SATURDAY MORNING CONFUSION

I was looking through Facebook the other day and saw someone had posted something that brought back fond memories for me. The FB page posts pictures and videos from pop culture in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The one that got me thinking was of an ad for the Saturday morning cartoon line up on CBS. It made me sad because today’s kids don’t have that any longer on Saturday mornings.

What we now have on Saturday mornings are more news programs, as if we needed yet another Today show as well as the weekday show, the after show and the after after show. Come on, with 24 hour news channels do we really need this? It’s no wonder we know every detail of Kim Kardashian’s life since there isn’t enough stuff to fill all of these shows.

I just pulled up the listings for this coming Saturday from 8-9:30. ABC has local programming, Jack Hanna’s Wild Country and Ocean Mysteries. CBS has a show about Henry Ford, Recipe Rehab and CBS This Morning (their version of the Today Show). NBC has of course the Today Show and local programming. You have to go to Disney or the Cartoon Network to find cartoons and most of those are either concerned with social issues or live action programs with the latest tween star rather than cartoons.

How many of you remember all of the lyrics to this opening? The video also includes some of the intros and endings as well.

I’m guessing almost all of you were singing along with Bugs and Daffy. And if you were to sit down and watch one of those classic cartoons you’d be happy to see that they’ve held up quite well after all these years. So much so that collections of these Warner Brothers cartoons still garner top dollar. Many of us know exactly what comes next when someone says “No, it’s duck season”. How many of you don’t automatically have a rabbit come to mind when you hear the words “What’s up, doc?”

Saturday mornings as a kid were all about freedom. You didn’t have to go to school that day and mom & dad more often than not tired from work, stayed in bed late. If not they had things to do that didn’t involve you so you had control of the TV set. Bowls of cereal filled with sugar were covered with milk and eaten in front of the set so you could watch your favorite weekly show. If you weren’t allowed to eat in front of the TV it became the fastest meal ever devoured so you could get there.

Think back to all of those shows we watched and all of the things we learned. We learned about team work from the Justice League and the Super Friends. We learned about rock music from cartoons featuring The Beatles, The Jackson Five, The Osmonds, The Monkees and of course that classic rock group The Archies.

 

You're singing again, aren't you?

We had adventure and time travel, science fiction and ghost chasing. Even though we asked where are you we knew where Scooby Doo was. He was in our living rooms on TV in front of us. Kids has crushes on Penelope Pitstop and you didn’t have to dig deep to realize that Dick Dastardly was a bad guy. It was tough to tell which hero was dumber, Dudley Doright or George of the Jungle. Popeye always won against Bluto and the Coyote never seemed able to catch the Road Runner. Mighty Mouse was there to save the day and Jerry always got the better of Tom. We were even exposed to culture when the CBS Saturday Film Festival presented films from around the world that involved kids. And if you heard the phrase “Hey hey hey…” you knew that Fat Albert was around.

The fact is that most of us watched these programs and grew up quite normal. But people with good intentions came along. I can’t stand people with good intentions sometimes. They thought that cartoons were doing more harm than good. These were the same people that thought every kid in America was poking out their playmates eyes after watching the Three Stooges (we weren’t). They wanted to put an end to cartoons. They wanted kids to stop eating sugary cereals. They wanted kids to get out and play soccer and baseball and football even though at the time we were doing all of those things every night after we got done with homework and then on weekend afternoons. For some reason they found those 3 hours we spent in front of the TV on Saturday morning something they needed to save us from. Now it’s gone.

Like I said, I miss those days. Every now and then I pull out a collection of Bugs Bunny cartoons and watch them. If I can do it on a Saturday morning over a bowl of cereal it just makes it that much better. So I encourage you to let your kids and grandkids see what they missed out on. Some Saturday pop in a DVD of your old favorite cartoon programs from Saturday mornings. They’re available. Load up a bowl of cereal for your kids/grandkids with Cap’n Crunch. Sit back with them in the living room in front of the TV and soak up that joy of being a kid again.

And if you miss what it was like then here’s a treat. Some ads for Saturday morning programs from the past I found online. I think I need a bowl of cereal right now.