The Disappearance of Saturday Morning

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

[Stew Padasso]

Speedy was great. I dunno. They did run a Looney Toon marathon the other day though. I have been watching The Jetsons with our boys, and there was an episode where George was kicked back with a martini and a cigarette. It was hilarious.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I remember Kimba... I had to endure that weirdness for an entire half hour with my brother to get to see Scoobey Doo. What I would like to know is why doesn't anyone remember the Big Fig Newton commercial?

The guy with the fig shoes who always fell down.

Kids commercials are not what they used to be.

[Gothmog]

I remember the Big Fig Newton commercial

[E Rocc]

I never see anything like a character looking like they are wearing blackface after smoking an exploding cigar, much less the WW2 era depictions of Japanese

I managed to grab a copy of one of Bug's WWII efforts, involving him handing out grenade laden ice cream bars to Japanese soldiers on an island, off of Kazaa. Ohh mannnn....hehehhehehehe.

-Eric

[hispanarepublicana]

Saturday mornings at my childhood house consisted of all of us eating a big family breakfast, then we kids would go watch cartoons while Mom and Dad would continue to visit over coffee. Fave cartoons were:
Looney Tunes
Superfriends
Scooby Doo
and cheesy non-animated shows like Shazam, Electrawoman and Dynagirl, and Land of the Lost.

[hispanarepublicana]

don't forget School House Rock...

Conjunction-junction, what's your function?

And who could forget the "I'm just a bill..." civics one?

To this day, when I hear a tax bill, etc., is stalled, a little part of my mind pictures Bill, sitting on the capitol steps, all depressed and sad looking.

[6323cd]

I tried to watch The Hudson Brothers Comedy Hour every chance I got; there was a funny bit where they were being urged to fulfill some sort of impossible task, with "Do it for your King! (Uh, uh...) Do it for your Country! (We don't think so...)" Then some babe in a castle turret would say "Do it for me... Lady Patricia!"

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I knew I could count on you....

[okiematt]

I feel as though the lack in creative storylines, coupled with a boom in competition with up and coming new networks, finished off Saturday morning. The three major networks began to pump out the same bland genre of animation with little or no plot, character development, or story. I remember when in 1984 "Dungeons and Dragons" first started appearing Saturday mornings on CBS. I was immediately drawn to the plot and characters even at seven years old. Had the networks made more efforts to develop shows of this caliber, Saturdays may have been ruled by cartoons up to the present day.

[YourAdHere]

Saturday mornings have sucked ever since they took off "Land of the Lost."

[GOPJ]

Cartoons? The animation sucks and the story lines aren't funny.