Will cartoons will ever be syndicated again?
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Will cartoons will ever be syndicated again?
- Thread starter KJBlast2011
- Start date
I
imhomerjay
Guest
There's little point to it.
KJBlast2011 said:
Only if the cartoons are ones that can appeal to adults, and not just to children. The obvious current examples are "The Simpsons", "King of the Hill", and "Family Guy", with "Futurama" about to joint that group.
There is no syndication market for animation aimed at kids because the local stations can't sell advertising during those shows -- the childrens' advertising market is a national market, not a local market, and the national advertisers feel that they can more efficiently make their buys on national networks instead of dealing with the local spot markets. That might change if cable/satellite penetration were to drop substantially -- but right now I would call that possibility a long shot.
Since Time Warner owns WB and MGM cartoons you'll probably never see them anywhere else but Cartoon Network/Boomerang.
KJBlast2011 said:
Some E/I toons still are
There still is toon syndication in packs like Cookie Jar or the three or four E/I toons or shows that THIS TV, RTV, and America One shove together...but as single shows, syndi-toons probably went away when it was someone's bright idea to come up with the VERY stale "Adventures of James Bond Jr."!
You have bullwinke,Rocky & friends and fat albert and cosby kids Showing on Wadl-tv on Weekend. I think fcc should recosider Bringing cartoons bring back on local television stations and national television.
KJBlast2011 said:
It's not up to the FCC. There's a law (enforced by the FCC) requiring stations to carry some amount of educational kids programming, but no mandate requiring stations to carry cartoons that are just entertainment.
While I'd like to see the return of the classic independent TV station schedule (including the cartoons that most of us grew up with), an FCC mandate isn't going to make that happen.
It was the beginning of the end when Fox Kids ended their morning and afternoon blocks on weekdays. Then Kids WB quit in the afternoon, and went Saturday morning only. Now the crap we call "Litton's Weekend Adventure" is on ABC, a MAJOR TV network! Most of this is the fault of the E/I law. But some of the shows on E/I don't really count [Saved By The Bell? Give me a break!] while others do [Jack Hanna, Jarod Miller, Sports Stars of Tomorrow, etc.] But yes it would be nice to have cartoons back on the Fox/CW/MNT affiliates like it was ten+ years ago, but it won't happen...
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
I don't mean Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. I meant the old children's cartoon blocks of the 80s and 90s [like The Disney Afternoon, Fox Kids, etc]. Chances are we won't see a revival on broadcast TV however. Most if not all of the kids revenue is going to cable [Nick/Disney/Cartoon Network].
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
What US Congress should do is look into fededal Law and veto the bill so cartoons could come back on Local and National television. 
The Children's Television Act is wonderful in theory. There is no doubt in my mind that it was drafted with nothing but the best of intentions. Having said that, though, I do believe that the E/I Mandate is largely (but not solely) responsible for the disappearance of quality, original children's programming on broadcast television.
Before the mandate went into effect, the networks' Saturday morning lineups were a pretty big deal to them. You would often see Saturday morning cartoons promoted during prime time, up to and including annual fall previews. Today, instead of putting any stock into children's programming, the networks and local stations just throw the outsourced E/I blocks somewhere onto their schedules, because they have to. They have no faith in these shows, nor do they know how to promote them. (Did you know NBC airs something called Shelldon every weekend? Neither did I.)
I know everyone romanticizes their childhoods, but I really think that despite having had fewer cable choices, children's television was better when I was growing up ('80s and early '90s). In those days, it wasn't hard to find kids' shows every day of the week via rabbit ears. You had Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, CBS and NBC (and on Fox starting in 1990). There were syndicated cartoons every morning and afternoon, usually on Fox affiliates and independent stations, but also sometimes on "big three" affiliates in smaller markets (The Flintstones, for example, was a staple of my ABC affiliate's afternoon lineup for years, and Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry could be found every morning on my CBS station before they launched their early morning news).
You also had a multitude of choices if you were fortunate enough to have cable in your home--and not just on Nickelodeon and the then-premium Disney Channel, either: there was an assortment of cartoon blocks on TBS, TNT, HBO, USA, and any out-of-town independent station your cable company piped in before the days of Syndex (for me, it was KSTW out of Tacoma, which was still producing a local kids' show called Ranger Charlie and Rosco).
