Customer Reviews

Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Vol. 1

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a good cross-section of 1960's TV cartoons (& a few theatricals shown on TV) that are owned by Warner Brothers. Some of these are new to DVD, and this could be their only appearance on DVD. TV animation collectors will wonder why the double dip of TOP CAT, THE FLINTSTONES & THE JETSONS, but hey with the low price I am willing to jump past them (or just watch them again).
Where else are we going to see Peter Potomas, Breezly & Sneezy, Yippie & Yappie & Yahooie?

Disc #1
TOP CAT - The Tycoon (Also on the Complete series DVD set)
ATOM ANT SHOW with PRECIOUS PUP & HILLBILLY BEARS - Up & Atom / Precious Jewels / Woodpecked
THE PETER POTAMUS SHOW with BREEZLY and SNEEZLY & YIPPEE, YAPPEE and YAHOOEY - Fe-Fi-Fo Fun / All Riot on the Northern front / The Volunteers
SECRET SQUIRREL SHOW with SQUIDDLEY DIDDLY & WINSOME WITCH - Sub Swiper / Way Out Squiddly / Prince of a Pup
THE FLINTSTONES - The Happy Household (Also on the seasonal DVD sets)
THE PORKY PIG SHOW - Often An Orphan/Mice Follies/The Super Snooper (Daffy Duck)
THE QUICK DRAW McGRAW SHOW with SNOOPER AND BLABBER & AUGIE DOGIE - Dynamite Fright/Outer Space Case/Growing Growing Gone

Disc #2
THE JETSONS - Rosey The Robot (Also on the season 1 DVD set)
MARINE BOY - Battle To Save The World {Anime}
SPACE GHOST/DINO BOY SHOW - The Heat Thing / The Worm / Zorak (also on the complete series DVD set)
HERCULOIDS - The Beaked People / The Raider Apes
FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES - The Shocking Electric Monster / The Bibbler / The Spinner
THE MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW with PUNKIN PUSS & RICOCHET RABBIT - Gridiron Gorilla / Small Change / Atchison, Topica and San Jose (Also on the complete series DVD set)

Bonus Materials:
THE QUCK DRAW McGRAW SHOW (with SNOOPER AND BLABBER and AUGIE DOGIE) - Dough Nutty / El Kabong Was Wrong / Gem Jam
Bonus Documentaries on QUICK DRAW McGRAW, MAGILLA GORILLA, FRANKENSTEIN JR. and THE IMPOSSIBLES.

OK, I've had enough with Warner deciding whether cartoons from the past are good for us or not. First they edited the Tom and Jerry releases and kept several shorts from being released at all, then they started labeling cartoon collections with this: "This collection is intended for the Adult Collector and MAY not be suitable for children." This collection and the others in the series says this: Saturday Morning Cartoons - the 1960s is intended for the Adult Collector and is NOT suitable for children." What? Seeing a pig without pants is bad for kids? Atom Ant may make them think they have super powers and they could die jumping off a building? Give me a break, Warners. I'd much rather my children watch this than the stuff that's on TV today.

Got my sixties set today, and watched most of the non-double-dip material - excluding Marine Boy, which I still feel seems out of place in this package.

The package has its faults with print quality (but a disclaimer is offered to mitigate that), some double-dipping, and no complete content listing outside of the individual disc menus - but, overall, IT IS WORTH IT!

The Porky Pig Show has opening and closing credits AND INTERSTITALS! The Magilla Gorilla Show has opening and closing credits - making it not a "true" double dip, as the Magilla "Complete Series" did not have these credits included anywhere in the set.

It features other shows I never thought I'd see on DVD like Peter Potamus, Atom, Ant, Secret Squirrel, and Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles!

Brief (average about 5 minutes each) but informative and entertaining features on Quick Draw McGraw, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles, and The Herculoids with various animation figures including Paul Dini, Mark Evanier, and Earl Kress.

A true Who's Who of voicing, headlined by Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Don Messick, Paul Frees, and all the top talents of the day!

And, it sure made me long for complete sets of Quick Draw McGraw and The Herculoids!

...Maybe this'll help pave the way!

