If it was Saturday morning, that meant one thing. Cartoons on the television. Our family had only had a TV a few short weeks, but we quickly learned about the great programs for kids on Saturday mornings. Quick Draw McGraw, Gumby, Mighty Mouse, Crusader Rabbit and at one time or another all our Looney Tunes Friends – Buggs, Elmer, Porky Sylvester, Tweety, The Road Runner and Daffy.
Then, mixed in with the cartoons were shows like Fury, The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sky King, Rin Tin Tin, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and many, many others.
Rather than sleep in, kids would awaken at the crack of dawn and watch the test pattern until the shows finally began to appear on the magical TV screen. While we watched, we ate the cereals that were advertised, and munched on the show’s promoted candies like M&Ms, which melted in our mouths, not in our hands. Whatever was advertised on the Saturday mornings shows is what we begged our moms to buy. It was a devastating way to advertise.
Great children’s programming continued through the sixties and into the early seventies, then began to wither away, eventually replaced by sports and talk shows.
I don’t know what children watch these days on Saturday mornings. Probably nothing but the faces of their phones.
Yogi Bear, where are you my friend? How we all long for the innocent days of cartoons on Saturday mornings.
