The Magic That Used To Be Saturday Morning

HR Puffinstuf and a bowl of Captain Crunch & I was happy :)
Great thread! I watched a lot of those shows then & most of what I watch now is cartoons - Family Guy, King of the Hill, Simpsons, and Venture Brothers etc...
 
Wow!

As many others have pointed out, excellent thread!

The whole decade of the 1970's was a Magical Time for me. I used to get up extra early Saturday Mornings And start with the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show.Puff n Stuff, Sigmond and the Sea Monsters, The lost Saucer, Land of the Lost, The Lost Saucer etc...

Not to stray off topic, But Friday Night circa 73,74 were awesome too!

The Six Million Dollar Man, The Planet of the Apes then Kolchack the Night Stalker!!All on Friday Night! I used to go to bed Spooked by the Night Stalker, then wake up with Bugs Bunny..It didn't get any better than that!

I was also one of those Guys who Loved the Star Wars Holiday Special!!(still do:$)!
 
Blackstar- an interesting fantasy show in the vein of Flash Gordon that seemed to be a forerunner to He Man by about two years. John Blackstar had the star sword and his nemesis had the power sword. Interesting how at least on episode of He Man seemed to use some animated sequences originally done for Blackstar as well.

I am firmly convinced that He-Man was purposefully ripped off of Blackstar, or that the people who did Blackstar decided to reboot it into He-Man.
The similarities are staggering.

And who can forget Jason of Star Command! Jason himself looked like Han Solo, Drago always seemed like a super bad***, and that cute little wind-up robot they used for T.W.I.K.I. And last but not least, a blue faced James Doohan. :)
 
I was just thinking about this the other day, Today's "Saturday morning cartoons" are just not the same. For me it was the 80's and 90's My favorites included
Transformers
Silverhawks
Thundercats
Bionic 6
M.A.S.K.
HE MAN
Wheeled Warriors
Dungeons and Dragons
Visionaires (Sp?)
Lazer Tag
Dinosaucers
Superfriends
Beetlejuice
Bravestar
Captain N the game master
Defenders of the Earth

(watched alot of TV as a kid LOL)

The Centurions
Captain Power (and yes I had both good guy and bad guy jets)
Danger Mouse
Galaxy High

and so many more. But you know it was over for the day once Soul Train came on. :cry
 
Yes. Great memories. I would get up early as possible, before the sun rose. I would be there when the network itself turned on, going from the bars on the screen to the first show. First thing on was Wolfman Jack, yaaaaaa. Then later on Scooby Doo. Sometimes I remember watching "Battle of the Planets"....awesome! Later on it was "Superfriends". Then came the original animated Spiderman which was usually darker than the other cartoons. I would be lying in the basement in front of the TV from early morning until like 2-3pm in the afternoon. My Mom, bless her heart, would make me salami sandwiches with apple juice, put on a tray, and let me take it downstairs so I wouldn't miss a moment. I guess it kept me out of her hair on Saturdays, hehe. It was a religion. It was my favorite time of the week. And of course there were those Star Wars action figure commercials, etc. I'm sure I could remember a lot of other shows but those stand out as the highlights. I think all children need "veg out" time where they can just escape. BTW I grew up in Canada so we didn't have a lot of the stuff mentioned in some of the lists posted here.

Edit: http://www.tvparty.com/sat77.html
 
Not to stray off topic, But Friday Night circa 73,74 were awesome too!

The Six Million Dollar Man, The Planet of the Apes then Kolchack the Night Stalker!!All on Friday Night! I used to go to bed Spooked by the Night Stalker, then wake up with Bugs Bunny..It didn't get any better than that!

YES!!! But don't forget ending Friday nights with Night Gallery and then The Midnight Special (if I could make it up that late).

Saturday nights were even more special. We watched All in the Family, followed by M.A.S.H. then, Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart, then my favorite The Carol Burnett Show :D My Mom always made Bacon Cheeseburgers and homemade fries on Friday nights.

Sunday nights were depressing though. I remember having to take a bath and wash my hair knowing school was the next day, but it was tempered by watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with Marlon Perkins and Jim Fowler, then The Wonderful World of Disney.
 
I really miss those days.
What kids today don't understand is that back in the 70s - 80s there was an average of about 12 channels.
And only 3 of those channels had a sharp picture.

I remebmber if I woke up around 5:30 or 6, some really strange shows would be on (Arthur and company), and as 7-8 o'clock rolled around, more cartoons would flood the channels...then around 10 hue live action kids shows would start- Jason of star command, Isis, shazam, etc.
Hen around noon, after all the cartoon and kidshows were done, it was time for Tarzan theater.

Damn dude, you had it good.

We had ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and like one UHF station. In the 80's there was a 2nd UHF station that set up shop but was hard to pull in. 12 channels would have been amazing!

