And so we journey back to a better time where ET ruled supreme, Video Arcades were still profitable, and Saturday Mornings were an institution. Although I have always been biased towards NBC’s Saturday Morning Lineups, I still like to look at the lineups on the other two major networks as well. While they were not as successful or as well known as NBC’s shows, there were several diamonds in the rough.
As per my last article on this subject, these advertisements ran in various Marvel and DC comic books every year in December issues.
So lets turn our attention towards CBS and ABC, and see what they had to offer on various Saturday Mornings.
1980 NBC
How about that for a contradiction? It seems that this NBC ad was forgotten when I featured the NBC ads in my last Saturday Morning article. Sadly, this lineup really has nothing to write home about, as it comes from a time when traditional cartoons still ruled Saturdays. Flintstones, Looney Toons, and the Jetsons are among the most well known of the shows. This is basically the same lineup that would appear a year later, without blockbuster shows like Smurfs and Spiderman and his Amazing Friends.
1980 ABC
What grabs my attention right off the bat is the Happy Days Gang cartoon. While the idea of a cartoon based on the popular sitcom seems odd, the fact that the gang travels to various places via a time machine, is just bizarre to say the least. This wouldn’t be the first time that ABC would have a sitcom based cartoon, as they would also try their luck with Laverne and Shirley Join The Army. Call me crazy, but I just don’t get it. In addition, we have the Superfriends, Plastic Man, Scooby-Doo, and Heathcliff, which looks pretty solid to me. I do find it odd that Thundarr, The Barbarian originally aired on ABC, before showing up on NBC a few years later. I actually watched an episode of Thundarr the other day, and it seemed allright to me. It was no Masters of the Universe, but really, what is?
1981 CBS
This lineup is a good example of having a healthy mix of new shows and classic cartoons on one Saturday Morning. Haven’t really heard of many of the new shows, but the others are pretty textbook. Can’t go wrong with the Looney Toons!
1982 CBS
A year before Ric Flair defeated Harley Race, CBS introduced a Starcade of their own. Many changes to their lineup from a year earlier, and three things really stand out to me. First, is the fact that the lineup starts at 8:30 and ends at 2pm. That’s a long time! Next is the fact that they start the lineup with 2 hours of Looney Toons cartoons. I like Bugs and daffy as much as the next guy, but whew, that’s a lot! Finally, we have Gilligan’s Planet, which much have come from the same folks that came up with Happy Days Gang and Laverne and Shirley Join The Army. This lends credit to the idea that the guy that suggested those shows was fired at ABC and quickly got a similar job at CBS. Hopefully he was fired before he could bring us more bizarre sitcom spinoffs like M*A*S*H Underwater, or Antarctic Night Court.
1983 ABC
ABC is full swing into the 80s with this lineup, offering shows based on two of the biggest crazes of the early 80s, Pac-Man, and Rubic’s Cube. Pac-Man’s show is a classic, something I’m very happy to own (and trade, hint, hint), while Rubic’s is something I hope to get, at least the Christmas episode. Other than that, ABC’s lineup is full of various creatures shows, including Monchichis, the Littles, and Menudo.
1984 CBS
In 1984, if there was ever a lineup to give NBC a run for it’s money, it was this one. One of my all time favorite shows, Dungeons and Dragons, as well as Saturday Supercade, Muppet Babies, and Pole Position. In addition, we have the Get Along Gang for younger viewers, and Pryor’s Place, with comedian Richard Pryor. Not really sure how he got his own kids show, as I’ve seen some of his comedy bits, and they were a bit risqué. Maybe he had some incriminating photos of the CBS President.
1985 CBS
Remember in my NBC article how I mentioned CBS needing to get somebody big to combat NBC’s awesome lineup? Well, here he is! Hulk Hogan’s Rock n Wrestling is another one of my all time faves, even though many wrestling fans don’ enjoy it as much. They had Brad Garrett doing the Hulkster’s voice, Uncle Phil himself, James “Shredder” Avery as Junkyard Dog, and Charlie “Buster Bunny/Cow and Chicken” Adler as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. What a great show! So many memories! In addition to the Hulkster, we have the Wuzzles, D+D, and Muppet Babies. Not as solid as last year, but still pretty good.
Well, there you have it. Sadly neither ABC or CBS would run any more Saturday Morning Lineup ads for the rest of that awesome decade. It comes as a bit of a surprise, considering that they both had popular shows like Real Ghostbusters and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse respectively.
I would also like to point out how long shows, popular or not, seemed to last on each network. Shows like Smurfs and Chipmunks were on for the better part of a decade, while others like Dungeons and Dragons and Spiderman for three or four years. That is completely unheard of these days. If a network even has a cartoon lineup, which most don’t, shows never last that long. I still remember the god-awful Avengers cartoon doing great ratings in its time slot, and barely lasting a season. Not that I minded, because it was more of a disgrace than the New Avengers comic.
