Transformers media has often been better than the toys, the comics especially.
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was too violent for British TV, hell, Ren And Stimpy was put into the early evening young adult slot due to it’s content.
But we did get swearing, violence and boobs after 9pm, so we had that going for us!
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If we’re allowed to expand from Saturday morning, my 80’s youth was all about the after-school programming. Every day was Danger Mouse, Inspector Gadget, Gilligan’s Island then Bewitched.
I just picked up the first complete season of Gadget:
Three boxes, nine discs. At last, Gadget with captions! They’re not remastered, just dumped from the original tapes to disc, but it’s still light years better than VHS or the original analog broadcasts.
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Gadget was always strange for me, when it was first available here it was on a paid channel outside of regular cable, (ergo, we didn’t get that channel) so in my young mind I thought well this must be a brilliant show, as others were like “oh yhea we have Superchannel, I get to watch it.” then a while later when it was more widely available, I wondered what all the fuss was about. It was OK but nothing special enough to warrant the intrigue it caused.
Also thought it was funny that for all the mystery around Dr. Claw, a character never meant to be seen, has an action figure that fully showed his appearance.
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Well said! Seen through my lens of adulthood it’s definitely nothing special; the magic for me is pure nostalgia. Someone mentioned the Smurfs earlier, who were also a big part of my youth. For both shows, the writers were probably just punching a clock somewhere, grinding out whatever drivel would be enough to slap together an episode, but to our young minds it was brilliance. And I’m okay with that, because the feeling of that brilliance is what has stuck with me. 
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I also watched Muppet Babies, He-Man, She-Ra, Jem, etc. There was also an ALF cartoon, a Back to the Future cartoon, and a Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure cartoon. I also watched Looney Tunes or whatever the hour block of them ABC aired was called. I think the show that’s held up best from my childhood over the years wasn’t a cartoon at all, but aired on the Saturday morning block nonetheless–Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Had the best Christmas special, too. Also had Laurence Fishburne over a decade before The Matrix and (first season only) Phil Hartman (who, as it turns out, co-wrote Pee Wee’s Big Adventure). I rewatched it when it was on Netflix years ago, and it was just as entertaining watching it as an adult as when I was a kid.
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Funny you should mention, the first boy I fell for tended to vacillate between Courage and IQ. XD
The Kroffts, Warner Brothers, Filmation, and dePatie-Freling (loved the Pink Panther/Inspector cartoons) definitely made up the bulk of my childhood, with openings for Chuck Jones’ “Curiosity Shop” and “The Tomfoolery Show” (which shows I would give unspecified body parts for DVD sets of) and “The Double Deckers”.
I fell away from Saturday mornings until they came roaring back in the 1990s with Earthworm Jim, Freakazoid, Beakman’s World, Road Rovers, Pirates of Dark Water and ReBoot (which really REALLY deserves a proper ending).
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I don’t think those were rotoscoped, it was just the inexpensive limited animation style common in the 1980s until Disney jumped in and forced everyone to up their game.
The Filmation Tarzan definitely was rotoscoped, though.
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Oh, silly me! I forgot Space Ghost, before he had a talk show! XD
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I forgot that Freakazoid! was Saturday morning rather than weekday afternoon.
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Muppet Babies
Bugs Bunny And Tweety Show
Garfield And Friends
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My Saturday morning experience was from around late '60s-early '70s. As always, the Warner Brothers cartoons (the ones on network and those syndicated were a separate bunch. Same with The Flintstones, where select eps aired Saturday mornings, the rest on weekdays on local stations). Early on was The Banana Splits! Dastardly & Muttley as well (I always liked that better than Wacky Races, which I also watched).
Always looked forward to those Sat. morning preview shows every year.
On the one hand, I definitely outgrew Scooby Doo later, but noticed as I revisited The Hair Bear Bunch on YouTube c. 2010 that that one stull holds up. All-time, the Pink Panther was always great. The Archies cartoon was a favorite. Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm, Josie & the Pussycats, the Jetsons, and even the short bursts of Schoolhouse Rock and In The News.
Stuff like Hong Kong Phooey, the bland new Tom & Jerry, and, God help us, The Grape Ape, were the end of my original Saturday morning mega-viewing. I did sample a couple better things since then - Dynomutt, Garfield, 2 Stupid Dogs, and Eek! the Cat, mostly, over time.
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Whoa - how could I have forgotten about Pee Wee?!?
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Totally forgot about the live action shows! These were on after school, not Saturday morning, but I’m thinking about the older ones like Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeanie, Bewitched, Brady Bunch, and the 80s ones like Family Ties, Facts of Life, Different Strokes, Growing Pains (why was his nickname Boner?)
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By the time He-Man and She-Ra came along I was in high school, and too cool to watch cartoons. (Except for The Smurfs, which I continued to secretly watch.)
I absolutely loved the new Netflix version of She-Ra, though, even though I’m well out of its target age or demographic.
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