"The Year The Cartoons Died" - anyone ever have that feeling?

[wonderfly]

WIth the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action cartoons on TV.

But let's put things in perspective, I think everyone at least once thinks that "cartoons are dying" when a favorite show goes off the air. Sometimes you have that feeling about the new wave of "action cartoons" not being as good the ones you enjoyed, or sometimes it's "comedy cartoons" not being on par with your favorites which are now cancelled. Sometimes you just think all cartoons in general on TV aren't as great as they once were.

For me it was the year 1990: The 1980's were over, and gone were classics like "Transformers", "GI Joe", "He-Man", and "Thundercats". Instead, we had the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show". Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was at the height of it's popularity due to the live action movie that came out that year, but for me, the cartoon was starting to loose it's appeal (how many times can the turtles take on Shredder and Krang before it gets stale?)

Besides TMNT, there wasn't any action cartoons! (Yes, I know there was a new He-Man show in syndication, but my stations didn't carry it, and it was almost universally hated). Comedy shows reigned supreme: Tiny Toons was huge, but that's a comedy show, and Tailspin was just a retread of the family shows already done by Ducktales and Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers (so it just looked like Disney was running on fumes). I guess there was "Captain N: the Gamemaster" (the nintendo cartoon) but it was kind of a let down...

What I didn't know was that the best was yet to come:

There wasn't a Batman: The Animated Series yet (started in 1992).
No Gargoyles yet (started in 1994).
No Exosquad yet (1993, I believe).
No "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" (1992).
No "Conan the Adventurer" (1992)
"Pirates of Dark Water" aired in the fall of 1991, but that was about the earliest "action" cartoon.

In other words, animation studios were in a reformat phase in 1990. We were inbetween styles of action show.

So has anyone here ever experienced the thought of "man, it feels like cartoons died this year!"?

This may be a topic more focused on the older Toonzone members (thus, I'm mirroring it to the Retro Cartoons board) but perhaps younger members (teenagers or early 20's) have felt this way at well in the last few years. Maybe it's something that happens at least once every generation?

 

[CartoonFridays]

I can name a few years:

1970s: When cartoons were the stalest.
2005: When Disney officially turned the Feature Animation department into a CGI house.
2009: When Cartoon Network debuted CN Real.

 

[80's guy]

Only if you're a guy who grew up with nostalgia and don't go forward, not to be rude or anything, I'm more interested in other things beside cartoons.

 

[MadMan400096]

I can name a few years:

1970s: When cartoons were the stalest.
2005: When Disney officially turned the Feature Animation department into a CGI house.
2009: When Cartoon Network debuted CN Real.

Agreed, though I'd say 2004 because that was when Jetix launched on Toon Disney, one of my favorite channels during my childhood, and slowly devoured its schedule, and eventually the channel itself, which wound up becoming Disney XD, in 2009, coincidentally the same year in which CN Real launched.

 

[J. B. Warner]

2005 may have had its low points (Disney's Chicken Little, "Loonatics Unleashed" on Kids' WB, the painfully unfunny return of "Family Guy"), but don't forget it also gave us "Avatar: The Last Airbender". That almost makes up for everything else.

I'd actually say 2006 was a worse year for animation, largely because the offerings for animated features that year were so lame. It was the first year since 1993 that Disney didn't release an animated film (unless you count The Wild, and frankly, why would you?), and Pixar came out with Cars (really, Pixar? Come on). It also gave us Over the Hedge, which turned a genuinely clever comic strip into just another DreamWorks cavalcade of mediocrity; Monster House, another in Robert Zemeckis' long-running love affair with creepy dead-eyed motion capture; and Doogal, which pretty much speaks for itself.

 

[stephane dumas]

Wonderfly got a good point about 1990. But I go with 1992 when NBC dropped its Saturday Morning lineup for presenting news and Saved by the Bell and its various clones. Having series like Prostars and an animated version of Kid'N'Play didn't helped thing, and relied mainly on Smurfs for much of the 1980s hurted more then help on the long-term.

