Leon Reviews "SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS: 1960s Vol. 2" DVDs

It was only a few weeks ago that I was reviewing the 1970’s collection of Peanuts TV Specials when the first thing pop up on the screen was an advertisement for this ‘Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Vol. 2 ‘DVD collection. I felt a twinge of pity (and some schaedenfreud) for the poor bastard who’d have to sit through five hours of those crappy Hanna-Barbera cartoons then spend the afternoon writing about writing about the experience.

...Cleary a lack of judgment on my part as I am now slapped in the face by the old adage: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls…”
Or more apropos: “Who’s cooking fish? You’re cooking, fish!”, which is a quote from a cartoon (not featured in this set).

As it turns out the ad was a bit deceiving and it’s not as bad as I first imagined. For one, it’s not just Hanna-Barbera cartoons here, they must've had the full Ted Turner-bought catalog to choose from. This includes MGM-produced (Tom & Jerry) and the Warner Bros. cartoons(Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner) as well. Granted, the same could be said for Cartoon Network’s sister channel, Boomerang—however , the seemingly random mix of the shorts on these DVDs held my attention in a way that Boomerang never does. More like the way I felt as a kid…on Saturday Mornings.

The first feature on both disks is “Saturday Morning Wake Up Call”, which has a Gary Owens-like announcer give a montage rundown of all the cartoons coming up, in sequential order. You quickly find out there’s way more than than “12 shows on 2 discs” (like it says on the box). Personally, I prefer to skip this as it runs way too long and I think this set works best with an element of surprise. Then again, if you’re more inclined to pick and choose it gets you primed

Disc 1:

• The Quick Draw McGraw Show comes complete with the original opening and a couple of B-lister’s shorts (“Snooper & Blabber’, ‘Auggie Doggie’) before the titular feature. As much as Hanna-Barbera cartoons are known for their recycled animation and ideas, these early cartoons are from their much better quality ‘Flintstones-era’. Most of them were written by Chuck Jones’ main collaborator, Michael Maltese and animated based on the original character designs of one of the best funny animal artists,Ed Benedict. He used bold, expressive lines lines and simple shapes to design a multitude of characters that had volume and filled a 3D space, yet were easy to animate.

To top it off, the musical director was the great Hoyt Curtin (theme to Bewitched) and honestly, when you revisit your favorite shows from childhood doesn’t it usually turn out the theme songs were best part?

• ‘The Space Kidettes’ is a cartoon I’ve never seen before (which I didn’t think was possible) about a quartet of parentless, kindergarten-age space rangers. It plays for laughs and mostly I skipped over this one. It originally aired and 1966 and gives a glimpse of where the the animation trends of the two decades were beginning to crossover over. There are so many elements that appear to be from the early 70s and much as the 60s, for better AND worse.
Then from the ‘Mighty Mightor/ He-Man school of milquetoast teenagers and their pets that transform into burly superheroes (and superbeasts) comes ‘Young Samson and Goliath’ in a fairly unremarkable adventure.

• Six Warner Bros. cartoons, half from The Bugs Bunny Show and the others from The Porky Pig Show. This is something of a cheat as these cartoons were originally done decades before and shown in theaters, then repackaged for television. Thus, the quality of these cartoons far surpasses all the other cartoons on this disc. Not that it’s anything to complain about. Not only do I like the selection of shorts here better than the ones I’ve seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collections, but it was a treat to see the old Porky Pig Show opening, which I’d completely forgotten.

• One of my favorite things about the Banana Splits Show was the cartoons they would cycle through. One being ‘The Adventures of Gulliver’, where Jonathan Swift’s classic literary hero was turned into a hip, vest-wearing teenager and the Lilliputians (only five of them) were more reminiscent of the Keebler elves. Anyone remember ‘Glum’?

“We’re all doomed.”

• 'The Wally Gator Show' presents another block of funny animal shorts featuring Hanna-Barbera third string All-Star (and future Laff-Alympics competitors), Wally Gator, Touche’ Turtle and Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har.

• I never quite understood what went wrong with The Jetsons. The idea was to have a family like the Flintstones set in the future basing them on Blondie & Dagwood rather than The Honeymooners. Sounds like a no-brainer, yet the Jetsons never had nearly as much energy or humor as the Flintstones. The only episodes that ever stuck with me were the ones that heavily featured George Jetson’s boss, Mr. Slate (oops! I meant Mr, Spacely - thanks Ghostwriter). Unfortunately, the episode on this disc is “Elroy’s Mob”. I just finished watching it and I’ve forgotten it already.

Disc 2:

• It opens again with another “Saturday Morning Wake Up Call” then The Quick Draw McGraw Show, but in reverse order this time. The first short is Quick Draw in the first outing as his popular alter ego, ‘El Kabong’. Snooper & Blabber and Auggie Doggie shorts follow.

• Due to all the years of seeing him as a vocal member of Yogi’s Flying Ark Gang, Laff-Alympics athlete and recurring guest on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, I’d lost all recollection of how much I used to enjoy Peter Potamus on his own show where he wasn’t regulated to playing a one note character. Plus it was only time he used his one superpower: a sonic screamed he called “The Hurricane Holler”.

• Little did I realize that ‘The Roadrunner Show’ existed on its own before it was combined into what I always watched, ‘The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show’. It was another anthology series consisting of two theatrically released Road Runner/Coyote cartoons with another WB animated character(s) in the middle segment (usually Tweety & Sylvester). The big treat of the episode included here is that they were generous to give us a much-clamored for short, “The Wild Chase” with the big race between the Roadrunner and Speedy Gonzales (which is akin to Superman vs. The Flash) to settle all the fan’s debates. And just to spice things up there’s a team-up by their arch-enemies, Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote, trying to do them in.

The set contains only the one special feature. A five minute documentary titled “Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story.” Apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t love (or even like, really) Magilla Gorilla and even after watching so many heartfelt testimonials I still didn’t change my mind.

What I did find interesting was that Magilla was the last of the Hanna-Barbera funny animal characters. Next for them came era of Johnny Quest and the Herculoids.
Thank God!

Overall, the Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Volume 2 DVD set was a pleasant surprise. The cartoons hold up past their initial nostalgia factor. Not that you couldn’t see most of these cartoons on the Boomerang Channel but you’d have to wait months for some of the rarer gems to cycle through and you have to wade through way too much Care Bears and The Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan (ugh!) to do it.

You can purchase Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Volume 2 here.