I love that the pinnacle of evolution is none other than Dora the Explorer. Really puts things into perspective.

That a riot! Thanx!! That’s the true joy of our “very dear friends”—that they will NEVER age…(NOR ever have an obit!!)

Whoa! Fat Jerry!

Awesome article, I especially got a kick out of the illustration where Dora’s head is literally larger than the rest of her body. As an employee in the retail industry I can tell you that she is the #2 seller in our toys department (behind Sesame Street, obviously), and I don’t think her toys have any real educational value. Maybe her own show does, but the toys say otherwise.

I greatly question the programming on the N, and I am glad that this article has confirmed my views. Although I do agree that Degrassi High is not a tween show, it’s more of a teen show…heck, I bet it would get a TV14 rating in some instances.

Kind of telling how Popeye doesn’t really look much different…

There’s something vaguely disturbing about the aged Charlie Brown.

Popeye’s none the worse for wear (but that’s not saying much at all).

Howdy Doody wasn’t a dang toon. I don’t care what anybody says.

DEGRASSI is practically a national institution up here in Canada, having started out over a quarter of a century ago as THE KIDS OF DEGRASSI STREET (It followed a group of basically realistic youngsters from elementry school up through their graduation from high school; after a decade or so off the air, it started up again, following after the now junior-high aged child of two of the original cast members- and before you do the math, yes it WAS a teen pregnancy on the original show). I know that the original series was aired on some PBS stations in its time( although I’m told it was frequently censored for its more controversial content) and picked up something of a cult down there- including CLERKS director Kevin Smith, who has appeared as himself on the new version.(Someone has referred to DEGRASSI as Canada’s answer to BEVERLY HILLS 90210- where the characters have no money and real life problems!

He-Man and Dora as the popularity (not necessarily the evolution) of “Modern Man” is a sad statement on the state of cartoons (Not that there weren’t some real duds in decades prior). Scooby-Doo has been (supposedly) popular for 4 decades…go figure! It just won’t go away!

Uh.

It looks like Felix, Tom, Jerry and Bugs are … people with masks.

Those eyes… those EYES… *rocks back and forth*

Hmm, wasn’t Popeye supposed to be 70-something anyway? :-)

Although I didn’t read the article, nor have the real reason to do so since it is of no concern with me, I would like to give my two Canadian cents to Degrassi since I was in love with “The Kids of Degrassi Street” back when those episodes used to show up on Disney Channel in the mid 80’s, and the “Degrassi Jr. High” that followed on PBS. I wonder if DVD’s are even out of those shows at all. Some years back, a pal of mine up in Canada sent me a pic of the street made famous in those shows, with that quaint corner grocery store seen in the intro to “Kids of Degrassi Street” and in a number of episodes therein. It felt so euphoric to me despite not having been to Toronto in my life.

Poor, geriatric Felix. He took off his tail to use as a cane one day a few years ago—then mislaid it and never recovered it.
Oh! Was the Magic Bag ever permanently stolen, you ask? Ah, I’m afraid so. And the Professor has thereby ruled the free world… since January 20, 2001.

I think this guy doesn’t realize most kids spend more time watching MTV than watching cartoons, and they spend more time online than watching MTV. Times have changed, and most kids don’t even know who all those characters are, probably Tom & Jerry as the ones that kick the crap out of each other all the time, and Bugs Bunny as the smartass bunny, and both of those seems ahead of their time for us, really…

and I’m not even mentioning video games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto… while they might be rated R every kids loves talking about it, as if someone bought it for them or something… probably another naive parent that thinks his kids watches cartoons all day… or Saved by The Bell…

Of course technically they should be adding these ages to whatever base age they’ve seemed to have in their cartoons, making Popeye well over 100 even if you just went by his animated debut rather than the newspaper strips. Ouch!

Re Popeye’s age:

During 1936, the “Thimble Theater” comic strip ran a story-arc titled “Popeye’s Search for His Poppa,” which eventually introduced Poopdeck Pappy. At the moment when Popeye confronts him and says, “Hello, Poppa!”, Poopdeck has a thought-balloon containing a drawing of an infant Popeye and the date “1894.”

So, apparently, E.C. Segar, Popeye’s creator, considered Popeye to be at least 42 years old in 1936.

I remember years ago Mad magazine used photo re-touching to show celebrities years from then. Among them were geriatric versions of the Beatles. They didn’t know at the time that John would die at 40, etc.

Now that I remember it, there was a bit on Saturday Night Live when Chevy Chase was doing Weekend Update (it also made their record album, put out in ‘76 on Arista). Showing a photo of a Popeye-like sailor, Chase said, “Now living in a retired sailor’s home in Marblehead, Mass., Popeye celebrated his 80th birthday today. Sources say it takes the onetime cartoon figure a half hour just to cut the cheese.” (From memory…)