80sVidKid 7 years 2 months ago Posts: 2342	Disney Collector wrote: This law must have only been USA based cos we never had anything like it in the UK (that im aware of) I think you guys had it easier than we did.
	- From The King of Esoteric
	Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes \| No

© Retro Junk | Contact | Report a Bug | Privacy Policy | Advertise