Will cartoons will ever be syndicated again?

[nomadcowatbk]

You probably also wish Nick@Nite would still air B&W white shows like Mr Ed and My Three Sons.

Not necessarily. I couldn't care less what Nick at Nite airs. Besides, classic TV is much more accessible today than it was twenty years ago, thanks to digital television.

Cable killed kids shows on OTA TV, not E/I mandates. Without E/I mandates, they'd just put on more infomercials. They worked around the E/I before cable really took over.

So it's your opinion that even without the E/I mandate, kids' shows would still be solely Nickelodeon/Disney Channel/Cartoon Network properties? Before posting, I'd considered that the growing cable market might have had more to do with the erosion of children's television than the E/I mandate, but I'm still not convinced. I remember NBC dropped their Saturday morning lineup as early as 1992 for The Today Show, but that was two years after the act passed. They probably saw the writing on the wall.

NBC thought they could make more $ with news and Saved by the Bell. Saved by the Bell also qualifies as E/I programming.

 

[TexasTom]

NBC thought they could make more $ with news and Saved by the Bell. Saved by the Bell also qualifies as E/I programming.

Exactly so.

But it's a hopeless argument to convince some folks that the Children's Television Act and E/I mandate had nothing to do with the demise of children's television on OTA stations -- apparently there are some people who just want to believe that it was the big bad government (or the well-intentioned but misguided government) that has caused the current state of affairs. Never mind the fact that the OTA children's business continued to do well for almost a decade after those mandates were in effect. And that the WB and it's once successful kid-TV business didn't even come into existence until several years after the Children's Television Act was in effect.

Or, for that matter, that it's been true for decades that advertisers will pay more for adult audiences than kids audiences. (Back in the mid-seventies, it was something like $1.50 per thousand households for kids shows, and $4 per thousand households for adult audiences.) So when morning news programs started showing respectable ratings, it was only a matter of time before stations with any sort of news identity would dump the kids programming in favor or more news.

When NBC dumped their old style Saturday morning schedule of cartoons, they were in fourth place and decided that competing against Fox just wasn't worth it.

But, hey, rather than admit that it's complicated, it's easier for some to just blame the government.

 

[Mario500]

The Children's Television Act and the educational and informative programming rules were among several reasons for why NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX no longer program traditional Saturday morning programming blocks. The business became more complicated and the broadcasters lost hope while others managed be survive with their traditional programming.

The legislators who supported the act may have had good intentions, but their act was unnecessary when there was more than enough educational and informative programming all ready. The federal government is better off dealing with the technical issues for broadcasters rather than content issues.

 

[visaman]

The days of the '80s are gone...

-crainbebo

Not to mention the late 60's and early 70's.

KIRO had J.P. Patches
KVOS had Frisky Frolics and Fun 'O Rama
CBUT had Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant, Bugs Bunny & The Road Runner (on Saturdays)
KCTS had Zoom, Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Electric Company

The Sunday Morning kid shows and cartoons were weird, but still there.

 

[visaman]

The days of the '80s are gone...

-crainbebo

Not to mention the late 60's and early 70's.
CBUT had Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant, Bugs Bunny & The Road Runner (on Saturdays)
KIRO had J.P. Patches
CHAN had Pete's Place
KCTS had Zoom, Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Electric Company
KVOS had Frisky Frolics and Fun 'O Rama

The Sunday Morning kid shows and cartoons were weird, but still there.

 

[AKA]

Exactly so.

But it's a hopeless argument to convince some folks that the Children's Television Act and E/I mandate had nothing to do with the demise of children's television on OTA stations -- apparently there are some people who just want to believe that it was the big bad government (or the well-intentioned but misguided government) that has caused the current state of affairs. Never mind the fact that the OTA children's business continued to do well for almost a decade after those mandates were in effect. And that the WB and it's once successful kid-TV business didn't even come into existence until several years after the Children's Television Act was in effect.

Or, for that matter, that it's been true for decades that advertisers will pay more for adult audiences than kids audiences. (Back in the mid-seventies, it was something like $1.50 per thousand households for kids shows, and $4 per thousand households for adult audiences.) So when morning news programs started showing respectable ratings, it was only a matter of time before stations with any sort of news identity would dump the kids programming in favor or more news.

When NBC dumped their old style Saturday morning schedule of cartoons, they were in fourth place and decided that competing against Fox just wasn't worth it.

But, hey, rather than admit that it's complicated, it's easier for some to just blame the government.

I'm not sure if I'm the "some people" to whom you're referring, but I'm not delusional. There is no doubt in my mind that the situation is complicated, and that several factors led to the disappearance of children's programming on broadcast television. But it's still my opinion that the Children's Television Act played a huge role.

Yes, the Children's Television Act was passed in 1990, but I don't remember it being enforced until at least the mid-'90s, if not later (I was nine years old when the act passed, and was still watching plenty of kids' shows, none of which carried an "E/I" label on broadcast channels). While it is true that the other networks soldiered on for several years after NBC dropped their cartoons, they also weren't being forced to air "E/I" programming. The traditional Saturday morning cartoons didn't start to disappear on CBS, ABC and Fox until right around the time they were required to air three hours of "educational" programming per week.

Three hours is around 3/5 of what the big three had been allotting to cartoons for several years, so it would stand to reason that the Children's Television Act was a huge blow to that model. After all, I'm sure the affiliates wouldn't have been keen to give an extra three hours of programming to "E/I" stuff, so the existing kids' slots wound up taking the hit.

