1980's Saturday Morning Historical Preservation Society

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was a Filmation animated series created, produced, and hosted (in live action bookends) by comedian Bill Cosby, who also did a huge chunk of the voices for the show (including Fat Albert himself). The show premiered in 1972 and *kind of* ran until 1985... See, up till 1983 they had been doing short-order seasons of the show - 6 to 8 new episodes per season - but then between 1984 and 1985 the cranked out some FIFTY NEW EPISODES of the cheaper, lower-quality "The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids".

It should also be noted that this was the year that they replaced the "Junkyard Rock Band" segments of the show with Fat Albert and the gang rushing to their clubhouse to watch the latest episode of "The Brown Hornet" (Also voiced by Cosby).

What do you think? Have any good memories or thoughts to share about Fat Albert and the gang? Come at me with comments and fun, and if you're not careful you might just learn something before we're done. So let's get ready, okay? Hey, hey, HEY!

So here's something interesting - Oh, not the cartoon mind you... The All-New Popeye Hour (Saturday Morning at 10:30 on CBS in 1980) was your average hour-long animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that had been on the air since 1978. This show tried its best to retain the style of the original Thimble Theatre comic strip (Popeye returned to his original costume and "Brutus" to his original name of Bluto), while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. Because of those helpful parental watchdog groups and their restrictions on violence in TV cartoons for children at the time, in this version Popeye did not throw punches to get back at Bluto; he often lifted him, with his own hands or with machinery, and hurled him away. This series marked the last time that Jack Mercer would voice the spinach-eating sailor. Mercer died in 1984, one year after the show was cancelled by CBS.

...But that's not the part that I find interesting.

No, what's REALLY interesting (to me, at least) is that all three networks - ABC, NBC and CBS - programmed their Saturday morning of 1980 so that NO CARTOONS WOULD START AT 10AM!!! They all programmed 90-minute blocks for 9am, or a half-hour block followed by a full hour block so that NO SHOW would start at 10am!

That's WEIRD!

In 1981, this show kept the 10:30 time slot but was cut down to 30 minutes and renamed "The Popeye & Olive Comedy Show". Oddly enough, I can't confirm or deny that they ever actually made a new opening title sequence for "The Popeye & Olive Comedy Show" and I distinctly remember being confused when I would tune in on Saturday morning only to see the "The All-New Popeye Hour" opening and thinking I had a full hour till the next cartoons started on this channel. Imagine my HORROR when I flipped back to this channel during the first commercial break of the 11:00 hour only to find that the cartoon had changed at 11 and I missed the first 5 minute of the new show!

Tune in to your local ABC affiliate at 10:30 on Saturday morning in 1980 and you'll see the HOLY GRAIL OF COMIC GEEKDOM, "Thundarr The Barbarian". That video embedded above is en espanol because all the US versions I could find have had embedding disabled... but the voice-over is perfect at setting the tone for the show:

The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!
Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...

A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.

He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

This cartoon has a pretty impressive comic book background! Created by Steve Gerber (the guy who created "Howard The Duck" which is SO MUCH BETTER than the movie would have you believe) with character design and story concepts from Alex Toth (Space Ghost, Super Friends) and Jack "King" Kirby (Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, Nearly Every Marvel Comics Character)!

Ruby-Spears Productions would go on to make two full seasons of Thundarr before it went off the air in 1981, and if you've never watched it you really owe yourself a favor. Swords-n-sorcery-n-apocalyptic-dystopia has never looked better!

(Also aired at 10:30 in 1981)

The Flintstones Comedy Show (not to be confused with the Flintstones Comedy HOUR of 1973) was on the air Saturday mornings from 9am till 10:30 (AN HOUR AND A HALF?!?!?) on your local NBC affiliate in 1980. This revival of the classic Hanna-Barbera stone-age family featured six different segments: The Flintstone Family Adventures (standard Flintstones stories featuring the Flinstones & the Rubbles doing late-70's/early-80's stuff), Bedrock Cops (Fred and Barney are now police officers assisted by the Shmoo as a trainee under the direction of Sgt. Boulder), Pebbles, Dino and Bamm-Bamm (Teenage Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm solving mysteries with Dino, in the tried-and-true HB Scooby-Doo formula), Captain Caveman (a prequel to the 1970's "Captain Cave-Man & The Teen-Angels" cartoon that showed Captain Caveman in his natural stone-age setting), Dino and Cavemouse (The Flintstones version of Tom & Jerry), and The Frankenstones (a hybrid of The Addams Family, The Munsters and The Flintstones).

