1977 marked another turning point in Saturday morning scheduling. Instead of building on trends from previous years, the networks decided to go with a “throw it against the wall and let’s see what sticks” approach. The result: a wide variety of mis-matched programs that quickly fell off the schedules in favor of older, more recognizable fare. Only one network, ABC, was spared a lineup overhaul between fall ’77 and spring ’78. The others, full of skating birds, space academies, and CB bears, never clicked.
The Old: The Kroftt Supershow, American Bandstand
The New: The All-New SuperFriends Hour, Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, ABC Weekend Special
Don’t be deceived by the lack of new programming on the ABC schedule — SuperFriends and Laff-a-Lympics sucked up three-and-a-half hours of programming time, with a toned-down Kroftt Supershow rounding out the morning hours.
The All-New SuperFriends Hour, which began the morning, tweaked the format of the original program by eliminating the useless Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog and replacing them with the teens teens Zan and Jayna (and their annoying monkey pal Gleek). With powers to become any animal and any form of water, the Wonder Twins boosted the strength of the SuperFriends. They also had a 10-minute segment in the new format that featured a 20-minute segment with the whole team and three sets of team-ups. The best part of the hour was when a member of the SuperFriends would partner with a character like Flash, Hawkman or even Apache Chief.
After SuperFriends came Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. This two-hour block of Hanna-Barbera goodness featured episodes of Scooby-Doo and Dynomutt, The Dog Wonder as well as two new entries. Laff-a-Lympics was an animated combination of the Olympics and Battle of the Network Stars. Three teams — The Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens — competed in a series of competitions for gold, silver, and bronze medals. No less than forty-five Hanna-Barbera creations appeared during the shows run, including many characters that hadn’t been seen since the ’50s and ’60s.
The other cartoon to premiere during Laff-a-Lympics was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. Another in the long line of Scooby-Doo re-dos, Captain Caveman featured three teen girls who paired up with a super-powered caveman who was able to fly with the help of a club. During its years on the air, the show was considered a send-up of the popular Charlie’s Angels. Captain Caveman remained on the air for several years after its premiere.
The last show to premiere was the ABC Weekend Special. This 30-minute anthology series featured original animated and live action programs that catered to kids. Many times the shows were based on popular children’s stories like The Magic Flute and The Secret Garden. The Weekend Special remained on the ABC schedule for two decades, ending in 1997.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnxCrFYviGM
The Old: The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, The Secrets of Isis (pared off from the Shazam/Isis Hour), CBS Children’s Film Festival
The New: What’s New, Mr. Magoo?, The Skatebirds, Space Academy, Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour, Wakko
After years of success, the 1977-78 CBS lineup did not attract viewer attention. By the winter of ’78, many of the shows mentioned above were gone from the schedule and replaced by older, more popular, Saturday morning fare.
What’s New, Mr. Magoo? began the schedule and was the first foray for this character on Saturday mornings. Still voiced by Jim Backus, this version of Magoo was produced by DePatie-Freleng (a rarity for CBS). The show lasted only a few months and was replaced by repeats of Speed Buggy in 1978.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDIYmwa6vnQ
Next came Hanna-Barbera’s second go at a Banana Splits revival: The Skatebirds. Three live action, roller skating birds introduced segments like The Robotic Stooges, an animated update to the original Three Stooges where they were robotic superheroes; Wonder Wheels, the adventures of a boy and his shape-shifting motorcycle, and a spin-off of Clue Club featuring Woofer and Whimper. Skatebirds ended abruptly after a few airings, but The Robotic Stooges remained on the air as a solo program.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6czeMVQCdsQ
Filmation had one new live-action entry in 1977: the Star Wars-inspired Space Academy. Starring former Lost in Space star Jonathan Harris, Academy featured a number of teens with special abilities who were trained to help the universe of the 38th century. Fifteen episodes of Academy were created and ran until 1979.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rasJXa1n2Gk
While the Tarzan portions of the The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour weren’t new, The New Adventures of Batman was. Staying a little closer to the comics of the time the Filmation version of the Caped Crusader featured the voices Adam West and Burt Ward (from the live action Batman series of the ’60s) as the Dynamic Duo. Also included was the mischievous imp named Bat-mite, who would cause more problems then good for the Dynamic Duo.
The final new entry was Wakko, a live action variety series that featured Rip Taylor in a recurring role. Like other shows during this season, Wakko was barely on the air before it was removed.
The Old: Nothing
The New: Everything
Another year, another new lineup. Even bringing back Riverdale High’s most famous students couldn’t help NBC on Saturday mornings. It would be a trend that would continue well into the ’80s when a group of small, blue elves would finally give the network some success.
First up was Hanna-Barbera’s CB Bears. Another take on Charlie’s Angels, these undercover, mystery-solving bears headed a slate of forgettable cartoons, which included Undercover Elephant, the Road Runner-inspired Blast-Off Buzzard, and the Happy Days-inspired Heyyy, It’s the King. The show was removed from the schedule at the beginning of 1978 and replaced by repeats of Hong Kong Phooey and The Harlem Globetrotters (now known as Go Go Globetrotters).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxkA3zII8Y
After CB Bears was one of two animated entries for Filmation. The Young Sentinels (also known as The Space Sentinels) was the first of the studio’s mythological entries that paved the way for future series like He-Man. The racially diverse cast of superhumans, comprised of two Roman gods and a newly created character, were returned to Earth in order to protect mankind. After the show’s initial 13-episode run one of its characters, Hercules, would jump over to CBS to join Freedom Force.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eflNFkT-PBk
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour was next. Moving from it’s original home on CBS, the show featured new episodes of both Archie and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, interspersed with segments from the show’s decade-long history. The newest version of the series didn’t catch on, most likely due to viewers’ changing musical tastes, and the show was eventually retooled into two different programs — Archie’s Bang Shang Lollapalooza Show and Superwitch. Though both shows tried to regain audiences with Scooby-Doolike mysteries they were both gone by the spring of ’78, signaling the end of Archie’s connection with Filmation.
Two additional cartoons premiered during 1977. I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali featured an animated version of the boxing champ (voiced by the real Ali) in various adventures. For example, battling space aliens on another planet. The show didn’t make it to 1978. DePatie-Freleng’s yearly entry onto the NBC schedule was Baggypants and the Nitwits. Baggypants was a Charlie Chaplin-esque cat who was involved in all series of misadventures, while the Nitwits were an over-the-hill superhero and his wife. The Nitwits were voiced by Arte Johnson and Ruth Buzzi, who portrayed the original characters on Laugh-In (well, at least by name… not sure if Arte’s character was a superhero or not).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yn195wFZQ
Rounding out the lineup were three live action series. Thunder was a modern day Black Stallion featuring the adventures of the ranch-owning Prescott family. Search and Rescue: the Alpha Team was a Canadian import that featured a rescue team that relied on a bevy of animals to do their handiwork. Finally, The Red Hand Gang starred five pre-teens and their (non-talking) dog in a live action version of Scooby-Doo. Out of these three shows only Thunder remained on the air through the first half of 1978, though Search and Rescue was eventually syndicated overseas.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkY5kx3U4E8
Next time we’ll take a look at the 1978 Saturday morning lineup.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on May 28, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
