Why did the 90's offer a larger variety of broadcast kids shows than the 2000's-present?

Submitted by sgavary t3_1170qv6 in television

Back in the 90's there were plenty of broadcast channels that offered plenty of kids programming: Fox Kids, Kids WB, ABC, UPN, 4Kids, etc, that all offered plenty of kids shows: X-Men, Recess, Animaniacs, Batman the Animated Series, Pokemon, etc. However, when the 2000's began, fewer and fewer high quality cartoons stopped airing on broadcast networks and went to cable, and most of the non cable cartoons were preschool cartoons. What happened to high quality TV-Y7 cartoons that could be watched without cable?

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WeDriftEternal t1_j99jwr3 wrote

Because of a law passed by the US putting regulations on children's TV shows during the 90s. The real effect of this wasn't quite a thing until the late 90s and got solidified shortly after in the early 2000s as all the broadcasters were on board and business models had changed.

Basically, children's TV was a free for all of all types, local, national, acquired overseas content, lvie action, cartoons, just bonkers and go crazy with it.

This lead to tons of kids programming on broadcast since it did pretty well, especially in certain hours, like before school and saturday morning. Animation became the go to here, for lots of reasons, but they aren't important.

So while the 80s and 90s were absolutely filled with all types of childrens animated shows, some good, bad, for younger kids, or teens, experimental or classic -- lots of options and the ratings were good so things were good, keep watching! Its doing great, we can take chances, and we can invest in this.

But then in the mid-late 90s a law passed earlier was more cracked down on-- it forces broadcast networks to make a certain amount of 'Educational & Informative' (called E/I) content, airing roughly 1-2 hours per day.

So this content can be anything, but it was mandatory conent, and most cartoons and stuff didn't meet its needs. Instead you'd often just purchase some shit syndicated show (like some guy with animals, or an educational cartoon). And really the only place for this, was the same time as kids TV.

So you basically cut out a big chunk of kids TV every single day.

Lots more happened, but it gets technical and less ELI5... but suffice it to say, a lot of content in kids areas got pushed out or FAR more highly selective for the same time slots, and thus, the boom shifted away from kids animation on broadcast networks more to cable nets that could content with lower ratings and more niche content. Broadcast just didn't need to recompete to regain that audience, it wasn't worth it.

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A_Meal_of_Pain t1_j99qzi4 wrote

It was also the end of the era in which most children watched their cartoons in Saturday morning, because broadcast television was becoming less of a big deal and there was always cartoons on one of the cable channels.

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onarainyafternoon t1_j9amep3 wrote

I've really only noticed educational cartoons for children that are younger than six or seven years old. Am I just missing the ones for older kids?

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DueCharacter5 t1_j9aujz4 wrote

Carmen Sandiego, and like op mentioned, there were a ton of animal shows. I didn't watch them regularly, as I was basically in middle/high school when the shift really happened, but I remember them being on for the first hour or two before cartoons started.

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CryptidGrimnoir t1_j9c0qhw wrote

Well, at least for PBS, some of their shows leaned a bit older than six or seven.

As far as PBS is concerned, Arthur and Cyberchase were perfectly fine for six year olds to watch, but their more complex story-telling made them more popular with older children. For a while, they were even part of the "PBS Kids Go!" block, which was specifically marketed to older elementary schoolers.

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Maninhartsford t1_j9c2zqb wrote

A lot of the ones on broadcast claimed to be educational because of the morals taught. If you ever watched Disney's One Saturday Morning, that's what the light bulb coming in at the end of the theme song and the announcer saying "in illuminating television" was about.

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methodwriter85 t1_j9e7kj6 wrote

One interesting thing is that Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego was part of the 90's push for educational content, but unfortunately it disappeared because the information given by the show would quickly get outdated. There are some episodes where they actually had to put up a disclaimer,

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Pool_Shark t1_j9bprsf wrote

So did a show like Hysteria fall under the E/I category since it was educational ?

