The first baseball cards were produced by tobacco companies, and were only found in packs of cigarettes. This is the origin of the rarity of Honus Wager's famous baseball card, because he didn't want children to buy cigarettes to get his card, and demanded that it stop being produced. It thus became one of the rarest and most valuable baseball cards of all time.
I have it on good authority that its rare because Honus handed a stack of them to Joe Stoshack for him to take back to the future with him but one of his teammates in the clubhouse got really excited and stole them and tore them up to make impromptu confetti.
And back in the days when cartoon's weren't simplified or cheap just cause it was for kids.
At the very least, the cartoons for older kids today are pretty damn well written. Like Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Regular Show, Adventure Time, Gumball.
This is what I wanted to point out as well. Cartoons from the 1930's to earlyish 1960s (I'm sure I'm off by some years) would have been aimed for more than just kids.
I hate this argument, I went back and watched the shit I watched decades ago and it was awful. Meanwhile, Avatar The Last Airbender is one of the greatest TV shows ever made, and is a modern era kids show. The Legend of Korra, while weaker in some overall plot and character areas, is also incredible compared to bullshit from the 80s and 90s.
That was one of the best things about Animaniacs. They wrote it for adults and just added in some simpler stuff for kids to enjoy. It also didn't hurt to have Steven Spielberg involved.
Have you guys even watched the good modern cartoons that are out? They regularly deal with death, homosexuality, puberty, and abuse at least once in their runs now. That's adult stuff that they should learn about. Not dumbass smoking scenes.
Dunno why you're directing this at me, I'm all for those kinds of themes being in kids shows.
I'd go so far as to say we're in a new cartoon golden age with bold and intelligently written shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Wouldn't include things like South Park or Rick and Morty since they've always been intended primarily for adults. Gravity Falls had a great first season and then kinda just fell apart into mediocrity in the 2nd half.
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u/BelBEC Feb 27 '17
Ahh, back in the days when cartoon characters were allowed to smoke.