You know what really grinds my gears?
When people on animation message boards complain endlessly about how their favorite old-school cartoon shows like The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Animaniacs aren’t airing on TV anymore, and then when I mention that many of them are available on DVD now, someone inevitably comes back with this:
“People don’t have the money to spend on things like this all of the time.”
or
“Even though this series is entirely on DVD, not everyone has the extra money to buy “this want”. Needs come first. And simply getting the DVDs isn’t as appealing as watching the program on regular television to some. Sometimes, just watching a program on TV is good enough.”
In response to this, I have to say…
“You have got to be freakin’ kidding me!”
I love how retro snobs who want their favorite era of entertainment to go on forever never seem to have any problem with indulging themselves with little luxuries, but then want to play the broke card whenever someone suggests that they buy a DVD or Blu-Ray of their favorite canceled/ended TV show instead of complaining that they’re no longer airing in TV, as if the networks are somehow obligated to continue airing the reruns for all eternity. Sorry, folks, but the excuse that DVDs and Blu-Rays of your favorite shows are an expensive luxury that many people can’t afford, and therefore the networks should be obligated to keep running them on TV is a bunch of…
…well, you know.
People need to stop with the “DVDs are too expensive” excuse ’cause it’s a weak one. Cable/satellite TV, video games and the internet aren’t necessities either. They’re luxuries that cost more then the price of a DVD, and yet people seem to have no problem paying for these luxuries every single month. The cost of a complete season of Tiny Toon Adventures is around $35, which is less than what you’d pay for one meal at a sit down restaurant. If you can afford cable, internet and/or video games, you can afford DVDs.
First, what’s up with the quotes around “this want”? What does that even mean? Second, let’s be real about this: shelter, food, clothing and medicine are necessities. Everything else is a luxury. Before anyone starts to lecture me on peoples’ needs versus their wants, let me ask you all a question:
What about this?
No one really needs a smartphone. Sure, they’re neat to have around and they look cool, but all you really need is a phone in case you need to call someone while you’re not at home or if there’s an emergency to report and there are no phone booths around. You don’t need something to update your Facebook status, check your horoscope or watch movies on. No one needs to be carrying around a miniature laptop in their pocket. Smartphones are an expensive luxury, but people buy them anyway. If you can afford a smartphone, you can afford a DVD.
And how about this?
You’re going to tell me that buying a DVD of The Jetsons is too expensive, yet you have no problem with dropping $5+ dollars on a cup of coffee with whipped cream on top? If you can afford a frappucino, you can afford a DVD.
And what about pets? Dog and cats at least have their uses under certain circumstances, but does anyone really need a parakeet, a goldfish, a turtle or a hamster? No! But people buy them anyway. If you can afford a pet, you can afford a DVD.
Do you have a job? If so, why not put aside $10 each week. By the end of the month, you’ll have $40, which is enough to purchase a DVD or Blu Ray. Keep doing that and eventually, you’ll have amassed yourself an impressive collection of shows that you can watch whenever you want.
“I don’t want to buy a bunch of DVDs.”
Then find a site where you can legally stream your favorite old shows and download them from there, or create an account with a site like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Crackle or something similar. That’s what, $9 a month? You can afford that can’t you?
Basically, it all boils down to “How bad do you want it?”. Alcoholics will do whatever they have to do to get a drink. Drug addicts will do whatever they have to do in order to get their fix. These fans need to think of these old-school cartoons as their drink or their drug. A true fan would do whatever they had to do in order to enjoy their favorite show, but if you’re not willing to shell out a little bit of money for something that you enjoy, then obviously it doesn’t mean that much to you. If you choose not to buy a DVD or Blu-Ray of a show that you like, that’s your decision, but don’t grouse about it if you’re not willing to stick your neck out.
“Maybe the problem is that you’re just cheap!”
Twin Images 
Several of the so-called classic cartoons, such as Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo, are also available for legal streaming on sites like iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus, and some of them can also be found floating around on sites like YouTube and Dailymotion. In any event, people need to stop clinging to the notion that TV is their 1 and only ‘go-to’ resource for these shows, because that’s gradually becoming the case less and less. In fact, the reason a lot of these shows aren’t in regular rotation on TV anymore is BECAUSE of the advent of DVDs and the internet; many network execs and Big Corporation heads feel that because several of these shows are presently already on DVD or soon will be coming to DVD, that they don’t need to run them on TV anymore, and many of them don’t WANT to run them on TV so as not to affect DVD sales; why would anybody want to go out and buy a DVD set of a series when they could just watch it on TV everyday? BTW, I’m not advocating or justifying this mindset, merely explaining it.
