Was the internet the only reason why Saturday morning cartoons ended?

[Eldorado]

Streaming wasn't as big as it was during the early 2010's and even then the concept was collapsing. Was there another reason why the programming blocks were coming to an end?

 

[Shiloh Otter]

The internet had very little to do with it, if anything at all.

You can mainly thank the FCC and rules requiring a certain amount of E/I programming.

 

[Pooky]

When you say "Saturday Morning Cartoons" do you mean cartoons that literally aired and/or were made to air on Saturday Mornings, or are you using it as a kind of catch-all term for cartoons aimed at kids up to around age 11? If it's the former than no, that was years earlier, if it's the later than yes, it's been a factor.

 

[JMTV]

Streaming wasn't as big as it was during the early 2010's and even then the concept was collapsing. Was there another reason why the programming blocks were coming to an end?

Yes, that and the FCC mandates, so there ya go.

 

[Goldstar!]

Saturday morning TV on the broadcast networks failed mostly because of the growing popularity of cable/satellite channels and the FCC placing it's E/I mandate on the networks.

Kids no longer needed to flock in front of the TV to watch a 4 hour block of kid-vid shows one day a week when there were now cable channels that aired kids shows all day, every day, and the network SatAM cartoons were too expensive to keep producing if no one was going to watch.

 

[Checkerboard]

To me saturday morning cartoons = mostly action cartoons paired with toys and cereals. If that's that then those slowly faded out in the late 80s/early 90s I think, partially thanks to Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and were completely gone by 2005 when everyone had internet.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

If you are referring to cartoons on broadcast networks, then cable channels and the mandates for E/I content had a much bigger impact. But even those couldn’t be the full story as NBC dumped their Saturday morning lineup in 1992 before cartoons on cable were the norm.

 

[Mejo]

If you are referring to cartoons on broadcast networks, then cable channels and the mandates for E/I content had a much bigger impact. But even those couldn’t be the full story as NBC dumped their Saturday morning lineup in 1992 before cartoons on cable were the norm.

According to Hal Erickson’s book Television Cartoon Shows: an Illustrated Encyclopedia, NBC was actually going to dump it’s Saturday Morning block much earlier around 1981, to make way for a Saturday version of the Today Show. However, due to the success of The Smurfs, NBC decided to not go forward with that plan. However, after The Smurfs was cancelled, a lot of the shows that premiered after that ended up flopping. Due to this (and the success of their Live Action programming like Saved By The Bell) NBC decided to scrap all of their cartoons in July of 1992 and replace it with a block of Live Action Saturday Morning shows called TNBC plus a revived version of their scrapped Saturday Morning Today Show (though for some reason, Wish Kid of all shows managed to stay on the network for one more month until leaving the air when the next TV season arrived in September). Saturday Morning cartoons wouldn’t return to NBC again till 2003 with the Discovery Kids block.

 

[Eldorado]

If you are referring to cartoons on broadcast networks, then cable channels and the mandates for E/I content had a much bigger impact. But even those couldn’t be the full story as NBC dumped their Saturday morning lineup in 1992 before cartoons on cable were the norm.

1992?! I was so young I barely remember shows being on that network! Back then, I was confused which network was which.

If I recall correctly, I did see a little bit of NBC cartoons before it got taken off.

 

[aegisrawks]

I think the internet could have saved Saturday Mornings. I think 4kids idea of asking other companies for their anime and then airing them on The CW, and then making an anime portal "For more fun outside Saturday Morning" was genius and its really sad the law suit killed all that.

Heck, WWE's wrestling show did awesome and did great with kids so even with Saban, there was still time to correct course.
We all know what happened next though...

 

[Rick Jones]

I tend to think internet and streaming had an effect on the cable kids networks, while the cable networks were the demise of the Saturday Morning blocks. I can only speak for my own habits, with no real research or anything. I often wonder if the idea of Appointment Television is something kids are even familiar with, when they will wait to binge the entire season when it's available over stressing about being in front of the TV to watch a single episode with commercials.