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smashfest t1_j9d99lu wrote

I’m pretty sure Hysteria was created as a direct response to the new E/I regulations, same with shows like Science Court

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WeDriftEternal t1_j9bxp0e wrote

I'm not familiar with that show. If you want references, today they must be labeled E/I, so you can look at tv guide and see what types of shows count

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DrRexMorman t1_j99kbkp wrote

>What happened to high quality TV-Y7 cartoons that could be watched without cable?

They're still around, they just aren't being marketed to you.

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MJIndian t1_j9aemwe wrote

I'm pretty sure PBS Kids (not a cable channel) still produces new shows to this day, so yeah they're still around. We just don't know as we're adults and don't pay attention. Whether or not they're high quality, I wouldn't know since I don't watch them anymore.

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sgavary OP t1_j9ah6bj wrote

I did some checking, they do but no Y7 shows just TV-Y shows, in the 90’s you could watch stuff like Batman Beyond without Cable

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joe-biden-updates t1_j9ckgfx wrote

>They're still around

Maybe on some obscure channel like 62.8, but I think OP's question was more of why all of these blocks got canceled:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids%27_WB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Kids

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Kids_(TV_programming_block)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelodeon_on_CBS

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Breeze69420 t1_j9xktkz wrote

Why did networks stop airing children's programming from 3-5 everyday is the question and you got links.

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DrRexMorman t1_j9cvull wrote

>some obscure channel

Random wikipedia links aside, television networks still produce children's programming.

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joe-biden-updates t1_j9cyc30 wrote

Not random links, if you read the post they’re the cartoon blocks OP was referring to and they’re all listed as discontinued

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DrRexMorman t1_j9d4ed0 wrote

I'm no sure if you misunderstood the question or don't know where you're posting.

Good luck.

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Knowlesdinho t1_j99oapt wrote

On Saturday mornings we used to get up and watch the Saturday morning shows that were for kids, some of these shows went on into the afternoon especially in the 80s.

In fact, Saturday Telly was a big event for all in the 90s in the UK. The Saturday cartoon shows with live action studios would have adult themes running through them with 'wink, wink, nod, nod' bit of blue for the dads jokes running through them.

From 2pm onwards, it was likely you'd be outside playing with your mates, then back in to watch Baywatch, You Bet, Gladiators then bed. Dad's would be glued to the telly for the slow motion boobies, and mums didn't seem to mind because they had the Hoff to stare at.

Now kids get up and it's straight to an online game, content on the internet and everyone in the family is largely doing the same. I'm not critical of this, times change, but that's why you don't have the kids shows of the 90s etc.

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MINKIN2 t1_j9atlb5 wrote

Oh the end of Saturday morning TV hit me hard even as an adult. Born in 78 with older siblings, Saturday morning TV (in the UK) was a staple TV viewing before I could understand what it was. And as I grew older, I was their prime target audience as an 80s kid.

Then into the 90s it was just what we did. Even later, waking up still hung over from the night before it became something to sober up to. Come in to my 30s, it was background TV as we did the chores.

Then one day it was all gone, replaced with some shitty cooking magazine shows. For years after, I would still find myself waking up, head still clouded with sleep and putting on the TV out of pure muscle memory and being disappointed that the piece of my childhood was gone.

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monkeyskin t1_j9cczly wrote

That’s what hits the hardest, not being able to relive childhood experiences as an adult / parent because they’re just not there any more. We’re not the first generation it’s happened to and it’s a part of growing up, but damn it stings.

Of course if you told 9 year old me who’s just missed that weeks only airing of Batman TAS that in the future every episode of every show will be available on demand I’d think you’d be living in a utopia. The reality is that convenience erodes the charm and it all blurs together. But I don’t know where I’d be if I couldn’t bring up the specific episode of Bluey that my girls want to watch.

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GCGS t1_j9ckukc wrote

>Of course if you told 9 year old me who’s just missed that weeks only airing of Batman TAS that in the future every episode of every show will be available on demand I’d think you’d be living in a utopia

I bought "The rose Of Versailles" DVDs around 2004 cause i missed the last episode in the 80's....

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smack54az t1_j9bjd7f wrote

Changes to laws in the late 90's made kids programming far less profitable. In addition sports programs turned out to get just a good of ratings and are far cheaper to produce.

