A few weeks back, I presented an edition of Saturday Morning Recreated that focused on the lineup for ABC in the fall of 1982. In researching that article, I came across a great treat.
In addition to advertising the kids' lineups in comic books and other places back in the day, the networks also created prime time preview specials of the upcoming lineups as well. Here, including commercials, is the special ABC created to promote the very same lineup I featured last month. How 80s is it? It's hosted by Dick Clark on the American Bandstand set with guest stars Willie Tyler and Lester.
You remember Willie Tyler and Lester, don't you?
There's no mistaking the fact that ABC had their hopes pinned on the Pac-Man cartoon to help it's lineup succeed, as Pac-Man is clearly the star of this show. The very name of the special itself is "Pac Preview Party." The voice of Pac-Man, the late Marty Engels, makes an appearance later in the special.
The sad thing? I remember almost everything about this special when it aired that one time in 1982!
I hope you enjoy. If you like this, I'll keep a lookout for more of these specials. Thanks!
Greeting and salutations! In my previous post, I mentioned I wanted to return to one of my favorite blog features, Saturday Morning Recreated. I decided not to waste any time and get right back into it!
For those who don't know, with this feature I post an old advertisement (usually found in comic books) for a broadcast network's Saturday morning children's lineup, then attempt to feature a clip or episode from each of the shows mentioned. It's not nearly the same as sitting in front of a big TV watching the shows as they aired, but it's a small attempt at bringing those Saturday mornings of my youth back.
This feature was created by classic TV blogger Kliph Nesteroff and I've continued it with his permission. The ads are provided by the Branded in the 80s blog created by Shawn Robare (Hi Shawn!).
Now, on with the show(s)!
We relaunch the feature at the blog with ABC's lineup from the fall of 1982. According to the ad, the lineup starts at 8:30am rather than 8am, as was usual for the networks; strange that they would start a half hour later this year. First up at 8:30 is a show that is strange, bad, fun, and trendsetting all at the same time. It's also one of the most, if not the most 80s show ever to hit Saturday mornings: Pac-Man!
Here, Pac-Man is given arms and legs, as well as a family, as he tries to escape the bite of the Ghost Monsters, which is a name I love. They're not ghosts, they're not monsters--they're ghost monsters. Yet with cred like that, they're the most inept creatures you'll ever find.
See for yourself. Here is the series' very first episode!
Despite the utter goofiness of this series, I loved it as a kid, and I wasn't alone. The series ran for two seasons and was the first of a long line of video game-inspired Saturday morning series.
Next up at 9am is a cartoon version of The Little Rascals. I couldn't find a clip of this anywhere, but there is a primetime Christmas special that's out there that inspired the weekly series.
At 9:30 is a holdover from the 1981 season, Richie Rich. Richie was paired with Scooby Doo in the previous year, but is featured solo here.
The 10am-11am hour demonstrates another interesting trend of the networks, especially ABC--animated versions of their primetime sitcoms. Two cases in point--Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley (wow, two ampersands!). Whenever such a conversion from live action to animation was made, one major tweak was added to "kiddify" the cartoon series, usually involving a wacky animal. Here, Mork has an alien dog, and Laverne and Shirley join the army and have a talking pig as a drill sergeant voiced by Ron "Horshack" Parillo of Welcome Back, Kotter. I am NOT making this shit up!
Next from 11am to noon is the Scooby and Scrappy Doo Puppy Hour. Scooby and Scrappy are already familiar to everyone, but I have no recollection whatsoever of the second half of the hour. Something about puppies and sheriffs that look like John Denver, apparently.
At 12 noon is the perennial ABC Weekend Special.
Wrapping up ABC's Saturday morning is a TV institution, American Bandstand. Granted, the clip I present here is from 1979 not 1982, but whose counting?
I hope you enjoyed this trip down Saturday Morning Lane. If you enjoyed this, please check out my other installments (assuming the clips are still valid--many of them aren't) and stay tuned for more Saturday Mornings Recreated!
