IN REMEMBRANCE: 2016

2016 was a rough year for a lot of us, especially for our pop culture icons who seemed to leave us left and right. Saturday morning veterans weren't as hard hit as they were last year, but we still lost quite a few of them. Here we present to you our final collective tribute to those we lost in 2016.

Pat Harrington, Jr. (January 6) – Actor, played The Atom and Chrystal Man Officer on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, and reprised The Atom along with Speedy on Aquaman; the Inspector on The Pink Panther Show and The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show on which he also played Sgt. Deux Deux; Hi-Rise and First Cyclone in Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie; Moe Howard on The New Scooby-Doo Movies; William Shakesbear on Yo Yogi!; and Shorty McGint, Cop #2, Washington and Boss on Aaaah!!! Real Monsters. He also provided voices for The Addams Family (1973) and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.

Richard Libertini (January 7) – Actor. Voiced Dijon in both DuckTales and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Wally Llama in Animaniacs, Talleyrand in Pinky and the Brain, Ragtag in Static Shock and Dr. Myrell in The Zeta Project. He also guest-starred in an episode of Life With Louie.

Abe Vigoda (January 26) – Actor. Played Salvatore Valestra in the Batman: The Animated Series film Mask of the Phantasm.

Joe Alaskey (February 3) – Actor, best known as the permanent voice for Warner Bros.’ Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird.

Played Plucky Duck and his father in both Tiny Toons Adventures and The Plucky Duck Show and their related media, amongst other guest voices including Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, and Wade Pig. Also Starred as Sourpuss in Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures; the sheriff in two episodes of Back to the Future: the Animated Series; provided Daffy’s voice for the opening theme of The Bugs n’ Daffy Show; reprised his role of Stinkie from the Casper movie and was the Gorey Narrator on The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper; the short bug and a truck driver on an episode of Men in Black: The Series; Sylvester and Tweety on The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries;  the soda and newspaper vendbots in an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; Grandpa Lou Pickles and various other minor roles in Rugrats and its follow-up, All Grown Up, as well as their related media; the chief in an episode of Teamo Supremo; and Sylth Vester, The Royal Tweetums, Stoney the Stone and Melvin the Martian in Loonatics Unleashed. 

He also provided voices for Where’s Waldo?, Life With Louie and Timon & Pumbaa.

George Gaynes (February 15) – Actor and singer. Reprised his role of Henry Warnimont from Punky Brewster in its Saturday morning animated spin-off, It’s Punky Brewster.

George Kennedy (February 28) – Actor, guest-starred in two episodes of Aaahh!! Real Monsters as Bones Duvalier.

Eric Medalle (March 13) – Creative design director for Pokemon since 2003. Some of his work was featured in the ongoing Pokemon animated series.

Larry Drake (March 17) – Actor, guest-starred in Superman: The Animated Series as Mr. Eelan, Batman Beyond as Jackson Chappell and What’s New, Scooby-Doo? as Moss T. Meister/Scooby Snax Monster.

Ken Howard (March 23) – Actor, guest-starred in Batman: The Animated Series as Hartness.

Chris Kirby (March 29) – Actor and ventriloquist. Although he didn’t appear in a Saturday morning production per se, he was a featured player in the 1976 preview show ABC’s Satuday Sneak Peek.

Don Francks (April 3) – Actor, singer and musician. Provided several voices in Inspector Gadget including that of Dr. Claw in some episodes; was Jann Tosh and Boba Fett in Star Wars: Droids; Dr. Arcane in Swamp Thing: The Animated Series; Girth and Hobbs in Cadillacs and Dinosaurs; Sabretooth in X-Men: The Animated Series; , Fob Canine in Dog City, the Hunter, the Exterminator and Red Beard in two episodes of Tales from the Cryptkeeper, the Swamp Hermit on two episodes of Goosebumps; Kalek in an episode of Silver Surfer, and the Sandman on an episode of Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension. He also provided voices for The Care Bears Family, ALF Tales and Piggsburg Pigs.

Doris Roberts (April 17) – Actor, guest-starred on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters as Eunice and Doris. She also played herself on NBC’s 1986 Saturday morning preview special Alvin Goes Back to School.

William Schallert (May 8) – Actor, guest-starred as Dr. Cowtiki in The Angry Beavers; Judge Linden in The Zeta Project; and Farmer P, Neville Popenbacher and Professor Pomfrit in What’s New, Scooby-Doo? He also provided additional voices for Dinky Dog, 

Alan Young (May 19) – Actor, singer and writer. Best known as the long-serving voice of Disney’s Scrooge McDuck since 1974, Young was also Mr. Frump in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends; the Cyclops Computer in The Incredible Hulk (1982); Gaggy Rogers in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show; Farmer Smurf, Scaredy Smurf, and Miner Smurf in The Smurfs; Tod Baker in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series; Mr. McDonald in an episode of Static Shock; and several roles in episodes of ABC Weekend Specials. He also provided additional voices in Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979), Rubik the Amazing Cube, The Dukes and Alvin & the Chipmunks (1983).

