(AfroGamers.com) Those of us who grew up during the pre-streaming and cable marathon era of TV tend to hold up Saturday morning as the golden era for cartoons on TV. It was for good reason.
The Saturday Morning Cartoon Landscape
Depending on the network, the Saturday morning block was must-see TV at a time when you could’ve just stayed asleep or actually went outside to do something. Well, in the 80s and 90s, being outside at 7 AM as an elementary schooler was good way to potentially end up a milk carton but Saturday morning was often slow but not Sunday morning slow.
Your heavy hitters were ABC and the WB (in my market originally our Fox affiliate and now the CW). Perpetually third place was UPN (now MyNetwork TV in this market). Those three had regular Saturday morning blocks with CBS and NBC getting away from Saturday morning toons in the morning.
Looking at TV logs from the 1980s, every major network had a Saturday morning block then CBS and NBC went to blocks that started with toons and finished with different kinds of content for kids. Some were educational and others were live action shows like Saved by the Bell.
The Weekday Cartoon Blocks
While Saturday always got the shine—and for good reason—the afternoon blocks were no slouches. It was more of a mix as to what you’d get because the primo toons were typically on Saturdays.
Meanwhile, the school day or weekday line-up featured a few bangers surrounded by either scrub toons or shows that would be viewed favorably but not as bangers.
For instance, you could see Batman: The Animated Series around 4 PM before The Simpsons on Fox/the WB which was outside of the Fox Kids/WB Kids slot. Before you got to Batman, you had to go through Tiny Toons Adventures, Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, and Freakazoid—a trio of banger series. You also had Eek the Cat and Bobby’s World. Both were fine cartoons but they weren’t the WB’s flagship stuff.
Worse was the mixed bag over on UPN where Mighty Max, Street Sharks, Mummies Alive, Mutant League, and The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog existed alongside Stone Protectors, Stunt Dawgs, Double Dragon, and The Adventures of T-Rex. It was a very scrub-heavy mix on the network and things didn’t truly pick up for the network until 1995 when Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, and Ronin Warriors aired.
Even with those shows on the network holding down the before school/weekday morning block, the afternoon cartoon block was largely a pass until Dragon Ball and Ronin Warriors were moved to the afternoon block and Eagle Riders (Gatchaman) debuted on the Saturday block.
Mind you, Cartoon Network had been alive and kicking since 1994 but if you didn’t have cable, the broadcast networks were your stop for toons.
Cable’s Cartoon Blocks
I was going to focus on the Sunday morning cartoons but that was probably the weakest block of cartoons you’d ever see. UPN had a block on Sundays where the only show of note was Technoman (Tekkaman Blade) and eventually Eagle Riders being sandwiched between early morning and late morning church programming.
No, we’re going to take a quick look at TBS which had a strong block game throughout the weekend. Even on TNT viewers were blessed with “MonsterVision” and TBS had the action/martial arts block “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies”.
TBS had the “Cartoon Planet” block starting in 1995 that was based around a kids’ version of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Think, SGC2C as a daytime talk show without guests. Surrounding it was a couple of classic Hanna-Barbera shorts that were worth the watch in the late 60s and 70s, Looney Toons, and Tex Avery bangers mixed in with some new faces such as SWAT Kats and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.
Of the cable cartoon blocks that weren’t “Toonami” and “Super Chunk”, this was a fun two-to-three hours of animation in the pre-Adult Swim era.
An underrated block was the “USA Cartoon Express”. Yes, there was a period when USA Network ran cartoons and many of those featured were fun and memorable ones even if the majority were mid. Savage Dragon and WildCATS were the standouts to me but Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were fun to watch on weekdays and Saturdays.
USA always had an odd line-up of toons because the four aforementioned series were all adaptations of series known for violence, fighting, and more mature themes than the likes of G.I Joe or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which was also in the “USA Cartoon Express”).
Do you remember the cartoon blocks from back then or did you come in during the Cartoon Network all day blocks, “Adult Swim” and “Miguzi” period? Let us know in the comments and share some of your memories and favorite toons from your favorite cartoon blocks.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.