This weekend is the first weekend that no Saturday morning cartoons have been played, and unfortunately it will be the first among many. Many of us remember sitting in front of the TV with our cereal bowls, watching shows like "Scooby-Doo" and "Tom and Jerry," but that era is no more.

MTV reports that on Saturday, September 27, the CW network aired its last remaining Saturday morning cartoon block, effectively ending a reign of animation that spanned over 50 years. Unfortunately, the cartoons faced too much competition with live-action shows and had a failing viewership. Consequently, the CW replaced them with a series of educational shows aimed at teenagers.

According to Gizmodo, this development is no surprise. NBC ditched Saturday morning cartoons in 1992, and CBS did the same soon after. In 2004, ABC lost its animated weekend, making the CW the last standing network to offer the animated shows.

The FCC also had a lot to do with it. In the 1990s, it began to strictly enforce its rules requiring broadcast networks to provide a minimum of three hours of educational programming every week. Many networks didn't want to alter their prime-time slots, and found it easier to position this type of program into the weekend mornings.

However, the biggest threat of all to the morning animations was the cable network. Hundreds of channels offered through cable and satellite didn't have to abide by the FCC's guidelines, and children could watch cartoons through them at any time of the day. When mobile streaming networks like Netflix and Hulu got added to the mix, the chance of children spending time watching Saturday morning cartoons decreased even further.

With all of this pressure and competition, it is understandable that the CW had to give up broadcasting Saturday morning cartoons after holding on for many years. Nonetheless, they were part of our childhoods, and for many of us, they will always have a place within our hearts and memories.