Remember Saturday morning cartoons?

Looney Tunes are the best! Especially “What’s Opera, Doc”–one of the best cartoons ever made. And Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century. I almost went into mourning when I turned on the TV on a Saturday morning and there was no more Bugs Bunny and Daffy. First they got moved out of their normal timeslot, and then they just weren’t there anymore. But it’s okay, because the cartoons they were showing at the end were just shadows of the Looney Tunes we knew. If you leave out the violence that goes along with “One lump or two,” it just doesn’t make any sense.

I loved the Pink Panther, too. And George of the Jungle, and SuperChicken (best superhero theme song ever!).

I have the DVDs for the first two seasons of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and it’s some of the best money I’ve ever spent. Even with all of the dated humor, it’s still hysterically funny. Bullwinkle in a tutu never fails to make me laugh.

I’m a tiny bit embarassed to admit that I still watch cartoons on Saturdays. Especially Pokemon, and sometimes Teen Titans and The Batman. Ozzy and Drix was good, and Mucha Lucha is funny in an insane kind of way.

ME

Supercar was a puppet-based Sci-Fi series. Anybody know when it bit the dust?

I’ve got one that I bet no one remembers. OG. It was on ABC for a very brief time and then never saw the light of day again. It was about this race of gnomes, I think, that lived underground and visited this little boy from time to time. They also sang a song that went sort of like this: *“Og, Og, Og, Og…” * I could be an Og or two off on the exact lyrics though. :wink:

I also remember Wildboy and Bigfoot and Isis. Wow, now I’m really feeling old here.

Damn, those look like they were designed to get the dads up early to watch with their kids.

IIRC OTTOMH The Land Of Og was a multipart CBS Storybreak. It involved several kids finding the underground land of Og, inhabited by green gnomes who play pretend and say “Og” a lot.

Re Voltron- In the late 90s there was Voltron-The Third Dimension. It was CGI done with really crappy motion sensor technology. BTW The 80s Voltron was actually two different Japanese series. Hiyakujo Go Lion, and I can’t remember the name of the vehicle one.

Thundarr The Barbarian- A stray comet streaks between earth and the moon, causing catastrophes. A thousand years (I think I have the number wrong) a strange new world rises from the old, a world ruled sorcery- and superscience! One man bursts his bonds! Together with his companions Ookla the Mok and Ariel the sorceress, and armed with his mighty SunSword, he fights for justice. He is Thundarr the barbarian.
This show was very obviously based on old radio programs, film serials, and science fiction pulps. So, not only did I love it, Dad would watch it with me.

Blackstar- A brave astronaut is pulled through a black hole and spit out in a world where magic is real. He lives in a tree with some dwarf/hobbit/Keebler elves. His pal Klone looked Orlando Bloom with blue skin, elf ears, and white hair. Klone could change shape. Blackstar had either the LightSword or the StarSword. Either way, the bad guy (Overlord? Purple skin, maroon armor) had the other half and was always trying to get Blackstar’s half in order to combine them into the Powersword.

Droids- The adventures of C3PO and R2D2 before they ended up with Princess Leia. It was the first show I remember with stories that were designed to take numerous episodes. From what I remember, this was a well written show and ahead of it’s time.

Ewoks-Let’s see- Ewoks live in tree village. They have trouble with the evil Duwoks. The shaman Logrei has real magic powers. I remember an episode with the traveling Jindas (they’re circus folk) and a giant wizard made of stone. I’m not sure if I want to remember more about this cartoon, of focus on making myself forget it entirely.

Fantastic Max- With the help of an alien named FX (he’s green and looks like a talking plush doll), and a block man FX brought to life (can’t remember his name), Max adventures through space. Max was about a year old. Whenever something bad happened, Max would yell “Dirty Diapers!”. The themesong told us “He owes it all to those four ply diapers and that safety pin!”

After seeing a short ad, I told a friend “It seems to be a charming series about a group of young girls who turn into magical prostitutes.”

Action shows - Voltron, Robotech, GI Joe, Transformers, MASK - were after school in my area. Saturday mornings were humour (and humour/action).

I remember the CBS Storybreak! It would come on early and last an hour. And it would start out with this giant book slowly opening. I never watched the show but I remember its existence.

IIRC CBS Storybreak was originally hosted by Captain Kangaroo ( I don’t recall whether Bob Keishan went by that name on this show or not.). Later, it was hosted by a very large puppet of Captain O G Readmore. Readmore was also featured in an animated commercial promoting literacy.

I remember they used to have a bunch of cartoons based on video games. There was Pac-Man, where the ghost monsters were always trying to capture the power pellet forest. There was Saturday Supercade, which had a bunch of games like Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and Frogger. There was also Pole Position, Dragon’s Lair, and Space Ace. Needless to say, I watched all of them.

Then there was Lazer Tag Academy, which told us that Lazer Tag wasn’t just a game; it also allowed you to travel in time and levitate buses. (Yes, I’m serious.)

The OP pretty much sums up what Saturday mornings were like for me! I may be a little younger; I remember the “Back to the Future” cartoon and Wish Kid with Macaulay Culkin.

