That’s all folks! Saturday morning cartoons are no more. According to the Washington Post, the CW was the last American broadcast channel still airing cartoons on Saturday mornings. The network pulled the plug last week. The CW replaced its Saturday cartoon programming with a five-hour non-animated TV bloc called “One Magnificent Morning.” Cartoons dominated Saturday mornings from the 1960s through the 1980s. That started to change in the 1990s when NBC, CBS, and ABC all moved away from cartoons to teen comedies and other programming. Fox replaced their Saturday morning cartoon in 2008 with infomercials. In 1990, Congress enacted the Children’s Television Act (CTA). The Federal Communications Commission established rules requiring broadcast networks to offer at least three hours of educational programming a week between 7 a.m and 10 p.m., identify core programs by displaying the symbol E/I throughout the program, and provide parents and consumers with advance information about core programs and when they are being aired. The FCC also tightened advertising rules during educational programming, making Saturday morning cartoons for broadcast less profitable. Cable networks don’t have to abide by those FCC rules. The broadcast networks just couldn’t compete with cartoon channels on cable and satellite such as Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network that also formed in the 90s. Plus kid’s viewing habits changed, thanks to new technology like DVDs, DVRs and streaming services.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 07:32:38 +0000
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