Here once again, we travel back in time to check out a Saturday morning children's schedule of the past. Today we peruse the schedule for CBS in the Fall of 1981!
First up at 8am is the Kwicky Koala Show. Only lasting one season, the character Kwicky Koala was one of the last creations by legendary animator Tex Avery.
Following at 8:30am is the Trollkins, also lasting just one season. I could only find the intro, so this is all you have the judge the quality of the show. I vaguely remember this show, but can't remember if it was any good--I'm assuming not. It appears to be a cross between the Smurfs and the Dukes of Hazzard, if that can be imagined. Ironically, this premiered the same month as the Smurfs.
At 9am, my beloved Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show!
A full hour and a half later at 10:30am, it's the Popeye and Olive Oyl Show, a shortened version of 1980's All New Popeye Hour.
At 11am was the action cartoon Blackstar. This was just one in a trend of cosmic barbarian series that appeared around this time, such as Thundarr, Herculoids, Masters of the Universe, etc.
At 11:30 was the Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour by Filmation. Tarzan had been successful on CBS for a few seasons by this time, so Filmation decided to add other classic adventure stars to the mix. Although well done and entertaining, this turned out to be Tarzan's final season and the only season for the Lone Ranger and Zorro.
You have to love William Conrad's reading of the classic Lone Ranger intro!
At 12:30pm (yes, we're in the afternoon now) is, lamentably, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show. I've ranted about the poor quality of this show before, so I won't do it now. To make it more interesting, I present an installment of the show--in Spanish!
At 1pm is CBS perennial Fat Albert.
Wrapping things up at 1:30pm is 30 Minutes, a news program aimed at teens that I don't remember and can never find footage of.
And that's the long CBS Saturday morning! Although I always admired CBS for having such a long morning, it didn't always matter, as they often preempted their kids shows for sports in the early afternoon. This must not have been a good ratings season for the network, as most of these shows did not air the next season, as far as I know. I look forward to posting CBS Fall 1982 for comparison.
Yes, once again we traverse a Saturday morning schedule past for tasty nostalgic treats. It's Saturday Morning Recreated, and this time we enter--NBC in the fall of 1981!
As usual with NBC ads, there are no exact times, and considering the unusual way networks packaged their programs, I'm not even going to guess what the exact times were for these shows. I'll just go in order this time and see what's what.
Starting off the morning is the Flintstones Comedy Show. I've already talked about this series previously, and as their isn't much more footage from it to post, we'll simply move on.
The next show is, well, the most successful Saturday morning children's show of the decade--The Smurfs. The Belgian-born creatures had been around for ages before hitting American shores, but when they did, they were an overnight sensation that would last for years more. This show was to NBC's Saturday morning lineup what The Cosby Show would be to the network's primetime lineup in 1984. Their impact on kids TV in the 80s can't be overestimated. Here they are!
Next up is The Kids Super Power Hour with Shazam! This was a blend of two cartoons plus live action sequences. Hero High was simply that: a high school for super-powered teenagers. They were also portrayed in the live action spots by actors who were, well, older than teens. Truth be told, they were pretty bad. I remember the live action spots, but have no memory of the cartoon.
They appeared with an animated version of DC Comics' Captain Marvel. Strange that Filmation would give an animated take on a character for which they produced a live action series just a couple years before. Unfortunately, all I can find of this series is the intro (there were several episodes from the series available online fo a few years, but it looks like YouTube finally pulled the plug on them).
Up next is a return from the previous season, Space Stars. As with the Flintstones, I'll give this one a pass this time around, as I've already covered that series in my 1980 post. This leads up to...
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends! Spidey makes his second go-round as an animated series, this time with help from the X-Men's Iceman and heroine Firestar, a character I believe was created specifically for this series (although she was later added into Marvel Comics' continuity). As a huge Spider-Man fan, I of course loved this show, even if it lacked the charm and energy of the 1960s series. How did these three crazy kids get together? Find out here!
