1972
brought a slate of new shows and new formats for returning series.
'Multiplication Rock' began airing between the ABC network
programs.
Michael
Eisner (former head of Disney) was in charge of Saturday Morning programming
for ABC in 1972, he basically brought a primetime line-up feeling to Saturday
mornings with cartoon versions of popular recording artists and nightime
shows.
For
the first time in history, more color TV sets were sold in 1972 that black
and white.
Sabrina, the
Teenage Witch / CBS
Third year of Sabrina in her own show produced by Filmation. This
was a spin-off of the very popular Archie cartoon.
Sabrina was plagued by her aunt
witches Hilda and Zelda, uncle Ambrose and Miss Della, the head
witch. Her cat was named Salem.
Sabrina made her debut on the second
season of the 'Archie' show in 1969 but first appeared in Archie
comic books in 1962.
9:00
Amazing Chan and
the Chan Clan / CBS
(debut) Keye Luke (Master Po on 'Kung Fu') is the voice of Chan in this
stereotypical oriental private eye cartoon from Hanna-Barbera.
Musical numbers by The Chan Clan,
the five Chan kids. Keye Luke played 'Number One Son' in the popular,
long-running 'Charlie Chan' movie series of the Forties. Jodie Foster
played Anne Chan.
9:30
The
New Scooby
Doo Movies / CBS
(debut) Sixty Minutes of the loveable pooch with big name guest-stars in
a mystery 'movie' format.
With celebrity guest-voices like
the Harlem Globetrotters, Jerry Reed, Phyllis Diller, Don
Knotts, Jonathan Winters and Sonny and Cher.
Maybe the best of all the Scooby
series.
Here's
a popular commercial for Peter
Pan Peanut Butter - produced by Saturday morning legend
Daws Butler.
10:30
Josie and
the Pussycats
in Outer Space / CBS
(debut)
New format for the Pussycats as they accidently blast into space
and encounter alien life forms who refuse to let them leave until
they sing.
Melody's pet space alien, Bleep,
came from the planet Zelcor.
Very entertaining overall for a
Hanna-Barbera offering, with cool character designs by the industry's
best designer - Alex Toth.
The gang retreated back to earth
the next season, the ratings never left the ground.
11:00
The Flintstones
Comedy Hour / CBS
Expands to an hour in a format
change - last season, the show was called 'Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm'
and it was a smash hit.
As in the previous Saturday show,
Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are teenagers who hang out with their wiggy
friends, cruising Bedrock in their cavebuggy. This season Fred,
Barney, Wilma and Betty were more involved.
There were lots of musical segments
as well. Pebbles was voiced
by Sally Struthers ('All in the Family') and Bamm Bamm by Jay North
('Dennis the Menace').
The Flintstones ran from
1960 - 1966 on ABC in primetime with reruns from 1968 - 1970 on
NBC Saturday mornings. The
series also aired on NBC Saturday mornings for most of the Eighties.
12:00
Archie's TV
Funnies / CBS
Second year of the Riverdale kids and their television station that
broadcasts cartoons starring comic strip characters nobody cared
about.
Starring the King Syndicate's newspaper
comic strips - Dick Tracy, Nancy and Sluggo, Broom Hilda, The Captain
and Kids, Moon Mullins, Nancy and Sluggo, et al.
The only Archie format to last more
than one season.
12:30
Fat Albert and
the Cosby Kids / CBS
(debut) Starts an amazing 12-year run. Bill Cosby narrated the animated
adventures of the characters he made famous in hit monologue albums
in the Sixties.
Each week Weird Harold, Mush Mouth,
Bill, Dumb Donald and the gang wrestle with a problem, usually a
moral issue, which they solve just the way you should at home.
This show was produced by Filmation
and Dr. William H. Cosby, who had recently earned his Doctorate
and provided many of the voices.
8:00
H.R. Pufnstuf / ABC
Networks mostly scheduled reruns in the 8-9 timeslot of popular
shows that they weren't ordering new episodes of.
8:30
Jackson 5ive / ABC
Reruns from the season before, from the producers who brought you
the 'Beatles' cartoon in the Sixties. Paul Coker provided the character
designs.
Produced by Rankin-Bass, who provided
much of ABC's Saturday morning lineup this year (including the show
below).
9:00
The
Osmonds / ABC
(debut) The Jacksons were a hit last season, so their blanched counterparts
were given the cartoon treatment.
