MY GOD-end of an age

[packman]

No more Saturday morning cartoons????


" Vortexx ...the only remaining traditional children's programming block on any of the U.S. broadcast networks, and the only one that incorporated advertising aimed at the block's target audience (due partly to advertising restrictions placed by the Federal Communications Commission, other commercial broadcast networks opt to run advertisements aimed at adult consumers and/or public service announcements).

The block came to an end on September 27, 2014, and was replaced the following week with a live-action E/I block from Litton Entertainment named One Magnificent Morning, marking the end of traditional Saturday morning children's programming on broadcast television.[4]


A part of me just died. Loved watching Bugs, He-man, and all those senseless cartoons laying in bed with my kids on a lazy Saturday morning eating overly sugared cereal. Man, I'm grieving. What is becoming of America?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. I used to dream of the future. Now I long for the past. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

30. Dusty Springfield's got a song for you

[hifiguy]

34. I lurrvs me some Dusty!

[Art_from_Ark]

40. Here's another hit from Dusty

[hifiguy]

2. Saturday morning was the highlight of the week

when I was a kid back in the 1960s. Never missed The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, George of the Jungle, Wacky Races, Mighty Mouse, and my other favorites.

A sad day indeed

[awoke_in_2003]

19. and when I was a kid in the 70's

the afternoons usually involve the 3 Stooges and the Marx brothers.

[hifiguy]

36. We got the Marx Bros, Laurel & Hardy

and the Bowery Boys on Sunday mornings in Mpls. Late 1970s it was Sunday nights for those of us of the herbally enhanced brigade. Python, too.

[awoke_in_2003]

55. Ah, yes, Laurel and Hardy

Python came in my teens.

[brush]

27. Don't forget Moose and Squirrel and Boris and Natasha (Rocky and Friends)

That show was the best.

[hifiguy]

32. Rocky and Bullwinkle was my introduction

to political satire when I was about six. I got most of the jokes even then even when my parents didn't. I was a very precocious kid. . I feel sorry for today's kids but My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic gives me a bit of hope for the continued existence of smart, snarky cartoons that can teach subtle lessons. Love that show!

[Art_from_Ark]

35. It was always The Bullwinkle Show to me

[Art_from_Ark]

31. I was a cartoon junkie in the '60s

My favorites were Bullwinkle, Bugs Bunny/Road Runner, The Flintstones, Wacky Races, Scooby Doo, Tennessee Tuxedo, The King and Odie (Bongo Congo), Linus the Lionhearted, The Hunter, Underdog, The Alvin Show, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, George of the Jungle, Super Chicken, Tom Slick, Klondike Kat, Dudley Do-right, Go Go Gophers, Milton the Monster, Beany and Cecil, Pink Panther/The Inspector, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, Porky Pig, Wally Gator, Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har, the Hillbilly Bears, the Archies, the Beatles, the Mighty Heroes, Here Comes the Grump, Magilla Gorilla, Foghorn Leghorn, Popeye, Hector Heathcoat, Clutch Cargo, the Jetsons, Astro Boy, and whatever cartoons they would show on the Wonderful World of Color/Disney. LOL

[adirondacker]

43. I like your list and would add Felix the Cat and HR Puff n Stuff.

[Art_from_Ark]

46. Pufnstuf wasn't really a cartoon, but

I watched that, too. And the Banana Splits And the Monkees

I saw Felix the Cat on an early morning cartoon show, maybe a couple of times. "Felix the cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat, *something something*, your heart will go pitty pat..."

Then there was Woody Woodpecker (how could I forget him) and the New Casper Cartoon Show, not to mention Heckle and Jeckle, Tom and Jerry, Herman and Catnip, Deputy Dawg, Mr. Jinx the cat, and Quick Draw McGraw. I'm probably leaving some others out

Like The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was half-cartoon.

[littlewolf]

62. now I have george of the jungle theme song in my head :D nt

[hifiguy]

63. George, George,

George of the Jungle, friend to you and me...
George, George, George of the Jungle
Watch out for that tree-ee-ee!

