| Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the typical television animation programming that was typically scheduled on
Saturday mornings on the major American television networks
since the mid 1960s.
Early Saturday morning cartoons
Although Saturday morning had always featured a great deal of children's fare before, the idea of commissioning animated
television series for broadcast really caught on in the mid-1960s, when the networks realized that they could concentrate kids'
viewing on that one morning to appeal to advertisers. Furthermore, limited animation, such as the kind produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, was economical enough to produce in sufficient quantity to fill the
four hour time slot, as compared to live-action programming. The experiment proved successful, and the time slot was filled with
profitable programming.
Criticism
Although this broadcasting convention meant steady work for animation companies, most animation fans consider the resulting
cost to American animation to be ruinous to the art. In their view, this programming block "ghettoized" animation programming and
severely harmed the artistic reputation of American animation, portraying it as a substandard art fit only for children. They
cite the fact that children, specifically ages 6-11, were not considered an attractive audience demographic by the networks due
to their obvious lack of disposable income. As a result, the programming presented in that time had typically low budgets, which
critics complained meant poor production values and animation. They also complained that network practices aggravated the
situtation by typically only commissioning or renewing their series at the beginning of the year, which meant a 6 month schedule
at best to produce hours of animated programming. The critics conclude that this tight schedule allowed for extremely little time
for refinement, let alone experimentation in the material. The result, in their opinion, was rushed and often poorly written and
animated productions.
Watchgroup backlash
Another damaging factor to the artistic quality critics cite was the growing influence of concerned parents lobby groups like
Action for Children's Television. These groups appeared in the late 1960s to complain
about their concerns about the presentation of violence, anti-social attitudes and stereotypes in Saturday morning cartoons. By
the 1970s, these groups exercised enough influence that the TV networks felt compelled to
lay down even more stringent content rules for the animation houses. Critics have complained that this proceeded to the point
where the very depiction of conflict and jeopardy, the basic element of drama and suspense, was severely restricted and the
artists were left with few avenues of expression. Even more disconcerting to detractors was that the prohibition against the
depiction of anti-social elements often prompted conformist stories, such as in the Smurfs series, where almost any individual initiative often resulted in trouble for group, and therefore had to
be avoided.
As a result of these factors, Saturday morning animation programming was restricted to certain clearly defined types of
shows:
- non-violent superheroes (Super Friends)
- touring musical groups (Josie and the Pussycats, The Jackson 5ive, Alvin and
the Chipmunks)
- secret fantasy folk (Smurfs, Snorks)
- teen life (Fat Albert and the Cosby
Kids); teen detective (Scooby Doo, Jabberjaw)
- animated children's versions of prime time shows (Emergency + 4,
Punky Brewster, Alf)
- animated adoptions of comics and video games (The Archie Show, Pac-Man, Saturday Supercade)
- classic theatrical animated shorts, ususally severely censored (Looney
Tunes, Tom and Jerry)
Decline
The decline of the timeslot began in the mid 1980s due to a variety of factors. Among
them was the rise of first run syndication animated programs, which usually
had a greater artistic freedom and production values (such as GI Joe,
Robotech and Ducktales). There was also the rise of home video; this
made quality animated productions (like the Walt Disney
Company's classic animated features) easily accessible, which encouraged unfavourable comparisons with typical television
animation. Finally, there was the rise of cable TV channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week, making Saturday
morning timeslots far less important to viewers and advertisers.
Current state of Saturday morning cartoons
In current times, while animated production is still present on many regular TV networks on Saturday mornings, it has been
noticeably reduced. NBC abandoned its
Saturday morning cartoon lineup in 1992, replacing it with The Today Show and teen-oriented shows like Saved by the Bell (they have since replaced the teen-oriented shows
with kid-friendly live-action programming from the Discovery
Channel). CBS eventually followed suit, programming The Early Show in the first two hours of its lineup.
After being purchased by Disney in 1996,
ABC began airing their Saturday Morning
cartoons in a programming block titled Disney's One Saturday
Morning. Many of the block's shows are produced by Disney and also air on The Disney Channel. CBS followed suit, and now airs a programming block of shows from fellow Viacom subsidiary Nickelodeon. The WB airs Kids WB, which includes mostly imported
cartoons from Cartoon Network. Fox, instead, airs 4Kids TV (formerly Fox Box), a partnership between itself and 4Kids Entertainment.
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