Are Saturday morning cartoons becoming a thing of the past?

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If you're unaware, 4kids has been struggling lately and may run out of money for their programming block by late 2010. Assuming 4kids leaves the CW eventually, much like what happened on Fox, I think there will be no cartoon block on the CW.

The 2000's seem to be the last full decade for Saturday morning cartoons. As we make the transition to the 2010-2019 decade, we're probably going to be looking at no major cartoon blocks outside the cable networks.

It has to do with the internet and online streaming shows, the fact that kids would rather play videogames, the fact that shows simply aren't as good as they used to be, and the fact that Saturday mornings just aren't profitable anymore.

Do you think Saturday morning cartoons will become extinct in the coming years?
 
Yes and no. Kids will always watch cartoons on Saturday mornings, but not on "adult" stations such as Fox or CW. They'll be on children's netowrks such as Cartoon Network, Nicktoons or Disney XD.
 
I agree with cartoon lover, although the traditional saturday morning cartoon block may be dead, kids will always have a toon or 2 they look foward to watching saturday morinings off of CN, Nicktoons,Boomerang, XD, or if there lucky enough to get it, the Funimaton channel.
 
:rolleyes: Here we go agian

I agree with Cartoonlover. Saturday morning cartoons won't become extinct, its just where to find them will be different. Kids would watch them on cable channels instead of broadcast channels.
 
I too have to say yes and no.

The Saturday morning television as WE knew it, with the alphabet networks funding and programming their own shows for weekends, is drawing to a close. But to honest, that era of Saturday morning died a long time ago. The Big Three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) bowed out of the Saturday morning ratings game around 1991 or 1992, and later the "lesser" broadcast networks like FOX, UPN and the WB followed suit, as the syndication market is all but dead in the US. These days, the alphabet networks are content to simply loan that airtime out to blocks such as Qubo and Cookie Jar TV to fill out their E/I requirements.

I personally feel that this is because eventually ALL broadcast network television is going to be phased out, and in time it will all be cable/satellite and streaming video. It's getting harder and harder to for these networks to program for audiences when now with the inventions of sites like Hulu and 24-hour niche cable networks, people can watch whatever they want whenever they want. Saturday morning just isn't that big a deal anymore; Saturday morning was special when we were kids, because that was all the cartoons we could get aside from the local syndicated shows on weekday mornings and after noons, and the occasional network prime-time. (Keep in mind that I'm referring to the 70's and early 80's, before cable TV was commonplace).

There's not much reason for today's kids to hold one day of the week in that kind of reverence, since they can come home and switch on cartoons anytime, day or night, weekday or weekend, either via cable, DVD or On-Demand. I'd have killed for that convenience as a kid. So I think that we're the ones who should be pitied, not the kids growing up today.

THAT era of Saturday morning is becoming a thing of the past. But is Saturday morning as a whole dying out? Of course not. Saturday morning TV is still very much alive and kicking. There's still the blocks such as Qubo (and before anyone says "Those are baby shows" and "Nobody wants to watch those shows", no, their current schedules aren't great, but they've featured better shows in past seasons and they can always gain new and better shows as seasons progress), there's still Cartoon Network, Disney Channel/XD and Nickelodeon, and there's still the internet and streaming video.

So to sum up, Saturday morning isn't dying; it's merely evolving into something different.
 
There is always cable and there are many different options on cable for Saturday morning cartoons but I think the only network with premiers is CN as far as cable goes, I may be wrong. If 4Kids does go under then that will be a huge blow to major network Saturday morning cartoons, nobody wants to watch a bunch of e/i shows and The CW, will probably get out of cartoons all together should 4Kids end the block. It's a scary time for animation if you don't have cable or Dish, but all good things come to an end at some point, it's just a shame that there has to be an end at all.
 
Call me optimistic, but I don't see it as an end but rather, a new beginning. There's no longer a reason to hold a 3-4 hour block of animation for 1 day a week in any kind reverence anymore, since now there are stations that literally air cartoons everyday of the week. Saturday morning is nothing special anymore.

However, the Saturday morning cartoon will always exist in some way, shape or form, even if it's no longer on the alphabet networks. So there's really nothing to mourn, the way that I see it.
 
Um, there's still networks like CN, Nick, and Disney, which air new episodes of cartoons on Saturday mornings. So while they're may never be a block like Kids WB, 4Kids, Fox Kids, etc., again, there will still be Saturday morning cartoons. Its just that now there's internet, OnDemand, DVDs, and networks that show cartoons all the time, so kids can watch cartoons anytime they want, so that really eliminates the need for Saturday morning blocks.
 
