The Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons

[@TodaysDante]

The more videos I watch from this channel, the more I realize how fortunate I am to have been a child in the 60s and 70s.

[@track1949]

Same here. Heck I was still watching them once I became an adult!!! 😅

[@fuyu5979]

Love Saturday mornings cartoons as a child especially like Yogi the Bear; Quick Draw McGraw; Atom Ant; Mighty Mouse; Magilla Gorilla; Secret Squirrel; Huckleberry Hound; UnderDog; Space Ghost etc. The list is longer but the MEMORIES are priceless!! Kudos for those AWESOME days one could count on countless "FRIENDS" entertaining me as a child !!! Miss those Fantastic Days !!! Kudos for upload. Peace

[@travishall67]

I always loved Scooby Doo. Lots of others but that one stands out in my mind the most. My older sister would sometimes cook up a bunch of potato pancakes for breakfast in the morning while we were watching the Saturday morning cartoons. Good times/memories! 🙂

[@kenpullig1652]

Being born in '62 the Saturday morning line up was the thing I worked for all week. I was also fortunate to have parents who would let me dominate the TV for those mornings. There were also the preview nights prior to the new season and each network would compete for kids' attentions with snippets of upcoming new cartoons and live-action Kroft shows. I still remember planning out the morning, because we only had the three channels. Sometimes it was tough choosing one show over another in the same time slot. But, what a great time to be a kid.

[@readytogo6569]

‘60’s and ‘70’s were the Best Saturday Morning content, followed by Creature Feature with all the scary movies : Godzilla, Frankenstein, Them, … I miss those days.

[@melissacooper8724]

I grew up in the 1980s. I remember how much I loved watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse! I also loved Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends, and The Smurfs! Those were fun times!

[@bigdaddyl-rob7445]

Great video! The "Fall" of Saturday Morning Cartooons really can't be explained in 10 minutes, there's much more to it than that but you did a GREAT job in the time allotted. Great job with the 1960's and the genesis of the Saturday morning era (although you didn't mention another great Saturday morning juggernaut-Filmation Studios and The New Adventures of Superman from 1966). I'm 60 yrs. old and being raised in the mid to late 60's I fondly remember these great times! THANKS!!

[@jrr2480]

Those was the days 🥲

[@track1949]

I was still watching these as an adult!! 😅

[@MIKELIN8]

To me, cartoons were better when the intent was to entertain, rather than to sell product.

[@avalond1193]

Transformers, GI Joe, thundercats, he-man masters of the universe etc were fun entertaining cartoons. So there's nothing wrong with making cartoons with intentions to sell toys as long as it's good

[@CinnamonGrrlErin1]

​@avalond1193 I agree. I also remember having fun making up my own adventures with the toys, like I'd "borrow" my brother's He-Man and Ghostbusters figures to create adventures with my Popples or Trolls or whatever. Like Andy from Toy Story basically.

[@tharrigan5661]

Thank you. Grew up in the 60’s. I’d grab the TV Guide and mark my lineup for Saturday morning. Just great fun. Johnny Quest had to be my favorite back in those days.

[@km-bo3zx]

Jonny Quest! Hard to believe it was only one season of shows (not counting the awful reboot in 1986).

[@williamhild1793]

Late 1960s/Early 1970s: my sister and I would get up early. 5:30am was "Davey And Goliath". 5:55am was "Jot". 6:00am was "Underdog" and 6:30am was "Rocky And Bullwinkle". 7:00am was "Bugs Bunny Show" for an hour. Those never changed. At 8am, we would switch around between ABC, NBC, and CBS and watch whatever. And by 1980, we were both kind of "too old" for Saturday Morning Cartoons.

[@TexasTimeLord]

You touched on a major point. The US Dept. of Education decided that cartoons were too violent, so they forced every program to have education content or some life lesson. This basically banned all the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner type shows that featured explosions and falling anvils. Kids who spent all week being lectured to at school were not happy to be lectured to at home on their day off, so they gave up and switched to alternative shows. Then, of course, came the wokeness disease.... One last note: my local library now has classic cartoon videos in the adult section as they are deemed inappropriate for the children's section

[@melissacooper8724]

And which cartoons would be in the restricted section? Bugs Bunny?

