It’s 10:30am on a Saturday morning and AJB’s kids are still asleep. Their eyes are not glued to the set watching 4 hours of uninterrupted Saturday morning cartoons, the way I did when I was little.

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to get up Saturday mornings. It meant all the cartoons you could sink your teeth into. Sometimes I’d get up too early and end up watching Villa Allegra – A Spanish educational show, sort of like The Electric Company – or the New Zoo Review; both of which were syndicated 70′s shows and sort of creeped me out. After that, it was a flurry of animated shows that came and went faster than I noticed. I watched it all, but my favorites were Looney Tunes, Superfriends, Shirt Tales, The Smurfs, Turbo Teen, Monchhichis, The Littles, Dragon’s Lair, Ewoks, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies, Droids: The Adventures of R2D2 and C3PO, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Misadventures of Ed Grimley, Superman, Plastic Man, Rubik the Amazing Cube, Thundarr, Pac Man, and CBS Storybreak. I’m sure there are more, but there are the ones that come to mind.

The decline of Saturday morning cartoons came towards the end of the 80′s and into the early 90′s. I was in junior high, starting high school. Once I got into high school, I remember not waking up so early anymore, but when I did, I still watched whatever was on. I remember thinking that I had to watch them or else they’d disappear forever – as if my watching made a difference. I knew I was getting older and the shows weren’t that great anymore. In fact, by the early 90′s, the era of Saved by the Bell (which I hated with a fiery passion) was dawning and Saturday cartoons were already waning. It coincided with my becoming a teenager and being more concerned with The Cure, The Smiths, and Siouxsie Sioux.

I was born in 1975, so by the time I could get myself up to watch TV, the glorious Saturday morning routine that 80′s kids recall with such loving devotion was just getting started (about 1979). I, along with everyone else in their mid-30′s, were given this unique gift that no other generation will know. I see AJB’s kid rise after 10am and immediately turn on the Wii. When I was a kid, rising at 10am meant missing all the good shows and it meant only another hour or so of animated programming. If, for some reason, I awoke late on a Saturday, I was bummed all day. How could I miss the cartoons? How awful! It was horrible. Kids on Monday would be talking about them and I would have to say I missed it. So, no, I rarely got up late. I also recall feeling sad when the final cartoon came on. Once that song for Saved by the Bell came on, we turned off the TV and played with our toys. Of course, back then, my parents liked to clean the house on Saturday so we did everything we could to get out of it.

It’s funny how kids change from generation to generation. AJB’s kids watch cartoons, but on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. At 12, the age of the twins, I was watching Teen Wolf, Muppet Babies, and Mighty Mouse. The twins watch something called Total Drama Island (which is actually fairly mature), Robot Chicken, and Spongebob. No wonder, I just looked it up and Spongebob is on 6 times in a row on Fridays and at least 4 times in a row during the week. That’s a lot of Spongebob.

There are very few new cartoons that I actually like. I don’t like Spongebob, even though some adults think it’s great. Occasionally a gem like Powerpuff Girls comes along, but it’s not like the old days when even the shows that sucked were good. They were good because they were cartoons. Good because Saturday was your day, a day for kids. AJB’s kids will spend the day playing Wii, Club Penguin, and Nintendo DS – all in separate rooms. AJB might round them up and take them out, but it’s been raining and a it’s a bit soggy outside.

It’s now 11am. If this were 1984, I’d be watching Mr. T followed by The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman.