Jeffrey Scott's book...

[Xerus]

Cartoons like Pac Man or Saturday Supercade weren't really meant to be edgy or off the wall. They were just created to promote video games.

Back in the 80s, the networks didn't want original cartoons. They wanted cartoons based on toys, movies, TV sitcoms, or new toned-down versions of old cartoon characters.

However, Muppet Babies seemed to have a different style of humorous writing rarely seen in the 80s.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually, I just read something recently (browsing at a book for free in Virgin Megastore) in a book about Pac Man....

When they made it into a cartoon, they had to make drastic changes to things, because (at the time it began) it was technically illegal to make it any sort of advertisement, so they used the characters ONLY and none of the real effects of the game otherwise.

But I guess after that, the limitations relaxed, and we got more toy related cartoon shows.

 

[McFraggle]

There are still rules against it somewhat. For instance, technically Nickelodeon is not able to advertise "Spongebob" toys during an episode of the show. This is because it would be seen as the whole half-hour was one big commercial.