t***@gmail.com
2014-10-01 22:55:00 UTC
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/379861-end-saturday-morning-cartoons.html#post4595851
The broadcast network Saturday morning programming block is a product of a bygone era, back when there were only 3 (later 4) major networks as outlets for cartoons and kids' shows, outside of the occasional prime time special and local syndication. Times change, eras change and the the media has to adapt accordingly to those changes. This has been discussed previously here and on our blog, so rather than repeat myself, I'll just copy and paste:
There are a number of factors which have contributing to demise of broadcast SatAM blocks:
1. Broadcast TV in general is currently suffering at the hands of cable and other media.
2. Thanks to the advent of cable, satellite, DVDs, DVRs, the internet, video games, computers, and mobile devices, kids don't need to watch broadcast TV on Saturday mornings.
3. Local news and infotainment are more profitable for local stations and affiliates than kids' shows are.
4. The massive merging of corporate media outlets during the 90's and 00's and the resulting vertical integration. Translated, most of the SatAM cartoons we olds grew up on are now under the umbrella of the Big Corporations, many of whom would rather let their shows collect dust in the vault than let a competing network they don't own air them, thus there's a lot less material available for broadcast TV and syndication.
5. The general death of first-run syndication. Outside of judge or talk shows, there aren't any major TV ventures coming from syndication markets; most of the Hercules, Young Indiana Jones, Small Wonder or Star Trek type programs are made by and for cable channels nowadays.
*Thanks to Anthonynotes for laying these reasons out.
The harsh truth is that era of Broadcast network SatAM is just obsolete now, gone the way of the dinosaur, those pointy Pilgrim hats and the Edsel; broadcast networks can't compete with 24-hour cable channels, the internet and home video.
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/379861-end-saturday-morning-cartoons-2.html#post4596581
Honestly, traditional Saturday morning blocks are as outdated as Blockbuster stores in this day and age. With channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel being widely available as a part of basic cable, there's really nothing to make kids stick with these weekly blocks when they have channels that showcase shows for them every day. Channels were losing money by keeping them around, which is why the blocks have been replaced with E/I programming blocks that aren't as expensive. Plus, there are other ways for kids to watch shows nowadays like On Demand, Hulu, iTunes, etc. so the idea that kids only have one weekly block to see these shows is pretty outdated in itself.
The Vortexx had potential, but they clearly stopped caring about it a long time ago, most likely because Saban realized that that they couldn't make another Fox Kids block in today's market. I'm pretty surprised that the CW has had a Saturday morning block for so long. Including Kids' WB, they've had a Saturday block going on for a long time, even though they've been outdated since at least somewhere early/mid 2000's. While the ending of the Vortexx didn't end Saturday morning blocks on a high note, I don't feel particularly bad for the kids missing out on a traditional weekly Saturday morning block when they have more options than I thought possible back in the day.
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/379861-end-saturday-morning-cartoons-5.html#post4608471
Mulling it over, I've thought of a few more reasons as to why SatAM blocks have disappeared:
*The loss of promotional vehicles. Back when SatAM fare was riding high, it wasn't uncommon for prime time shows to advertise the kids' blocks, particularly family-aimed stuff like what aired on TGIF. As time went on, shows gradually became more adult. Nowadays, most of what airs on the Big 5 are shows like Family Guy, Two and a Half Men, The Vampire Diaries, Grey's Anatomy, and Law and Order: SVU, that no parent in their right mind would let their little ones watch, at least unattended, meaning less kids to see the promos. And besides, can you really imagine ads for LazyTown playing during Chicago Fire?
*Censorship concerns. I know, shows like Batman and Animaniacs got away with stuff that drive the moral guardians nuts, but that was the 90's, back when our main problems were AIDS and drugs. With incidents like Columbine, 9/11, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon bombing, broadcast stations have become increasingly wary of the wrath of irate parents, who are afraid that Elmer Fudd shooting Daffy Duck is gonna lead kids to set up another tragic massacre, rather than laughing because the smarter Bugs Bunny set him up. This made writing for network cartoons increasingly difficult unless the show's airing in primetime (and even then, unless they're on Fox, they're probably screwed anyway), leading creators to migrate to the more lenient standards of cable, or recently the nonexistent constraints of releasing product online, led by the likes of Shut Up! Cartoons and Cartoon Hangover.
*Parents making kids get off their butts and leave the house. Let's face it: Americans are FAT, and are getting fatter by the year. It's no surprise parents are taking notice, and making their kids go outside and do something. Problem is, since the modern world is dangerous enough that even a walk in the park can get Little Timmy kidnapped by gangbangers, parents have to make sure that doesn't happen. And that's not even getting into divorces and separations, which mean weekends are the time for those kids to go between parents. All this means less time for kids to actually watch cartoons, including what's on Saturday morning.
*Increasing standards and costs of animation. In the past, one could get away with putting little to no effort in either animation or writing. And then Disney got into TV. And then so did Warner Bros. And then Nickelodeon. All of them knew they couldn't just half-ass everything and expect kids to blindly flock to the crap. They only did that in the 70's and 80's because they had to; there wasn't any real options for them outside of watching the latest Disney movie. But now the standards were increasing, and with them budgets. This meant that if a broadcast show was to succeed, it needed more viewers to make it profitable. With cable, it's less of problem; subscription fees can cover them.
*Food companies being scared away from advertising their product. This somewhat goes hand in hand with the whole fitness thing. Foods like cereal and fast food were once major parts of kids' advertising, but of course, parents aren't just gonna let their kids collect fat like VCRs collect dust on shelves. So they have to mob the food companies. Nowadays, I'd be lucky if I can find any ads for Burger King or Cinnamon Toast Crunch during The 7D or Sanjay and Craig.