[Freddie]

3. Wow, end of an era

Ask any of us later Boomers what we remember about the Kennedy assassination and one of them is always "why weren't there any cartoons on" that Sat. AM (I'd just turned 7). We had 1 B & W TV and Sat. AM and an hour after school with Sally Starr's Popeye Theater (Philly kid here) were the only times we kids got control of the set. My kids, in their 20's, grew up with 24/7 Nickelodeon and Disney Channel and can't fathom a time without children's TV always available.

[PCIntern]

16. I met Gene London when I was a kid...

did you know that when he did those drawings on TV they were tracings? all the kids on the show could see that…those at home could not.

[elias49]

20. Argh! Say it isn't so! nt

[PCIntern]

23. Yup.

Sucks, doesn't it? Cartoon Corners General Store Fraud! I knew it was too good to be true!

[Freddie]

41. No!! There goes my faith in humanity

I have a vague memory of being in the audience for Happy the Clown when I was 3 or 4. Philly TV had great homegrown kids shows back in the day...Sally Starr, Gene London, Pixanne, Chief Halftown...

[TorchTheWitch]

52. MA had all of them as well

My cousin that's a year younger than me had such a huge crush on Pixanne. We used to tease the hell out of him for that whenever we were in MA to visit relatives.

I can still hear the hoof beats of the mailbag delivery on Sally Starr. *sigh*

[TorchTheWitch]

51. I loved that show

Just a year or so ago I had a nightmare about the Quiggly mansion... even though I can't for the life of me remember what was scary about it.

[myrna minx]

45. The Iranian hostage crisis preempted my Hanna Barbara "Laff-a-Lympics"

breakfast time, which was rather unsettling. It's what brought world politics into my little kid world bubble.

As an aside, in the 70's when I heard about guerrillas emerging from the mountains and taking over communities, I literally thought it was gorillas. Ha.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. damn I didn't even know about Vortexx. Every once in a while Direct TV will allow us to access

Boomerang channel, but then they usually take it off the air. I think it is a marketing tactic to try and get us to order the channel. I refuse. I love traditional cartoons but I refuse to be played by a company like that.

[jberryhill]

5. I blame the Sour Grapes Bunch

Barberiens!

[whistler162]

8. Why you blame Grape Ape?

[awoke_in_2003]

21. Because Magilla Gorilla

would never do anything like this

[hifiguy]

37. Countless DU points for

a Magilla Gorilla reference. We got a gorilla for sale.....

[awoke_in_2003]

56. I loved Magilla. nt

[In_The_Wind]

6. Breakfast on Saturday morning will never be the same again.

[TorchTheWitch]

53. I have such great memories of pancake breakfasts on Saturday morning

with my brothers and my dad for Looney Tunes and the Pink Panther.

[n2doc]

7. Hey, the kids can just watch the Lockup marathon on Msnbc!

Can't believe that there is more money in that time slot to be made on non-children's programming. Maybe they all moved to the cartoon channel and nick?

[TheNutcracker]

9. I loved Felix, Casper, Kimba, Touche Turtle and Davey and Goliath. And of course Bozo too!

[KittyWampus]

42. Kimba the White Lion- which was stolen outright by Disney for Lion King

[SomethingFishy]

10. There are 24 hour cartoon networks..

The need for "saturday morning cartoons" has kind of diminished...

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. yep

[flvegan]

11. Do you have the Hub Network?

I don't know how widely available it is, but we have it here. I'm not sure about Saturday mornings specifically, but most mornings they have some Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, Littlest Pet Shop, Transformers, etc. On my dial, it's up past Cartoon Network (which also has some limited Looney Tunes, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo and Tom 'n Jerry).

I love cartoons. I miss the Saturday morning tradition.

[hifiguy]

33. I am an old animation geek.

I LOVED Cow and Chicken and I.M. Weasel, Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, PPG, Teen Titans and so many of CN's early/mid '00s shows. Wonderful stuff! And let us not forget John Kricfalusi's glorious "Ren & Stimpy."

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. OK, I need some Robonic Stooges right fucking now:

[hunter]

13. My parents always "slept late" on Saturday mornings.

While we were watching cartoons on the absurdly expensive RCA color television they bought in 1964 with money they didn't really have I'm beginning to suspect they were not really sleeping.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

14. Sat morn cartoons have sucked for the last 30 years

so nothing around here will change.

