Monday, October 6, 2014

The First Saturday Morning without Cartoons On

All children of the 80s/90s will remember this graphic
This past weekend was the first weekend, possibly in fifty years, where there were no Saturday morning cartoons on any of the major broadcast networks. (CBS, NBC, ABC, CW, etc.) Being a child of the 80s and 90s, I couldn't wait for Saturday morning to arrive.

Basically because I could watch cartoons for hours. The likes of Garfield and Friends, Looney Tunes, The Real Ghostbusters, and Tales from the Cryptkeeper graced my television screen every Saturday.

For a long way, it was this stretch of cartoons, which truly made the weekend, the weekend. It's gave the weekend its feel. Gizmodo has a great article discussing this change in television programming, and they do an excellent job discussing it.

Even though television is becoming more on-demand because of Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc, and kids are able to watch cartoons whenever they want, I'm still a little sad. There's something about destination television that helps create a community amongst viewers. For generations of Americans, Saturday morning cartoons will always hold a special place in their hearts.

4 comments:

Matt Maldre said...

What a strange world we live in where there are no cartoons on network tv on saturday mornings.

Matt Maldre said...

Every fall, we would customize our exact Saturday morning cartoon playlist.
Fall 1986:
8:30am NBC Gummi Bears
9:00am CBS Muppet Babies
10:00am ABC Real Ghostbusters
10:30am nothing good on, play with G.I.Joe
11:00am CBS Pee-Wee's Playhouse
11:30am ABC Ewoks (actually I didn't watch this in 1986, but I wish I did now)
12:00pm Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling

Thank you wikipedia for listing the network tv schedule for Saturday morning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986%E2%80%9387_United_States_network_television_schedule_(Saturday_morning)

Chi-Town Kid 83 said...

How could I of forgotten the Muppet Babies. That was one of my favorites growing up. They need to get that on DVD.

By the way, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling is coming to the WWE Network :)

Matt Maldre said...

I specifically picked the year 1986, so I could include Muppet Babies on my playlist. Oh wow. I just looked up Muppet Babies on wikipedia. It ran from 1984 to 1991! Wow. I thought it had only about a three-year run.

And how is Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling not already on the WEE--oops typo, but i'll leave it--WWE Network?