No more Saturday morning cartoons.

[Vanyel]

I never thought this day would come.
LINK
I remember that Saturday morning was the only day I would wake up early on my own. I even made my own cereal, I was 5 it was a big deal then. Sometimes I woke up a little to early and was upset because Face The Nation or something like that was still on.

So what Saturday morning cartoons or live action shows do you remember from childhood?

For me Scooby Doo ruled Saturday mornings animated shows. And The Secrets of Isis ruled live action shows.

 

[Brent]

wow, Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of my youth in the 80's, and even 90's

kids these days just don't understand how awesome it was, the cartoons back then were so much better

 

[bbjeg]

That was one of the days I would wake up early for as a kid. The first show that came to mind was X-Men. That show got pretty deep.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

What killed Saturday morning cartoons on broadcast was adults that have forgotten that kids don't need education every minute. They need relaxation as much as adults do!

 

[Starbreaker]

I don't remember ever watching cartoons on Saturday morning. I watched Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs when I got home from school every day, but I can't actively remember any Saturday morning programming.

 

[Green Shirt]

Saturday morning cartoons and Libby's Sundown Supper TV dinner for lunch. And Captain Chesapeake before and after school. Those were the days.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I was bored one Saturday morning recently and decided to check what kids were watching. I was shocked that there was nothing on. I definitely remembered I had a schedule on Saturdays to watch all my shows (pretty much from 7 or 8 to 11 or 12). They weren't all cartoons (Power Rangers were in there as well), but the 90s had a pretty good mix (Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men: Evolution, Pokemon, Men in Black, Recess, Animaniacs). To get the ones I wanted, I had to switch between several channels. I would usually watch until my parents yelled at me for watching cartoons all morning.

That being said, Saturday morning cartoons aren't dead - they've just migrated to cable. I'm not sure if Saturday is special, though, on channels that pretty much have 24/7 of that kind of programming. But Saturday is still the biggest opportunity to watch them.

 

[Melakon]

So what Saturday morning cartoons or live action shows do you remember from childhood?

Well, this is just from memory and reaching back over 50 years for some, and not sure if they were all Saturday only or daily shows (not in chronological order):

Pinky Lee
Howdy Doody
Captain Kangaroo
Fireball XL5
Mighty Mouse
Huckleberry Hound
Yogi Bear
Space Ghost
Colonel Bleep
Crusader Rabbit
Clutch Cargo
Ruff and Reddy
Heckle and Jeckle

The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Jonny Quest were originally once a week primetime shows. Fred Flintstone used to do commercials for Winston cigarettes.

 

[SPCTRE]

I watched a lot of different ones, but my fondest memories are of Saber Rider and the Star Sherrifs.

 

[marillion]

Ahhh yes... Saturday mornings were made for sugary cereals, mom sleeping late and dad off to play golf... Being a child of the 70s & 80s, I had no end of choices on the big 3 networks.

We had the Crofft Superstars (Isis,Shazaam,Wonderbuggy), WB Merry Melodies, the Smurfs, Thundar the Barbarian, and various re-runs of Speed Racer, Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets and those dopey Shogun Warriors...

When my kids were little, Saturday cartoons shifted over to the CW (or was it WB?) for cool shows like Jackie Chan Adventures, the Mummy, Static Shock and Batman Beyond....

Now it's all infomercials and DIY programs... sigh... And the crap being served up on Cartoon Network just sucks... I miss my Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

In the UK our Saturday Morning cartoon lineup on the traditional four or five terrestrial channels was effectively killed off by dedicated children's digital TV channels providing everything that the kids needed - also reflected in the lack-to-downright-absence of afternoon programming specifically for kids on these channels too.

In fact, the umbrella shows surrounding the Saturday Morning cartoon shows were highly entertaining in themselves. Sadly, these days, the likes of Saturday Superstore, Get Fresh, Motormouth, Number 73, Going Live, Ghost Train, Live & Kicking, What's Up Doc?, Fully Booked, Parallel 9, SM:TV and even Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow have been replaced by fare such as Saturday Kitchen and repeats of alleged US sitcoms and Frasier.