Correction: Saturday morning cartoons as we knew them are dead. The times are changing, as so is the media. But there still are and will always be cartoons on Saturday mornings, albeit in different forms and on different stations.

Instead of boo-hooing about how the past is gone, I think it's more constructive to look ahead to what the future holds.
 
Dude, did you not read the above posts? It may be the end of network produced animated shows on Saturday mornings, but it's hardly the end of animated program blocks. If anything, this is better because animation is no longer limited to certain times of the week. You could try to be positive about this for once.
 
They sure are, as we knew them.

Yeah its kind of sad that the exclusiveness of cartoons is gone, but I think that the creators of shows like Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, STAS, BTAS, He-Man, Transformers, Yogi Bear, X-Men and Spiderman would be/are happy that people can enjoy them anytime they want, instead of it being exclusive to one day a week.
 
I think the future is flexibility and self-programming.

Ok, so you are used to Saturday morning but it's waning. As of now, unless I'm out Friday night I can't wait so I watch the CN and Nicktoon shows on the DVR about 10 minutes into the show so as to skip ads. Otherwise, I get a pretty full Saturday morning- only one show of which has actually aired then... and I have also had a couple Satams where I watched Bill Maher's HBO show as well because my show options are dwindling and none of the shows I've tried out appealed to me.

The future is probably having a la carte options (like Warner Archive) and some sort of mix between youtube and a library catalog to discover new stuff. Disney's reportedly looked into the latter since the economics of releasing the entire run of MMClub on DVD don't work and having SOTSouth as part of, say, a subscription to Vault Disney: The 40s looks alot better than having it on store shelves. It's Saturday Morning Infinite. A mix and match, with options of discovery. You are the programmer.
 
As long the original broadcast networks (CBS, ABC, and NBC) continue to distribute some form of animation on Saturday mornings, there's no reason for that. I really doubt children's cable networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network count as a Saturday morning centerpiece because they themselves air cartoons of old and new episodes during weekdays as well.
 
Technically, no. It just stopped being a powerhouse block with cartoons being more accessible.The thing is, children aren't being deprived of cartoons, so I don't even see the downside to this. I also don't see what the quality of the cartoon has to do with anything. I remember plenty of dreck during the 90's Saturday Morning era. Things change over time.

I'm 20. Saturday Mornings were never that important to me. It's just weird seeing people my age complaining about the death of Saturday Morning slots when they didn't even grow up during the time where it really had significance.
 
I feel the same way. While I understand why Saturday morning blocks changing would make some people sad, I don't really see it as something to always feel bad about. There are other more important things in life than cartoons and cartoon blocks.

I'm also going to say no. While blocks on smaller channels like FOX are gone, that doesn't mean that Saturday mornings aren't going to have any kind of cartoons. Even if it's only on the cable channels, there will still be ways for kids to find an enjoyable cartoon on Saturday mornings. Plus, they have a ton of other options to do on Saturday mornings, which is something I personally wouldn't have mind having back in the day. While I did enjoy the routine of waking up in time to watch Kids' WB, I wouldn't have mind having options of watching it later, like on an On Demand section or on the block's website, which many kids have access to these days.

Basically, as others have put it, Saturday mornings are just changing, but not dying or dead.
 
I had to quote this for truth.

Folks, I'm 40. I grew up during the 70's and 80's, when Saturday mornings on broadcast TV were supposedly at its' prime, and I'm not upset about the state of Saturday morning. It's not like kids' cartoons are being taken away, just that the outlets where they can watch them are changing. So I'm just amazed at the number of teens and young adults under 30 who are acting like it's the end of the world.

To reiterate: Saturday morning TV isn't going extinct. The rules and locations are changing. That's all.
 
Yet there's still less cartoons airing. Think of it this way, we once had KidsWb, 4kidsTV, CN, Nick, and Disney all airing different and new shows at the same time.

Now what do we have? The first two blocks are dead, CN is having a mid-life crisis, and Nick still doesn't have a heavy stream of action cartoons, as they're mostly comedy shows ala Spongebob.
 
For me if 4Kids did go under, Cartoons might not be a big part of my life anymore. I don't have cable and my dad won't buy it. He's worried that our family will watch too much TV. I'm skrewed untill I get cable in some way. Otherwise, I can watch episodes of shows on Youtube.
 
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