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What Happened To Saturday Morning Cartoons?
A television block creating decades of cartoon lovers
You wake up one early Saturday morning watching shows on your phone. While scrolling, a cartoon appears that reminds you of the time you were a kid viewing cartoons on Saturday mornings.
It makes you wonder what happened to Saturday morning cartoons, and are TV channels still airing them?
Don’t touch that dial
To have a firm grasp of Saturday morning cartoons, we need to understand their origin. In the 1930s, cartoons companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers would show Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes shorts in the movie theater.
Given the limited technology in the ‘30s, animators had no choice but to release their animations in the cinema. Times would change when television sets came to the market.
In 1950, televisions became affordable for middle-class families, giving animators the chance to bring cartoons to the small screen.
The new tool of traditional animation: a process where a cartoonist can draw multiple frames of animation without redrawing the scene, allowed companies to produce cartoons cheaper and faster.