When the San Francisco Giants eliminated the Washington Nationals - and home run gazer Bryce Harper - from postseason play the other night by virtue of a 3-2 victory (and a 3-1 NLDS series win) my first reaction was to do my version of the Mumbly (aka Muttley) laugh.
If you’re anywhere close to my age, you know the one. Upon seeing the misfortune of a nemesis, Mumbly would give his tale tell laugh as the punchline. It went like this.
The Nats, you see, are the current team to beat in the N.L. East and the dreaded rivals of the Atlanta Braves. So, watching them fail is a good thing.
Shh Shh Shh.
Go Giants! (The enemy of my enemy is my friend…and all that).
But after I did the Mumbly laugh with regard to the Nats’ misfortune, I also thought about some recent stories I read about the demise of Saturday morning cartoons. So, whereas generations of little shavers were introduced to him and numerous other cartoon characters – from Fred Flintstone to Scooby Doo – current kiddos probably wouldn’t have a clue as to who Mumbly is.
They never got to experience the joy of the Laugh-A-Lympics and similar programming.
When Holly was a kid, she loved for us to ‘pretend Scooby.’ Often, that would be one of our nighttime activities. Paul was happy to join the fun. So, often, Holly would be Scooby, Paul would be Shaggy and I was relegated to being the third wheel – whether that was Scrappy Doo…or Scooby Dumb.
In either case, if future kiddos are trying to find these characters, Saturday morning won’t be the place to look. Last Saturday, for the first time in the television era, there was no Saturday morning cartoon on any of the major American networks.
Folks commenting online talked about this as a shocking and disappointing development; an end of an era. I suppose it is all that. But, it’s not a surprise.
For years, cable television programming – to use Lisa’s phrasing – is hyper niche. There are scores of cable channels that carry animated programming. One (“Boomerang,” I believe it is) specializes in showing the cartoons that me and my sister grew up with – Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby Doo and all those.
Back in the day, if you wanted to see a cartoon, you tuned in Saturday morning. The networks were THE PLACE.
Now, there are hundreds of places. So, it’s not surprising that the networks have turned to other, more profitable programming, to fill Saturday morning airtime.
Lisa and I have explained to our kids that, for example, if you wanted to see one of the Charlie Brown specials (Christmas, Great Pumpkin, you name it), you had one chance. One of the networks – CBS, likely – would air the 30 minute program. If you happened to miss it, you were out of luck. The show was gone for another year.
Now, of course, in the era of DVRs (or VCRs before that), you can set your technology to record the program. And, Rudolph, Frosty or any of the other myriad animated holiday shows becomes your’s to watch at your convenience. And in the advent of cable – and the proliferation of multiple kid channels – you might have multiple opportunities to see each show each season.
And such is the case with Saturday morning programming as well. You can see what you want when you want.
So, I guess I’m not too weepy about the news that current kids won’t be able to start their Saturday with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch (with crunch berries) and the latest exploits of George Jetson. The train has simply left the station.
The television station, that is.
JG
Originally posted 10/9/2014
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