I apologize for doing a thread like this, but I must say, I think the worst programming block on Cartoon Network is on Saturday mornings. It's now all anime and action cartoons based on toy lines, including "Ben 10: Ultimate Alien," "Generator Rex," "Beyblade: Metal Masters," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Redakai: Conquer the Kairu," and "Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge."
I actually saw some this morning because nothing else was on TV, and I nearly fell back asleep watching these (just to see how bad they were!) Nothing really happened, except for the usual action sequences.
Sorry, but I have to agree with other people online on how Saturday morning cartoons have drastically changed; I feel sorry for kids that, instead of growing up eating sugary cereals watching funny, semi-educational or even remotely entertaining cartoons, children will just be having bacon and sausage and fatty pork products for breakfast while nothing plays on TV but droning talking and stereotypical action sequences on animation that is secretly plugging the toy lines they are based off of, as well as forced edutainment and news in terms of live-action.
Sorry, just needed to get that out. Feel free to shoot me if you want
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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See, I think 3 of those are probably some of the best shows on CN right now. But the other three are definitely just pablum. ANY show about a card game/"battle toy" is horrid- every time; anime or domestic is really immaterial. To me, moronic fare like World of Gumball, Adventure Time, Misadventures of Flapjack, or Chowder are just as offensively boring and pointless.
(This post was edited by krisAHQ on Dec 1, 2011, 8:01 AM)
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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Well, opinions will differ. However, Cartoon Network keeps close tabs on its audience draw, and the Saturday shows they broadcast are known to have the biggest viewership. Some cartoon shows might have a lower headcount during weekdays, when their target audience is under parental influence. Saturday mornings, however, are the Jackpot Day for shows like these, and for Cartoon Network as a whole. Saturdays are the time to bring out their heavy hitters, the big guns that reel in the viewers and push the Nielsen numbers up.
Cartoon Network's SatAM line-up is not chosen blindly or foolishly, WileE; I guarantee you that. These shows you listed bring in the bacon. Issue is decided.
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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I think we're getting older...but yeah I do agree.
Once the E/I came into full-launch in 1996, cartoons HAD to be educational. There was even this one "U.S. Acres" Cartoon talking about how violent Nursery Rhymes can be!
Heck...Ring Around the Rosie was about The Black Plague!
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Thank God for kids who love obscure things-Lee Hazelwood (1929-2007)
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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This is beginning to sound like another "Today's cartoons suck!" thread, as if we need any more of those...
Wile E., the thing that you have to remember is that we're not the ones whom Cartoon Network is trying to impress anymore. Folks our age don't even register a blip on CN's radar. Saturday morning is designated for action on CN now because that's pretty much the only time of the week in which the action shows are encored. Toon tried airing encores of it's action shows during the week, but the action encores don't get the ratings that the comedy encores do. I'm more of a fan of comedy than action these days, but some of the cartoons based on the DC comics properties such as Young Justice and recently ended Batman: The Brave and the Bold are definitely worth a look.
Myself, I mostly just sleep in on Saturday mornings these days.
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Procrastinators unite....tomorrow.
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Nov 28, 2011, 3:49 PM)
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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It's been my experience that most people who hold the opinion that "all of today's cartoons suck" usually fall into one of 4 distinct categories. They're either:
a) wearing rose-colored nostalgia goggles and are too hung up in the past,
b) are no longer in the age group these shows/channels target and have simply outgrown said shows/channels,
c) haven't seen enough of these shows to give them a fair shake, or
d) some combination of the above.
These shows may be boring or offensive to us (though IMHO Gumball has and Chowder and Flapjack had their moments), but we're not kids; CN doesn't ncessarily care about us or what we want to see on the channel. A lot of what people our age regard as dreck are among the network's highest rated shows. It's hard for adults to judge the merits of kids' shows, since often what children regard as the height of entertainment can drive adults mad. My parents sure didn't understand my obsession with Kaptain Kool and the Kongs or The Super Globetrotters.
As for Cartoon Network's SatAM schedule, as was pointed out previously, those shows aren't chosen randomly. The shows on CN's Saturday morning schedule are among the network's heaviest hitters, which is why they're there. And as was also pointed out, SatAM is where the action shows thrive most, as action encore generally don't get the ratings that the comedy encore get throughout the rest of the week, which is why you don't see them there.
