One (Slick Marketing Move on) Saturday Morning
Tom ponders Disney’s cartoon success, and eats some words.
It’s pretty obvious when a magazine as unhip as Entertainment Weekly discovers it; ABC’s One Saturday Morning, which has just overtaken the Fox Kids Network in broadcast ratings, is primarily a success of packaging. When Disney introduced the framing story of “the place where Saturday Mornings are made,” I just saw it as a way to keep the kid audience hooked. Starting programs at unusual times, and not on the half-hour, is a programming gimmick that’s been done before in prime time. (Remember when TBS started its programs five minutes after the hour?)
Until the shows actually started, I didn’t realize the vulnerability of Fox Kids and the other broadcast networks. I didn’t realize how ugly and strident Fox Kids and Kids WB were.
Both WB and Fox Kids continually hype their other programs. It doesn’t matter that WB’s promos are occasionally pretty witty, and combine cartoon characters from different companies. Even if you see Agent J of Men in Black making a faux pas in front of Batman, it’s still hype, and even kids get irritated at it. It’s also hype to run “theme day” shows with a common theme - say, the Valentine’s Day series of romance-themed shows hosted by The Joker - with continual cross-promotion announcements.
Besides the constant hype, there is very little rest or relaxation between the shows. The only human element in the programming are the unseen announcers. Perhaps the local kid show hosts of years past were just commercial pitchmen, but most took their responsibility seriously. They remembered that they were taking the place of parents, or at least kindly uncles. There are no “uncles” on the kid show networks.
On the other hand, One Saturday Morning does very little plugola. They briefly plug other kid shows outside the OSM block, but the plugs are kept brief. In the first show I saw, the little blonde stewardess-type who’s the show’s unofficial host said, “Kick back. Relax. It’s Saturday.” Saturday morning a time for fun and not salesmen? How refreshing.
The packaging is even more important when you realize that the shows comprising OSM are not exceptional. I classify all of them as “Kids In School” shows. All of them are variations of the original Kids In School show, Doug, whose current incarantion, Brand Spanking New Doug, is now made by Disney. BSN Doug is pleasant, but not exceptional. I always thought Doug Funnie was a wimp, and I see nothing here to change my opinion. I suspect he was placed in the mix because he’s the only established show, someone that at least some kids may like.
The second show, Disney’s Recess, is a problem for me. I just can’t see the appeal of this cynical little show, a kids’ version of Catch-22. Or maybe it’s more like the prisoner-of-war movie King Rat, in which the winners are bad guys who selfishly manipulate others. Okay, it’s traditional to see teachers lambasted in Kids In School shows, but in this show, even the kids are turned into stereotypes. Kids below fifth grade are jungle savages, older kids could be aliens as far as our protagonists know, and the whole playground is ruled by a haughty jerk in a broken football helmet. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I find Recess just plain annoying.
The third show, Disney’s Pepper Ann, is the best cartoon Disney has produced this year, hands down. Entertainment Weekly pointed out that it was created by a single person, Sue Rose, and not the usual Disney committee. Pepper Ann Pearson is a spunky, courageous seventh-grader, far more exciting than the passive, whiny Doug. Like all kids, her imagination whips up frightening calamities that will scar her for life - but she eventually discovers that her fears are largely groundless. I think that’s a great message for kids about to face the horrors of pimples, absent divorcee fathers, and a topic I never thought Disney would cover, a girl’s first bra. And most amazing of all, the show stays funny with characters, not gross-outs.
The filler elements of OSM vary in quality, but they also wouldn’t make it on their own. The Monkey Boys could be entitled “The Politically-Correct Three Stooges Minus One.” The live-action Manny the Uncanny segments are nice, but not very practical. The “let’s see how the real world works” stuff is far better done, on a lower budget, in the “Clown About Town” segment of the Bozo Sunday Supershow on superstation WGN. And will someone tell me “what’s up with” the What’s Up With That? professor reading informative newspaper fillers and pretending that we should care?
