More than meets the eye
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 2, 2001 9:00 p.m.
Image courtesy of Ruby-Spears Enterprises
By David Holmberg and
Suneal Kolluri
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Yo Joe! Cowabunga! By the Power of Grayskull! He He He! Go
Gadget Go!
Sound familiar? Well, for UCLA students growing up in the 1980s,
these philosophical catch phrases are still reverberating through
many heads.
Saturday morning cartoons ““ they were a weekly Christmas
morning, anticipated for days, rousing many-a-child from bed before
most students now leave the Friday night party.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures Television
There were the male-oriented action shows featuring the
pizza-eating antics of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or the
heroic deeds of Duke and the rest of “G.I. Joe: Real American
Hero” gang.
Flipping the gender channel, the girls had the peaceful love of
the Care Bears helping them through the day, and the joyous Rainbow
Brite keeping the world a colorful place.
“I liked “˜Care Bears,’ “˜Rainbow
Brite,’ some of the more girly stuff,” said second-year
communication studies student Stacey Pacas. “But I
don’t watch cartoons any more because I’m nostalgic for
those ones.”
So what happened? Back in the day, Saturday morning cartoons
were the childhood cultural lifeline, the topic of converstation
around the preschool water cooler.
Now, how many students revolve their lives around those animated
adventures of their favorite weekend characters?
“It’s too early. Also they’re really
dumb,” said Kristen Espantman, a third-year chemical
enginneering major. “If “˜X-Men’ was on still,
I’d watch it, but nowadays they try to make it all computer
animated, and it just doesn’t look good.”
Image courtesy of Lone Ranger Productions While there are those
who still make a point to watch them, it just does not seem to be
the same as it used to be.
He-Man no longer battles Skeletor, the Ghostbusters have ended
their attack on comical ghouls, and the Smurfs have laid aside
their strangely phallic white caps. Or have they?
Perhaps there is more than meets the eye to Saturday morning
programming, and it is not really the vast wasteland filled with
informercials and televangelists that many of today’s
students now perceive it to be.
Despite the disappearance of the beloved animated characters of
the ’80s, it seems cartoons are, in fact, far from dead.
“Cartoons are great,” said 6-year-old Victor
Karmona. “They’re really funny … my favorite is
“˜SpongeBob SquarePants'”
Nowadays, the claws of Wolverine have been replaced by the
lightning bolts of Pikachu and the adorable antics of
“Rugrats” have taken over for the cuddly “Care
Bears” of the past.
And although it is surprising to many college students, these
new cartoons seem to be a huge success.
“Cartoons just might be bigger than they have been in a
long time. There are just so many more outlets for cartoons
today.” said head of TV cartoon publicity at Disney, Gary
Miereanu.
Even the popularity of cartoon action figures among children
signifies their thirst for cartoons.
Action figures for shows like “Pokemon,”
“Digimon” and “Rugrats” are comparable to
the huge success of “G.I. Joe” and “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles” action figures years ago.
Image courtesy of Hanna Barbera Productions
The cartoon industry has definitely expanded since the days when
today’s UCLA students sat intently in front of a television
set in a pair of Superman pajamas on a Saturday morning, with three
or maybe four channels to flip between.
Some of the major advancements in animated programming came with
the advent of cable television. The vast number of networks allow
today’s kids a bright new world of animated choices.
“If I didn’t have cable, I’d be bored out of
my mind!” said 10-year-old Sarah Greengroff. “I’d
probably read the newspaper.”
The world of cartoons has entered a new era of prosperity and it
would seem that the once clued-in youth of the ’80s have
become the out-of-touch young adults of the new millenium.
Many college students have never even heard of such shows as
“Recess” or “SpongeBob SquarePants,” yet
these shows are a hit among younger generations.
This is a pattern that is repeated continually in popular
culture, as each generation outgrows its own self-produced fads.
Children of the 1970s were fed a healthy diet of “H.R.
Pufnstuf” and “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” shows
that were novelty re-runs by the time most UCLA undergraduates were
born.
And before that there was Deputy Dawg and Cool McCool
entertaining the youth of the 1960s.
“Popular cartoons always seem to come full-circle. There
is always a new popular cartoon on television. You guys remember
the “˜Ninja Turtles.’ after that there were “˜Power
Rangers,’ and now there’s “˜Recess’ and
“˜Pokemon,”’ Miereanu said.
Yet the fads of yesteryear have not completely vanished from the
airwaves.
Thanks to the marvel of today’s cable television, most of
these programs can still be seen, although most are no longer
during the prime-time of kid viewing. The Cartoon Network is
practically an archive of old favorites.
The classic cartoons of the 1980s are now merely the topic of
nostolgicconversation, and no longer the driving force behind
network kid’s progamming.
But Saturday morning will arrive again, as it always has, and as
sure as the sun rises there will be cartoons. And there will be
kids to watch them. Hours of animated shows, on stations many never
knew existed, about characters only those under 10 years old have
heard of.
And with that, UCLA students have sealed their fate as the
culturally misguided adults of the future, just like their parents
before them.
But now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
