#animated content

Chapter 1: The Rise of Television Animation with Saturday Morning Block

On August 18th, 2023 - I made a Post titled "The Summary of this whole current Debacles of Animation Industry" on this very Tumblr Page, @aniketsanimationblog, and you, animation fans, have expressed the concerns about What is Going on in The Global Animation Industry as a Whole, I am glad by that!! I am so thankful to those who expressed this concerns and realised that Animation is in Danger. Because, what happened in the Last Year, When Nickelodeon and Paramount+ Canceled and Removed Star Trek: Prodigy from their platforms at that time, until Netflix saved it to stream the entire Season 2 in one-go, just paint a big picture in the Animation Community. Last Year, Star Trek: Prodigy's Cancelation and Removal was not just the omission or abandonment of a Star Trek Show set in their universe or the best Star Trek Show in the Alex Kurtzman's Era of New Star Trek Shows, but also a big Massive Shocker of a Serialised Animated Kids' Show, that had a chance to become Nickelodeon's Next Avatar: The Last Airbender, betrayed by their own original Network, is like committing a Seppuku.

And it happened at the same time or before that incident, when most of the great Animated Series at the same time were Canceled/Canceled + Removed/Sabotaged by their respective Broadcasters, showing the Dismays of Fandoms of their respective shows. Now either only a handful of Good shows are left or there is nothing to watch at all, because of Kids TV Broadcasters' Greed and most notably Animation Community's Biasness towards Shows that, nowadays, have become a Money Generator, and no longer serving any good quality things to the fans, whatsoever, once they had in their prime, in the first place.

Now depending on who you may ask, "How did this Happen? What Happened to the Kids Television, once we used to love since our Childhoods, have gone in their Worst Phases now?"

Well, to understand why this happened, we need to go to the history of how this Kids TV Animation had started to build its Large Empire.

To understand the history of Kids TV Animation, we need to go back to where it all started. Since, it's a long history, and for context, The Kids TV Animation first started in the United States of America, as Hollywood were the only film industry to create Animation Renaissance from the big screens, they are also responsible for creating Majority of their Animations in the Small screens, we have to go back all the way to 1928. This is the year, when Walter Elias Disney, as we all know him as the legendary Pioneer and The Father of Animation, released his iconic Cartoon Character, Mickey Mouse's First Short film, "Steamboat Willie". At that time, "Steamboat Willie" was released over on Hollywood Theatres. But at the same time, there was an experiment happened at the small screens, aka The Television, with some limited animation cartoons appeared on TV with one of the images of "Felix The Cat". And remember, at that time, TV was available to some people who could afford TV, when majority of people weren't ready to switch from Traditional Radio. So, a handful of People watched that experiment going on.

Then some Animated TV movies happened like, "Willie The Worm" by Chad Grothkopf. It was an Eight-minute experimental TV Movie in Animated form.

But all changed in 1950s when, TV Animation started to broadcast like, "Crusader Rabbit" and "Colonel Bleep" etc.

But the First TV Animated Series came along, consisting of Animated Shorts, "Captain Kangaroo", by the Terrytoons, which is often referred to as, "One of the Finest Cartoons to ever produce on TV".

But the Cartoons, at that time, was seen primarily as "Children's Entertainment" by some Movie Exhibitors.

In 1954, Walt Disney capitalized on the Medium of Animation to Showcase on TV, with his weekly show, "Disneyland", which was broadcasted by US Terrestrial Channel, ABC, which expanded later to "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color".

But as soon as Television popularized in the US, the people were slowly moving away from their traditional Radios and Movie Theatres, to the Compact form of Entertainment, Television. And thus, a new format was started to develop for TV Animation for Children, "The Saturday Morning Blocks", as the name suggests, the TV Animation would only be broadcasted on Saturday Mornings, because on Weekdays, The Kids are at their Schools, and on Sunday, With the American Football games clogging up the Sunday Schedules. At that time, there were no Cable systems, people were relying on Terrestrial Channels like ABC, CBS and NBC. And thus, American Children of that era were having a Ritual of watching Cartoons on Saturday Mornings.

And thus, some Television Animation Production Studios came afloat at the time. Such as, Filmation, Depatie-Freleng Enterprises, UPA Studios, Warner Brothers with their Merry Melodies, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) with their first classic iteration of Tom & Jerry until it's collapse in 1957, Disney Studios, and the leader of all Studios, Hanna-Barbera Studios, by the Creators of Tom & Jerry, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

For the Starters, 1960s era was the era, when TV Animation boomed with mostly H-B Studios, "The Ruff & Reddy Show", then "The Huckleberry Hound Show", "The Yogi Bear Show" and most notably, "The Flinstones", which was like an Half-an-hour Animated Sitcom series, aired on ABC, which was their biggest successful show on Studio History, running for 6 years, alongside The Jetsons and Top Cat.

Hanna-Barbera had the common Trope used in most of their series, featuring atleast an Anthropomorphic Animal and a Child Character, up until they created "Scooby-Doo! Where are you?" in 1969 for CBS. Many incarnations of Scooby-Doo spawned for 17 seasons on CBS and then ABC, uninterruptedly with their new formula of A Group of Teens solving Supernatural mysteries or Fighting Crime. And they are the ones, who started with their Limited Animation Technologies at that time for Artistic Reasons.

Disney Studios had their fair share of Animated Shows, showcased on TV, most notably The Mickey Mouse shorts including characters from the Mickey Mouse Universe, as we all know today, and also "Winnie The Pooh".

The Studio still had a decent amount of TV Animated Series, even after Walt Disney's Demise on 15th December 1966.

At the time of 1960s, there were several Animation Artists, mostly Animators, that are still called Legendary/Veteran Artists, like Walt Disney, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Gene Deitch, David H. Depatie, Friz Freleng, Don Bluth, to name a few.

But as Time went on, the Kids TV Animation was changed for a new era, that is beyond just only for "Saturday Mornings".

To be continued...

If you chose Embrace...

Konoyo, false guardian of hallucination, seeks a mortal vessel to embrace their nightmarish energy... They have been imprisoned high above the clouds of Arizel, locked away by the Ancients, who deemed their power too dangerous for a Nightmare to wield. Their power is that of inflicting crippling, irrational fear and confusion upon their foes to escape conflict.

They wish to rescue Nym... and turn her into a full Nightmare, plunging Shift City into darkness....

If you chose Bestow...

Elecity, false guardian of optimism, seeks a mortal companion upon which to bestow their powers. They have slumbered within the depths of the ground for decades, their larval form shed soon after they awakened. Their power lies within the ability to change their face, which they often use to sway enemies to their side.

They wish to save Nym and cleanse her soul of the corrupted energy once and for all.