Muhammad Ali (June 3) – Boxer, starred as himself in the short-lived animated series I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali.

Theresa Saldana (June 6) – Actor, played Rosa in New Kids on the Block and a mother in an episode of Batman Beyond.

Janet Waldo (June 12) – Actor. Best known for her role of Judy Jetson in every iteration of The Jetsons (excluding the 1990 movie where her lines were dubbed over), Waldo had a long Saturday morning career primarily working for Hanna-Barbera.

She lent her voice as Jenny in The Space Kidettes; Lana Lang in The New Adventures of Superman; Granny Sweet in The Atom Ant Show along with Flora Rugg in The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show; Nancy in Shazzan; Princess Pearla in Fantastic Four (1967); Penelope Pitstop in Wacky Races, its spin-off The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, and Yogi’s Treasure Hunt; Jenny Trent in Cattanooga Cats; the eponymous Josie McCoy in Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space; Belinda Maze in Around the World in Eighty Days; Grandmama Addams in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies; Curvia and Henrietta in The Roman Holidays; Marybell and Georgia in an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie; Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1973); Mrs. Anders in Jeannie; Arlene Wilcox and Beth Crane in The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour; Circe in an episode of Thundarr the Barbarian; Zerona and Shanna the She-Devil in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends; several roles in various episodes of ABC Weekend Specials; Mother in The Puppy’s Further Adventures; Hogatha in The Smurfs; and a female dinosaur in Dink, the Little Dinosaur.

She also provided a variety of voices for The Secret Squirrel Show, The Abbott & Costello Show, Help!...It’s the Hair Bair Bunch!, Inch High Private Eye, Hong Kong Phooey, The New Tom & Jerry Show, Clue Club, Jabberjaw, CB Bears, Yogi’s Space Race, The New Fred and Barney Show, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Rubik the Amazing Cube, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, Mr. T, The Dukes, Alvin & the Chipmunks and Tom & Jerry Kids Show, as well as on The Jetsons.

Ann Morgan Guilbert (June 14) – Actor. Whether she’s known as Millie Helper from The Dick Van Dyke Show or Grandma Yetta from The Nanny, on Saturday morning we knew her as The Witch from an episode of The Ghost Busters.

Garry Marshall (July 19) – Actor, writer, director and producer. Created Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork and Mindy, which each had animated counterparts on Saturday mornings. He also guest-starred in an episode of Pinky and the Brain as The Devil, aka Mr. Itch.

Barry Jenner (August 9) – Actor, guest-starred as a traveler in an episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

Fyvush Finkel (August 14) – Actor, played Jackie the Schtickman and Jackie Jarr in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and Shlomo in Rugrats.

Jack Riley (August 19) – Actor, voiced Stu Pickles and several minor characters throughout the Rugrats franchise and played Tyrone in an episode of Garfield and Friends.

Marvin Kaplan (August 25) – Actor, writer and producer. Starred as Choo-Choo in Top Cat, which he later reprised for the weekday series Wake, Rattle & Roll, and as Shellstock “Shelly” Turtle in the Frogger portions of Saturday Supercade. He also played Sutcliffe and Mouser in two different episodes of ABC Weekend Specials, Angel Puss in an episode of Garfield and Friends, and Skeech and Sculptor in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. He also provided additional voices on an episode of The Smurfs.

Harry “Mr. Fuji” Fujiwara (August 28) – Professional wrestler. His character and likeness was used for the animated series Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling.

Jon Polito (September 1) – Actor. Guest-starred in an episode of Batman Beyond as a Major and lent his voice to an episode of Life with Louie.

Ron Grant (October 28) – Composer. Provided music for Tiny Toon Adventures, Mother Goose and Grimm, The Plucky Duck Show and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.

Florence Henderson (November 24) – Actor and singer. Guest-starred in three episodes of Loonatics Unleashed as Mallory Mastermind.

Ron Glass (November 25) – Actor and director. Guest-starred in an episode of Disney’s Aladdin as Kwanseer and Superman: The Animated Series as a news anchorman, and had a recurring role as Randy Carmichael in Rugrats, its related media, and the spin-off All Grown Up! He also provided the voices of Dr. Lazenby and Tech #2 in the Recess movie School’s Out.

Bernard Fox (December 14) – Actor. Played several roles in two episodes of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, provided additional voices for Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, and appeared as Dr. Jinga-Janga on an episode of Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

George S. Irving (December 26) – Actor. He was a regular in Total Television productions, playing a variety of roles in Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, King Leonardo and his Short Subjects, Underdog (for which he was also the narrator) and Go Go Gophers.

Debbie Reynolds (December 28) – Actor, singer and producer, and the mother of Carrie Fisher who had died just the day prior. Had the recurring role of Louise “Lulu” Johnston (later Pickles) in Rugrats and two of its movies: In Paris and Acorn Nuts & Dipey Butts. She also guest-starred in an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar as Granny Squirrel.

William Christopher (December 31) – Actor. Played Angel Smurf in several episodes of The Smurfs as well as provided additional voices.

Know anyone we missed? Let us know so we can add them ASAP.