[@Backinthedaypics]

I agree with everything you said. These wackjobs who set all this in motion think they know everything. They must have been kids who were never allowed to watch TV and when they grew up decided to be bureaucrats. Funny how they won't let kids watch cartoons but are perfectly fine with Wrestling, Monster trucks, Video games, and the Evil Internet not to mention stupid phones.

[@track1949]

You don't have to go MAGA over this. 😂 It also went out of style...as many things do.

[@beachcomer007]

Frankenstein Jr. was my favorite saturday morning cartoon!!!

[@highflight41]

Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles!!

[@DaddyOfTheSugarVariety]

You make the past look so good. I miss the carefree good times!

[@Makoto03]

Great video. I have fond memories of watching FoxKids saturday morning cartoons as a kid.

[@roygarcia4200]

I always loved watching Saturday Morning Cartoons and there were so many that I loved from Disney’s One Saturday Morning, ABC Kids, Kids WB, Fox Kids, Fox Box, & 4Kids TV

[@singinginsominac2647]

I miss these days

[@Edowin-jz2sj]

I would give almost anything to go back and relive the 80s with the Saturday morning cartoons, HBO movies, and sitcoms from that era. I recall many of the animated 80s shows in this video (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Gem and Holograms) were actually NOT aired on Saturdays, but rather broadcast daily either early in the morning before school, or later in the day. Just to brainstorm the Saturday morning cartoons: The Incredible Hulk, The Littles, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Super-Friends (80s version had vastly improved animation over the original), Smurfs, Punky Brewster, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, Thundarr the Barbarian, Dungeons and Dragons, Alf, Alf Tales, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Captain N: The Game Master, and many others.

[@ChrisMentzer]

I miss the Saturday morning live-action shows from Sid and Marty Kroft. Any chance you can investigate that?

[@RadioFanBoy]

It was the 1980's when original cartoon shows during the week took off. Independent stations suddenly were offered more then packaged reruns of older cartoons they could show between 7-9an and 2-5pm weekdays. He-Man, She-Ra, Voltron, Transformers G.I. Joe, Robotech . A few of these shows made their way to Saturday Mornings, but for the most part, Indy stations didn't want to compete with the networks. Suddenly, Sunday Mornings were no longer a place where old kids shows went to die. Kids could now watch up to 5 hours of new cartoons both on Sat and Sun with just their old fashioned rabbit ears! This did not go unnoticed by Nickelodeon, who first offered their original 'Nicktoons' block on Sunday Mornings.

[@ensabahnur7657]

It was explained in a documentary about 8 years ago but don't remember it all but truly sad indeed it doesn't exist almost nowhere anymore! In the 60,70 & 80s Saturday mornings from 8am-12pm were spectacular & we would be up with Breakfast on our trays in our rooms until VCRS came along then we slept more & watched them later! The 90s were GOOD but clearly things were changing! 2000s were practically DOA with a few shows here & there like Gargoyles, X-Men Evolution, Wolverine & The X-Men, Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh! After that FLATLINE!

[@jeaninepitchell8989]

Boomarg channel if u have fios Verizon

[@jeaninepitchell8989]

Where all the classic cartoons r and new shows cartoons Tom and Jerry all of yo yogi bear as teenage rs w friends

[@KitGreen-dn3xx]

Despite A.I. in Thumbnail, Saturday Morning Cartoons are on DVD in Fact.

[@Edowin-jz2sj]

In the early 80s before I was old enough for elementary school, I remember there were channels that played cartoons most of the day, but they didn't seem to have a negative impact on Saturday mornings. Nickelodeon even back then aired a lot of animated content, and I think it was either Atlanta, Chicago, or both that featured long mid-day block of cartoons. I recall Heathcliff, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Scooby-Doo, Adventures of the Little Koala, and some others. Then of course, the Disney Channel brought it's own properties.

