What Happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? 

the 80s and 90s were the best decades to be a kid watching saturday morning cartoons

Nothing was as incredible as waking up in the morning knowing it’s saturday and having no homework

I was born in ‘82, and this was a great nostalgic ride.

I don't watch a lot of TV anymore, but I think part of what makes it special is it's something happening now. You can't pause it, you can't skip to the next show, it's happening now and you can't go back. And that makes it special.

the fact that a lot of saturday morning cartoons are now coming out with complete box sets on DVD shows how much these impacted us growing up

Looking back, I think Saturday morning cartoons represented freedom: After five grueling days at school, homework, bullies, and chores, you finally had a day to yourself, and what better way to start than by jumping into your favorite worlds and seeing your favorite characters going on new adventures? It was a jump from our mundane reality into worlds of fantasy where anything was possible and your imagination was the limit, and there was no homework or responsibilities to be found.

I am a generation X guy myself (42 years old as of October 2022) and I do remember there was a day off ritual I would do. I grew up in France during the 80s and we had Wednesday off from school and went to school Saturday mornings. Wednesday morning and Saturday afternoon cartoons was a thing. I long for those days when it was simpler. Simplicity made me less anxious.

One of the things I looked most forward to as a kid was getting up on Saturday mornings, getting a bowl of cereal, sitting down in front of my TV, and watching cartoons.

I was a bullied, anxious and depressed kid. But every Saturday morning, I was in heaven.

Weird as it is, the thing I miss most about live tv is the bumpers and promos. Made watching the new episode feel special, like you were part of an event.

James' ideas come from the heart and that's what makes them truly Special. Greetings from Poland! The CN times in the '90s will always stay with me.

As an 80s kid I still think Saturday is the best day of the week.

When I was a kid around 1990 in Norway I hated getting up for school, but for some reason I could easily get up early on Saturdays to watch Swedish dubbed TMNT episodes. Funny how that works.. I even remember it feeling sort of cool that I got up before my parents did, having the living room all to myself for a while and an entire Saturday in front of me..

Part of the fun was being able to talk about what happened in your favorite cartoons and anime with your friends at school because all the other children watched them too

There's a sort of charm to being limited in what you can watch. It's the reason why everyone can quote Spongebob, or why everybody was trading Pokemon/Yugioh cards at school. Every Saturday morning, we all experienced the same journey through those shows. Now with so many shows and streaming services, we're more isolated than ever.

The new gen may not know the struggle if you miss your favourite episodes.

This era was awesome, I'm glad to have lived through it.

James, thanks for dropping the nostalgia bomb. Those were the days, a bowl of cereal and a morning block of cartoons.

We definitely called them Saturday morning cartoons. We weren’t allowed to watch TV on weekday mornings or Sundays. We also didn’t have cable, so Saturdays were a big deal for us. My favorites were Ninja Turtles, Muppet Babies, Real Ghostbusters, Tiny Toons, X-Men & the Batman reruns. The anti-drug cartoon you spoke about was a big deal to us. I loved seeing all of the characters together. They played it for us in school several years in a row. Great video, awesome memories :)

I’ve been saying this for years. Woke up early to watch shows and you felt like you had that feeling you were all watching it together.

My uncle worked on sound effects for the Beetlejuice cartoon. His team won an award for it one year.

Truly miss these times even at 41 I would do almost anything to experience this era again..

It's kind of sad to think that we turned off the tv after our cartoons one day and never went back to those shows that used to make us so happy.

Can’t duplicate the Saturday morning experience. I would plan what I was going to watch. The commercials and PSAs were just as much part of the experience. I sometimes watch RU-vid vids that are recorded 3-4 hour blocks of NBC, ABC, or CBS with commercials and it brings me right back. I was fortunate enough to be in the sweet spot age wise though the 80’s when Saturday morning cartoons were at their peak.

Nostalgia is like a knife sometimes. You think of how things used to be and how happy you used to be and it can feel like someone stabbed you in the gut and it hurts because you know things will never be like that again

We're never aware that something might end, but it always does.......and that's when we know just how beautiful it was.

