Back in the 1970s and 80s, American broadcast television networks like NBC, CBS, and ABC began to fear cable television. Whereas broadcast networks had to appeal to many different audiences during different days and times, cable had the potential to create hundreds of networks targetted toward any one specific audience. They feared cable would put them out of business, much like how radio broadcasters feared television. Of course, as we all know, radio survived television, and broadcast television survived cable television. However, certain sacrifices were made in each transition. Radio, for example, lost serialized dramas. Broadcast television is losing children’s programming.

The Saturday Morning Cartoon. It’s something that started as televisions became more and more common throughout the 1950s, and became a full blown trend during the 60s. Broadcast networks realized there was a strong market in creating programming blocks for children, and Saturday mornings were the perfect void between not having school, and not yet going outside to play. A kid could wake up, grab a bowl of cereal, and plop down in front of the TV for an hour or two. Or three. Whatever.

Then in the 1990s, two very important things happened. Cable networks Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network began airing all new cartoons during prime time. At this point, it was becoming more common for children to have televisions in their own bedrooms, or for families to have at least two televisions in the home. Thus, broadcast networks continued to air dramas and comedies during prime time, and these two cable networks could air their new cartoons at the same time. Cartoon Network also had a strong weekday afternoon programming block known as Toonami, later replaced with Miguzi. Now kids could watch their new cartoons after school.

The control broadcast networks held over Saturday mornings was weakening. Furthermore, it became less economical for broadcast networks to fund cartoons that were getting less and less viewers. Most networks began airing older shows, live shows, and cheaply made educational programs on Saturday mornings. The Fox and CW networks licensed out their entire Saturday morning blocks to 4Kids Entertainment, and even Fox has recently dropped 4Kids to air paid programming.

The Saturday Morning Cartoon is dieing, and it appears there are no plans to revive it. Cartoons have become a thing of cable networks, which are more numerous now than they were fifthteen years ago. The cable networks are even favoring weeknight prime time blocks to premier their new episodes. The era that my generation and my parents’ generation knew has come to an end. Goodbye, Saturday Morning.