Saturday morning cartoons are just about dead...

EliteLamer

At first I thought it was just because I was older and I didn't like cartoons anymore. It turns out it was not that at all but that cartoons now suck. I started to do some reading and found out that starting around 2000 networks started to drop or cut back their cartoon blocks. WB and ABC no longer show any cartoons from my understanding, only leaving FOX and there line up sucks. The only cartoon holding them up is TMNT at 193 episodes. Once that is gone, they are left with Winx Club... I really think cartoons started going down hill when FOX started to show cheap anime, Digimon and Yugioh. WB showed Pokemon. The last few good cartoons were Jackie Chan Adventures and XiaWarriors, which got cut for almost no reason...

I watched most of The Pirates of DarkWater today and it really kicked ass... It had a story line and everything, crazy huh.. Maybe these pics will refresh your memory..





They don't even try to make American cartoons anymore...

Zephyr_Fate

Pirates of Dark Water was one of the coolest SNES games ever.

Zampano

Ironic that Saturday Morning Cartoons have been replaced, by and large, with Saturday Night Cartoons.

And Sunday night, too.

Hacksaw

SHOCKING UPDATE: A TELEVISION ERA HAS FINALLY COME TO AN END.

MORE AT 11.

Candlemass

Among other things, this reminds me of chancing upon the abomination that is the newest Batman series this last weekend. Sad to see what they've done with such a character.

EliteLamer

Zampano wrote: »

Ironic that Saturday Morning Cartoons have been replaced, by and large, with Saturday Night Cartoons.

And Sunday night, too.

How many of them are American cartoons?

Hacksaw

EliteLamer wrote: »

Zampano wrote: »

Ironic that Saturday Morning Cartoons have been replaced, by and large, with Saturday Night Cartoons.

And Sunday night, too.

How many of them are American cartoons?

There's lots of American stuff on Adult Swim.

Bloods End

The new Ninja Turtles was pretty awesome. Then they did Fast Foward. And that was lest then awesome. But still better then the original.

EliteLamer

Most of Cartoon Network cartoons can hardly compare to the cartoons of the 80's and early 90's.

Bionic Monkey

Actually, from what I could tell, saturday morning cartoons started going away starting all the way back when NBC stopped showing any, back in the 90's. Soon, CBS and ABC followed, leaving Fox and UPN, and when it formed, the WB.

Bionic Monkey

Candlemass wrote: »

Among other things, this reminds me of chancing upon the abomination that is the newest Batman series this last weekend. Sad to see what they've done with such a character.

Honestly, these last two seasons haven't been that bad. There have even been a few episodes I've downright enjoyed. It's just hard not to compare it to TAS, and pretty much everything comes up lacking when put up against TAS, let alone another Batman cartoon. Compared to other modern kid's cartoons, it's really not half bad.

Richy

I really miss the old Saturday Morning cartoons from my childhood

EliteLamer

Yeah you are right it did start to die back then but for a short while after it seemed like FOX and WB were trying to get good cartoons. Now it looks like they have given up... Just look at the line up..

* 8:00a: Winx Club
* 8:30a: Viva Piñata
* 9:00a: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)
* 9:30a: Viva Piñata
* 10:00a: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fast Forward
* 10:30a: Chaotic
* 11:00a: Sonic X
* 11:30a: Yu-Gi-Oh!

syndalis

Anyone who has a 360 can download season 1, episode 1 of the Pac Man cartoon for free..I recoiled in horror at it. Holy shit I used to watch that and like it.

I ate the cereal.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

MrMister

syndalis wrote: »

Holy shit I used to watch that and like it.

Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-se me, princess!

Couscous

EliteLamer wrote: »

Most of Cartoon Network cartoons can hardly compare to the cartoons of the 80's and early 90's.

Most of those cartoons were pieces of crap.

Golden Yak

Remembering Pirates of Dark Water makes me bitter about how they redubbed the first 5 episodes with the new voice actor of the Monkey-Bird character after the original guy didn't sign on for the rest of the episodes. Original Monkey-Bird voice guy was the best.

Best ever Saturday morning cartoons from my childhood?

Astro Boy
The Real Ghost Busters
The Mighty Hercules
Spider-Man (the 1960s series. Two back-to-back episodes kept me shut-up for about an hour. Parents loved it)
TMNT

Couscous

syndalis wrote: »

Anyone who has a 360 can download season 1, episode 1 of the Pac Man cartoon for free..I recoiled in horror at it. Holy shit I used to watch that and like it.

