Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
He provided the Brazilian Portuguese dubs for Hawkman in Aquaman
(1967); Klaw and additional voices in Fantastic Four (1967); Curly Joe,
Stan Laruel, Geese Ausbie, a Ghost Pirate, Ben Bing/ Viking in The New
Scooby-Doo Movies; and Solomon Grundy in Challenge of the Super Friends.
MARTIN MYSTERY (YTV, Discovery Kids
October 1, 2003-March 27, 2006) Marathon Animation,
Rai Fiction, Image Entertainment Corporation, Merchandising Media GmbH (season 1-2)
Martin Mystère is
an Italian comic book created by Alfredo
Castelli and Giancarlo
Alessandrini, first published by Segio
Bonelli Editore in 1982. The titular Martin is an art historian,
archaeologist, anthropologist, adventurer, writer, television producer and
collector of unusual objects living in New York City; although most of his
education and adventures take place in Italy. Following the death of his
parents in a plane crash, Martin devoted himself to studying the most enigmatic
places and events in human history. Accompanying him on his adventures is Java,
a mute Neanderthal man he discovered in a hidden city of Neanderthals. His long-time
fiancée and eventual wife is Diana Lombard, a social worker that often gets
annoyed with his taking off on his adventures on a whim and being surrounded by
beautiful women. Although Martin often comes up against unscrupulous men and
secret agencies, he occasionally found himself facing more fantastical beings
such as Morgan le Fay,
Loki, and Merlin.
Java, Martin, Billy and Diana, on the case.
The comic was very
loosely adapted into a French/Canadian animated series: Martin
Mystery. Created by Vincent
Chalvon-Demersay and David
Michel and developed by them with Séverine Villaume, the show
reimagined Martin (Sam Vincent
& Alexis Tomassian) and
Diana (Kelly Sheridan & Dorothée Pousséo) as
16-year-old Canadian stepsiblings attending Torrington Academy; a boarding
school located in Sherbrooke,
Quebec. They worked for a secret organization known as “The Center” that
covertly protected Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. Martin’s
vast knowledge of the supernatural and his overall intuition made him a
valuable member of The Center; however, his hyperactive nature, huge ego and clumsiness
tended to get in the way. Working alongside them was Martin’s best friend,
Billy (also Vincent & Yann le Madic), a small, green-skinned alien, and
Java (Dale Wilson & Sylvain Lemarié), a super-strong
and simple-speaking caveman from 200,000 years ago that worked as a janitor at
Torrington as a cover. Serving as their supervisor was M.O.M. (Teryl Rothery & Laurence Dourlens); a
super-serious former agent that was an expert in hand-to-hand combat. A planned
4th season would have revealed that M.O.M. was Diana’s mother who
had her memories of her family removed and stored so that she could run The
Center without distractions.
Martin suffering a slight case of vampirism.
Martin
Mystery debuted on YTV and Discovery
Kids (later Nickelodeon)
in English and Vrak in French on
October 1, 2003, running for 3 seasons across 66 episodes. In May and June of
2004, the series began airing in the United States on the FoxBox Saturday morning
programming block. After 7 episodes it was removed and the series was later
picked up and aired by Nickelodeon before
eventually moving to Nicktoons
Network from 2005-08. Because the series was produced by Marathon Animation
(now Zodiak
Kids & Family France) and Image Entertainment
Corporation, Martin Mystery characters have appeared in their other
productions; including a crossover with Totally Spies! In
the years since, Martin Mystery has garnered a cult
following, despite Alessandrini disavowing the series in 2011 as “very ugly”.
While it has had a very limited home
media release, episodes can be found on video hosting sites like YouTube. In 2023, Powerkids Entertainment Ltd. and Boneli
Entertainment, the production arm of Sergio Bonneli Editore, announced
a new 3D computer-animated series based on the comic that seemed to
maintain the youthful versions of the characters. However, as of this writing,
it has yet to be released.
Best known as Principal Richard Belding from the Saved by the Bell
franchise; which he had reprised in an official and unofficial capacity across
various projects over the years.
He played Cat R. Waul in Fievel’s American Tails; Milo in an
episode of The Tick (1994); General Blackout, Sign Man, a trooper and
Melvin in Dumb and Dumber: The Animated Series; and Guardian in Gargoyles.
Wednesday is New Comic Book Day! Available: Gargoyles #2, Power Rangers Unlimited #3, Space Ghost vs. The Herculoids #1, Street Sharks: Jawsome Justice TPB, & Thundarr the Barbarian Ashcan Edition #1.
CROC FILES (Animal Planet, June
28, 1999-January 6, 2001) Discovery Kids,
Australia Zoo Productions Pty. Ltd.
