X-Entertainment | New Article: ABC’s Saturday Morning Preview Special, 1983!

New Article: ABC’s Saturday Morning Preview Special, 1983!

It's got nothing to do with Halloween, but who knows, maybe you're up for a change of pace. Here's a review of ABC's Saturday Morning Preview Special, a thirty-minute program hosted by Dick Clark that talks up 1983's hottest premiering toons -- everything from "Rubik, The Amazing Cube" to "The Monchichis" and beyond. Suffice to say, you don't see shit like this anymore. Oh, did I mention the bit where Emmanuel Lewis talks about dogs while waving half a pool cube around? Yeah, it's in there baby. Homemade taste it's in there. Check it out.

Posted by Matt on 10/17/2003. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 111 comments

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Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 10/17/2003 8:35 PM

Matt, how do you remember these cartoons? Wernt you like 4 man?! You do have a great pop-culture mind. good article

Chestnuts roasted by Meeeeogie @ 10/17/2003 8:35 PM

Ok, now that I have that out of my system…

Great article like always, Matt. That Beatles cartoon is old. They showed that kind of stuff around the 60s up.

I noticed that all the people they interviewed, asking what cartoons they liked, were adults. Except for that one hot chick, I think she would have been 20 or something. What does that mean? Why, they were payed! It’s a lot easier and more politically correct to bribe adults. You got to Hell is you bribe children.

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 10/17/2003 8:38 PM

Well, I myself can remember watching shows when I was two. So I wouldn’t be suprised if Matt remembers them.

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 10/17/2003 8:39 PM

But, but… I really liked David the Gnome.

It was a European import that stayed true to its sources, and I remember it demonstrating rather frightening continuity as compared to most else I was watching at the time.

And the final episode was so bittersweet that I didn’t stop crying until 20 minutes after it had ended. Thank you, Saskatchewan Community Network!

Chestnuts roasted by spheniscidae @ 10/17/2003 8:51 PM

I also hated the Little Rascals, and it was sheer torture having to sit through episodes of it when it was in the same ‘block’ as Pac-man when it first premiered. :p

Could have swore the stupid Mork & Mindy cartoon was on the same year Rubik premiered.. or maybe something WRONG happened and Rubik somehow managed to stay on for TWO seasons..

Chestnuts roasted by Lynx @ 10/17/2003 8:56 PM

I remember watching these shows. I wish I could forget about them by taking a red-hot poker to my brain.

All except for Superfriends. As a comic-book geek,it holds a special place in my heart. Funny they mention it in this special. Well,it was in reruns at the time and wouldn’t get new episodes until the next year,when it got revemped for the Super Powers toyline.

Anybody remember the ABC Saturday morning PSAs other than SchoolHouse Rock,like O.C. Readmore,that "Time for Timer!" dude,or the "Don’t drown your food" bit? Please,somebody other than me out there has to remember!

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 10/17/2003 8:59 PM

That’s "didn’t mention it" in the second paragragph. my bad.

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 10/17/2003 9:01 PM

David the gnome was a hit in my house (meaning me, my mom and my sis all liked it). I didn’t have a huge emotional attachment like sphen, but I do remember enjoying it, even if I can’t clearly remember any episodes.

And there were other Sat. morning cartoon shows. I remember watching some of them. WB does the same kind of thing, but they do it on Sat. morning b4 the cartoons come out between commercial breaks.

Chestnuts roasted by TOP1214 @ 10/17/2003 9:49 PM

And apparently you meant O.”G”. Readmore. Know your cats, cat…Can you dig it?

Chestnuts roasted by the Unstoppable @ 10/17/2003 9:49 PM

This very season, Fox devoted a half-hour of its Sunday night block to a special preview of the "FoxBox", which used to be that little scoreboard in the corner of the screen, and is now apparently their Saturday morning cartoon block.

BTW, I read thru that entire article expecting a download at the end. My disappointment knows no end.

And one other thing… McNuggets indeed were new that year, but the Professor sure wasn’t… he’s a charter member of the McDonaldland gang, along with Evil Grimace, Officer Big Mac, and Captain Crook.

