Know what I miss? Saturday morning cartoons. Oh, I know there are cartoons on here and there, but I mean the fully institutionalized event that was Saturday morning for me as a kid. Sure, a lot of it was pretty crappy, and some of it was nearly unwatchable, but it was there, waiting for me and my big bowl of Fruity Pebbles each and every weekend.
I have a collection of Super Friends DVD’s that I watch with Nick, and without fail, each time I watch I am brought back to that magical time in the mid-80′s where I could watch Green Lantern pick up Bizaro with a big glowing green energy hand and know in my heart that all was right in the world.
On a whim, I hopped on eBay the other day and tracked down the Tex Avery Droopy collection so I could fully introduce my kids to its genius. You might ask, “have they never seen droopy before, or any other Tex Avery cartoons?” And I would answer…maybe. They can sometimes show up here and there on CN, but long gone are the days where you could catch this brilliance every Saturday morning. I feel like it’s a bit like a vitamin they no longer get in their daily diet, and I have to give them this supplement to survive culturally.
Am I alone? Does anyone else miss it? I have to think that many of you are far to young to even know what you’re missing, and that makes me equally as sad. With Cartoon Network going down the road of more live action and less animation, I feel like it is only going to get worse, and this pop-art form will be relegated to further extinction and obscurity.
I completely agree. I’m 25 and I remember the first time they finally added cartoon network to my cable at home and I could watch jetsons, flintstones, scooby doo, along with many others that I remember from my early childhood. it seems like cartoon network is going the ways of mtv and not really playing what they are described to be anymore. I rarely watch cartoon network anymore and this is not because I don’t like cartoons anymore but even shows like dexters lab and courage the cowardly dog are rarely played there.
sad.
Not sure if anyone below mentioned this but Boomerang is not what Cartoon network was when it first started. I believe they spawned the chan Boomerang to air all the old shows where CN is for new stuff
I miss it too, Scott. And yes, I am 24, so by your standards, probably far too young. Although I find one of the best ways to kill an hour of your boring day at work is to watch the youtube mashups of Cartoon openings from the 80′s and 90′s. See what I can remember watching.
Oh, “Darn Kids today” Get off my lawn! Durrnit!”
I totally agree, although I am a few years younger than you I know exactly what you mean. Luckily “Boomerang” is a great cartoon network on cable TV that helps me relive the cartoons I loved as a child.
My 3 y.o. daughter (4 on the 21st of this month) has been introduced to Smurfs, Tom and Jerry, and recently Scooby Doo. I have to admit I wasn’t a huge Smurfs or Scooby Doo fan, however they are classic cartoons and my daughter LOVES them. She watches Smurfs almost nightly when she goes to bed.
I loved Dungeons & Dragons, Voltron, Transformers, GI Joe and other action animation myself. But I agree… where have all the good toons gone?
OMG…it’s been ages since I’ve seen a Droopy cartoon. I normally take a round of Tom and Jerry cartoons (pre-60′s) to fullfil the urge…although, they are a little more mainstream than Droopy. ^^
This has been nagging at me for some time. I’m 37 and our first child is due literally any minute now. One of my greatest regrets for her is that she’ll never know the true joy of Saturday Morning, a time when you could only see most cartoons. Now that you can find cartoons on tv any time of the day or night, it’s magic is kind of gone. So I’m hoping to stockpile old Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, etc and try to recreate a Saturday morning tradition when she’s old enough.
Another thing that’s lost these days is the magic of Christmas specials. Before VCR’s, you really looked forward to watching The Grinch, Rudolph and Frosty every year. It was an event. You knew this was your only shot to see it each year. This is also why I’m going to be pretty strict about no Christmas special watching other than between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong, I think we’re better off with home video, etc, but it’s a real shame that specialness is probably gone forever.
Brother you nailed it! I too am 37 yrs old with a 6 mnth girl and I had thad very thought of getting a collection of all the cartoons I used to watch and re-create Sat mornings with her, cereal and all. The cartoons now on Sat don’t have any personality just the same kind of thing. I also agree with the Christmas specials, maybe because we’re older and the magic has rubbed off a little.
