Saturday Morning TV from 60's and 70's by Warner Bros (1 Viewer)

[MattPeriolat]

You actually hit the nail on the head eloquently. I was of the impression that even anthology shows like Peter and Quick Draw had a fixed "order" for the three cartoons a show cycle, that is to say, it never varied, even in repeats. Pretty foolish on my part as there would always want to be variety.

That being said, how do people create episode guides on various sources like TV.com that do have a set cartoons per episode listing and how did WB determine what the "correct" order for the cartoons would be?

 

[Tory]

I plan to get these sets, any chance for an 80's one?

I don't know where they are at right now, possibly destroyed by water damage, but I use to have regional TV log's, the kind you use to get free at grocery markets and the such, from the 60s and they listed all of these HB shorts separately and sometimes had short one sentence descriptions about the show, voice actors and character info, I think some had titles. Does anyone know if this separate segment listing was commonplace or a quirk of this publication found in Texas and Louisiana?

 

[JamesSmith]

I think this set has done a tremendous job in reviving interest in the 60's and 70's HB shows.

I went through the extras yesterday. And I loved seeing that Jamie Farr (from MASH) was involved with Charlie Chan and the Chan Clan series. Never thought.

I looked at amazon.com's rankings on top 100 scifi sellers (per hour) and both volumes make it into the list. Maybe not into the top 25 bestsellers, but enough where it captured some interest.

Hopefully, this will be enough to get WB to release more volumes. I hope some more will be out by Christmas, if they go by sets every six months.

I'd love to see more extras though.

Would love to see the animated "Jennie" where Mark Hamill (from Star Wars) did his first voice over, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Inch High Private Eye, Jabberjaw, etc.

I really hope they do an "80"s volume where they could include an episode of Space Stars where they did new adventures of Space Ghost and the Herculoids. There was an episode where an evil space witch was going to try to cast a spell on Space Ghost to make him fall in love with her. The ending that was a hoot and so 60's Adam Westy with Space Ghost going on about the power of a "pure heart" and living a life of purity to Jan and Jace, whose eyeballs are rolling.

James

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

I will have to wait for Father's Day to receive my sets of these cartoons and I cannot wait. All of the comments are getting me excited to watch them. I think this is a great idea. It also helps WHV promote the H-B box sets that are currently available with some of the crossover material (Jetsons, Top Cat, etc.).

It would be great to get a 50's box set as well that would include Ruff and Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Loopy de Loop.

Keep 'em coming. I'm glad to hear that the sets are readily available at many retail outlets. I think this is one of the reasons that the Huck and Yogi sets did not sell well was because no store like Target or Wal-Mart got behind them; probably due to the Christmas buying crunch.

 

[Sam Favate]

There is a 50s set like this, although not from Warner Bros. (it's from Shout Factory):

Amazon.com: Hiya Kids! A 50's Saturday Morning Box: Hiya Kids, Hi Ya Kids: Movies & TV

 

[paste]

Same here. Tarzan was one of my favorite shows from that era and its inclusion on the set is one of the reasons I picked up the 70s set.

The quality on the episode on the set wasn't the best, but am glad to have it.

What is kind of odd is that on the preview commercial for the set, which is the only bonus on disc one of the set, they show scenes from a different episode of Tarzan that is on the set.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Condition of the total episode shown in the previews must not have been good enough to justify inclusion. What all this does tell us is that WB is working on Tarzan maybe with an eye toward a larger release.

Anyway, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes toward V.2s for the 60s and 70s and hopefully the 80s as well. I'm wondering if there is even enough 50s material for a set though, especially given Shout! already has done a pretty good job.

 

[dhammer]

First, Marine Boy is the best cartoon in both sets, hands down. One of the best cartoons ever made was Johnny Quest 1964, but it has already been released. Of course most of the other cartoons were also.

the 1960's had the best cartoons of any decade. Cartoon quality decreased significantly in the 1970's with some serious exceptions (Batman/ Tarzan, Scooby-Doo, to name a few). Most of the animation of the 1970's is horrible ex. Wheely and the Chopper Bunch.

In the 60's, between the unbelievably great Japanese toons (8th Man, Astro Boy, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, Gigantor) and Hanna Barbara (Saturday Morning) plus a few other entries ( Beatles, Spider-Man, Rocket Robin Hood, Johnny Cipher in Dimension Zero, Mighty Heroes, Lone Ranger, etc.) this decade is king of cartoons.