I remember Sat morn was MY time when I was a kid. Mom and Dad would stay in their room reading the paper (yeah, like I believed THAT one) and I would have the TV all to myself until about 11AM... that has never happened in my home as an adult...

sP

[Archae]

15. Just two examples from my life...

My childhood in the 60's:

And the 90's:

[Art_from_Ark]

38. Space Ghost was the only "serious" superhero cartoon I liked

I liked silly superhero cartoons like Super Chicken and The Mighty Heroes, but didn't really get into the Aquaman/Superman/Spiderman/Birdman/Fantastic Four/Justice League-type cartoons.

[Buns_of_Fire]

54. I can't remember my own phone number, but I can still sing the "Super Chicken" theme.

Squawks and all. My grandchildren think I'm losing it. They're probably right.

[hifiguy]

59. You knew the job was dangerous

when you took it, Fred.

Bk'awwwwk!

[Art_from_Ark]

60. If you think that's bad,

I still remember the words to the "Marvel the Mustang" song

[LawDeeDah]

58. Agreed, the screaming and jarring can't be good for kids.

Everything is super hyper and yelling, at least that is what I remember of cartoons when my niece was growing up - for me back in the olden days, it was Popeye mostly and Boris and Natasha. I don't remember feeling like I had PTSD from them.

[GeorgeGist]

17. Bummer see #1

[mahina]

18. Just got Bugs Bunny on Netflix. This after a month of L'incendie and other heavy flicks.

Who wants their kids sitting in front of the TV anyway. Just commercials for sugar and McDonalds and crap for 20 minutes of 60 at least.

Fond memories of laughing with my father at the coyote and roadrunner and Bugs. But now the cartoons suck anyway.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. by dvd? i hear netflix is ramping down the dvd side of biz

[mahina]

49. maybe so but they have more selection on dvd than streaming.

[Liberal_in_LA]

50. good to hear. i just re-opened my acct

[LWolf]

22. Senseless and not-so-senseless.

Some of them were smarter and funnier than anything modern I've seen on tv. Bugs, for example. What modern cartoon character can compare?

And then there were, sandwiched in with all the kid advertising, the public service stuff for kids...School House Rock.

[hifiguy]

39. Bugs existed in a world of his own.

Best cartoon character ever. Period.

[LWolf]

48. I can't disagree,

even though it clearly shows my generation bias.

[brooklynite]

24. I suspect someone said the same thing in the 70s when Westerns went off the air...

...and in the 50s when radio soap operas disappeared.

Tastes change.

[Arugula Latte]

25. Bugs was my favorite. Also watched other Looney Toons, Roadrunner, Bullwinkel, Sherman & Peabody,

Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, The Jackson 5 cartoon, The Banana Splits, Hong Kong Phooey, etc. etc.

But, ya know, I've come to the conclusion that nostalgia becomes poisonous in large doses. Life is change, and I just try to roll with the changes. C'est la vie.

[brush]

26. Moose and Squirrel — Boris and Natasha

Rocky and his friends was not only for kids.

[KittyWampus]

44. Anyone remember the Beatles cartoon or Luno The White Stallion or Dexter?

Bugs was my favorite.

[logosoco]

47. I thought Saturday morning cartoons died out a long time ago?

I grew up in that era as well (and we didn't even have a color TV until 1973!). But my kids, first one born in 1990, grew up with videos and PBS. Now my grandkids have netflix and many other choices on the web.

One of my favorite stories to tell my kids was how if you missed the Wizard of OZ or Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin, you were SOL until the next year.

As much as i have fond memories of getting up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons before housework, I am happier that my kids and grandkids are growing up without all of those commercials.

[shenmue]

57. Noooooooooooo

Le sad!

[Rex]

61. Cartoons 24/7 on Hulu.

The world is a different place since 3 channels.

[reflection]

64. Man, I used to bound out of bed on Saturday mornings with my action figures

and eat Pop-Tarts while I watched Star Blazers. Life was all downhill after that...

[JI7]

65. hasn't this been over for some time because of cable and internet ? it's why many

channels seem to show some crappy talk show type stuff similar to the view format.