Saturday Morning Cartoons
May 9, 2003 2:54 AM   Subscribe

Whatever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? An astonishingly intelligent article about how Cable TV, dual-family households, regulations and more eliminated what more than a few of us remember quite fondly as the magical time when suddenly TV existed for our personal entertainment purposes. Anyone else remember occasionally dragging themselves out of bed at 6AM for what was ultimately five hours of really, really cool commercials? (Link from Fark!)
posted by effugas (71 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Saturday mornings were ALL about the cartoons when I was growing up.
Spiderman
Looney Tunes
Battle of The Planets...


BATTLE OF THE PLANETS !

Now when I get up I am forced to watch a putrid collage of screming kids in studios trying to win playstations and being force-fed Britney's latest offering of crap. Adverts are as good as ever though.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:25 AM on May 9, 2003


Back in the day, we had a whopping three channels from which to choose on Saturdays. Now there are about a kerjillion channels that show cartoons 24 hours a day.

Now's better.
posted by hama7 at 3:35 AM on May 9, 2003


I only have 5 channels.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:48 AM on May 9, 2003


Heh...

You'd have to have a TV to understand this, right?
Actually, I've just realised I only ever watch the Simpsons and the news while I'm getting ready for work in the morning, so we're pulling down our ariel so we don't have to pay the TV licence. Just going to keep the TV for videos and to run my PSone...

I remember all the crappy advert cartoons. The thing is that they were all for American products so we very rarely realised they were adverts.
posted by twine42 at 4:09 AM on May 9, 2003


I remember going to my grandmother's house to visit when I was very young. She was always up at 5:00, and around 5:30 I'd wake up because I could hear her puttering around the house. I'd get up and go sit with her in the kitchen while she drank her tea.

She'd make me chocolate milk and toast. Then I'd go sit in front of the television waiting for the cartoons to start. That half hour from 5:30 till 6:00 lasted a couple hundred years, each and every time I was there. But finally, the test pattern would go away and then it was endless hours of joy with the Bugs Bunny Show, and whatever else was on.

Later, it got even better because my cousin and his family moved to the same little town she lived in, so it was almost like having a brother when I was there. We could play together for the whole week, and then watch cartoons on Saturday together. Scooby Doo, Superfriends, Thundarr the Barbarian, Flintstones, Jetsons, Yogi Bear and all the rest. We loved them all.

My little boy gets some of that now, even if CatDog on Nick makes my skin crawl. He sits in my lap for the Looney Tunes - he thinks the Roadrunner cartoons are the funniest thing he's ever seen in his 5 years. Listening to him cackle at the antics of good ole Wile E. Coyote (supergenious) is one of the best parts of my life.
posted by Irontom at 4:14 AM on May 9, 2003


Thinking back to the commercials, the only ones that have really stuck with me are the Schoolhouse Rock series, which aren't "commercials" in the true sense but provided refreshing breaks from the idiotic chewing-gum-for-the-eyes.

Aside from the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies classics (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck et al.), the only program that still speaks to me is a largely forgotten live-action show called Curiosity Shop.
posted by alumshubby at 4:23 AM on May 9, 2003


non-cartoons like sky king, penny and the songbird, lassie, the mickey mouse club (the real one in reruns, not those hiphop, all that, latter-day counterfeits that spawned aquilera, spears etc), and real animated cartoons like old mighty mouse, huckleberry hound and yogi bear, bugs and crew, and the venerable road runner. those were good times. the 'cartoons' that came later were ill-disguised product shills with crappy animation and repeating backgrounds. blech. good riddance.
posted by quonsar at 4:39 AM on May 9, 2003


and how could i forget the jetsons.
posted by quonsar at 4:40 AM on May 9, 2003


Dang. That second link didn't work too well this morning...let's try this one.
posted by alumshubby at 4:40 AM on May 9, 2003


Boy do I remember, Saturday mornings were prime time cartoon time. Use to wake up prior to the cartoons coming on; go down to our den and turn-on/dial-in the tv then return back to sleep near it to be awoken by CARTOONS!

Most local channels today I notice are info-commercials in the morning. Then these poor kids get dragged shopping with mom/pop to see the same commercial being played in a kiosk somewhere. No wonder commercialism is popular but these kids do get to watch cartoons in the car commercial free thanks to video.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:56 AM on May 9, 2003


not a cartoon, but it has a special saturday morning place in my heart.

