I WILL DROWN MY SORROWS IN A BOWL OF COCOA PEBBLES: This past weekend, the CW broadcast the last block of Saturday Morning cartoons on network television. This weekend, there will be none.
Looking back on the included Saturday network schedules, I'm shocked and appalled that I ever would have watched "Godzilla" instead of yet another Bugs Bunny re-run.
Hey, at least we have the excellent Saturday morning lineup on Cartoon Network, including thing like Young Justice! Oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteStreaming/VOD options have hit different sectors of the entertainment industry in different ways, but I don't know if any segment of the television complex has been affected as much as children's programming. Kids shows are more likely to have unusual structures (55 episode seasons! Spread out over two years!) and, with a few exceptions (hello Animaniacs), they tended to be cheaper/easier to license.
ReplyDeleteNetflix has long had an impressive collection of cartoons, and with almost-current runs of modern fare like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Phineas & Ferb, etc. Combine that with a very strong back catalog, with all the Justice League/Bruce Timm-verse DC comics cartoons, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Cartoon Network classics like Dexter's Laboratory Samurai Jack, and kids/parents can curate their own programming blocks. More control, less advertising, far more content, all without being locked into a schedule decided by middle-aged programmers. I'm just surprised that those blocks lasted as long as they did.
The brain is a funny thing. Five minutes ago I did not remember the Adventures of the Gummy Bears existed. Now, without hitting youtube, I'm singing the theme song.
ReplyDeleteOh, THANKS.
ReplyDelete(Now if Netflix would just get Tartakovsky's Clone Wars.)
ReplyDeleteGUUUMMY BEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRSS! Bouncinghereandthere and EVeryWHERE!
ReplyDeleteOh, and that said, Gravity Falls is my favorite show on television.
ReplyDeleteThat programming schedule shows me that I watched Saturday morning cartoons at a much older age than I thought.
ReplyDeleteAm I misremembering, or weren't there network prime-time specials to preview the new fall season's Saturday morning cartoons? Anyway, pretty sure from those scheduling grids that I was completely out, but for Pee Wee's Playhouse and some Looney Tunes, by 1984-85. In any case, it was all downhill after they cancelled Laff-A-Lympics and Challenge of the Superfriends.
ReplyDeleteYou owe me. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCzzxmmYx64h1fOtgMryJ4ziLyNbipCXg
ReplyDeleteCan I upvote this times infinity?
ReplyDeleteFalse. AntennaTV (fills up a broadcast sideband station in over 100 markets) runs Totally Tooned In on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Mr Magoo and a bunch of Columbia bill-fillers. It's Channel 17-2 in Philadelphia.
ReplyDelete