Saturday mornings of the 70s, 80s and 90s.

[Xerus]

I like to think of my 3 webcomic series as times from the 70s, 80s, and 90s of Saturday Mornings.
Rebusquest is like a 70s cartoon with its psychedelic lands and kids dressed in turtlenecks and go-go boots.
X.O. Seal is like an 80s cartoon with the action-superhero robot craze and girls with frizzy hair.
And Skelroy & Bonus is like a 90s cartoon with a comedy duo doing crazy off the wall humor.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

 

[Xerus]

Yep, Recess is a late 90's cartoon. Where the kids-in-school cartoon craze like Doug and Pepper Ann were getting big.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

 

[fuzzygobo]

The best episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was called "Find Her, Keep Her". I dare anyone to watch it and and not cry.

 

[Drtooth]

I feel the 00's before.. well...you know, and I'm not going to put a long and winding rant about it had some decent stuff as well. Jackie Chan Adventures, everyone's favorite version of Spider-Man... stuff like that.

If there's one period I think is underrated in terms of Saturday Mornings, it's the early 90's. You know, when Fox Kids started up and they had no clue to what they were doing and had all these weird quirky shows. Some of them even lasted. I'm a huge fan of Eek The Cat, and I can't go on this site without mentioning Dog City which I swear accomplished at what Little Muppet Monsters failed as far as puppetry meets animation. Sure, they had their act together by the mid-90's, but that was the start of it becoming the Saban Brands Sentai show toy commercials line up, and they'd just junk any of the quirkier little shows for another Power Rangers/Digimon (near the end) time slot. I can't say I'm a huge PR fan, but I grew to respect what it was and its fanbase. But I never really cared for it when there were those smaller shows like Ned's Newt, Mad Jack the Pirate, Toonsylvania, The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs (which I swear whoever wrote "Cats & Dogs" ripped off), were shooed off the network.

And you got to love the irony that the episodes of Beetlejuice were actually more tame and more regulated once it hit Fox than it's time on ABC. The irony being that Real Ghostbusters episodes became more tame and regulated when they jumped from Syndication to ABC.

 

[mr3urious]

And you got to love the irony that the episodes of Beetlejuice were actually more tame and more regulated once it hit Fox than it's time on ABC. The irony being that Real Ghostbusters episodes became more tame and regulated when they jumped from Syndication to ABC.

I love how the writers made fun of the situation with Goody Two Shoes from the Bureau of Sweetness & Prissiness.

 

[Drtooth]

And they still couldn't let him eat bugs onscreen.

If there's another Saturday Morning decade that I think needs a shout out, it's the 60's. That's the decade where there were only 3 channels and they went in fighting. We had super hero cartoons where said super heroes punched guys out (this was, unfortunately, what partially caused A.C.T. which would reverse this years later), some of HB's best work including a certain cartoon that launched a successful franchise at the end of the decade, and of course multiple Looney Tunes Shows across the three networks, each named after one of the characters, even going as far as one LT package running against another.

I also feel that while there were good 80's Saturday morning entries, the best 80's cartoons were syndication or at least syndication first. Syndication was much less regulated, and...well...the major networks were far more picky about what they wanted. We didn't get a 1980's Teen Titans cartoon because everyone just wanted Smurf knockoffs, for example. I really think DIC flourished and did its best work because of syndication. Certainly we got Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff out of the deal among others. They even imported reruns of Gadget and Dennis the Menace onto prime major network Saturday slots.

 

[mr3urious]

If there's another Saturday Morning decade that I think needs a shout out, it's the 60's. That's the decade where there were only 3 channels and they went in fighting.

It's sad that even the '60s Spidey series was far more violent than the '90s one. There was a YouTube video showing that off, but I'm too lazy to dig it up.

I also feel that while there were good 80's Saturday morning entries, the best 80's cartoons were syndication or at least syndication first. Syndication was much less regulated, and...well...the major networks were far more picky about what they wanted. We didn't get a 1980's Teen Titans cartoon because everyone just wanted Smurf knockoffs, for example. I really think DIC flourished and did its best work because of syndication. Certainly we got Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff out of the deal among others. They even imported reruns of Gadget and Dennis the Menace onto prime major network Saturday slots.

With syndication, it was really more up to the producers to police themselves. Filmation at least didn't have a problem with that when it came to its shows, as Lou Scheimer incorporated moralistic messages into them by choice rather than through network mandates. And of course, there's Hasbro's infamous Inhumanoids that benefitted the most from the method, if you know what I mean.

 

[Drtooth]

It's sad that even the '60s Spidey series was far more violent than the '90s one. There was a YouTube video showing that off, but I'm too lazy to dig it up.

Then again, while I'm not a huge fan of 90's Spidey (maybe I watched the wrong episodes, but I had issue with the pacing), at least it didn't become as completely deranged as the 60's one. I saw the one that was banned from being shown back in the day on YT. Lemme tell yah. It deserved to be banned. Not because of subject matter, but just because it's the single weirdest piece of animation where it doesn't belong. I don't want avant garde indie animation in my Spider-Man, and I don't want Spider-Man in my avant garde indie animation.

Yet, the theme song that came from that show is incredibly iconic that it's plastered completely to the franchise.

Maybe I'll get back and start rewatching some 90's Spider-Man someday. Just don't see why that one was specifically censored when other Marvel shows weren't as highly. I give them credit for flying out the Canadian X-Men cast for a cross over. That's quite admirable.