Understanding the early television cartoon

When television and animation intersected in the postwar United States, television was mediated and animation simplified. Instead of comparing it to cinema animation, this dissertation takes the early television cartoon seriously on its own terms. I propose here a theoretical model explaining it through seven familiar principles, which interpret it as a format specific to its medium. Cinema animation could not be made for television; the solution was to simplify it into a newer kind of cartoon. The relatable characters viewers watched in entertaining stories were less like the animation of the golden age, and more like the simple cartoons of early cinema animation.

Part 1 here is a cartoon history different from earlier accounts of animation, beginning with print cartoons and proceeding through radio comedy. Walt Disney achieved art in his animated feature films, but a younger generation of artists rejected his elaborate production methods in favor of sparer modern designs. Jay Ward and Hanna-Barbera learned to make cartoons for television by stylizing them visually and adding rich soundtracks. The result was a kind of illustrated radio.

Part 2 analyzes the early television cartoon as a media form, presenting a model of how to understand its rationalization, story, character, style, sound, and performance. Digital devices would communicate with users through adopting these same techniques. For this newer form of media transformed the industry, and kept animation alive into the digital era.