Hey, I Remember This Show: Aquaman (1967)

Wow! Aquaman has certainly changed over the years. This is the first show I remember seeing him on -- and it's still hard to get used to the fact that he doesn't look like that anymore.

Hey, I Remember This Show: King Kong (1966)

I haven't thought about this show for years. Yet I used to watch it religiously when I was a young boy even though I had no fantasies involving giant apes -- or at least no such fantasies that I can remember.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Valley of the Dinosaurs

I remember loving this show when it first came out in 1974 even though it was basically little more than an animated version of Land of the Lost. Then again I was very young at the time and generally relished anything having to do with dinosaurs. However, dinosaurs and cave men seemed like a very unscientific mix for a TV show even back then and I don't remember how I resolved that rather obvious conflict or even if I acknowledged such a conflict at the time. I suspect I treated it the same way I treated many animated TV shows at that time -- interesting to watch but not if you are looking for scientific accuracy.

It would be nice to blame this TV series for the recent backlash against evolution but I somehow doubt that many future creationists watched this TV show. Besides, Land of the Lost debuted the same year and it was a lot more popular.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Godzilla (1978)

I used to love Godzilla films when I was a child but I don't remember seeing this animated series. Then again I am not sure I would want to remember doing so given the fact that supporting character Godzooky looks like the Toho mashup of Scrappy-Doo and Jar Jar Binks. After all, it is not like the original Godzilla movie ever needed that type of comic relief.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Superman (1988)

Wait! There was a Superman cartoon series in the 1980s? Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?

Hey, I Remember The Show: Here Comes the Grump

This short-lived show is the first made-for-TV cartoon show from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises that I actually remember watching as a child. It only lasted one season (1969-1970) but its odd-even-by-Saturday-morning-standards animation definitely made an impression in my young mind.

Oddly enough, it wasn't until I was much, much older that I realized that the red-haired Grump character was really a thinly disguised version of Bugs Bunny's old nemesis, Yosemite Sam. Of course, Freleng directed his share of Yosemite Sam cartoons when he was working for Warner Brothers so this should not have been entirely unexpected. But for some reason, I never realized it when the show was in its original run. (Apparently I was so young back then I wasn't yet all that familiar with Bugs Bunny.)

Even more surprising was the fact that Terry Dexter was voiced by Jay North of Dennis the Menace fame and Princess Dawn was voiced by Stefanianna Christopherson, the same actress who originally voiced Daphne Blake on Scooby Doo, Where Are You!. Rip Taylor, the voice of the Grump, was ironically the one person I don't really associate with any other show -- though I do seem to remember his making frequent appearances on The Tonight Show and various game shows.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Super 6

Believe it or not, there is life after Bugs Bunny. Noted Looney Tunes animator Friz Freleng used to be one of Warner Brothers' most famous directors of a certain cartoon rabbit but after the WB closed their animation studios in 1963, Freleng and his partner, David H. DePatie, had to found their own animation company (DePatie-Freleng Enterprises) in order to continue working. Their first big hits were the theatrical Pink Panther cartoons which would be later shown on Saturday morning TV. Their first big hit made specifically for the small screen was this rather unusual cartoon show, followed by the short-lived Super President, whose intro I posted last week.

The Super 6 lasted from 1966 to 1969 but for some reason, I don't remember it. Perhaps because I was way too young to remember its original run. Or maybe it was not particularly widely syndicated in my part of country. Whatever the reason, it was definitely before my time.

By the way, if the voices behind that theme song sound familiar, it is because that song was sung by Gary Lewis and the Playboys of "This Diamond Ring" fame. And yes, I was also very young when they were popular.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Super President

Apparently there really are no new ideas under the sun. Try and think of the silliest idea one could possibly come up for a Saturday morning cartoon show and the chances are that somebody has already thought of it.

In this case, they thought of it in time to air the result on NBC for the 1967-1968 season, only to change their mind after the show's premise provoked protests. And somehow I doubt all the protests came from Republicans.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Jetsons

Back in the 1960s, this and The Flintstones were considered popular enough to be viewed during prime time. Then prime time cartoon shows fell out of fashion until 1989, when the popularity of The Simpsons revived interest in the genre.

Oddly enough, the main question this show seems to provoke from today's online generation is: where are all the black people? An interesting question which inevitably begs the question: why are not people similarly curious about the odd absence of Asians and Hispanics on this show as well?