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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I feel sorry for kids that, instead of growing up eating sugary cereals watching funny, semi-educational or even remotely entertaining cartoons, children will just be having bacon and sausage and fatty pork products for breakfast while nothing plays on TV but droning talking and stereotypical action sequences on animation that is secretly plugging the toy lines they are based off of, as well as forced edutainment and news in terms of live-action.
I don't feel sorry for today's kids at all; they have it far better than we did.
Saturday morning was a big deal for us because that was all we had growing up (aside from weekday afternoon syndication and the occasional prime time TV special). SatAM isn't a big deal to today's kids since they have entire channels which play cartoons and kid vid 24/7, not to mention the internet, streaming video, video games and DVDs/Blu-Rays. Why should kids clamor to watch cartoons for just a few hours a week on broadcast television when they have all that at their disposal?
And it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to say that today's SatAM shows are inherently worse than the ones we grew up with, 'cause it's all relative; not every SatAM show that we grew up with was golden either, as I recall, there were pretty darn crappy ones out there. We tend to judge these shows by our now adult standards rather than those of the children whom these shows are actually aimed at. Regardless of what we think of today's SatAM shows, if they're putting butts into seats and are earning ratings, that's all that matters.
(Apologies for the double post, everybody; by the time I got all of my thoughts together, it was too late to edit.)
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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"Super Friends" and Hanna-Barbera series DVDs for me in the morning.
Nothing else matters.
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"Don't chew gum on camera. Don't whistle. You may kiss Bob Barker but please don't kill him." -announcer Johnny Olson briefing the audience of potential contestants for "The Price is Right"
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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I personally haven't gone near Cartoon Network on SatAM since they removed DC Nation from their lineup. (Unless plans have changed, DC Nation is supposed to return in January, but that remains to be seen). Lately, The Hub has been filling my Saturday morning void: I catch the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, then switch over to Nick for the new TMNT, then back to The Hub for The Littlest Pet Shop and finally The Aquabats! Super Show! at noon.
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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Wile E., you're the first person whom I've read in quite a while who's complaining about their being too much action on Cartoon Network presently. These days, most CN fans are complaining that action has been getting the short end of the stick, especially in light of the recent news that Young Justice and Green Lantern: TAS will be coming to an end in a couple weeks time.
I would expect to see more comedy on CN Saturday mornings in the coming weeks and months rather than fewer, since it once again boils down to $$$$$$$$$$$$$. Networks air whatever makes them the most money, and comedy cartoons typically score higher ratings than action cartoons do. A great deal of actions cartoons' profits comes from toy sales, and for whatever reason, kids don't seem to be buying the action toys very much.
If action cartoons get diminished, CN could conceivably replace them with some other type of original programming, such as create a a girl-centric cartoon block to counteract The Hub's SatAM programming of shows like Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I know that's very, very unlikely to happen.
Let's be real about this: if CN starts airing fewer super hero/action cartoons on SatAM, that's not going to mean that the network would bring the old shows back; it would just be more airings of the network's current hit shows, but somehow, I don't think that CN devoting more air time on Saturday mornings to shows like Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, Regular Show, MAD and Johnny Test would please you any more, Wile.
There's no way that Cartoon Network is ever going to go back to airing a 2-3 hour block of Looney Tunes; that won't get the network the kind of ratings that it's trying for, nor would it be counter programming to. the competing networks Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. CN execs know that even a rerun of SpongeBob Squarepants or Phineas & Ferb will put more butts in seats than a 50-year-old Looney Tunes short will and that really seems more like something that Turner would reserve for Boomerang these days. You just have to face the fact that the early 90s Cartoon Network doesn't exist anymore. However, CN does presently air 1 hour of LT Saturdays at 6 AM (EST), and kids do get up that early on SatAM, so there's that.
Also, and I know that you mostly meant this metaphorically, but bacon, eggs and sausage is generally much healthier for kids than sugary cereals.
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Procrastinators unite....tomorrow.
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Mar 4, 2013, 7:26 AM)
Re: Is CN's current Saturday morning lineup boring?
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Sorry, but I have to agree with other people online on how Saturday morning cartoons have drastically changed
I hate to nitpick, but it's not like action cartoons weren't around 30 years ago. The genre, as well as the practice of creating TV shows based on popular books, toys and games, was very much alive in the 1980s. I know this because I was there to witness it firsthand.
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Procrastinators unite....tomorrow.
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Mar 4, 2013, 3:20 PM)