I mean, On The Waterfront had its moments too. Remember the comedy redubs of The Flashing Blade?

 

[Kelthaz]

kids these days just don't understand how awesome it was, the cartoons back then were so much better

Nope. That's just nostalgia talking.

 

[Starkers]

In the UK our Saturday Morning cartoon lineup on the traditional four or five terrestrial channels was effectively killed off by dedicated children's digital TV channels providing everything that the kids needed - also reflected in the lack-to-downright-absence of afternoon programming specifically for kids on these channels too.

In fact, the umbrella shows surrounding the Saturday Morning cartoon shows were highly entertaining in themselves. Sadly, these days, the likes of Saturday Superstore, Get Fresh, Motormouth, Number 73, Going Live, Ghost Train, Live & Kicking, What's Up Doc?, Fully Booked, Parallel 9, SM:TV and even Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow have been replaced by fare such as Saturday Kitchen and repeats of alleged US sitcoms.

I mean, On The Waterfront had its moments too. Remember the comedy redubs of The Flashing Blade?

Were Swap Shop and Tiswas before your time?

The dedicated teatime programming was great in that it started about 3.45 for the younger kids and got more adult as the minutes passed, starting with Rainbow and its ilk and ending up with Grangehill!

The trouble with dedicated kids channels is that (some) children can effectively watch TV all day, whereas in my day once you his about 5.45 in an afternoon you either had to watch the news or go out and play!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

In the UK our Saturday Morning cartoon lineup on the traditional four or five terrestrial channels was effectively killed off by dedicated children's digital TV channels providing everything that the kids needed - also reflected in the lack-to-downright-absence of afternoon programming specifically for kids on these channels too.

In fact, the umbrella shows surrounding the Saturday Morning cartoon shows were highly entertaining in themselves. Sadly, these days, the likes of Saturday Superstore, Get Fresh, Motormouth, Number 73, Going Live, Ghost Train, Live & Kicking, What's Up Doc?, Fully Booked, Parallel 9, SM:TV and even Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow have been replaced by fare such as Saturday Kitchen and repeats of alleged US sitcoms.

I mean, On The Waterfront had its moments too. Remember the comedy redubs of The Flashing Blade?

Were Swap Shop and Tiswas before your time?

The dedicated teatime programming was great in that it started about 3.45 for the yopunger kids and got more adult as the minutes passed, starting with Rainbow and its ilk and ending up with Grangehill!

The trouble with dedicated kids channels is that (some) children can effectively watch TV all day, whereas in my day once you his about 5.45 in an afternoon you either had to watch the news or go out and play!

Swap Shop was just about before my time.

I do remember bits and pieces of Tiswas, though. Mostly the theme tune. And Sally James.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Saturday morning was all about Garfield and Friends for me.

Occasionally I catch glimpses of today's cartoons that happen to be on. I think if I were a kid I would have loved Spongebob and Phineas & Herb. But there are others with such ugly animation that are just so god damned stupid, like instead of being clever they're just trying not to lose the kids' 2 second attention span, and I doubt I would have liked them.

 

[Redfern]

A private board I often visit presented a similar thread. Here's what i stated there...

Forgive me if this news does not make me wage as nostalgic as some people think I should.

If the only visual communications medium we had were the three national broadcast networks we had as kids, then yeah, the loss of "Saturday morning cartoons" would hit me a bit harder. But that isn't the case. It hasn't been that way for a couple of decades, maybe three depending upon your parameters. The rise of cable, satellite, videotape (both Beta & VHS), either purchased or recorded off the air, DVD & Blu-Ray, and now the internet with a boatload of "streaming services" completely changed the playing field. One can, in theory, watch nothing but animation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

