Where To Watch
Do you remember all these 1970s Saturday morning cartoons?
Channel surf through your youth with vintage network ads.
Pour yourself a cold bowl of cereal. We're taking a tour through the Saturday morning lineups of the Me Decade. Cartoons have always been somewhat surreal, but this was the era in which animation got outright weird. Basketball players, talking chimps, soul singers, superheroes and dinosaurs brushed shoulders on the lineup. Familiar characters were sent to unlikely times. Archie was touring America's past. The Partridge Family went to the far future. Meanwhile, Yogi Bear was in outer space. There were also dozens of delightful live-action series.
The networks drew up some colorful advertisements to promote their Saturday slates. These vivid comic strips appeared in newspapers and TV Guide. Here are some of our favorites of the 1970s.
What shows were you watching?
ABC 1970
Image: kerrytoonz / Flickr
This lineup is loaded with obscurities, from Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down! to Here Come the Double-Deckers!, which featured seven kids living in a London bus in a junk yard.
CBS 1970
Image: Mister Kitty
Meanwhile, over on the Eye that season, Archie Comics characters reigned, from Sabrina to Josie. The Harlem Globetrotters led into Archie and his Riverdale gang, though both crews would get significantly weirder in a couple years.
ABC 1972
Singing families were the order of the day, with the Jackson 5ive, The Brady Kids and the Osmond Brothers filled the morning.
CBS 1974
Image: Mister KittyIn perhaps the most outlandish lineup of show titles in TV history, kids could binge on Partridge Family 2200 A.D., The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show and The U.S. of Archie.
CBS 1978
Tarzan and the Super Seven stuff a ton of cartoons into 90 minutes. Lesser-known superheroes Web Woman and Manta may not have been Spider-Woman and Aquaman, but they were close enough. (Though not too close, lawyers.)
NBC 1978
Image: kerrytoonz / Flickr
It's the Fantastic Four! Only, instead of the Human Torch, there's a kooky robot. And who could forget Godzilla?
ABC 1979
Image: Branded in the '80s
Animators got a little cruel in naming their animal characters with Fangface and Yukk, the world's ugliest dog.
CBS 1979
The fare turned rather classic and nostalgic with stalwart characters like Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse.
NBC 1979
Image: Branded in the '80s
Pop quiz! You didn't think we'd let you reminisce about your school years without a little test? Don't worry, this one is fun — and rather easy.
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