The Disappearance of Saturday Morning 838
Ant writes "Saturday morning no longer means kids in front of TV sets across the country, glued to the latest in hip cartoons. Why? Gerard Raiti investigates the death of an era." As a former Saturday morning TV addict, this doesn't seem like a bad thing to me.
I remember saturday mornings (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I used to love Saturday morning cartoons... (Score:5, Funny)
Now I think I that the cartoons are boring and the Christian Evangelists are hilarious.
Re:I remember saturday mornings (Score:0, Funny)
FARK to Slashdot transmission time... (Score:5, Funny)
That, of course, is for the initial Slashdot article, not when they repeat it again three hours from now.
And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!
Re:A bad thing? (Score:2, Funny)
fond memories... (Score:5, Funny)
Course, these days, I don't think I'veseen a Saturday morning in a few years, unles you count the time between Friday at midnight and when I crawl into bed.
Alright!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Gaps in the text? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Close (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I remember saturday mornings (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I remember saturday mornings (Score:5, Funny)
Hot Patootie (Score:4, Funny)
Don't tell Meatloaf or Richard O'Brian
njordRe:I used to love Saturday morning cartoons... (Score:5, Funny)
Then the university programs would come on for one or two half-hour shows. There'd be lectures on dinosaurs, chemistry, ancient art, archeology, religion, Egyptian architectures, etc...
Then, if I remember correctly, Scooby-Doo would start off the morning line up (the real Scooby-Doo, not that new-age Scrappy crap, and DON'T get me started on Gadzookie...).
Superfriends, Laugh Olympics, and of course the classic Schoolhouse Rock fill-ins...conjunction junction, what's your function?
I never really liked the Smurfs; guess I was starting to outgrow cartoons then. But I never missed an episode of Dungeons and Dragons. Always wanted that bow...
Back then, shows were real. Now we've got Artifical T.V. ... my wife says that Jenna won.
Re:A new Era (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Remember nothing (Score:3, Funny)
No pinky and the brain (Score:4, Funny)
kids grow up too quick (Score:5, Funny)
Their role models - Eminem and Christina Aguilera, Brittney, Holly Valance etc. You get the picture.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about classic cartoons? (Score:1, Funny)
I can do the math. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I used to love Saturday morning cartoons... (Score:5, Funny)
(singing)
I'm an amendment to be, yes an amendment to be, and I'm hopin' that they'll ratify me. There's a lot of flag burners who have got too much freedom. I wanna make it legal for policemen to beat 'em, cause there's limits to our liberties. 'Least I hope and pray that there are, 'cause those liberal freaks go too far.
kid: Well why can't we just make a law against flag burning?
Amendment: Because that law would be unconstitutional.
But if we changed the Constitution...
kid: Then we could make all sorts of crazy laws!
Amendment: Now you're catching on!
Kid: What if people say you're not good enough to be in the Constitution?
Amendment (singing): Then I'll crush all opposition to me, and I'll make Ted Kennedy pay. If he fights back, I'll say that he's gay.
Congressman: Good news, Amendment! They ratified ya! You're in the U.S. Constitution.
Amendment: Oh yeah! Door's open, boys.
It's like what happened to The Jetsons (Score:2, Funny)
I'm going to go back to work pushing this button now...
Re:What about classic cartoons? (Score:4, Funny)
Wile E. Coyote, Software Genius.
Then again, they say that humor is just a small twist on mundane every-day life. Coyote as a programmer wouldn't be that far from real programmers. Just like real programmers, he'd be sure every one of his "creations" was a work of art, and expect it to work without adequate testing.
-Paul Komarek
Re:Dragon Ball Z. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What about classic cartoons? (Score:2, Funny)
It's all Japanese crap now. They're not even trying to make it appear to be anything but cheap Anime ripoffs. Where are my classic Transformers and G.I. Joe? Cartoon Network seems to show one episode a week of G.I. Joe... that's just not acceptable. Someone needs to put it on every day so kids can understand, like adults do, why it's important for the United States to fight the power of evil rogue forces like Cobra (i.e. Al Qaeda!!! DUH!). Without G.I. Joe (the American military) the forces of Cobra will rule the world! I will truly be saddened if all my children have to look forward to are Pokemon reruns in between Power Rangers. Kids today remind me of the Southpark characters being brainwashed over the Chimpokomon stuff by the Japanese.
Some would say (Score:1, Funny)
That's All Folks!
it's a conspiracy (Score:3, Funny)
since it was long ago discovered that kids that watch too much TV are less intelligent and less respectful of their elders than quiet kids that read books, the PTAARP quetly infiltrated the american television indistry, specifically the animation production companies, planting ever increasingly insipid, politically correct and above all boring show concepts into the project pipelines. high-level PTAARP sympathizers at the networks green-lit these projects, diluting the quality of child-oriented televised animation and quietly killing off the spirit of america's cartoon-watching youth.
not being the brightest of the teachers and retirees out there (that segment of the PTAARP already having been recruited by the government for thought-control experiments and school-lunch programs) the plan actually backfired somewhat. rather than turn off the TV and read books, or go outside and enjoy nature on saturday mornings, america's youth adapted to and came to accept the new, milquetoast offerings. rather than breeding a more intelligent, more fit generation of americans, the program instead has been turning out americans more and more accepting of establishment, and less likely to change their habits to conform with a changing enviroment.
some have said that the program was subverted from within by a splinter group of the Young Republicans to just this end
meanwhile, the writers of decent cartoons have abandoned the youth market and instead targeted adults, to the benefit of the growing adult cartoon market, a short-lived market segment, not only because these are the last generation of adults who grew up with quality youth-oriented cartoons, but also because they still spend their leisure time on a couch watching TV instead of exercizing.