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n3rv0u5 t1_j99iyhr wrote

Simple answer: Kids prefer YouTube, Netflix, etc and nearly everyone has high-speed internet now. Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney, PBS, etc are all available on one streaming service or another and those are getting new shows all the time, but maybe not as often.

It's not as financially viable to air a show on TV these days, not like it used to be. The commercials that keep these shows on air are not getting the viewership they would if they just advertised online.

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spyson t1_j9bqads wrote

Streaming and youtube weren't a thing until after saturday morning cartoons died. What killed saturday morning cartoons was cable channels that catered specifically for kids like Nick, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel.

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Precarious314159 t1_j9f6myk wrote

This is the answer. It's not like there's some conspiracy to stop production on kids show, it's just that they weren't a viable option.

As a kid in the 90s, there used to be tons of programing blocks for kids on every channel but over time, people just stopped watching. CBS kids used to have some classics but then Fox News, Kids WB, and ABC's One Sautrday Morning got all the quality shows and no one cared about Muppet Babies. Same thing with after school blocks; Disney Afternoon was huge but then Kids WB and Fox Kids got Animanics, Batman, X-Men and whatnots and no one cared about Bonkers or Snoochums and Meat.

My niece is 14 so I've gotten to see the current generation's connection with cartoons and they don't need a 6:30am airing of Beast Wars or a 4pm airing of Mucha Lucha when they watch something on Netflix, YouTube, or OnDemand. They don't need saturday morning blocks because they have their favorite episodes of the Loud House or Steven Universe available instantly.

Let's be real, if we had HBO Max with every episode of Adventure Time, we wouldn't still choose to watch it on broadcast tv and sit through commercials. Cartoon Network and other kid-focused channels are struggling because kids just aren't watching broadcast tv so if they aren't watching, why would other channels like ABC, Fox, etc continue to waste money?

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WeDriftEternal t1_j9in5cz wrote

I assure you, 80s and 90s kids content boom was long dead before youtube, netflix, streaming, or any of this other stuff came about, instead those were the beneficiaries of their demise on broadcast as they could pickup shows cheap and many networks would offer kids content streaming free on their websites, as their value was basically zero on the network

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Minyo420 t1_j9akqgl wrote

People seem to have missed also saying that channels also began popping up that were literally just cartoons. Most of those quality shows went there.

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rougepenguin t1_j9aj89s wrote

There are other real reasons for this happening people laid out, but part of it is that...the prevalence of "kids" media in whatever forms are available is a generational trend that ebbs and flows. Not to say there wouldn't always be something kid-friendly, just how bigger picture trends shake out.

90s parents were bigger on "subversive" entertainment where the appeal was pushing boundaries they'd realistically not want kids in on. But my parents would scoff at a fellow adult watching Pokemon with their kids. This era's been more about legit "fun for the whole family" content like Marvel, etc.

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BrunoBashYa t1_j9bvpw5 wrote

YouTube. Kids will still choose to watch shitty minecraft let's plays

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SgtSharki t1_j9dm3fp wrote

In addition to the legal changes, it was a cost savings measure. Animated shows are expensive, live action educational shows like "Jack Hanah" and similar "critter" based shows were much cheaper to produce. There has also been a shift in entertainment consumption since the 90s. Young males, the target audience for many of these shows, are much more likely to be playing video games on a Saturday morning than watching TV or streaming.

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sgavary OP t1_j9dqzuv wrote

What legal changes?

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SgtSharki t1_j9e38wp wrote

Other Redditors commented on it. Basically, there was a change in regulations with regard to children's programming that lead to more live-action, education-oriented shows.

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jogoso2014 t1_j9ader3 wrote

There has never been more variety in children’s programming across streaming and cable and without the advertising inherent with broadcasting.

Broadcast were fighting a losing battle.

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hour_of_the_rat t1_j9aisks wrote

You download Gargoyles, Swat Kats, and 2 Stupid Dogs. What more do you need?

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[deleted] t1_j9a69tp wrote

[deleted]

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nithos t1_j9a7cxp wrote

Maybe my kids are the anomaly, but they will watch the same series over and over again (usually rotating between 2-3 different shows).

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