What happened to the good cartoons????

[oldguy]

I was a WB guy when I was little.........Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, Foghorn Leghorn, Tas, Speedy Gonzales, Roadrunner, Yertle..............
But I also liked Tom & Jerry and all the others.........
Where did they go?
Where's Droopy Dog?
Are all my childhood heroes gone? At least they made sense......or not.

[warren0728]

pink panther....

[markb]

Tex Avery died and computers took over. Even the writing, it seems

Droopy's finest moment IMO

[sunvalleylaw]

I was a Warner Bros. guy too. Though I did like me some classic Scooby Doo. And one cannot leave off Peanuts specials, though those were more specials and not Sat. cartoons as such. My boys love Tom and Jerry, and Bugs and the gang, but they also like Sponge Bob. Fortunately, we don't get SB on cable and they have to wait until we are staying at a hotel or something. SB is just too ADD for me. I guess one of the only modern cartoons I like is Arthur.

I guess it is the writing that made them so much better. I have liked many of the Pixar films, largely due to the fact that they write about themes that I can relate to, while entertaining the kids.

[oldguy]

I liked the juxtaposition of the personalities.........the way Yosemite Sam would throw his temper tantrums and wind up on the losing end, while Bugs stayed cool and usually prevailed......except when he raced Yertle, who was about as slow as they come, but not in the head. And Foghorn's know-it-all attitude, even when he didn't know squat.
I know people like that..........

[evenkeel]

Love some of the older cartoons. The WB cast of crazies was great, also Rocky and Bullwinkle w/ Boris and Natasha, go to love those two, Benie and Cecil, Super Chicken, Mr. Wizard and of course, well note my signature.

Here is a fun site for old 'Toon fans.

http://www.toonopedia.com/

[R_of_G]

Just do what I did, buy the Looney Tunes collections on DVD and then you can watch Bugs et al. anytime you feel like it.

That said, there are still a number of well-written and extremely funny cartoons currently on television or which have been recently. The vast majority of these are not appropriate for children, but that is another story.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Yes, but when I was a kid cartoons were horrible.

The Hair Bear Bunch.
The Grape Ape...

When my kids were young cartoons started getting better

Ren & Stimpy
Doug
Rugrats
Rocko's Modern Life
Ahh! Real Monsters
The Angry Beavers
Spongebob Squarepants
CatDog
Invader Zim
The Fairly Oddparents
Futurama

These can hang with Looney Tunes & not be ashamed. Some are more for kids, but Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, & Invader Zim are fun for adults.

On the other hand, Looney Tunes should be on the air at all times.

Droopy Dog is in the US Senate. He still retains his powerful chairmanship after spending the year running for the candidate from the other party.

[bigoldron]

That #$@& Cartoon Network bought up all the rights to all the classics like Bugs and company and pulled them off the air. If they do show them, it's like 5 in the morning and then it's only every now and then. I hate Cartoon Network and its other channel Boom. All they show is crap now. The Pink Panther is about the only one of the old classics that you see, other than the Jetsons and some Tom & Jerry. But you also don't see much of the Flintstones or Underdog or any of the others. I flipped by the other day and even George of the Jungle is not the old George cartoons.

Everything nowadays is either some Jap fighting cartoon or some moronic garbage (Sponge Bob). Don't even start me on Disney... :

[Bloozcat]

Like so many other things in the media today, the cartoons have been dumbed down....

The old classic cartoons of the 30's through the early 70's were full of satire and adult references that were often over the heads of most young kids. But despite this, they were highly entertaining and humorously sarcastic even to young audiences. It used to be funny to revisit the old cartoons as we started getting older. References that we probably missed as kids, were suddenly clear, which made the cartoons funny all over again. I think the old cartoons challenged kid's minds more than what's out there today.

It wasn't until I started getting into music appreciation and band that I realized how much of what I knew of classic music came from Bugs Bunny (Wagner, Rossini, etc.).