Next is the Daffy and Speedy Show, a collection of crappy cartoons from the late 60s that were packaged for this series. Another leftover from previous seasons, so no need to mention it further here.
Finally, like the Jetsons from the 1980 season, this lineup is rounded out by a classic from the 60s, Rocky and Bullwinkle. At least this is a much better use of recycled material.
And that's the lineup for NBC 1981. As typical of most of the lineups we've examined so far, there are some gems (Smurfs, Spider-Man) and some crap (Hero High, Daffy and Speedy). Still, it's more than you can say for today's Saturday morning TV, but I'll save that for another post some day (and I do have a lot to say about it).
We'll have one more post to wrap up 80s Month, and then--heh heh heh. You see that new orange banner near the top right of the blog? Click on that and you'll see what's next for October. Bwah ha ha!
It's time to revisit Saturday mornings on our journey through 80s Month, this time to CBS in the Fall of 1980. With this post, I'll have covered all three major networks' lineups for that one season, the first time since I've done this feature that this has happened. You can check out ABC here and NBC here for comparison. But now, on to CBS!
The lineup starts at 8am with, unfortunately, The Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle Show by Filmation. I've already discussed how bad this version was previously, but if you're a glutton for punishment, here is another example.
Up next at 8:30 is another Filmation destruction of cartoon icons, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show. All I could find was the intro and outro of this series, but I've seen the actual cartoons before, and like the Mighty Mouse cartoons, they are pale imitations of the true classics. These clips (from a Spanish language version) say it all.
At 9am was the classic Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show. It really wasn't Saturday morning for me as a kid if I didn't hear this theme song.
Or this one:
If you really need to laugh, watch this--now!
This should help too!
At 10:30 the All New Popeye Hour returned for another season. This was one classic character revival that actually wasn't too bad. Not as good as the originals, of course, but comparatively, not bad.
Part of this show featured Olive Oyl in the army. Don't ask me why.
At 11:30 CBS featured The Drak Pack. They were a trio of teens that had the powers of classic horror characters but used their powers for good against other horror characters who were truly evil. Don't even try to apply logic to any of this. This is one I enjoyed quite a bit as a youngster. Sadly, I could only find the intro. If I ever find a whole episode, I'll blog it in a heartbeat!
Next at high noon is a Saturday morning classic: Fat Albert. In this episode, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids learn that "Rules is Cool." Hey hey hey!
At 12:30 was the Tarzan/Lone Ranger Hour. Tarzan had been on CBS for at least one other season, if not longer. Here he is.
The Lone Ranger was new to CBS this season, and was very good. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage. Sorry :(
The morning (afternoon, at this point) was rounded out by 30 Minutes, a teen-focused news program for which I can't find footage and no one likely cares about.
CBS must have done well in 1979, because this lineup doesn't differ all that much, just a few tweaks here and there. This is probably the best of the three networks lineups in 1980, with ABC and NBC almost tied for second place, quality-wise. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments section. Thanks!
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!
It's been far too long since I posted for this feature, and it's high time I did. Once again I'm visiting an old comic book ad for a TV network's Saturday morning lineup of the past and doing the best I can to recreate the experience here (well, recreate the lineup, if not the experience). For this round, I present the Saturday morning lineup for ABC in the fall of 1980! You can check out my two previous installments of this feature here and here.
First up at 8am Eastern time is a true Saturday Morning classic, Superfriends. Here they appear in "The Beasts Are Coming!"
Next at 9am is The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, an animated version of Happy Days. Yes, Happy Days. Except this incarnation involves time travel. And a humorous dog who gives thumbs up. ABC took this approach with a few of their live action sitcoms, but this started the trend. Just look.
At 9:30, ABC presented the Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. Here, the canine duo (along with human Shaggy) wind up on a boat as "Stow Aways."
10am began the Richie Rich Show. I couldn't find any episodes, but here are the intro, outro, and interstitial bumpers.
