It’s Saturday Morning! by Joe Garner & Michael Ashley was a walk down memory lane for me. Born at the tail-end of the 70s, most of these shows were staples in my life. Watching Scooby-Doo reruns in the afternoons spent at my grandmother’s, and Smurfs on Saturday. Smurfs were my favourite, and still are! I was positively ecstatic when the live-action movies came out. He-Man, too! I remember being very obsessed with that cartoon. When the live-action movie came out, my parents took my neighbor and I to see it opening night.
This book looks at the golden age of animation between the 1960s- 1990s. During much of this time, viewing blocks were common on Saturday morning, lasting from 6 or 7am til noon. Smaller blocks populated weekday afternoons. Each decade has its own chapter, focusing on some of the most popular and influential cartoons of the time. Interspersed throughout are After These Messages… segments that take a look at advertised products during these decades, from Slinky to Mentos. To cover all of the cartoons during these decades would have been both a daunting write and read. I do wish cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Inspector Gadget, Mighty Mouse, Silverhawks, and Snagglepuss had been included.
It’s Saturday Morning! is packed with all kinds of info and trivia, such as:
*Bugs Bunny got his name from Joseph Benson ‘Bugsy’ Hardaway, a storyboard artist, when a fellow employee notated an early sketch as Bugs’s Bunny.
*In the original run, Pink Panther never spoke.
*There’s a city in California called Tarzana.
*Smurfberry Crunch contained an edible blue dye that turned people’s poo blue. Needless to say, it was a short-lived affair.
*Many ’80s cartoons- Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe– were toys before cartoons.
*There were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle condoms. (You’re welcome…)
If you’re an animation buff, or grew up during these decades and want a bit of nostalgia, this is the perfect book!
***Many thanks to the Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