You are not alone. Though for me, I’ve been collecting up Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe and Voltron. By far Thundercats, on revisiting, was the most well done of that line up. It could have something to do with being Rankin Bass, but even my wife enjoyed watching every episode with me, in fact we looked forward to Thundercats time.
It’s great to queue up a DVD and eat a big breakfast watching cartoons Saturday morning!
Are you kidding? Who doesn´t miss the awesome Tex Avery cartoons?
Scott, I totally agree with you. Saturday morning cartoons now pale in comparison to the cartoons I grew up with in the 70s. (Yeah, I got almost 5 years on ya!) Bugs Bunny and Friends, Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, the Super Friends and even The Pink Panther were among my favorites. Now it’s all CGI and commercial driven and horrible.
I think you have the right approach. Get all the classics on DVD and then program your own Saturday morning playlists. The added bonus of avoiding the commercials!!
I was born in the “bittersweet-spot”: the SatAM cartoon institution was dying as I was entering the teen years, so I didn’t notice it as much as I would have if I were born five years sooner (or later).
I’m not a huge Tex Avery fan—the guy was an animation legend, it’s just that the stories aren’t really my thing. (I guess I’m more of a Chuck Jones fan in that respect.)
We’ve got G.I. Joe and Transformers eps on DVD, and thanks to Hulu we can watch Astro Boy, Speed Racer, He-Man, She-Ra, Rocky & Bullwinkle and even Fat Albert. We’ve got older stuff in our collection, too: Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts from the late 1920′s, Popeye ‘toons from the 1940s, Davey & Goliath from the ’60s; stuff that would have popped up here and there in the ’80s if you knew where to look. Our kids (ages 6 and 3) love it all.
So I totally get what you’re saying. When we watch those shows with our kids now, it’s like taking them to the town I grew up in, but the old Revco drug store where I used to get my comic books was long ago turned into a Dollar Store… the local bank got bought by a larger one that doesn’t hand out lollipops to the kids… and the small town feeling is being choked to death by the McDonald’s and Burger King built right beside each other on the same side of the town’s brand-new 2nd traffic light.
Dude, now I’ve got a craving for some Fruity Pebbles.
Ahh… for me, no Saturday was complete without a couple hours of Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and Smurfs. And if anyone from the east coast remembers… what would we have done with “Commander Tom”?
My child will not reach the age of 12 without having enjoyed the following with me on Saturday mornings: Dungeons And Dragons, The Real Ghostbusters, Bugs Bunny, Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, and so on.
D&D ftw! Nobody handles a lightning bow like Hank did….He could shoot switches with it, along with snaring and trapping ppl with it. Oh…wait a minute…there was something he didn’t know how to use with that bow. He did know how to actually kill mobs with it. lol.
I miss the days of old cartoons. Mainly all the Tex Avery stuff, the Looney Toons, and even some of the classic Disney animations. I think there’s a VHS at the house that has the 50 greatest cartoons ever, but I think it’s borked beyond repair
Tex Avery, and pretty much every cartoon made before 1950 has already been seen by my 5 year old… NOT because “cartoons are for kids”, but because great cartoons are awesome for everyone, so why wait!
I’m the biggest fan there is of quality cell animation. Some day there will be a resurgence. Some day soon I hope.
I miss Saturday mornings as well. I was just thinking this the other day that Saturday mornings are not what the once were.
I use to make sure I was up in time to what XMen and a few others which I listed below.
Cartoons I recall watching
Monchhichi
Gummie Bears
Xmen
Gi Joe (This was always on before I went to school)
Thundercats
Voltron
Original Power Rangers (I know not cartoon but close enough )
Jem (my sister made me watch it really)
Centurions
Heman
Transformers
Scooby Doo
Smurfs
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Snorks
Spiderman
Shirt tales
The Real Ghostbusters
Pound Puppies
Pole Position
Paw Paw Bears (I loved this and don’t know why)
Pac-man
My Little Pony (Don’t ask)
GoBots
Fraggle Rock
Duck Tales
Cpt Planet
I’m sure there are more but can’t think of them right now
“50/50 share and share alike”
i loved droopy as a kid and I’m kinda young. (23)
How is it other people my age have missed out on this stuff? Congrats to everyone with kids who shows them this stuff.