And speaking of Saved by the Bell, I spotted this one from a webcomic named the Japanese Beetle

 

[GPRailroad8794]

I can name a few years:

1970s: When cartoons were the stalest.
2005: When Disney officially turned the Feature Animation department into a CGI house.
2009: When Cartoon Network debuted CN Real.

This. I'm a 90s baby, so I came along in the midst of the animation renaissance but in time to catch all the good stuff: Cartoon Network was just planting the seeds to become the greatest channel ever, Nick was airing Rugrats, Ahh! Real Monsters, Doug, Hey Arnold!, Rocko's Modern Life, and Angry Beavers among others, and Disney was producing its greatest hits in movies.

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

For me, the year that I thought where cartoons had died was 2004 when most of the classic shows like Rugrats, The Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold! and Rocket Power were all cancelled. Also, it was the same year where Cartoon Network had stopped their Powerhouse Era and aired the City Bumpers instead. Luckily afterwards, we had great shows like Avatar the Last Airbender, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Danny Phantom to come along.

 

[SF4Ever]

I'm not exactly so sure that cartoons really "died", but there's always a down period. I believe Cartoon Network can come back, once it has a new president(Stuart Snyder has got to go, period), Disney starts to change its programming culture, which includes teaming up with Man of Action Studios(producers of Ben 10 Omniverse and Ultimate Spider-Man) to create original action animation and to schedule it for daytime hours and I can't see what Nick can do, because it's already gone into a new direction of programming. Once these issues, which includes accessibility, variety and appealing to all audiences, while avoiding gender stereotyping, altogether, are ironed out, cartoons will start to come back, and personally, I'd like to see Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and Nick with competitively scheduled Saturday morning lineups, each, airing between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., finally taking the responsibility that CBS, ABC and NBC once had on Saturday mornings. Each lineup of cable's Big Three should include not only comedy-based animation, but also action animation, yet oversaw by the Standards and Practices of each network to avoid any kind of cartoon violence that could be duplicated in real life. I speak, very passionately about what Saturday mornings once were and what they can be, once again. As far as I'm concerned, cartoons have a down period- they don't die.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

2002 and 2009 both evoked the feeling to me.

In 2002 all the new Fox animated shows were cancelled, and so were any remaining similar animated shows on other networks (the last remnants of the 1999 network animation bubble). Invader Zim was canned as well, and ugly Klasky-Csupo glop had taken over Nick. It looked like the renaissance begun in the early 90's was finally dying. Fortunately, CN was still in its original Golden Age, so I had that.

2009 was far more dire. Live-action kidcoms were more popular than they'd ever been before or since, and it was threatening the existence of animation on all youth-focused networks, including CN. New shorts programs on both Nick and CN, designed to identify potential new hit shows (just as was done in the 90's) were both suddenly cancelled and the shorts produced were unaired for years. Toonami died, Fosters was cancelled and McCracken left CN, then they introduced CN Real and the executives spoke of changing the name.....that was the darkest moment. There really seemed to be no hope for the immediate future.

SOMEHOW, one of those shorts (Adventure Time) became a series, then a hit, and CN was spared.

 

[TnAdct1]

My addition to "The Year Cartoons Died" list would be 1997, at least in terms of network TV. Among the reasons for it:

1. That was the year the infamous E/I law went into effect, thus pretty much putting a major dent in Saturday morning titles on the Big 3 networks (although ABC did handle this change IMO thanks to the programming being produced by Disney).

2. The idiot known as Jamie Kellner cancelled a number of Kids' WB shows that were very popular among adults (as well as began meddling with Pinky and the Brain, which resulted in the infamous "Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain" the following year).

3. While Fox did have some new animated shows in the 1997/1998 season, it does feel that a lot of their efforts went more into live-action titles along the lines of their two biggest hits on the network, Power Rangers and Goosebumps.

 

[Martin Juneau]

My addition to "The Year Cartoons Died" list would be 1997, at least in terms of network TV. Among the reasons for it:

1. That was the year the infamous E/I law went into effect, thus pretty much putting a major dent in Saturday morning titles on the Big 3 networks (although ABC did handle this change IMO thanks to the programming being produced by Disney).