Chestnuts roasted by Evil Colonel @ 10/17/2003 9:57 PM

Cool info, Colonel. I’ve actually got a big video of pretty much every McD’s commercial ever, and Mayor McCheese has to be my favorite. The costume was just so incredibly awkward, every move the guy made seemed epic. (also got a shot of the first Ronald — Willard Scott — with a Dixie cup rubber-banded over his nose)

Sorry, no downloads this time. Stay tuned though, there’s loads of commercials waiting to be added to the Downloads section. And next month…big feature…mauahahaha.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 10/17/2003 10:03 PM

Anyone remember back in the early 90′s Fox did something similar to this with advanced showings of the second season of the X-Men animated series and Power Rangers (the season where Lord Zedd shows up)?

Chestnuts roasted by The Juice @ 10/17/2003 10:10 PM

Like Matt, I was four at the time of this special. However, I do remember a few of the cartoons that showed up in re-runs later.

"The Monchikis" was, like "Pac-Man," a charter member of the USA Network Cartoon Express, the three-plus-hours cartoon block on USA Network in the mornings in the 80s and early 90s. God, that was nirvana for me then. They ran many short-lived shows that wouldn’t turn up again until the advent of Cartoon Network and Boomerang. I liked "Monchikis" as a kid, but I don’t know how well I’d tolarate it (or most of the similar "cutsey" shows) now.

I loved "Richie Rich" as a kid. It was another member of the Cartoon Express, and I encountered it on Boomerang last year as well. Ok, so it was cheesy, but no worse than any other cartoons in the era, and there was a nice variety aspect – the stories ranged from simple, five-second shorts to ten-fifteen minute "Treasure Chest" adventures.

While I’m quite familiar with the earlier version of "Pac-Man" that featured his family, the ghosts, and that weird robot bad guy, I have no memory whatsoever of either Pac Junior or Super Pac. I don’t remember those episodes ever running on USA (which doesn’t mean they never did – my memory may just be faulty.)

"The Littles" would also make a token appearance on USA, and later on pay cable. Wonderful, well-animated show, one of the better from this era, and possibly one of the best to appear on ABC until Disney bought the network. The writing was warm and often unusually sharp, and kept it from being as cutesy as "The Monchikis."

I’m probably one of the few "Scooby Doo" fans who are indifferent to Scrappy. I don’t hate him the way many people do, but he’s not my favorite, either. I do remember some of the episodes he featured in being cute, although the entire gang were often missed, and I believe the mystery angles were usually de-emphasized.

I remember seeing similar (and similarly cheesy) specials on CBS and ABC into the late 80s (don’t know if they were also done on Fox and NBC). I think the last one I saw was ABC in 1989, and that only because it ran on a Friday in what would have been the spot of a TGIF show. It must not have been any more impressive than this venture, because that’s all I recall about it.

"The Adventures of David the Gnome" was a favorite in my family, too, one of the few cartoons my sisters and I would watch together without starting a minor war over who got control of the remote. It was a very sweet, gentle, but still fun cartoon, not unlike "The Littles" in some ways.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 10/17/2003 10:23 PM

David the Gnome was decent (I was joking in the post) – but by the time I was catching it, it was being aired at 7 AM. You know, the last toon you try to watch before heading off to school. They tried the same thing with the later seasons (or later toon versions) of GI Joe, but by that point, I barely recognized any of the characters. Everyone was wearing a lot of neon.

Yes, USA’s C Express was one of the last vestiges for older toons. I really dig the attention C Network pays to em sometimes, though. They’ve gathered a lot of original programming, so we don’t get to see it as much anymore. Only a few years ago, I remember going nuts with their month-long quasi-marathon of cartoon Christmas specials. I think the Smurfs had around fifty of ‘em.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 10/17/2003 10:27 PM

being 22 now i remember pretty much all of the cartoons and everything but ive only met a handful of people who remember the adventures of mark twain claymation movie they used to play like 4 times a year on sundays. does anyone else remember that? it was like a huge deal to my sister and i, wed be all psyched for a week til it came on. okay sorry to get all off topic and everything. ~erin

Chestnuts roasted by FreakinCrazay @ 10/17/2003 11:06 PM

ABC used to do the Saturday Morning Preview as part of TGIF. In fact, it was a pretty regular occurence for a few years. The most recent one I can recall had the Mighty Ducks and Sonic the Hedgehog on it, as well as Doug. And the one that had the debut of Tales from the Crypt was arguably the coolest one ever. Those were the days…

And about David the Gnome: he holds a special place in my niggin because he was shown on Nickelodeon with a whole bunch of odd shows like Count Duckula and Danger Mouse. Weird that I remember those shows more favorably than the recent ones on TV now. Sad that cartoon shows took such a nosedive in the late nineties.

