The Disappearance of Saturday Morning

ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE ^ | April 30, 2003 | By Gerard Raiti

[paltz]

The Disappearance of Saturday Morning Saturday morning no longer means kids in front of TV sets across the country, glued to the latest in hip cartoons. Why? Gerard Raiti investigates the death of an era.

April 30, 2003

By Gerard RaitiA once seemingly inseparable partnership between children and Saturday morning cartoons is now a thing of the past.

In a time not so long ago, Saturday mornings were indicative of one and only one pastime for children — watching cartoons. Throughout the '70s and '80s, the broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC dominated the Saturday morning airwaves by inundating children with cartoons. Cartoons on these networks used to earn ratings of more than 20 million viewers. Today, network Saturday morning cartoons only exist on ABC Kids, FOX Kids and Kids’ WB!, the latter two networks either did not exist or did not air cartoons two decades ago. Current successful cartoons on FOX Kids or Kids’ WB! can garner a mere two million viewers. That statistic does not even take into consideration that the population of children in the U.S. has increased by approximately ten percent over the last 20 years.

Due to this precipice in viewers, network cartoons are left struggling to make money while advertisers remain befuddled without a mainstream channel to promote new toys and products to children. Why have children stopped tuning in on Saturday mornings to network cartoons and what are the ramifications of this change?

Six key factors have led to children watching less Saturday morning cartoons: more recreational sports, the introduction of cable and satellite TV, the Internet and video games, a poorer quality of animation, and a greater emphasis on family time. These factors are rather self-explanatory with the exception of the latter: the divorce rate of Americans now stands at 49 percent, and time on the weekends has become more precious for children as many commute between parents’ houses.

For parents who only have limited access to their children due to either divorce or career advancement, plopping them down in front of the television for five hours on a Saturday morning is no longer a viable option. Among most parents, divorced or not, there is a new emphasis on "quality" time. Consequently, taking one’s children to the theater, mall, museum, event, zoo or beach on the weekend is deemed more appropriate to being a "good" parent, than letting kids sit and watch cartoons. To this effect, American society has changed substantially enough over the last two decades to the point where Saturday morning cartoons are less important to our culture.

According to Linda Simensky of Cartoon Network, Saturday morning animation has always been the backwater of programming for network broadcasters. Courtesy of Cartoon Network.

The Biggest Change of All Today, cartoons are no longer on the major three networks that dominated the preceding decades. Although ABC technically still airs Saturday morning cartoons, its relationship with Disney distinguishes it from ABC’s past programming during the ‘70s and ‘80s. When NBC and CBS began reducing their children’s programming on Saturdays in 1988-1990, FOX jumped aboard the bandwagon and laid the cornerstone for its FOX Kids Network. NBC chose to delve into live-action teen entertainment, hallmarked by Saved by the Bell. Presently, NBC is in partnership with Discovery Kids; a Saturday edition of Today either precedes or follows Discovery Kids. CBS initially chose to replace its cartoons with news from local affiliates and now airs a national morning show, which is either preceded or followed by children’s content from Nick Jr. Disney acquired ABC, so their relationship has stayed relatively constant over the decades and still continues to air its One Saturday Morning, recently renamed ABC Kids. Linda Simensky, vice president of original programming at Cartoon Network, feels that, “Children’s television was never the strength of broadcasters to begin with. There were some good shows in there, but kids’ TV was the department where executives at the network would start their nephews out in. [Kids’ TV] was never the primary goal of a network.” Children’s entertainment on Saturday mornings is currently such a liability that local affiliates in markets such as Baltimore choose to air local news in lieu of Discovery Kids, Nick Jr., and ABC Kids. PAGE 2

[Old Professer]

Everytime I see this illustration, I get an urge to go clean my sink.

[Gothmog]

Thanks for the article, brings back memories, but I've got a few problems with the author. Lets start with:

"Due to this precipice in viewers, network cartoons are left struggling to make money while advertisers remain befuddled without a mainstream channel to promote new toys and products to children."

This is completely false. I just bought a present for one of my nephews most likely because he saw it on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. And he was right, it was a very cool toy.

He says: "Six key factors have led to children watching less Saturday morning cartoons: more recreational sports, the introduction of cable and satellite TV, the Internet and video games, a poorer quality of animation, and a greater emphasis on family time."

