Saturday morning cartoons currently suck. Childrens programming in general sucks. The hey-day of Saturday morning cartoons was the 1960s through the 1970s. They were the times of cartoon geniuses like
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera,
Jay Ward,
Hal Seeger and
W. Watts Biggers. They were the times of voice artists like Paul Frees, George S. Irving, Mel Blanc, Bill Scott, Daws Butler, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, Alan Reed, Paul Winchell, Don Messick, Allan Melvin, Howard Morris and countless others. These were television cartoon pioneers, setting the standard that would last for decades.
Every September, the three major networks would roll out their new prime-time shows. They did the same thing for their new Saturday morning cartoons. They would have sneak preview prime-time specials on the Friday evening before the Saturday premieres. These specials, with hosts ranging from The Brady Bunch kids,
Burns and
Schreiber and
Lee Majors, showed clips of the upcoming cartoons to kids squealing with anticipation. I was one of those anxious kids, waking up at 6:30 am on "Premiere Saturday". I was firmly planted in front of my family's TV until 1:00 in the afternoon, usually with an overflowing bowl of General Mills' "
Frosty-Os" (the box featuring Tennessee Tuxedo's pal, Chumley).
I loved these cartoons so much, I had a difficult time deciding which to draw. I chose
Milton the Monster,
Wally Gator,
Bat Fink,
The Hooded Claw,
The Impossibles' Fluid Man,
Atom Ant,
Chilly Willy and
Hoppity Hooper. They sure don't make cartoons like these anymore. They, most likely, never will.