Chestnuts roasted by Jason1551 @ 10/17/2003 11:08 PM

Count me among those who were fans of "Richie Rich" back in the day…it’s probably something I’d find insufferably stupid 20 years later, but when I was six, happiness was "Richie Rich", my TI-99/4A computer, and "Candlepin Bowling" with Don Gillis on WCVB-5 in Boston.

Keep up the good work, Matt…this site reminds me that all that stuff I remember from my youth actually happened…it’s not just a fever dream or a lingering hallucination from my teen drug phase.

Chestnuts roasted by Monster Dog @ 10/17/2003 11:15 PM

Eventhough I used to make sure I watched these things when they came on, the only one that I really remember was the one NBC had for the premeir of Saved by the Bell. I still remember being all exicted to actually watch the show itself (SbtB), and when I did, all I could think was "Where the hell’s Marsha Warfield?!" (she was playing a security guard at the school in the special). I think NBC also had one with the Kid Video people, or maybe I’m getting that mixed with the SbtB one.

I swear, this is the kind of stuff that needs to go on DVD.

Chestnuts roasted by Lim @ 10/17/2003 11:31 PM

A few things to say, I was indifferent to Scrappy-doo as well. I couldn’t help it. I was a sucker for a character aimed at my age. Like Yogi Bear’s Boo-boo or Jetson’s Elroy.
The only thing I remember about the Rubick’s Cube show was where the gang asked him to blow up an inflatable raft and he took it literally and made it explode (har-de-freakin-har). But when I was that young, that kind of joke is pure gold.
I remember liking the Littles though all I remember about them was something about the Statue of Liberty–though I think I might have crossed memories and am thinking of David Copperfield making the dang thing disappear.
Anyone else having really screwey sleep patterns lately? I know it’s totally not relevant, but I was up til 7am this morning, got an hour of sleep, went to class and a little recital, had lunch, then slept again from 1pm til 6pm and have been at work since then (until 3am). I wonder if vampires ever have this problem.

Chestnuts roasted by inkmage @ 10/18/2003 12:51 PM

Richie Rich was a great cartoon, but seemed to suffer from the accursed "Let’s play the same five episodes eover and over till the audience’s head explodes" programming initiative. Still, good times.

Chestnuts roasted by JPKMets @ 10/18/2003 12:53 PM

Oh and, Scrappy blew goat.

Chestnuts roasted by JPKMets @ 10/18/2003 12:54 PM

"I’m Louie the lifeguard, and I’m happy to say,
I saved a drowning potato today!
Don’t drown your food! In mayo, salt, ketchup, or goo…how can you eat what you can’t even SEE? So don’t drown your food!"

And also:

"I hanker for a hunk-a,
A slab or slice or chunka
A snack that is a winner,
And yet won’t spoil my dinner!
I hanker for a hunk-a cheese! YAHOO!!!"

And Sunshine on a STICK – which was orange kool-aid frozen in ice-cube trays with toothpicks stuck in it. I tried this, but was always too eager to eat the damned things and never quite waited long enough for it to freeze all the way.

And remember the Choppers guys? "Exercise your choppers with some good hard food!"?

…I remember way too much of this stuff for my own damn good. I swear.

Chestnuts roasted by Aeire @ 10/18/2003 1:15 AM

Aww… I thought the thing at the end was going to link to one of those Menudo on ABC video clips which I think were exclusive to ABC. At HMV the other day, I was looking at the back of a Menudo DVD, wondering if it had the video they played every hour or so, the one that went "I Like to Dah-aah-aah-ance", but, either the name of the song wasn’t "I Like to Dance" (which was about half the lyrics in the song, I shit you not), or ABC still owns the rights and aren’t giving them up.

