1980 9:00 on ABC: The Fonz & The Happy Days Gang

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

(Cross Posted from Tumblr)

At 9am Saturday morning over on your local ABC affiliate station in 1980 you could tune in to see one of my all-time favorite BIZARRE CARTOONS of all time, “THE FONZ AND THE HAPPY DAYS GANG”. Originally broadcast from November 8, 1980 until September 18, 1982, this show was pretty darned incredible. If you can disassociate the show from it’s prime-time origins (“The Fonz” has a product of the popular sitcom “Happy Days”), what you have is a story about a 1950’s “Greaser” with semi-magical powers traveling through time trying to set things straight with the help of a super-evolved dog that is capable of walking up-right and rudimentary speech, his two straight-laced Teenage friends and a girl from the farthest reaches of time and space who has provided them all with a Time Machine so that they can hopefully reset the time lines and return them all to 1957 where they belong.

This show is more “Doctor Who” than “American Animated Sit-Com”! Give it a try some time!

(also aired at 9:00 in 1981)

1980 8:00 on NBC: Godzilla (The Godzilla / Dynomutt Hour)

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

GODZILLA - At 8am on Saturday morning in 1980, you could tune in to your local NBC affiliate and see The Godzilla / Dynomutt Hour, which was part of a long standing tradition of the 1980’s Saturday Morning where the animation studio (usually Hannah-Barberra or Filmation) would repackage re-runs of a few different cartoons, animate a new opening credits and then BAM! BRAND-NEW SATURDAY MORNING CONTENT! This particular version of Godzilla ran from 1978 till 1981 and featured Godzilla’s little cousin, “Godzooki” (one of the many, MANY annoying side-kicks of the 1980’s that came from the same mold as Scrappy-Doo). Godzilla could be summoned by his human friends, sea-explorers on the ship USS Calico, with a signaling device or by the cry of Godzooki for some reason.