Do You think Syndication will ever be a viable medium for animation again?

P

Princess95

New member
we all know how sucessful syndication was for cartoons in the 80's and 90's. In your opinons do you think it will ever return to promience or will the FCC and PTC still have a stronghold or broadcast televison?
 
It's a different world now. Syndication was a big thing before the advents of cable/satellite TV, VCRs, DVRs, and the internet. Nowadays people have so many choices and there's too much competition for syndication markets. Not only can syndication not compete with channels which show animation 24/7, and the internet, where people can watch anything at anytime, but most of the big name cartoon shows and properties are under the ownership of big conglomerates who aren't willing to play sharesies.
 
There doesn't seem to be a lot of scripted first run syndicated anything anymore. All I can think of is Legend of the Seeker.

The Simpson, Family Guy, South Park and King of the Hill seem to do pretty great in syndication but they are also adult series. Networks and affiliates don't seem to care about kids programming in general as the cable channels are the ones reaping all of the profits from that. i'd think that it would take something like Spongebob being syndicated to open opportunities for new syndicated series but kids still wouldn't have much incentive to tune in to their local Fox 23 to catch an episode when they can catch 8 hour marathons on Nick or Nicktoons on any given day. The parent network, like Nick, also might not have any incentive to do syndication deals when they can just air the show themselves, keep all the profits and keep their network's brand going strong.
 
As I said before, every time I see what the local TV stations currently offer right now, I die a little inside. :crying: They could be so much better than what they are but unfortunately, they're not.
 
Unfortunately I would have to say that animation will never enjoy network syndication on free television again, mainly because the free television networks (CW, Fox, ect) can air court shows and cheesy talk shows and get better ratings than if they aired cartoons. So why even gamble with them? I think real cartoons on networks such as NBC, ABC and CBS are dead too, aside from the few E/I shows they still air it's basicly a dead medium on anything other than cable, it's a damn shame that it turned out that way too.

The days of non-cable networks airing cartoons is over and I would be very surprised if they ever returned in force, I've been wrong before though so I guess there is always a glimmer of hope, but it's highly unlikely that you will be able to come home in the afternoon and watch cartoons on a non-cable network ever again. Sad, isn't it?
 
Well thats true unfortunatly. But I would like to see it happen, if only for those of us (like myself) who dont have cable.



Also true. Look at a website like newgrounds.com which is entirely devoted to animation and animated games.



Now here, i can see a couple things wrong with your point.
1. Animation does enjoy network syndication on free television. But as Rick Jones said, they are adult shows. Look at the fox sunday lineup for example. You have the simpsons, family guy, the cleveland show, and american dad. You also have south park (albeit in an edited fashion) on late nights on 26 the U and even Family guy is on CW every night (again edited though).

2. you say that real cartoons on channels such as CBS, ABC, NBC (etc) are dead except for the few E/I shows on there (which is really only on Saturday morning.)

Well in my experience (and im talking over 10 years of watching here) E/I shows are all that have ever been shown on channels such as those. And they are still going on to this day. Sure, the only ABC cartoon E/I show on there now are syndication of disney shows (really that's all ABC ever showed) such as "the emperors new school" and "the replacements" with the rest going to live action disney shows, so i guess that channel is Dead. My point though, is that syndication still exists there. You call it a "damn shame" it turned out that way. I agree with that. If it were up to me, ABC would still show the GOOD disney shows it used to show. Stuff like "recess" "fillmore" and the like.

3. You say the days of non cable networks airing cartoons are over, but i say "when did it ever stop?" What do you mean by "cartoons"? IMO anything that is animated could be considered a cartoon. Sure it isn't the likes of loony tunes, or stuff you'd see on CN (which by the way should start syndicating stuff back to CW like it used to HINT HINT!)
And you say that its unlikely you'd be able to go home in the afternoon and watch cartoons on a non cable network ever again? Well I say, that never has happened. Or at least not in over 10 years. Not since the day fox stopped airing stuff like "power rangers" and the like. That to me, was the closest thing to an animated show I ever saw in the afternoon on a non cable network. That and DBZ in the early 90's on the weekend.

I do remember the glory days of non cable cartoons. I'm talking the realm of the late 90's and early 2000's. The days when you saw not one, not two, but THREE count em THREE channels (ABC, FOX, and WGN as it was known back then) all offering Saturday morning cartoons. You think 4Kids originated on CW? hell no it didn't. It was brought to CW. I member those days like they were yesterday. You could watch pokemon before it was ported to CN. And you could watch other good cartoons like the mighty fighting foodons. and for that matter, Ultimate Muscle. But i'll stop now before i start rambling too much.

And if my manner seems at all rude, or impassive, i apologize. I dont mean to be so, I just am trying to get my points across in an efficient manner.
 
I was not taking into account the Fox Sunday night lineup due to the fact that they are geared toward adults, I was mainly talking about children's programming so my apologies for not clarifying. But to answer your question about when true syndication came to an end, that would be when major network affiliates stopped airing cartoons in the mornings and afternoons during the weekday and when the "big 3" began airing weekend versions of their morning shows on the weekend in the early to mid 90's. That's when true cartoon syndication on the major networks came to an end.

Yeah, once in a while some of the adult oriented cartoons get put into syndication but it isn't anything even close to how it used to be and nothing anyone can say can change that, its unfortunate.

EDIT: On the comment you made about E/I shows being the only kind of cartoons that the "Big 3" has ever aired, you are painfully wrong my friend. You missed out on the 70's and 80's then ;)
 
A handful of local stations (CW or FOX or My Network or ION) air the 1 hour Cookie Jar TV syndie block with "Busy World of Richard Scarry" and "Wimzie's House".

In Chicago, digital subchannel ME TV airs Sunday mornings vintage cartoon series The Bullwinkle Show and Underdog.
 
You can say that again. :(It would be nice to see just pure comedy cartoons on broadcast TV again instead of court shows, and talk shows. it's just that the only kind of cartoons you see outside of 4Kids TV are E/I cartoons. :sad:That could be one small step to bringing classic cartoons back to broadcast TV, but I won't get my hopes up.
 
Yeah. I was born in 86, so I grew up watching saturday morning cartoons on ABC and later Fox and the CW. I still member Watching great stuff in the early 90's like WILD WEST C.O.W. Boys and Mutant League (which should really get a dvd release), as well as watching old pink panther cartoons in the wee morning hours on TNT back in the day. I guess it's a good thing they finally released the "saturday morning" packs. I saw the 80's one today and thought it was interesting.
 
In the 80's (and before) major networks like CBS, NBC and ABC all aired cartoons on Saturday and Sunday mornings that were not of the E/I persuasion, it was a glorious time to be a fan of cartoons. There was nothing like the classic Saturday morning formula, it's just too bad that all these lousy standards and practices created through all these stupid mandates helped to kill it for everyone, but I guess the networks don't care what they air as long as people are watching.
 
You should be glad that you enjoyed what you watched and that your momories will always be there to comfort you when you begin to feel nostalgic about your era of cartoons, but the late 70's and the entire 80's were definitely the height of Saturday morning cartoon popularity from a variety standpoint. I miss those days. :sad:
 
Back
Top