Well, at least this wasn’t a preview for the 1984-85 ABC Saturday Morning line-up wherein the Menudo clips between shows were replaced by ABC Fun Fit with Mary Lou Retton.

Hmm… surprisingly, I don’t remember anything season-specific about the 1983-84 season of Richie Rich (was it all reruns?), unlike the 1982-83 season where I clearly recall that Jackie Jokers joined the cast, though I don’t think they did the TV show and movie parodies which Jackie Jokers was mainly known for in the comics. Actually, as someone who had been reading the comics since before I was 6, I was never that thrilled by the cartoon, since they made Richie older and replaced his trademark tuxedo and red bow tie with a red sweater with a big yellow R on it (in retrospect, I know it was much easier for the animators to draw a simple sweater than a tuxedo; far fewer lines). The 1990s Richie Rich cartoon brought back the tux… too bad I was too old to appreciate it (and too young to appreciate it as a cartoon-loving adult). Also, the thing about the 80s Richie Rich cartoon loged most firmly in my memory is Irona; while I was fairly indifferent to her in the comics, I just found the way she was drawn in the cartoon much too skanky-looking. She’s actually the primary reason I don’t find French maid uniforms even the tiniest bit arousing.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 10/18/2003 1:34 AM

Matt,

Have you heard this already…

The successful lawsuit by Sid and Marty Krofft against McDonald’s, charging that the company and its advertising agency had ripped off the McDonaldland characters from H.R. Pufnstuf, which the Kroffts had produced. Well, better late than never. Here’s the whole sordid tale.

The Krofft brothers are legendary (well, pretty well-known) TV producers. They had their biggest successes in kidvid in the late 60s and early 70s, with shows like The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and most prominently H.R. Pufnstuf, which aired between 1969 and 1974. H.R. Pufnstuf featured brightly colored sets with hyperkinetic actors (many of them dwarfs) in wild costumes playing such characters as Wilhelmina Witchiepoo, Cling and Clang, and of course H.R. Pufnstuf, a friendly dragon who was mayor of Living Island, where plants, animals, and objects could talk and wacky adventures took place.

By 1970 H.R. Pufnstuf was the top-rated Saturday morning TV show, and the Kroffts began getting calls from ad agencies hoping to get in on the action. One series of calls came from the ad agency Needham Harper & Steers, which was wooing McDonald’s. Needham figured a campaign featuring the popular H.R. Pufnstuf characters might be just the thing to land the business. In a letter dated August 31, 1970, Needham told the Kroffts that it was going ahead with a McDonaldland campaign based on the Kroffts’ work and that they could expect a fee for creative services. But a short time later Needham told the Kroffts the campaign had been canceled.

Those devious ad agency guys! In truth Needham had gotten the McDonald’s account and was proceeding with the campaign but apparently figured it could stiff the Kroffts out of their fee. "Former employees of the Kroffts were hired to design and construct the costumes and sets for McDonaldland," a federal appeals court later wrote. "Needham also hired the same voice expert who supplied all the voices for the Pufnstuf characters to supply some of the voices for the McDonaldland characters." Needham reps even visited the Kroffts’ LA headquarters seeking creative advice. But no cash was forthcoming.

After the first McDonaldland commercials began airing in January 1971, the Kroffts sued for copyright infringement. When the case went to trial in 1973, their lawyers showed the jury several H.R. Pufnstuf episodes and McDonaldland commercials and pointed out the obvious similarities. McDonald’s and Needham responded that the show and the commercials weren’t exactly the same. For example, Mayor McCheese and Pufnstuf were each the mayor of a fanciful land, but McCheese was a cheeseburger in pink formal wear while Pufnstuf was a dragon. Big difference!

The jury, and later the appeals court, didn’t buy it. "We do not believe that the ordinary reasonable person, let alone a child, viewing these works will even notice that Pufnstuf is wearing a cummerbund while Mayor McCheese is wearing a diplomat’s sash," the appeals court wrote. The court held that the defendants had wrongfully appropriated the "total concept and feel" of H.R. Pufnstuf, anticipating the "look and feel" argument made by litigious computer software developers years later. The Kroffts were awarded a big chunk of dough.

McDonald’s had no comment on the whole mess.

Chestnuts roasted by TheCleaner420 @ 10/18/2003 1:34 AM

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