My Top Three Saturday Morning Cartoons I Bet You Forgot About
Whether you watched them when they first aired or grew up catching them on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, or the Cartoon Network as re-runs, cartoons from the 1970s are still legendary today.
Waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons was a sort of an unspoken tradition, sacrosanct among kids in the 70s. I was one of those kids.
The 4-hour block of Saturday morning cartoons was absolutely big. It went hand in hand with multiple bowls of Fruit Loops or Cap’n Crunch and a big glass of Tang. Cereals marketed towards kids had cartoon mascots and animated commercials.
Saturday morning cartoons became enshrined as a quintessential hallmark of American childhood.
Everybody had a favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was a favorite for some. For others, it was The Woody Woodpecker Show, the Tom & Jerry Show, or The Jetsons. I’m here to write about three of my favorite Saturday cartoons — not in any particular order — and a bonus at the end.
The Pink Panther
First on my list is the Pink Panther Show (which lasted from 1969 to 1978 on NBC.) The Pink Panther started from appearances in the opening and closing credit sequences of every film in The Pink Panther movie series — A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau are the two exceptions.
The animated Pink Panther character’s initial appearance in the live-action film’s title sequence, directed by Friz Freleng, was a great success with audiences. United Artists signed Freleng and his DePatie–Freleng Enterprises studio to a multi-year contract for a series of Pink Panther theatrical cartoon shorts.
The popularity of the theatrical cartoon shorts spawned a spin-off franchise of theatrical shorts, television cartoons, and merchandise. The DePatie–Freleng Enterprises studio produced 124 short films, four TV series, and four TV specials . . .not too bad.
The character is closely associated with The Pink Panther Theme, originally composed by Henry Mancini for the live-action films, which would be used extensively in the cartoon series also.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was the creation of comedian Bill Cosby. Cosby also lent his voice to many characters, including Fat Albert and himself.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids premiered as an animated primetime television special on NBC on November 12, 1969 entitled Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert(named after Fat Albert’s catchphrase “Hey hey hey!”). The series premiered on CBS in 1972 and ran until 1985.
The character Fat Albert first appeared in Cosby’s stand-up comedy routine “Buck Buck” on his 1967 album Revenge. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids were based on Cosby’s tales about growing up in inner-city North Philadelphia.
During each episode, Fat Albert and his friends (aka The Junkyard Gang) dealt with an issue or problem commonly faced by children. The issues presented on the show were emphasized by Cosby’s live-action segments.
The best part for me was at the end of each episode. The gang would gather in the junkyard they hung out in and play a song summarizing the show’s lesson.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
Rocky and His Friends have been around in one iteration or another since 1959. The show has gone by the titles of The Bullwinkle Show and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. When I discovered Rocky and His Friends, it was titledThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The animated series follows the adventures of the two title characters, a flying squirrel Rocket J. (“Rocky”) Squirrel and a moose Bullwinkle J. Moose. Their adventures were centered around the main antagonists, the two KGB-like spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale — who spoke with heavy Slavic accents — both working for the Nazi-like dictator Fearless Leader.
Supporting segments include Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties (a parody of old-time melodrama); Peabody’s Improbable History (a dog named Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman traveling through time); Aesop and Son (similar to Fractured Fairy Tales except it deals with fables instead of fairy tales); and my favorite Fractured Fairy Tales (familiar fairy tales with altered, modernized storylines for humorous, satirical effect) which I still watch among others.
Honorable mentions
There were more animations I wanted to mention; if I did, this essay would turn into an ebook. There will be a part two or a part three in the future.
One honorable mention — which isn’t an animation but a live-action show — featured life-sized puppets which became a staple of Saturday morning children’s programming.
The team of television creators and puppeteers, Sid and Marty Krofft, made numerous children’s television and variety shows in the United States, particularly during the 1970s. Productions by Sid and Marty included The Banana Splits (1968) — they designed the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera — H.R. Pufnstuf (1969), The Bugaloos (1970), Lidsville (1971), Land of the Lost (1974), and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973).
Sid and Marty Krofft made some of the creepiest kid shows I had ever seen. The Rankin/Bass Christmas claymation movies were the only children’s shows to be as creepy as Sid and Marty’s.
A few more animated Saturday morning cartoons from the 70s worth mentioning are Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (which had a Rocky and Bullwinkle vibe to it), The Partridge Family 2200 A.D., Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, The Robonic Stooges, and The Roman Holidays.
The beginning of the end
The 4-hour block for Saturday morning cartoons is dead. The death of Saturday morning cartoons started as a slow decline in the early 1990s, then snowballed through the rest of the 20th century. In my opinion, there were two reasons Saturday morning cartoons died.
The beginning of the end of Saturday morning cartoons came in 1990 when Congress, in response to the steady pressure on the part of parents and children’s interest groups concerned with the issue of advertising to children, enacted the Children’s Television Act (CTA).
The CTA was passed to increase educational and informative (E/I)programming for children and to limit the amount of advertising during children’s shows. The Act banned targeted ads for toys that were advertised during shows the toys were based on — for example, advertisements for G.I. Joe figurines couldn’t be presented during an episode of G.I. Joe.
Time allotted for advertisements during children’s programming was limited to twelve minutes per half-hour on weekdays and nearly eleven minutes on the weekends.
This action, combined with the later US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements that broadcast networks air at least three hours of E/I programming a week, guaranteed the end of Saturday morning cartoons, since the vast majority of people dismissed them as non-educational.
Ironically, the CTA was passed despite objections by the Bush administration, which believed that requiring the broadcast of educational programming by all television stations was a violation of their rights to free speech.
Secondly, the rise of cable television networks, such as the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, provided appealing animated entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours, making Saturday morning time slots far less important to young viewers and advertisers.
Cable channels had the additional advantage of being beyond the reach of FCC content regulations and didn’t have to abide by educational and advertising regulations.
This is the end
In a nutshell, the government and technology killed Saturday mornings. I miss the pre-VCR, UHF era of television entertainment.
As a kid, I’d jump out of bed at 7:00 AM on Saturdays to watch my cartoons, but as an adult, I’m lucky my feet touch the floor by 11:00 AM.
2023© ElbyJames