Saturday mornings relived

Becoming an adult brought new sensations and experiences we were never subjected to as children. With the onslaught of new things in our lives, we had to leave behind our youth and innocence to bear the pains of insecurity, responsibility and college. However, there are still times when we can reflect on our most wonderful childhood days, the days when you played freeze tag with your friends without an obligation or worry in the world. Being a kid was so easy. To my recollection, it consisted of waking up early, playing with my friends, eating, watching television and sleeping. We still eat, sleep, play and watch TV, but can you remember the last time you woke up voluntarily?

The last time I woke up on a Saturday morning was last summer when I got excited to do something I left behind years ago. I decided to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Saturday morning was a sacred time slot in a child’s uneventful week of school. It was the time when the newest episodes of our favorite cartoons would air. Saturday morning cartoons were so important to us kids that Monday conversations at school would resemble something similar to that of two sports fanatics after a football game; both enthusiastic to tell each other what they saw and what they liked.

But as the wise men say, times have changed. Saturday morning cartoons are not what they used to be. Of course there would be different cartoons and shows, but that’s not the problem. The quality of Saturday morning television has degenerated for several reasons: 1) constant programming and time shifts have confused audiences 2) too many new shows come and go without a necessary adjustment period 3) the variety and content of shows have become lame and uninspired and 4) video games have gotten better.

With a weakening audience, the TV programmers have been scratching their heads to find a working formula, but it seems the deeper they dig, the more they get themselves into a ditch.

Let’s examine how this happened in less than a decade. With the emergence of immensely popular shows such as “Pokemon” and “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” the studios never anticipated fallout in viewership, but as the shows aged and grew more formulaic, kids became bored. The producers then scrambled to change the show by adding new characters and new themes; the “Power Rangers” have gone from earth to space to time travel, and “Pokemon” has gone from its regular show to the “Johto Journeys.” In addition to switching the popular shows around, some older shows were replaced with new ones that would die off in less than a season. Destroying the older shows with a loyal fan base immediately hurt Saturday morning ratings.

Canning a cartoon show may seem commonplace now, but this was not the case for most cartoons of the past. The concept of Saturday morning television for children began in the 1950s with the most primitive of cartoons. But even these primitive cartoons were able to evolve and thrive through many decades; cartoons that included, “The Bullwinkle Show,” “Popeye,” “Woody Woodpecker” and “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.” When the `60s rolled around, it not only introduced the color television, but also it brought the wonderful antics of “Bugs Bunny” and “Scooby Doo.” Some other notables of the era included “Casper,” “The Jetsons, “The Fantastic Four,” “Yogi Bear” and “Superman/ Batman Adventures” (later duplicated).

All of these cartoons survived the `70s and remained very well known in the `80s and early `90s. They were not only shows of the last two generations, they were shows of our generation as well.

Other great Saturday morning cartoons in our generation included the “Gobots,” “DuckTales,” “Heathcliff,” “Garfield,” “Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers,” “Transformers,” “G.I. Joe,” “Adventures of He-Man,” “The Smurfs,” “WILDCats,” “Voltron,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Gummi Bears,” “Spider Man,” “Batman,” “X-Men,” “Mega Man,” “The Tick,” “Looney Tunes,” “Tiny Toons” and the “Animaniacs.”

Not a single show from the list remains on the Saturday lineup today. When I scoped this week’s Saturday morning programs, I came across one show that had the potential to be very good. This is only good show of 14. The show that caught my attention was the “Jackie Chan Adventures;” not only does it have an Indiana Jones feeling to it, it’s got Jackie Chan. If not everyone, 90 percent of the world loves Jackie Chan. Putting it in the nicest way, the other 13 shows were not so impressive.

Looking beyond content, I simply read off a list of some of the names for these new shows. One of them is called “La Luchadores,” which is loosely translated as “The Wrestlers” or “The Fighters” in Spanish. From the title, I assumed this was going to be an absolutely horrible show. I wish I were wrong. This show was not a cartoon, but rather a “Power Rangers” type action show featuring an overweight goofy wrestler that looks a lot like a fat version of a Barnum and Bailey clown. I was sure I had seen the worst of television that day, but that was not the case.

Immediately following “La Luchadores” on Fox was a new cartoon called “The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.” The first thing wrong with the show is the title’s possiblities of being mistaken for pedophiliac adult porn. The cartoon itself isn’t any better. Neither were the remaining 11 programs, which included the following:

1) “Spiderman Unlimited,” a bad spin-off of the original “Spiderman.”

2) “Sabrina the Animated Series,” an animated version of a show no one watches.

3) “Zeta Project,” basically a boring version of “The Fugitive” in robot cartoon style.

4) “Max Steel,” a new futuristic computer cell type show featuring a technologically enhanced superhero. Nice graphics, bad show.

5) “Power Rangers: Time Force,” another bad theme adjustment of the original crap-fest that is the “Power Rangers.”

6) “Static Shock,” superhero with super powers. Wait, that’s every cartoon here.

7) “Lloyd in Space,” a show about Lloyd in space, need I say more.

8) “MIB,” a cartoon that shows the same things happening as the movie except different aliens look different now.

9) “Recess,” an ABC cartoon that seems to entertain the really little ones or really slow ones.

10) “X-Men: Evolution,” not even close to how good the old X-Men cartoon was.

11) “Pokemon: The Johto Journeys,” new fuzzy animals on the same corny show.

Evolution occurs when something changes to adapt better in its environment. Sadly, rather than changing for the better, Saturday morning cartoons have taken a step back. Sure I’m no longer a kid, but I can still see that the lack of variety, humor and fun in Saturday morning shows has destroyed that special feeling children used to have about Saturday mornings. There is now a sense of apathy when it comes to missing a Saturday morning show. Kids have less of a reason to get up in the morning. Even NBC, who once held a golden Saturday morning lineup, dropped from contention a couple years ago when children began tuning out.

There is a lesson to be learned here. In a time when technology continually integrates itself into our lives, we forget to look behind us along the path. We forget how fun it is to play 8-bit Nintendo games or board games. The future isn’t necessarily better; it’s just a different time in our lives. Our lives don’t necessarily get better as we go on — it just takes on different challenges and perspectives. Saturday morning television is definitely not better, but it will never disappear. Hopefully a turn of events can bring about change and stability in the cartoon world. And when it does, both kids and adults will wake up again to live or relive their special Saturday mornings.