The broadcast network Saturday morning programming block is a product of a bygone era, back when there were only 3 (later 4) major networks as outlets for cartoons and kids' shows, outside of the occasional prime time special and local syndication. Times change, eras change and the the media has to adapt accordingly to those changes. This has been discussed previously here and on our blog, so rather than repeat myself, I'll just copy and paste:
There are a number of factors which have contributing to demise of broadcast SatAM blocks:
1. Broadcast TV in general is currently suffering at the hands of cable and other media.
2. Thanks to the advent of cable, satellite, DVDs, DVRs, the internet, video games, computers, and mobile devices, kids don't need to watch broadcast TV on Saturday mornings.
3. Local news and infotainment are more profitable for local stations and affiliates than kids' shows are.
4. The massive merging of corporate media outlets during the 90's and 00's and the resulting vertical integration. Translated, most of the SatAM cartoons we olds grew up on are now under the umbrella of the Big Corporations, many of whom would rather let their shows collect dust in the vault than let a competing network they don't own air them, thus there's a lot less material available for broadcast TV and syndication.
5. The general death of first-run syndication. Outside of judge or talk shows, there aren't any major TV ventures coming from syndication markets; most of the Hercules, Young Indiana Jones, Small Wonder or Star Trek type programs are made by and for cable channels nowadays.
*Thanks to Anthonynotes for laying these reasons out.
The harsh truth is that era of Broadcast network SatAM is just obsolete now, gone the way of the dinosaur, those pointy Pilgrim hats and the Edsel; broadcast networks can't compete with 24-hour cable channels, the internet and home video.
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/379861-end-saturday-morning-cartoons-2.html#post4596581
Honestly, traditional Saturday morning blocks are as outdated as Blockbuster stores in this day and age. With channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel being widely available as a part of basic cable, there's really nothing to make kids stick with these weekly blocks when they have channels that showcase shows for them every day. Channels were losing money by keeping them around, which is why the blocks have been replaced with E/I programming blocks that aren't as expensive. Plus, there are other ways for kids to watch shows nowadays like On Demand, Hulu, iTunes, etc. so the idea that kids only have one weekly block to see these shows is pretty outdated in itself.
The Vortexx had potential, but they clearly stopped caring about it a long time ago, most likely because Saban realized that that they couldn't make another Fox Kids block in today's market. I'm pretty surprised that the CW has had a Saturday morning block for so long. Including Kids' WB, they've had a Saturday block going on for a long time, even though they've been outdated since at least somewhere early/mid 2000's. While the ending of the Vortexx didn't end Saturday morning blocks on a high note, I don't feel particularly bad for the kids missing out on a traditional weekly Saturday morning block when they have more options than I thought possible back in the day.
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/379861-end-saturday-morning-cartoons-5.html#post4608471
Mulling it over, I've thought of a few more reasons as to why SatAM blocks have disappeared:
*The loss of promotional vehicles. Back when SatAM fare was riding high, it wasn't uncommon for prime time shows to advertise the kids' blocks, particularly family-aimed stuff like what aired on TGIF. As time went on, shows gradually became more adult. Nowadays, most of what airs on the Big 5 are shows like Family Guy, Two and a Half Men, The Vampire Diaries, Grey's Anatomy, and Law and Order: SVU, that no parent in their right mind would let their little ones watch, at least unattended, meaning less kids to see the promos. And besides, can you really imagine ads for LazyTown playing during Chicago Fire?
*Censorship concerns. I know, shows like Batman and Animaniacs got away with stuff that drive the moral guardians nuts, but that was the 90's, back when our main problems were AIDS and drugs. With incidents like Columbine, 9/11, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon bombing, broadcast stations have become increasingly wary of the wrath of irate parents, who are afraid that Elmer Fudd shooting Daffy Duck is gonna lead kids to set up another tragic massacre, rather than laughing because the smarter Bugs Bunny set him up. This made writing for network cartoons increasingly difficult unless the show's airing in primetime (and even then, unless they're on Fox, they're probably screwed anyway), leading creators to migrate to the more lenient standards of cable, or recently the nonexistent constraints of releasing product online, led by the likes of Shut Up! Cartoons and Cartoon Hangover.
*Parents making kids get off their butts and leave the house. Let's face it: Americans are FAT, and are getting fatter by the year. It's no surprise parents are taking notice, and making their kids go outside and do something. Problem is, since the modern world is dangerous enough that even a walk in the park can get Little Timmy kidnapped by gangbangers, parents have to make sure that doesn't happen. And that's not even getting into divorces and separations, which mean weekends are the time for those kids to go between parents. All this means less time for kids to actually watch cartoons, including what's on Saturday morning.
*Increasing standards and costs of animation. In the past, one could get away with putting little to no effort in either animation or writing. And then Disney got into TV. And then so did Warner Bros. And then Nickelodeon. All of them knew they couldn't just half-ass everything and expect kids to blindly flock to the crap. They only did that in the 70's and 80's because they had to; there wasn't any real options for them outside of watching the latest Disney movie. But now the standards were increasing, and with them budgets. This meant that if a broadcast show was to succeed, it needed more viewers to make it profitable. With cable, it's less of problem; subscription fees can cover them.
*Food companies being scared away from advertising their product. This somewhat goes hand in hand with the whole fitness thing. Foods like cereal and fast food were once major parts of kids' advertising, but of course, parents aren't just gonna let their kids collect fat like VCRs collect dust on shelves. So they have to mob the food companies. Nowadays, I'd be lucky if I can find any ads for Burger King or Cinnamon Toast Crunch during The 7D or Sanjay and Craig.