Saturday Morning will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the one time during the week that kids ruled the airwaves. More often than not, these shows could only be seen once a week, on their respective networks. There were no cartoon channels, and often these shows could not be found in syndication. Sure there were other cartoons on during the week, but you still had to go to school those days. Saturdays were special. It wasn’t just the cartoons, the best commercials ran on Saturday Mornings, many that can be found here. And combine that with delicious sugar covered cereal, and man oh man, did that ever make for a great day.

Back in the 80s, networks would often take out ad space to announce their new schedules each Fall. These ads were usually found in December issues, and in some cases, more coveted than the actual comics that they came in. For me, it was just one of many factors that led to my love of the 1980s. It just can’t be a coincidence that so many awesome things came out in a ten-year span.

Anyway, I present the various ads that NBC took out each year to promote their new line-ups. Get ready for some awesome memories!

1981 – In addition to the ad within the comic, NBC actually placed an ad on the cover of the comic itself. That was actually the only reason that I picked up the Star Wars comic in the first place. This would be the debut of the Smurfs, who would become a mega-hit, lasting throughout the rest of the decade. In addition, there was Spiderman and his Amazing Friends, which featured the first appearance of former New Warrior and Avenger, Firestar. The rest was pretty regular cartoon stuff like the Flintstones, Looney Tunes, and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

1983 – 1983 saw the debut of Mr. T and the Chipmunks. Not together though, although that would have been an interesting crossover. The Incredible Hulk also joined Spidey’s Amazing Friends, and the Flintstones were still around as well. Rounding out the line-up was Shirt Tales, which I believe was about animals wearing shirts, or something like that, and Thundarr the Barbarian, which looks similar to He-Man.

1984 – This year was the first, and hopefully last appearance of the cartoony NBC peacock. The lineup was revamped with four new shows including Kidd Video, the Snorks, Pink Panther and Sons, and Going Bananas. Surprisingly the live action show with a Orangutan named Roxanna Banana was not brought back for another year. I must say that NBC had some pretty stiff competition from CBS, which had Dungeons and Dragons, Muppet Babies, Saturday Supercade, and Pole Position.

1985 – 1984’s schedule was so well received, that only two new shows were introduced in 1985. Those being the Gummi Bears and Punky Brewster. Take a look at the schedule on the right hand side. That’s the stuff dreams are made of. As well, Papa Smurf informs us that there will be four new Smurfs joining them on the show. The other networks will have to get something huge to compete with NBC’s lineup! Tune in to find out what they did.

1986 – In 1986, we found out that the programming director for NBC’s Saturday Morning was actually a Smurf. Hmmmm, no wonder they lasted so long. Anyway, this year’s new shows include Kissyfur and Foofur. I liked these shows, but we lost Mr. T and Spiderman to get them, so its bittersweet.

1987 – The big news in 1987 was the arrival of ALF to NBC’s Saturday Morning. This time the stars of Saturday Morning were enjoying lunch at the NBC cafeteria, and several jokes were made about radishes. I don’t get it. Anyway, the new shows this season in addition to ALF Tales, were the New Archies, Fraggle Rock, and I’m Telling, a live action game show. As well, we see Alvin talking to Don Johnson from TV’s Miami Vice. That’s just awesome!

1989 – This year, the stars of Saturday Morning are found discussing the new lineup on the last day of their vacation. The new shows are the awesome Camp Candy and Captain N, the mediocre Karate Kid, and the god-awful Saved By The Bell. It wasn’t that Saved By The Bell was such a bad show, but it ushered in the beginning of NBC airing live-action shows on Saturday Mornings, instead of cartoons, so to me, it will always be tainted. Also kind of creepy is seeing King Hippo’s large nipples. I know he was a bad guy on Captain N, but they could have chosen Eggplant Wizard or Dr. Wily. At least they wore shirts.

What an incredible trip down memory lane. Back in the day, getting a tape with those Saturday Morning shows was always a dream. Who am I kidding, it still is. So, if you have access to tapes with 80s Saturday Morning shows, with commercials, drop me a line here. As you can see here, I have lots of shows to trade. You know you want to.