Friday, March 16, 2012

Saturday Morning Memories

Saturday mornings used to be a time that was a weekly holiday for kids around the united states.  Saturday mornings were made for kids to rouse out of bed in their footy pajamas, find a bowl of cereal and most importantly watch cartoons.  I have very fond memories of getting up early, winding my way into the living room turning the over-sized knobs on the TV, and settling into my dads arm chair.

There were all kinds of cartoons that would permeate the network.  The Snorks, Pac-man, Mr. T, and some of my favorites Spiderman and his amazing friends and The Super Powers Team:  The Galactic Guardians  (the latest iteration of the super friends.)  Within these shows were the other main attraction, The Commercials.





The toy commercials of the era was the best way to inform the kids of the time about what they would find on the toy shelves.  They fun and colorful and action packed.  They usually told a story with the figures, and showed them being played with by kids.

All of these things made for a fun beginning to another Saturday and was a great way to kick off the weekend.  As I breeze through the TV channels now on Saturdays I am confused by the lack of the good creative programming that I had the opportunity to watch when I was growing up.  It disappoints me that this up and coming generation will not be able to share the meaning of what Saturday morning is truly about.       

3 comments:

  1. Just ran across your article here, and couldn't agree more. It seems that kids these days are starved for any kind of entertainment that they would even sit through 6 hours of infomercials on TV just to see something. How sad. This is why I think that for those of us who happened to grow up between 1965 and 1985 happen to be the luckiest of all. Those now happen to be the best years to have lived through. Saturdays were truly a weekly holiday treat for kids. Everything from cartoons, kids shows, teen dance shows, weekend and after-school specials, wide world of sports, those prime-time specials during the holidays, made being a kid then seem special. It bothers me that children today lack any form of actual humor, imagination, or ambition. All kids should be allowed to have those same kinds of memories of laughing at the antics of Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Woody Woodpecker, or learning from the lessons taught to them, by Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids, Schoolhouse Rock, and Time For Timer...or even just going on adventures with the likes of The Super Friends, Mister T, Sea-Lab 2020, or Emergency + 4. A child might have even just daydreamed of hanging around with Sigmund and The Sea-Monsters, or with Captain Marvel on the TV show Shazam! The commercials too were all aimed at kids as well. Everything from cereals and fast foods to toys and games, seemed to convey how being a kid meant something back then. At any rate, it was indeed the best of times.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment Dan, I agree It is a pity that kids won't have this experience!

      Once again Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  2. Just ran across your article here, and couldn't agree more. It seems that kids these days are starved for any kind of entertainment that they would even sit through 6 hours of infomercials on TV just to see something. How sad. This is why I think that for those of us who happened to grow up between 1965 and 1985 happen to be the luckiest of all. Those now happen to be the best years to have lived through. Saturdays were truly a weekly holiday treat for kids. Everything from cartoons, kids shows, teen dance shows, weekend and after-school specials, wide world of sports, those prime-time specials during the holidays, made being a kid then seem special. It bothers me that children today lack any form of actual humor, imagination, or ambition. All kids should be allowed to have those same kinds of memories of laughing at the antics of Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Woody Woodpecker, or learning from the lessons taught to them, by Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids, Schoolhouse Rock, and Time For Timer...or even just going on adventures with the likes of The Super Friends, Mister T, Sea-Lab 2020, or Emergency + 4. A child might have even just daydreamed of hanging around with Sigmund and The Sea-Monsters, or with Captain Marvel on the TV show Shazam! The commercials too were all aimed at kids as well. Everything from cereals and fast foods to toys and games, seemed to convey how being a kid meant something back then. At any rate, it was indeed the best of times.

    ReplyDelete