I remember growing up in South Carolina watching cartoons from 2pm-6pm on Fox back in the early 90s. Im wondering what happen to Thundercats, Duck Tales, Gummy Bears, Tale Spin and Darkwing Duck??? FOX always had the best cartoons in the afternoons and NBC had the best Saturday mornings when I was growing up. I would love to watch those toons nowadays.
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Classic Cartoons
- Thread starter ShawtyBlack_ATL
- Start date
ShawtyBlack_ATL said:
This just goes to show how perspectives differ. I'm not THAT old, yet the title of your post led me to believe that this would be about Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tom and Jerry (the good ones), etc. They used to be everywhere and have evaporated from television in the last 10 years.
Those that you listed aren't that old and should be out on DVD somewhere.
I think this should lead to a bigger question:
There are a lot of cartoon series out there, and many haven't been aired in quite a long time, some since their initial runs completed.
I'm a child of the 1980s and I grew up on programs of that era, such The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Heathcliff (and the Catillac Cats), Voltron, and Muppet Babies (to name a few), and the old-school classics like Looney Tunes, Popeye, The Pink Panther, and my all-time favorite, Tom and Jerry. However, I'm not too old to have enjoyed some early-90s stuff (The Disney Afternoon and Tiny Toon Adventures immediately come to mind).
But, for various unknown reasons, many "classic" shows rarely get to see the light of day. Pray tell, when was the last time you saw Dennis the Menace (which is now on Boomerang, at least for the moment)? Or Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, and Pinky and the Brain? The first couple of seasons of Garfield and Friends are, in my opinion, just as funny as anything I've seen on Family Guy, but that isn't even on right now. And please don't tell me that the anime crap (Pokemon, etc.) is better than Robotech, Thundercats, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and Battle of the Planets. Forgive me if I missed a few titles.
Today's cartoons, for the most part, are inferior to what was done 15 to 20 years ago. There should be a place for those programs on the airwaves.
There are a lot of cartoon series out there, and many haven't been aired in quite a long time, some since their initial runs completed.
I'm a child of the 1980s and I grew up on programs of that era, such The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Heathcliff (and the Catillac Cats), Voltron, and Muppet Babies (to name a few), and the old-school classics like Looney Tunes, Popeye, The Pink Panther, and my all-time favorite, Tom and Jerry. However, I'm not too old to have enjoyed some early-90s stuff (The Disney Afternoon and Tiny Toon Adventures immediately come to mind).
But, for various unknown reasons, many "classic" shows rarely get to see the light of day. Pray tell, when was the last time you saw Dennis the Menace (which is now on Boomerang, at least for the moment)? Or Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, and Pinky and the Brain? The first couple of seasons of Garfield and Friends are, in my opinion, just as funny as anything I've seen on Family Guy, but that isn't even on right now. And please don't tell me that the anime crap (Pokemon, etc.) is better than Robotech, Thundercats, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and Battle of the Planets. Forgive me if I missed a few titles.
Today's cartoons, for the most part, are inferior to what was done 15 to 20 years ago. There should be a place for those programs on the airwaves.
ShawtyBlack_ATL said:
A minor correction -- while those may have aired on your local Fox affiliate, none of those cartoons came from the Fox network. They were all syndicated, mostly (with the exception of the Thundercats) as part of the Disney afternoon block.
But you're right that it doesn't seem that old cartoons get a lot of distribution anymore -- going back in time, the old theatrical shorts (Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Tom & Jerry) literally were ran on television for decades, and some of the early TV cartoons (Flinstones, Yogi Bear, Bullwinkle) ran regularly for a couple decades. In contrast, the stuff from the eighties and nineties seems to have mostly disappeared, even though some of those shows were pretty well done.
landtuna said:
You can't really blame Hanna Barbara for the past twenty years or so, because HB has long ceased to exist as a separate entity, since it was folded into Warner Brothers animation division shortly after Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting.
And while Hanna Barbara at its peak produced some real crap ("Help, It's the Hair Bear Bunch", anyone?), it also did give us some real classics ("The Flinstones" and the original "Scooby Doo, Where are You?" come to mind as examples).
