Tell us about your Saturday morning cartoon memories!

S

ShadyCharacter

New member
Well I have many different memories and traditions based upon where I lived or how old I was but I will generalize my fun and memories.

I remember always waking up around 6 in the morning as a child, my parents were still asleep and I would get up and turn on the tv to watch this show where a guy in a yellow raincoat drew pictures on a canvas while on a boat or a dock or something, I think his name was Captain Bob. After that I would flip the channels looking for some shows I liked and would grab some cereal and watch away. I remember there was a half hour in there where usualy there was nothing on that I liked so I would play with my action figures or play some Nintendo (nes) until something else I liked came on. Usualy around 11-12 there was not a whole lot on so I would play more Nintendo or go outside to see if any of my friends were out playing and if not I would head back in to catch some WWF Superstars. The feelings of nostalgia I get when I think about my old houses, friends and fun I had on Saturday mornings makes me want to cry because it will never be like that for me again. From 1984-1992 life was good. Even until 1994 or so it wasent so bad :(
 
Unfortunately, my Saturday morning memories are limited. For much of my childhood, I didn't watch the network lineups - I watched nothing but Nickelodeon from 1991 to approximately 1997. As a kid, I took everything to extremes, and so Nickelodeon was deemed by me to be the greatest TV channel ever, and everything else was inferior.

Well, actually, this is slightly inaccurate - I did watch other channels on occasion, but only to get the stuff I couldn't get on Nick. FOX Kids entered my diet in 1995 when "Goosebumps" premiered, but that was the only show I ever watched there. Same goes for "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" on ABC (as well as the Looney Tunes shorts on TNT and TBS - I gradually realized that the color '40s shorts were on the Turner networks, the '50s shorts were on ABC, and Nick mostly had the '30s and '60s shorts). But for the most part, I eschewed everything that wasn't Nickelodeon. This was extremely dumb of me, since I missed out on a lot of great shows this way.

The only time I began following Saturday morning cartoons with any real interest was in 1999, when I began watching "Pok?mon". Again, I took it to the most extreme level possible - suddenly, Nickelodeon was the dumbest thing on earth, and "Pok?mon" was the greatest show ever made. And so my loyalty stayed with Kids' WB for this time, and I vowed never to watch Nickelodeon again (though I did go out of my way to talk about how stupid it was and how I never liked it to begin with). Just how obsessed was I? Well, I didn't actually get the WB at this point - Kids' WB was carried on my local UPN affiliate. And when they dropped it in early 2000, thus removing "Pok?mon" from my daily TV lineup, I actually locked myself in my room and very loudly cried my eyes out for an hour and a half. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I was 13 years old.

I can't help but think that I wasted my childhood. All this great stuff was going on, but I was too zeroed in on one or two shows to care about anything else.
 
I have fond memories of the early "Saturday Morning Cartoons." I remember being excited that I could sleep in for the weekend, because of school, and was able to watch Saturday Morning cartoons. I watched the earlier ones, such as "the Muppet Babies", "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (not a cartoon but still), "the California Raisins", "Garfield and Friends", "the Addams Family", "Tales of the Crypt Keeper", and "Land of the Lost" (not a cartoon but still). When the shows, such as "Recess", "the Proud Family", etc. came on, I stopped watching Saturday Morning Cartoons. I have nothing against the new shows, I just really like the old ones. Ah, those were the good old days.

Looneytunes/Disneytoons
 
Pee Wee Playhouse and Land of the Lost were great. I loved those shows back in the day. There were so many shows from when I was a kid that I loved it's hard to remember them all.
 
Actually, I COULD write a whole book on a subject like that (Sat. Morn. Cartoons) but I'll leave it at this:

Had a lotta energy as a kid, and half of it was used for waking up at 4 to 5 a.m. every Saturday early morning, when my parents and bro were asleep and the house was pitch black mostly, except for the glow of the TV, and I would stare at the TV, just to wait for all the cartoons to start around 6 or 7 a.m. That had to be one of the most peaceful and happy moments of my life, as a diehard animation fan of all sorts of animation (just sitting there on the couch, alone with the glow of the TV. It was like meditation before I discovered actual real Zen meditation)

But things have changed. Most shows on Saturdays start at 7 now (WB/CW for instance), cuz kids are so damn overworked by modern life. I feel kinda sorry for em. It's not the same situation for these kids today as it was for me as a kid, so really, I have no clue what it's like for the modern generation of childhood animation fans.

I can't really tell HOW different it is for this generation than it once was for me. Too bad it's not quite as fun and magical as it once was. There was a time when Saturday Morning cartoons were on par (as far as the kid experience goes) as seeing Disney Feature films in theatres, back when they were actually entertaining, as far as the 90s go. But that was also before animation was on TV / The Internet 24/7.
 
The only saturday morning memories I have is my brother and I trying to watch Recess on the TV in my parents bedroom and my dad would always change the channel, until one day he had to go to work.
 