The Hilarious House of Frightenstein
posted by Frasermoo at 5:00 AM on May 9, 2003


Billy Van
Billy Van
Billy Van
Billy Van
Billy Van

Billy Van

(don't delete this comment, it's for Frasermoo)
posted by Space Coyote at 5:12 AM on May 9, 2003


Cheers chap.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:40 AM on May 9, 2003


A few weeks ago I turned on the television after I got up on Saturday morning and flipped around through the network stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and so on) and did not find much in the way of cartoons. I could always turn to Cartoon Network but I was still expecting to see some of my old favourites on the regular network affiliates. There was programming for children but for the most part it was television with actors and such rather than cartoons.

As a kid I didn't have too much time for cartoons, during the winter I had hockey practice every Saturday and during the summer I usually swam. At least in the summer I'd catch a few third tier cartoons before my folks got up (no swimming without adult supervision!). The cartoons I remember most fondly were already old by the time I saw them anyway. The Jetsons, The Flinstones, Bugs Bunny and the Looney Toons, Simba, Speed Racer, Woody Woodpecker and such. I can still remember some episodes of these cartoons, I don't remember anything about the upstarts that invaded their turf.

Things started going downhill when the network executives decided that kids were the perfect consumers and that cartoons needed some sort of moral message. I always felt a little queasy watching the Super Friends after Batman or Superman started coming on for a brief moral interlude for instance then be on a few minutes later selling refined sugar.
posted by substrate at 5:55 AM on May 9, 2003


Frasermoo! Battle of the Planets (G-Force) was my favorite cartoon EVER growing up. My brother and I would make sure that no matter what we were doing, we didn't miss it. Thanks for that link, I'm going to send it off to my brother so that he has some fond memories this morning too.

Any clue where we might be able to catch some episodes of it today?
posted by MsVader at 6:07 AM on May 9, 2003


once things evolve, they seldom return to their simpler forms. Saturday morning cartoons were a phenomenon that now resides in the history books.

{off-topic} Thinking about this comparing MTV to the various dance shows my parents watched after school during the week.
posted by thomcatspike at 6:13 AM on May 9, 2003


Any clue where we might be able to catch some episodes of it today?

They have Battle of the Planets out on dvd(s). The best part about the dvds are that as a bonus they have some of the original "Gatchaman" versions of the episodes on it. (The Battle of the Planet versions seem a lot dumbed down and had alot of the violence taken out in comparison).
posted by stifford at 6:14 AM on May 9, 2003


Anyone else remember occasionally dragging themselves out of bed at 6AM for what was ultimately five hours of really, really cool commercials?

Yes, that and 5 or 6 bowls of sugary cereal. I was wondering what happened to Saturday mornings these days.
posted by Shane at 6:22 AM on May 9, 2003


stifford - thanks for the info. I never would have guessed that I could find them here.
posted by MsVader at 6:30 AM on May 9, 2003


Never mind the fact that todays cartoons are not even funny, or are Japanese cartoons that involve mostly loud noise, none of them involve cool things like the Captain Midnight Decoder Ring (scroll to the Secret Squadron Decoder)
posted by mss at 6:34 AM on May 9, 2003


anyone remember the ready brek commercials, the glowing radioactive kid?
posted by mook at 6:36 AM on May 9, 2003


mmmm. scooby pr0n.
posted by quonsar at 6:44 AM on May 9, 2003


How about the healthy snack dude, the guy who always "hankered for a hunk of cheese"? I never got to do the bowl upon bowl of sugary cereal thing because my mom wouldn't buy sugary cereal! Or let us eat in front of the TV!

I was always fond of "The Herculoids". And USA had the Cartoon Express, which was, iirc, a collection of Hanna-Barbera crap. In the early 90's, when I was in college, I was extremely fond of "Freakazoid", so much so that when Cartoon Network reran them a few years ago, I taped them all.

The saddest part of Saturday was when American Bandstand came on.
posted by eilatan at 6:47 AM on May 9, 2003


If your memory needs some jogging, look at the schedules for Saturday mornings of days past. A few sites:
Saturday Morning TV Schedules of the 80s
Saturday Morning Shows 1966-1988

And kindly get away from my Hong Kong Phooey lunchbox. Thank you.
posted by gluechunk at 6:48 AM on May 9, 2003


One must not forget the contributions to Saturday morning entertainment made by the glorius team of Sid and Marty Krofft.