I tend to blame the rise of the cable TV children's networks for the descent of TV animation -- instead of filling a couple hours a day, they need to find enough programming to fill twelve hours or more. While a few strong programs have come off of these networks, ultimately, quantity wins out over quality.
landtuna said:
Hanna Barbera may have made some flops, they have made plenty of successful cartoons, and I I could watch most of Hanna Barbera cartoons anyday over most of what's created today. Sonic X might be the only cartoon I could watch today. I don't care as much for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I'm 36 years old, but I do enjoy watching cartoons. It's unfortunate that except for mandated E/I programming on weekends (or if a station has it during the week), that cartoons aimed at children isn't profitable. NBC was the first to get rid of it, and wanted to get away from childrens programming. CBS followed too. ABC stuck with childrens programming on Saturdays (at least in Chicago).
Regardless, while Hanna Barbera ran the company, they had many great cartoons. What few cartoons were created by the Hanna Barbera company after they were sold have been crap in my opinion. I'm glad they created their own company to make cartoons, or we wouldn't have all of the classics that we know of, like The Smurfs, Gummy Bears, Tom & Jerry (though the bulk was still produced by MGM beyond the creation of Hanna Barbera Productions), Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear & Boo Boo, and Scooby Doo to name a few.
Rollo-Smokes said:
The problem with anime is that it was made for a Japanese audience, not for an American audience. So when a company decides to bring a show over to America, it has to be dubbed in English which usually ends with mixed results. Then it has to be edited for content so it can air on morning American television without upsetting the parental groups. At that point is when it turns into crap. Some anime, even without being dubbed or edited, is still crappy.
I think the problem with today's American cartoons is that there's not a middle ground for a general audience. You have shows which are too childish for one group or too adult for another.
BlueWanderer said:
One of the last exceptions to this otherwise very accurate statement is Spongebob Squarepants. I know that a lot of you may not like it, but it actually is a very clever show that appeals to kids on one level and adults on another. That is a very rare thing these days, even though it was once very common in animation.
When it comes to animation, by the way, the Disney networks are the most irksome of all. Do you think they EVER show any of the hundreds of classic Walt Disney shorts that originally introduced us to the characters? Donald Duck shorts? Mickey? Huey, Duey and Luey? NO, NEVER. Some of the greatest animation work ever done on 8 minute shorts is totally ignored, relegated to a dusty basement somewhere. Instead, they offer up this sterile CGI animation with lame-o voice work. Ever get stuck watching Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse? I have with my toddler and it's absolute dreck; just horrible stuff. Old Walt must be rolling in his grave to see what's been done to the artistry at his shop.
Dave said:
Dave, the Gummi Bears was a Disney production -- and a pretty good one at that. Perhaps you meant to say Paw Paw Bears (from The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera) or -- gasp! -- The C.B. Bears. And H-B was only partially responsible for The Smurfs, which may have been their last (and NBC's next-to-last) big Saturday morning hit.
I will add to my comments from a couple of days ago: You can blame the networks and the production companies for less-than-inventive programming, such as following the latest trend or hot primetime star to build a series around (The Gary Coleman Show, It's Punky Brewster, ALFTales, Kid 'N Play, ProStars, Hammerman, or New Kids on the Block anyone?), you can blame cable for today's oversaturation, and you can blame the FCC for the over-regulation which eventually led to the E/I rules that got the networks and stations out of kid's programming for the most part.
But, unless there's some licensing rights issues involved (and there may be a lot that we don't know about), there's no reason why Dungeons & Dragons, for example, has rarely been seen since its original run on CBS ended more than 20 years ago. Yet, mindless drivel such as Power Rangers and Yu-Gi-Oh! continues to run in some form.
Rollo-Smokes said:
Thanks for correcting me on the Gummi Bears. I thought it was a Hanna Barbera cartoon, but now remember it was a Disney cartoon that aired on NBC. ALFTales, Punky Brewster, Smurfs, and some others that I can't think of were NBC cartoons. New Kids On The Block, Hammertime, and I believe Kid 'N Play were ABC cartoons. ABC also aired a lot of Loony Toons cartoon prior to Walt Disney buying ABC. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Garfield & Friends were on CBS. The Smurfs was created by Peyo, but Hanna Barbera got the US rights to make the cartoon strip into a cartoon series. Now one cartoon that WPWR used to air in the 80's, but was made in either the 50's or 60's was Krazy Kat. I remember watching that a lot. That hasn't aired anywhere that I know of since the 80's.I don't even see George of the Jungle (the 60's version).
