Post a response to this discussion thread
The Children's Television Act of 1991, (enacted after the tremendous popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a movie and cartoon series) simply means that children's television must have a circumstantial amount of "educated" tv shows (this amount account to 3 hours minumum per week I think). Disney, Warner Bros., Fox, Dic, and Saban were thrown into a panic. How do you make cartoons educational without losing your audience? Many tv stations simply gave up and put on news or religion as an alternative. Dic and Saban, based in Japan, broke down and refused to make anything else. Fox, Warner, and Disney quickly released all of their current shows they had been working on at the time (Goof Troop, TailSpin, Batman, X-Men, Animaniacs, ect.) since they would not fall under the current catagory. Other companies like Bohbot emerged from Korea with its cheaper and simpler animation styles and have basically dominated since then. Other shows that actually substain to the education programming are often live action (Beakman's World, Wishbone, Barney). As for diehard fans of animation, many have turned to alternative means like Beavis and Butthead, South Park, Liquid Television, 3D computer graphics games and entertainment, and anime.
p.c.
Post a response to this discussion thread