My kids don’t even grasp the concept that cartoons were not available 24/7 like they are now. I was right there with you on Saturday mornings. Not to mention local programming that brought us cartoons before and after school through the week. But still, times were very limited when you could enjoy the works of Tex Avery and the like.
Droopy, Roadrunner and of course Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny.
We used to watch a weekly half-hour show dedicated to cartoons like that (it also had kids trying to imitate either roadrunner or donald duck)
*meep* *meep*
That was the good stuff unlike todays’ shows which appear to be linked to some kind of Pokemon-clone toy-series.
I agree …. you also should recall the glory days of the cartoons that came on right after you got home from school, you know the ones that kept homework from getting done…. Ducktales – Rescue Rangers – Darkwing Duck – Talespin
I couldn’t wait for that primetime special sometime in August that would highlight all of the new season’s Saturday morning cartoons. I used to get so excited to see some of my favorites come back, or catch a glimpse of what I told my parents would be the show “I just can’t miss!!!”
I do miss those days of Hong Kong Phooey, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, The Herculoids, Batman, Speed Buggy, Scooby Doo.
Now I have to start looking for them.
Saturdays made cartoons feel special, and gave you something to look forward to. The busy working man had weekends to rest, the busy school child had the weekend to watch cool cartoons.
Nowadays it feels like “overdose” to borrow your vitamin analogy.
Scott, you are the man! that is so Great that you will do that with your kids! that kind of “useless” down-time woth your kids is what I grew up on!….Bugs was always my fav (“Looney toons”) with the awsome “bth-bth-bht-thats all folks!”-Porky Pig at the end….oh how I miss them Sat. mornings!!!!!!
I am 29 and fully remember making my mom get the milk out of the fridge so I could eat peanut butter Captain Crunch while I watched a screen full of anvils, woodpeckers, and Orange cats with stripes. I miss so many of the mid eighties cartoons. Merry Melodies, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Droopy, Scooby Doo, G.I. Joe, Bugs Bunny and friends, Tom and Jerry, The SMurfs, Snorks, oh I could go on forever. What happened to the good Cartoons, I have a 9 year old god son and he told me on the phone he was watching Transformers so I drove over to watch with him. I was horrified by how these mutants of my childhood were drawn. The whole time I watched I just kept thinking of the Night Elves from world of warcraft. Then at the end there wasn’t a friendly tip where the Autobot’s stop a kid from smoking crack or anything like that. Do any of you remember the little lessons that were learned from Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, and Transformers? No wonder this new generation is 10 times more likely to do drugs the cartoons aren’t teaching them anything except how to speak spanish.
Born in 77 I miss my saturday morning cartoons as well, all the ones that are mentioned before this post! I usually watched the Tex Avery and Looney Toons in the morning before school and then after school there was some awesome cartoons as well! I miss my Galaxy Rangers!
I`m 17 and I still remember a bit of droopy. I miss the old cartoon network,it had the likes of dexters lab,cow and chicken,courage the cowardly dog the list goes on. Thankfully boomerang shows some of those shows now.
Along with so many others, I truly miss this institution of childhood. It’s funny that you would have this post yesterday, as I woke up happy and enthused because “Gosh Darnit! I am watching some Saturday Morning Cartoons!” I then promptly sat down and watched some of my Animanicas DVDs. SO happy I got those.
My wife and I (24 and 26 respectively) have commented countless times that we miss SMC and have tried to recreate it with our DVDs, but in the end it’s not the same. I do miss this time-honored tradition of our generations.
Voltron was 4:30pm after school. I think GI Joe was 4:00.
I miss Starblazers. 7:00am mornings before school.
This post and all these comments have brought back so many memories. Thanks Scott!!!!
We are at the soultrain of the saturday afternoon. But unlike those days gone by where we can say next weekend… we are stuck with soultrain forever… /cry
I agree completely… as a 36 year old, I remember watching Voltron, Thundercats, Looney Tunes, etc.
