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

[Classic Speedy]

In a historical context, 1969 was indeed a bad year for cartoons, but it doesn't really fit the topic because I doubt many of us were alive (myself included) back then. This topic seems to more be about watching cartoons year after year, but then suddenly hitting a dry spell when nothing you enjoy seems to be released.

Eric, while it's not set in stone, Silver Age is generally considered more of a WBA term. The Disney equivalent is "Disney Renaissance". I don't know if there was any term for Cartoon Network's mid '90s work.

 

[Eric B]

That's kind of what I suspected. Still, I see it as a good term for the cable renaissance afterward, by extension.

(At 3, 1969 was pretty much the around the beginning of TV watching; including cartoons, of course, for me. I can remember when the network schedules were not as standardized as they are now, and the ABC flagship station had cartoons on weekdays. I remember Tenessee Tuxedo every day at 11:30).

 

[GPRailroad8794]

In a historical context, 1969 was indeed a bad year for cartoons, but it doesn't really fit the topic because I doubt many of us were alive (myself included) back then. This topic seems to more be about watching cartoons year after year, but then suddenly hitting a dry spell when nothing you enjoy seems to be released.

Eric, while it's not set in stone, Silver Age is generally considered more of a WBA term. The Disney equivalent is "Disney Renaissance". I don't know if there was any term for Cartoon Network's mid '90s work.

Thanks for the explanation. Indeed it was a rough year that kickstarted a severe creative depression. I was talking to my friends earlier on cartoons now and how children seem to be favoring live action over animated works and wish I brought up the Animation Age Ghetto. Next time...

As for Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon!/ Cartoon Cartoon program, I use the pro wrestling term "Attitude Era" to describe it. The animation industry and the world of professional wrestling are similar to each other in many ways and I thought that the term fit Cartoon Network perfectly in the general time frame of 1995-2003. Then again you can collectively refer to the 90s and the first few years of the 2000s as the "Attitude Era of Animation."

 

[TheMusicdewd]

For me it was 2005. Rugrats was gone, All Grown Up was taking off, and Spongebob was going downhill after the movie.

 

[Ukane]

For me, it was when Cartoon Network was in it's prime,In 1999-2000's. I miss when they use to show Cartoon Fridays and thing's like Grim & Evil and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Also let's not forget Ed, Ed, N Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls and Teen Titans. Those were my favourites growing up. Also there were many more but it would be way too long for this topic.

To me, Young Justice just wasn't the same because I always think Teen Titans is better. I can't believe the non-action programs are doing so well. In fact, I would have thought for sure they would be the first to go. Oh well, I guess kids today just don't care for quality entertainment. Oh, don't even get me started on Ben 10.

 

[ToonsLover]

For me, it was when Cartoon Network was in it's prime,In 1999-2000's. I miss when they use to show Cartoon Fridays and thing's like Grim & Evil and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Also let's not forget Ed, Ed, N Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls and Teen Titans. Those were my favourites growing up. Also there were many more but it would be way too long for this topic.

To me, Young Justice just wasn't the same because I always think Teen Titans is better. I can't believe the non-action programs are doing so well. In fact, I would have thought for sure they would be the first to go. Oh well, I guess kids today just don't care for quality entertainment. Oh, don't even get me started on Ben 10.

You contradicted yourself a couple times...

 

[stephane dumas]

What do you mean by that? How did Scooby Doo and Action for Children's Television kill the redeeming qualities of cartoons? For that matter, what is "Action for Children's Television"? Are you referring to the genre. Sorry if all the questions are annoying but I want to learn about this.

Before it passed, H-B, Filmation, DFE used to produce cartoons who was more action oriented like Mighty Mightor, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans, Batman-Superman adventure hour, Johnny Quest,etc.... TVParty archived the schedule of the "Big 3" CBS, ABC, NBC. 1969 Saturday Mornings 1968 Saturday Morning Cartoons / TVparty! Saturday Morning TV Shows: 1970

 

[monkey D Goku]

Cartoons died for me in the year 2004 there wasn't anything that was on cartoon network and nick that i was interested in and i was 10 back then.

 

[Ukane]

You contradicted yourself a couple times...

How?

 

[Zanneck]

It sadly feels that way to me right now with the lack of decent, high-quality action cartoons that aren't completely based off a product, as shallow as that sounds (an action show in America is almost always based off something that will rake in a profit, hopefully, when it is market in usually any given shape/form.)...

 

[Kaz McQ]

First:

1980s: Terrible time for animation, and it was dying in the 1970s(with the exception of Ralph Bakshi's "Fritz The Cat" adaptation, and Coonskin.etc), but it was officially DEAD in the 1980s. 30 minute toy commercials.

Second:

2005-present: Before people attack me. This is just my opinion. 2005 is where the majority of the classic cartoons were cancelled/gone from the airwaves. No sight of Rugrats, Wild Thornberries, CatDog.etc. Some okay shows appeared in 2005 like CatDog, but there were more negatives about it. And then there's that SpongeBob revival that happened because the movie succeeded. Dear god......