So many great childhood memories. Glad I was born in ‘82! 🎉

Great video. I'm a 3rd grade teacher and just used The Adventures of the Gummi Bears theme song to introduce my class to poetry AND Saturday morning cartoons. Showed them an episode and at least one went home to watch more!

I fondly remember X-Men Saturday mornings. That show’s intro and music were top notch!

I actually have a large collection of original Saturday morning Cartoons from 1980-1995 taped off TV with the original commercials. They are pure nostalgic gold. Hits you right in the feels.

I remember getting my Grandma to Record Saturday morning cartoons for me every weekend she would get out the tv guide and make me mark witch shows i wanted her to record. I still have VHS's with the 80's &90's cartoons on them.

In South Africa we also had the Saturday morning cartoon tradition when I was growing up, TMNT and Spiderman were classics. Spiderman was even translated into a traditional language (Zulu) and his name was Rabobi. This clip made me happily nostalgic for simpler times. Thank you

Saturday morning cartons were so special to me. Waking up at 7am with the promise of pancakes in the morning and ham sandwiches for lunch. I’m sad that those blocks are gone but I will always cherish those days.

This is by far the most nostalgic episode yet. Brought me way back.

Thank you for this, James. I appreciate your reverence for '80's nostalgia. My dad passed away this morning and I have been thinking about how comfortable I was growing up in the '80's midwest watching Sat. morning cartoons and waiting for him to get home from work.

they had a bizarre cartoon show called Mummies Alive! from 0600-0700 on Fox every day when I was little; it was an incentive to get up early. I never understood anything that was happening

In many markets, at 12 Noon, you know what capped off the Saturday Morning block in the end? *WWF Wrestling,* which back then was a live-action cartoon in and of itself, with its outlandish heroes and villains.

Born in '92 I had the tail of saturday morning cartoons. And while I loved them I still associate them with this feeling of my mom and dad being really peeved that I was watching them and wanting me to do something else.

Born in 79 and loved my childhood! 84-92 is my sweet spot!

I am the last generation of experiencing Saturday Morning Cartoons in the 2000's, but still love Cartoon Network.

As a 90's kid, Saturday Mornings were basically waking up early, eating pop tarts or cereal, and being quiet for my parents. After the cartoons finished up we'd go play manhunt or some n64.

Saved by the bell, Soul train, Wwf superstars and old school karate movies were also a great part of Saturday mornings!!

The biggest thing about Saturday morning cartoons for us was that we didn’t have cable so it was the only slot that was kid-specific.

In LA, the New Beverly theater still shows Saturday morning cartoons on a weekly basis. Vintage cartoons shown on their original 35mm reels. They even turn the concession stand into a cereal bar, which is really cool.

My parents are in their late 70s, and sometimes they watch cartoons in the morning and it's ADORABLE. Great video James! Thanks for making me miss something so badly that I didn't even realize I did.

As a kid it was an escape from school as an adult an escape from work nothing like the silliness and wonder of the old Saturday morning cartoons and live action shows.

What a huge part of childhood. You really know how to quantify the experience.

For me, as a kid in the early 2000s, every after school day was cartoon day.

My childhood consisted of waiting for Saturday for that next X-Men episode. Being a kid in that late 80s early 90s was the funk!

This is about the 80s and 90s. I'm a 70s kid. Sid and Mary Kroft where my favorite Saturday morning shows.

Some you didn't mention... Reboot, Sonic, Mario Bros, Recess and I remember a weird Mighty Ducks cartoon

I regret that my son hasn't grow up with the awesome things we had in the 80s. Those cartoons were the reason I got up on Saturdays!

Growing up my dad would also make us pancakes while putting on DVDs of the old Hanna Barbara shows on Saturday morning. There’s something so special about that and I’m glad a lot of parents are passing it down intergenerationally

I loved that decade and nothing will come close

Love this video for the nostalgia. its crazy how it is applicable through so many decades too! I grew up in the early 90s and watched these exact same cartoons Saturday morning. Really took me back to sitting in front of my parents TV, head in my hands watching Scooby Doo.