I thought the lineup started to die when live-action shows became the rage. Saved by the Bell was the big one, but we also got City Guys and California Dreams, etc. I also wonder if the kids aren’t doing more weekend activities these days. I get the impression that a lot of 4-12 year olds (the target demographic of old-school Saturday morning shows), especially the suburban sort, are spending the weekends at soccer practice, scouting, dance lessons, and the like.

You could also reshape matter. IIRC Starlites (the LazerTag guns) could not effect gold.

Captain Kangaroo, Looney Tunes, Fat Albert, Rocky & Bullwinkle, that’s what I remember.

And some shows that were probably parts of those: Dudley Dooright, The Wacky Racers, Poindexter and Mr. Peabody, stuff like that.

I remember it-although I think it was on weekday afternoons, and there were two versions-one that had lions that formed the big robot, and one that had cars. I liked the one with the lions best, and my cousin and I would play and I was always Alora and she was her cousin that was on sometimes (but I forgot her name). The little boys in both cartoons-Pidge, the green lion had a brother on the car version.
I’d watch that, along with Robotech (Sundays, I think) and Jace and the Wheeled Warriors, about this group of space travelors, with a prince named Jace, a little girl who wore three pigtails (that my cousin and I always tried to immitate) and this Gandolf-ripoff.
Another cartoon I remember vaguely was about a big black stallion with red mane, named Wildfire. I think there was a little blond girl who used to ride him and the theme song was really cool.
Ooooh, what about Kidd Video! It was about a rock band that would always be forced into The Flip Side, where they were cartoons. The drummer was played by Robbie “Cousin Oliver” Rist and there was a little fairy named Glitter who got super strong when she sneezed.

Old school Scooby with entire gang pre-Scrappy Do was on weekday afternoons too-I know that because I used to watch it religiously EVERY DAY at four or whatever.

Then once cartoons were over, on Saturdays, I’d go get dressed and do whatever until four o’clock when we had to eat so we could go to church. Or I’d watch old B sci-fi movies with my mom on the local UHF type stations. (We didn’t have cable then.)

Chip. And they weren’t all cars. There were a few planes, too.

Anyone remember “The Kroft Supershow”

"Don’t get left behind
take a trip with us today
when you join us, you’ll know why we saaaaaayyyyy

It’s just a crazy world
where most of what you see, isn’t real."

They had live action shows, WonderBug (When you hear the horn, help is on the way, so clap your hands and shout Hooray!), Dr. Shrinker (He’s a madman with an evil mind) and the hotties, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (Fightin’ all evil deeds)

As for cartoons, I watched Superfriends all the way from Wendy and Marvin up through the Cyborg days, I liked Pandamonium, Dungeons and Dragons, The Young Sentinels, Goober and the Ghost Chasers (A Scooby Doo rip off) and of course, Bugs Bunny.

Some other older cartoons, I liked that were usually on in the afternoon were Abbot and Costello and Around the World in 80 Days (The motto of the wise is, be prepared for surprises.)

I haven’t seen anyone mention Teddy Ruxpin yet. I must have watched that entire series three or four times… once they got to the end they just re-ran them all in order from the beginning. My favorite character was Newton Gimmick - the “Q” of Saturday-morning television.

Also, another cartoon that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Astroboy. Definitely one of my favs.

IIR it’s Allura.

As I said, the original Japanese shows were unrelated. However, since so many Japanes cartoons of the time used the same stock cast (Tall heroboy, cutechick, fat football guy, short thin nerdy kid with glasses) it was easy to insert the letters from Pidge.

OTTOMH Jace’s dad was a great scientist working on a plant that ate pollution. He succeeded, but the expirement accidentally created the Monsterminds. These were evil plant people who had the power to change into strange, destructive vehicles. Jace had half of the miracle plant. He was on a quest to find his dad, who had the other half. IIRC The head villain was Sawboss.

OTTOMH “I’m Master Blaster, and I’m taking you to the Flipside where you’ll be my musical slaves forever!”. Master Blaster also stole music videos, which he kept in cocoons. His henchgoons were three cats- IIRC Skat Cat, Scratch Kat, and Fat Cat. Every show had a music video at the end. OTTOMH

“I can hear her laugh, as if she were so near.
But, a photograph is the only thing here.
We should be together.
We should be as one.
We could be forever.
How can loving end, before it has begun?”

and

“A little T L C,
From you to me!
T L C, tender loving care.”

There was nothing like watching the Pink Panther (with Mr. Jaw, Ant and the Aardvark, Texas Toads, et al.) over a bowl of Freakies. Years later, I was horrified to see a “Pink Panther” who talked. I suppose “Schoolhouse Rock” must have been on one station with “In the News” (a five-minute update on the Mideast situation or the energy crisis) on another. Some others I don’t think have been mentioned were “the Oddball Couple” (Spiffy the cat and Fleabag the dog), the Evel Knievel-like “Devlin”, the Waltons-like “These are the Days”.

I agree that Marvin and Wendy were better than “the Wonder Twins”.