From the 1960s to 2014, Saturday-morning and after school cartoons were a huge part of the lives of many children across North America.
Back in the day, the only times kids could really vegetate with a block of animation was Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to noon or on weekdays from 3:00 to 5:00. Young minds were filled with the antics of caped crime fighters, talking animals, and tiny blue creatures.
The genre's popularity declined in the mid-late 1990s and 2000s when cartoons for children became accessible 24 hours a day. However, it is interesting that many of the major networks' and cable networks' animation programs are still debuted on Saturday mornings.
The mid-1960s brought a boom in superhero cartoon series, many of which were adapted from comic books and cartoon strips.
TechniqueAn animated film typically uses 24 different drawings per second. Due to lower budgets, cartoons are often produced with a minimum amount of animation drawings, sometimes no more than three or four per second.
In addition, the movements of the characters are often repeated, very limited, or even confined to mouths and eyes only. An exception to the 24-frames-per-second rule is when animation is "shot in twos" in which 12 drawings per second are used and the switch to 24 frames per second is for quick events like explosions or "wild takes" or "goof takes". During the 1960s and 1970s, it was not uncommon to have animated shorts produced with both film and television in mind. By selling the shorts to theaters, the studios could afford a higher budget than would otherwise be available from television alone, which at the time was still a free medium for the end-user. |
Early CartoonsSaturday morning cartoon programming became increasingly popular to the networks for several reasons:
|
The Backlash
Parents' lobby groups started to voice their concerns in the late 1960s. They were upset by the commercialism, violence, anti-social attitudes, and stereotypes in these cartoons targeted at young children. By the 1970s, these groups exercised enough influence that the television networks felt compelled to lay down more stringent content rules for the animation houses. The government even considered a ban on all advertising during television programming targeting preschoolers, and severe restrictions on other children's program advertising, which would have effectively killed off the format; the commission ultimately dropped the proposal.
In a more constructive direction, the networks were encouraged to create educational spots that endeavored to use animation and/or live-action for enriching content. Far and away the most successful effort was the Schoolhouse Roch series, Time for Timer, and the Bod Squad.
In a more constructive direction, the networks were encouraged to create educational spots that endeavored to use animation and/or live-action for enriching content. Far and away the most successful effort was the Schoolhouse Roch series, Time for Timer, and the Bod Squad.
The Classics
Some of the great classics include:
|
|
Questions to research
- Based on what you can discover on the internet, what do you feel led to the decline in the popularity of Saturday morning cartoons? Need some info, check out these links:
- Why do you think that so many of these "Saturday Morning" cartoons continue to be popular today?
- Click on the link under the technique section and create a definition and examples for the term "wild takes". When you look at the clips for the next part, see if you can identify an example of wild takes.
- Choose a minimum of 3 - 5 of the animations from the "Classics" list above (or others you are familiar with). For each, try and provide the following:
- Synopsis
- Background info about the cartoon series
- Images of Characters / scenes from the series
- Theme song if it is available
- Video clip(s) that showcase the series
- Other info you find interesting - animators, studios, merchandising, etc.
References
Please note that much of this material is "borrowed" and edited from Wikipedia.