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Something Light: Saturday morning heroes
Today, kids can get cartoons 24/7. But most of us here had to wait until Saturday morning to get our animation fix. While I was growing up, I couldn’t wait for the weekly hour of Looney Tunes (I can’t remember what they called the show) — especially the cartoons starring my hero, Bugs Bunny.
Who (or what) was your favorite cartoon character and what made that character so special?
Topic HT: Anlir
Topic: Just for Fun, WorldMagBlog
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back to top37 Comments to “Something Light: Saturday morning heroes”
I loved the Saturday morning cartoons. I really didn’t have a favorite character. Shaggy from Scooby Doo was a big hit for me because he was so counter-cultural.
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Just about any of the Looney Toons. Chuck Jones was a genius.
I guess I liked Marvin the Martian quite a bit. I loved all the puns and such.
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While I identify more with his dim-witted sidekick Pinky, The Brain was always my fave. But then again, my personal blog is called Spear and Magic Helmet, so I’ve got my old-school preferences, too.
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Let’s see… Bugs, of course, though I didn’t care much for Daffy, Tweetie or Foghorn Leghorn.
There was also Under Dog, Tom and Jerry, and who didn’t like Rocky and Bullwinkle?
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I’ll let you guess which character I liked most. (hint: check the gravatar).
I remember when cartoons were showed from 6:00 to 7:00 PM every day. It was part and parcel of each evening’s entertainment in our home. The after school hours were also chock filled with kids programming.
I liked all of the Looney characters and the Hanna Barbera characters as well. There is nothing like a Saturday morning of cartoons, a huge bowl of Tony the Tiger, a blanket on the floor,and 3 small children to share it with. Some of the best bonding time I had with our children!
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Yes, The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour. Excellent. I also liked The Pink Panther and Hong Kong Phooey. Of no value to me were any of the Hanna-Barbera productions, or any live-action Saturday morning show.
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My all-time favorite was Underdog.
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I liked Bugs Bunny, Daffy and Porky teamed together (Duck Dodgers of the 24th and 1/2 century) and Foghorn Leghorn. Mostly for the sarcasm, but also because I could do a pretty good imitation of Foghorn.
Rocky and Bullwinkle, Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley, Fractured Fairy Tales and Peabody and Sherman were good, too. All of these were over-the-top funny, and I tried to imitate Tennessee (voiced by Don Adams) and Chumley, too.
Of the ‘formula’ cartoons, I guess the original Scooby Doo wasn’t too bad. My sister and I always thought it was funny that Shaggy and Scooby got stuck doing all the work while the others were off doing who-knows-what.
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I don’t have to wait until Saturday morning to get my daily hit of animation. I watch Family Guy every afternoon.
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Whoah, I sound way too much like my good buddy Anlir in post #9. Sorry about that, evangelical, Bible-believing, Christian friends.
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Obviously, the “Bugs Bunny/Road Runner” hour was my favorite. Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester & Tweety & Granny, Tasmanian Devil, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn and Sam the Sheepdog, Marvin the Martian, Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote, to name many of them.
Bugs Bunny was my all-time favorite because he was such a trouble maker, but in a good way. I liked the fact that he would play any character and mock any stereotype. Plus he had the gender-bending thing down pat!
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The Pink Panther — I never got tired of that incredibly cool theme song.
Johnny Quest — He was smart, cool, and had a really cool dad with lots of cool gadgets. The recent remake was, predictably, horrible.
Evidently, coolness has always been a factor.
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My parents let us watch cartoons on Saturday mornings as long as we were quiet and didn’t wake them up. Wish I could do the same, but there’s so much garbage on these days.
We date ourselves by the cartoons we remember, don’t we? StuBob likes Johnny Quest. RobHays likes Pinky and the Brain. I’m with Scott Robinson- Fractured Fairy Tales and Peabody & Sherman.
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I don’t remember having a favorite character, but the cartoon Harlem Globetrotters was one of my favorite shows. We always watched Looney Tunes but I never liked the roadrunner because I felt bad for Wile E. Coyote. I liked the Pink Panther but I like it even better now that I get more of the humor.