Sigmund the sea-monster rules!
posted by thanotopsis at 6:57 AM on May 9, 2003


OMG, Battle of the Planets - I haven't thought of that show in ages. Classic.

Anyone else in the NYC/Northeast remember those sorta public-service messages to kids, stuff like "Eat a good breakfast", with that guy talking to those kids on the stoop, acting like cars running out of gas?

The Schoolhouse Rock bit on the bill wanting to become a law is still the full extent of my knowledge of the American legislative process.

Nothing like hunkering down in front of the tube in the pjs and bathrobe, getting ready for hours of Bugs in drag, apoplectic Daffy, the Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour, and (later) Dungeons & Dragons.

Mom brings breakfast. Always bacon, with ketchup. Mmmm, bacon...
posted by gottabefunky at 7:08 AM on May 9, 2003


Today, ‘Saturday morning cartoons’ is a phrase that emotionally means nothing to anyone under the age of twenty-five.”

*Sigh*
posted by gottabefunky at 7:13 AM on May 9, 2003


It's the Looney Tunes stuff that I still love, but I also remember Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo, and numerous Hanna-Barbara shows. Then they came out with the Dungeons and Dragons show, which I'm sure a lot of people here must have watched. Also the Muppet Babies show. And do you folks remember when every popular video game was turned into a Saturday morning cartoon? Pac Man, Q*Bert, Dragon's Lair, and even Pole Position, for crying out loud. I watched them all.
posted by Songdog at 7:17 AM on May 9, 2003


Dude. I used to wake up at 5 a.m. on some Saturdays, sit around and watch "Ag USA" (boooooring show about farming in America) till the 'toons came on, all for things like this.
posted by Shane at 7:30 AM on May 9, 2003


Today, ‘Saturday morning cartoons’ is a phrase that emotionally means nothing to anyone under the age of twenty-five. So I guess I came in just under the wire. Heh. (I turned 25 last month.)

Saturday Supercade... that brings me back! Oh, and the "Saturday Morning Shows 1966-1988" link seems to be missing a chunk of time between 1978 and 1988.

On preview, what Songdog said.
posted by fredosan at 7:33 AM on May 9, 2003


Captain Simian and the SPAAACE MONKEYS!!!

(I can't remember what days that was on, actually, but I do remember that it was quickly shoved to the 6 AM slot, and that it probably ended up on every day at one point or another. Poor thing never had a chance)
posted by Ptrin at 7:35 AM on May 9, 2003 [1 favorite]


Banana Splits! With Danger Island! Uh Oh, Chooooongo!
posted by Shane at 7:35 AM on May 9, 2003


The "hunk of cheese" guy was Time for Timer.
posted by O9scar at 7:41 AM on May 9, 2003


My husband and I were just talking about this...with a new baby in the house, I'm actually seeing sunrises again...and I've noticed a dearth of good cartoons on in the morning. I want Bugs Bunny back on network TV darn it!

The saddest part of Saturday was when American Bandstand came on. So, very, very true. But Soul Train was pretty cool. I learned how to shake my groove thang imitating Soul Train.
posted by dejah420 at 7:43 AM on May 9, 2003


One probably needn't own a tv to have seen some of these shows. I was brought up with out one. I did see some, but not all of these shows at friends' places, not that I get as fuzzy remembering them the way some of you do.

What I find interesting, isn't people's love of the actual programs, the 'toons, the commercials, but the memory. What they bring up in people's memory when they think back to them. This is more telling than remembering the 'toons and more valid. Cool.

I don't even remember what I did Saturday mornings, but I would guess I slept in, because what kid in his right mind would get up a 6am, when during the school week your parents could barely wake you up to go to school?
posted by alicesshoe at 7:45 AM on May 9, 2003


When in this world the headlines read
Of those whose hearts are filled with greed
And rob and steal from those in need
To right this wrong with blinding speed comes....
posted by dglynn at 7:50 AM on May 9, 2003


"this is serious (se-ri-ous)
we can make you delirious..."

