Where have all the good cartoons gone?

[exitseven]

When i was a kid in the 70s every fall the new cartoons would come out. We would all look forward to this. It was always the Saturday after Labor day. New cartoons sort of took the sting out of going back to school a little bit.

Spiderman, the Flintstones, Space Ghost, Scooby Doo, and many others would keep us spellbound for hours. The neighborhood would be quiet because all the kids would be parked in front of the big black and white RCA in the living room.

Now the Saturday after Labor Day is just another Saturday.

[Ez-Bri-Z_v2]

I think we just got older, my friend. The newer cartoons are mindless stuff and I am sure our parents thought the same of the shows we watched.

I remember Saturday morning being when all the morning cartoons came on and it was a big event for my brothers and I (then came chores for the rest of the morning before being kicked out of the house until dinner lol). then tv shows started like Saved by the Bell and it started to slowly invade Saturday morning cartoons.

Now my kids don't even bother to watch tv on that day for whatever is on. Everything they watch is on Disney , Netflix, Hulu, or the Roku channel. They are more obsessed with YouTube streamers than they are with the Saturday morning lineup.

[exitseven]

Yes, kids can stream any thing thay want , any time they want. Same with music. When I was a kid there were 2 or 3 radio stations and most kids listened to one in particular. The DJs were as influential as the musicians themselves. It was another shared experience that kids today do not have

[CrazyGirl2]

I guess one could ask “Where have all the good Saturday morning Serials gone”? B/C when my grandparents were kids, they’d go to the theater and watch Flash Gordon, and a bunch of other’s including Lone Ranger. Time moves forward, obviously tastes change. If they were still in demand by children, they would still be on TV. ¯\_(ッ)_/¯ When I was a kid, I would rather be out with my friends at gym practice, or watching funny videos on my phone, or texting with my friends. I guess it’s a different world, kids today are more sophisticated, and don't really watch cartoons. The boys are playing video games, and the girls are busy playing w/ friends IRL.

[exitseven]

On Saturday at the movies they showed a serial before they ran the movie. I remember The Flying Disk men From Mars

[CrazyGirl2]

Wait! You’re 53, so you were born somewhere around 1971. According to Google, and verified by Chat GPT, "By the mid-1950s, most movie theaters had stopped showing Saturday morning serials. Some of the very last serials were produced in the early 1950s, with Republic Pictures’ “King of the Carnival” (1955) cited as the final theatrical serial to be made exclusively for the Saturday morning theatrical serials.” So how do you remember Saturday morning serials at the movie theater, when they stopped making them 16 years before you were born? I’m not doubting you, I’m just curious.

[exitseven]

When I was a kid there were still neighborhood theaters. There was one in just about every town. They only had one screen. They would show a first run movie but would also show a couple of cartoons and they would show a serial. They were really cheesy with really fake special effects and obviously very dated. Sometimes the manager would come on stage during intermission and there would be a raffle. Halloween they would raffle off little pumpkins, just before school started he would raffle off school supplies. Every Saturday you would see all your friends there. It was a sense of community which is something that kids do not have today

[CrazyGirl2]

WOW that sounds like a really great childhood memory! I’m glad to hear that you had that experience growing up in small-town America. That sounds wonderful, I would have loved to have experienced that in my childhood.

[exitseven]

@CrazyGirl2 We just took it for granted. We would either go-to the movies on Saturday or go to the library Later the shopping malls started popping up like zits. It was another place where kids congregated. There was a larger regional mall in the town I live in. In 2020 it was demolished. I never dreamed that would happen. Now there is no Sears or Radio Shack. WalMart is gone and so is Foot Locker. 6

[CrazyGirl2]

Yeah we have several Malls in Orlando, and one big mall here on Newberry Rd, in Gainesville and a smaller outside one on Archer Rd.

[exitseven]

@CrazyGirl2 Even the malls are closing. There was a big regional mall in the town I live in. It was bulldozed in 2020. It is hard to believe

[CrazyGirl2]

Obviously I can’t speak to the malls where you are, as I’ve never been there. (Or do not know if I’ve ever been there). But I can say that the malls in Orlando are likewise always busy whenever I went/go there, and I believe (in The Florida Mall) the anchor stores are SEARS (Yes it’s still there. While they closed a lot of stores, they are not #OutOfBusiness their phone # is ([phone].) the other’s are Macy’s, JC Penny’s, and Dillards. Here is the map of the mall where you can see the Sears: www.simon.com/.../profile You can also Google Earth search "Florida Mall Orlando", and see a street view of the store itself. As I’ve heard a lot of people tell me that Sears went out of business.
In Gainesville, the malls are always busy, especially on weekends. The anchor stores are Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and Neiman Marcus. I LOVE going to the mall, both here in G’ville, and at home in Orlando.

[DrPepper12]

It's superfluous now with things like YouTube and cartoon network. Plus there's no blocked out "kids TV" (which advertisers HATE).

[CrazyGirl2]

Yeah, that’s probably a huge part of the Saturday morning cartoons ending. but here is the “official” on-line answer:
"Saturday morning cartoons on broadcast TV effectively ended in 2014 when the CW network aired its final block of animated programming, known as “Vortexx.” After this, broadcast networks shifted focus toward live-action educational programming to meet FCC legal requirements, marking the end of a long era that began forty years earlier in the 1960s.

The decline of Saturday morning cartoons can be attributed to several factors, including the rise of cable networks like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel, which offered 24/7 access to animated content. Streaming services and on-demand viewing also contributed to the shift, as they allowed children to watch their favorite shows anytime, making the Saturday morning tradition less relevant.

The FCC’s Children’s Television Act, which required networks to provide a certain amount of educational content, also played a role in reducing animated entertainment on broadcast television"

[Wiredone]

I haven't watched cartoons since my kids were little

[Wiredone]

Thank you for the mho

[AI Opinion]

Ah, those classic Saturday mornings sound magical! 🕰️ The nostalgia for cartoons from the '70s like "Scooby-Doo", "Spider-Man", and "The Flintstones" is something many people share. The landscape for cartoons and how they're consumed has changed drastically. With streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu, new cartoons are available at any time, rather than being tied to a specific season or day of the week.

While the excitement of waiting for that special Saturday might be gone, it's worth noting that there's an immense variety of high-quality animated shows available today. From the intricate storytelling in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" to the modern humor of "Rick and Morty", there’s no shortage of fantastic animation out there. Also, there's a lot of nostalgia streaming, so those wonderful classics are still accessible. 🎨📺

Perhaps the best way to recapture some of that magic is to have a themed "Saturday morning cartoons" day at home. Gather some friends or family, grab some vintage snacks, and dive back into those beloved shows. It can be a fun way to relive those moments and introduce a new generation to the classics. 🌟

[DishLady]

Now THAT, my friend, is a million dollar question. Gen X may have seen the last of the good ones.

[Anonymous]

For me, the best TV cartoons ended toward the end of the 60's.

[jahaims]

Online/streaming