I ate the cereal.

It could be worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fEVgqoaok
This is why Chuck Jones called them "illustrated radio".

Richy

mcdermott wrote: »

I have a theory. I just pulled it out of my ass, and it could be completely wrong.

Saturday morning cartoons were, at least back when I was a kid, largely half-hour toy commercials. Don't get me wrong, may were great...but a main objective was still to get kids to buy toys.

Kids buy less toys now, as that money is more often spent on more expensive videogames at earlier ages than previously. Hence, less profit in Saturday morning cartoons, hence end of an era.

They did make cartoons about videogames too. Zelda, the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and the several Sonic series come to mind.

Feral

I was just thinking about making a thread on children's programming.
Not just cartoons, though.
Mostly it was going to be about Fraggle Rock, because Fraggle Rock was one of the best kid's shows evar. When I go back and watch old episodes, it still impresses me to this day how much depth and soul it had.

Mikesta

Well, one thing you have to remember is that a lot of these Sat. morning cartoons you remember so fondly are pretty bad if you watch them now. I mean, being a geek, I have an affinity toward animation, but if I were impartial to it, I wouldn't get any joy out of watching Pirates of Dark Water, Conan the Adventurer, or the old TMNT.

Now, there are a few cartoons from back in the day that actually stand up as quality television (Gargoyles, Batman: TAS and just about everything else in the DCAU), but most don't. I think you're probably just viewing the past through rosy tinted lenses, as kids that are six or seven now are going to look back when they're twenty and say "man, Digimon was so awesome! Cartoons suck these days!"

Bloods End

EliteLamer wrote: »

Yeah you are right it did start to die back then but for a short while after it seemed like FOX and WB were trying to get good cartoons. Now it looks like they have given up... Just look at the line up..

* 8:00a: Winx Club
* 8:30a: Viva Piñata
* 9:00a: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)
* 9:30a: Viva Piñata
* 10:00a: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fast Forward
* 10:30a: Chaotic
* 11:00a: Sonic X
* 11:30a: Yu-Gi-Oh!

One good thing.

Man.

Jinnigan

i rewatched a few episodes of Pinky and the Brain a few weeks ago.

yeach

Zampano

I blame anime.

Which isn't to say that anime is bad. I love anime. The problem is that anime made for kids is bad, almost universally, because it panders and talks down to them even worse than the American stuff from the 80s and 90s did.

And while it seems like a lare chunk of Saturday Morning Cartoons in the 80s were for promoting toys, I think that all anime for kids has that end.

Aroduc

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

Mikesta

Jinnigan wrote: »

i rewatched a few episodes of Pinky and the Brain a few weeks ago.

yeach

I actually kind of like that show, along with its ilk like Tiny Toon Adventures. They had some decent humor that wasn't aimed squarely at kids.

Casual Eddy

hmm i'm extremely impressed with the production value and thought put into Avatar, the animated series on Nick. But it does seem like most cartoons are pretty damn crappy.

Richy

I rewatched a few Darkwing Duck episodes on YouTube a few weeks back. They were still pretty good. But now I can't find them anymore, I think they got taken down. That was disappointing.

EDIT: Although that was a weekday afternoon cartoon, not a Saturday morning cartoon. Does that still count?

Mikesta

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

I had a debate with some guy in another thread who was saying that he thought X-Men was the most well written cartoon ever, even when compared to Batman: TAS.

Yeah, it's well written if you like characters that basically just walk around and say what they're feeling all the time. That show had, like, the worst dialogue.

Mikesta

Richy wrote: »

I rewatched a few Darkwing Duck episodes on YouTube a few weeks back. They were still pretty good. But now I can't find them anymore, I think they got taken down. That was disappointing.

EDIT: Although that was a weekday afternoon cartoon, not a Saturday morning cartoon. Does that still count?

As long as it isn't something like The Simpson or Beavis & Butthead, I'd say it counts.

EliteLamer

They did make cartoons about videogames too. Zelda, the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and the several Sonic series come to mind.

Some people consider the Sonic cartoons the best Saturday cartoon of all time. The comic book like one, not the funny one.

EliteLamer

Casual Eddy wrote: »

hmm i'm extremely impressed with the production value and thought put into Avatar, the animated series on Nick. But it does seem like most cartoons are pretty damn crappy.

Avatar kicks ass... One of the few good cartoons on.