(1. I know a fair amount of people here don't like KC's later stuff, but it's just my opinion. Personally, I found them watchable and enjoyable and especially so, compared to what Nick has on these days/nowadays. 2. I do feel like animation is making a comeback. With Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Regular Show, the Beavis and Butt-Head revival, Friendship is Magic, Dan Vs, Pound Puppies and Gravity Falls.)...

 

[PeppeRaskell1]

Like my signature says, "Legends never die. Networks kill them." Especially those networks that have neither the time nor the money, and merely laugh off the FB replies of those unhappy campers who spam most every FB post that's theirs.

 

[Printzen]

1990s had highlights like Angry Beavers.

 

[GPRailroad8794]

1990s had highlights like Angry Beavers.

To put it in the mildest terms.

The 90s had TONS more to offer in terms of cartoons. Angry Beavers is just a drop of water on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what that decade has given us!

 

[SaneMan]

Cartoons never really dies

I mean, they are still around

 

[Oldiesfreak1854]

For me, it was 2007, when My Life as a Teenage Robot was cancelled. TV cartoons had been on the decline for years, especially with the rise of shows like SpongeBob, but Nick's only good cartoon (MLAATR) was really the last holdout for cartoons in general. I guess they aired some of the season 3 episodes on Nicktoons Network until 2009, but that was the end of it for me. Plus, Disney and the other studios began killing off traditional animation, for which there is plenty of blame to go around (Michael Eisner, Pixar, bad traditional animation like Atlantis/Treasure Planet/Brother Bear, the success of mediocre CGI, etc.). I continue to mourn the death of quality animation to this day, and will until somebody comes to their senses and starts making good animation and cartoons again.

 

[THGhost]

For me, 2009 is the year Cartoon Network died when Ed, Edd n Eddy had its final season. It started showing signs of dying in 2008 when both Codename: Kids Next Door and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy finished. Sad times indeed.

 

[Dudley]

For me, it was the mid-200's when Cartoon Netwwork "died" to me. I didn't like a lot of the cartoons that were on the network at the time. Some were watchable but they weren't as enjoyable as the ones from the 90's, and all the classics moved to Boomerang. Of course, I just moved to the Disney networks or Nick, which had some pretty enjoyable shows, especially with Avatar on.
Then Total Drama and Chowder came, and things just got better from there, minus the live action.

I guess in the end there's brief moments when there's nothing good on, but the thing with those moments are that they're BRIEF.

 

[Coach McGuirk]

This is definitely something I can relate to. Not so much regarding action cartoons, but cartoons in general. I started watching TV in the late 80's, and while I was subjected to some generic stuff, there were good things happening in animation at that time. Tiny Toons, Beetlejuice, and Garfield come to mind as shows that broke through the cheap animation and boring norm that accompanied other shows. The one series that came from the early 80's that to me was groundbreaking for its time was Inspector Gadget, which still remains a favorite of mine.

Everyone has their opinions about what shows were good and when it all stopped. I saw it growing up as being a power struggle sort of thing that shifted over the years to different networks. I didn't have cable back then, so I never had Nickelodeon. I watched it at my grandma's, and I loved Ren and Stimpy and Rugrats. Anyways,here's my breakdown :

Going into the 90's, Fox was where it was at. Tiny Toons, Batman, Eek the Cat, Bobby's World, X-Men, Life with Louie.... Those are the ones that stand out.

Fox started going downhill, and the place to be was Kids' WB. Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Superman, new Batman, Freakazoid....

Kids' WB started losing steam and then I went over to Cartoon Network. Dexter, PPG, Courage, Johnny Bravo, and Cow and Chicken were my picks. Then CN cancelled its best shows, and we didn't get much to replace them. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy never reached that standard of previous CN shows. Codename: Kids Next Door.... Well I didn't like the show at all so I can't say much about it. CN fell apart, showing signs of life a few years later with Flapjack and Chowder, but then that was just a splash in the pan.

Also worth noting is ABC, which used to have good shows on Saturdays mornings. Bump in the Night and Reboot were unlike anything else on TV, and they were downright classics. Then Disney came in and peed in my Cheerios by purchasing ABC and kicking off those great shows for just what the world needed: more Disney. I've had a chip on my shoulder against Disney ever since. I got burned on Reboot again though, since CN brought it back with new episodes, only to cancel it and leave fans with a cliffhanger of an episode which was never resolved.

So there you have it. I'm sure I missed some stuff along the way, but you get the idea. I'm glad we live in the DVD age where we can buy back our memories instead of leaving them to fade into obscurity. I love Shout Factory for what they've done by bringing out shows no one else would. I've got the Bump in the Night and Reboot complete series sets from Shout, as well as their Inspector Gadget set, and I even bought their Rocko's Modern Life complete series set and am enjoying it very much, despite having missed it in its original run. I wish CN would come off the DVD rights to the shows they don't believe in and let Shout run with them. If they aren't gonna do anything with them, what's the harm?

To sum it all up, the early to mid 2000s is where I say the days of great new cartoons died. There have been a handful of good ones since then, but they are few and far between compared to how it used to be.

 

[I_Spyral]

I figure this is a good place to ask, but honestly are there any serious/action cartoons left to watch now besides Avatar? I feel as though CN has cancelled everything I ever had interest in watching, YJ, GL, Thundercats, Sym-Bionic Titan, etc.