What was on when Saturday Morning mattered?

[JCorey3rd]

some guy is selling mounted comic book ads that include the Saturday morning lineups on the networks.

http://www.toyadz.com/toyadz/cartoons/saturdaylist.html

[AdamYJ]

Well, that's cool. Pretty much all of these are before my time, though. I was only born in '82, so I probably didn't become a Saturday Morning watcher until the later half of the '80s. They're still cool little pieces of nostalgia, though.

[Brainatra]

Well, that's cool. Pretty much all of these are before my time, though. I was only born in '82, so I probably didn't become a Saturday Morning watcher until the later half of the '80s. They're still cool little pieces of nostalgia, though.

I was born in '75, so recall the late 70's/80's shows shown... though neat to see the earlier stuff too.

Would guess that depending on the comic in question/its quality, it'd be cheaper to buy an old comic that had these ads in them than to buy them off this website... plus one'd get vintage reading material. :-)

-B.
Figures old "Jerry Lewis" and "Bob Hope" comics probably sell for cheap...

[CapnQuisp]

I have the CBS 1976 ad on my fridge. Great eye candy. Those ads often gave kids their first glimpse at what the new season held in store, along with the primetime specials the network would air a week or two before the new season began and the TV Guide Fall Preview issue.

[JCorey3rd]

I just saw a minute of Coconut Fred and His Fruit Salad Island.....heaven help these children.

[AdamYJ]

I just saw a minute of Coconut Fred and His Fruit Salad Island.....heaven help these children.

I'd recommend Cartoon Network. Between Ben 10, Dragon Hunters, Robotboy, Zixx and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, they've developed a really killer SatAM lineup. It figures that a station that puts on cartoons pretty much 24 hours a day would know how to create a Saturday Morning lineup.

Though, I think this would also be a good time to warn you against the illusions created by nostalgia. It's quite possible that the shows you watched as a kid were just as stupid or awful as Coconut Fred but you didn't know it. Memory can sweeten the past. A child's eyes change into an adult's. I learned my lesson about nostalgia thanks to the original TMNT cartoon. One day I decided to pop in one of the old videocassettes I got from the old Burger King promotion when I was a kid. It was a real eye-opener. I didn't realize how stupid that show could be sometimes.

My real problem with the degeneration of Saturday Morning cartoons is the loss of a cultural institution. Saturday morning used to be the first (if not always best) place to get new cartoons. It always got me excited when the new crop of shows rolled around in the fall. Cereal and 'toons on Saturday morning were the ultimate goal every week for kids. Nowadays, that's not so true. None of the kids I talk to care for SatAM cartoons anymore (except maybe Yu-Gi-Oh!). They can get cartoons at any time of day thanks to Cartoon Network (who, strangely enough, debuted a brand new Saturday Morning lineup which they bragged would "bring the fun back"). Also, the three major networks now show nothing but reruns from cable stations. If you think about it, we're in an era when new, quality cartoons are getting made all the time and Saturday's are hardly getting any of it. If the effort were just shifted that way, Saturday Mornings would be back and better than ever.

[JCorey3rd]

Though, I think this would also be a good time to warn you against the illusions created by nostalgia. It's quite possible that the shows you watched as a kid were just as stupid or awful as Coconut Fred but you didn't know it. Memory can sweeten the past. A child's eyes change into an adult's. I learned my lesson about nostalgia thanks to the original TMNT cartoon. One day I decided to pop in one of the old videocassettes I got from the old Burger King promotion when I was a kid. It was a real eye-opener. I didn't realize how stupid that show could be sometimes.

I get Boomerang thus I know the various levels of stuff I watched as a kid. But Rocky & Bullwinkle does hold up over the years. Even Roger Ramjet in a sick and twisted way is still entertaining (something about a pill popping patriotic pilot speaks for the 21st century) and even watching Hong Kong Phooey doesn't make me cringe.

But "Fruit Salad Island?" People keep saying that kids today are more dumb and violent than ever before. And I don't think making them watch Fruit Salad Island is going to change that downward slope. And the first time I saw the title, I thought it was a TV Funhouse spoof about those rumors about Spongebob. Although having watched a lot of Boomerang lately, it's easy to see that Spongebob isn't the first alternative animated character - Magilla Gorilla & Wally Gator....

And you can blame those idiot adults with their attack on Saturday morning cartoons for the current state of network fun. Educational and Informative children's programming is sucking the marrow out of being six years old. Cartoon Network and Nick don't have to follow this mandate. And now America's youth is left with Fruit Salad Island to watch while they eat their healthy breakfast cereal...ick.

TMNT was after I gave up on Saturday mornings (exception being PeeWee's Playhouse).

[AdamYJ]

I get Boomerang thus I know the various levels of stuff I watched as a kid. But Rocky & Bullwinkle does hold up over the years. Even Roger Ramjet in a sick and twisted way is still entertaining (something about a pill popping patriotic pilot speaks for the 21st century) and even watching Hong Kong Phooey doesn't make me cringe.

But "Fruit Salad Island?" People keep saying that kids today are more dumb and violent than ever before. And I don't think making them watch Fruit Salad Island is going to change that downward slope. And the first time I saw the title, I thought it was a TV Funhouse spoof about those rumors about Spongebob. Although having watched a lot of Boomerang lately, it's easy to see that Spongebob isn't the first alternative animated character - Magilla Gorilla & Wally Gator....

And you can blame those idiot adults with their attack on Saturday morning cartoons for the current state of network fun. Educational and Informative children's programming is sucking the marrow out of being six years old. Cartoon Network and Nick don't have to follow this mandate. And now America's youth is left with Fruit Salad Island to watch while they eat their healthy breakfast cereal...ick.

TMNT was after I gave up on Saturday mornings (exception being PeeWee's Playhouse).

Oh, you must be from an earlier generation than me. I guess I'm just a young punk here. I do agree that Rocky and Bullwinkle is still very good. My dad introduced me to it. I come from a family of punsters, so the jokes were right up my alley. The whole Cold War send-up may have been lost on me, but the rest was okay.

All I really know is that Saturday mornings aren't going to get very far if the three channels formerly entrusted with upholding the tradition are running nothing but cable reruns on Saturday morning.

[Dr. Dave]

Nice link. I remember many of those ads. In fact, I still have my comic book collection from the 60's. :D

Of course, in those days, Saturday morning was about all we had. Weekday afternoons were local programming, so what you saw varied according to where you lived. I grew up in a rural area, and the local programming wasn't very good.

Those ads were the first place you found out about the new Saturday season (which always began in September after school started). I remember reading the ads and trying to decide what looked like it was going to be worth watching (and what looked like "who wrote this stuff?" crap).

[AarHan3]

Man...there's just so many, you know? :confused:

I guess I have to narrow it down to Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids, Skatebirds, Popeye & Pals (A local show on WWL-TV Channel 4 (http://www.wwltv.com/)), The Krofft Supershow, The New Adventures Of Batman, Gilligan's Planet, Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich, Charlie Brown & Snoopy, The Wuzzles, The Biskitts, Shazam! and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, to name a few. :cool:

[Skank]

I just saw a minute of Coconut Fred and His Fruit Salad Island.....heaven help these children.

Good lord how true that is.