I can remember getting cable in the early early 80's and being just completely BLOWN AWAY at having 34 channels. Even the big plastic remote control box that had to be attached to the converted box with a 20' cable was awe inspiring :) And if you didn't get the pay channels, you could position that 3 level switch on the left side 'just right' and they'd come in free :)

Saturday mornings seemed pretty good to me into the early 90's. I can remember being in college and being able to watch Fantasic 4, Ironman, Spiderman, Xmen, and Reboot saturday mornings. Then one week, they were just all gone. Banished (i'm guessing) do to the dumb govt rules on 'educational tv for children'.

In the 70's I can remember the Kroft Super Show and scooby doo and speed buggy and things like that. It was great!
 
How about cartoons that never got a chance: road rovers, and freakazoid. Animaniacs suffered when it went to saturdays. Battletech was doing good in ratings until fox axed it, so was the original Dragonball and one other anime i forgot that had a catgirl in it. That got axed after a few episodes. Fox had a ton of good saturday morning cartoons in 2000 but most got axed when they phased the stuff out. Digimon was still thriving, there was one about a giant mecha and a little robot boy who thought the mecha was alive like him.

See, this is what I was talking about. By this era the magic was gone. There was a definite window for the "Saturday Morning Experience" at least as far as I'm concerned.

Where did it end? Hard to say. Somewhere in the late 80's, although I could see the argument for early 90's.

For me it ended mid 80's and I'm sure it's different for everyone, but clearly there was a point when it was over.

I think I associate it more with pre cable television days. 3 channels and UHF. That's what stands out for me anyways.

I highly recommend anyone interested in this topic plus history/origins of shows, the marketing plys and scams and all related to check out the book "Saturday Morning Fever".

It was a great insight to the era. Learned a lot plus they do focus on each show and break them down.

Here's a link for anyone interested:

Amazon.com: Saturday Morning Fever: Growing up with Cartoon Culture: Timothy Burke, Kevin Burke: Gateway

This one's great for you Krofft fans:

Amazon.com: Pufnstuf & Other Stuff: The Weird and Wonderful World of Sid & Marty Krofft (9781580630078): David Martindale, Sid Krofft, Marty Krofft: Books

-K
 
Damn dude, you had it good.

We had ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and like one UHF station. In the 80's there was a 2nd UHF station that set up shop but was hard to pull in. 12 channels would have been amazing!


Damn dude, you had it good.

We had CBC, ITV and CFCN or something. The only one that played the terrible bottom of the barrel leftover cheap shows on Saturday morning was ITV (rocket robin hood, spiderman, etc)...and at that the reception was horrible! I'd have killed for ABC, CBS and NBC!
 
Very cool thread. Remember those days well. I may have missed it but, of Sid and Marty Kroft, Dr Shrinker and the Bugaloos. And, already mentioned, Isis and Shazzam. My favorite (causing delays of Saturday plans on many an occasion) was/is Johnny Quest. Adwise, the Freakies cereal ("We are the Freakies.! We are the Freakies and this is our Freakie tree. We never miss a meal 'cause we love our cereal."). Awesome!!

For me the days often bled into afternoon as the local stations usually did Saturday afternoon at the movies. Usually B&W horror and scifi and, for years, with variaous serials tucked in.

When I was a junior in college, a small Connecticut station had an Irwin Allen lineup starting at 7AM and running till noon or so. On days when waking was a possibility, I would get doughniouts for the house and settle in to hours of Lost in Space, The Invaders, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. That's as close as I've come to that feeling in adulthood.

Boomerang runs classic titles on Saturday morning but it's not the same without the gloabal nostalgia. Usually, if I turn the TV on Saturday AMs, there is a forced migration to Pokemon and Bakugan. It's like an undertow of TV remote subterfuge, age-related criticism, and whining. I have learned to keep the TV off in common areas on Saturdays for this reason. I am sure I did the same as a child but I don't believe my parents actually wished to watch different cartoons. Oh well, there's always Adult Swim. Where the hell was that when I was "Heavy Metal" adolescent age???

Doc
 
When i was little, before cable got out this way in 1990 or so, we had abc, cbs, and pbs and if we got lucky our antenna could be rotated to get pittsburgh or other stations.
 
This thread is fun and very poignant.

I fear so much that we, as products of a pre-OnDemand age, are facing a terrifying time. Our children assume that the show will be OnDemand, so if they want to do something else and miss the first broadcast, well, no big deal.

I submit that that attitude is the biggest deal of the last 25 years: Believing that you can have everything. How different is that outlook than, well, I know I don't have the money for a new car, but I'll buy it on installments so I can have it now. Our parents, many of them had to save up cash for a car first. Or shared one. Or didn't have one at all. And still, here we are.

Saturday Morning Cartoons were our groundings in responsibility, timeliness, togetherness, imagination in the name of not missing the fun. That informed our little minds that rewards and good things required patience and committment. I ache for that again. I know that in the universe of DVR's, the Internet, iPhones and fast food everywhere, I have lost some of myself.

I don't mean to pull the thread down, but I know that I was not ready for the on-demand world. In many ways it got the better of me, and I see that now. Not to say I am not impulsive a little now and then, but its different. Less frequent.

Let's all try to remember to appreciate things again, in the spirit of the Saturday Morning Cartoon ritual.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go DVR 800 channels of "quality programs" so I can not watch them later...... :)
 
We don't use on demand. I agree kids these days are an impatient bunch and that's coming from someone who was never patient. I didn't come to love layaway at stores until i was older and now they're gone (which hurt certain companies who have lower income folks as customers). I remember my buddy had to pay for his on demand stuff for a while but now most of the channels are free other than movies. It's just too much hassle for me to figure it out lol.
I do admire the few networks who have cartoons on at 6am still even if it is remakes of Carebears, poundpuppies, and strawberry shortcake.
 
saturday mornings for me was cartoons on VCR which my parents taped whenever they were on TV.

then we had saturday morning shows like swap shop, tiswas etc.

then midday onwards, blue thunder, airwolf, then world of sport in the afternoon with the football and wrestling on (UK wrestling, big daddy v giant haystacks) then when it got to tea time metal mickey, buck rogers, supergran,
 
not including all the other cartoons and kids programmes I got to see.

flintstones
captain caveman
bravestar
dungeons and dragons
ulysesses 31
phileas fogg round the world in 80 days
dogtanian and three muskehounds
tom and jerry
roadrunner
foghorn leghorn
sylvester and tweety
ducktails
dangermouse
jamie and the magic torch
mister ben
bod
bannanaman
raggy dolls
ivor the engine
bagpuss
the clangers
the wombles
centurions
battle of the planets
inspector gadget
chorlton and the wheelies
rentaghost
grandad
supergran
buck rogers
airwolf
blue thunder
thundercats
he-man
she-ra
thunderbirds 2086
m.a.s.k
go-bots
pole position
scooby doo

and that's just what I can think of for starters
 
This thread is fun and very poignant.

I fear so much that we, as products of a pre-OnDemand age, are facing a terrifying time. Our children assume that the show will be OnDemand, so if they want to do something else and miss the first broadcast, well, no big deal.

I submit that that attitude is the biggest deal of the last 25 years: Believing that you can have everything. How different is that outlook than, well, I know I don't have the money for a new car, but I'll buy it on installments so I can have it now. Our parents, many of them had to save up cash for a car first. Or shared one. Or didn't have one at all. And still, here we are.

Saturday Morning Cartoons were our groundings in responsibility, timeliness, togetherness, imagination in the name of not missing the fun. That informed our little minds that rewards and good things required patience and committment. I ache for that again. I know that in the universe of DVR's, the Internet, iPhones and fast food everywhere, I have lost some of myself.

I don't mean to pull the thread down, but I know that I was not ready for the on-demand world. In many ways it got the better of me, and I see that now. Not to say I am not impulsive a little now and then, but its different. Less frequent.

Let's all try to remember to appreciate things again, in the spirit of the Saturday Morning Cartoon ritual.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go DVR 800 channels of "quality programs" so I can not watch them later...... :)

Very well put. There is a lot to be said for the act of waiting for/anticipating something rather than almost instant access.

There was a scene from American Beauty where Kevin Spacey is describing to the younger pot dealing neighbor kid about working all summer to save up for the record, cassette, 8-track, whatever it was that he wanted... the kid replied "That sucks" to which he replied , "No, it was great" or something to that extent.

That sums it up I think.

Makes you wonder what lies ahead for us/our kids in the future and the steamrolling "give me convenience or give me death" virtues.
 
I'm amazed Boomerang hasn't started showing more shows from the 80s, might not be able to get the rights. Anyone remember the punky brewster cartoon?
 
I was a 90s kid, though Saturday Morning was still special for me. All the best shows were on.

-Recess
-Spellbinder
-Doug
-Power Rangers
-Masked Rider
-X-men
-Spiderman
-Aladdin

Most of the time though, I had to miss this as my parents made me go to Bible School on Saturday morning. That sure pissed me off back in the day. This was still the era before DVR, so unless I wanted to spend my allowance on blank tapes I usually missed it.
 
I too was a kid of the 90's. I remember shows like: Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, Spider-man, Recess, Doug, and a lot more. I miss cartoons from the 90's, they actually had some good storylines, and little-to-no crude humor.
 
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