10:30 brought us the comic strip cat Heathcliff, along with co-feature Dingbat, the vampire dog. Yes, networks tried everything on Saturday morning TV.
At 11am, we saw DC Comics superhero Plastic Man, a carryover from the previous season, but this time with a bouncing baby boy--literally.
This was followed at 11:30 by Thundarr The Barbarian. Character design was created by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby.
Lastly, the morning (by this time, afternoon) ended with two ABC stalwarts, The ABC Weekend Special and American Bandstand. I've featured the Special before, and there are virtually no clips for Bandstand, so I'll stop here.
Quite a mixed bag here. Superfriends was a winner, and I was a fan of Thundarr, but Happy Days is laughable and the remaining lineup forgettable. I'll look for the other networks for this same time period to see how they compare.
I once again want to thank Kliph Nesteroff of the Saturday Morning Blog and Shawn of Branded In The 80s for permission to use the concept and comic book ad, respectively. Please send me any feedback you can so I can make this feature prime reading. Thanks!
Here we go once again, stepping into the Wayback machine to take a look at kids TV of Saturday mornings past. Last time we looked at ABC in the Fall of 1979; now let's take a look at the competition at the same time. Here is CBS's Saturday morning lineup for the Fall of 1979!
First up at 8am ET is the Mighty Mouse/Heckle and Jeckle Show. This was not the first nor the last time Mighty Mouse would adorn CBS's Saturday morning lineup. The first time was in the mid-60s with his original cartoons made by TerryToons years earlier. This time around, CBS presented new cartoons made by the famous Filmation studios, which along with Hanna-Barbera was responsible for most animation featured on Saturday mornings. Here is a brief clip of Mighty Mouse; I couldn't find the new Heckle and Jeckle cartoons anywhere.
Well, that looks like it sucked.
Next up at 9am ET is an alltime Saturday morning classic: The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show. Although Warner Brothers cartoons were packaged in a thousand ways all over television during this era, this, to me and my generation, was the supreme showcase. It aired for a whopping 90 minutes! I couldn't find the intro with the classic theme song, but I do have the theme with a still of the intro here.
Here is a cartoon likely to be seen on this show, and probably my favorite Warner Bros. cartoon ever, "Rabbit Seasoning."
Also part of this hour, as the title states, was the Roadrunner, who also had his own theme song:
Here is the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Genius, in "Hook, Line, and Stinker."
At 10:30am is the All-New Popeye Hour, a show that had a surprisingly long run for CBS. As the title states, these were newly produced cartoons and not airings of the classic theatrical ones. Like some other cartoons at the time, these had little life lessons sprinkled throughout the hour. Here is the show intro and sample lesson.
Speaking of lessons, now is a good time for some interstititial programming, and if it's CBS, it must mean In The News. These were 2-minute segments presenting recent news stories to younger viewers in a clear, capsulized way. They were written and narrated by CBS newsman Christopher Glenn, who passed away in 2006. Several other Internet bloggers have described the segment as a drag on the schedule, but I loved them! Here is one example (which is really from December 1976/January 1977, but please allow me some slack).
At 11:30am is CBS Saturday morning stalwart Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
Wow, it's 12 noon and were not finished yet. I lvoed when networks had expanded lineups like this. Way to go, CBS!
At noon is the live action series Jason of Star Command, which I vaguely remember seeing but I can't tell you anything about the premise. Here is the intro. I couldn't find full episodes online, but the series is available on DVD.
At 12:30pm is Tarzan and the Super Seven. This hourlong program by Filmation was only one of several ways these individual components were packaged on the network. The seven in question were Tarzan himself;
The voices for Batman and Robin were none other than Adam West and Burt Ward. Perfect! Funny, I vividly remember Tarzan and the Freedom Force, but I never saw this version of Batman until a couple of years later in syndicated reruns.
Lastly at 1:30pm, CBS presented 30 Minutes, a news program aimed at young adults (translates as "teenagers") loosely patterned after 60 Minutes. I never knew it existed until I saw this comic book ad.