[R_of_G]

I think the dumbing-down accusation is true of many current cartoons, but certainly not all of them.

Tot mentioned Futurama and I have to agree wholeheartedly. It was a phenomenally well-written show with jokes that could be called anything but dumbed-down. Many of the writers have degrees in science and engineering from Harvard and M.I.T. and the jokes are reflective of this education. There aren't many cartoons willing to throw in jokes about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

The same can be said for the first 9 seasons of The Simpsons. The seasons after that have been mostly crap with a good episode or joke here and there, but the first 9 seasons are cartoons I would put up against even the most classic Looney Tunes as far as entertainment value and intellectual level of the jokes.

Another show that is aimed at an intelligent audience is The Venture Brothers. It is more than the Johnny Quest parody it appears to be, much much more. Now, it's not for kids, but not everything has to be.

There are others but Futurama and the earlier Simpsons serve as perfect examples of cartoons that children would find funny and adults would find funnier.

[Tone2TheBone]

I used to like Johnny Quest. I say I say Foghorn Leghorn was my fav cartoon character though.

[Bloozcat]

I was speaking of cartoons as in the Saturday morning shorts variety as referenced in the original post.

Cartoons that are a half or full hour length shows are a different category, IMO. Shows like the Simpsons, Futurama, The Family Guy, et al, are certainly not in the same vein as the Saturday morning variety. The same was true of old show length cartoons like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat (one of my favorites), and the like...although the ones today deal with much more risque adult themes than those did.

[R_of_G]

I was speaking of cartoons as in the Saturday morning shorts variety as referenced in the original post.

Cartoons that are a half or full hour length shows are a different category, IMO. Shows like the Simpsons, Futurama, The Family Guy, et al, are certainly not in the same vein as the Saturday morning variety. The same was true of old show length cartoons like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat (one of my favorites), and the like...although the ones today deal with much more risque adult themes than those did.

Ok, I see the difference and largely agree that there are not shorts like there used to be.

Though, I would definitely say that the half-hour cartoon has smartened-up as opposed to dumbed-down. The Flintstones was a mildly entertaining rip off of The Honeymooners and The Jetsons was an uninspired rip-off of The Flintstones. None of those shows could hold their own against The Simpsons or Futurama. The writing is just far superior. Top Cat is still good though.

[duhvoodooman***]

Mel Blanc was a freakin' genius.... :

[Bloozcat]

Top Cat is still good though.

And even Top Cat was a rip off...of the Phil Silvers show. How many remember that?

OK, all the old guys are raising their hands....

When prime time (they didn't even call it that then) show length cartoons first started, it was a big gamble. After all, the cartoon was kid's stuff for Saturday mornings. A lot of people thought the format would never work. So, the producers and writers cautiously went with proven formulas. Hence the Honeymooners/Flintstones and Top Cat/Phil Silvers similarities. The Jetsons was a little different. That was more of a composite of Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Donna Reed Show, and the like. Later evening cartoon shows were free of that, so they could treat the cartoon format just like any new sitcom. The Simpsons is the obvious champ to come out of that.

[sunvalleylaw]

Pixar used to do some clever shorts for viewing before their future films. (Do you remember when they showed cartoons and shorts before movies?)

+1 on Simpsons. :

[markb]

And even Top Cat was a rip off...of the Phil Silvers show. How many remember that?

OK, all the old guys are raising their hands....

Apart from the Bilko rip off in the UK we had to endure the BBC renaming the show Boss Cat as there was a brand of cat food called Top Cat. I remember the announcer declaring "...and now it's time for Boss Cat" and then the theme would start up "da-da-da-da-da TOP CAT". Why on earth did they bother? :

[Katastrophe]

WB fan. Just look at my avatar.

YouTube is a gold mine for these old cartoons. I'm exposing Baby Kat to them when I can, and some of the Bugs cartoons she really likes.

I miss them a lot. Used to come on as I was walking in the door from school.

Mighty Mouse was another fave.: