Remember Saturday morning cartoons? Remember waiting all week for your favorite show to finally arrive, hoping for a new episode of The Smurfs, or The Jetsons? Saturdays meant waking up early (on purpose), not waking your parents, creeping to the TV, turning on the one or two channels that had cartoons, grabbing a bowl of dry cereal, letting your parents sleep in (did I already mention that?), and plugging in to a few glorious hours of animation?Now we have The Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, KPBS, and DVR. In other words All Cartoons All the Time.
Surely it's up to me to monitor the TV intake, which I do. But having a couple of shows on every morning while I get ready/make breakfast/make lunches/do shots etc. is all too easy. But many days when I need that time to blog time to vacuum and prepare an exquisite meal, and I throw a show on, cartoons in all their ubiquitous glory have lost their appeal.
I know, back in the olden days there was no TV, or it was black and white, or it only had 3 channels. And kids played and used their imaginations. I'm all for that. I'm just sayin' -- remember when you looked forward to the hunky Handy Smurf? If you checked out my list of DVR'ed episodes you may see a handful of Oprah's and Extreme Makeover Home Editions, but the other 10,438 shows are kids shows which they can now watch ON DEMAND. Sheez. Even Dora is losing her appeal in my house (which ain't a bad thang.) I guess I'm going to have to get all original now and actually build Barbie houses out of Lincoln Logs, 'cause cartoons just don't cut it around here.
