History of American Cartoons...

[shadowkat]

For cjlasky7 -

Chuck Jones and The Evolution of An Artist...

"Chuck Jones - The Evolution of an Artist" (Watch on YouTube)

And American Saturday Morning Television from 1964-1976. I remember a lot of these shows. Some predate me. (I was born in 1967, so if it wasn't rerun or shown in the 70s, I've no memory of it.)

"Saturday Morning TV Memories 1964 - 1976 !!!" (Watch on YouTube)

And...the History of Saturday Morning Cartoons and why they disappeared:

"The History of Saturday Morning Cartoons & Why They Disappeared" (Watch on YouTube)

As a little kid, I loved them. We'd get up at 6 am and watch each Sat morning. I used to look forward to them as a little kids.

The 1980s cartoons...I didn't watch all of them, because this had the one's I watched -- specifically the stupid Drak Pack by Hanna Barbara, who had a tendency to take a popular formula, namely Scooby Doo Where Are You, and copy it to death (although this was a bit more innovative), Captain Harlock (much better), and Battle of the Planets (which was the best of the group).

"EVERY 80s Cartoon Intro EVER | Part 1 of 4" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[cactuswatcher]

"History of the Saturday Morning Cartoons..." is fun but sadly more nostalgia for folks your age than a look at the longer history.

There were Saturday morning cartoons as long as I can remember which goes back to the early 1950s. Mostly they were cartoons originally intended for showing in movie theaters to get the audience settled before the main feature. At first they were limited on Saturday morning, because there were quite a few kids shows scripted with live actors: The Lone Ranger, Sky King and others I can't recall at the moment. Live action kids programming continued into Saturday afternoon with shows like The Adventures of Superman, The Cisco Kid, and The Count of Monte Cristo. Remember too that virtually every city of any size had weekday after school cartoons and showings of The Little Rascals on a local basis with a local live host or hosts. St. Louis had Texas Bruce and his competing Corky the Clown on one station and Cookie and the Captain on another. I learned Columbus, Ohio had Flippo the Clown, who eventually switched to afternoon movies on his show which ran into the 1970's. Phoenix, AZ had Ladmo and Wallace... Unless you lived in those places you'd never hear of them.

Saturday morning cartoons started from the beginning of theater cartoons with sound. We had Krazy Kat, and a few others from before talking pictures that were given sound tracks in the 1930s. Slowly with increasing syndication we got a little of everything from the 1930 and 1940, Mighty Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, Woody Woodpecker and so on. Disney was the only one to hold his cartoons out of syndication and, of course, those began showing up on Disney's own show early in the evening on Sundays, often better received than some of the live action stories he produced in the early days of his show.

Frankly, cartoon production began to deteriorate badly as the 1950s went on. As those more recent cartoons started showing up on TV everyone preferred the older ones. Studios were already cheapening their animations. Warner Brothers shift to outside sources for Merry Melodies in the mid 1960s almost meant the death of that long franchise. There were some cartoons appearing by 1960 specifically made for TV like King Leonardo and His Short Subjects, but they mostly appealed to the youngest kids. The one bright spot in the 1960s was the sudden appearance of Hannah-Barbera, with their Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and The Flintstones. But as you noted those guys never could resist copying themselves. I remember seeing very the first episode of the the Jetsons and every teenager still watching cartoons groaning that it was just the Flintstones in different costumes.

The best cartoons of the 1960s came on Sunday afternoon with Rocky and Bullwinkle. The worst was Johnny Quest (on friday evening) which Hannah-Barbera owned, but was drawn in a way like nothing we'd seen before. It started that butt-ugly style of animation that lasted well into the 1970s, by which time I was in grad school and wasn't regularly watching TV of any kind let alone cartoons. By the time I peeked in in the late 1970s the animation was often still garbage, but the stories in things like Batman and Scooby Doo were vastly superior to the stuff churned out in the late 1960s.