No one wants to address the elephant in the room, but it’s time to turn around and face that pachyderm: the all-classics/archive TV channels are like broadcast network SatAM and weekday syndicated blocks: they were a huge part of many of our childhoods and most of us have really fond memories of them, but they’re outdated venues in this day and age and rapidly moving industry. The main if not only reason so many people still cling to them is because of nostalgia, but the hard truth is they’re just not needed anymore. These days there are too many other outlets available to us for those things to be the big deals they once were.
Speaking as someone who really doesn’t watch that much TV anymore, I’d personally rather just pay once for an awesome library of my favorite shows that I can pull up whenever I want and theoretically be able to watch forever than be beholden to some fleeting and fickle network schedule which I know has a limited shelf life, but that’s just me.
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The only reason I would think of to watch shows on TV is to watch it firsthand before it airs anywhere else. Don’t wanna wait for the Internet to have your favorite episodes? Just watch it now!
Otherwise, yeah, there’s little reason to keep clinging to TV.
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Another thing to add: not only are there DVDs, but there are countless of ways one can watch an old cartoon. I can watch Animaniacs on DVD, enjoy Garfield and Friends on Netflix, and go on iTunes to buy episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life. I mean, yeah you have to pay money, but you would have to pay those obnoxious cable bills regardless, and these alternatives are arguably much cheaper than the average cable subscription, and you get content you actually want to see instead of the clunkers invading every channel.
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I also wanted to address this little nugget:
“Simply getting the DVDs isn’t as appealing as watching the program on regular television to some. Sometimes, just watching a program on TV is good enough.”
So what’s more important to you? The show itself or the way you watch it? ‘Cause that comment seems to point to the latter over the former. If the show truly meant something to you, it wouldn’t matter to you how you viewed it. Let’s use Discovery Family’s recent re-acquisition of “Tiny Toon Adventures” as an example: yeah, it’s great that DiscFam decided to bring the show back for a while, but make no mistake, any 20-year-old canceled rerun show on a cable network is living on borrowed time. One day TTA’s going to go off the air again, and for good. What then? You’ll be right back on that same message board bitching and whining and moaning about how your life sucks because your favorite old 90’s era cartoon isn’t airing on TV anymore because as much as these so-called ‘classic television fans’ (many of which are simply 90’s brats with a false sense of entitlement) want to stomp around and cry and throw tantrums and demand that these networks cater exclusively to them and only them, it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve grown up and TV has moved on. Now if you had your own kick-ass DVD collection of your favorite shows, then it wouldn’t matter one whit what the networks did.
The whole “TV or nothing” mentality is a mindset I’ve truly never understood. Again, this above comment smacks of nostalgia-tards clinging on to their childhood memories rather than a true passion for the shows they claim to pine for. Adapting to the changing times really isn’t so bad. Several of your favorite shows are still available for viewing, just not on TV. All you have to do is get off your ass and go look for them. Like Goldstar said in the article, ultimately it boils down to “how bad to you want it?” Is it the show you’re missing, or your youth? Tell you what: you stay here and wallow in your rose-colored nostalgia, and I’ll keep moving forward and enjoy whatever new awesomeness is out there.
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Also, in regards to the “Getting the DVDs isn’t as appealing as watching them on TV” rhetoric, driving a car isn’t as tranquil as riding in a horse drawn carriage, yet I don’t hear anyone rejecting cars. Times have changed, Pops. The media market is different now than it was 20 years ago. No, watching a DVD of a show isn’t the same as watching it on TV, but many of these shows AREN’T currently airing on TV. DVDs and internet services such as Netflix, Hulu and the like may not be your preferred way of enjoying your favorite shows, but it is A way to enjoy them. If you’d really rather just sit around and bitch on a message board about how these shows aren’t airing on TV anymore, then I truly don’t know what to say to you.
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