On The Air: Harlem Globetrotters: Play it Forward (2023)

 Overshadowed by the revival of Wild Kingdom last fall was the return of the Harlem Globetrotters to Saturday morning television for the first time in 45 years.

Harlem Globetrotters: Play it Forward is a reality series as part of NBC's The More You Know Saturday block, packaged by Hearst Entertainment. These are not your father's Globetrotters, but a new generation who have taken time out from their tour to educate audiences, and, in turn, educate themselves with various occupations.

Check the trailer from the team's YouTube channel:

Unlike each of the team's previous series, this one's likely to stick around a while.

Rating: A.

Tooniversary: Robo Force (1984)

 40 years ago, Ideal Toys had gotten into the business of creating a line of science fiction action figures, in competition with Hasbro, in particular.

Robo Force also spawned an animated pilot from Ruby-Spears, which, unfortunately, went nowhere, and was included in a 2015 DVD release of Challenge of The Go-Bots from Warner Video.

The voice cast had some familiar names, including B. J. Ward, John Stephenson, Michael Bell, Alan Young, and Peter Cullen. Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey served as a producer.

The Robo Force line was revived in 2013 by Toyfinity, which later sold the line to another company which is planning, as of 3 years ago, to produce a new animated series for streaming and cable.

Rating: B.

Saturday School: The Lone Ranger meets President Grant (1980)

 From season 1 of Filmation's The Lone Ranger:

The Masked Man (William Conrad) & Tonto travel to Utah to protect President Grant from a vengeful man Grant sent to prison years before. Also, Tonto (Ivan Naranjo) explains how the railroad united the East & West coasts.

Here's "The President Plot". Frank Welker is prominently heard.

Rating: A.

Rare Treats: There was almost a Moon Mullins show (1960)

 Before Space Angel. Before Clutch Cargo. Cambria Studios had planned on introducing their infamous synchro-vox system with an adaptation of the comic strip, Moon Mullins. Check this promo:

Unfortunately, Moon Mullins didn't clear enough markets to make it to the air. As we all know, Filmation acquired a license 11 years later, so Moon made his TV debut on Archie's TV Funnies.

Daytime Heroes: The Lone Ranger in Gold Trains (1950)

 The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) often encountered unexpected resistance when visiting small towns because, well, word hadn't gotten around about his exploits, so he's often mistaken for an outlaw himself.

In "Gold Trains", the Ranger runs into that problem, but things, of course, correct themselves just in the nick of time.

Hank Patterson (later of Green Acres) and DeForest Kelley (pre-Star Trek) guest.

Billy Bletcher (Horseface) was an unsung hero of the early days of cartoons. He often went uncredited for his work, especially at Warner Bros..

Rating: A.

Animated World of DC Comics: Your first look at Batman: Caped Crusader

 To paraphrase the Joker (Jack Nicholson) from 1989's "Batman", we now have a date to ease the pain of waiting for Batman: Caped Crusader on Amazon Prime.

The series begins dropping on Thursday, August 1. DC has supplied a trailer, which we got from IGN's channel on YouTube:

This should be fun to watch.

Saturday Morning Ringside: Remembering Sika (1945-2024)

 We had heard that Afa Anoia, 1/2 of the legendary Wild Samoans tag team, had been in ill health and in and out of hospitals the last few months. We didn't know that his brother and tag team partner, Sika, was also in ill health.

We've learned in the last few minutes that Sika has passed away.

The brothers began wrestling as a tag team in 1973, their exploits taking them through the NWA and then-World Wrestling Federation, where they made their debut in 1980, managed by Lou Albano.

Doubtlessly, there will be a tribute on Smackdown on Friday night. Sika's son, Leati Joseph Anoia (aka Roman Reigns), became the most successful Samoan wrestler with a nearly 3 year reign as champion until losing to Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania back in April. Sika, with brother Afa, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

Rest in peace.