People were doomsaying the end of Saturday Morning Cartoons as early as the 80's

[aegisrawks]

I wasnt sure until now. But now I am. There were people saying Saturday Mornings were doomed as early as the 80's even when it still had major future hits up its sleeve. To this day I think the call to end them was unfair since the ratings were good, and it turned out the ratings got even lower and companies still make money with linear tv.

Oh well, Me TV is doing great with their block of cartoons and I am content with just that. I would LOVE if they branched out into airing boomer anime lol.

 

[Pooky]

Who was? Where?

 

[Darklordavaitor]

Could you please share some examples?

 

[PinkieLopBun]

I think that was when syndicated cartoons were becoming a bigger thing, so I'm wondering if people thought that was going to replace the Saturday morning lineups.

Though yeah, I'd like to see this myself.

 

[aegisrawks]

I cant find the articles because when you look for them you get bombarded with articles with the actual end in 2014. I know I need proof to be believed but I wont give up in trying to find the articles.

FOUND ONE!!

THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Ninja Turtles Save the Day For CBS Children's Lineup (Published 1990)

www.nytimes.com

For several years, the networks had doubts about the long-term viability of network children's shows on Saturday morning -- mainly because of the competition from syndicated programs on independent stations. NBC has even considered shifting to adult programming, like the "Today" show, on Saturday morning.

But now the networks are having second thoughts. Advertisers spent heavily on the networks' children's shows last spring during the advance, or "up front," market for advertising time and pushed the market well beyond $200 million a year.


Betsy Frank, senior vice president of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, said many of the usual children's advertisers -- fast-food companies, cereal companies and toy makers -- had increased their spending this fall.

And, she said, several other categories of advertisers -- including makers of clothing, sneakers and even microwave meals -- are now chasing the children's market. Hottest Creatures on Television

CBS's acquisition of the animated adventures of the Ninja Turtles, the hottest creatures on television since the Smurfs, helped drive the advertising spending up.

This is NOT the only one. I will find more.

 

[LinusFan303]

This is where I get to do this. NBC was considering removing their Saturday Morning cartoons, which they eventuality did, back in 1988. As you mentioned NBC was considering the Saturday Today Show, which they uh did in 1992.

THE MEDIA BUSINESS; NBC Considers Scrapping Saturday Cartoons (Published 1988)

www.nytimes.com

''Even when we were No. 1,'' Mr. Tartikoff said, ''for the last three years, we have not made the kinds of profits that we did five or six years ago.''

The shrinking profits are due to the boom in recent years of children's shows sold in syndication to independent TV stations. With a whole slate of cartoon shows playing in the afternoon - from toy-based cartoons to the new and highly popular Disney entry, ''Duck Tales'' - the money spent by advertisers trying to reach young viewers is spread more thinly.
Meanwhile the cost to the networks of programming Saturday morning with cartoons is as high as it was in the days of high ratings.

Before the 1980's you had the 3 networks airing the new children's programming and the ad dollars were split between those three, when there were more people coming at the pie, they were getting less of the pie, and like the man who let Alf end on a cliffhanger said, the costs of making the shows didn't go down.

An average episode of a network Saturday cartoon show was nearly $300,000. Even though those programs can be played four times, effectively reducing the cost of each episode, Mr. Tartikoff noted that NBC can replace those shows with programs it produces for itself at a much lower rate, possibly striking a connection with an entirely new audience.
''We might want to say, 'Let's forget about cartoons; cartoons is all they're doing over there on both sides of us,' '' Mr. Tartikoff said. ''We might say, 'There's a whole other audience out there that deserves to be programmed to.' ''

Instead of paying animation companies for programming, Mr. Tartikoff could turn to his network's own company - NBC Productions - to develop shows. What would they be? ''Everything from talk shows to travel shows,'' Mr. Tartikoff said.

This is also good to note for a certain Disney Channel show that would later get picked up by NBC and made by NBC Productions hmm to create a block of NBC Production shows...hmmm. ironic that some of NBC'S current E/I shows are travel or have travel in them heh.

NBC may even move its morning news and information show, ''Today,'' into Saturday, ''and that might lead you into a Barbara Walters-type 'Saturday Morning Brunch' program,'' Mr. Tartikoff said. ''Today'' episodes would have negligible additional costs; NBC owns the broadcast, which is produced by its news division, and already produces it six days a week.

This came into being in 1992.

This might not be NBC doomsaying since they actually ended it first, and in the 1980's the 1990's Children's TV act doesn't come from nowhere and from a vacuum, there was pressure and I feel NBC knew it was coming and was planning to bolt first, got Saved by the Bell and ran with making the E/I based TNBC.


Also here's an interesting thing, when Captain Kangaroo was dropped from Weekday CBS in 1982 so CBS could still be trying to do a low-rated 3 place morning show, and moved to weekends. There were congress people and government and ACT mad a about Weekday network children's programming being gone and Saturday Morning being the only spot.

ARE CHILDREN NO LONGER IN THE PROGRAMMING PICTURE? (Published 1982)

www.nytimes.com

 

[aegisrawks]

This is where I get to do this. NBC was considering removing their Saturday Morning cartoons, which they eventuality did, back in 1988. As you mentioned NBC was considering the Saturday Today Show, which they uh did in 1992.

THE MEDIA BUSINESS; NBC Considers Scrapping Saturday Cartoons (Published 1988)

www.nytimes.com

Before the 1980's you had the 3 networks airing the new children's programming and the ad dollars were split between those three, when there were more people coming at the pie, they were getting less of the pie, and like the man who let Alf end on a cliffhanger said, the costs of making the shows didn't go down.


This is also good to note for a certain Disney Channel show that would later get picked up by NBC and made by NBC Productions hmm to create a block of NBC Production shows...hmmm. ironic that some of NBC'S current E/I shows are travel or have travel in them heh.


This came into being in 1992.

This might not be NBC doomsaying since they actually ended it first, and in the 1980's the 1990's Children's TV act doesn't come from nowhere and from a vacuum, there was pressure and I feel NBC knew it was coming and was planning to bolt first, got Saved by the Bell and ran with making the E/I based TNBC.


Also here's an interesting thing, when Captain Kangaroo was dropped from Weekday CBS in 1982 so CBS could still be trying to do a low-rated 3 place morning show, and moved to weekends. There were congress people and government and ACT mad a about Weekday network children's programming being gone and Saturday Morning being the only spot.

ARE CHILDREN NO LONGER IN THE PROGRAMMING PICTURE? (Published 1982)

www.nytimes.com

OMG thank you so much Linus! I thought my thread would be a flop since I couldnt find the articles I needed. I love all of these. I hope they arent paywalled!

 

[stephane dumas]

And Garfield and Friends jumped on the occasion to jab NBC. That jab isn't on DVD.

 

[stephane dumas]

Sorry for the double post but one detail come to my mind, I saw this old tv Fall schedule of 1992 from the French-Canadian newspaper Montreal La Presse tv magazine showing the tv schedule of December 26 and WPTZ-TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh who's the NBC affiliate of northeast New York state is carried on cable in Montreal soldered a bit more longer with various cartoons reruns while the other NBC stations dropped the cartoons. You can view it on Page 34. BAnQ numérique

It could be interesting to know if some others NBC affiliates stations than WPTZ-TV decided to not carrying The Today Show on Saturday in 1992.