The only exceptional filler material is the cult hit Mrs. Munger’s Class - I’ve seen the segment used on ABC’s In Concert with Mrs. Munger dressed as a Deadhead. Like Pepper Ann, this looks like the dreamchild of an individual - in fact, it looks like a student animation project from the Disney-supported Cal Arts animation program, picked up and thrown on the air. (Hope you at least got a free Disneyland pass for your trouble, kid.)
There is only one children’s show institution that relates better to kids. That’s the aforementioned Bozo Sunday Supershow. As far as I know, it’s the last remnant of the local kid shows. TV stations, freed by Ronald Reagan from any responsibility to serve the public welfare, have eliminated children’s programs and local cartoon hosts. Only Bozo hangs on, showing kids the wonders to be found in their own community, teaching them useful tricks like how to wrap presents, and making them feel special by the simple process of letting their faces be seen on TV.
It’s impossible for Chicago’s Bozo to do this job for all of America; Disney’s One Saturday Morning is the best we can hope for. (That, and maybe some new laws forcing local broadcasters to serve their local communities once again.) Until then, all we can hope is that Disney drops some of its lousier shows, provides more space for individual visions, and remember that Saturday is meant for fun.
Corrections: In my tribute to Jack Kirby (“Legacy of the King,”) I said that Kirby never worked in animation. When I interviewed Mark Evanier for a future article in TOON, he set me straight. In the early 70’s, when he was changing jobs between Marvel and DC Comics, Kirby designed characters for several animation companies.
Ironically, one of the projects was a show most animation fans disliked; the DePatie-Freleng version of Fantastic Four. This was the version that eliminated the Human Torch for “politically correct” reasons - they were afraid kids would set themselves on fire! - and substituted “Herbie the Robot.” Kirby had to rework characters he had co-created years ago, and make them wimpy to satisfy those crabby network sensors.
Later, Kirby designed for several Ruby-Spears shows, such as Goldie Gold, the teenage girl with the flying Rolls-Royce. (Her Rolls had wheels with jets in the hubcaps, which flipped horizontal to make the car a hovercraft, similar to the sports car Kirby designed for Marvel’s Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD.)
My error was more than my own ignorance, although that would have been sufficient. This era of cartoons is poorly documented. There are very few references about that time, outside of the memories of people like Evanier. He was Kirby’s assistant and personal friend, as well as an important animation writer himself. In fact, if he can ever reserve enough time from his busy schedule, he may write a long-awaited biography of Kirby.
However, I was correct in one sense - nothing on Goldie Gold, or on any other series, looked like Kirby designed it. At least until the airing of that two-part episode of Superman: The Animated Series entitled “Apokolips...Now!” The graphic design was pure Kirby, down to the abstracted colors and the design of flowing smoke using black dots.
I recently learned the history of Kirby’s New Gods in comics, and that knowledge gave me an added emotional kick. But even with no prior knowledge, the story was powerful. (The story was written by Bruce Timm, with screenplay by Rich Fogel and direction by Dan Riba.) In other hands, the exposition explaining the villainy of Darkseid and Apokolips would be dull and rushed. But instead, it was the most moving sequence of animation I have ever seen in a regular series. The sequence had minimal narration, a quiet underscore, and - unusual for cartoons - absolutely no sound effects. Nothing distracted from the events and emotion so beautifully expressed by the animation.
The shows were a fitting tribute to Kirby’s creations. And at the end of the second half, a title card gave Kirby the man a personal tribute. (The character who died, Ben Turpin, was designed to look like Kirby.) DC Comics has been scrupulous about giving credit for its greater creatons, ever since they were shamed into crediting Siegel and Schuster for their creation of Superman. But I never expected them to perform this nice a gesture.
I may half-jokingly call Time Warner Evil Empire Number Two, but this tribute makes up for a lot of bad. (But just remember, you guys...we’re still watching you, and we still remember what you did to Cats Don’t Dance!)
Thomas E. Reed is a television engineer in Orlando, Florida. He has heard frightening news; in preparation for the new X-Files theatrical feature, Mattel is releasing two new figures; “Scully Barbie” and “Mulder Ken.” If you would like further proof that there is no God, contact him at tomreed@sundial.net.
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