For me Saturday morning cartoons were very much a thing I was aware of growing up. We lived in a rural area, with only 3 channels on the local antenna TV. Those channels didn't really play cartoons during the week, but they definitely did on Saturday mornings. This made the ritual even more poinient at our house. Pancakes were very common too!

Late 80's/early 90's was when I was deep into Saturday morning cartoons. I wouldn't miss an episode of X-Men on Fox

Anyone remember “Pro Stars”? A cartoon where Micheal Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky were superheroes.

It was just the same here in the UK. One of the best things about Saturday morning cartoons (or even weekday cartoons like TMNT) was talking with your mates about them when you went to school. That shared community again… you’d all watched the same programme and experience and could discuss it. Especially as the Batman, X-Men and Spider-Man cartoon storylines developed

I love that you mentioned the MeTV lineup of Saturday morning cartoons and the great Svengoulie! Those are Saturday traditions in our house.

For me Saturday mornings were up at the buttcrack of dawn, making myself a big bowl of cereal, and parking in front of the TV until noon, when the last of the cartoons were showing. Nowadays, I go get a bagel or something, come back and pull up a playlist of some favorite toons. Really helps destress after a hard work week.

Wow, I was just having this exact conversation over the weekend with family and touched upon many of the same points you did. It's sad. My baby will never know the awesomeness that was a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch and sat morning cartoons.

I loved Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. As a kid who grew up without cable it was great to be able to watch a decent selection of cartoons

The only thing I didn’t like about only having live tv was that I would sometimes miss some episodes of shows that were two parts or more, resulting in me not knowing what happened in between or missing the ending until the parts I missed were shown as reruns.

Saturday morning cartoons really were an event at times. I remember when ABC used to make specials prompting the new line up of cartoons that would be dropping. Also felt like a big deal when shows would jump networks like Doug or Gargoyles

Thanks AVGN!! I was born in the early 80's and the Saturday morning cartoon ritual was a huge part of my childhood. As an adult I have filled several external hard drives with the complete series of about 99% of the shows mentioned in this video. I love this genuine content, keep up the great work ✌🏼

One of your best episodes recently. Thanks for the memories and the great ideas at the end!

Just wanted to shout out Svengoolie! Watching him is a staple Saturday evening event that really keeps the nostalgia of programs like Vampira, Joe Bob Briggs, Elvira, etc alive. Go make some stovetop popcorn, grab some drinks, and turn off the lights to enjoy some classic horror movie camp.

Anyone between 30-50 absolutely remembers that amazing feeling waking up on Saturday morning grabbing your favorite cereal and sitting in front of the 📺

Man I absolutely love when you do these videos or when you delve into what it was like playing old video games like contra. It takes me right back to being a little kid and a teenager and means so much so sincerely thank you!

I have box sets of all favs like The Real Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice cartoons. I've been sharing these memories with my now 16 year old daughter since she was a toddler and still loves watching them with me. She brags to her friends whom don't experience the same from their parents and it's a shame. We should always create our Saturday mornings and share them. I'm really happy you do too, Bro.

Both Sonic the Hedgehog shows, Batman the animated series, TMNT, and Spider-Man were my favorite animated shows to watch in the morning. The Power Rangers capped off my day before playing Super Mario world. Back then going outside was fun, meeting up with friends and talking about the episodes of cartoons and the newest secret of our favorite games. I miss the 90's.

This feels like a trip down memory lane. Thanks James!

Miss those times. Getting up in the mornings and eat sugary cereal and watching my favourite shows. Also don't diss the commersials, those where the bathroom breaks, or getting more cereals. 😁 Loved this video, so much heart whent into it. ❤

You have such an intelligent insight on nostalgia. I bet you were great with school presentations back in the day. You got that gift of gab.