Um, if kids are simply watching the same (or more) cartoons on "cable and satellite TV" it kind of defeats his argument. In fact, I would say that this is what is happening. Why does he have a problem with kids watching 3 hours of cartoons on Nickelodeon rather than 3 hours on NBC? Sounds like he has a problem w/ kids not watching 'mainstream' TV cartoon ads.

Also, a poorer quality of animation is ridiculous, given technological advancements, although there are some poorer choices of graphics made by some shows. But that is their choice, certainly not lack of technology.

And here's the big myth: "the divorce rate of Americans now stands at 49 percent."

I've seen that stat around for years and without even looking it up I can tell you it's false. Just look at Hollywood. If a small portion of the population gets divorced multiple times, you might reach that figure. But that means the majority of the married population stays married.

This whole article is filled with holes, straw men, fallacies and logical inconsistencies, but thanks for posting it. I still like some cartoons and its nice to reminisce with some who share the same memories.

[Old Professer]

There's a bunch of us old-timers here, aren't here?

Wily Coyote, the Sisyphus of the airwaves, that was animation.

[Stew Padasso]

[Junior_G]

One thing I really don't understand is the obsession with Anime. When I saw the movie "Akira" in 1988, I thought it was the most amazing example of animation I've ever seen in my life. Everything was so well-drawn and so fluid----it seemed like there were more individually drawn frames than there were frames-per-second.
But everything else I've seen out of Japan since then has been total crapimation, especially the awful Japanese cartoons showing up on television. It's like the various animators compete with each other to see who can get a half hour cartoon produced using the least number of individually drawn panels per minute. You'll see extended portions of the cartoon where nothing on the screen moves except for the mouth of the person talking. And then there are the action shots where an unmoving drawing of the character is stuck in front of a lame-o moving backdrop.
And how is it that an entire nation of people all draws their cartoon characters in exactly the same way? The same huge eyes, the same small mouths, the same funked-up hair...I know I must be missing something here...

[gcruse]

Heh. Memories from way back are so sharp. Now, what is today....?

[Gothmog]

I don't think I've watched 3 full episodes of Transformers, but for some reason if you asked me to name one it would be Starscream. What a great name. Seems to me, that's exactly what a star does.

[Liberal Classic]

Rent a copy of Ghost in the Shell.

[Gothmog]

Yep, during the summers. Right before the Banana Split Gang. Yah yah yah, yah yah nah nah, yah yah yah, nah nah. Or whatever, ha ha ha.

[babaloo]

Thank you for reminding me about Captain 11 from Sioux Falls. I also remember Bart's Clubhouse from Mason City. My husband grew up with Floppy in DSM. Those were the best times. Saturday morning cartoons and then downtown to the movies in the afternoon with a Three Stooges short to start!

[Old Professer]

What I usually do to find out the date is to rest my arrow on the time at the bottom righthand corner of my monitor; I never was much for TV when I was a kid, we only got one channel and it was snowy.

Now, I pay $68.22/month for over 60 channels and there is nothing to watch.

[Gillmeister]

I remember Captain America, Iron Man.....etc.

[Junior_G]

Stars cream?

[gcruse]

I remember how excitedly we anticipated the arrival of the cable to Amarillo. Not cable television, but the coaxial cable that brought the TV networks into town. It was right around the time the Andrea Doria went down and Elizabeth II's coronation. You prolly got it sooner.

[Gothmog]

Yeah, the one hour ones are better than the 1/2 hour ones. Another bonus is that they are not 'strictly' linear, so you can miss one and not be totally left out on the next one.

[babaloo]

Tom Terrific and Mr Magoo. I'm guessing there is a book out there somewhere that covers the cartoons from the late 50's and 60's. Might make a good gift. Thinking...thinking...

[gcruse]

Remember this guy?

[wordsofearnest]

I got in trouble for that first line. Grandpa's name was Cecil.

[RJS1950]

You mention Captain Eleven out of Sioux Falls. When my family moved to Sioux Falls in 1960 I was in 4th grade and Captain Eleven was on. He went to our church and I went to school with his kids, he was also the weatherman for the station. In 1985 I was transferred to Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City and when I arrived and found the cable carried the Sioux Falls stations, I flipped to one and was shocked. There was Dave Dedrick still doing Captain Eleven. He showed the best cartoons (ones that were entertaining) and my kids watched him like I did when their age.

[Gothmog]

I was thinking lately (it does happen) that sometime I had something series to post, I would intentionally make a number of stupid spelling errors. Then all the spelling police could come in and help bump my posted article and make me popular, ha ha ha.

Do yu tink that strategery mite werk?