All in all, not a bad lineup at all. Mighty Mouse is definitely the weak link here, but otherwise an entirely enjoyable, watchable morning.
One of the blogs you'll see in my blog list is the Saturday Morning blog (http://saturdaymorn.blogspot.com/). This is an awesome sight run by Kliph Nesteroff, also owner of the Classic Television Showbiz and Generation Exploitation blogs. He has posted some cool and often forgotten cartoons of the 50s through the 70s. One feature he carried for awhile was Saturday Morning Recreated, in which he would attempt to present all of one network's Saturday morning lineup via clips from video sharing sites such as YouTube.
With permission from Kliph himself, I'd like to take over the reins on this great feature and present further installments here. To do that, I needed the same source material that Kliph used to determine the lineups: comic book ads. For years, networks would advertise their new Saturday morning lineups in comic books (that's where the audience was), and they're a great window into Saturday mornings past.
For this first installment, let's check out ABC, Saturday morning lineup from the Fall of 1979!
This ad doesn't have the exact times, but it's likely that the lineup began at 8am ET. The ad uses arrows to show which program leads into which.
First up at 8am is the Super Friends, which by 1979 had been a big hit for ABC for a few years. As this ad mentions the Legion of Doom, the team of super villians bent on conquering the world, the incarnation of the show this season is likely Challenge of the Super Friends. Here it is!
Up next at 9am is the Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, featuring the titular hero (albeit a relatively obscure one) headlining his own series. Here is Plas in "The Horrible Half Ape!"
Plastic Man shared this hour with several other features. Here is Mightyman and Yukk, the world's ugliest dog. Proceed with caution, as this is a bad cartoon.
This in turn was followed by Rickety Rocket, which is the first cartoon in this lineup I have absolutely no recollection of, but here's the intro.
The Plastic Man hour was concluded with Fangface, a comedic take on the werewolf concept. I enjoyed this one as a kid, but shake my head in disbelief at this now.
Before the next show, it's time for Schoolhouse Rock! ABC relied heavily on this and other short programming and PSAs between programs. Let's go with a classic--"Conjunction Junction!"
Up next at 10am is Spider-Woman, another cartoon based, like Plastic Man, on a relatively obscure comic book character. This was Marvel Comics' first production from its own animation studios, followed by Spider-Man and the Hulk on NBC in the early 80s. Here, Spider-Man guest stars in "Pyramids of Terror." Please excuse the non-English subtitles.
Up next at 10:30am is the Scooby and Scrappy Doo show. As Scrappy Doo is so universally hated, I'll keep comment here to a minimum. While his inclusion in the show is certainly a classic "jump the shark" moment, he doesn't bother me as much as other people.
Time for Timer!
Rounding out the morning are two programs aimed at tweens and teens. The ABC Weekend Special was a series of adaptations, both animated and live action, of books aimed at middle and high school age viewers. Here is the intro and first few minutes of one installment from the 1979-1980 season.
Finally, the legendary American Bandstand. I had a really hard time getting a decent clip of this show, at least from the late 1970s, which really surprised me. Instead, here's a clip of some goofball harassing people with his dancing to the theme song. Will this do?
And that's what Saturday mornings were like on ABC in 1979-1980. An interesting lineup certainly, with it's highs and lows. Super Friends was and is a classic. I liked the Plastic Man cartoon when I was young, but it's aimed squarely at a very young intellect. The rest of the Plastic Man hour was simply not good. I never knew the Spider-Woman cartoon existed until a few years later when I saw it on VHS--not bad. As stated previously, Scooby Doo wasn't as good during the Scrappy years, but I didn't hate it like others did. The Weekend Special was, as are many anthology series, uneven, but had its good installments. American Bandstand is, or course, an iconic program.
This was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I must thank again Kliph Nesteroff of the Saturday Morning blog for the idea and Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s for the ad scan. Check their sites out!
