Wonder how much Batman: the Animated Series was to keep the brand warm with youth to keep the toy line going.
See after the big hit 1989 Batman movie they took a page from Star Wars toy merchandising and Batman action figures were big at the turn of the 90s
This of course coming after Reagan-era loosening of FCC regulations against toyline-tied shows, that’s where He-Man and G.I. Joe and The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers and TMNT came from.
They also increased the amount of commercial time allowable per half-hour, those limitations were why ‘70s Saturday morning cartoons were the Hanna-Barbera crap era, cause reused animation, voices, character designs, and plots were all they could pay for.
They kept the “bumper” requirements for distinguishing between shows and commercials, that’s what those retro claymation “after these messages\u2026 we’ll be r-i-i-i-ght back!” bits were, a residue of 70s concern about consumerism.
Also those little “knowing is half the battle” PSA bits were about qualifying these action show/toy commercials as something broadcasters could count as pro-social development for kids, this is also what Mr. Wizard/Beakman’s Lab/Bill Nye science shows were about
(Nickelodeon wasn’t over-the-air subject to the FCC but cable was new and they treaded lightly)
This was all separate from “Very Special Episodes” which largely came from laws giving the government double-time for its PSA buys which the Reagan administration let networks burn off by embedding messages into actual episodes.
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