My biggest complaint about this cartoon was that it seemed to be on ALL MORNING LONG. Flintstones were okay in small doses, but 90 MINUTES??? Three different half-hour time slots where I could have been seeing ANYTHING ELSE??? Nope, that's too much.

(Also aired in a much shorter 30-minute version at 8:00 in 1981/1982, and then as "The Flintstone Funnies" from 1982 till 1984 - check out the hilariously inept re-working of the intro!)

(Cross Posted from Tumblr)

THE TOM & JERRY COMEDY SHOW - If you tuned in to your local CBS affiliate at 8:30 in the morning on Saturday in 1980, you would have witnessed this cartoon. Mercifully, there was only one season of this particular Tom & Jerry cartoon. Much like the Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jekyl cartoons of this age, this was a modern attempt to make new cartoons with classic characters while following the guidelines presented by Concerned Parent Groups. Gone were the wacky slapstick violent antics and instead we had a series of situational comedies. Just dreadful :( This show technically had two seasons, but the second season was nothing but reruns.

Saturday, September 12th 1981, "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends" debuted on NBC's Saturday Morning line-up! Don't you feel REALLY OLD now?

Spider-man, Ice Man and Firestar fought crime from their brownstone apartment all through the 1980's, never having to update their style or design at all. And they gave me some of my biggest Saturday morning thrills EVER when they would bring in other Marvel comics characters. "THAT'S THE X-MEN! THAT'S CAPTAIN AMERICA! OMG I CAN DIE NOW!!!"

Conversations I have had with various people about Blackstar lead me to believe that it was a cartoon suffering from TMIS (Too Many Ideas Syndrome), but it WORKED. At least for one season. And that's because everybody took something different away from it. It was a He-Man show. It was a Smurfs show. It was an outer-space show. It was a Conan-esque Fantasy show.

Whatever it was to you, feel free to leave your own thoughts about it in the comments below. And if it happened to be one of your favorites, be sure to go vote for it in our Best Cartoon of 1981 Poll!

I have a theory about Richie Rich that I'm going to force upon all you folks, so bear with me here.
( Crackpot Theory behind the cut )

So anywho, if Richie Rich was one of your favorites don't forget to leave a few kind words and maybe even go to vote for it in our Best Of 1981 Poll!

Heathcliff (aka "The Poor Man's Garfield") had a pretty good run on Saturday mornings in the 80's, this is the fan page dedicated to the programming block that he shared with "Dingbat", a vampire dog (not as cool as it sounds).

Feel free to leave your memories or personal opinions on this cartoon in the comments below, and be sure to go and vote for it in our Best Cartoon of 1981 Poll if it was indeed one of your favorites :)

1981 marked the departure of The New Adventures of Batman, a cartoon that I hold near and dear to my heart. Not only did it feature the vices of Adam West and Burt Ward (the Batman and Robin from the 1960's live-action TV show), but it also included my two favorite terrible cartoon ideas:

• Bat-Mite: If you think Scrappy-Doo is annoying, just give Bat-Mite a try for a while!
• The Bat-Computer: As we all know, our cartoons had to convey some sort of moral or socially-conscious message like "Always brush your teeth" or "Drugs are bad mmkay?" For the most part it was up to the kids to figure out the message of the show on their own. But on The New Adventures of Batman, every epiode ended with The Bat-Computer blaring a flashing and loud alert of "BAT-MESSAGE! BAT-MESSAGE!" which would then lead to Batman and Robin and Bat-Mite all talking about what the message of this episode was. IT WAS ASTOUNDING!

So if The New Adventures of Batman is one of YOUR favorites like it was mine, then be sure to go and vote for it in our Best of 1981 Poll and leave your own personal memories or feeling about the show in the comments below :)