[@jeaninepitchell8989]

I 💘 my all cartoons ❤😊 Tom and Jerry

[@CinnamonGrrlErin1]

I'm an 80s/90s kid, and cable definitely did it's damage, but there was a lot of animation saturation too. USA network had their own block too, if I recall.

[@jadalovesyouu]

Saturday morning Cartoons. What a time to be alive. The hardest decision of my childhood was deciding which channel to pick. I actually feel sorry for my kid that she can’t experience this

[@MarcPagan]

Thanks for a fun video ... and well researched and well presented.

[@MrPoestyle]

I remember a big thing in my area was Desert Shield / Desert Storm . The local network affiliates started running news on Saturday mornings instead of cartoons .

[@sergioandrade8735]

I remember that during the '80's and '90's the commercials that ran during the cartoons despite be geared towards children had higher production values than the cartoons. Clearer images, better music, and sometimes better storylines.

[@navret1707]

The ultimate sign of sophistication is listening to the William Tell Overture and never once think of the Lone Ranger. Bet Ja can’t.

[@DawnDavidson]

😂😂😂 Yeah, I’d fail that test! Also, The Barber of Seville. I bet if you hear that, you’ll “see” Bugs Bunny giving a scalp massage and a razor hair cut!

[@myfriendcaffeine-tb2fn]

When I was between Five and 12 years old my favorite's were "Jonny Quest", "Fantastic Voyage". "The Herculoids". "Samson and Goliath", and , of course "Loony Tunes. Thank you for some wonderful memories.

[@madtownangler]

Every Saturday morning the Bugs Bunny show is on for an hour on our television.. I bought a couple DVD sets of this show for my nephews when they were younger to keep the tradition going in our family. Whenever they were over at my parents they were allowed to watch one DVD in the morning

[@collinwood60]

Wow. So many great animated series from the 60's and 70's. It's hard to beat the output of series produced by Hanna-Barbera. They had an endless supply of fun series and my personal favorite.

[@will78aurand]

I remember getting up early on Saturday, which was tough because of staying up late on Fridays watching Fritz the night owl and creature feature. On Saturday, watch shows like transformers and Beakmans world, then later, turning on Mystery science theater 3000 around noon. Later that night, watching Saturday evening wrestling and Saturday night live and some nights roller derby .

[@annsawyer6121]

I went bananas seeing my childhood favs. Milton the Monster only lasted a shot while. I wonder why? I have fond memories of Saturday morning-- it was a magical time to be a kid.

[@leonb2637]

I was a kid in the later 1950's through 1960's when the Saturday Morning cartoons, live action shows and reruns of selected prime time shows were on. I think the demise was in part the pressure of some parents on government officials to end the marketing of toys, sugar loaded cereals, candy, fast food like McDonald's to children. You saw a shift to 'educational and informational' programs, live action shows that appealed to 'tweeners' (10-13 year olds). Many parents also shifted their kids to watch PBS programs for their children, that didn't have ads and had educational values. Many TV stations shifted Saturday morning programing in recent years to local news coverage as relatively cheaper and with ads targeting adult consumers.

[@nicholasgreenwalt7983]

Loved so many. Wee Pals, Wacky Racers and Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Underdog, Jepson’s Flintstones … The 60s and early 70s were awesome.

[@CRiver396]

Simple answer....greedy corporations and cable killed Saturday morning cartoons.

[@jons.6216]

One of my favorites of the 70s was The Pink Panther Show, but every so often the network would have the NERVE to preempt it with episodes of The Big Blue Marble! As an adult I look fondly at the latter - just keep it in another time slot! Haha!