There was one show my sister insisted we watch that I can’t remember anything except the main character saying something like “Exit, stage left” in what I figured was supposed to be a British accent.
And there was one, that I thought was on weekday afternoons but might have been Saturdays, that had a dog who was a detective. I can almost picture him, but I can’t remember his name (something about a hound?) and no one else seems to know what I’m talking about.
The Saturday morning cartoon I liked least was Josie and the Pussycats. Though Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids would be a close second.
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I didn’t have a favorite character and still don’t. I honestly never found cartoons to be fun/entertaining or anything but boring. Maybe because I was close to 12 years old before we ever had a TV? I don’t know.
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I guess I’m old. I go back to Mighty Mouse, Howdy Doody, Sky King, and Rin Tin Tin.
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I guess I’m old, too, Norm. I also remember more live-action shows when I was a kid, rather than cartoons. I loved the puppet version of “Time for Beanie” [with the voice of the great Stan Freberg as Cecil]
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I liked Bugs Bunny, et al. But I always wanted Wile E. Coyote to catch that awful Road Runner.
Now my boys watch Bob the Builder on Saturday mornings, sometimes followed by Sesame Street.
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While most of today’s cartoon fair is just awful, I do find “Jakers” on PBS to be pretty decent.
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Bugs, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Johnny Quest, Underdog – all greats! I know I’m forgetting a lot of them.
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I liked the Pink Panther and the Super heroes. I was sooo going to marry Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four. My husband is trying to introduce our son to Johnny Quest and my greatest parenting fear has come true. My son loves Scooby Doo.
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He-man, Transformers, Gummy Bears, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner, Spiderman, and Superfriends.
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I grew up without a TV, but the little girl next door (several years younger than me–I babysat her when I was 13) had one, and occasionally we three youngest ones were allowwed to go over to watch cartoons. Tom and Jerry was one of my favorites, don’t know why.
I also liked the roadrunner, largely because I lived in Phoenix and roadrunners and coyotes were animals I actually saw sometimes. Of course, I have since found out that many kids didn’t know there were real roadrunners–a bird that would rather run than fly (though it can fly), nests in cactus, and eats snakes and other small animals. Arizona would have liked to climb it as our state bird, but unfortunately New Mexico became a state a bit before we did, and claimed the roadrunner, and we didn’t want to look like copycats, so we chose the cactus wren. But the roadrunner is the unofficial state bird.
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Pauline #14: And there was one, that I thought was on weekday afternoons but might have been Saturdays, that had a dog who was a detective. I can almost picture him, but I can’t remember his name (something about a hound?) and no one else seems to know what I’m talking about.
Could that be Huckleberry Hound? I think he was an old west sheriff.
I forgot about Johnny Quest. Tops all the modern cartoon heroes.
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Pauline,
The “Exit, stage left” character was probaby Snagglepuss. I liked him a lot.
The dog character could be Huckleberry Hound or Deputy Dawg (or you might be mixing them together).
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Pauline,
Or you could be talking about Droopy Dog, who was originally called The Happy Hound.
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See now I love cartoons, always have and probably always will.
Started out on Muppet Babies, Thundercats, He-man and She-ra, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and WildC.A.T.S..
Moved on as later in elementary school to the greats of Pirates of Dark Water, Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, Gummy Bears, Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, Eek the Cat, and most importantly X-Men.
Toward middle school it became all about the Simpsons (I wasn’t allowed to watch them as a kid).
In high school I discovered a couple of Animes, but that was also the start of Futurama and the Dawn of the Cartoon Network. Favorites like Ed, Edd, & Eddy, Home Movies, the new Space Ghost spoof.
College started Family Guy but also some other cool cartoons like Teen Titans and Kim Possible (might have started late in high school but i didn’t watch it until I had the kind of free time freshman dorm life gives you).
Now: All about Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, & Avatar: The Last Airbender.