I'm a big animation fan - especially of vintage TV animation - so seeing Warners releasing these packages looked to be a real treat, since it seemed unlikely that we'd get full sets of most of these characters. I applaud the fact that they're making these available at all. My problem is with the amount of effort put into finding decent masters or cleaning up what they have. We've seen what they can do with 50+ year old Looney Tune shorts. I'm at a loss why they can't take more time to clean up some of the scratches off some of the weaker films in these packages. One of the 2 Quick Draw shorts is so dark it's almost painful to watch. Do I think they could havve found better masters of done a better job cleaning things up, yes, but that would have taken time and money-and I don't think they want to put that kind of effort into a set like this. The short of Ricochet Rabbit has audio that speeds up and slows down-it's downright painful to listen to. The other major nitpick about these is that many of these shows had short transitional bumpers in between the cartoons(Secret Squirrel, Frankenstein Jr. & The Impossibles, Space Ghost, Etc.) that have been omitted. There are Volume 2 sets planned for the 60s & 70s that include both the Bugs Bunny Show, Road Runner Show & The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour. These transitional bumpers were an integral part of these shows and NEED to be included. This is what made those programs unique. I so hope Warners gets it right with the next volumes.
Now, this is not to say I'm not recommending this set-it's enjoyable. If you 'loved the shows-you still will, but if you're a completest - and want to see the shows as they originally aired, you won't find them here.

The entire quote is:"Saturday Morning Cartoons-The 1960s is intended for the Adult Collector and is Not Suitable for Children"(sic).You will find this "disclaimer" on the back of the outside cover and the DVD case.We sure have come a long way haven't we when cartoons such as Quick Draw McGraw,Top Cat and Magilla Gorilla are now considered "unsuitable for children".I don't know whether to shake my head or to be insulted;I do know it leaves a bad taste in my mouth,but let's on with the review shall we?
This hodge podge collection of 1960s Hanna-Barbera 'toons is a wonderful release of some shows that haven't been seen like this in almost 50 years....gee,has it been that long?Each show has its' original openings and endings restored as they originally appeared.Warners does give a warning that many of these extraneous elements were not found in pristine condition and had to be carefully pieced back together.They're easy to spot but considering everything I think they did a bang up job in restoring them.Here is what you will find/rediscover on each of these two discs:
Disc one-"Tycoon" from the Top Cat Show(1966),The Atom Ant Show w/Precious Pup and Hillbilly Bears(1965),The Peter Potomaus Show w/ Breezly and Sneezly and Yippee,Yappee and Yahooey(1964),The Secret Squirel Show w/Squiddly Diddly and Winsome Witch(1965),The Flinstones ep"The Happy Household"(1960),The Porky Pig Show(1964)w/a Porky cartoon"Often an Orphan(1949),"Mice Follies"(the Gleason/Carney take off-1959)and "Super Snooper"(Daffy Duck as a detective-1952),The Quick Draw McGraw Show w/Snooper and Blabber and Augie Dogie and Dogie Daddy(1960).Specials include two featurettes"Saturday Morning Wake Up Call"(a general discussion about the toons on this DVD) and "The Good,the bad and the el-kabong"(a discussion about Quick Draw McGraw).
Disc two-"Rosie the Robot" from the Jetsons(1962),Marine Boy,an early Japanese Anime' series released by Seven Arts in the States(1966),The Space Ghost Show w/Dino Boy(1966),The Herculoids Show(1967),The Frankenstein Jr.and the Impossibles Show(1966),The Magilla Gorilla Show w/Punkin Puss and Ricochet Rabbit(1964).Specials include:An extra Quick Draw McGraw Show(1961),three featurettes:another "Saturday Morning Wake Up Call(talking about the shows on this disc),and the other two on "The Herculoids" and "Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles",and some trailers.
It is a jam packed two disc set and everyone will certainly have their faves(not all are created equal in quality),but mine has to be,by a country mile,Quick Draw McGraw.It was a real joy to be reunited with Quick Draw after almost 50 years being apart.And he hadn't lost his comical touch either.
There is something for just about everyone in this first volume of (mostly)Hanna-Barbera releases.It is certainly aimed at the ones who first watched the original airings those many years ago but please disregard the aforementioned "disclaimer",as these cartoons are just as relevant and funny today as they were then.Delight your youngsters or your grand-children and let them discover the fun times and delights that await them with the likes of Magilla Gorilla,Quick Draw McGraw,The Flinstones and the rest of the gang.

It's a 5 star review these cartoons were and still is a part of time where
kids as well as life itself was still innocent and where decency still at
one time prevailed.

This set is the best thing to happen to cartoon DVDs in a long time. Here are 33 1960s era 'toons on two one-sided discs, all Hanna-Barbera 'toons, with a few exceptions. The wide reach of Cartoon Network's/ Warners merger allows them to include Marine Boy, imported from Japan, and three theatrical Looney Tunes/ Merrie Melodies that ran on TV from 1964-'67 on The Porky Pig Show. The 'toons aren't all the same length, as H-B experimented with the one episode half hour format, as with the Flintstones, the usual three 'toon format, as with The Huckleberry Hound Show, as well as hour and even hour and a half shows. The longer shows were often broken apart for syndication so single cartoons could be shown on live-host kid's shows.

