Broadcast television has always been uneasy about change, but they are easily manipulated by outside forces. People tend to think that broadcast television is an innocent in the murder of the institution they created, Saturday mornings, but they'd be wrong.

For decades, ABC, NBC, and CBS ruled Saturday mornings. They were literally the only game in town for decades until Fox launched its Saturday morning lineup in the fall of 1990, but I'll get into Fox later. Starting in the seventies, however, their dominance and power began to slip away. While networks were powered by fare from studios like Hanna-Barbera and Filmation, program guidelines were being observed by the Action for Children's Television. ACT pushed networks to develop higher quality programming and not just glorified commercials. ABC was the first to answer the call with shows like The Curiousity Shop, the Schoolhouse Rocks shorts, the Bod Squad/Timer interstitials, and weekly Weekend Specials and monthly Afterschool Specials. Other networks followed, and ACT laid off of broadcast television and concentrated their efforts elsewhere for now.

By the late 70s, the Star Wars effect hit broadcast television hard, and everybody wanted to do sci-fi and adventure programming, so, sci-fi and adventure became prominent on Saturday mornings. The 80s brought many successful programs and a lot of experimentation along with the educational fare that was big in 70s. Broadcast television felt pressure from syndicated programming and the growing reach of cable. Nickelodeon was just getting started while USA's Cartoon Express block was big on weekday evenings and Sunday mornings. HBO had just started running a successful Muppet series called Fraggle Rock.

Broadcast television played catchup briefly. NBC briefly ran an animated version of Fraggle Rock. CBS picked up syndication's biggest hit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as a flagship series for the lineup. ABC and Disney had numerous alliances on Saturday mornings. This brief period of catchup was eclipsed entirely by Fox's new broadcasting endeavor, the Fox Kids Network. Fox not only took on the traditional broadcast dominance on Saturday mornings but they took over weekday mornings and afternoons, which normally was dominated by syndicated programming. In 1995, The WB utilized a similar template for its Kids' WB! lineup.

The traditional three networks couldn't compete with Fox Kids, so, one by one, they began to surrender, ironically using the Children's Act of 1990 as a cover. In 1992, NBC added a Saturday morning edition of Today to its lineup changed its Saturday morning lineup to TNBC, which was live-action teen-oriented programming. Three years later, CBS utilized a similar model, only replacing their animated shows with live-action educational fare. ABC brought Good Morning America to Saturday mornings by the turn of the century. The 2000s also brought cable programming to broadcast television. NBC's lineup was outsourced to Discovery Kids while CBS handed control of its Saturday morning lineup to sibling network Nickelodeon.

The dominance was over, and, without a fight, broadcast television gave up Saturday mornings. They didn't even try to fight back, and that's what's so tragic about this.

Suspect Four: The Mega Mergers

Before Disney bought ABC, Saturday morning was a paradise. A free-range paradise where shows from many studios could roam freely. The Disney/ABC merger was the first of many mega mergers that shaped the landscape of the television industry for better and for worse. These mergers also played a pivotal role in the death of Saturday mornings. Let me explain. Before the merger, Disney programming was seen throughout the television wasteland. Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Raw Toonage were all on CBS. Darkwing Duck and Goof Troop were seen in syndication and ABC. The Disney Afternoon was still a vital player in syndication. However, the merger changed everything. The merger killed upstart studio Dreamworks Television Animation's plans to program a chunk of ABC's programming. The merger also cancelled ReBoot, ABC's highest-rated series at the time. The Disney/ABC merger was the first mega merger to affect Saturday mornings, but it wouldn't be the last.

Fox gained a valuable ally in the independent studio Saban and a greater business partner when they combined the Fox Kids and Saban Entertainment operations into Fox Kids Worldwide. The Fox Kids lineup became mostly Saban-produced series by the mid-90s, just as Warner Bros. took their Fox Kids titles to help create the Kids' WB! block. After Time Warner bought Turner, a larger power was created that spread through broadcast and cable television. Another mega merger was born from three separate mergers: after Viacom bought Paramount and Westinghouse bought CBS, Viacom bought the new CBS helping the broadcast network create a partnership with Nickelodeon.

By the time the dust was settled, smaller studios like the newly-independent DiC, Cookie Jar, Film Roman, and Nelvana struggled to get shows on the traditional broadcast networks. DiC and Nelvana both programmed CBS's lineup at one point or another, but with limited promotion time, they couldn't truly be successful. ABC became a Disney-only outlet by 2000, mostly airing fare from The Disney Channel. After ABC bought Fox Kids Worldwide, they became a more dominant force in children's programming, especially with the addition of Power Rangers to the Disney family. The subtraction of Fox Kids from the Fox lineup created a void, which was filled by 4Kids Entertainment, the distributors of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kids' WB's biggest shows at the time.

The mergers killed any diversity and variety Saturday mornings had to offer. That, above anything, put the nail in the coffin. However, that doesn't mean that there are other suspects in the murder of Saturday mornings

. Up next: the final pair of suspects.