Enough wtih the Cartoon Network Nostalgia Already!

The other day someone posted a picture on Facebook lamenting the "old" Cartoon Network.  Now for those of you too young to remember, let me offer a bit of history into Cartoon Network when it first became a cable channel.  It began in 1992, media mogul Ted Turner had obtained the rights to the vast library of Hannah Barbera cartoons and started a cable channel devoted to 24/7 play of the old Hannah Barbera cartoons as well as reruns of the vast backlogs of cartoons from Warner Bros.  So Cartoon Network was born as a place where you could watch a lot of classic cartoons as a lot of cable channels in their early years rely on reruns of old shows to fill their daily schedules as they slowly began to add their own original programming.  Thus, over time, like it's other kid oriented counterpart, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network began airing a lot of its own original programming.  As time went on, less and less classic shows were on in favor of newer shows that were clearly getting better ratings and attracting the demographic they wanted.  So as you can expect, you now have a bunch of sad sack gen Xers lamenting the "old" Cartoon Network, upset that their channel now houses shows like Ben 10, Adventure Time and Regular Show and they can no longer tune in to endless repeats of Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry.  Oh, wait, those are still on Cartoon Network.

Some would be annoyed at this. After all, we grew up in an age where MTV went from a cool 24 music video station to a disgusting display of scum bag college kids and teenagers showing off the worst of humanity. But for me, Cartoon Network didn't devolve THAT badly despite a short time where they contradicted themselves with a block called "CN Real" where they tried having reality shows, but in the end, Cartoon Network still shows cartoons even if so many these days are CG.  Meanwhile, the old classics didn't go away, rather they were moved to Boomerang. Not to mention we live in the age of Internet video streaming and DVDs.  A quick browse of Amazon will find you all the DVD collections of Warner Bros.

Another commenter on the picture was saying how sad it was that network TV no longer had "Saturday Morning Cartoons," which is almost extinct now.  Once upon a time, before cable TV, kids got up early on Saturday to eat sugared cereal and watch cartoons that ran from 6am to noon usually, but looking back, that could be a pain. Never mind your mother deciding to run the vacuum cleaner while your favorite show was on, you never knew when the network would decide to interrupt your animated bliss with a stupid news special report or sports cutting your morning short.  It's easy to see why kids gravitated to Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network where you didn't have to worry about that, then along came Netflix where you could watch an entire season of a show with no commercials.  Let's see, watch a six hour block of shows that can get interrupted or watch all day long with no interruptions.  It's easy to see why Saturday morning network programming went the way of the VHS and cassette tapes.

But back to the concept of "old" Cartoon Network.  I'm not going to rip on Adventure Time or Regular Show because I never really watched either and yet I find many people in my age group to be big fans of those shows and unlike MTV which really is nothing but garbage now, it's not like there aren't some good shows coming out of CN.  Star Wars: Clone Wars gave us something worthwhile out of the often reviled Prequel Trilogy and as a fan of dragons, I found DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk to be pretty good for a show based on a movie series. Adult Swim still has it's loyal following of late night stoners and I heard that Toonami was back for the late night anime fans.  Do I miss tuning in to watch Looney Tunes, Flintstones or Scooby Doo?  Sure, but again, that's what Boomerang is for. It's not like the old Disney Afternoon shows which are next to impossible to find, even as a good DVD set. Seriously I'll write another blog at how much Disney sucks when it comes to releasing their old TV series on DVD.

The other thing that gets me is the parents who look back at stuff like the old Warner Bros. cartoons as if they were something "wholesome" and "moral."  I look at Warner Bros. cartoons and think "have these folks watched any of these recently?"  Sure the old Looney Tunes didn't rely on bodily functions for humor, yet if you sat down and watched uncut versions of the old Looney Tunes you would see all the following:

• Smoking
• Usage of alcohol and drunkenness
• Racial slurs (especially if you watch old WWII propaganda shorts)
• Sexual innuendo
• Gun violence
• Cross dressing (Bugs like dressing in drag didn't he?)
• Animal Abuse
• Homosexuality (Bugs Bunny liked kissing other guys a lot)

Point this out in the old shorts, which were originally intended for adults to begin with and you'll get blown off hearing "oh lighten up it's just a cartoon!" Yet the same parents see Spongebob fart or drop his pants and it's "OMG THAT'S AWFUL!! Censor that filth!!"  Bit of a contradiction I would say, which goes back to the whole nostalgia thing.  I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s before the Warner Bros. cartoons started getting heavily edited where they cut out any racial slurs or certain violent acts but I turned out just fine and yet my mom who was perfectly fine with me watching Elmer Fudd blast Daffy Duck in the face with a shotgun, but was worried about the Ninja Turtles fighting robotic foot soldiers being "too violent."  It's really amusing when you think about it.

In conclusion, I am tired of listening to Generation X complain about how Cartoon Network was "ruined" despite the fact that all those old cartoons moved to Boomerang especially given the current Cartoon Network still shows cartoons.  When you look at how so many other cable channels like History, TLC and MTV of course, have devolved into nothing but reality TV shows about white trash people and their scumbag lives, the Cartoon Network lamenting just sounds like a bunch of old people sitting on the porch talking about the "good ol' days."  Maybe we're just getting old.