This disc is jammed with special features. "The Good, the Bad, and the El Kabong" takes a look at The Quick Draw McGraw Show, H-Bs third cartoon show counting from "Ruff and Reddy" and "The Huckleberry Hound Show", which also featured the popular supporting cartoons, Snooper and Blabber, and Auggie Doggie. As this special reveals, the writing was all by Michael Maltese, who also wrote all of the best Chuck Jones Looney Tunes, like The Rabbit of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?, and who here finally gets his due. Watching the credits, one sees what a huge influence he was in these early, witty H-B cartoons. It's difficult to believe that Quick Draw McGraw dates from 1959, as the shows hold up so well and the dialogue still sparkles. Included here is an entire show (three cartoons), with a second show in the special features on disc two.

Other special features include a brief documentary on 'The Herculoids", H-B's ground-breaking science-fiction adventure show designed by Alex Toth. It boggles the mind to think that this is the show that started all the uproar about violence in cartoons, when the SF action seems so much less violent than in Tom and Jerry. Nevertheless, it's enough to get this warning label, that this set "is intended for the adult collector and is not suitable for children". Never mind that this totally contradicts the upbeat blurb on the box, likely written by a happy go-lucky writer as overjoyed as us to see these 'toons on DVD: "share them with someone who never imagined you were once a kid". Fortunately, this set includes two Herculoids episodes so viewers can see what the furor was all about (and probably get hooked on this astounding show).

There's also a mini-blurb on The Adventures of Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, which aired in 1966. This very interesting show had Jonny Quest music on the sort of serious Frankenstein Jr. segment, and Jetsons looking designs in the Impossibles, rock stars AKA superheroes, a now odd mix that seemed obvious at the time. Three segments are included from that show.

Each disc has a bonus "Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call, but in both cases they seem to be taken from Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel, the only place you could see these cartoons until the release of this set. CN also ran a "Boomerang" show featuring cartoons from various years. The announcer on one blurb says the cartoon block runs three hours (this set runs five plus hours), and on the other calls it the "Saturday Morning Adventure Hour" and your "Cartoon Wake-Up Call" that makes every day Saturday. Most, but not all, of the segments shown are on these discs. The blurb for this set in the Trailers is much better done.

Hanna-Barbera's shows were so popular that they ran on all three networks in the '60s (yes, there were only three networks), often competing with themselves. The Peter Potamus Show here, from 1964, has the closing credits from the 1965-66 version, which shows Ricochet Rabbit, originally a segment on the Magilla Gorilla Show. The Peter Potamus Show was originally sponsored by Ideal Toys, with the sponsor's name in the theme song and credit sequence. Here it's cut out of the opening titles but left in on the closing theme. Three segments from the later show are included in this set.

The last bonus feature is called "Trailers", and features seven cartoon trailers. These are fun to watch, but I often wonder why all the trailers can't be put in a section like this. Disc one opens with an ad for "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" and a mini-feature/ad for the DC Comics/ Warner "Green Lantern". Disc two opens with a whimsical ad for the Peanuts 1960s Collection. Both of these would be welcome in the Trailers section, but are annoying when they come on everytime you put the discs in so you have to press menu to skip ahead.

More trivia regarding this set: The Jetsons episode, "Rosey the Robot", from 1962, was the series' debut. Marine Boy was the second color series to be imported from Japan. The Porky Pig Show cartoons date from: "Often an Orphan" -1949; "Super Snooper" (Daffy Duck)- 1952; Mice Follies (Honey-Mousers)- 1960. Anyone who loves cartoons or, like this reviewer, is a die-hard Hanna-Barbera fan, will be overjoyed with this set. As Joe Barbera once said, "I'm in favor of cartoons that are mindlessly funny, not mindlessly preachy." You got it Joe. Mindlessly funny. That sums up this set. H-B and Boomerang, bring 'em on!

This set includes:

Disc One:

Top Cat--"The Tycoon" (1961-'62)

Atom Ant-- "Up and Atom"; Precious Pup--"Precious Jewels"; Hillbilly Bears--"Woodpecked" (1967-'68)

Peter Potamus--"Fe Fi Fo Fun"; Breezly and Sneezly--"All Riot on the Western Front"; Yippee, Yapee, Yahooey--"The Volunteers" (1964-'66)

Secret Squirrel--"Sub Swiper"; Squiddly Diddly--"Way Out Squiddly"; Winsome Witch--"Prince of a Pup" (1967)

The Flintstones--"The Happy Household" (series debut date: 1960)

The Porky Pig Show--(1964-'67):
"Often an Orphan" (1949); "Super Snooper" (1952); "Mice Follies" (1960).

Quick Draw McGraw--"Dynamite Fright"; Snooper and Blabber--"Outer Space Case"; Auggie Doggie--"Growing, Growing, Gone" (1959-'60).

