It was on WOC-TV out of Davenport, IA. in the late 60's and early 70's.Was one of my favorite shows.
As for today's cartoons, most of them suck horribly, with the exception of the guy...
Posted on 12/07/2003 3:49:07 PM PST by 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
Also, they ruined Beetle Bailey, in the comic page, when they had him stop leering at Miss Buxley.
I don't cotton to Spongebob, even though a lot of the same people behind it were also working on Rocko's Modern Life (which I enjoyed). Cool music, though!
Seven more words: JLA Season 2, Teen Titans and anime.
The anime on CN's Adult Swim, Toonami and Saturday night line-up for the most part has been excellent, except for SD Gundam.
Season 1 of JLA was okay, But Season 2 of JLA has been rock solid great (plot, action, character development, script, one liners) through out the season (of two and three parters). For example, the show has had no problem being linear, like for example, Shade (minor villian) saying in his third team up with a group of super villian he says, "I have done this before, TWICE! And it don't work either time before." Same episode they brought back Clayface from the original Batman Animated Series.
Also in the episode "Twilight", Superman finally has it out with Darksied dealing with what he did to Superman in the last two episodes of the Superman Animated Series. Thoughout that episode, Superman is playing loose cannon, and Batman has be the voice of reason. Also, the final battle is brutal and good.
Also, other episodes of S2 JLA come to mind, "Beyond Terror", which pits the JLA versus an amry creatures from H. P. Lovecraft.
"Here After", "A Better World" and last nights episode "Wild Cards' was excellent, Mark Hamill can still voice act a excellent Joker.
Also Teen Titans has been much better than expected. Three episodes of it's 13 episodes I highly recommend, first is Mad Mod, which is basic Teen Titan vs. a Austin Powers type villian name Mad Mod (voice acted by Malcolm McDowell) in an acid trip world, it has an extremely funny episode. And Apprentice Parts I and II, a darker episode(s) with an lot of action and plot twists, very goo episode.
By the way, unlike the DC Comics, the PC factor on JLA and Teen Titans is nearly zero.
It's a sad day when you can honestly say that some of the best stuff on TV is mostly anime and cartoon. By the way, I think the people producing JLA and TT, not a raise, they are doing an excellent job.
Not lately, censoring has been to a minimum. Also, CN co-produced Season 2 of Big O and it rocks.
Also, see post 27.
It is the political correctness in some of these cartoons that most of us don't like.
By the way, see my post (27) for more on the subject.
Zan and Jayna.
Remember, the most politically incorrect cartoon of the 80s: Goldie Gold and Action Jack? A cartoon based on the richest girl in the world, who isn't ashamed that she is rich.
I'm glad to see that other people here remember Clutch Cargo! If I'm not mistaken, the man who invented the "human mouth superimposed onto a cartoon" technique passed away recently (I believe it was called "syncro-vox", or something like that). Conan O'Brien uses the same concept in some of his "interviews", where an enlarged photo of a famous person is show, with only the lips moving as Conan talks to the person.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and remember watching Clutch Cargo on Sally Starr's program on Channel 6. Not only have Saturday morning cartoon shows become a thing of the past, but so have local Kiddie show hosts such as Sally Starr (in Philly), Officer Joe Bolton (in New York), etc.
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