Steve Irwin,
known as “The Crocodile Hunter”, was an Australian conservationist,
environmentalist, zookeeper and television personality. His parents began what
is now known as Australia Zoo, which
he took over in 1991 and ran with his wife, Terri, until
his death in 2006. She was later joined by their children, Bindi and Robert, when
they got older. Seeking to educate people about animals and encourage the
preservation of their lives and homelands, the Irwins began making the in 1992
during their honeymoon, with the resulting series, The Crocodile Hunter,
airing on Animal Planet from
1996-2004. Rather than preach, Steve chose to share his enthusiasm for nature
with the audience with an unconventional presenting style. Along with other
documentaries and a feature film, the Irwins produced several spin-offs to The
Crocodile Hunter. One of those was Croc Files.
Steve Irwin introducing a snake to the audience.
Also known
as The Crocodile Hunter’s Croc Files, the series was geared more towards
children. While similar to The Crocodile Hunter with a lot of on
location footage taken both inside and outside of Australia Zoo, Croc Files
spent a lot of time with Steve and Terri in a shack full of exploration supplies,
scientific models of animals and some animal skulls speaking directly to the
audience. The connective tissue of the show lay with the titular “files”. Segments
were labeled with animations of the tops of file folders; additional facts were
presented over a background of collected news clippings and notes like you
would find in a file; and the show’s title itself was placed on the front of an
animated filing cabinet. It also featured an animated intro of Steve and Terri
leaving the aforementioned shack and encountering animals throughout the
Australian wilderness using cutout animation. Sharon Gordon,
Leanne Forbes, Ben Hartnett
and Jayson Price were
credited as animators on the series.
Irwin explaining the construction of a crocodile's skull.
THE ROAD RUNNER SHOW (CBS, September 10,
1966-September 7, 1968, ABC, September 4,
1971-September 2, 1972) Warner Bros.
Television, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
For the history of Looney Tunes, check out the post here.
With the rise of television and the
changing habits of moviegoers, the shorts business was no longer as profitable
for Warner Bros.; especially not when they’ve
found success licensing their back catalog for television broadcast with The
Bugs Bunny Show. They made the decision to shut down their animation division
in 1962, with their last project being the animated sequences of the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
In its place arose DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises (DFE), which was formed by former WB director/composer/producer
Friz Freleng and former head
of WB animation David H. DePatie
and ended up being populated by many former WB animators. As a gesture from the
studio—where DePatie’s father, Edmond, was a vice
president and general manager—DFE was allowed to rent the former animation
studio and use all of its equipment very cheaply. After dabbling in commercials
and industrial films, DFE soon found theatrical success by producing the
animated titles for The
Pink Panther and the resulting series of shorts from United Artists.
David DePatie and Friz Freleng with the character that put their studio on the map, The Pink Panther.
WB, however, found itself with a
new problem: their supply of shorts would soon fall short of the demand on
television. WB proceeded to contract DFE to produce new Looney Tunes
and Merrie
Melodies shorts; the majority of which saw Daffy Duck paired up
against Speedy
Gonzales. Freleng would direct the initial batch, and veteran director Robert McKimson would handle
the remaining ones. Not having enough manpower to handle their current
workload, DFE would subcontract animation studio Format Productions to
produce a new series of shorts starring The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
Wile E. Coyote riding a rocket to get his mitts on Road Runner.
The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
were created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese for the 1949
short Fast and Furry-ous.
Their shorts typically depicted the efforts of the devious and hungry Coyote
attempting more and more elaborate schemes—usually with gadgets supplied by the
Acme Corporation—to
capture the speedy Road Runner and make him into dinner. However, those schemes
often failed; resulting in the coyote experiencing some kind of painful
comeuppance. Jones created them as a parody of MGM’s
Tom
and Jerry series, and as a result the characters almost never speak
beyond the Road Runner’s “beep beep!” sound provided by background artist Paul
Julian after he imitated a car horn. The adventures typically took place in
desert scenery inspired by the Southwestern United States.
Wile E. shoots up his plane's prop in "Just Plane Beep".
The Format shorts were directed by Rudy Larriva, who had worked
under Jones at WB, while McKimson directed an additional two shorts in the
series with DFE. Known as the “Larriva Eleven”, the Format shorts were notable
for being of
poorer quality when compared to the DFE shorts; characterized by constantly
reused animation and pre-composed music cues rather than a dynamic score, as
well as ignoring Jones’
rules for the series.
Wile E. gives chase on a giant robot he constructed in "The Solid Tin Coyote".
In 1966, WB
launched their third anthology series on television: The Road Runner Show.
This series would feature primarily the shorts starring the Road Runner and Wile
E. Coyote. To help round out the half-hour, shorts from series starring other
characters were used. The most featured Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird, which
had a similar theme set in a domestic setting, and were often the second short
shown during each half hour. The third short starred a rotating cast of
characters, including the love-crazed skunk Pepé Le Pew;
speedy mouse Speedy Gonzales; rivals Ralph
Wolf and Sam Sheepdog; and southern loudmouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn.
Despite appearing on title cards, no shorts featuring Yosemite Sam were
ever included. Additionally, since they had their own shows, none featuring Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig were included
either.
Wile E. attempts to use hypnosis in "Boulder Wham!"
