The Disappearance of Saturday Morning

ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE ^ | April 30, 2003 | By Gerard Raiti

[Paul C. Jesup]

You forgot Gargoyles Seasons 1 and 2.

Great news, but unfortunately, that's a bit outweighed by the fact that the recent batch of Transformers tv series have both sucked and blown, from Beast Machines to Robots In Disguise to Armada

This could be easily out weighted if they just imported and dubbed the Japanese continuation of the original Transformers series.

By the way, Transformers Armada is actually a ripoff of the Japan TF Masterforce Season

I was suprised at the level of quality the He-man re-make is at, it has a very linear plot and seens to be doing very well in character growns, action and plot twists.

And many others which I could name. It's amazing, though, how many of the above series are not only better then most of what you'll find on network tv, but in some cases are also a whole lot funnier than even the highest rated sitcoms (And unlike the sitcoms, they DON'T come with a laughtrack).

I totally agree.

[Paul C. Jesup]

P.S. The one gripe I have about Exo-Squad is that it left it on a cliffhanger. Other than that it was an excellent series.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

The kids and I bond while watching BOOMERANG. It makes me feel young again.

[BlueLancer]

A lot of golden oldies mentioned there ...

But do you remember Hans Conreid and "Fractured Flickers"?

Fractured Flickers

The direct ancestor for MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

[Green Knight]

You forgot Gargoyles Seasons 1 and 2.

D'OH! I knew I'd forget something or other. Yes, Gargoyles was great. Although I thought they went for to long with that bit with Goliath, Angela, Bronx and Elisa travelling around the world. I wanted to see them back with the clan, already. Small quibble, though. At least it wasn't The Goliath Chronicles, which judging from the few episodes I saw, was unvarnished crap.

This could be easily out weighted if they just imported and dubbed the Japanese continuation of the original Transformers series.

I've never seen any of these. So are they any good? Understand that the only comparison I have when it comes to imported Japanese Transformers' series is Robots In Disguise, and I quickly got tired of their calling out their attacks. So are those other series better than Car Robots?

If they are, then you can forget about it. It seems that Hasbro's become thoroughly enamored with turd and all its uses. It's probably gonna take Transformers dying all over again before we get another quality series like Beast Wars.

By the way, Transformers Armada is actually a ripoff of the Japan TF Masterforce Season

Huh. So not only is it crud, it's not even ORIGINAL crud!

I was suprised at the level of quality the He-man re-make is at, it has a very linear plot and seens to be doing very well in character growns, action and plot twists.

No kidding. This second season has been almost uniformly solid (With the exception of "Of Machines and Men", which STILL managed to include Eternian history of The Great Unrest). It's really pretty amazing how good this show is, and I look forward to both it and Justice League every saturday night. To bad Cartoon Network moved it out of its 9:30 timeslot right before Justice League and put it at 7:00.

[Green Knight]

Unfortunately they had it on at Godawful hours and kept moving it around. On top of which the toys never sold well, so it had a hard time finding an audience. Shame, since that cliffhanger you mentioned was supposed to lead into the 3rd season, in which Exo-Squad and Robotech would've been tied together (Separate continuity from Macross/Masters/New Generation, but same aliens and mechs).

[BlueLancer]

A lot of golden oldies mentioned there ...

But do you remember Hans Conreid and "Fractured Flickers"?

Fractured Flickers

The direct ancestor for MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

Fractured Flickers Closing Credits

Fractured Flickers Mini-movie

[Gothmog]

I barely remember Kimba the white lion and can find almost no one who remembers it.

[Maigrey]

Now you're talking about some silly and fun (and UN PC cartoons!)

I still love Underdog and Mighty Mouse!

[SerpentDove]

Warner Bros. was always quality stuff.

Garbage:

ANY Hanna-Barbera cartoon:
Scooby-Doo
Harlem Globetrotters
Jackson 5
Yogi Bear
Huckleberry Hound
The Osmonds

[Teacher317]

The PowerPuff Girls "Beat-alls" episode was sheer genius.

But "The Simpsons" rules all television, animated or otherwise!

[Gothmog]

Star Blazers rocked -- Desslock, Desslock, Desssllock. I hear there are some attempts to bring it back.

[HungarianGypsy]

On Saturday mornings CBS (I know. Yuck!) has Nick, Jr. shows that my kids like to watch. At 10 o' clock (after the morning news show finally ends on our NBC station) my oldest son will watch the NBC edition of Discovery Kids. That's if we aren't already out of the house running errands by that time.

[Gothmog]

You're right, I don't watch these with any regularity, but they are not bad as far as action/plot. One I saw had Wonderwoman getting the hots for Batman? Ha ha ha.

Anyway, I was always a Marvel fan. I think for some reason at a young age I though DC meant Democrat, ha ha ha.

[Gothmog]

I caught some Thundarr on Cartoon Network a couple of months ago.

Thundarr and Ariel are caught in a pit with two giant snakes. Thundarr kills them both and uses one as a rope to climb out of the pit, carrying Ariel over his shoulder. At the top:

Ariel: "You didn't have to carry me up like a sack of potatoes."

Thundarr: "I could have left you there."

Ariel: "I guess you're right."

thundarr: "We ride to save our Friend Ooklah!"

[Paul C. Jesup]

You really need to check out the rest of the Season 2 episodes of JLA that have aired. They are really good.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Interesting.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I've never seen any of these. So are they any good? Understand that the only comparison I have when it comes to imported Japanese Transformers' series is Robots In Disguise, and I quickly got tired of their calling out their attacks. So are those other series better than Car Robots?

I haven't seen the episodes either, but I hear the first couple of seasons (Headmaster and Masterforce) are great but it does go downhill after that.

If you remember the old TF Powermaster Prime and Powermaster TF toys, those were originally from Masterforce.

[Paul C. Jesup]

To bad Cartoon Network moved it out of its 9:30 timeslot right before Justice League and put it at 7:00.

Actually repeats of JLA and He-man comes on weekdays on Toonami, (Teen Titans comes on later at night). Just check a TV schecule.

Also, another funny cartoon is the Jacky Chan cartoon, very funny (action comedy) and fairly linear in plot.

And yes, TF Armada is not even original crud.

[Old Professer]

More likely it's staying up late watching the parent's orgies.