Long before iPads, Kindles, Minecraft and Fortnite there was Saturday morning. Saturday morning cartoons, to be specific. They were a way of life for kids growing up in the Sixties, Seventies and early Eighties. For us Boomers, the general routine was to wake up early on Saturday, get a bowl of Frosted Flakes or Sugar Crisps, turn on the TV and watch an hour or so of cartoons before going out to play.
There were lots of viewing choices you could ‘toon in. There was Casper The Friendly Ghost, Hoppity Hooper, Heckle and Jeckle, Tom and Jerry, Underdog and Secret Squirrel. Lunchtime choices included live action shows such as Sky King, Fury and Rin Tin Tin. I liked Sky King because he flew a Cessna 310 named the Songbird and always caught the bad guys. But in my pre-pubescent youth, I had a star crush on Penny, Sky’s curvy blonde niece played by Gloria Winters. Like Jimmy Buffet sang in the song Pencil Thin Moustache, I also wrote Penny a fan letter. She sent back an 8×10 black and white glossy photograph of her in front of the Songbird. She had autographed it but the signature was “Gloria Winters.” I remember pulling it out of the envelope, looking at it and thinking, “Gloria Winters? Who’s Gloria Winters? That’s not Gloria Winters. That’s Penny!” I framed it and hung it in my room anyway, but it was a year or so before I figured out who Gloria Winters was. I liked Rin Tin Tin because he was a really cool German Shepherd. The kid he belonged to was Rusty, who lived with the soldiers at Fort Apache in the Old West. As a nine-year-old boy I could not imagine anything cooler than living in a fort with a bunch of soldiers and a big dog, except maybe singing and riding a motorcycle from town to town like Elvis in Roustabout.
My two favorites cartoons were Looney Tunes and Jonny Quest. Looney Tunes was spread out over several different programs, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Porky Pig Show and later The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. All featured the classic Looney Tunes cartoons and characters. Jonny Quest was a kid whose father was a scientist and adventurer. They, along with Jonny’s friend Hadji and bulldog Bandit, traveled around the world battling all types of nefarious villains.
The cartoon cavalcade wasn’t just limited to Saturday mornings, either. In the afternoons, The Huckleberry Hound Show came on before the six o’clock news. Huckleberry Hound was a blue dog with a southern drawl who always sang Oh My Darlin’ Clementine. Some of the others featured in the show were Quick Draw McGraw and his sidekick Baba Looey, Snagglepuss, Hokey Wolf, Pixie and Dixie, Peter Potamus, Wally Gator, Breezly and Sneezly, Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey, Magilla Gorilla, Mushmouse and Punkin’ Puss, Hector Heathcoat, Ricochet Rabbit and a picnic basket pilfering bear who lived in Jellystone Park. His name was Yogi Bear and he became so popular that he and his little buddy Boo-Boo were given a show of their own.
There were shows on weekday mornings, too, most notably Captain Kangaroo. I had a small black and white TV in my room and watched it while I was getting dressed and ready on school mornings. The Captain lived The Treasure House, along with Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock and The Dancing Bear. They were visited every episode by Mr. Green Jeans, a farmer who always brought a new addition to his menagerie of animals by The Treasure House. I would sometimes watch Speed Racer weekday mornings or another anime series called Tobor The 8th Man.
The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Top Cat appeared in prime time. The Flintstones, a modern Stone Age family, became one of the most popular shows in television history. Fred, Wilma and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble all live in the suburbs of a town called Bedrock. Everything is made out of stone, including their beds. The Flintstones were the first couple to have a single bed on television as opposed to twin beds. In the first couple of seasons they had twin beds like every other TV couple. Somewhere along the way the twin beds gave way to a single granite slab, the ultimate in prehistoric comfort. The show ran for six seasons and was the longest running animated prime time television show in history before being taken over by The Simpsons.
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, featuring Rocky The Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle The Moose aired first on weekday afternoons and later Sunday afternoons. Rocky and Bullwinkle were generally at odds with two scheming international spies, Boris and Natasha. Other segments included Dudley Do-Right, a bumbling Canadian Mountie, Peabody and Sherman, featuring a genius anamorphic dog (Mr. Peabody), Fractured Fairy Tales and Aesop and Son. The show was low budget, the animation was horrible, but the writing was brilliant and the show was funny and entertaining.
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show continued into the Eighties, along with the Muppet Babies and, of course, The Smurfs. Every Saturday morning my daughter Dana and I would watch The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show. I taped a bunch of the episodes and one day accidentally recorded a college football game over them. I was devastated. Several years back Dana bought her two sons a four DVD box set containing fifty six classic Looney Tunes. I raised my daughter right. I only hope that the violence in the cartoons doesn’t forever warp and scar them as they did countless other kids in the generations before them.
Saturday morning cartoons are no more. They were gradually phased out beginning in the early Nineties. The last holdout was The CW Channel, which dropped The Vortexx in 2014. Why were they phased out? More quality and educational programming, which is good. Maybe to get kids away from the TV and to do other things. That worked out real well. Now they stare at iPhones and Androids all day. Fortunately, thanks to cable, satellite and streaming, we Boomers, GenXers and early Millenials can find and still enjoy the antics and adventures of Scooby Doo, Transformers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now that’s quality programming!