So I spend a good amount of time traveling. I spend a considerable amount of time in Japan alone, but since my company's headquarters is in San Francisco, I do go home to America quite often. While I'm there, I watch a fair amount of television when I'm not doing anything. Even though I have all of my old Funny Bunny VHS tapes and the newly remastered DVDs that have been released, I divide my time fairly equally between my beloved favorite and various television stations to quell my curiosity where new animation is concerned (more on that in a different post).
Recently, I was flipping through local stations while I was visiting the East Coast for a few weeks. It was there that I realized something that upset me drastically when it registered. I'm sure that it depends on your location for the most part (and I'm hoping that it isn't the same in California), but I'm shocked that it could happen anywhere.
There are
no Saturday morning cartoons on regular television.
None.
....
What?!When I was growing up, that was my whole reason for waking up on Saturday mornings! I'd look forward to it all week! Now if you don't have cable (where you can see cartoons all the time, more or less, so it isn't as special as local television), you can't have that luxury?! It's an outrage!!
It happened so gradually, too. First it was just one channel cutting down on weekday morning cartoons. Then another. Then they took weekday cartoons away entirely and replaced them with daytime talk shows and Court TV. This upset me to a degree, because now children have nothing to occupy their mornings if they're home sick or on vacation. I remember
hoping that I would miss my ride to school so that I could stay home and watch Batman: The Animated Series!
That was one thing, but then I happened to notice the lack of quality cartoons on the local stations while flipping around on Saturdays. I thought it was just too early or too late, but the more I looked, the more I realized that it was absolutely nothing of quality. Maybe a live-action series like
That's So Raven or
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody will run once or twice before a boring seminar or an infomercial taints the airways that used to be filled with joy.
Then, upon further inspection, I see that there
are cartoons. For a few hours. On one solid channel (the other is fuzzy on some sets, depending on your reception). On
Sunday.
I am completely livid.
As early as a few years ago, there were quality lineups on at
least 3 channels. ABC had a five hour Disney lineup called
One Saturday Morning, the WB had a whole onslaught of decent programming, I believe that UPN took over Fox Kids and started airing that (though I could be wrong. The last time I recall Fox Kids, it was still on the actual Fox station) and I
think that even TBS ran old Hanna-Barbera series with a mix of new things. If you were a child (or an animation aficionado), you didn't know what to do with yourself on Saturdays! Granted, they weren't all winners, but they were
quality! They weren't just live-action spill-overs from the Disney channel (of course, this isn't meant to speak ill of the Disney channel. I've actually enjoyed what I've seen of some of their live-action programming, it just isn't what Saturday mornings are all about).
Of course my friends in Japan (with the exception of maybe Kaiba~boy and Mokuba~boy) will probably not understand a word of this, so forgive me if that is the case. I'm just so furious! This is such an injustice!
Luckily, my family always had cable, so I could watch all the cartoons I wanted. However, I did have friends that weren't so fortunate. They made their way just fine, they simply couldn't waste money on such a luxury every month, which is understandable and rather reasonable (and it gave us an excuse to spend our weekends and vacations in the main room of my house with the large TV and endless bowls of popcorn at night and cereal in the morning). I never ostracized my friends based on what they had, and I don't to this day. Even now, this isn't me feeling sorry for them, but rather being angry on their behalf. It's nowhere near fair that you practically
need cable television to have a decent Saturday morning lineup. It isn't a practical expense that all families should be forced to attain just because local stations would rather fill the airwaves with inane garbage.
Luckily, at least there's
something. Even if it is a day late, totally negating the point. Maybe someone will remember who their audience is and breathe life into Saturday mornings again. I can't imagine a future of children raised without that kind of joy.
Maybe I need to conduct a little meeting with these networks to see if Industrial Illusions can host a five hour cartoon block on at least three channels. Hmm... I wonder if I could market a cartoon based on Duel Monsters...
[Edit] At least
other people are
noticing. It still just makes me sick. I understand the idea of wanting your kids to get out of the house and play, but that's what Saturday
afternoon was for! Exercise is great, but if you want to sit around and be lazy for a few hours after a week of working at school
before getting up to play, you should be able to.
People these days.
giddy