Follows the animated adventures
of the musical Osmond Family as they travel the world in their flare
pants, performing good deeds and hits like "Go Away Little Girl"
and "One Bad Apple".
Start of a two year run, the reruns
of the show move to Sundays next season. Uses the actual Osmond's
voices with Paul Frees as their dog Fugi.
ABC counter-programmed Scooby movies
with cartoon movies of
their own - like 'Willie Mays and the Say Hey Kid',
'Yogi's Ark Lark', 'The Mini-Munsters', 'Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
Meet the Groovie Goolies', 'Oliver and the Artful Dodger', 'Bewitched',
'Lassie's Rescue Rangers', 'That Girl in Wonderland' and 'Popeye'.
'The Brady Kids' (with original
cast members) was on the first episode to launch this new cartoon
series.
Highlights: 'Nanny and the Professor'
- the original cast of the primetime series (Juliet Mills, Richard
Long, etc) is reunited in cartoon form - a spy adventure that starts
when the boys find a stolen microdot.
"Robin Hoodnick" Lennie
Weinrib does most of the voices for a cartoon version of the goings
on in Nottingham Forest.
"Gidget Makes The Wrong Connection"
- an animated Gidget gets mixed up with gold smugglers.
A lot of the 'movies' were pilots
for possible Saturday series, many were picked up for future seasons.
Produced by Filmation, Rankin-Bass,
Hanna-Barbera and others.
10:30
The Brady
Kids / ABC
(debut) Animated adventures of the singing Brady Kids, who were modeled
on the 'Archies'.
Six of the original show's actors
provided voices - Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Barry Williams,
Chris Knight, Susan Olsen, and Michael Lookinland.
The kids were based out of their
club/treehouse. Ran for two years, with just plain awful animation
even by 70's standards.
11:00
Bewitched / ABC
Reruns of color episodes continue for a second and
last season on Saturday Mornings.
Kid Power
/ ABC
(debut) Based on the 'Wee Pals' comic strip, this cartoon was moved to Sunday
mornings for the second season. Seventeen episodes were produced
by Rankin/Bass (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer).
'Wee Pals' was the first newspaper
comic strip created with a racially mixed cast.
A mildly entertaining program meant
to be a "multiracial Peanuts" but was more like Fat Albert
as the lead character (Oliver) was overweight and the gang was always
tackling relevant issues.
In the pilot episode, Oliver directed
the Rainbow Club kids (George, Connie, Diz, Rocky, Wellington, Nipper)
in the school's production of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
"Red, yellow, black or white White,
yellow, black or red It's up to Kid Power, Kid Power!"
12:00
Funky Phantom / ABC
Last of two years, he was getting funky all right.
12:30
Lidsville
/ ABC
A few new episodes were shot for this second season of three. Starring
Charles Nelson Reilly as the biggest queen ever to parade across
the Saturday morning screens - at least until 'Saved By The Bell'
debuted.
Lidsville also starred former MGM
actress Billie Hayes as Weenie the Genie. She also appeared as Witchie
Poo on H R Pufnstuf.
'The Monkees' moved from CBS to ABC for this one season, airing from
1:00-1:30. American
Bandstand followed at 1:30.
8:00
Underdog / NBC
Reruns of the 1964 - 66 series with Simon Bar Sinister vs. Underdog
(aka Shoeshine Boy) and his bitch girl-reporter Polly Pureheart.
Returns in 1972 to Saturday Mornings
for one year (after a two-year hiatus). Wally Cox was the voice
of Underdog. Also features 'The Hunter' cartoons.
8:30
Jetsons / NBC
How many times can American kids watch the same episodes over and
over again?
Originally produced by Hanna-Barbera
in 1961, 'The Jetsons' had been running on Saturdays since 1964,
with only a year break - and no new episodes.
9:00
Pink Panther / NBC
Unstoppable in the ratings at this point. New episodes.
Besides Pink there were other cartoon
features - The Ant and the Aardvark with an ant that sounded like
Dean Martin and an anteater who mimicked Jackie Mason, Misterjaws
the nearsighted shark who snuck up on everyone and yelled ³Gotcha!²
and The Texas Toads, two hick reptiles.
Pink Panther was the only thing
keeping NBC afloat on Saturday mornings and they would expand the
franchise in the future.