Gone are the days of Lucky Charms-induced Saturday morning bliss, and fighting with your brothers over whether you were going to watch Muppet Babies or The Real Ghostbusters. No more coming home from school and watching The Disney Afternoon or Tiny Toons. No more decades-old Hanna-Barbera (thanks, Ted Turner) or Rocky and Bullwinkle all over the dial. Not even a lousy USA Cartoon Express block!
I know it's sad to read a grown man pining for the way cartoon airings worked when he was a kid, but I make no apologies. It's ashame that kids today can't watch children's programming that most would consider entertaining, unless their parents subscribe to cable. And even then, kids' shows are segregated to just a handful of specialty channels. I wish I was raising my son in an era during which the children's programming market was more competitive and more inspired.
Before the mandate went into effect, the networks' Saturday morning lineups were a pretty big deal to them. You would often see Saturday morning cartoons promoted during prime time, up to and including annual fall previews. Today, instead of putting any stock into children's programming, the networks and local stations just throw the outsourced E/I blocks somewhere onto their schedules, because they have to. They have no faith in these shows, nor do they know how to promote them. (Did you know NBC airs something called Shelldon every weekend? Neither did I.)
I know everyone romanticizes their childhoods, but I really think that despite having had fewer cable choices, children's television was better when I was growing up ('80s and early '90s). In those days, it wasn't hard to find kids' shows every day of the week via rabbit ears. You had Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, CBS and NBC (and on Fox starting in 1990). There were syndicated cartoons every morning and afternoon, usually on Fox affiliates and independent stations, but also sometimes on "big three" affiliates in smaller markets (The Flintstones, for example, was a staple of my ABC affiliate's afternoon lineup for years, and Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry could be found every morning on my CBS station before they launched their early morning news).
You also had a multitude of choices if you were fortunate enough to have cable in your home--and not just on Nickelodeon and the then-premium Disney Channel, either: there was an assortment of cartoon blocks on TBS, TNT, HBO, USA, and any out-of-town independent station your cable company piped in before the days of Syndex (for me, it was KSTW out of Tacoma, which was still producing a local kids' show called Ranger Charlie and Rosco).
Gone are the days of Lucky Charms-induced Saturday morning bliss, and fighting with your brothers over whether you were going to watch Muppet Babies or The Real Ghostbusters. No more coming home from school and watching The Disney Afternoon or Tiny Toons. No more decades-old Hanna-Barbera (thanks, Ted Turner) or Rocky and Bullwinkle all over the dial. Not even a lousy USA Cartoon Express block!
I know it's sad to read a grown man pining for the way cartoon airings worked when he was a kid, but I make no apologies. It's ashame that kids today can't watch children's programming that most would consider entertaining, unless their parents subscribe to cable. And even then, kids' shows are segregated to just a handful of specialty channels. I wish I was raising my son in an era during which the children's programming market was more competitive and more inspired.
AKA said:
Kids also have more extra-circular activities after school and on Saturday mornings. Nickelodeon get it's highest ratings the evening. You probably also wish Nick@Nite would still air B&W white shows like Mr Ed and My Three Sons. Cable killed kids shows on OTA TV, not E/I mandates. Without E/I mandates, they'd just put on more infomercials. They worked around the E/I before cable really took over. PBS still airs kids shows but most school age kids will no watch educational programming.
Not necessarily. I couldn't care less what Nick at Nite airs. Besides, classic TV is much more accessible today than it was twenty years ago, thanks to digital television.nomadcowatbk said:
So it's your opinion that even without the E/I mandate, kids' shows would still be solely Nickelodeon/Disney Channel/Cartoon Network properties? Before posting, I'd considered that the growing cable market might have had more to do with the erosion of children's television than the E/I mandate, but I'm still not convinced. I remember NBC dropped their Saturday morning lineup as early as 1992 for The Today Show, but that was two years after the act passed. They probably saw the writing on the wall.nomadcowatbk said:
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