I found this site on Google while searching for that song. It should trigger some more memories (although it might not be exclusively Saturday programming).
posted by stifford at 7:58 AM on May 9, 2003


To right this wrong with blinding speed comes...
posted by Shane at 8:09 AM on May 9, 2003


I'm really quite surprised to see AWN saying that "poorer quality of animation" is a factor in the reduced amount of Saturday morning cartoon programming. Take a look at that 80s TV schedule linked above, think about those shows, especially the Hanna Barbera shows - the animation in those shows was appallingly cheap. At least with the product-shilling anime that kids are watching now incorporates cheap animation techniques as a design point..
posted by SiW at 8:11 AM on May 9, 2003


Can I get a hell yeah for Clutch Cargo? Mighty Mouse? Land of the Lost?
posted by tr33hggr at 8:26 AM on May 9, 2003


stifford: I wonder if you know about this.

This is serious
We could make you delirious
You should have a healthy fear of us
’Cause too much of us is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My Flipmode Squad is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My whole entire unit is dangerous

posted by blueshammer at 8:31 AM on May 9, 2003


i must quote Wilco: "All the way back in the seventies, you were my little TV queen..." ah, nostalgia-rama! we weren't allowed to watch much TV during the week (Fraggle Rock, Nova, Little House on the Prairie and Yankees games were it) but Saturday morning was wide open, until around noon when my mom would chase us outside...i've always been an inveterate layabout and it all goes back to those long mornings in our pajamas, eating Cheerios with chocolate chips (the closest to Count Chocula we ever got), watching the Richie Rich/Archie and Veronica, Superfriends, Muppet Babies, The Smurfs (which were on for *ninety* minutes!), Tarzan, D&D, and the kids news show The Big Blue Marble...man, this all makes Netflix and Tivo seem really unnecessary somehow...
posted by serafinapekkala at 8:36 AM on May 9, 2003


Anyone else relish that week when the Fall Preview edition of TV Guide hit the cashwraps down at the local grocery store -- the one with the full page new cartoon spreads, one for each of the three networks? Or was I just that much of an inveterate television geek?
posted by grabbingsand at 8:37 AM on May 9, 2003


"Hey Chompers, how 'bout running a few laps with us!?"

"Not now... I'm doing some Seeerrrriiious excercising."
posted by FearTormento at 8:37 AM on May 9, 2003


blueshammer, yep I remember that Busta song (and if I didn't, I got enough Busta hits when I was googling for the other link, lol...)
posted by stifford at 8:39 AM on May 9, 2003


It seemed the world started to fall apart when the Superfriends was cut down from one hour to a half hour. But I was surprised when looking at the TV schedules to see that it was only an hour long show for a year-and-a-half. I could've sworn it was longer because at the time the programmer went and messed with my Saturday morning solitude, that brief period assumed a golden incandescence in my memory and became "the good old days." I was 10.
posted by jlynford2 at 8:46 AM on May 9, 2003


We can't forget those 5 hours of commercials that weren't the cartoons themselves. My favorite was always Bubble Yum Bubblegum, but back then you really got the feeling that companies were bending over backwards to create new, cool stuff for kids. Transformers? Wacky Wall Walkers? Laser Tag? God, the crap kids have nowadays puts it all in such stark relief. There's a lot of great, great stuff over at X-Entertainment

It's circus fun! Right in your bowl!
And you're gonna wanna come flyin',
'cause there's horses and hoops,
balls and bears, elephants and lions!
(What!?)
Horses, hoops, balls, bears, elephants and lions!

posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:46 AM on May 9, 2003


you grew up.

the cartoons you watched as a kid were just as stupid as the ones playing now.
posted by Satapher at 8:49 AM on May 9, 2003


Thank you, Satapher. I would have said that same thing with twelve links and four paragraphs.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 8:51 AM on May 9, 2003


Satapher- if I wasn't so busy searching ebay for G-Force videos I'd argue that.
posted by Frasermoo at 8:55 AM on May 9, 2003


Now there are about a kerjillion channels that show cartoons 24 hours a day.