Beware my impending over-generalization here: I believe with all my heart that half the reason the younger generations are failing is because they didn’t have Schoolhouse Rock like my generation did.
I’m 20 now and i also miss the old cartoons on weekends..
Sponge Bob is the only cartoon that is kinda like the old ones.. everytime i watch it it reminds me of ren and stimpy.
Totally brings back memories! Kids cartoons these days so politically correct. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the cartoons back then were so much better than they are now. Just watch any Tex Avery classic and you’ll see what I mean! Any of the old “Classics” that they show now have been altered so much that they seem like a totally different cartoon. Gimme back the good ‘ol Bugs Bunny/Road Runner show, Voltron, Star Blazers, He-Man, D&D, Transformers, GI Joe, Droopy…
ah the good old days. i am 29 now and i remember when i was growing up saturday morning being guled to the tv untill about noon watching all the great cartoons, weekdays i would watch the toons on fox before i went to school and watching them when i got home and did my homework. i know there not cartoons but i really looked forward all week to abc’s tgif line up as well.
Being 34 with a 5 year old son, I feel the same as you. Saturday morning was something special when I was my son’s age. There were NO cartoons during the week. But Saturday mornings you had all the major stations devoted to cartoons until 11AM or Noon. I find it hard to believe that it’s next to impossible to find Bugs Bunny on the air anymore. CN at least still shows some Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo at oddball hours, but that’s about it for the classics. No Jetsons, Flintstones, Space Ghost, Herculoids, etc.
Similar to this, is it just me that is saddened to think that the kids of today will never know the joy of walking into a video game arcade? Who remembers Aladdin’s Castle back in the day? 100+ gaming cabinets and a wall of sound to greet you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Xbox 360… but an arcade could entertain you even if you had no quarters to spend.
Ahh, I miss those days of setting the alarm clock just so I could get up in time to catch The Herculoids, and Superfriends.
Kids growing up today with the 24 hour cartoon channels will never know the pure joy of what used to be Saturday morning.
I’m only 18 and I already miss saturday morning cartoons. I grew up in the 90′s amidst so many superheroes ranging from the Batman and Superman Animated series to Darkwing Duck and many more. Not to mention, in so far as Batman/Superman, there was actual violence on TV *gasp*. But I feel it gave kids a sense of justice that no one seems to have anymore. Anyway I could go on for a while but I won’t.
You do know they don’t show those saturday morning cartoons anymore because it turns people into well… You and me. And do you really want to be 60 and have people like us running the world?
Oh and it was Novastar, Heman, She-ra, Bugs Bunny and a big jar of peanut butter and a spoon.
I didn’t have saturday morning cartoons, mostly because I only had a couple channels and they started at 4:00pm (meaning cartoons were shown when I was on school and only could saw them on weekends)
But I agree, some of the old cartoons are just timeless… My favorites being Looney Toons and the Tex Avery’s Show.
I grew up with the late 80′s cartoons and early 90′s as well. With all the animation that came out then, I still have to say that the absolute best cartoons are the oldies. They transcend time, and I think all children should have the opportunity to watch them. Sure, Transformers and G.I. Joe will always be loved by me, but down the road, it’s stuff like Loony Toons, Tom and Jerry, and just about anything else from that era that my kids would truly enjoy.
For the rest of my life, 10:00 a.m. on Saturdays will be known as X-Men Time.
Also, maybe it’s just from growing up in the ’90s, but I consider Batman: The Animated Series as the definitive Batman experience (outside of the comics). “Heart of Ice” FTW.
Just like the old-timers today missed their morning radio shows. It’s all nostalgia, making it seem better than it really was. I have that feeling with the N64 Zelda games (specifically Ocarina of Time), since I grew up as a kid with games like that and Mario 64 (I was born in 92).
But yeah, the mind can trick you like that.
Thank you who ever listed Starblazers because I have been trying to think of the name of that cartoon for almost 15 years and have failed. Thank you so much.
There was a post on Metafilter yesterday you might like, Tex Avery: a Documentary