[@pookieizzy7]

I grew up on a mix of anime, cartoons and game shows and older tv shows. So anything in regards to them, I prefer them over what's on now. I grew up on the 60s and 80s style of shows and in many a cartoon did they not go as so far as stop what it was designed to do which was tickle our fancy, channel our imagination and whatever else that caught our attention. I liked the 80s cause when they broke the 4th wall, they spoke to us. They didn't have to go edgy or all out to get the point across, they kept it simple. I feel that once the 90s came in full swing, they lost their charm and interest. Jonny Quest comes to mind as an example, it was part mystery, part action adventure and a bit of humor and when it got graphic, the look on their faces said it all. It worked for the 60s, and for the 80s but on its 3rd revival after the movies, the downfall happened with 'Real Adventures of Jonny Quest'. A lot of good series during that time should've had at least a 3rd season at best, some didn't come close past the 1st. Oversatuation and hype is never a good thing in animation. I feel if you're gonna get my attention, don't sell it. Talk to the people, don't jump or insult them.

[@rorycarter7792]

As a kid in the 70s reruns of speed racer kimba princess Knight wounder 3 most who enjoy Japanese anime don't realize back in the day it wasn't impossible to turn on the tele and catch was is now called classic anime without thinking twice especially on Saturday morning afternoon and evening 😅😊😂🎉

[@NancyMorgan-t8t]

Big Underdog fan.

[@gnayr1305]

Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Thundarr the Barbarian, Johnny Quest, The Superfriends, Birdman, Samurai Jack, The Animaniacs, Laugh-O-Lympics, The Tarzan, Lone Ranger & Zorro Adventure Hour, Flash Gordon; All Classics!

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Rich. The Herculoids, Bugs Bunny, etc.

[@Merylstreep1949]

1970s Saturday morning cartoons were the best❤

[@angelaparente4470]

new shows must air on Saturday morning

[@Checkmate1954]

You did't mention the 3 Stooges. Their shorts were played Saturday mornings. Thanks RZ

[@angelaparente4470]

nowadays how can we watch cartoons without saturday morning entertainment

[@GenXfrom75]

Such great memories 🎉❤

[@kronos6948]

I don't know what area you grew up in, but where I grew up, we were lucky enough that cartoons like Transformers, GI Joe, and He Man were all shown on weekdays after school hours.

[@t.j.payeur5331]

60s..Deputy Dawg..Astroboy..Underdog 70s..Pink Panther..Roadrunner 80s..kinda ignored the whole Saturday morning thing..except for Voltron 90s..Reboot..Beast Wars

[@eDDyL666]

Government regulations on Cartoons ruined Saturdays cause the gov saw them as nothing but 30m toy ads so they put a stop to it and the networks slowly pulled them off the lineups for more E/I shows

[@larkpraise]

How about Sid and Marty Croft’s shows: HR Pufnstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos, and Sigmund and the Seamonsters? A magical time.

[@sergioandrade8735]

I go back to Crusader Rabbit, Colonel Bleep, and Space Angel, yes, I'm old.

[@terrysyvertson9205]

they started dying out when cartoon network, disney channel and nickelodeon came around

[@COMPFUNK2]

Oh, and to answer your question… My favorite Saturday morning cartoon was Muppet Babies. Sadly, that will probably never be released for streaming because they would have to get rights to _all_ of the old TV and movie clips they used throughout the series.

[@rontonkin7751]

Animated Star Trek was a big deal for me. I remember watching a preview show about the new cartoons coming that Saturday. I was pumped to see new Star Trek!

[@geraldstephens8791]

The 80's signaled the end. Low brow humor and meaningless violence.

[@FreyaTait]

I must award the prize for meaningless violence to whomever it was who drew up the Road Runner cartoons. I think whoever made up the plots and action for them must have had mental problems. Never before or since have I seen more, or more perverse, ways of harming creatures than those presented therein. And they sat children in front of a picture of a terrified animal about to be squashed flat by a rock and told them it was funny.

[@AudiophileTommy]

⁠@@FreyaTaitWe ALL knew it wasn’t real nor was it to be applied to real life 🎉🎉🎉 We weren’t WOKE 🤮 And if you’ll watch them you would notice they got flattened and got right back up and NEVER died ! We didn’t go to school the following Monday and drop a big rock onto our classmates nor dynamite our principal 🎉 We weren’t perverse nor did we grow up to be warped in the head !!!