Hooraydiation

Richy wrote: »

I rewatched a few Darkwing Duck episodes on YouTube a few weeks back. They were still pretty good. But now I can't find them anymore, I think they got taken down. That was disappointing.

EDIT: Although that was a weekday afternoon cartoon, not a Saturday morning cartoon. Does that still count?

Weekday afternoon cartoons are gone as well, so I think the point is still relevant.

Cartoon Network has an afternoon block of programming, but that hardly counts for obvious reasons.

Zampano

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

The X-Men Animated series was poorly animated and ugly as hell, but it didn't shy away from actually complex storylines and character development. Although it gets to do that because of its source material. Its appearance is due to the technology available at the time. When they returned to the franchise a few years ago with X-Men Evolution, the result was better animation, for the most part, but weaker story telling, although it got pretty good in the later seasons.

Contrast that with, say, Yu-Gi-Oh.

Mikesta

Zampano wrote: »

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

The X-Men Animated series was poorly animated and ugly as hell, but it didn't shy away from actually complex storylines and character development. Although it gets to do that because of its source material. Its appearance is due to the technology available at the time. When they returned to the franchise a few years ago with X-Men Evolution, the result was better animation, for the most part, but weaker story telling, although it got pretty good in the later seasons.

Contrast that with, say, Yu-Gi-Oh.

I'm sure that the complexity is there, but the presentation of said complexity is so bad that it isn't worth sticking with the series to find out what happens. Gargoyles is easily as complex as X-Men, and the writing is good enough that the show remains believable and worthwhile.

Hacksaw

EliteLamer wrote: »

Most of Cartoon Network cartoons can hardly compare to the cartoons of the 80's and early 90's.

You're right; they are not, by and large, 30 minute commercials.

Aroduc

Zampano wrote: »

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

The X-Men Animated series was poorly animated and ugly as hell, but it didn't shy away from actually complex storylines and character development. Although it gets to do that because of its source material. Its appearance is due to the technology available at the time. When they returned to the franchise a few years ago with X-Men Evolution, the result was better animation, for the most part, but weaker story telling, although it got pretty good in the later seasons.

Contrast that with, say, Yu-Gi-Oh.

Fun fact... the entire first season of Yu-Gi-Oh is never going to be localized in the western world because of sexual themes and the fact that the main character sets another one on fire because he's an ass. It goes a full season before card games are even introduced.

Screampunk

Aroduc wrote: »

Zampano wrote: »

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

The X-Men Animated series was poorly animated and ugly as hell, but it didn't shy away from actually complex storylines and character development. Although it gets to do that because of its source material. Its appearance is due to the technology available at the time. When they returned to the franchise a few years ago with X-Men Evolution, the result was better animation, for the most part, but weaker story telling, although it got pretty good in the later seasons.

Contrast that with, say, Yu-Gi-Oh.

Fun fact... the entire first season of Yu-Gi-Oh is never going to be localized in the western world because of sexual themes and the fact that the main character sets another one on fire because he's an ass. It goes a full season before card games are even introduced.

Zampano

Aroduc wrote: »

Zampano wrote: »

Aroduc wrote: »

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

I remember watching the X-Men Animated series religiously... I tried to go back and check it out a year or two ago, and I think I got eye cancer from how badly it aged. The past is best viewed through rosy colored glasses.

The X-Men Animated series was poorly animated and ugly as hell, but it didn't shy away from actually complex storylines and character development. Although it gets to do that because of its source material. Its appearance is due to the technology available at the time. When they returned to the franchise a few years ago with X-Men Evolution, the result was better animation, for the most part, but weaker story telling, although it got pretty good in the later seasons.

Contrast that with, say, Yu-Gi-Oh.

Fun fact... the entire first season of Yu-Gi-Oh is never going to be localized in the western world because of sexual themes and the fact that the main character sets another one on fire because he's an ass. It goes a full season before card games are even introduced.

I actually knew that. Not so much the sexual themes as the setting on fire. Yu-Gi-Oh itself is horribly mangled anyway thanks to 4Kids, so anything that could be construed as daring or perilous is removed entirely in order to sanitize it for the kiddies. At least G.I. Joe had lasers. And Batman: TAS had real guns.

By the same token, Naruto and One Piece are really quite violent and bloody in their native form, but they are not presented in that manner over here. But those aren't really meant for kids in the first place. They are being sandwiched into the role.

EliteLamer

Gadzooks. Something else is popular cultural than when you were a child. Warn the authorities.

It has to do with that but the huge cuts in budget. No one is throwing enough money to produce good cartoons anymore.