I know a lot of you will disagree, but I have been thinking. When I wake up on Saturday Mornings, I see nothing but news all morning for the most part. I hardly ever see cartoons on anymore. I have been thinking that Nickelodeon/CN have been responsible for causing the decline of Saturday Morning toons. I remember a time when cartoons only came on in the morning/afternoon and Saturday Mornings. Now you can watch cartoons 24/7 and this is coming from a 23 year old. Do anyone else feel the same way?

Yes.

That does make sense, and after that happened, Fox, Kids' WB, and UPN all tried to join in the Saturday morning cartoon line-up ring. (All but Fox failed miserably in the ratings.) :lol:

I think so.

I remember saturday mornings being great in the 90s. They had the best cartoons. I really pity this generation.

Yup they did...

There is some kids programming on Saturday mornings, but I think they're all live action shows. That's So Raven and shows like that. It's hard to believe that Saturday morning cartoons are gone.

I just had a flashback of watching them, I forget what channel it was, but after the cartoons were over "Soul Train" would come on, and I was constantly fooled by it because the opening credits had that cartoon train, so I would get excited expecting another cartoon, only to be let down to see it was a music/dance show for grown ups.

That,the parent's tv council and the government.

Not at all.

First, the channels you mention are cable stations. Cable stations are usually specialized in some way. Cartoon Network was made to have a cable station with all cartoons. Like ESPN is all about sports...

There is still Saturday morning childrens' programming today. It's just that the majority isn't animation anymore.

If you want to blame something for the "decline" of Saturday morning programming, blame the fact that stations play what their audience wants to see. If children, the target audience, don't want to see cartoons anymore than cartoons aren't shown.

Many factors have probably caused Saturday Morning to fall into obscurity. But I do feel cable has contributed to it as with most things deconstructed by our entertainment. First off, the reason Saturday Mornings were so strong in the past, as you indicated, was the fact you couldn't watch cartoons 24/7 as you can now.

Sure you had syndicated cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Underdog and other classic toons, but for the most part Saturday Mornings still were strong because the good Toons were on and if you wanted to watch them, you had to get up and do it. Regrettably there were no such things (except in television studios) as VCRs, so you couldn't record your shows.

Also because Saturday Mornings were targeted at kids and young teens, shows were mostly aimed at them, but some were also well-written. Not all things were animated, I can recall live-action shows like 'Big John, Little John,' 'The Far-Out Space Nuts,' and 'The ABC Weekend Special.'

Unfortunately what killed Saturday Mornings was technology I fear, with the advent of VHS, cable channels and now DVDs, why bother getting up watching animated shows, when you can either catch them again at a later hour, or simply purchase the collection at Wal-Mart or Best Buy?

Or catch a forgotten episode on YouTube? Though CBS and CW is barely keeping Saturday Mornings alive, most of their programming has now been aimed by younger children, since most now are the only ones who still sit in front of the tube on Saturdays and watch television. That is, if they're not out shopping or playing video games.

So in all reality, Saturday Mornings as we fondly remember have gone the way of the Dodo, which is sad, because sometimes I do yearn for the days when you got up and watched the animated and kid programming the networks had to offer. Even if most of them weren't all gems. 8)

I always figured it was cable that caused Saturday Morning cartoons to die as far as network television. CN is a 24/7 channel for cartoons, so more kids probably tuned into stuff like that.

I still think it sucks that this generation can't experience Saturday morning cartoons the way we did. Like the previous poster said, "Saturday Mornings as we fondly remember have gone the way of the Dodo..."

Cable.

You have hundreds of channels with "unique" programming.

i sure wish that saturday morning cartoons would return. and show some damn bugs bunny

Yeah but that was when they were cool. CN and Nick are still cool but not as much as they use to be.

The disappearance of cartoons on broadcast television is most definitely because of the rise of cable. Why would they spend all that money on Saturday mornings when kids can watch whatever they want any time of the day on CN or Nick? It wasn't profitable for them to keep doing it.

except kids cant watch whatever they want. they can watch spongebob

Aren't they watching what they want? The kids obviously like Spongebob...some adults too, ironically.

i was making the point that there is no selection. the same damn shows just play over and over all day

NBC-stopped broadcasting cartoons in the Fall of 1992. All they showed was news and teen shows. I don't even know what comes on.

CBS-in my area, CBS stopped broadcasting cartoons in Fall 1995.

ABC-They have nothing but Disney Channel stuff. Whatever happened? If kids wanted to watch this stuff, they can watch it on the Disney Channel.

FOX-I haven't watched their Saturday Morning line up in a while, what is on their now?

The only network showing cartoons is CW.

I don't have a problem with live action shows on Saturdays since this isn't new at all, since my mom had the Krofft shows as a kid and I had Pee Wee's Playhouse. My problem is that these shows are already on another channel.

I stopped watching Saturday Morning cartoons when I turned 13.

I blame e/i. Who wants to learn on a Saturday?

That's why it's good to have these shows on DVD. I actually have Spongebob but I also have Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, Pinky & The Brain, and the first 7 seasons of The Simpsons. So who needs TV? I just get cartoons from my DVDs and from YouTube. That's my selection!