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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

# 46 Rainbows, television and Gargamel...

My discussion (and subsequent blog) with Emilee yesterday regarding Gummi Bears (as one of our favorite cartoons as a child) got me to thinking today about other favorite cartoons. I LOVED watching cartoons as a kid. It was usually very quiet, and I could sneak down to the den (when we lived in Laurel) and watch my shows with little or no interruptions. As I grew older, quiet time in my house was harder to come by, and the result was extended stays in the bathroom with my books (one of the few rooms with locks on the doors!).

As I got older, Saturday mornings had to be shared with Betsy and we watched Saved by the Bell, USA High, Hang Time, etc. I have a theory (its not fleshed out yet so I won't go into details) that the generation behind me grew up watching those more "teenage"-type Saturday morning shows, as opposed to, say, Smurfs, and thus they grew up faster and were more mature and more materialistic. After all, Saved by the Bell made you want to go buy cute clothes so you could look like Kelly, whereas Rainbow Brite just wanted all the creatures in the world to love each other. Differing messages.

Some of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons (many of which I've previously mentioned):

Fraggle Rock-- this might be my most favorite ever-- it teaches you about hard work (the Dozers), friendship, adventure, and turning to more knowledgeable people for advice (the trash heap)-- in my opinion, life can be boiled down to a few good Fraggle Rock episodes


Gummi Bears-- bouncing here and there and everywhere-- love those people. Wish there was a tree roller coaster somewhere I could ride today.


Jem was so cool-- I had her doll and wished I was Jem. I've always wanted cool hair, but I'm stuck with my boring brown hair.


Muppet Babies-- love the Muppets as well, but adored the Muppet Babies! Since most of you still haven't bought me a congratulatory gift for my 100th blog, you can go buy me some green and white stockings. I really want some.


PeeWee Herman-- before he was a creeper, I loved him. I loved his talking chair and his any farm, and his "Word of the Day"! Skype has nothing on his video phone, even now. When I was young, I spent the night away from home a lot. A lot. I had a baby sister and, eventually, a baby brother, and my house wasn't nearly as much fun as those of my friends who had older siblings. One Saturday, I stayed with my friend Melody and we were up early, before her parents, watching PeeWee Herman. It was a really bad storm and the power went off. We were furious-- how DARE a storm come through during PeeWee Herman. This was before DVR and even before most shows did reruns all the time, so we only had one 30 minute time period on Saturday to watch PeeWee's Playhouse. Melody's mom tried to explain the bad weather to us, and suggested we go try to help get the house ready in case the weather came closer to us. We proceeded to take a bunch of Encyclopedia's and put them in her windows-- we had read that would help make sure the glass didn't get blown out. And you know what? The glass didn't get blown out, so I'm confident out actions were helpful.

That was the really bad so-called "Glade" Tornado of 1987-- it destroyed the Glade school (luckily it was a Saturday) and did lots of damage. Since I had no sense of where Melody's house or my house was in relation to Glade, I was a bit scared. Luckily, we had those encyclopedias protecting us.


Punky Brewster was the coolest. Period. No question.


I have always fancied myself a bit like Rainbow Brite-- I love her. I love her blonde braid and her bright colors and all her colored friends. I personally don't have any friends who are say, always wearing blue or green or yellow, but I still love my friends anyway.


Thundercats: Unite.


Now, I've mentioned lots of my favorite cartoons but now I have a more serious inquiry. Does anyone remember Saturday morning cartoons on a "TV Special" where all the cartoons had to join together to solve a mystery or something? Like Punky Brewster might meet up with Rudy Huxtable and they would travel through the Talking Sphinx to save the Smurfs or something? I very clearly remember this happening-- there were at least a couple of these tv specials. And all the characters interacted with each other.

Even though I remember this for sure, I've never found anyone else who remembers it as well. I've even done some internet research trying to find it-- nothing. I'm fairly sure I didn't make this up-- can anyone out there help me????

4 comments:

Scarlett said...

OMG! I totally LOVED all of those cartoons. Smurfs was my absolute favorite. My very first movie in a movie theatre was Smurfs and the Magic Flute. I still remember how upset I was that the voices were different from the Saturday morning cartoon. Obviously, they were not the "real" Smurfs. As you can see, I was super sharp and discerning, even as a 4-year-old!

Betsy said...

So you are saying that I am mature and materialistic. Makes sense. LOVE YOU!

Jessica said...

Betsy, I love you! You know I am just kidding with you!!!

Katie, I remember that movie. My first movie in a movie theater was Bambi and I cried and cried and cried. Not when Bambi's mom died, but when the movie was over. For many years, I cried when any movie was over-- I guess the reality of having to go back into the world was too much for me to take.

Jeremy said...

I know I'm dating myself here (but you're my age, so who cares), but do you remember Kissyfur on NBC's Saturday morning lineup (around 1987 or 1988)? Kissyfur was kind of a sissy, but Floyd and Jolene the alligators were so cool. I loved them. Loved the Gummi Bears also. I would wake up at 6:00 on Saturday morning to watch cartoons and would record them on VHS (pausing for commercials) so that I could watch them every afternoon the following week when I got home from school, commercial-free. This went on for many years until I realized that sleeping until 1:00 on Saturday afternoon was really the way to go.