Now's better.


hama7, it's only better if you're treating the cartoons as raw content. What kids these days are missing is the Saturday Morning experience, which is what so many people on this thread are recalling. For me it was always agonizing (I hate to get out of bed early) because it seemed there was a simple equation that the quality of a given cartoon was inversely proportional to the lateness of the hour. In other words, the best cartoons (the ooooold Looney Tunes ones) were on really early, then you got to the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner hour, where they were still pretty good (mostly from the 50s), then you got to the more current stuff, which was a crapshoot, depending on personal taste (I remember loving Land of the Lost when it started, but by its last few episodes I thought it was the worst piece of repetitive, formulaic dreck I had ever had inflicted on me).

At any rate, I fear that having cartoons available 24/7 robs today's kids of some of the special-occasion fun of Saturday morning. Plus, when noon came, you knew it was time to turn off the friggin' TV and go outside because it was 100% crap by that time. How are kids today going to get such a prod?
posted by soyjoy at 8:58 AM on May 9, 2003


2 words.

Jonny Quest.
posted by jpburns at 9:01 AM on May 9, 2003


you grew up.

the cartoons you watched as a kid were just as stupid as the ones playing now.


Yup. I made the mistake of watching "Battle of the Planets" again recently and the memory is so much better. Also my wicked cool mom-in-law got me the Speed Racer DVD and I'm quite literally terrified to watch it. I'm curious, but I don't want to damage those sweet and delicate memories. it's the ritual we miss, true, but if the iconography is revealed to be crap the golden quality of the ritual itself comes into doubt.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:08 AM on May 9, 2003


I can't believe no one has mentioned the Ninja Turtles or Captain Power yet. Turtle Power!
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 9:39 AM on May 9, 2003


True, we grew up. But the numerous cable channels have indeed allowed me watch some of these old shows, and some of them survive the test of time:

Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies made for preshow entertainment at the movies - the later made-for-TV ones really, really suck; but I can always sit down to "What's Opera, Doc?".

Starblazers (Uchuu Senkan Yamato) - Hurry, Starforce! There are only 148 days left!

G.I. Joe - I swear this show is still good. The ridiculousness of this show remains entertaining (that said, its counterpart, The Transformers, however cool back then, on review is a really crappy show).

M.A.S.K. - Sato!

Disney had a late 80s revival on Saturday mornings, of which I still think Tailspin is a classic I can watch (Duck Tales is horrible now... I should have left it a fond memory).

By the time I hit college there were a slew of cartoon that would still show on Saturdays, but the new timeslot had become the precious 4pm-6pm after kids got home from school. Kids' WB dominated this early 1990s era, and there were quite a few quality shows that suffered the axe in favor of importing Pokemon and Yugi Oh:

Batman; The Adventures of Batman and Robin
Superman,
Batman Beyond
The Animaniacs

It's true, though, that Saturday mornings are gone. You can still catch the WB lineup, though it starts later and ends earlier. Cartoon Network works, but the magic time of Saturday morning is a thing of the past. Sigh.
posted by linux at 9:53 AM on May 9, 2003


Once New Zoo Revue was over the real fun started...
posted by birdsong at 10:01 AM on May 9, 2003


G.I. Joe - I swear this show is still good. The ridiculousness of this show remains entertaining (that said, its counterpart, The Transformers, however cool back then, on review is a really crappy show).

Yes and yes. I'm kind of embarassed about being an ex-Transformers fan, even though I was really young at the time.

And a weird side note with the McSweeney's Cobra story- about a month ago, a high school kid emailed me asking if he could use it for a dramatic reading event. That's one I'd like to see.
posted by COBRA! at 10:05 AM on May 9, 2003


Aside: Keith, the only thing I want to add to your McSweeney's story is Cobra ejection seat training. ;)
posted by linux at 10:28 AM on May 9, 2003


I remember those big fullpage layouts for the coming cartoon season.

What I remember most about them were all the awful cartoons that I ended up never watching because they were always preempted by college football, like Gilligan's Planet.

I've been getting up "early" Saturday morning (10am) to watch Ultimate Muscles on Fox lately. But like a lot of people have already said, the fact that cartoons are available to kids 24/7 kinda takes the mystique out of Saturday mornings.
posted by wrench at 10:40 AM on May 9, 2003


Does anybody but me (and Toon Tracker) remember Crusader Rabbit, Jay Ward's practice run for Rocky and Bullwinkle (which itself moved from almost-prime-time to Saturday, then Sunday mornings.)? Of course, I didn't catch up with Crusader & Ragland T. Tiger until they had migrated from Saturdays on NBC to the local Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade. (I'm not THAT old) But local-hosted kid shows disappeared from the landscape back when Scooby Doo first dominated Saturday Mornings...
posted by wendell at 10:44 AM on May 9, 2003


Wendell:But local-hosted kid shows disappeared from the landscape back when Scooby Doo first dominated Saturday Mornings...

