Saturday morning cartoons! I used to love rocking my footie PJs and grabbing a bowl of Lucky Charms or some other sugary breakfast cereal and plopping my arse down in front of the TV to watch the greats like Super Friends, Scooby Doo, The Littles, Fat Albert and many more. I weep for my daughter when I think of what she is missing out on. For the record she loves Hannah Montana and for the record I think Hanna Montana sucks big time.
Saturday mornings were a ritual in my life as a rug rat that I took very seriously. I would get up by 6:30am in the morning and then be bummed because real cartoons did not start until 7:00am. So at 6:30am I would watch the New Zoo Revue which was like some low rent Mr. Rogers / Captain Kangaroo rip-off with lame characters like Henrietta Hippo and Freddy the Frog. I remember watching this crapola in disgust counting the minutes until the true animation parade would start.
When 7:00am hit I seem to remember watching the Smurfs. Strange side note, I always thought Smurfette was wicked hot… is that weird? I am guessing that is, but I did she think she was a hottie back in the day. I even loved the breaks in between the cartoons, from NBC’s preachy The More You Know (drugs are bad!) to ABC’s hippy dippy educational Schoolhouse Rocks to CBS’s underrated and my personal favorite In The News which was a two minute news break aimed a kids but not dumbed down.
I liked all different kinds of cartoons from silly things like the Smurfs (although I secretly rooted for Gargamel) to the badassness that was the Super Friends. There was something oddly safe and comforting about Saturday mornings, watching animation with a bowl of cereal in your PJ’s. I think Saturday mornings made me feel older, as it was the one time I had control of the TV. I remember a sadness that would wash over me when American Bandstand would come on, as that signaled the end of cartoons on Saturday mornings.