Cartoons became better again in the 1980's with Transformers, GI Joe, Real Ghostbusters, Jem, and others. They took another dive after the 80's with the garbage made on Disney, Nickolodeon, and the Cartoon Network---with one exception, Sponge Bob.

 

[derosa]

My sets arrived from Amazon yesterday!

I was pretty surprised at the lack of detail regarding the show content
printed on these sets. The episode names are not listed on the box, or the
discs, and there is no sheet inside. The packaging looks nice, but this info is lacking.

The back of the set only has the names of some of the shows, but how
does someone know what's really on these discs without putting them in a dvd player?

 

[Mark Y]

I would bet that most of it is little more than guesswork. Which is to be expected for info compiled by fans on the internet -- but it's kind of sad that so little original documentation appears to be available, that official DVD releases largely have to rely on guesswork and reconstruction too.

The way the "Huckleberry Hound" DVD set is configured, it's confusing. I understand and appreciate the intent of presenting the shows in the original running order -- it would have made great sense if these had been the complete shows, rather than just the cartoon shorts only. (Since the cartoon shorts are presented on their own, the repeats are rather pointless -- especially since they are then presented again in the "reconstructed episodes.") Also, in the show's original run, the three segments "rotated." Yogi Bear would be the first cartoon on one show, then Pixie & Dixie would lead off the next, Huck the next, and so on. Still, I'm glad these sets exist and I am grateful that WB made as much of an effort as they did to get things right, to whatever extent was possible or feasible given what they had to work with.

Actually, some information regarding the original running orders of certain shows can be found in contemporary TV listings of the era, which often (though not always) included descriptions and sometimes even the titles of the cartoons to be featured on that day's show. The Chicago Public Library has TV Guide on microfilm -- it was a great resource when I compiled an episode guide for "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour." A friend researched "Huckleberry Hound" the same way years ago -- the information is out there. Although TV listings are not infallible (they were always subject to changes) and I recall some of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon titles were listed under "working titles."

As far as episode guides on the internet on sites like TV.com I would think there are many varying degrees (not to mention definitions) of "accuracy" -- I have seen some which depend on listings at the Library Of Congress site. But then, some episode guides are listed in supposed "production order," some are in supposed "airdate order," and some might be random. In some cases, how do you even know? I think ultimately, if something is called "the complete series" or a "complete season," as long as everything's in there, then that's what matters.

I note that for the "Magilla Gorilla" show included in the new set, it's great to have the show opening and closing (though there are no interstitials) -- but I also note that the three cartoons don't match up (as far as running order) with the "complete series" set. If you compare these cartoons with the "complete series" DVD set, if the latter's running order is correct, then we are looking at Magilla Gorilla #2 ("Gridiron Gorilla"), Punkin Puss #2 ("Small Change"), and Ricochet Rabbit #1 ("Atchison Topeka And Sam Jose") on the new collection. So I guess the short answer is, who knows?

One other thing -- it's almost pointless to even try to reconstruct the "original running order" of a pre-1980s syndicated show, because in those days, distributors would usually send out shows in the form of 16mm film prints (and later on tape). Even in first-run, to keep things simple and keep costs down, a station in one city might be running a different episode than a station in another city, and then they'd swap later, so different stations could use the same copies. This is addressed in the notes of the "Muppet Show" Season 1 set, which presents the shows in "production order" specifically for this reason. (This certainly wasn't always the case, but it happened often enough.)

 

[MattPeriolat]

Oy, what a headache for someone like me who likes to watch the shows in as close to "as originally broadcast" as possible. Then again, frankly, they were cartoons, who was honestly paying that close attention back then?

That being said, I'm glad that those who can have made as much of an effort as they could to preserve what schedules do still exist. Remember when TV Guide actually put effort into their listings?

Thanks again for everyone's input on a problem that, quite honestly, doesn't have an easy solution, just options.

 

[Rodrick]

I was correct from my post that where I live neither sets came out til May 29th.

I managed to find a store that bundled the 2 sets together. It cost me $40 for the bundle.

Im enjoying the 70's dvd. Yes I noticed some mistakes and no episode guide.
I never looked in the 60's set yet cause not care about those eps.

 

[Daniel-C]

I hope Warner would release Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: The Complete Series to DVD. It was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, and it demands a DVD release.

 

[Rickymittalh]

I would prefer a complete Bugs Bunny Show set but perhaps

 

[TanushreeRanjan]

I would prefer a complete Bugs Bunny

 

[RiyaNidhi]

I would prefer a complete Bugs Bunny Show set but perhaps