Toonfomercial: Babies know how they want to be cleaned, don't they? (1979)

 You just don't see animated commercials for products like Diaparene anymore, but back in the 70's, they'd commission a cartoon for just about any sponsor.

Simply animated, and gets the point across. Scope:

Retro Toy Chest: You could've had your own Muppet (1966)

 Rowlf the Dog (Jim Henson), fresh from The Jimmy Dean Show, promotes a line of Muppet puppets that the kiddo's could use themselves. Henson had cut a deal with Ideal Toys for the products.

You'd think these would've still been on the market around the time Sesame Street launched three years later, but nope.

Spooktober: Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat (1944)

 Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of split personalities goes feline when "Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat":

This was still early in the series, with Mighty Mouse wore a Superman-inspired blue & red costume. The more familiar yellow & red suit was still to come.

Rating: A.

Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: Say You Will (1988)

 From season 5 of Kids Incorporated:

In an election-themed episode, Stacy Ferguson (later Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas) shares lead vocals on a cover of Foreigner's 1987 hit, "Say You Will". In case you wonder, another future pop star, Martika (Marta Marrero), and actor-dancer-musician-do-everything Mario Lopez had long since left the series. Lopez, in fact, was on Good Morning, Miss Bliss by this point, and by 1988, Kids and Bliss (later retitled Saved by The Bell) were on Disney Channel.

Ryan Lambert had been in the movie "Monster Squad", also in '87 (no connection to the 1976 TV series of the same name), but has swapped music for filmmaking.

It Should've Been on a Saturday: Dinosaurs (1991)

 It was, for all intents and purposes, Jim Henson's last project before his passing in 1990. He had been working on a project involving dinosaurs, and the final product became a sitcom that was, in a way, Henson's answer to The Flintstones, which had marked its 30th anniversary in 1990.

Dinosaurs premiered in the spring of 1991, and was an almost immediate hit. The central family, the Sinclairs, were the tip-off that the series was also a satirical poke at the oil industry, since characters such as the Sinclairs and Earl's boss, a Mr. Richfield, were named for prominent oil companies (Richfield being part of Atlantic-Richfield, for example).

The voice cast included Stuart Pankin (Not Necessarily The News), Jessica Walter, Sherman Hemsley (Amen), Michelan Sisti ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"), Steve Landesberg (ex-Barney Miller), and Christopher Meloni, well before Law & Order: Special Victims Unit made him a primetime icon, and, well, now you know why he was so comfortable with cartoon work of late (i.e. Harley Quinn).

Why do I think it should've been on Saturdays? Repurposing, for one thing, to ensure it would have a strong, steady audience, as some folks might not have been watching on weeknights, and assumed, just because Henson's son, Brian, was an executive producer, that this was meant for the kiddo's. Then again, Flintstones was meant to be an adult cartoon, too.

Here's the intro:

Aside from a likely run on Disney Channel, the series was never released in syndication, for reasons known only to Disney. Their loss.

No rating.

Spooktober: The Three Stooges in Creeps (1956)

 It was a common practice back in the day for a comedy act to, ah, double up when a script called for them to have children.

In the case of The Three Stooges, Moe & Shemp Howard and Larry Fine double as their own sons, who have inherited their fathers' slapstick habits, as the fathers spin the tale of "Creeps":

"Creeps" was a remake of a 1949 short, also with Shemp. I've seen this one more frequently over the years, though.

Rating: B.

Spooktober: Terrifying Tales of Recess (2001)

 "Terrifying Tales of Recess" (italics mine, of course) is the sixth season opener of the series, which had just six episodes in its final season. In a way, it's Disney's answer to The Simpsons' annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes (which would constitute a DVD release all by itself). The three vignettes include a knockoff of the adaptation of Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, two years after another King story, Christine, was loosely adapted for Archie's Weird Mysteries.

No rating. Hadn't seen this the first time.