I come from a different, simpler time.

I have vague, fuzzy recollections of seeing Banana Splits, Spider-Man, & the oriignal animated Batman the first time around. Syndicated reruns helped tremendously in the late 70's.

The 70's. Oh, what good times. Fat Albert, IMPO, deserved to be moved to a pre-lunch time slot, as it got blacked out by the local affils in later years in favor of syndie programming and/or sports. Likewise, I never saw Jeannie or Partridge Family 2200 AD until they were included in the Fred Flintstone syndie package. I remember seeing Josie, Scooby, the Globetrotters, and Sealab 2020, as well as the original Super Friends.

As a teenager, I didn't quite outgrow toons. I was a little more discriminating. Saturdays in 1977 always started with the All-New Super Friends Hour. It took a while before I actually bought an issue of the comic book, since local newsstands didn't have a consistent selection. As far as the Wonder Twins were concerned, well, I did develop a crush on Jayna (and what normal teen in 1977 didn't?) A 1-woman menagerie who was drop-dead gorgeous. You do understand, then, why I have a problem with mean spirited poseurs like Seanbaby.:p ;) :D

In truth, I'd sample almost anything that came along, but when the syndicated H-B World of Super Adventure debuted, that was the be-all and end-all for me for a while. Catch up time on what I couldn't recall a decade earlier. The funny thing with the '78 Fantastic Four series was, my cable provider had at the time included a 2nd NBC affil, this one from Utica, and this was the only way I'd see FF, since the Albany station blacked out the FF for some odd reason. Subbing HERBIE for the Torch doomed it from the start, since it messed with the formula. Of course, NBC didn't do the Thing any favors when he returned to H-B the next year as a solo act.:(

Today, I'm not into it that much. I have no use for the current Spider-Man, and 4Kwacks controlling two network schedules is just flat wrong. I think CW dumping Loonatics Unleashed really did it for me. I just don't have the interest I once did. Gimme the old school stuff any day of the week, y'all.
 
My SatAM memories date from 1963-64 to the mid-70s. Going back to when the network lineups were a mix of cartoons [Quick Draw McGraw, Casper, Bullwinkle, etc.], reruns [Fury, Dennis The Menace, Sky King], educational shows [Exploring], and so on, enduring the action-adventure trend [Frankenstein Jr., Space Ghost, Superman, et al], and going to comedy toons [Archie, Wacky Races, etc.], and the Krofft so-called "schlock" period.
 
I only on accusation would watch Saturday morning blocks, I mostly watched PBS, and Classic Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons on VHS. Whenever I did watch Saturday mornings I would watch either the CBS block or the Fox kids Block, I have a couple of memories of watching "Eek the Cat", "Goosebumps", and "Garfield and Friends" in the morning.

In 2008 I did tune in to Kids WB! to watch new episodes of "Tom and Jerry tales" and "Spectacular Spider-Man", but other than that I didn't really watch Saturday mornings.
 
I remember watching Animaniacs, tiny toons, and other great shows when I was a kid. Saturday was the best when I was watching the good old cartoonnetwork, Fox kids{mostly for the woodywood pecker show that was airing. Any news on a DVD release of that?}. Thats basicallly it....I do recall Beetlejuice having some crazy moments in the tv show.
 
Remember the Saturday morning version of Sonic the Hedgehog? I used to get out of bed to see it. I forgot what time it came on, but I got up no later than 9:00 in the morning to watch it. Too bad it only aired for two years; I was eight and nine years old during those times.
 
All I particularly remember offhand is getting PO'ed when I went to watch some saturday morning cartoons and all the local channels were broadcasting the Breaking News about a NASA crash or something.
 
I remember Watching Power rangers & Beast wars religiously as a kid, in fact I Grew up with FOX KIDS, My Town didn't get WB Till 2001 so I missed a good chunck of its golden years, still I enjoyed the Saturday morining shows om WB just as much as fox. & then of course I'd Watch Toonanmi Rising sun.....If I did'nt forget & Spend the whole morning watchin FOX.:sweat:

Ahh...Saturday morning Cartoons, we miss U you may be on DVD or Online Now, but that doesn't change the fact that are saturday mornings our nearly dead now.


R.I.P. SATAM Cartoons (1960's-2009)
 
I don't like any of the mid-day major network cartoons that air these days, Stuff like Kewl and Quobo is basicly all crap to me. I do like what 4Kids has going on, Cartoon Network has a lot of good shows on saturday mornings and Disney XD has a show or two worth watching, same with Nicktoons :D.

It will never be what it once was, I will always have a special spot in my heart for the classic days of saturday morning commercials, but today's cartoons are not exactly toilet brownies either.
 
Yeah, I remember it. I was never a fan of it. I thought Sonic was too silly of a character for such a serious show. So, I always preferred the campy syndicated show that aired on weekdays.
 
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