2. The idiot known as Jamie Kellner cancelled a number of Kids' WB shows that were very popular among adults (as well as began meddling with Pinky and the Brain, which resulted in the infamous "Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain" the following year).

3. While Fox did have some new animated shows in the 1997/1998 season, it does feel that a lot of their efforts went more into live-action titles along the lines of their two biggest hits on the network, Power Rangers and Goosebumps.

I just want to say the same thing about 1997 which seems to be the weak 90's year on animation, to me, by the cancellation of the Disney Afternoon block in my NBC local network into talk-shows. And some newer animated shows become much boring and depressed into my eyes.

But that's don't during longtime that my discoveries of the CN's acquired series as Cow & Chicken, Dexter's Lab and others Johnny Bravo makes me appreciate in a new manner the animation world. It will be like that until 2006 and came back last year by shows as Gravity Falls and the new TMNT which is my new favourite show currently.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I don't know if there was a particularly year that I thought animation "died", because there's always been something to watch, but I've been incredibly inactive in watching TV premieres ever since I cut cable at the end of 2007. In fact, I haven't seen the majority of CN, Disney, or Nick cartoons which have debuted since then.

For me it was the year 1990: The 1980's were over, and gone were classics like "Transformers", "GI Joe", "He-Man", and "Thundercats". Instead, we had the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show". Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was at the height of it's popularity due to the live action movie that came out that year, but for me, the cartoon was starting to loose it's appeal (how many times can the turtles take on Shredder and Krang before it gets stale?)

I know they're not action cartoons so they probably don't fit what you're talking about, but 1990 was a good year for animation simply for three things: The Simpsons (technically it debuted in 1989 with the Christmas special, but its main run began in 1990), Tiny Toons, and The Rescuers Down Under. I've also heard good things about Peter Pan and the Pirates, but I can't say because I haven't seen it.

 

[wonderfly]

2002 and 2009 both evoked the feeling to me.

In 2002 all the new Fox animated shows were cancelled, and so were any remaining similar animated shows on other networks (the last remnants of the 1999 network animation bubble). Invader Zim was canned as well, and ugly Klasky-Csupo glop had taken over Nick. It looked like the renaissance begun in the early 90's was finally dying. Fortunately, CN was still in its original Golden Age, so I had that.

2009 was far more dire. Live-action kidcoms were more popular than they'd ever been before or since, and it was threatening the existence of animation on all youth-focused networks, including CN. New shorts programs on both Nick and CN, designed to identify potential new hit shows (just as was done in the 90's) were both suddenly cancelled and the shorts produced were unaired for years. Toonami died, Fosters was cancelled and McCracken left CN, then they introduced CN Real and the executives spoke of changing the name.....that was the darkest moment. There really seemed to be no hope for the immediate future.

SOMEHOW, one of those shorts (Adventure Time) became a series, then a hit, and CN was spared.

Good examples. 2009 probably hurt for a lot of anime fans, with Toonami being cancelled late in 2008. In fact, I talked about this on the Anime forum, but it really felt like that was the year anime died on American TV...

My addition to "The Year Cartoons Died" list would be 1997, at least in terms of network TV.

It really felt like Fox Kids had given up by that year (that's when their Warner Bros. properties (like B:TAS) went to Kids WB. Since I didn't have the WB network at that time, 1997 and 1998 felt like cartoon wastelands to me. Cartoon Network started up Toonami in 1997, though, but for that first year or two, it was a "retro 80's cartoons" program (which I enjoyed, but it's not the same as having new action cartoon premiers).

I know they're not action cartoons so they probably don't fit what you're talking about, but 1990 was a good year for animation simply for three things: The Simpsons (technically it debuted in 1989 with the Christmas special, but its main run began in 1990),

That's probably another reason why I dreaded 1990: Simpsons was the onset of "adult animation", which I couldn't grasp back then. As a young teenager, I craved action and adventure in my cartoons.

