Saturday morning cartoons

Here's another essary I wrote in summer 1994. I found it among a bunch of my brother's pictures in my parents' house when I visited in October 2020.

College of Lake County, Summer 1994 semester, ENG 122, Tuesdays & Thursdays 7:00-9:45

There are only three reasons I’ve ever been awake very early in the morning: 1.) I’ve stayed up to watch a movie or play a video game at a sleepover, 2.) I’ve had to get ready for a car trip, or 3.) I got up to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Although the first two are grueling and exhausting experiences not to be repeated on a regular basis (at least not by me, thank you), the third reason is a real kick, no matter how old you are. Unfortunately, these days I am a both employed full time and a full-time student, so my body gives me no choice but to sleep during the time that, ten years ago, I could’ve set up office hours from 6 a.m. until noon in front of the TV.

Some of the shows I remember watching now rank as some of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen, although I would never have believed myself saying that back then. What’s really sad, though, is that my little brother (who just happens to be that 10 years younger than me) has no idea what I’m talking about. He has no idea how how awesome the “Snorks,” the “Smurfs,” or the “Go-Bots” were. (The “Go-Bots,” of course, was the superior predecessor to the “Transformers.”) And he’d have no clue about shows like that ran for only a year, like “Pandamonium” or “Dungeons & Dragons.”

I can still see “G.I. Joe” on TV, but nowadays it disgusts me. Like all long-running cartoons, it’s been filled with perverted shadows of the original characters. The new guys do so many of the same things as the old ones that it’s like watching a bad sequel over and over again. Old cartoons get like that, probably due to the merchandisers. It’s just like the Transformers: the cartoon is popular, so they sell the toys. After the kids get all the toys, they have to change the show to get rid of the really cool, old characters and usher in a new generation of weenie characters who do the exact same things. It’s a darn shame how the toy industry can destroy a good cartoon like that.

Still, I do seem to have a few flickers of hope left that hold the links between my brother’s cartoons and my own together. From the last ashes of my cartoon days were born the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or TMNTs). This cartoon, which started with a hilarious name and a ridiculous premise, kept going with scenes of fighting mutant turtles and, beyond all reasonable explanation, has lasted clear through about seven years to this very day on Saturday mornings. This show has led to the new rage – the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (of which my brother is a fan), which has the following to eclipse even the Transformers. I’ll even sit down for a half-hour to watch it with him. Don’t get me wrong – it substantiates the perception that the only successful kids’ shows are the brain-dead ones, but it’s brain-dead in a fun way.

It’s almost eerie how times have changed. If I’ve noticed how much of a cartoon generation gap at age nineteen, I wonder what the next generation of cartoons will bring….