A Saturday-morning cartoon was the colloquial term for the original animated television programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday mornings in the United States on the major television networks. The genre's popularity had a broad peak from the late 1960s through approximately the 1980s; after this point, it declined in the mid-late 1990s and 2000s in the face of changing cultural norms, increased competition from formats available at all times, and heavier regulations. In the last two decades of the genre's existence, Saturday morning cartoons were primarily created and aired to meet educational television mandates. Minor television networks, in addition to the non-commercial PBS in some markets, continue to air animated programming on Saturday while partially meeting those manda