During the 1950s through the 70s, we were at the "mercy" of broadcast television since that was the only choice we had. If they deemed to air cartoons exclusively upon Saturday mornings, well, we took what we could get. But with the advent of "playback" media and the development of cable television offering "niche" programming, the "Big 3" no longer held a monopoly. Probably the biggest "boon" was Ted Turner's aquisition of the Warner Bros. and MGM libraries. This gave enough material on hand that he could risk creating a channel that aired nothing BUT cartoons 'round the clock! Or, did the Disney Channel start first? I can't remember. But the point is, we now had entire networks devoted to younger audiences rather than a 4 to 5 hour block once a week.

these channels spawned others. Some were "sibling" channels, like Toon Disney and Cartoon Network's "Boomerang", but others independent of them appeared like Nickelodeon, which has since spawned its own "sibling" channels like NickToons.

With all that, how could the "classic" NBC, Cbs, ABC (and later FOX) compete? The intended audience numbers have dwindled for years. Better to focus upon a demographic who will actually tune in, see the ads, buy the products which will in turn motivate ad makers to "buy" air-time to showcase their products.

Now, with streaming services and portable devices, the landscape is changing again. For fear of sounding like an old fart, kids today don't realize how good they have it when it comes to animated fare. Then again, our parents (or grandparents in some cases) could have made similar claims. We as kids could kick back Saturday mornings in our 'jammies eating cereal as we watched cartoons, having a choice of 3 networks (depending upon reception, of course). When our parents (or grandparents) were young, they had to travel to the local movie theater to catch whatever shorts preceded the main feature. Some were cartoons, others live action. And those movie houses just had a single screen, so no equivalent of flipping channels. And I doubt the patrons would be allowed to enter if they were wearing pajamas. Yeah, in comparison, we as kids had it better than the prior generation(s); but in turn, kids today have far, FAR more selection than we did.

So, no, I don't really "weep" for the loss of the last children's block on network television. It was barely a drop in a large ocean of choices, anyway.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Wow. My Saturday morning fare consisted of things like:

Bugs Bunny/Road Runner
Scooby-Doo
Super Friends
Star Trek (animated)
Land of the Lost
The Bugaloos
Lidsville
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Ark II
Space Academy
Jason of Star Command
Shazam/Isis

Definitely a mixture of cartoon and live action.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

@Redfern

Very true. When we were kids we had to be at the TV at a specific time to see what we want. I remember before DVDs came out, the only place I could see TNG reruns were channel 66 at 11AM, so I would program the VCR to tape it while I was at school.

So when we say we're sad that there are no longer Saturday morning cartoon shows, what we're really mourning is the 'Eventness' of watching them. You could only see them once a week at a specific time, so our anticipation would build up over the course of the week and it felt more special when we got to sat down to watch them. Being able to see them whenever you want is clearly better, but it doesn't quite feel as exciting.

 

[Redfern]

Yes, there is something to be said about anticipation and eventfulness. Depending one's age, it almost felt like a countdown to a rocket launch as we edaged our way ever closer to Saturday. I still get that to an extent since my job allows me to still experience a proper weekend. Of course, I no longer have that "Christmas morning" sensation, the urge to get up early and "open my presents" (read: turn on the TV and see what adventures Zandor and the Herculoids might have). Oh, I still get up early, but that's just to have breakfast and take my blood pressure meds, keeping it on schedule with the rest of the week. Afterwards, I may take another 2 hour nap.

I just wanted to point out that it's not so great a "loss" as some of my fellow "baby boomers" may perceive.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[tomswift2002]

Even though it was an event, I think it was a defining part of the North American culture. Of course I haven't seen a cartoon on CTV, CBC, or Global for about 8 years now.

But I remember watching on those channels, and even the ABC, NBC and CBS affiliate we got:

X-Men
Spider-Man (1967)
Darkwing Duck
Ducktales
The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (actually this was on Saturday afternoons on Global)
Flintstones
Jetsons
Yogi Bear


I also remember that during December a lot of channels would fill Saturday mornings with Christmas specials, either special episodes from the series that they were airing, or Christmas episodes from other series that they were not airing or one-shot specials, either around their regular Saturday fair, or mix them into the line-up.