Saturdays may have represented the start of the weekend and time off school, but that didn’t stop us still wanting to get out of bed nice and early as Saturday mornings were when our favourite shows of the week were on! We couldn’t help but wake up, run downstairs and put the TV on then sit for hours, getting lost in the adventures of our favourite characters. How many of these do you remember watching on a Saturday morning…
1. Muppet Babies
The baby versions of our favourite Muppets would get up to a different adventure every week and it was a great way of showing kids that all you need is some friends and a good imagination and you can have a wonderful and magical time together. With a great opening theme song, and the Nanny who was only the lower part of the body, signifying the baby-eye-view of the world, this was a gem!
2. The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
Winnie the Pooh has been around for a long time in our books and movies and now we were able to watch this lovable bear every Saturday as well. Who couldn’t help but fall in love with the wonderfully realised and drawn characters, including Christopher Robin, Owl, Rabbit and everyone’s favourite, the springy Tigger – bouncy, bouncy, bouncy! How many of you would go leaping around the house after watching this like a mad man, shouting, “I’m Tigger”!?
3. Garfield and Friends
We loved this lasagna-eating cat for his dry humor and his cool friends. This guy had the most cynical view of the world of any cartoon character, yet he was still lovable in spite of how negative he could be. His master, the long-suffering Jon, was always on hand to be abused by the cat, and Garfield’s best friend Odi was always there, too, and at times we saw that Garfield genuinely cared for his canine friend in spite of making out that it was a love-hate relationship!
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
These were the crime fighting turtles with the coolest personalities ever and they LOVED pizza! Of course, here in the UK they were known as the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles, as we were unable to cope with the thought that they may be ninjas as that indicated violence, and violence is bad! Hmmm. Kids went mad for these Turtle Dudes and would coin their phrases in the school playgrounds on a daily basis!
5. The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show
We loved these characters and couldn’t wait to watch these cartoons because they were all so good. Who was your favourite? Bugs Bunny? P-P-P-Porky Pig? Sylvester and Tweety? Foghorn Leghorn? Or were you like me, a big fan of the Road Runner cartoon, but only because you actually really, really wanted old Wile-E Coyote to win for once? I’m still hoping he’ll get a nice roast road-runner meal one Sunday!
6. A Pup Named Scooby Doo
Scooby Doo was the cutest dog and even cuter as a pup. There were a string of cartoons where they reinvented the characters as kids – we’ve already seen the Muppet Babies – and A Pup Named Scooby Doo was one of the best out there, as not only good old Scoobs was a pup, but the other characters were all kids too, leading to some different adventures!
7. The Story Teller
This was such a great, inventive and imaginative program by the Jim Henson group and starring John Hurt as the titular Story Teller. Often using original stories, other times using classic fables but with a Henson-style twist, this was a dark and shocking show for kids at times, but you couldn’t stop watching!
8. Godzilla
Take a giant, violent dinosaur type monster, who goes around destroying buildings, cities and killing people and turn it in to a kids’ cartoon show! The Godzilla show turned the monster in to a kind of anti-hero and added his son Godzooki, a kind of cute version of the titular fella!
9. Saved By The Bell
This show taught us all about high school and friendship with lots of bright colors! It was very American, but really enjoyable with some great characters who we grew to love and grew close to as we saw their foibles and that they were actually human, not super people who could do no wrong. This show also tried to touch on very sensitive subjects such as drug addiction and the whole program was a big success and very watchable! Everyone had at least one character they had a massive crush on, too!
10. M.A.S.K
This was such a great show, kind of a combination of Transformers and Action Man, as the crew of M.A.S.K all had vehicles that could adapt depending on the situation, fly, go in the water, etc an this was a great and very popular show for a number of years! There are rumours of a reboot coming, we can only hope the rumours are true!
11. The Real Ghostbusters
This was a show based on the Ghostbusters films, and was really enjoyable. Slimer had become a good guy and basically joined the guys as a sort of pet, and would add the comedy relief. There were times that the show wasn’t afraid to get quite dark, and every so often there would be a cameo from one of the ghosts from the films, including everyone’s favourite the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!
12. The Transformers
The ultimate Saturday morning cartoon as a kid, we loved seeing the adventures and battles between the Autobots and Decepticons and everyone looked up to Optimus Prime as an idol. This was such a consistently great show, and they simply don’t make them like this anymore, this is the Saturday Morning Kids’ Cartoon that all others should aspire to be like!