The end of my Saturday morning cartoons era was in the mid to late 90s due to the growing need for sleeping in on Saturday to make up for the Friday night before. I noticed long before then, that the quality of Saturday morning cartoons was declining. This trend has continued to the present, almost killing Saturday morning cartoons as we know them. I grew up the 80s and the early 90s and lived in the central time zone so cartoons began at about 05:30 a.m. and lasted until about 11:00 a.m... Cartoons of that era were extremely popular. I was excited about it all week long and I woke up before the crack of dawn to see them. I think the popularity of the cartoons was not limited to the sheer greatness of cartoons of the era. I think it was hugely aided by corporate America. Marketing was completely geared towards kids. There were very few cartoons that did not have a toy line to back up the very marketable storyline. The following cartoons had very successful careers as toys and cartoons.







The Wuzzles were a cartoon about a land called wuzz that was inhabitied by animals that were two kinds of animals mixed togetheir like a bumble bee and a lion or a monkey and rhino. With characters named Bumblelion and Rhinokey hilarity was bound to ensue. The show only lasted 13 episodes but it was very poplular largely due to a great toyline.







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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were hugely popular in the 80s and 90s. TMNT was a cartoon based on comic book series about 4 turtles mutated by a mysterios ozze. The turtles grew taller, stronger, and smarter. The turtles were raised by a rat that taught them ninja skills. The story begins in the turtles teenage years as the title says. The show spawed a wonderful series of action figures, costumes, vehicles, clothing, fan clubs, video games, and ,

The Get Along Gang was a mildly successful cartoon series in the mid 80s. it was about a group of animal kids who had a caboose as a club house and did good deads for the townfolk. It was geared towards the real young. There was a toyline and a book series. I belive the cartoon was based on the books.





Teddy Ruxpin was a cartoon that was about a bear who leaves his home with his worm friend Grubby and follows a map to crystals. I believe that the cartoon was created to advertise the toys and book series. The toys had tapes that you placed in a deck and the bear told stories. they were very popular as was the cartoon.




There are so many cartoons of the era with toylines that it would take all day to name. There were also many cartoons that were very successful that had no toylines as well. It seems to me, that with the exception of Pokemon, that cartoons don't use toys to promote the cartoons and toys don't use cartoons to promote toys. I think that the loss of this partnership is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. If these two industries don't regain the partnership we may be witnessing the end of such a glorious time for toy and cartoon fans alike.