I remember that drug psa cartoon. My teacher played it for us when I was in kindergarten. It struck me with a sense of nostalgia. Id like to watch that again and see it from an adults perspective.

I also enjoy these retrospective sits downs with James. It has this claiming affect on me hearing his calm, thought-out perspective on his memories, along with a bit of research. I wish this was weekly feature. He's great at it. I'd love to see him do a show about the animation studios. Shows looked so much better in 80's, like Japanese animation style. Fantastic episode, James!

Yes James! We do remember these times which are long gone now…

saturday morning cartoons were still a thing even for us 00s babies (2004 here) as i remember waking up every saturday morning to watch sonic x on 4kids, it definitely was a special kind of ritual.

While we are here reliving all our old cartoons, let's give a round of applause for Tim Curry. He was with us the whole way.

I remember Saturdays as either a great day or horrible, and it mostly depended on if I woke up to my moms music vibrating my power rangers off the shelfs. If that happened, I knew it was a day of cleaning and chores. Now that my own kid is on its way, it’s kind of sad realizing Saturday morning cartoons are dead and if I want to reproduce those happy memories with my kid, I have to artificially do it.

The innocence of waking up to your favorite cereal and Saturday cartoons 😩

I was born in 1985 ... I was very lucky to grow up with Saturday morning cartoons 💯

For me and my kid, we've been watching classic G1 transformers every Sunday for the last 3 years and he is 4 years old now. He does look forward to it, finished 4 seasons, unfortunately season 5 and above are not available, so we went on to Armada and new stuff like Cyberverse on Netflix. Transformers has become his favorite toy as well. It's nice to be able to share my childhood with them.

Saturday morning cartoons in the early 2000s.... the final days of the tradition. It never leaves my memory how me and my brothers would rather get up early to watch cartoons rather than play the ps2, or go outside

i miss Saturday morning cartoons, they were awesome in the 80s & 90s

Because of this I went out and picked up Muppet Babies on VHS. I forgot how much I used to love Rowlf in that... and Nanny!

Disney's One Saturday Morning may not have been my main Saturday morning cartoon lineup but it had a themsong that easily explained what they meant to us. 5 hours of Summer once a week, One Saturday Morning

Even in the 2000s there were Saturday morning cartoons. They weren't on cable, but I used to watch some when I was a kid.

I remember watching Peewee's Playhouse. In that show they always had "The word of the day" and when it was said you had to just scream. I remember watching it early one morning and someone said "the word of the day" and I started screaming and my parents got mad at me because I was yelling so early in the morning, lol

Fantastic episode Thanks James!

Glad I was born in 1980 and got to witness all the best cartoons growing up.

I know it's not a cartoon but Power Rangers used to come on saturday mornings... that was the show I always woke up for or recorded with a VHS.

Saturday morning cartoons were like your reward for sitting through school from Monday to Friday.

I loved watching the old school stuff as a Kid born in the 90s meant something alot to me

As a kid of the 80's into the early 90's, those were the times, man. Waking up early saturday morning or after school to watch my favorite cartoons...

There are multiple different blocks of old Saturday morning cartoons on RU-vid with the commercials left in. Makes me so happy those people hit record on the VCR so many years ago. I missed them badly. Now on with the show

I asked my nephew (9 years old) a few years ago if he knew what "Saturday Morning Cartoons" were. He looked confused, asked me to repeat myself several times, and said, "I have no idea what that means." I felt myself age 80 years when he said that. As someone who didn't grow up with cable, I lived for weekday afternoon cartoons and Saturday Morning cartoons. In my teen years, they ended weekday afternoon cartoons (except for PBS), and when I was 18 (2010), they did away with Saturday Morning Cartoons. It officially capped my childhood

Loved this one. Warm with nostalgia now. You captured the essense of being a 90s kid and the joys of it perfectly.

Does anybody remember My Pet Monster? Man, I loved that show. Saturday morning cartoons really pulls on the nostalgia heartstrings.