 

[King Delbert]

There were a couple of years for me. Approximantly 1998-2000, altthough really it's in between those years, but there were other things that happened. Here were my main points as to why

1. Nickelodeon slowly started to stop airing classic cartoons. Now of course, Nick was still a great channel until recently, but they would later pick up the Charlie Brown specials until about 2000.
2. Cedar Point changed from the Berenstain Bears to Snoopy (a move that ended up for the better, but at six, it sucked for a little while)
3. The death of Charles Schulz
4. Disney taking new directions to it's movies such as Tarzan and Mulan
5. Spongebob came about

Another year was about 2009 when there were terrible shows, Nick had a rebrand, and the Mighty B was cancled. Plus an appaling lack of classic animation. It was so bad that I refused to believe that kids are watching cartoons anymore. Of course then Phineas and Ferb started getting more popular after that.

NOTE: some of the things I mentioned were major changes and didn't really made me think that animation had died

 

[TenPoundHammer]

I didn't watch WB, FOX, or most other networks other than Nick in the 1990s, so I was completely unaware of what was happening then. I barely watched Saturday morning cartoons unless they were things my cousins watched (most prominently, Garfield & Friends, which is still awesome). And our movie theater has been hanging by a thread since forever, so for me, it was mostly Nickelodeon.

For me at the time, cartoons died in 2001 when Nick seemed to start really spamming Spongebob, which I hated, and really cut down on the stuff I really liked, such as The Angry Beavers. I outright stopped watching CN and Nick because I was disgusted with what they'd become. (I think some of it was also because my mom hated most of the CN originals. Then again, she also hated Rocko's Modern Life.)

Then, once 2008 came around, I began realizing all the great stuff I missed on both CN and Nick in the 7 years since. Sure, there were clunkers aplenty (notice how in that timespan, no Nick original stuck around except My Life as a Teenage Robot and Avatar: The Last Airbender — anyone even remember Yakkity Yak anymore?), but there was plenty of good stuff. Moreso on CN, which has given me new favorites in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Juniper Lee, etc.

 

[GPRailroad8794]

To add onto my earlier post, I'd say that 2007 was a flat year, at least for Cartoon Network.

2006 was my first year without cable (got cut off in July) so I thought I wouldn't get to see Cartoon Network or cartoons in general again (well, a very, very long time).

Coming off the heels of what felt like a below average year for the channel in 2006, I never felt that it had changed more than in 2007. In August I went to stay with my uncle and auntie for a few weeks and was able to tune into CN over a year after losing our cable. The first show I see? Out of Jimmy's Head, and the first thought that came into my head was "What the heck is this crap?". Unbeknownst to me at the time, Jim Samples had left the company earlier in the year and the man who replaced him was/is nowhere near qualified to run an animation network. It didn't help matters that the City Era had ended and all of the Cartoon Cartoons (sans Ed, Edd n Eddy) were gone, but there was a non-cartoon show on CARTOON Network! Who is responsible for this blasphemy?! Well, I know now.

For CN, 2006 was when the downward curve began, 2007-2008 were the sloping years, while 2009 was rock bottom. At the time I felt that cartoons period were dead in correlation to CN's decreasing quality, in retrospect I still feel that way.

 

[HG Revolution]

1990 was the year of The Simpsons and Tiny Toons. The Little Mermaid was still in theaters and reviving theatrical animation. I don't know how you could consider that the year cartoons died unless you were only interested in action cartoons at the time.

 

[Darklordavaitor]

Another landmark for animation in 1990 was the arrival of the Disney Afternoon. As far as I'm concerned, that cemented Disney's rise in the television animation department.

 

[Angilasman]

Cartoon Network's non-action programming is doing fine, in fact, it's very strong. The problem is that these action cartoons we nerds become obsessed with are entirely dependent, not on quality, but on popularity with little kids and the merchandising opportunities that represents (almost all action cartoons are toy commercials). Kids apparently can't get enough of Ultimate Spider-Man and the numerous incarnations of Ben 10 - time to churn out Ben 10 shampoo and Ultimate Spider-Man book bags available at your local WalMart!

I'd love to see all sorts of animated shows, including honest-to-god dramas, but right now the animation game in the US is funny cartoons for kids, action cartoons to sell products, and funny cartoons for adults.