To sum up: Cartoons are great. If someone can find someone to draw it, they can make it and so the medium in general sparks (I think) great levels of ingenuity and ultimately more clever writing than live action “adult” TV. I’m serious, cartoons are more intellectual! I dare you to watch a full season of Avatar or Kim Possible and compare it with a full season of 24 or Nip/Tuck. The cartoons will win the “clever” title in landslides!
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Oh the memories. I liked SuperFriends. My father, the racist, and I never missed Fat Albert and the Gang which leaves me puzzled as to why my dad hates black people. We also loved to watch Pink Panther. Recently I watched it on one of the cable channels and just didn’t get it.
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Or you could be talking about Droopy Dog, who was originally called The Happy Hound.
I love the opening to all of the Droopy cartoons, where he looks into the camera and whines, “Hello, all you happy people.”
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Luke – You mentioned Alvin and The Chipmunks – my husband and I took the grandchildren to see the movie on New Year’s Day. It was kind of cute. I didn’t think I would like it but it wasn’t bad at all. I have memories of my younger brother playing a record of them over and over and over when we were younger. (Horrible)
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Kyle A,
Snagglepuss! Yes, that was it.
And Huckleberry Hound. Thank you both, Kyle A. and Peter L.
I recently suggested to my older son that I was thinking of seeing if the video store had any tapes or DVDs of TV shows I used to watch as a kid. He said he wasn’t interested – it would just be kiddie cartoons and soap operas (not that I’ve ever watched a soap opera in my life, except in a waiting room where I couldn’t avoid it). He just has no idea what he’s missing.
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I personally like “Avatar; the last airbender”. It is very well written, but it is a little too new age for the kid. I looked for a picture of the main character to use as my avatar, but I doubt few would hvae gotten the joke.
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HAHAHAHA This was such a treat on a saturday morning….just to watch those cartoons. Alot of those you all mentioned were great. I can recall my fave group of heroes, The Mighty Heroes!
DiaperMan, RopeMan, TornadoMan, StrongMan….and CuckooMan!
And don’t forget everybody’s favorite spinach-chuggin sailor, POPEYE!
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I forgot about Muppet Babies.
Oh yeah, loved Battle of the Planets.
Simpson Halloween episodes were the best. Haven’t watched them for a few year though.
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Okay,I’m dating myself too. I’m with Metanoia (#5). . . MIGHTY MOUSE!! “Here I come to save the day!!!” Like Paula (#13), my brothers & me were allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons so our parents could sleep in. Unfortunately, we had noisy disputes about which cartoon station to watch. My brothers preferred “King Leonardo & His Short Subjects” which was on another station at the same time as my beloved Mighty Mouse. In a poor imitation of my rodent superhero I used physical force to get my way(!). Mom & Dad woke up and ultimately settled the matter by turning off the set.
I also have to credit “Looney Tunes” for my interest in detailed illustration, and my rich, albeit inadvertent, knowledge of classical music. It was only when my own children started piano lessons that I realized Hungarian Rhapsody #2 wasn’t just a Bugs Bunny soundtrack.
Today’s cartoons are stiff and poorly drawn. Their soundtracks are loud, driving and forgettable IMHO.
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Early on my favorite was Donald Duck and the entire duck clan: Heuy, Louie, Dewey, and Scrooge.
Later on the Roadrunner and the wiley Coyote became my favorites. The creative ways the Coyote was always getting mangled were very funny.
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Zoinks!
I, too am an “old school” Scooby fan.
The new Scooby is horrible. It’s too politically themed.
I don’t want to see themes like global warming, and corporate corruption in my funnies.
The Superfriends, Pink Panther, and Tom & Jerry also provided me countless hours of entertainment.
Outkast:
I’m a big Family Guy fan, myself.
South Park, too. (if a lot of swearing doesn’t bother you)
*cowering down w/ hands covering face*
Anyone remember the Laff-Olympics?
It was an athletic competition between teams of catoon characters. It usually was the last cartoon on Saturday morning before sports.
The teams were the Yogi Yahooies, the Scooby Doobies, and the Really Rottens. (made up of all the various cartoon villains) Of course, the really rottens would try to cheat in all of the events.
That was some good stuff.
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