80s Month: Saturday Morning Recreated: NBC, Fall 1980

Not only is today the second post of 80s month here at Me and You, but also another installment of Saturday Morning Recreated. Today we recreate the Saturday morning lineup for NBC in the fall of 1980! This is the first time I've examined NBC for this feature, so this will be interesting. Let's go!


The ad doesn't give the exact times, but it's safe to assume they started at 8am ET/PT. First up is the Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour. That's a weird combo! In this cartoon version, Godzilla would aid a team of scientists in preventing monsters and other phenomena from destroying the earth, along with lovable sidekick Godzookie. Yes, a comedic mini-version of Godzilla. Take a look!




Dynomutt was an robotic dog who would aid superhero Blue Falcon in the usual hero stuff. Here is the intro.



At 9am was the Flintstones Comedy Show, new adventures of the Bedrock gang with several changes and updates, such as Pebbles and Bam Bam as teenagers, Fred and Barney as cops, the appearance of Captain Caveman (formerly star of his own series), and the addition of the Frankenstones (basically cavemen versions of the Munsters) and the classic comic strip character Shmoo. How the hell he wound up in Bedrock I'll never know. Of course this incarnation didn't have the heart and charm of the original, it was mildly amusing in its own way. Here is the intro (from a Spanish language version, alas).



At 10am NBC features the hourlong Space Stars, a blend of four separate space-themed characters: Space Ghost, Space Ace and the Space Mutts, Teen Force, and the Herculoids. Here is the intro, followed by episodes of all the features except Teen Force, which I couldn't find anywhere.







At 11am, NBC carried reruns of the classic 1960s series The Jetsons. Recycling older series for Saturday mornings was quite common for networks back then.



Finally at 11:30am, NBC played The Daffy Duck Show, which aired on the network for a year or two before this series. Cartoons featured in this series relied heavily on the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzalez team-ups that Warner Brothers distributed in the mid 60s, some of the last cartoon shorts WB produced for movie theaters. They were pretty uninspired, to be honest, but here they are.




All in all, this lineup is on the mediocre side. The Flinstones Comedy Show was mildly amusing, but nowhere on par with its predecessor. Space Ghost and the Herculoids were cool, but surrounded by forgettable partners in its hour. It's no surprise that this lineup would get scrapped the following year. That lineup is much more notable, but I'll save that for another time. Between this and the other 1980 schedule I've post for ABC, I'd choose the latter.

I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave any comments you wish below. To see all of my Saturday Morning Recreated posts, click here. Thanks!