Cartoons, as God and Nature intended them to be!

[captain_slinky]

I don't like the way Cartoons are born these days, debuting on some basic cable channel or (Lord forbid) some internet web site. It's just not natural!

Everybody knows that new Cartoons need to be born on the first Saturday in September, right after a Thursday or Friday night "Sneak Preview" of the new Saturday Morning Line-Up hosted by one of the networks prime-time "Stars" (usually a co-star or member of the supporting cast from a popular sit-com... somebody like the kid from Mr. Belvedere or Dwight "Howlin' Mad Murdock" Schultz).

Once the new baby cartoons have "hatched" on Saturday Morning, it's a Darwinian Survival-Of-The-Fittest Battle Royale at it's best!

Four competitors enter the arena every half-hour... ABC, NBC, CBS and "Syndicated" (which was replaced by "FOX" in the early 90's). Smurfs versus Monchichi! Ghostbusters versus Turbo Teen! Bugs Bunny versus Bravestarr! The victors came back next season to become a part of our shared Pop Culture Heritage, the losers were banished to to limbo till the next century when technology would allow them to be reborn via DVD and obsessive downloading, THE WAY THAT THE CARTOON GAWDS MEANT IT TO BE!

Comments

[aurora77]

I think 1984 is the way to go. The 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM hour we can grab one episode from each (usually about 11-12 minutes each), for a total of 55-60 minutes, and not have to decide between them. They're all good. For 9:00, I'm thinking we do one Muppet Babies episode (again, another short) and at 9:30, perhaps some Wolf Rock TV?. Dragon's Lair at 10AM? Kidd Video at 11? Littles at 11:30? Maybe a Weekend Special at Noon? Or do you think Spiderman and Hulk would be better?

I think this must have been from a Mountain time TV Guide, because I remember everything an hour earlier, including Captain Kangaroo. In fact, I'll see if I can't put some CK in at 7:30. I'm not getting up at 6:30, though. XD

[aurora77]

I missed 10:30. I'm all over Saturday Supercade: cheezy video game cartoons FTW!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Saturday Supercade is a MUST!

Found my archive... itr was on retrojunk.com (of course)! http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/7571/

1984 is indeed a good year, or maybe '86... if we do '86 it'll be nice "Silver Anniversary" for most of those cartoons :)

Also, I have some nice bootlegs of the various "Preview Friday Night" shows I could share with you for research purposes :)

[aurora77]

Yes, for, ahem, research purposes. I'd love to "research" those! XD

I say we do a different year every couple of months. 1984, then 1986, jump up to 1989, back to 1981, or something like that. And mix it up a bit.

I totally remember a couple of those ad spreads, especially the connect-the-dots puppy one! Those are awesome!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of making it a yearly event, first Saturday of September (as it is written in The Good Book)... but then
we'd never get to all the years we want to do :( Every few months is the best way to go I guess, but we'll see how this first one goes :)

Looking through my Preview Night files, I've only got 1978 (featuring the Bay City Rollers!) and 1985 for NBC. Then for ABC I have 1982 and a bunch of the 1990's. And for CBS (the one I never got to see while I was growing up because our antenna couldn't tune in channel 7 for some reason) I have 1983, 1984 and 1985. Pretty sure I have access to more of them, though... I'll work on uploading these files tonight. ANy preference of public file transfer site? Megaupload is what I usually use, but I'm open to suggestions?

[aurora77]

Megaupload is good for me.

We could also do a live G+ huddle during our events, if you have a webcam handy near where you're watching. I have a second laptop for work, so I could handle both easily. Then again, if we're all still in our PJs, we may not want webcams around.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

If you're watching your Saturday Morning Cartoons in anything more provocative than a T-Shirt and Sweats, you're doing it wrong :P

I just set up a community for this event... http://saturday-am-80s.livejournal.com I'll make yu a mod as soon as you join up :)