Back in my childhood I couldn’t fathom a time where there would be no Saturday Morning Cartoons on TV. Heck, I would have never even foreseen the fact that I don’t even watch broadcast TV any longer. When I was 5 or 6 I can recall a very vivid dream I had of watching cartoons long after my normal bedtime. Perhaps it was a vision of the future where you could tune into dedicated cartoon channels on Cable. Now, just about every evening we end our day with a few cartoons.
From time to time I set up a playlist of cartoons to play on Saturday morning, those being late 60’s through the early 80’s. It’s fun to do that every now and then. Some of my favorites were “Thundarr the Barbarian”, “Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines”, “The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon”, “The New Adventures of Superman”, and “The Freedom Force” to name a few. I don’t just stick to animation, there some wonderful live-action shows as well. Great shows like “Land of the Lost”, “Electra Woman and Dyna-Girl”, and “The Secrets of Isis”. There are some that I used to love as a child that I just can’t watch anymore, but thankfully those are few and far between.
How about you? Any memories of a show, or shows that you lived for on Saturday Mornings? Leave a comment and let’s reminisce.
The Secrets of Isis 💕 
The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon 
Land of the Lost 
Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines 
Electra Woman and Dyna-Girl 
The New Adventures of Superman 
Thundarr the Barbarian
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10 comments
Thundaar the Barbarian and Blackstar immediately come to mind. They both aired in 1981, when I was 5 years old. Checking on Wikipedia, it’s a bit surprising to discover that Thundaar only lasted for 21 episodes, and Blackstar a mere 13 episodes. It seemed like both series ran for much longer way back when. I guess it’s due to how when you’re a child time feels like it’s moving much more slowly.
Many of those shows just kept running long after they were canceled, so it seemed like they had a longer run than they actually did. I would “ride them ’till they died”, heck I still watch both of the shows you mentioned.
Thundarr was also one of my favorites with its Jack Kirby designs. Also loved Land of the Lost and Shazam! The Looney Tunes cartoons were already old when I watched them, but I thought they were brand new.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but Thundaar the Barbarian was my very first exposure to the work of Jack Kirby, who designed the show’s villains, and to the work of Alex Toth, who designed the three main characters.
Of course, years later re-watching Thundaar as an adult, my reaction to bad guy Gemini was along the lines of “Hey, that looks like Darkseid!”
He really does! I really dig the rotating head on that character.
I wasn’t aware of Alex Toth’s involvement, but I can see it now.
The yearly announcement of that season’s new Saturday cartoons was a big deal for me. Of course even as a kid I’d learned not to have too high expectations. Shows such as Thundarr or Land of the Lost that had some real thought and design were always the treats that kept me hooked and hopeful.
The evening before the new season, when the networks would have a preview show about what to expect the next morning was always an event for me.
I was a big TV addict as a kid. I’d be circling things in the TV Guide to figure out which of those new shows I’d be checking out.
Me too. Hey, back then it was one and done as far as we were concerned.