Saturday Morning Cartoons!!!

Bugs and Rudolph, the Hairy Monster 

After a week of sad news happening across the globe, I needed something to take me back to happier times as a kid.

My brother Adam posted the intro for the 70s kids TV show for the "Electric Company" on Face Book and I started thinking of what cartoons we used to watch. We would excitedly get up early on the weekends and begin our ritual of watching our favorites each Saturday morning for hours. I don't think Mom minded that much as it kept us out of her hair. We repeated this pattern on Sundays with the Three Stooges shorts, Hercules, Tarzan or monster movies. Each day after school, we fit in Gillian's Island, the Brady Bunch, the Monkees or McHale's Navy.

Adam and I never fought about which cartoons or TV shows we would watch and luckily liked the same ones. We fought over other important stuff like who was stronger (he was) or faster (he was), who could build the bigger plane model or who would win in a fight, Luke Skywalker or Han Solo.

So in no particular order, here is the list of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons from my childhood along with either a little blurb of each or a video from Youtube!
Super Friends (1973-1986)

Totally went downhill after the addition of those idiot alien wonder twins, Zan and Jayna and the annoying space monkey Gleek. I loved the original more. Aquaman was my favorite. Thank god someone never dropped him in New Mexico though. I mean what would he do then? Take a Greyhound bus to San Diego???




 Looney Tunes (1930-1969)

I am such a HUGE Bugs Bunny fan. My favorite Christmas ornament is Bugs Bunny Carmen Miranda! I didn't like Foghorn Leghorn though. So annoying. Here's Bugs with the Hairy Monster. I loved the Hairy Monster and forgot his name was Rudoph! What a big red goof.




 Dungeons and Dragons (1983-1985)

I would play Dungeons and Dragons role playing game for HOURS during highschool with my brother Adam and friends Mark, Greg, and Chris. I was a magician. I remember specifically that Chris and I would argue over how to pronounce stupid monster's names. LOL. When they came out with a cartoon, I was beside myself!




Scooby Doo (1969-present)

 Scooby Doo does not exist for me after that Scrappy Doo was introduced. I was really messed up from that. I mean, a puppy that was a tough guy and could walk and talk? REALLY? LOL I don't think so. I loved how Velma would pick them all up at once and run away from a monster with them. I loved Scooby Doo. Really one of my all time favs. This shit would scare the hell out of this 7 year old!
Tom and Jerry (1940-present)

Many an afternoon and Saturday morning would be spent watching Tom and Jerry chase each other around their house. Poor Tom Cat. He sucked at mousing. Jerry Mouse was pretty smart though. But you'd think he'd eff up sometime and get caught. I would've bought those electronic mousetraps which zap the mouse if I were Tom. But if that happened, we wouldn't have had 5 decades of cartoons!! I like the older versions best, the ones done in from 1940 to 1958, the Hanna-Barbera era.




Josie and the Pussycats (1963-1982)

Another crush-worthy cartoon during my childhood. I had a crush on Valerie in this one. Loved the mean cat Sebastian. His lock opening ability with his claws was incredible. AND the music was really groovy. Listen to the theme song and you KNOW you wanna sing along, "Long tails, and ears for hats!!!!"




Captain Caveman (and the Teen Angels) (1977-1980)

The most implausible of cartoons, a caveman in a block of ice, saved by a modern girl group called the Teen Angels. I crushed on those Teen Angel gals. I would run around the house screaming "Captain CAVEMAN!!!!" at the top of my lungs. Take one part Scooby-Doo, one party Josie and the Pussycats, put them in a blender and press blend. You get this cartoon.




School House Rock! (1973-2009)

I loved School House Rock! I learned about history, math, grammar, the legal system! Why couldn't they have done this with my Nature of Politics or Calculus courses at Rutgers??? I still know all the words to these cartoon songs. "Hey that's not fair, giving a guy a shot down there!" LMAO Seriously though, an ingenious way for young kids to learn and remember!




No 70's Saturday morning cartoon binge watching would be complete without including mentions of these live-action shows:  "Banana Splits", "Sigmund and the Seamonsters", and "Land of the Lost".


Banana Splits (1968-1970)

Banana Splits was a kids variety hour that seemed like everyone was stoned or on acid. Totally didn't get it but I love the buggies the Banana Splits would drive around and even had some toys ones I played with. What ever happened to those? LOL The theme song is s definite ear worm. You'll be singing "Tra-la-la!" in your head long after you read this...




 Sigmund and the Seamonsters (1973-1978)

I also loved Sigmund and the Seamonsters and would search the beaches of Strathmere, NJ as a kid for my own seamonster Sigmund. Found alot of seaweed but no seamonster. Johnny the main kid was cool as shit too. Poor little Sigmund, his family thought he was a rotten seamonster but he honestly just wanted friends!




Land of the Lost (1974-1977)

With Land of the Lost, I was terrified of the Sleestaks, the race of the dinosaur humanoids. I kept watching it because I desperately wanted a pet baby brontosaurus like Dopey. I think this triggered my life long fascination with dinosaurs. The special effects were cutting edge at the time but absolutely hysterical to look at now.




AND FINALLY,  thanks to my brother Adam for posting the opening video for the Electric Company. I loved watching all of our favorite shows together. Great memories. Hope this post brings back some of yours!

HEY YOU GUYS!!!!! (You'll see in the clip below, LOL) And yes, that's Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno who starred in it!

 ELECTRIC COMPANY (1971-1977)





Comments

  1. Debbie BiondiFebruary 24, 2018 at 10:42 PM

    I loved all of those shows. Including Woody Woodpecker and The
    Bugaloos! I smiled the whole time I was reading your blog :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2018 at 10:11 AM

    My favorite characters were Yosemite Sam, Henry Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner. JR

    ReplyDelete
  3. MoragFebruary 26, 2018 at 10:34 AM

    I never had cartoons growing up, we didn’t have a television till I was older. Our church ran Sunday afternoon movies - Westerns and Superheroes and a Newsreel. Cartoons started for me with my children and I enjoyed “Roadrunner”. Good Blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chuck BudaMarch 3, 2018 at 12:02 PM

    Oh man. What a stroll down memory lane. This was a great post, buddy.

    ReplyDelete

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