[@FreyaTait]

@@AudiophileTommy Of course they got back up and never died; they were Toons. Toons always survive gratuitous violence; and, of course, the only way to kill a Toon is to immerse it in Dip. (This according to the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?") I just never have thought it necessary to introduce extra nastiness into the zeitgeist, nor did I ever find it entertaining. (Now I'll slip out quietly so I don't disturb your sleep.)

[@XmdnznznXnxnxnc]

Saturday Morning Cartoons did make a comeback in 2021, when MeTV launched a programming block

[@isaiahwinbrone]

Those were the good old days

[@frankwafer6919]

I really dug the Powerpuff girls!😮💯💯👍

[@EqualOpportunityDestoroya]

It didn't matter if it was Saturday morning or weekday. I loved Ducktales, The Real Ghostbusters, Batman:TAS, X-Men, Animaniacs, Thundercats, Saturday Morning Arcade, G.I. Joe, to name a few.

[@eLEMENTARYimage]

VCRs and Cable eventually killed Saturday Morning TV. Once the public could access and control when it could enjoy Saturday Morning type entertainment there was no longer any need to wait for Saturdays to enjoy it. The Networks eventually wised up and realized they'd lost their Saturday Morning content monopoly and stopped producing it as passionately as they used to.

[@patrickmcgrath5411]

HOW SAD😥

[@bp39047]

For me, it ended when "Howdy Doody" was taken off the air in 1960. Replacement, Sherry Lewis, did't cut it with me.

[@somedude6161]

Anyone else get Sheriff John [I think it was John], who would read the weekend comics with you? I loved Jonny Quest, Astro Boy, Gigantor, Beanie and Cecil. The best part of Rocky and Bullwinkle were the "and friends", like Fractured Fairy Tales and Sherman and Peabody. In Canada, in the seventies, we had The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, with Vincent Price and THE Julius Sumner Miller, no less.

[@-Thauma-]

George of the Jungle was a hunk 🤭

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

“The Flintstones.” 🦕

[@jackbuckley7816]

What did-in Sat. morning cartoons were 2 things primarily. The 1st, the watchdog group that warned how the ads in these shows, filled with tons of cereal commercials, fostered a demand by baby-boomer kids for the brands they saw on TV, cereals that were loaded with sugar, clearly unhealthy. Most of these ads, I think, ultimately were pulled from the airwaves. As a result, the networks lost huge revenues. Closely aligned with the sugar issue, were the moms & various watchdog groups who criticized the cartoon programs for promoting the sponsor's cereals within the shows, using the characters in the commercials. These moms & groups claimed, no doubt correctly, that young children couldn't differentiate between the characters & the underlying commercial ploy. "Linus the Lion-Hearted", for example, was the worst offender in this regard. The series was created as a entire marketing scheme, used to promote shamelessly a whole line of new General Mills' cereals, the series' characters appearing in ads within the program. I remember "Linus" & loved the cereals its characters promoted. Clearly I had no problem with this at the time! 2nd, with so much terrible violence throughout the decade of the 60's, many critics believed cartoons were too violent, contributing, along with prime-time series, to the ills of society. Several assassination tragedies played into this belief. There's actually a 3rd reason, also. Many of these cartoon series became non-pc, at times, perhaps unintentionally, a little racist. This being the Civil Rights Era, the networks, on their own, made a point of editing out blatantly-racist, or even unintentionally racist, portions or moments scattered throughout the episodes. This was especially true of the old classic theatrical shorts, several of which were re-packaged into series featuring famous animated stars. These 3 things combined to spell doom for Sat. morning cartoon programming, which filled the airwaves from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. generally, as I recall. The creation of animated series became too costly, also, whereupon networks turned instead to live-action kid shows. What few cartoons WERE created emphasized cute, cuddly, peaceful characters who wouldn't harm a fly, resulting in a drab, listless, & very limited sameness, putting the final nail in the coffin of Sat. morning cartoons.

[@georgeawestjr.9087]

I loved Saturday morning cartoons. 👌 Nowadays, TV sucks. ☹️

[@kevinbutler1955NYC]

Sadly,they got replaced by weekend news magazines for adults.