And now I've got the theme music from Captain Pitt stuck in my head. Thanks?

(Also apparently Captain Pitt was two timin' all us Pittsburgh kids under the assumed name of "Captain Chesapeake"!)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:52 AM on May 9, 2003


Aside: Keith, the only thing I want to add to your McSweeney's story is Cobra ejection seat training. ;)
posted by linux at 11:28 AM MST on May 9


That'll appear in the forthcoming Special Edition, wherein we'll also look into the matter of Dr. Mindbender's sexuality.
posted by COBRA! at 11:14 AM on May 9, 2003


It's sad to see our happy childhood memories not carried on, but it's really just a shift in the pradigm of kids' TV. I blame video games (ever since the quality of the games had surpassed the quality of morning cartoons), but it's more likely the roots described in the AWN link: Cable TV, network indifference, the rise of newer mediums and perhaps a more sophisicated audience. Eras change.
posted by Down10 at 1:29 PM on May 9, 2003


I feel compelled to point you to IMDB for the writer's credits for Land of the Lost.

You didn't know what you were being fed, did you?
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:17 PM on May 9, 2003


It's not just a change in the medium, it's a change in child rearing ... Saturday morning was the cartoon ghetto; TV was restricted during the week (not difficult with only three channels -- there wasn't much you wanted to watch, anyway). And then, sometime before lunch, your Mom threw you out of the house. If you were me, you went and played in the ravine, by yourself, in the woods, until you heard your Mom hollering for you to come in for dinner.

These days no middle class suburban family would chase their kids out of doors and send them off, unsupervised, to build forts in the woods. And that saddens me -- most kids' activities are rigorously supervised, and the rest of the time kids hide out in their rooms with their own TVs and computers. I'm not being holier than thou -- that's how my son has grown up, too.
posted by jokeefe at 5:08 PM on May 9, 2003


Watching Johnny Quest and eating Honey Combs or Sugar Corn Pops -- hmmm great memories.
posted by cmacleod at 8:13 PM on May 9, 2003


jokeefe, I hear you loud and clear. We had the good fortune to live right across the street from the woods and I am flabbergasted now at how I and my cousins would roam over them freely, building shit out of vines and branches, finding weird stuff, whatever, finally hearing mom call wayyyy pff in the distance and hollering "COMMMMIIIING!" and starting the 20-minute trip back to civilization. I live in the middle of a Big City now, but even if I was still back in that tiny town, I can't imagine letting my son do that today. And I feel sad that he's going to be missing out on something so wonderful.

OK, now back to your regularly scheduled Saturday Morning programming.
posted by soyjoy at 8:38 PM on May 9, 2003


Soyjoy, this is a complete derail, but why? What's different now?
posted by Irontom at 4:23 AM on May 10, 2003


Irontom, I don't know that anything is objectively different. I do know that from my adult perspective the general environs I grew up in, which seemed completely storybook and pastoral, is objectively not so, now that I know a lot more about the townsfolk and kinfolk I casually looked up to then as authority figures. But I don't want to make it into a simple now-vs.-then thing - as Tom Lehrer's 50-year-old My Home Town reminds us, those halcyon days of good old trouble-free small towns are a fiction; it's just that now the trouble doesn't get hushed up quite as well. I'd like to think it's because I'm more sensible about the risks I want to expose my kids to - but maybe I just don't have the guts my parents did. Then again, my kids don't watch any TV (other than an occasional video), so draw whatever conclusions you want from that...
posted by soyjoy at 7:24 PM on May 11, 2003


Actually, let me spin that another way (and make a half-hearted attempt to rerail): the only TV my kids watch is cartoons.
posted by soyjoy at 7:27 PM on May 11, 2003


Apparently, I'm a sucker for anime. I fondly remember "Battle of the Planets." The "Star Blazers" and "Thundercats" theme music still makes me grin sheepishly.
posted by FormlessOne at 9:48 PM on May 11, 2003


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