what happened to saturday morning cartoons?

[Jim H]

I agree that Saturday morning cartoons used to be a cool ritual.  But now kids can watch cartoons any hour of the day, any day of the week on The Cartoon Network, Nickolodeon, Disney Channel, etc.  I bet if you'd offered me that deal when I was 7 or 8, I would have taken it in a millisecond.   

I wouldn't have traded it, honestly.  QUALITY over QUANTITY.  The new cartoons suck.  Have you seen the new Scooby Doo?  The new Batman? The new Ninja Turtles?  Not as good as their '70s-late '80s counterparts.  At all.  It's a shame, really.

For me, personally, I'd wake up at like, 7:00, watch all the cartoons until about 11:00, then there'd be WWF Superstars on USA Network from 11-1.  Good time.

I might add the good Batman is from the 90s.  It is indeed way, way better than The Batman.  However, there are a TON of really, REALLY bad cartoons from the 70s and 80s.  It might be worth a look to watch one of the 80s cartoon intro video compilations on youtube for some examples.  

I'll also add I think that there is a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here.  I have a lot of fine memories of some 80s and 90s cartoons, but a lot of them are really not too good..  Like, say, the 90s X-Men and Spiderman.  Aside from some good voice acting in both, they're really kind of bad.  Lots of sloppy animation and errors, some kind of bad writing, etc.  

On another note, one thing that really separates cartoons from different eras is the voice acting.  In the 1980s, it got very good in a number of cases.  Into the mid 90s there were some very good ones (Batman and Gargoyles, for example) but by the late 90s and early 2000s it got REALLY terrible...  And now, from the snippets I've seen of some newer shows, it seems to have improved quite a bit.  For example, as horrendous as the animation style is, the new Transformers has quite solid voice work - at least, the ep I saw did.  I'm betting the influx of anime dubs has something to do with that.

[RCMerchant]

Here's an oldie from my childhood-

Ruff and Ready-! (that scene below don't look right!  )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAk_JtMWlSo

[Doggett]

I wish I could give you karma   

[RCMerchant]

I wish I could give you karma   

Thank you! For my next act,I'll juggle rabid weasels-

[Jamtoy]

Mighty Orbots was a good one I remember, Pac-Man I liked too. One show I do not recall the name of had two super cars a blue and a red one with computer personalities ala KIT. They could change into hovercrafts. For me though the penultimate Saturday Morning cartoon experience was Dungeons & Dragons.

The show with the two cars was Pole Position.  The intro in in my first post.

[venomx]

Saturday morning cartoons, Ahh yes my favorites. I remember them well.

Early 80's ...

Superfriends, Pac-Man, Richie Rich, Scooby and Scrappy Doo, Gobots, Smurfs, Shirt Tales, Mr. T, Get Along Gang, Snorks, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling!, Dungeons and Dragons, The Littles.

[HappyGilmore]

I agree that Saturday morning cartoons used to be a cool ritual.  But now kids can watch cartoons any hour of the day, any day of the week on The Cartoon Network, Nickolodeon, Disney Channel, etc.  I bet if you'd offered me that deal when I was 7 or 8, I would have taken it in a millisecond.   

I wouldn't have traded it, honestly.  QUALITY over QUANTITY.  The new cartoons suck.  Have you seen the new Scooby Doo?  The new Batman? The new Ninja Turtles?  Not as good as their '70s-late '80s counterparts.  At all.  It's a shame, really.

For me, personally, I'd wake up at like, 7:00, watch all the cartoons until about 11:00, then there'd be WWF Superstars on USA Network from 11-1.  Good time.

I might add the good Batman is from the 90s.  It is indeed way, way better than The Batman.  However, there are a TON of really, REALLY bad cartoons from the 70s and 80s.  It might be worth a look to watch one of the 80s cartoon intro video compilations on youtube for some examples.  

I'll also add I think that there is a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here.  I have a lot of fine memories of some 80s and 90s cartoons, but a lot of them are really not too good..  Like, say, the 90s X-Men and Spiderman.  Aside from some good voice acting in both, they're really kind of bad.  Lots of sloppy animation and errors, some kind of bad writing, etc.  

On another note, one thing that really separates cartoons from different eras is the voice acting.  In the 1980s, it got very good in a number of cases.  Into the mid 90s there were some very good ones (Batman and Gargoyles, for example) but by the late 90s and early 2000s it got REALLY terrible...  And now, from the snippets I've seen of some newer shows, it seems to have improved quite a bit.  For example, as horrendous as the animation style is, the new Transformers has quite solid voice work - at least, the ep I saw did.  I'm betting the influx of anime dubs has something to do with that.