9:30
Houndcats / NBC
(debut) Cat and dog secret agents square off in a 'Mission Impossible' rip-off.
The adventures centered around Stutz,
the leader billed as the "Cat of a Thousand Faces," Rhubarb the
electronics whizdog, Dingdong the daredog, and Muscle Mutt. They
drove a Stutz Bearcat.
This DePathie-Freleng cartoon featured
the voices of Aldo Ray, Arte Johnson, Stu Gilliam, Joe Besser (3
Stooges' 'Curly Joe'), and Daws Butler.
There was a Houndcats board game.
10:00
Roman Holidays / NBC
(debut) Hanna-Barbera cartoon with the voices of Dom Deluise and Hal Perry
as the Holiday family - a knock-off of 'All in The Family' set in
ancient Rome.
this was bad as it sounds. Roman
Holidays tried to position itself right between 'The Flintstones'
and 'The Jetsons'and it featured many of the same voices from those
two shows, but this derivative dribble only lasted one season.
10:30
Barkleys / NBC
(debut) Lower middle-class dog family attempts to bring reality issues to
Saturday Mornings in an ill-conceived cartoon rip-off of All
in the Family.
Kids said "No, thanks" to this DePatie-Freleng
production.
11:00
Sealab 2020 / NBC
(debut) Hanna-Barbera series with Ross Martin ('Wild, Wild West') as the
voice of 21st century Sea-lab director Paul Williams as he searches
the ocean floor for undersea adventure with his 250 oceanauts.
Captain Mike Murphy and his children,
Bobby and Sally joined the Quest when after being rescued by Sealab
when their boat sank. Ann Jillian provided voices also.
11:30
Runaround / NBC
(debut) Game shows were incredibly popular again on weekday mornings and
afternoons, so NBC tried the format for Saturday morning.
Ventriloquist Paul Winchell and
Jerry Mahoney (his dummy) returned from the Fifties to host this
children's game show.
Danny Bonaduce was a guest on the
first episode - Mahoney's other dummy Knucklehead Smiff was also
seen as were music and film clips.
Kenny Williams (veteran kid game
show announcer of 'Storybook Squares', 'Shenanigans' and 'Video
Village, Jr.') was the announcer. Kids competed in quiz contests
and feats of skill for the grand prize package.
The series was cancelled after
one season.
12:00
Around The World
in 80 Days/ NBC
(debut) Using the Jules Verne classic as a pretext to teach geography. Written
by Chet Stover ('Underdog') and produced in Australia.
If Phineas Fogg can circumnavigate
the world in 80 days, Lord Maze will give his daughter Belinda's
hand in marriage.
One of the few cartoons that came
to a climax as Fogg made it and won his lady love - just in the
nick of time, of course. The series came to an end after a single
season on the air.
12:30
Talking with
a Giant / NBC
(debut) Ambitious re-tooling of last season's 'Take a Giant Step'.
This time the series spotlights
real-life teenagers talking about issues they are dealing with -
would really be a trip to watch today I'm sure! The first show dealt
with sexual roles and the uni-sex craze in fashion, another episode
featured Olympic skater Peggy Fleming in a rap session about leaving
home.
Now reduced to a half-hour show
and on at a later time, this production still couldn't find an audience.
Saturday Mornings 1974 Adaptations of former primetime shows are all the rage on Saturdays now.
Saturday Mornings 1975 Far Out Space Nuts, Shazam and Ark II are just a few of the action, sitcom and musical variety shows this season.
Saturday Mornings 1976 Krofft Super Show, and Ark II are just a 2 of the many action, sitcom and musical variety shows this season.
Saturday Mornings 1977 The most unsuccessful Saturday morning line up of the decade - flops everywhere as the networks lost track of what kids wanted to watch.
Saturday Mornings 1974 Adaptations of former primetime shows are all the rage on Saturdays now.
Saturday Mornings 1975 Far Out Space Nuts, Shazam and Ark II are just a few of the action, sitcom and musical variety shows this season.
Saturday Mornings 1976 Krofft Super Show, and Ark II are just a 2 of the many action, sitcom and musical variety shows this season.
Saturday Mornings 1977 The most unsuccessful Saturday morning line up of the decade - flops everywhere as the networks lost track of what kids wanted to watch.
1972
8:30
Funny
Face was a popular new drink powder that competed with Kool Aid.
