Saturday, October 28, 2006

Saturday Morning Cartoons



OK. It's Saturday morning and I sometimes still miss my cartoons. A bowl of cereal and a host of toons that you could only see on Saturday Morning. It was a ritual for kids growing up in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. Those ummm kids, still like cartoons and sugary cereal to start their weekend, dammit!

In the 50's, 60's and 70's there weren't that many channels to chose from and all the kids watched the same shows. There was something warm and fuzzy about that.
In the 80's, cartoons were revitalized by the Smurfs.

Then, the 90's and the beginning of the end. Congress passed the Children's Television Act that required Federal monitoring and X amount of educational content. (Yeah, I guess that's a good thing or maybe it just messed up a good thing). Exclusive Saturday morning toons became meaningless with use of the VCR, video games and cable stations that show cartoons 24/7.

There are still plenty of cartoon shows around. They can be accessed all during the week, multiple times a day. Most of these new characters are funny looking, you ever notice that? I asked my 8 year old nephew why were all his people so ugly? He said, "ugly, what do you mean"?

See what I mean. There's something wrong here.

But, I think I feel sad for these kids who'll never feel that unity with all the other kids in the USA, watching Mighty Mouse, Underdog, Top Cat, Flintstones, Bugs and Daffy, Fat Albert, Scooby Doo...or even Ninja Turtles, Proud Family, Pokemon, or that ugly trio Ed, Edd n Eddy.
I know I can try to find the smart and funny Sponge Bob or Power Puff Girls or Recess, or tune in to Nickelodeon, but it's not the same.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your thoughts ... While making note of memories from the 50s ... the transition from Saturday morning radio shows to cartoons was painful and exciting. I always consider my imagination superior to the artist's rendition.

The content of the adventure and cowboy shows seemed more sophisticated than the "kids' " cartoons.

None of the newer cartoons grab me but I will still watch Daffy, Bugs and such.

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