[Pikamax]

the networks themselves killed off Saturday mornings, no one else is to blame.

[Swordmaker]

Perhaps the poor animation combined with the overwhelming PC nature of the new cartoon shows has driven discriminating children to other pastimes.

With the PC banning of the old cartoons, cartoons are no longer funny.

[mlmr]

At our house the children listen to Adventures In Oddessy on the radio every Saturday morning and one or two other good children's radio shows that go along with it.

[niteowl77]

Over the years, the quality of the product went to hell, and I'm not talking about the actual animation (I can remember "Clutch Cargo," for crying out loud). PC and marketing tie-ins made cartoons worse as time went on. The last ones that I thought were actually funny (instead of preachy) were some on Nick- they were eventually pushed aside for "lifestyle" animation.

[Prodigal Son]

Hard for me to relate. Been a long time since I lived in the States or owned a television. Do they not show Warner Brothers Cartoons anymore? Bugs Bunny? Roadrunner?

[BradyLS]

Jeez... Two words: Cartoon Network. Two more words: Samurai Jack!!!

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Children and fans of the 80's will appreciate this site:

http://www.80stees.com/pages/t-shirts/80s_cartoons.asp

Bought myself the Hong Kong Phooey t-shirt last week.

[swilhelm73]

Hard to believe the leftie fringe has killed yet another element of our culture.

I remember watching Star Blazers and G-Force (?) - too militaristic now

or Bugs Bunny - too politically incorrect

or the Transformers - but good and evil are now outmoded ideas

Sad really. There are some good adult mroe cartoons nowadays, but what the heck is for kids to watch?

[latina4dubya]

first of all--with channels like the cartoon network (which my kids do NOT watch) kids don't have to wait until Saturday morning to watch cartoons... second of all, the cartoons out there are junk... before we adopted our two boys, i imagined they would watch some cartoons on Saturday morning--but that never happened because we really couldn't find any... i thought we were waking up too late... i was thrilled the other day when i discovered Popeye at 2:00 in the morning... which i now plan to videotape so my boys can watch... overall, my kids watch almost no television... one of my big problems with even children's programming (we absolutely do not watch PBS) is the commercials... all the advertisements for junk toys and all the adult advertisements that show up even during children's programming... it's disgusting... all in all, my kids benefit from not watching the boob tube... they have pleasant attitudes (not jaded like so many kids at a young age) and greater appreciation for even simple things (not overly stimulated by so much eye-candy, sound, etc.)...

[PoorMuttly]

Muttly miss Farmer Gray.

He doesn't miss Crabby Appleton though...since he is presently at The Institute with Mr. Dastardly, et.al.

[Grig]

"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,"

Sorry, but the artwork and animation is much better now than when I was a kid.

I used to get up earlier on Saturdays than I did on school days just to watch TV. Jason of Star Command, Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour, Lidsville, Puff n' Stuff, Superfriends, life was good.

[Dane]

It's the Sleezestacks' fault.

For those who don't get the joke the sleezestack were the villains in a Sid & Marty Croft production called "Land of the Lost". The Kroft brothers gave us such shows in the 70's as H.R. Puffinstuff, Lidsville, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Looking back their writers and the Krofts must have have done a boat load of drugs.

[Rushmore Rocks]

I am 61 years old. I remember returning to the U.S. after
WWII and watching television for the very first time. We had been living in Germany during the Berlin airlift and post war reconstruction. This must have been 1952...I think.
Our neighbors had a television. We didn't. They invited me over to watch the Howdy Doody Show. What a thrill! Howdy and Princess Summerfallwinterspring really opened my eyes to a new world. After the bleakness and gray ruins of Munich, this was quite a treat. Children's programming has changed so very much over the years. Some of it is good, some of it is deplorable.

I now find myself in what they call the "sandwich generation". I care for my aging parents ( they have an apartment in our basement) and a four month old grandson.
My father, 87 years old and Andrew, my grandson, have recently discovered "Bob the Builder" cartoon. They both love it!!

[pinz-n-needlez]

I'm probably dating myself, but I remember watching My Friend Flicka, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Mighty Mouse. Sky King was the last program of the morning, then we had to start our Saturday chores. :-/

Pinz

[ladyinred]

Except for the cartoon channel, all that is on anymore are infomericals on Saturday mornings. YUK. NOt that I watch cartoons anymore anyway! :-)

[Yaelle]

The truth is that cartoons were almost never on except for Saturday mornings, when I was a child. There are cartoons on 24/7 now, with several cable channels proffering. Not that mine are allowed to watch so much TV. But they are not dying to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.

On the one hand, 24/7 cartoons is a horrible thing, you would think. Yet when you really need them, they are a G-dsend. More than once I have seen a child, sick or in pain at night, grow more comfortable and sometimes become able to sleep, while watching cartoons in those wee hours. I am now grateful we have them.

Two things have happened to children's animation since I was a child: tacky, kitchy animation (phony "styles"), and cheap potty humor more than cleverness. There is some cleverness now, still, to be sure, but nothing like my childhood favorite, Bugs Bunny.

[Rebelbase]

It all changed when Pee-Wee Herman started watching adult movies.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Saturday morning ritual in the 60s: Get up early. Watch the test pattern for ten minutes. Then the Star Spangled Banner. Then Popeye, Roadrunner, Bug Bunny, and more. Later Johnny Quest. As the day wore on it was the Monkees and Banana Splits.

They sold us on a few toys. Never believed Mom when she said the real toys don't look like they do on TV. Horrible Hamilton was one of my favorites.

But responses to this post caught it right away: The quality of programming went totally down hill. They don't make 'em like they used to, though I must say the Simpson's are fun to watch any time.

[Aquinasfan]

At the risk of sounding like the Simpson's next door neighbor, my kids watch the Saturday morning children's programming on EWTN. Believe it or not, they really like the shows, particularly the shows about the lives of the saints. They don't like most other cartoons ("they're weird") except for "Tom and Jerry." I have no idea why. I tried to get them interested in Bugs and Marvin the Martian, my personal favorite, but they weren't buying.

[HungarianGypsy]

On Saturday mornings CBS (I know. Yuck!) has Nick, Jr. shows that my kids like to watch. At 10 o' clock (after the morning news show finally ends on our NBC station) my oldest son will watch the NBC edition of Discovery Kids. That's if we aren't already out of the house running errands by that time.