Saturday-morning cartoon

"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series and live-action programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a broad peak from the mid-1960s through the mid-2000s; over time it declined, in the face of changing cultural norms, increased competition from formats available at all times, and heavier media regulations.^[1]^[2]^[3] In the final two decades of the genre's existence, Saturday-morning and Sunday-morning cartoons were primarily created and aired to meet regulations on children's television programming in the United States, or E/I. Minor television networks, in addition to the non-commercial PBS in some markets, continue to air animated programming on Saturday and Sunday while partially meeting those mandates.^[4]^[5]

In the United States, the generally accepted times for these and other children's programs to air on Saturday mornings were from 8:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone. Until the late 1970s, American networks also had a schedule of children's programming on Sunday mornings, though most programs at this time were repeats of Saturday-morning shows that were already out of production.^[6]^[7] In some markets, some shows were pre-empted in favor of syndicated or other types of local programming.^[8] Saturday-morning and Sunday-morning cartoons were largely discontinued in Canada by 2002. In the United States, The CW continued to air non-E/I cartoons as late as 2014; among the "Big Three" traditional major networks, the final non-E/I cartoon to date (Kim Possible) was last aired in 2006. Cable television networks have since then revived the practice of debuting their most popular animated programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings on a sporadic basis.

Creative declines and stagnation at the major television animation studios; by the late 1980s, major Saturday-morning producers such as and Filmation had already recycled a limited number of common tropes and poorly developed stock characters numerous times over the previous two decades,^[14] causing viewers to grow bored with the limited options available to them.^[15]

Hanna-Barbera

A late 1980s change in the way were tabulated, switching from passive monitoring to people meters that required viewers to actively confirm they were watching what was on the television; young children, lacking the dexterity or attention span to operate the people meter, had particular difficulty complying, causing a substantial drop in ratings for all children's programming.^[16]^[15]

Nielsen Ratings

The rise of animated programs, which usually had a greater artistic freedom and looser standards than those that ran on a network, and ran on weekday afternoons, instead. These programs included G.I. Joe, The Transformers, Voltron, ThunderCats, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, DuckTales, the first two seasons of Tiny Toon Adventures, and the first three seasons of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.^[17]

first-run syndicated

The FCC's introduction of the "" mandate in 1990, later made more explicit in 1996. This required all broadcast networks to air "educational and informational" children's programs for at least three hours a week, which placed major creative limits on what could be aired on children's television (as the networks diverted its existing children's programming time to meet the E/I mandates). "Weird Al" Yankovic noted that he often received complaints from Broadcast Standards and Practices about content that children could imitate on the live-action/animated hybrid The Weird Al Show and that shoehorning the program to fit E/I mandates was a "deal with the devil" as it was the only way Yankovic could get the show broadcast (the show was canceled after 13 episodes mainly due to these creative restrictions).^[18]

E/I

Concurrent with E/I, the outlawed the advertising of both premium-rate telephone numbers and tie-in merchandise during children's hours. This cut off large revenue sources for children's programs on network television.^[19] The FCC's action in this field was in marked contrast to the agency's general orientation at the time toward deregulation, influenced by conservative political sentiment prevalent then.

Federal Trade Commission

The rise of networks such as the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, which provided appealing animated entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours, making Saturday-morning timeslots far less important to young viewers and advertisers. Cable channels had the additional advantage of being beyond the reach of FCC content regulations and did not have to abide by educational and advertising regulations; within a year of the E/I mandate being imposed, Nickelodeon shot ahead of all of the broadcast networks in Saturday-morning viewership ratings.^[20] Currently, there are at least 10 channels specializing in children's programming.^[21] Cable television was also better positioned to rerun children's programming as another source of revenue in an increasingly fragmented marketplace.^[22]

cable television

The increased availability of services (both hard-copy formats and later through the Internet in the form of video on demand), which, just like cable, allowed children to watch their favorite cartoons at any given time.^[19]^[15]

home video

An increase in children's participation in Saturday activities outside the home, occasioned by more child-centered parenting practices (e.g., ) coming into vogue at the time. This meant that parents increasingly actively sought to reduce TV's influence on their charges, so that it would not be a "babysitter" for them, as some of the activist groups complained about previously.^[23]

helicopter parenting

The gradual legalization of divorce in the United States over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, which prompted a spike in divorces, and a desire by parents to make more productive use of their time with their children. Visitation periods for the secondary custodial parent often occurred on Saturday mornings and afternoons, changing the routines of these children from a steady schedule every weekend, again, taking them away from television sets.^[19] In contrast, this also led to television being used as "a babysitter (more) than ever before" since parents were absent from the home more often, leading to the "latchkey kid" phenomenon.^[15]

no-fault

The growth and of home video game systems. Initially, video games were not directly harmful to Saturday morning cartoons, as the characters therein were easily franchised to animation; with the prominent exception of Pokémon in the 21st century, video game-related cartoons died out in the early 1990s and the playing audience matured to more adult-oriented games.^[24]

rapid improvement in quality

Expansion of onto the weekend lineup in the 1990s and early 21st century, such as Weekend Today, The Saturday Early Show and Good Morning America Weekend, along with the concurrent (albeit, more gradual) expansion of locally produced morning newscasts into the daypart. These shows targeted much older audiences, causing a major clash with the children's demographic and leading to loss of viewers overall. NBC switched to teen-oriented documentary programming in the time slot in 2016 because the programming was less likely to cause Weekend Today viewers to tune out.^[25]

morning news shows

Animation in the United States in the television era

Lists of United States network television schedules

List of weekday cartoons

Saturday morning preview specials

Animation

Saturday Morning All Star Hits!

Raiti, Gerard (April 30, 2003). . Animation World Network. Retrieved January 10, 2016.

"The Disappearance of Saturday Morning"

Saturday-morning grid of 1967, year of debut of Fantastic Four and Spider-Man

TV Party presents the schedules and program profiles for every series the networks broadcast on Saturday Mornings from the mid-Sixties all through the Seventies.

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Everhart, Karen (June 6, 1994). . Current.org. Retrieved January 10, 2016.