Saturday-Morning Cartoons' Death: Does this Mark the End of Cartoon-Oriented Networks?

Once upon a time, children would wake up early on a day there was no school because they wanted to. This mythical day was called Saturday, and the television was filled with many cartoons that could be seen on no other day. Then along came cable and cartoons were aired every single day, but still Saturday held a special place where new shows were broadcast. Yet now Saturdays are no longer a magical place to see cartoons and what's worse is the cable channels are moving away from cartoons as well.

It has finally happened, cartoons are getting pushed out. Saturday mornings are not what they use to be. NBC, CBS, and Fox have all canceled their Saturday morning line ups, ABC shows mostly recycled tween live action shows like the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, CW seems to be the only channel still active in the Saturday morning cartoon action, and really who knows how long that will last?

But that's not all. Nickelodeon which once had a rich cartoon library has more live action tween shows like iCarly, and Drake and Josh. The Nick Jr shows are still mostly animated or a mixture of live action and cartoon, but there seems to be few other original shows outside of the several hours of Sponge Bob each day. What is really disappointing about this is that Nickelodeon has produced some of the biggest mainstream cartoons since it's inception, from the original Nick Toons of Rugrats, Doug, and Ren and Stimpy, to newer shows like Sponge Bob and Avatar: The Last Airbender. It also let onto the world the Hot Topic favorite, Invader Zim. Yet a look at their current line up shows just as many live action as animated shows.

Moving to other networks, what was once Toon Disney has now become Disney XD, which kept much of the old Toon Disney cartoons and added, the live actions shows from the Disney Channel... Really not much more needs to be said except, the house that Mickey built is producing some very mediocre tween sitcoms, and now they have spread to a THIRD channel.

But the biggest shake up comes from Cartoon Network. Just stop and look at the name, from that alone, what should be airing on the channel? If you said cartoons, you are apparently wrong. The channel was originally conceived to be a place to air just cartoons, but that has apparently changed. The network just announced nineteen new projects for the year, and eleven of them are live action. That is nearly 60% of the new programming being live action. Only 40% of the shows are what is advertised in the name of the network! What is odd is that Cartoon Network has recently received a large growth in numbers thanks in part to Big Ben and the Clone Wars Cartoon (which is now also airing on TNT). Both are animated series, yet CARTOON Network is working to bring new live action shows instead of focusing on more quality cartoons like these or older hit shows like the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, or Samurai Jack. If cost is an issue, just bring over more anime, this is the network that helped make Dragonball Z reach an even larger audience as well as currently airing Naruto. Anything but live action shows.

Why are cartoons dying off and being replaced with horrible sitcoms aimed at kids or worse, just nothing? There are many theories out there, and I can rant about a dozen different ones myself ranging from most new cartoons aren't that good, to new FCC rules. But I won't. I am not qualified to give an answer as to why networks do what they do. It could be finances, seeming lack of interest from the audience, not enough shows being pitched that are cartoons, avoiding FCC rules, or executives who just hate the word cartoon all together.

The bottom line is that cartoons through the television are becoming rare. Which seems counter to what is happening on the big screen, where more and more animated projects are being released. Yes many of them are CGI and not the old school animated techniques, but it is still considered a cartoon. If these all are big hits, will this lead to a new cartoon revolution on television? Or will they just spawn more movies?

I use to love Saturday morning cartoons as a child, and I hope one day they make a return. Even with 24 hour networks that show nothing but cartoons (the basic cable channels no longer exist thanks to Nick, Disney XD, and Cartoon Network showing live action) it is just not the same. Having four to five channels offering their best cartoon line ups is what made the day so special. No matter your specific choice in cartoons, with some channel flipping, you would find something tailor made for you. And most likely would continue to find something until noon, and that is what needs to return.