Saturday morning was a big
deal for me growing up. I loved television, although my parents
limited my exposure to it. (Plus I was always more interested
in movies and still am.) Still, I remember every August when each
of the networks would, usually on a Friday night, broadcast a half-hour
highlights reel advertising their Saturday morning lineup for the upcoming
fall. I anticipated this greatly, and would watch these specials
to schedule my limited cartoon time over the next several months (I
think I was allowed either 60 or 90 minutes each Saturday). Being
younger than the cartoons on this set, I grew up watching Plastic
Man, Heathcliff, The Smurfs, Fat Albert,
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, The Littles, Mr. T,
Muppet Babies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Snorks,
the Star Wars shows, Pee Wee's Playhouse, and The
Real Ghostbusters.
Shortly before I stopped watching
Saturday morning television in the late 1980s, it started a decline
from which it has not really recovered. For a period of about
25 years, 7:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday was a sacrosanct time block
for American children. Now kids have their own cable networks.
Cartoons are available around the clock. It's too bad the special
mystique of Saturday morning programming has evaporated into the bland
ubiquity of the numbing "choices" offered by cable television.
This is why I appreciate Warner
Bros' efforts in assembling these sets of Saturday Morning Cartoons.
We are seeing wave two now, with the studio releasing 1960s Volume
2 and 1970s Volume 2. This set, like the others, offers
five hours of content, spread out over two discs. Shows have been
presented here the way they were originally broadcast, so that an episode
of Quick Draw McGraw reflects the three original segments of
the show (Super Snooper and Blabbermouse, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy,
and Quick Draw McGraw) - rather than being a collection of McGraw
shorts. It's a thoughtful grouping of cartoons. The set
reflects an era, a feeling, and a specific sentimentality. It's
a lot of content that will allow for several weeks-worth of nostalgia,
should one wish to recreate the experience on a weekly basis.
Having praised the effort by
the studio and the dedication to the memory of a concept that has grown
weaker over the past two decades, we now must face the real content
of this set and what it is worth. Sadly, fans of animation -
classic or otherwise - will likely be disappointed by the shows included
here. Although there is some classic Looney Tunes and Tom &
Jerry content that was repackaged in the 1960s, most of the programs
are Hanna-Barbera productions. I realize that for many, The
Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and The Jetsons are time-honored
classics. I think they are all terrible. Yet it goes without
saying that those three programs were the most successful to come out
of the extremely prolific Hanna-Barbera studio. Other than a single
episode of The Jetsons, the shows on this set comprise Hanna-Barbera
productions that are not as well-known - many of which are now forgotten,
and for good reason.
Take, for example, something
called Young Samson & Goliath. On this short-lived
show, originally produced in 1967, the boy hero - a normal teen to
all outward appearances - becomes engorged by muscled flesh, a Biblical
haircut, and a weird Romanesque onesie when he brings together the magic
bracelets on his wrists. (Also at these moments, his pet dog,
Goliath, turns into a lion.) In the episode presented
here, titled "The SSX-19," Samson recaptures an experimental aircraft
after it's stolen by terrorists. All aspects of the story are
presented with the utmost vagueness - the terrorists' identities,
their motives, the real purpose of the plane - and are rendered especially
lifeless by the horrible animation and the baffling concept.
The exact same criticisms could
be leveled at most of the other cartoons included here, from Quick
Draw McGraw to The Adventures of Young Gulliver
(which at least had a literate concept). Wally Gator, Magilla
Gorilla, Peter Potamus, and Breezly (of Breezly and Sneezly, of course)
are all versions of the same character - Yogi Bear. Atom Ant
is another head-scratchingly bizarre invention of the Hanna-Barbera
crew - and could have been entertaining and very funny if given a
fair shot. But all of these characters were really just grist
for a cartoon mill that pumped out programming the way Kellogg's makes
Corn Flakes - in huge quantities, and without much creativity, invention,
or flavor.
Program
Content
Disc 1
Quick Draw McGraw: "Person to Person" / "Vacation Tripped"
/ "Mine Your Manners"
Space Kidettes/Young Samson & Goliath: "Space Heroes"
/ "The SSX-19"
The Bugs Bunny Show:
"Big House Bunny" / "Canned Feud" / "Home Tweet Home"
The Porky Pig Show: "Scaredy Cat" / "Baton Bunny" / "Feather
Dusted"
The Adventures of Young Gulliver: "Dangerous Journey"
The Wally Gator Show: "Droopy Dragon" / "Whale of a Tale"
/ "Sea-Saw"
The Jetsons: "Elroy's Mob"
Disc 2
Quick Draw McGraw: "The
Mark of El Kabong" / "Chilly Chiller" / "Party Pooper Pop"
The Peter Potamus Show: "Wagon Train Strain" / "Missile
Fizzle" / "Black Bart"
The Road Runner Show: "Zip and Snort" / "The Jet Cage"
/ "The Wild Chase"
The Atom Ant Show: "Atom
Ant Meets Karate Ant" / "Bowling Pinned" / "Picnic Panicked"
The Tom & Jerry Show:
"Saltwater Tabby" / "Mutts About Racing" / "Just Ducky"
The Magilla Gorilla Show:
"Private Magilla" / "Army Nervy Game" / "TV Show"
The DVD
The Package
The two discs come in a single-width
keepcase, with a nice card slipcover. The artwork on the slipcover
and keepcase is identical.
The Video
Before going to the main menu,
each disc displays a disclaimer warning viewers that some programs feature
less-than-ideal video and were sourced from the only elements available.
In some cases, this means video or film masters that show signs of significant
damage or degradation. For instance, the framing material on
The Bugs Bunny Show (and the other Looney Tunes shows) looks awful,
but the shorts look great, as they have all gone through restoration
for release on the Golden Collection sets. Overall, it's
understandable that some of the content here looks less-than-stellar.
Generally, I'd say about 50% of the shows look very good, with the
other half in various states of disrepair. All programs are full-frame.
The Audio
All programs have lusterless
mono soundtracks. The job gets done, dialogue is generally clear,
but that's the best that can be said.
The Extras
Each disc opens with a brief
rundown of the content therein, narrated by Gary Owens. On disc
two there is also a short five-minute featurette about Magilla
Gorilla.
Final
Thoughts
Although the concept is praiseworthy,
and the presentation of these programs in their original format is appreciated,
the shows themselves - with few exceptions - are utterly disposable.
That, unfortunately, is the legacy of Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Profitable and beloved though some of their characters are, the bulk
of their product was like a batch of brightly-frosted but flavorless
cookies. Made dispassionately, many of these programs were short-lived,
sustained only by sponsor dollars, and disappeared without leaving a
mark. For nostalgia buffs, there is a moderate amount of fun to
be had here. Rent it.
Casey Burchby is a writer and editor who lives in San Jose, CA.
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