The Road
Runner Show debuted on CBS on September
10, 1966; scheduled against The Bugs Bunny Show on ABC. Each episode contained new bridging
sequences between the shorts, showing further attempts of the Coyote failing to
capture the Road Runner. They were animated by an uncredited McKimson and used Bill Lava’s stock music cues
from the Format productions; as well as Julian’s archived Road Runner voice.
The series’ theme was composed by Barbara
Cameron, while the title cards used a shorter version of Lava’s rendition
of the Looney Tunes theme, “The
Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”. Clips from the shorts Chaser on the Rocks,
Hip
Hip-Hurry! and Wild About
Hurry were featured in both the opening and closing title sequences of
the show, but were not among the shorts included for broadcast.
Wile E. done in by shoddy tunnel construction in "Shot and Bothered".
In 1968,
CBS acquired the broadcast rights to The Bugs Bunny Show and decided to
combine it with The Road Runner Show for an hour-long programming block.
The new The Bugs
Bunny/Road Runner Hour(titled “Show” on-screen) debuted on
September 14, 1968. It kept both shows’ original intros intact with a new
bridging segment of Bugs (Mel Blanc) introducing the Road Runner, again
animated by McKimson. The other new material from both shows were edited and
combined to link the now seven shorts featured in each episode. By 1971, CBS
decided to reduce the airtime dedicated to the Looney Tunes and excised
all of The Road Runner Show components; restoring The Bugs Bunny Show
to its original half-hour format.
Karate gone wrong in "Hairied and Hurried".
With the
shorts now available, ABC snatched up The Road Runner Show. It would
debut on September 4, 1971 in a reassembled form with some edits made to remove
the more mature material (smoking, some of the violence against the Coyote,
adult-oriented comments, etc.). The revived series would run for a year before
leaving ABC’s schedule for the 1972-73 season. After The Bugs Bunny Show
returned to ABC for two years, it came back to CBS where it was again combined
with The Road Runner Show in 1975 to form a new The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner
Hour. A half-hour The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show also aired on Tuesday
nights from April through June in 1976. In 1977, the Saturday version adopted the Show
title when it was expanded to 90 minutes. It expanded to two hours in 1982
to incorporate shorts from the recently-cancelled The Sylvester &
Tweety, Daffy & Speedy Show before returning to 90 minutes in 1983. For
its final year beginning in 1984, a new intro was created
utilizing clips from the various cartoons in order to accompany the new theme
song, “It’s Cartoon Gold”,
written by John Klawitter
and composed by Steve Zuckerman.
Road Runner gives chase in an old clunker in "Highway Runnery".
ABC would
regain the broadcast rights to Looney Tunes, where they would continue
on until the end of the millennium as The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes
Comedy Hour and finally The Bugs Bunny & Tweety
Show. Bugs and the Road Runner would team up again in 1979 for the
theatrically-released The
Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie; comprised of theatrical shorts directed
by director Jones with new Bugs Bunny bridging sequences. The characters
themselves would go on to appear as part of other Looney Tunes media,
headlining several video games and the theatrical film Coyote vs. Acme. The
first episode of the 1971 revival was included on the compilation DVD Saturday
Morning Cartoons: 1960s Volume 2 in 2009, and again in 2018 as part of
the complete
collection of each volume in the series.
EPISODE GUIDE (season 1 & 2 info unknown):
New material:
“Pothole Roar” – Wile E. attempts to use a pothole to catch
Road Runner, but ends up getting run down by a truck.
“Gun Trap” – Wile E. ends up blasted by his own gun when he
investigates why it didn’t shoot after Road Runner passed.
“Grenade Tennis” – Wile E. attempts to launch a grenade at
Road Runner with a tennis racket, but Road Runner uses his own to lob it right
back at him.
“Motorcycle” – Wile E. attempts to catch Road Runner by
riding a motorcycle.
“Role-Reversal” – Wile E. disguises himself as the Road
Runner, only to end up becoming the prey when Road Runner shows up in a Wile E.
costume.
“Portrait” – A portrait of Wile E. and Road Runner as
friends draws Road Runner in close to Wile E.’s clutches with curiosity.
“Water Cooler” – Wile E. attempts to distract Road Runner
with a drink of water in order to drop a boulder on him.
“Space Rocket” – Wile E tries to use a rocket to catch Road
Runner, only to end up with it turning back on himself.
“Bingo Cannon” – Wile E. doesn’t realize that Road Runner
has already disabled his cannon by plugging it with a cork.
“Robot” – Wile E. builds a robot to help him capture Road
Runner.
“Rocket Car” – Wile E.’s rocket car ends up burning a lot of
fuel.
“Old Fashioned Trap” – Wile E. unknowingly digs his trap on
a cliffside, falling through and landing on a train.
“Exploding Phone Booth” – Wile E. attempts to lure Road
Runner into an exploding phone booth.
“Bridge Bomb” – Wile E. ends up the victim of his own trap
after lining the road with TNT.
