This week, the Fox television network announced it will be dropping its weekday afternoon children’s programming as of January. Fox has been one of the leading cartoon creators in recent years. From the action packed “X-Men” to the sleek and stylish “Batman: The Animated Series,” not to mention the live-action “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” Fox has been responsible for some of the most popular children’s shows ever.
Fox’s announcement is one more in a long line of children’s programming setbacks. In the last few years, network television has all but forgotten about kids.
If you were to scan the channels on a weekday afternoon, you would see lots of court shows, talk shows and, of course, Jerry Springer, but not much that would interest kids.
When I was growing up, we had all kinds of televised diversions. G.I. Joe, the Super Friends and the Autobots kept the world safe for me and my friends, while He-Man, Voltron and the Thundercats made sure the rest of the universe was in good hands. Critics said these shows were only 30-minute toy commercials, but I say these shows fed imaginations.
I never needed licensed Thundercats action figures because my friends and I WERE the Thundercats every afternoon on the school playground. We created our own adventures, from climbing Monkey Bar Mountain to vanquishing the dreaded Ants in the Corner of the Yard. (We never could come up with a clever name for them.)
Even the hallowed institution of Saturday morning cartoons is being replaced. Barring cable TV, a kid today would be hard-pressed to find anything worth watching these days.
NBC was once a shining bastion of Saturday morning goodness. Smurfs, Snorks and Gummi Bears hung out with Alvin, Simon, Theodore each week, and I was always invited to tag along. Now, Saturday mornings, like every other morning, are filled with the “Today” show. I don’t know a single kid who wants to spend their morning with Al Roker.
What happened to Garfield, Superman and Bugs Bunny? Did the Muppet Babies grow up? I mean, sure we know what happened to Pee-Wee and his playhouse, but what about all the rest of our Saturday morning friends?
In fact, in the 80s we even had Sunday morning cartoons. USA Network had everything a kid could want on “Cartoon Express,” which lasted about five hours. It was heaven: one continuous block of classic and not-so-classic cartoon shorts to keep a kid occupied until it was time for church.
Anything and everything ever created by Hanna Barbera seemed to occupy this show, from Yogi and Boo Boo to Blue Falcon and Dynomutt: Dog Wonder, and Space Ghost was a superhero, not a talk-show host.
When did network executives turn their backs on kids? Personally, I would think with everything happening in the world nowadays, kids deserve a little diversionary viewing.
