ABSTRACT
Animation has had a rather erratic presence on television. A mainstay of Saturday morning
children’s programming, small snippets of it appear regularly in commercials, credit se-
quences, 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 programs have appeared and at least three cable channels have arisen that feature
cartoons-the Cartoon Network, Nickleodeon, and Toon Disney. And, of course, cartoons
continue to dominate the TV ghettos of Saturday morning and weekday afternoons.
