Our old, dear friend, Saturday Morning....

So, if you were a little kid in the 70's, you know full well the euphoria of finishing up a week at school to wake up before the sun around 6AM on Saturday morning to partake in the Saturday morning cartoon schedule of your favourite network television stations.  Growing up in Southern Ontario, 6AM meant you were sneaking up, bleary-eyed, to see re-runs of the Krantz Spider-man or Rocket Robin Hood series, or watching the spooky fun Hilarious House of Frightenstein on CHCH Television!

Maybe you enjoyed your bowl of sugary sweetened cereal with the likes of Global Television with The Mighty Hercules, or maybe Tales of the Wizard of Oz, the 1961 animated television series, produced by Crawley Films for Videocrafts (later known as Videocraft and ultimately Rankin/Bass)?  

Or maybe time travelling with the wise Professor Kitzel was more your thing?  I know I didn't like that show, as it made me try and learn some history, which I was NOT interested in on my Saturday morning cartoon blitz! :D

I remember vividly, wearing my pajamas, sprawled on rust coloured carpet among many Micronaut and Star Wars toys, watching the heroic exploits of Flash Gordon, Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Bird Man and the Galaxy Trio, The Super Friends, Thundarr the Barbarian, Spider Man and his Amazing Friends, and He-Man!  

I laughed with the likes of Tom & Jerry, The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, Droopy, Loony Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, The Pink Panther, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Heckle & Jeckle, the list goes on and on.  Its probably why I'm in animation today, with so much fun airing on TV back then.

Whatever your love of nostalgia, I tried to explain to my son how wonderful and almost exhausting Saturday morning was back then, as specialty channels with 24 hour cartoon airings weren't even a blip on the animated radar back in those days.

And then the cereal and toy commercials we had!   But that's another story.... ;)

What are your memories of Saturday mornings?

GEr