History of Saturday Morning Cartoons

Many kids inthe second half of the 20th century shared a common Saturday morning ritual: watching Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, and Rocky & Bullwinkle while eating a bowl of Captain Crunch.

This practice, however, was a relatively recent development, brought about by the advent of television. Before the1960s, cartoons were shown in theaters before feature films for adults. As more American families acquired TVs, animation studios retooled their storehouses to respond to the demand for new shows and Madison Avenue advertising executives shifted their focus to a lucrative new demographic: children.

Soon after-school and Saturday-morning timeslots were flooded with cartoons--and advertisements for sugary cereals and plastic toys. In this program, we will watch some clips from classic cartoons that will be sure to spark some nostalgia while taking a peek behind the TV screen, to learn how the classic Saturday morning was created.

This Etna Library event is sponsored by NH Humanities and presented by Margo Burns - a life-long fan of cartoons who studied animation in the Rhode Island School of Design's Continuing Education Program. Burns is a seventh-generation New Hampshire native, with two master's degrees from the University of New Hampshire.