SatAM
 

Found this article on Saturday Cartoons. Made me kind of sad. Anyone think we'll see a ressurection of the SatAM lineup?

Personally, I'm using YouTube to get my fix of everything from The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, to Sonic The Hedgehog, to TMNT... even Digimon. But I would really like to see 4-5 hour blocks of kid's shows on Saturday morning again.

Also, maybe move this to general? Wasn't sure.

Nique I'm ashamed of you, you forgot Mighty Max

But I think the real problem is saturday morning cartoons suck now. I didn't stop watching this stuff because I was too old, I stopped because there was perhapps one show I wanted to see and it just wasn't worth it.

Also, 4Kids, enough said.

I think the argument holds merit because of channels like Nikelodean, Disney and kids WB that have killed SatAM. Back in the 80's, there were no cartoon channels. And because these channels exist, I highly doubt that regular stations will bring back SatAM. I remember waking up at 6 on a Saturday to watch shows like Transformers, Mighty max, TMNT, etc while munching a big bowl of cereal.

Right, and that's what the article is saying; That the Saturday Morning Cartoon Marathon was an anomily (that spanned 3 decades?!) that we will never see again. Advertisers are too rooted in niche marketing at this point, plus with the upcoming changes in television viewing once TiVo/youtube-esque mediums become more readily available.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just a nostalgic moron now. At 22 already I long for the up-and-coming generation to expieriance entertainment as I did... Although I think there's some legitimacy to what the 'SatAM' generation expierianced. I mean, children's programming on the networks just doesn't exsist (at least, not in any way that matters) anymore. Who wants their kids to be watching sitcoms that are not kid-friendly after school or on the weekend?

I'm not nessiecerily playing the "these shows are immoral etc" card here, but the most family friendly show I'm seeing on after school get's out is like, Reba, or My wife and kids, and those shows tend to deal with fairly adult topics at times. To say nothing of the primetime lineups that replaced family friendly blocks like TGIF. On a side note: You know they even used to air SatAM cartoon premires during primetime? I distinctly recall the Sonic The Hedgehog Pilot and the Superman: The animated Seires pilot being played at the 7:00pm hour when they came out.

So now, instead of having shows that are ok for kids to watch during predefined times, we have Cartoon Network and Nickelodean, so they can be viewed 24/7? How is that a healthy trade off?

I can't belive I'm actually angered by this. I need YouTube to hold me so that I might relive my cherished past :(

Well, right before the total drought which is what we have now, they started in with the anime stuff which some people took a liking too but wasn't quite as marketable, IMO, as the western cartoons but for a very few big names (Digimon and Pokemon probably). But it was more like the cartoons started sucking becuase the networks didn't want to shell out cash for good quality stuff when they weren't making enough ad-money from cartoons at all, and then they just decided to stop with the cartoons altogethor.

'One Saturday Morning' was probably the last bastion of the true SatAM expieriance. 'ABC' kids is just a Disney Chanel knockoff with like 1-2 cartoons that aren't very good, with a jillion live-action tween dramas that are worse than... I dunno, stabbing my eyes out? Raven Simone isn't hip, isn't funny, and no one uses this supposed "slang term" that is her show's namesake.

Saturday morning cartoons have gone downhill rapidly in quality.

While before we had things like Reboot, Mighty Max and Beast Wars, now we have watered down heavily censored anime or the new version of transformers which have hideous stories, characters and voice actors.

If you were young would /you/ want to watch crap? Neither would I.

A few years ago, I was watching teletoon after we got sattelite/. Watched new Transformers and hated it. Watched new TMNT and loathed it. Western Cartoons are trying to copy Anime it seemed.

Had these specialty channels not appeared, I think SatAM would still be around.

However, I think of one good thing about Cartoon Network/Teletoon. The adult oriented cartoons they have at night. Aqua Teen, Venture bros, Robot Chicken etc etc.

Ok but see I don't even count stuff like this as any sort of replacment for the children's programming of yesterday, becuase, while funny, the animation is just not even attempting to be good or even origonal.

I mean, come on. If there was ever shows made for stoners and stoners only, WHILE THEY ARE STONED, Sealab and Aqua Teen are it. Great jokes (sometimes) and writing save those shows, and even that took time to develop on Adult Swim. Watch some season 1 Space Ghost coast-to-coast to see what I mean, it's just so horrible.

Maybe, but it's almost like the loss of SatAM indirectly spawned the 'cartoons 24/7' niche (or at the very least made it sucessful. Cartoon Network came out in like, '94? Not sure) so I think it's the other way around.

Well the problem with saturday morning cartoons right now, is that they're just trying to give the audience more of what they want and failing miserably. Been happening for a while.

Like, let's take Transformers for instance. So then they go ahead and make Transformers' Unicron Trilogy, spinning off of everything G1, G2, and the Movie had and instead going off on a crazy tangent. TMNT? Yup, they've made a new series for that about three times. Sonic the Hedgehog? Been there.

Instead of trying to create a new generation of decently watchable, moral-of-the-story cartoons, they're just trying to recycle stuff 'cause kids are stupid and don't know what they're watching anyway, and in the process lose the whole point of making cartoons.

Damn it now I feel old, and I'm only twenty-one.

To be fair, however, not all cartoons right now are terrible.

The series was released on DVD yesterday. Rejoice and be glad.

no, the one made for stoners is 12oz Mouse.

To be honest I think the entire script is just a recording of a bunch of potheads.

And how dare you mention horrible without talking about Tom goes to the Mayor. And why were these guys given ANOTHER show to further erode my desire to watch adult swim.