I hate the E/I restrictions, but if they didn't exist there would probably be no Saturday morning kid's shows on network TV left. Saturday mornings would probably be filled with news and sports (at best) or more trash talk and infomercials (at the worst.) Fox is a perfect example. They dropped their kid's shows and replaced them with infomercials, and are leaving the local stations to fill the E/I requirements for themselves.
More choices in cable (good and bad) have made it where Saturday mornings are nothing special to kids now.
More choices in cable (good and bad) have made it where Saturday mornings are nothing special to kids now.
Rollo-Smokes said:
ixnay said:
I should have specified that The Smurfs was NBC's next-to-last big animated hit show. Alvin and the Chimpunks was the other.
And no, I don't count live-action programs. Saved by the Bell was nothing better than a live cartoon, but we know what its success led to at NBC...
I remember the cartoons on NBC. I used to watch Gummi Bears, Alivn and The Chipmunks, Yo! Yogi, and Super Mario World. On CBS I used to watch Muppet Babies,Garfield and Friends., Pee-Wees Playhouse, and Beethoven. On ABC I liked Free Willy, Flintstone Kids, A pup named Scooby Doo, and The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show. (Channel 8 in New Haven, CT had to ruin it. The last years ABC ran Bugs Bunny and Tweety they moved it to to 6AM. There was no way I was gonna get up at 6AM on a Saturday to watch Bugs Bunny).
The ABC Kids Block was schedule 8AM-1PM. Channel 8 cleared it 8AM-1030AM and 530AM-730AM. The 1230PM show they didn't clear i.e. that animated judge show with Paula Poundstone. My mom used to drag me to TAG SALES on Saturdays. Sometimes in the car I'd be able to pick up ABC-6 from Providence on 87.7 so while she was at the tag sales I'd be in the car listening to The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show.
Meanwhile Cartoon Network has brought back Looney Tunes. And they still show TOM & Jerry and (on occassion) Scooby Doo Where are you. There is a new CGI-animated show on Cartoon Network called The Garfield Show, but it's not the same as Garfield and Friends.
The ABC Kids Block was schedule 8AM-1PM. Channel 8 cleared it 8AM-1030AM and 530AM-730AM. The 1230PM show they didn't clear i.e. that animated judge show with Paula Poundstone. My mom used to drag me to TAG SALES on Saturdays. Sometimes in the car I'd be able to pick up ABC-6 from Providence on 87.7 so while she was at the tag sales I'd be in the car listening to The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show.
Meanwhile Cartoon Network has brought back Looney Tunes. And they still show TOM & Jerry and (on occassion) Scooby Doo Where are you. There is a new CGI-animated show on Cartoon Network called The Garfield Show, but it's not the same as Garfield and Friends.
I had the opportunity to listen to "The Bugs Bunny And Tweety Show"
on WJBF/6 Augusta, GA (Ch. 6 in analog days was at 87.7 FM, which is
how you picked it up on WLNE), and it was a weird experience.
WSB did the same thing WTNH did; running it at 6 AM. They'd put
something like "Star Search" or "Baywatch" at 11 AM. Fortunately,
I lived in Greenville, SC, where Bugs came on at 11, but I guarantee
that if WXIA had still been the ABC affiliate in Atlanta he would have
aired in pattern (they ran "Saved By The Bell" at that time).
on WJBF/6 Augusta, GA (Ch. 6 in analog days was at 87.7 FM, which is
how you picked it up on WLNE), and it was a weird experience.
WSB did the same thing WTNH did; running it at 6 AM. They'd put
something like "Star Search" or "Baywatch" at 11 AM. Fortunately,
I lived in Greenville, SC, where Bugs came on at 11, but I guarantee
that if WXIA had still been the ABC affiliate in Atlanta he would have
aired in pattern (they ran "Saved By The Bell" at that time).
Rollo-Smokes said:
You can blame the regulation -- but it really isn't accurate.
The E/I rules and limits on advertising time went into effect very early in the nineties, and yet the broadcast children's TV market remained very healthy for most of the following decade -- with successful weekday kids blocks on Fox and the WB, along with the syndicated "Disney Afternoon".
There are aspects of that regulation that I don't agree with (notably, the lower ad limit for weekend shows versus weekday shows), but there's no evidence that those regulations hurt the broadcast children's TV business.
What did hurt it was twofold: the increasing emphasis by Fox stations on morning and evening news, which made the Fox Kids programming increasingly irrelevant for those stations, and the migration of children's advertisers over to cable TV networks.
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