"In The News" (CBS Saturday morning series) (1 Viewer)

[Ejanss]

I did watch Tarzan and the Super, Shazam/Isis and a few episodes of Space Academy but I think I switched to those when ABC and NBC were on reruns. When WAC released Clue Club I wondered why I didn't remember it when 1976 was right in the middle of my prime Saturday morning viewing. When I found out it was on CBS that explains it. ABC and NBC just had more cartoons than interested me. I always considered the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner show a cheat or a waste because those cartoons were on everyday before and after school.

Ohh, nonononono--There were the "Afternoon Bugs", the old 40's ones, and then there were the "Saturday Bugs", the highbrow premium Chuck Jones classics. You knew you weren't going to see "One Froggy Evening", "Rabbit of Seville" or "Duck, Rabbit, Duck!" on the afternoon local stations.
(Which all dates back to Warner taking a handful of their shorts out of public-domain in the 60's for a TV show, and leaving the rest for the cheap stations, but we didn't learn that until years later.)

Back in those days, every network had an identity: ABC was Hanna-Barbera, Scooby-Doo and Schoolhouse Rock, CBS was Filmation and Shazam/Isis, and NBC was Sid & Marty Krofft and the Pink Panther.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Ohh, nonononono--There were the "Afternoon Bugs", the old 40's ones, and then there were the "Saturday Bugs", the highbrow premium Chuck Jones classics. You knew you weren't going to see "One Froggy Evening", "Rabbit of Seville" or "Duck, Rabbit, Duck!" on the afternoon local stations.
(Which all dates back to Warner taking a handful of their shorts out of public-domain in the 60's for a TV show, and leaving the rest for the cheap stations, but we didn't learn that until years later.)

Back in those days, every network had an identity: ABC was Hanna-Barbera, Scooby-Doo and Schoolhouse Rock, CBS was Filmation and Shazam/Isis, and NBC was Sid & Marty Krofft and the Pink Panther.

NBC also had a lot of Hanna Barbera. I was mainly a Hanna Barbera kid so that probably explains ABC/NBC preference.
And yes I do remember they usually showed newer Bugs Bunny cartoons on Bugs Bunny Road Runner show but there were quite a few 50's looney toons that played on week days too. The cutoff must have been around 1954-1955. It still seemed a waste to me as a kid when I could see looney toons after school. I wanted to see brand new cartoons on Saturday morning. NBC showed newer Woody Woodpecker cartoons for a couple years too. Those I didn't mind because they were on early like 7:00am and the older Woody's weren't shown very often after school.

 

[MatthewA]

NBC also had a lot of Hanna Barbera. I was mainly a Hanna Barbera kid so that probably explains ABC/NBC preference.

Funny how their biggest 1980s hit, The Smurfs, ended up on NBC (who arguably needed it more in 1981*) when IIRC most of their biggest hits had been ABC shows.

And yes I do remember they usually showed newer Bugs Bunny cartoons on Bugs Bunny Road Runner show but there were quite a few 50's looney toons that played on week days too. The cutoff must have been around 1954-1955. It still seemed a waste to me as a kid when I could see looney toons after school. I wanted to see brand new cartoons on Saturday morning. NBC showed newer Woody Woodpecker cartoons for a couple years too. Those I didn't mind because they were on early like 7:00am and the older Woody's weren't shown very often after school.

I noticed the same division between pre-1948 WB cartoons continued when Ted Turner got into the mix. The same UA-owned ones that had been on local stations for years ended up on TBS and TNT while the ones still actually owned by WB were on ABC during the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show years. Nickelodeon got a mix of both, and they also had such a thing as "Kids' News" even before Linda Ellerbee started getting involved.

I'm surprised Universal kept making Woody Woodpecker cartoons as long as they did when almost everyone else but Disney gave up on theatrical animation. Those later ones rarely seemed to figure into the syndication packages I remember from the 1980s.

*It wasn't a total loss if they brought back The Flintstones in prime time to fill the new show delays from a WGA strike and Rocky & Bullwinkle on Saturday Morning.