Of course, the E/I Mandate isn't the big boogie man here. The growing cable industry, for instance, had a lot to do with the switch, as did the ever-evolving advertising model. But I do believe that were it not for the Children's Television Act, we'd still see good, old-fashioned, non-educational, brain-rotting cartoons on over-the-air TV today.

 

[TexasTom]

No, the blow was that they couldn't compete with Fox Kids, The WB Kids, Nick, Disney, etc. Meanwhile, affiliates of the big 3 discovered that they could make far more money on Saturday mornings by running local news instead of network kids shows. Affiliates in sizeable markets started chopping up or completely preempting their network's Saturday morning cartoon schedules.

Compared to those factors, the Children's Television Act was almost certainly just a minor blip.

 

[crainbebo]

This morning I am looking at a bit of the awful "Litton's Weekend Adventure" on ABC. First bad thing is there is no ABC logo, and the second thing is that the ad before coming back to Jeff Corwin was a DIABETES METER ad!!

-crainbebo

 

[Mario500]

Litton's Weekend Adventure is a syndicated programming block distributed by ABC.

 

[TVCOOL]

The CW has saturday morning cartoons (7am - Noon ET/PT).

 

[Dave Andrews]

This morning I am looking at a bit of the awful "Litton's Weekend Adventure" on ABC. First bad thing is there is no ABC logo, and the second thing is that the ad before coming back to Jeff Corwin was a DIABETES METER ad!!

-crainbebo

No ABC logo in the corner? That's a GOOD thing! PLLLEEASE bring back the days when the screen wasn't filled with clutter.

I agree with you on the diabetes meter. That IS a little out of place.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

This morning I am looking at a bit of the awful "Litton's Weekend Adventure" on ABC. First bad thing is there is no ABC logo, and the second thing is that the ad before coming back to Jeff Corwin was a DIABETES METER ad!!

-crainbebo

No ABC logo in the corner? That's a GOOD thing! PLLLEEASE bring back the days when the screen wasn't filled with clutter.

I agree with you on the diabetes meter. That IS a little out of place.

diabetus in kids is increasing

 

[Bob1370]

Either basic or premium cable will be the places where most cartoons are seen from now on, because some of the newer ones (like Spongebob Squarepants) are made specifically for the networks where they air, and others are in the library of channels owned by their original producers--which is why you see Disney cartoons only on the Disney Channel and its affiliates (Disney XD and Disney Junior) and the Warner toons only on Cartoon Network. Increasingly, moreover, the vintage toons are giving way to recently produced or new first-run product. Sometimes it's digital animation with an educational purpose for familiar characters, like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and sometimes it's literally an animated sitcom as in the case of the current Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck series. They're both well-done for what they are and what they're intended to be--though Mickey Mouse Clubhouse wouldn't be out of place in the PBS daytime lineup next to Arthur or Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the current Bugs/Daffy show would fit well in the Fox Sunday primetime animated block next to The Simpsons or Family Guy.

Also, when they do air vintage toons sometimes they repurpose them--case in point, a recent airing of an early 1930s Disney black-and-white toon with a new soundtrack that had Mickey Mouse singing a 2010-vintage Bruno Mars song to Minnie. It actually looked like it was originally filmed that way, it was that well edited and synchronized.

 

[rnigma1]

It's not a cartoon per se, but has CBS syndicated the Little Rascals after it bought King World?

 

[landtuna]

It's not a cartoon per se, but has CBS syndicated the Little Rascals after it bought King World?

I haven't seen Our Gang/Little Rascals on TV for a very long time. There are various releases available on VHS/DVD from Cabin Fever/Hallmark (through Amazon and others). I have the entire sound Roach series as well as some silent episodes and some of the MGM series recorded off cable years ago.

 

[KJBlast2011]

Please US congress please put cartoons back on Fox/MNTV/CW affiliates? Please reconsider?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Please US congress please put cartoons back on Fox/MNTV/CW affiliates? Please reconsider?

if E/I is repealed, expect more infomercials

 

[Tim L]

Please US congress please put cartoons back on Fox/MNTV/CW affiliates? Please reconsider?

First of all, It's not likely that "US Congress" reads our lovely little board and has nothing to do with programming..Second, for the reasons already stated, Cartoons are not coming back to broadcast tv, except on some digital subchannels

 

[Mrtraveler01]

Of course, the E/I Mandate isn't the big boogie man here. The growing cable industry, for instance, had a lot to do with the switch, as did the ever-evolving advertising model. But I do believe that were it not for the Children's Television Act, we'd still see good, old-fashioned, non-educational, brain-rotting cartoons on over-the-air TV today.

Why? What incentive is there for the networks to put all their capital into producing kids shows when they have to compete with cable channels like Disney and Nick.

I mean CBS and ABC outsourced all their kids programming to Nick and Disney respectfully and that didn't work.

The answer is simple. Cable channels that had 24/7 kids programming make things like Saturday morning cartoons obsolete. Not having E/I would've done nothing to stop this trend.

 

[KJBlast2011]

Please US congress please put cartoons back on Fox/MNTV/CW affiliates? Please reconsider?

First of all, It's not likely that "US Congress" reads our lovely little board and has nothing to do with programming..Second, for the reasons already stated, Cartoons are not coming back to broadcast tv, except on some digital subchannels

Cartoons are coming back to broadcast television. Because cartoons are the essence of broadcast television and US Congress will realized what have done 16 Years ago taking kids Programming from broadcst television