Special Features:

Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call;
The Good, the Bad, and the El Kabong

Disc Two:

The Jetsons--"Rosey the Robot" (1962-'63) (debut episode)

Marine Boy--The Battle to Save the World (1966)

Space Ghost and Dino Boy--"The Heat Thing"; "The Worm People"; "Zorak" (1966)

Herculoids-- "The Beaked People"; "The Raiders" (1967)

The Impossibles--"The Bubbler"; "The Spinner"; Frankenstein Jr.--"The Shocking Electric Monster" (1966)

Magilla Gorilla--"Gridiron Gorilla" (1964); Punkinpuss and Mushmouse--"Small Change" (not listed in menu); Ricochet Rabbit--"Athison Topeka and Sam Jose" (not listed in menu).

Special Features:

Bonus episode: Auggie Doggie--"Dough Nutty"; Quick Draw McGraw--"El Kabong was Wrong"; Snooper and Blabber--"Gem Jam"

Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call

Herculoids: First Family of Planet Quasar

Monster Rock: The Adventures of Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles

Trailers

If you were lucky enough to have grown up in the 1960s or 1970s, you grew up in the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons. In those pre-cable TV days you had just the three major Television networks and each of them loaded their Saturday morning schedules with cartoons from 7:30am until noon. It was the one day of the week when you didn't mind getting up early. You'd pour yourself a bowl of your favorite cereal and plop yourself down in front of the TV.

You can relive those days again with two new DVD sets from Warner Bros: Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's vol.1 and Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970's vol.1. Today I'll be taking a look at the 1960s set. This set features over five hours of classic toons on two DVDs along with several DVD extras.

You'll be amazed at how the memories of these shows come flooding back as soon as you hear the theme music for each show. Music and lyrics that you've not heard in decades are suddenly on the tip of your tongue and I have to praise the producers for including the original themes for all of these shows.

Atom Ant kicks things off with "Up and Atom" from 1965 as our tiny hero tracks down a couple of prison escapees. Atom Ant, like Might Mouse and others, was animation's attempt to cash in on popular comic book heroes, notably Superman.

The Porky Pig Show featured toons from many of Warner Bros. animated characters. Here on this set we get the Daffy Duck mystery "Super Snooper" with Daffy as a hard-boiled detective, and "Mice Follies" a parody of the Honeymooners TV show. Other popular characters that appear in this set include favorites: Top Cat, Peter Potamus, Secret Squirrel, Quickdraw McGraw, The Flintstones, Magilla Gorilla, and the Jetsons.

As the decade of the 1960s progressed, Saturday Morning Cartoons moved away from funny animals and humor into more adventure cartoons and science fiction. "The Heat Thing" is a 1965 Space Ghost Adventures as the team battles a lava pit monster on one of Jupiter's moons. "The Bubbler" is from Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles. The Impossibles were a superteam/rock band ala The Beatles, featuring: Coil-Man, Fluid-Man, and Multi-Man.

Frankenstein Jr., a Robotic version of the famous monster, battles an electrical monster in "The Shocking Electric Monster" from 1966. Frankenstein Jr. was voiced by Ted Cassidy, best known for playing the butler "Lurch" in the Addams Family TV series.

Another of the great 1960s Sci-fi shows that is still being shown on the Boomerang Network is the Heculoids. This show featured the five creatures Zok the dragon, Igoo the Rock Ape, Tundroo the Rhino-like creature, and Gloop & Gleep the protoplastic creatures who defend the planet Quasar and various alien threats along with their humanoid friends.

Mixed in with these characters are a number of lesser known stars including The Winsome Witch, Marine Boy, Dino Boy, and Squiddly Diddly.

The overall quality of the cartoons is very good to outstanding although the discs include a disclaimer stating that in some cases, the original masters were not available to make transfers from.

This was a special time in kid's lives that unfortunately is not here anymore. With entire networks devoted to cartoons, Saturday Mornings are no longer what they were years ago but you can relive those days with these new sets from Warner Bros. Hopefully the popularity will prove strong enough that we can eventually get these entire series on DVD instead of just these random samplings.

Really enjoyed this DVD. When I was a little kid running around in my PJ's on Saturday mornings, I could hardly wait for The Herculoids and Space Ghost!! This was when Saturday morning TV was worth watching. The programmers at ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox could learn something from watching this DVD. I feel sorry for the kids these days. There is so much junk on Saturday mornings these days. The 60's & 70's were so much better. This is a great DVD to share with your children.

I pop it into my dvd on a Saturday morning, and
everything else dis-sta-pears. For I am sitting
in the middle of my bed with a bowl of cereal, and the
CARTOONS of my childhood days. Life is good.