[@Camille-ie8je]

Does anyone remember if Fearless Fly was a Saturday morning cartoon? Also i remember watching a Gumbie cartoon but some were on during the week so not sure if it aired on Saturday

[@georgeawestjr.9087]

The other problem was all 3 networks (except for Fox) were owned by different parent companies. NBC was originally owned by then parent company RCA Corporation, then by the General Electric Company, now owned by Comcast Corporation. ABC became Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., now owned by The Walt Disney Company. CBS was bought by Westinghouse Electric Corporation (through Group W), then owned by Viacom, Inc., then by ViacomCBS, Inc., and currently owned by National Amusements, Inc., the parent company of Paramount Global Corporation, owner of CBS. 👌

[@COMPFUNK2]

I’m disappointed that George of the Jungle only lasted one season.

[@km-bo3zx]

Jonny Quest! Hard to believe it was only one season of shows (not counting the awful reboot in 1986).

[@roncaruso931]

I think the cartoons are gone because of the violence. Todays WOKE society will not let them show. But its probably because kids have the internet on their phone or computer.

[@ronaldpagar6513]

True but the are others aren't

[@Backinthedaypics]

My depression prevents me from being able to compete against Established channels like this and Rhetty for History or Recollection Road. These types of videos are just too tough to produce.

[@angelaparente4470]

back when sesame street didn't go to hbo cartoons were unforgettable

[@COMPFUNK2]

You know how you can tell Saturday morning cartoons don’t exist anymore? Because now paid programming is shown in the middle of the day on Saturdays.

[@Shadowman...]

Battle of the planets G-force and the Firey Phoenix🔥 Battle of the planets G-force and the Firey Phoenix🔥 Battle of the planets G-force and the Firey Phoenix🔥

[@DrHenry1987]

Why has Space Ghost been "ghosted"? There is money to be made on channels like Plex and others.

[@angelaparente4470]

new cartoons only air during the weekend

[@myrnalaboy2840]

What actually killed Saturday Morning Cartoon franchise? Answer: The U.S. Government 😊😅😂😢😮🥵😭😡🤬

[@mikegrossberg8624]

6am, Saturday morning -- The Modern Farmer(didn't want to watch it. only thing on, and suffering from eight hours of lack of visual stimulation!)

[@mikegrossberg8624]

7am Saturday morning - Crusader Rabbit. Must-see, every Saturday morning, true start of the day Then, one day: Where's Crusader Rabbit! What the hell is Rocky and Bullwinkle! Though not, strictly speaking, Saturday morning, the first anime from Japan; Astroboy, Speed Racer, Kimba, Gigantor, Battle of the Planets, Star Blazers ,etc

[@JacobIkafrezon]

😢 Did the introduction of home video games cause a viewership drop?

[@TodaysDante]

SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK!!!!

[@theotakux5959]

So in a video about Saturday morning cartoons, the section on the 80s mentioned almost exclusively shows that aired in weekday syndication...

[@ToddAdams1234]

I always liked the animated “Dungeons and Dragons” series. It was extremely good and then POOF, no more. 🤔😳

[@dwainsimmons3447]

Was it 4kids the reason why it was gone.

[@ToABrighterFuture]

The politicians f'ed it up, like politicians always do. But the E/I mandate was only half the problem. One other rule they passed, was limiting the amount of advertising that could be shown per hour of children's television. Now, let's actually think about this, and not just recite a bunch of mealy-mouthed platitudes. Animation is the most expensive type of programming to produce. Think of all the time and effort that has to go into every single frame of animation. And how do they pay the bills for all that? Right you are: with commercial breaks. So mandating fewer commercial breaks, was a one-two knockout punch: it meant both lower revenues, AND higher production costs, making long-form broadcast animation economically unsustainable.

[@tesscastro2652]

❤😊

[@angelaparente4470]

i'm not gonna x-men revival now that cartoons are dead

[@kirkmorrison6131]

Warner Brothers cartoons

[@kirkmorrison6131]

Oh they are still on METV

[@angelaparente4470]

its the reason why modern animation sucks as well