In a time not so long ago, Saturday mornings were indicative of one and only one pastime for children — watching cartoons. Throughout the '70s and '80s, the broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC dominated the Saturday morning airwaves by inundating children with cartoons. Cartoons on these networks used to earn ratings of more than 20 million viewers. Today, network Saturday morning cartoons only exist on ABC Kids, FOX Kids and Kids’ WB!, the latter two networks either did not exist or did not air cartoons two decades ago. Current successful cartoons on FOX Kids or Kids’ WB! can garner a mere two million viewers. That statistic does not even take into consideration that the population of children in the U.S. has increased by approximately ten percent over the last 20 years. Due to this precipice in viewers, network cartoons are left struggling to make money while advertisers remain befuddled without a mainstream channel to promote new toys and products to children. Why have children stopped tuning in on Saturday mornings to network cartoons and what are the ramifications of this change?
It would partly explain the rise in Japanese Animation in the US with the Sailormoon, Dragonball & Pokemon as its starting point.
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Anonymous2005-08-05 15:01
Cartoons went niche, which is why anime took off.
Toys went downhill in favor of videogames, which means that the cartoons that were trying to sell them got screwed over.
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Anonymous2005-08-05 16:05
Cartoons went niche is an understatement. Like the "What cartoons failed" thread, maybe if the american cartoon industry would stop treating kids like idiots they would get more viewers. Most cartoons are cluttered with bad animation frame rates, horrible voice actors, and bad art in general. Maybe if they tried to go in the direction that Cartoon Network is going (The Batman, Justice League, Anime, Teen Titans, Puffy Ami Yumi, ect) they would get more viewers.
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Anonymous2005-08-05 21:30
re: CN: foster's is FUCKING GOOD CARTOON
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Anonymous2005-08-06 14:50
Teen Titans is retarded. It's drawn by American illustrators who DESPERATELY want to make it anime. But they fail amazingly hard. So then you get all the worst parts of anime and the worst parts of American cartoons and you end up with the huge pile of steaming shit that is Teen Titans.
Well, I have to admit I'm speaking strictly about the art and animation for Teen Titans don't know anything about the writing for Teen Titans.
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Anonymous2005-08-06 18:47
>>6
Yea, and your another Elitist asshole who detests anything out of the norm probly right? And Teen Titans isnt trying to emulate anime, its art style is based heavilly on a single anime, FLCL. Maybe if you managed to watch a few shows you would see that it -does- have pretty damn good animation and pretty damn good voice actors and a pretty damn good storyline. But i guess you cant change your views on it probly.
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sodacat2005-08-07 5:20
>and a pretty damn good storyline.
BZZZZZZT. You're right about the other two accounts, but the plots are very hit-or-miss. They've been getting better in the recent season though.
You are a blind ass fucker than can't tell shit art from your cock. TT looks like total ass because the artists can't fucking draw. Look at Starfire's hair, it looks like it's growing out from the inside of her head; TT is full of amaturish anime-wannabe-artist's mistakes and that's why it gets trashed. And something about how they use sweatdrops and speedlines just feels wrong. So why don't you stop being a stupid retard and watch JLA instead.
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Anonymous2005-09-01 22:26
The difference is probably cable. When there are only a few channels and cartoons are basically run for maybe an hour in the afternoons before I Dream of Jeanie and the evening news came on you're going to watch them when you can. In the last 20 years cartoons went from being something special to something you can watch any old time.
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Anonymous2005-09-02 13:30
Clone Wars is anime according to a George Lucas interview
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Anonymous2005-09-04 3:58
Genndy Tartokovsky is a fucking loser who sucks at directing cartoons
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Anonymous2005-09-04 11:34
>>12
Maybe... But he did something George Lucas couldn't do. Ie: make the prequel storyline vaguely entertaining.
Erm, newsflash dude. Hair, it grows out of your head.
Art is entirely subjective. An example being 99% of the world hating Liefeld's guts, but that last 1% desperately hoping that he'll come out with something that isn't a cheap Spawn rip-off.
Personally, I hate it aswell. But saying it's rather shit without (trying to) back it up with something other than "zomg hair is growing out of her head! this sucks!" is rather pointless, and only exacerbates the general stupidity of comic fans.
it's hard to explain, look at starfire's head. now imagine the shape of her scalp. the way the hair is draw the scalp would be a deformed shape; the hair looks pasted on. just an example of tt's sloppy ass art
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Mario Lombardi2005-09-12 5:45
I loved watching cartoons on saturday morning, but I have to agree that video games took over and the good shows died off in the mean time. Cartoon Network has the right idea because they aren't just subjecting viewers to one form of animation. They have cartoons and anime. While I look foward to ATHF, Futurma, and Family Guy... my brother can watch his Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and FLCL.
I'm collecting retro cartoons on cd/dvd for my (future)children. Nothing compares to eating a fat ass bowl of cereal and watching The Original TMNT with your dad.