Return of Classic Cartoons

Have any of the classic digital sub-channels [Antennae TV, Me-TV, Cozi, etc...] ever thought to air classic cartoons during Saturday and Sunday mornings like they did from the 70's -90's? Having recently found some old animation through the internet archive site, it brought back memories.

If they haven't, why not? If they did, why did they stop?

Antenna TV has a block of classic cartoons called Totally Tooned In on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and Me TV had some 80's cartoons. One problem is that they're required to meet E/I standards like other local stations, so that cuts into the time they have for classic cartoons on weekends.

anotherguy said:

Antenna TV has a block of classic cartoons called Totally Tooned In on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and Me TV had some 80's cartoons. One problem is that they're required to meet E/I standards like other local stations, so that cuts into the time they have for classic cartoons on weekends.

Click to expand...

Actually, it appears that E/I requirements can be met during the week as GET-TV airs theirs on Friday mornings, clearing the way for their Saturday westerns. If this is true, E/I requirements are not what's stopping classic cartoons from airing on weekend mornings.

E/I requeriments can be fulfill in any day of the week, as long as it is between 7:00AM and 10:00PM. However, the real reason cartoons are no seen on OTA channels is because stations are unable to sell enouh advertising for them. Also, there are restrictions in the quantity and subject of the ads they can sell during children's show, even if they're not E/I. This, combined with decreased ratings caused by the proliferation of cartoon channels on cable and the scarcity of shows being available in syndication have caused stations to stop being interestied in such material.

One problem with cartoons made for movie theatres is that they were made in random lengths. In a movie theatre, it doesn't matter a hell of a lot if the cartoon runs 6 minutes and 43 seconds or 7 minutes and 9 seconds or whatever. On TV it does matter. That was one area (besides doing local commercials) that kiddie show hosts in the old days covered; they wrapped up the loose ends and made it come out even. (Back then, kid shows might include not only cartoons, but cliffhanger chapters, comedy shorts like Laurel & Hardy or the Little Rascals, etc; again, all made for theatres.) Without a host, cartoons have to be clipped, sped up, or otherwise scrunched to fit.

Another factor working against old cartoons on TV is the prevalence of cartoons on DVD; major-studio box sets of Disney, Warner, MGM, Walter Lantz, and UPA cartoons, all state of the art quality transfers; and the innumerable el cheapo public-domain discs, quality all over the map but bought as babysitters.

The PBJ channel (from Luken) has a lot of old school cartoon shows. They're only on about 21 stations, so not a lot of coverage.

It used to be that Saturday morning kids shows ran from 8 AM to 1 PM ET on the network stations. They could still be doing old style cartoon shows along with the required 3 hours of E/I programming but have chosen not to. The networks have used E/I regulations as a convenient excuse to cut back to the required 3 hours, expand their morning news shows to Saturdays and/or dump the remaining time back on local stations to fill with local news at best or infomercials at the worst. If E/I didn't exist there would be no programming geared toward children at all on most stations.