On a side note, my nephew has discovered the old Fox Kids and Disney Afternoon cartoons of the 90s. He's bursting with ideas for his own cartoons now, telling me that he wants to get them on Fox Kids, and I have to tell the poor kid that Fox Kids died almost 20 years before he was born.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

According to Hal Erickson’s book Television Cartoon Shows: an Illustrated Encyclopedia, NBC was actually going to dump it’s Saturday Morning block much earlier around 1981, to make way for a Saturday version of the Today Show. However, due to the success of The Smurfs, NBC decided to not go forward with that plan. However, after The Smurfs was cancelled, a lot of the shows that premiered after that ended up flopping. Due to this (and the success of their Live Action programming like Saved By The Bell) NBC decided to scrap all of their cartoons in July of 1992 and replace it with a block of Live Action Saturday Morning shows called TNBC plus a revived version of their scrapped Saturday Morning Today Show (though for some reason, Wish Kid of all shows managed to stay on the network for one more month until leaving the air when the next TV season arrived in September). Saturday Morning cartoons wouldn’t return to NBC again till 2003 with the Discovery Kids block.

1981? That's nuts! There were so few choices for children back then and there would have been even fewer. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kidd Video, Punky Brewster (the wild version) and Captain N would have never happened.

Then again, it tracks when you consider that would've been the Fred Silverman era. He might've replaced all the cartoons with reruns of Supertrain or Pink Lady and Jeff.

 

[aegisrawks]

I cant forget there came a point where people feared kids programming would die. Networks were seriously thinking going all adult all the time. That aside from PBS there would be nothing for kids to watch.

Luckily cable came, then streaming and now Broadcast Diginets.

 

[DocForbin]

You can put much of the blame on Peggy Charren and her Action for Children's Television as well in regard to the E/I regulations and the end of Saturday morning cartoons on the Big 3 and the Little 4 (Fox, the CW, MyNetwork TV and Ion Television). Thankfully we now have MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons block and the upcoming MeTV Toons channel and we can relive those memories with a big bowl of sugar-coated cereal.

 

[Mejo]

Then again, it tracks when you consider that would've been the Fred Silverman era. He might've replaced all the cartoons with reruns of Supertrain or Pink Lady and Jeff.

Fred Silverman actually helped BRING The Smurfs to the US and oversaw production on the show. NBC’s Vice President at the time was actually the one that was going to end NBC’s Saturday Morning cartoons.

 

[aegisrawks]

Yeah I cant believe Peter Paltridge, such a knowledgeable historian, make such a mistake. And even worse, it was the beloved Brandon Tartikoff that wanted to end Saturday Mornings.

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

www.nytimes.com

 

[Mejo]

Yeah I cant believe Peter Paltridge, such a knowledgeable historian, make such a mistake. And even worse, it was the beloved Brandon Tartikoff that wanted to end Saturday Mornings.

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

www.nytimes.com

Interestingly, that article is from 1988. Appears that Saved By The Bell’s delayed those plans for a while.

 

[stephane dumas]

1981? That's nuts! There were so few choices for children back then and there would have been even fewer. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kidd Video, Punky Brewster (the wild version) and Captain N would have never happened.

Then again, it tracks when you consider that would've been the Fred Silverman era. He might've replaced all the cartoons with reruns of Supertrain or Pink Lady and Jeff.

Also, Garfield wouldn't have made this jab to NBC. ;-)

 

[Ace]

I think it was more of a cable thing but I think SatAM could have gone on a few more years if they were willing to invest more time and money into it. In the mid 2000s a lot of exclusive stuff that kept SatAM going strong went to Cartoon Network and a lot of new shows weren't as high in quality.

They just couldn't compete with cable in both quality and sheer volume and Kids WB was one of the last dominoes to fall.

 

[Eldorado]

You can put much of the blame on Peggy Charren and her Action for Children's Television as well in regard to the E/I regulations and the end of Saturday morning cartoons on the Big 3 and the Little 4 (Fox, the CW, MyNetwork TV and Ion Television). Thankfully we now have MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons block and the upcoming MeTV Toons channel and we can relive those memories with a big bowl of sugar-coated cereal.

Easy for you to say, I don't have cable to watch that.