“Animated Television: The Narrative Cartoon” was originally published in the third edition of Jeremy G. Butler, Television: Critical Methods and Applications (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2007), 325-361. It was not included in subsequent editions of Television and consequently it was placed online, although not in the public domain. All © copyrights are still reserved. If citing this chapter, please use the original publication information (above). Questions? Contact Jeremy Butler at
[email protected] or via TVCrit.com. ch11_8050_Butler_LEA 8/11/06 8:46 PM Page 325 CHAPTER 11 Animated Television: The Narrative Cartoon Beginnings The Aesthetics of the 1930s Sound Cartoon: Disney’s Domination UPA Abstraction: The Challenge to Disney Naturalism Television’s Arrival: Economic Realignment TV Cartooning Since the 1980s Summary edition FurtherTELEVISION Readings 3rd nimation has had a rather erratic presence on television. A A mainstay of Saturday morning children’s programming, small snippets of it appear regularly in commercials,TVCrit.com credit sequences, music videos, news and sports, but there have been long stretches when there were no prime-time cartoon shows. After The Flintstones ended its original run in 1966 there wasn’t another successful prime-time show until 23 years later, when The Simpsons debuted. Since 1989 there has been something of a Renaissance in television animation. Numerous prime-time cartoon pro- grams have appeared and at least three cable channels have arisen that fea- ture cartoons—the Cartoon Network, Nickleodeon, and Toon Disney. And, of course, cartoons continue to dominate the TV ghettos of Saturday morn- ing and weekday afternoons. Although numerous new animated programs are now being created, many of the cartoons regularly telecast today were produced fifty, sixty, or even seventy years ago.