There were a few hold out live action kid shows in the late 1970s like Shazam! and Isis, but by then it was mostly cartoons on Saturday.

[shadowkat]

So...you think Rocky and Bulwinkle was great animation and Johnny Quest was butt-ugly? LOL!

[cactuswatcher]

Actually I meant R and B was a great cartoon series. Animation virtually didn't exist in cartoons in those days. But, yes, JQ was butt-ugly compared to R and B. Your mileage may vary. (Remember the cartoons I grew up with compared to what you grew up with and you might understand where I'm coming from.)

[shadowkat]

Eh. Mileage varies.

Also I can't comment on things I haven't seen. I was born in 1967. If it aired prior to 1970? Chances are, I did not see it. And if it aired between 1970-74, it's unlikely I remember it.

[cjlasky7]

Been awhile since I've posted...

Chuck Jones is the grandmaster of the classic Warner Brothers directors. While I love the way Bob Clampett could serve up the wacky and Friz Freleng could kill with a sight gag, Jones hit me where I live with his exquisite timing and his detailed facial expressions. (Think about the way the Grinch's mouth curls into an evil smile when he gets his "perfectly awful" idea...)

I grew up with Looney Toons as my Saturday morning (and afternoon) cartoons--that and Hanna Barbera. I remember enjoying Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear (hey Boo Boo!) and Magilla Gorilla along with the Jetsons and the Flintstones. (I really grew to enjoy the Jay Ward toons--R&B, Mr. Peabody, etc.-- when I was old enough to understand the jokes.)

The '80s stuff like G.I. Joe or Transformers? Nope. That was a fallow period for me and cartoons. The love came back with Tiny Toons and Pinky and the Brain, which kicked off the American cartoon renaissance.

[shadowkat]

1. I actually meant to just post the Chuck Jones video for you. But fell down a bit of a rabbit hole of nostalgia and horror. Some of those cartoons and commercials are down-right disturbing. However, they do explain our current political environment.

The Chuck Jones vid fascinated me because it showed how Jones realized you needed to develop an interesting character to make the joke work. Otherwise it got repetitive. It helped if the audience invested in the character and understood the character's motivation. There's a rather good Wile E. Coyote cartoon where Wile E talks to the audience during it -- and we follow his complicated and often clever attempts to capture the Road Runner. It's funny because of that build-up. Logically he should be able to get the Road Runner, but because he doesn't think like the Road Runner - he can't.

Jones was also a master of the expression or understated expression on his character's faces.

2. I can't say I ever watched GI Joe or the Transformers (they were aimed at 12 year old boys, I was a 16 year old girl).

It just occurred to me -- there weren't hardly any cartoons aimed at young women or girls or that weren't sexist or non-gender specific. They were all aimed at 12 year old boys or adolescent boys, with male humor with women often the brunt of the joke. The characters in most of those funny cartoons were nasty boys who objectify women. The commercials are equally horrible in this respect, although they gradually improve over time.

Some really disturbing images in those video reels.

So, what did I watch?

The Sid & Marty Kroft Hour (H n R PuffnStuff, Electro Woman and Dino Girl).

ISIS

A lot of Japanese Horror movies (my best friend at the time had a fetish for monster movies).

Scooby Doo Where Are You?

Josie and the Pussycats, which felt like a copy of Scooby.

Captain Harlock (frigging hard to find)

Battle of the Planets (also hard to find), later G-Force

Kimba The White Lion (hard to find as well)

Drak Pack (which I thought was funny)

Speed Racer (best friend at the time loved)

Super Friends

The Amazing Spiderman

Guillivar's Travels

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Yogie Bear

The Looney Tunes

Sailor Moon

Jen and the Holograms (briefly - it aired much later)

Thunderbirds (also later)

I tended to like fantasy and adventure series. The comedic ones, I didn't find funny -- but they weren't aimed at me. They were aimed at 12 year old boys. I did like Daria though.