Oh, well. It seems way too easy to poke fun at this show's un-PC assumptions -- especially when no one seems all that concerned about similar assumptions when they show up in more modern shows like Mad Men. At least the people who made this show weren't pretending to be especially edgy or fashionable in their view of the future -- though it is interesting to compare Hanna-Barbara's view of the future with the actual 21th century and see how much they differ.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har

At long last, an animated cartoon that really describes the human condition.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Alvin Show (1961)

Wow! Alvin and the Chipmunks have been around since 1961. I had no idea that such a great contribution to Western culture happened during the year of my birth.

On a more serious note, it should be pointed out that the tall guy with the moustache who keeps interrupting the action in this intro is cartoon character Clyde Crashcup, a would-be scientific genius who was often kept a hair's length away from disaster by his short and bald assistant Leonardo. He used to appear quite regularly on the original Alvin Show but since then, he has disappeared into cartoon oblivion -- unless you wish to regard that short, moustached guy who was regularly pestered by the Pink Panther as one of his distant descendants.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983)

Apparently there was an attempt to reboot the original Alvin and the Chipmunks series of the 1960s back in the 1980s that I don't recall. As much I loved the original Chipmunks show, I somehow doubt I was missing much by not seeing this version. Of course, YMMV.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Lone Ranger (1966)

The more I learn about the real-life Texas Rangers, the more I regret spending so many hours watching this show as a child. If only more real-life Rangers had lived up to the ideal expressed in this show, I might feel less guilty.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The New Adventures of Zorro (1981)

Apparently Zorro is a very popular TV character -- unless, of course, you are a Chicano militant. But unfortunately Chicano militants don't have a whole lot of clout in the TV industry. Thus, a character whose stories were often described by Chicano writers as unrealistic depictions of the old American Southwest proved to be one of the few Hispanic characters to have more than one animated show made about him. Of course, that doesn't include the various live-action versions made about him as well.

This version is particularly impressive when you consider that the most popular pop culture incarnation of Zorro around this time was that silly George Hamilton movie Zorro the Gay Blade, a comedy which basically made fun of the Zorro movies.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: "Muppet Babies"

Back in the 1980s, there was this big trend toward taking the classic characters of yesterday's children's shows and juvenilizing them to provide Saturday morning cartoons for a still younger audience. Of all those efforts, this was perhaps the most famous. Fortunately, I was too old to watch cartoons back then.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to give a damn whether people liked these shows or not. Of course, nowadays, the idea of Saturday morning cartoons seems as old-fashioned as hay-rides but still it was a great idea while it lasted. Except for shows like this.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

Long before Carl Kolchak, Mulder and Scully, the Ghostbusters or the Buffy gang, there was that intrepid debunker of supernatural fiends, Scooby Doo. There have been several incarnations of this heroic character's show but this is the first and the most famous one.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Addams Family (1973-1975)

I remember a cartoon version of The Addams Family making a guest appearance on Scooby-Doo but I forgot that they also had their own cartoon show as well. Indeed, they also had a cartoon series in the 1990s shortly after the success of the first Addams Family movie. However, this is the version I would have seen when I was a teenager.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Groovie Goolies

Yet another attempt to exploi -- er -- adapt classic movie monsters for the children of a new generation. Orginally linked with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Goolies eventually got their own solo series in the early 1970s. However, they were never as popular as either The Archies, the show on which Sabrina first appeared, or Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the most popular animated series with a horror theme back in the 1970s.

Perhaps it was just as well. The harder people back in the day tried to update the old-time movie monsters, the more anachronistic they seemed in the long run. And really? A hippie werewolf? Perhaps Abbott and Costello weren't so bad after all.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Drak Pack

A trio of teenagers descended from classic movie monsters decide to redeem themselves by becoming superheroes in this animated TV series from the early 1980s. And to think that all this time, I thought "Drak Pack" was a term invented by Marv Wolfman to describe the team of vampire hunters in Marvel's old Tomb of Dracula comic book series.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Milton the Monster

Oddly enough, this was one of the first Saturday morning cartoons I ever remember seeing as a kid. Until YouTube came along, I was beginning to think I had imagined this odd intro.



Of course, that intro seems almost normal compared to this one.