I was challenged by my wife to name the characters in this image. I guess I’m old because I know all of them… very very well.
Remember old fashioned TV, you know like when you had to watch what was “on”. There was no binge watching. There was no “next episode”. You had to wait a whole week for a new episode. Then, and only if you were lucky, you would get a new episode. 9 times out of ten it was a re-run- but who cares!? There were cartoons on TV!
It used to be that the TV in our house was dominated by the News (uugh), talk shows like Oprah (double uugh), or the worst yet Soap Operas (mind rot as my dad used to call it). But not on Saturdays, no not that magical morning. When the beam of energy struck the picture tube, the TV would light up with bright colours and slap-stick jokes that would have you glued to the TV until “grown up shows” took over. I can still remember moaning and groaning as the theme song of “Farm Gate” came on.
I remember as kids talking of mythical cartoons that you only ever dreamed about since they came on too early and you never got up in time to see them. Transformers (the new version, as we called it) was always on too early for anyone to ever see… or was it.
As I sit here, in my rocking chair, I wonder how my kids will feel when someday something has replaced “on-demand” TV. Until then, long live the memory of Saturday morning cartoons.
-N