Tis true.  In fact, I prefer the early/mid '90s Batman: The Animated Series cartoon.  I was born in '84, so I prefer a lot of the cartoons from around '88-'94, but my initial comparison was that of the initial Scooby-Doo to say, Scooby Doo, Where R U?, the modern one.  Any time they take a classic toon from the '50s-'70s and modernize it, it relatively fails.  Flintstone Kids...not that good.  Tom and Jerry Kids...not as fun.  Any incarnation of Scooby Doo after, say, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo (which starred Vincent Price, by the way) isn't that good a show. 

[HappyGilmore]

The new Ninja Turtles? 

*shudders*

I saw that yesterday...

No wonder kids today are morons !
It doesn't even have a good theme tune. 

Man, it was poor...

I have to be honest here...when they re-launched TMNT back in around 2003 or so, it was actually a decent show.  The creators of the comic were very involved in storylines and it was a much darker show than the original.  But after about three years, the toy company put pressure on them to change things, as they wanted to come out with specific toys to make more money.  So they had to completely scrap the story they were involved in and send the turtles a hundred or so years to the future, and make it more 'kid friendly' as to improve sales.  Toy sales went up but ratings started to sink.  So they sent them 'back to the sewers' so to speak, but show quality is still suffering while toys are up.  So now it seems they pretty much change the stories each season to help the toy sales.

[Warp Ninja X]

You guys wake up at 6:30am to 7:00am boy that was late in my house when I was just a toddler my big sister use to wake me up at 5:00am and it stuck that way. Oh how I miss my favorites Super 7/ The Freedom Force, Shazam, Isis, The Krofft Shows, Jason Of Star Command, Drak Pack, and the other shows of the 70's. The Mighty Orbots, The Hulk, Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, Goldie Gold And Action Jack, Droids, Mr. T, Turbo Teen, Kid Video, Space Ace, and others shows of the 80's.

[Warp Ninja X]

Your half right Mofo about SBTB mess up Saturday Morning but other stuff before that mess it up Menudo, Mary Lou Retton, NKOTB, Mc Hammer, and Action For Children Television and Parents Television Council.

[venomx]

Menudo. Haha I remember that ...

Your right though, how is Menudo a good saturday morning show? OH WHAT A WORLD! 

SOS saturday morning cartoons- SOS saturday morning cartoons- SOS!!!

[meQal]

We can't claim Saved By The Bell started the downfall of Saturday Morning cartoons. We had live action shows before that series was ever conceived. Let's not forget the shows of Sid and Marty Krofft like Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, H.R. Puffnstuff, Dr. Shrinker, Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl, and such. While SBTB was horrible, it was not the killing blow. Granted those of us whow atched them like to remember them fondly but they were just as bad as SBTB as far as scripts and had even crappier appearance. The thing is most of them were more fun and had more imagination than SBTB however. However most of them did not last beyond a single season.
I have to agree with RC in that it was the availability of cartoons 24/7 that lead to the Saturday Morning cartoon event demise but even that had help. With advances in animation styles, computers, video games, political correctness, and countless other crap, stuff that made cartoons fun for us died.
Try watching a classic Looney Tunes or Road Runner cartoon today. Watch one you remember well from when you were a kid and count the number of times something was cut out. That is what political correctness and these people who claim they are trying to save our children caused. Gone are the days when you would see the coyote hit the bottom of the canyon and holding up a funny sign or Daffy Duck getting his beak shot around to the back of his head by Elmer Fudd.
Speaking of cartoons I watched when I was a kid, here's a list of several of my favorites I remember watching as a kid: Superfriends (pre-Wonder Twins), Batman, Tarzan, Star Trek The Animated Series, Scooby Doo, The Bullwinkle Show, Go Go Gophers, and my all time favorite Underdog.

[venomx]

OMG, Dr. Shrinker ... I looked it up on youtube, wow what a surprise! I remember that! late 70's right? wow ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqPQlja0VSI

I just had to hear that music again! Blast from the past. Thanks meQal.

Around the same time I was watching Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu4r7sAe9XM

[kakihara]

turbo teen
tranzor z
m.a.s.k.
dino riders
bigfoot
dinosaucers
denver the last dinosaur
he-man
she-ra  (this doesnt make me less of a man)
ghostbusters
photon
captain power
thundercats
silverhawks
gravedale high
beetlegeuse
the real ghostbusters
captain n
super mario brothers 3
american gladiators
super force
tmnt
samurai pizza cats
mighty max
batman (90s)
eek the cat/terrible thunder lizards
project g.e.e.k.e.r.
beakmans world
angry beavers
the tick
freakazoid
road rovers
earthworm jim
xmen
xo squad
-there are so many that  I cant remember at the moment. what about that show that granpa munster used to host. he would show horror moves and do skits kinda like elvira. those damn rubber bats that he would flop around him used to drive me crazy.

[venomx]

I don't remember him hosting cartoons. "Super Scary Saturday"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiRio4ISFoU