ABC Saturday Superstar Movie 
9:30  Saturday Mornings 1972 - 73

TV-movies were big winners for ABC in primetime so they tried an anthology program for the kiddie set. It worked for CBS and 'The New Scooby Doo Movies.' These ABC shows were produced by Filmation, Rankin-Bass, Hanna-Barbera and others.

ABC fielded a wide range of concepts for their cartoon movies -'Willie Mays and the Say Hey Kid', 'Yogi's Ark Lark', 'Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies', 'Oliver and the Artful Dodger', 'Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain', and 'Popeye'. 

'The Brady Kids' starred the vocal talents of the original cast members, this was on the first episode of SSM to give a big launch for the new Brady cartoon series that started on Saturdays that fall. 

Highlights for the first season included an animated reboot of 'Nanny and the Professor', again with the original cast of the ABC primetime series (Juliet Mills, Richard Long, etc) reunited. The family and Nanny got involved in a spy adventure that started when the boys found a stolen microdot. This was charming, as I recall, but then I loved the sitcom and was sorry to see it go in primetime the year before.

"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, and several were picked up for future seasons. 'Mini-Munsters' was the first of MANY ongoing attempts to revive 'The Munsters', the only original cast member in this production was Al Lewis as Grandpa. The network failed to pick up this pilot.

'Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family' was based on the ABC sitcom  'Bewitched' that exited the ABC primetime schedule in 1972 after 8 years. Aside from Batman's brief flirtation, 'Bewitched' was the biggest hit the network had in the sixties. 

'That Girl in Wonderland' was based on yet another ABC show 'That Girl' that ended its run on ABC in 1971 after 5 seasons.

The New Saturday
Superstar Movie ABC 12:00 1973-74

Despite the 'New' title, only three fresh episodes aired this season.

Still, the second season starts with a bang - 'Space Family Robinson', the animated adventures of the 'Lost in Space' Robinson family - well, sort of. The original Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) was on hand, but (for legal reasons) it's a different Robinson family he's adrift in space with.

This was a pilot for a Saturday morning series that was ultimately shelved by Hanna-Barbera. Very weird, guess they decided to do 'Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space' instead - it was basically the same show. Clever character designs by Alex Toth made it watchable (barely).

Other new features this season: 'Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus', basically a Scooby episode with different characters. The original cast of a much-loved but low rated primetime series (Nanny and the Professor, 1970-71) is reunited in cartoon form for a second time.

'Luvcast, USA', a 'Love American Style' cartoon-style with three segments about love potions and feminist werewolves. Now that's scary!