Ruh-roh, Shaggy! What happened to our Saturday morning cartoons?

NIU students may have fond memories of lazy weekend mornings spent watching “Scooby Doo” or “Thundercats” and eating Count Chocula cereal.

“It’s my childhood. They [the cartoons] were written for me,” said Joe Lepper, a freshman special education major.

These days, students are more inclined to spend their valuable Saturday mornings asleep than set the alarm to catch the new wave of Saturday morning cartoons. And students who brave early morning hours aren’t always awake out of sheer love for cartoons.

“I’m normally sleeping, but if I’m up, I’ll watch ’em,” freshman business major Tim Kiczula said. “They’re so much more educational than watching ‘Oprah.'”

The Cartoon Network, channel 32 in the residence halls, caters to students’ morning-challenged viewing habits. The channel airs cartoons 24 hours a day, offering unlimited access to animated entertainment.

Cartoons mainly are intended for younger viewers, and many students enjoy watching re-runs of the characters they grew up with. In fact, some students only enjoy watching re-runs of old cartoons.

“[The animators] have no imagination these days,” Kiczula said. “They’ve reused storylines so many times.”

Noah Gorajski, a freshman electrical engineering major, agreed.

“‘Power Rangers’ is the same show every day, that’s why they have to change it every week,” he said.

Students complain that modern cartoons seem to be lacking a certain special quality that made their predecessors so popular.

“Cartoons today just aren’t up to what they were back in the day,” Gorajski said. “The caliber is totally different.”

Modern cartoons are more experimental — many shows borrow heavily from the Japanese anime style, and some simply are imported and dubbed into English. Shows such as “Samurai Jack,” “Dragonball Z,” “Transformers” and “The Powerpuff Girls” all have developed an original style with multiple animation elements.

But, this style isn’t always welcomed.

“The Japanese style has become too much of an influence,” Lepper said.

The exception to the rule is the new wave of adult-oriented cartoons. Pioneered by “The Simpsons,” the genre has grown to include such cartoons as “Family Guy,” “South Park,” “The Critic,” “Beavis and Butt-head,” “The Tick” and several other short-lived shows.

Many students have preferred alternatives to the new wave of cartoons.

“They just don’t have good Saturday morning cartoons,” said Jenny Sweet, a freshman business management major.