On June 25, Me-TV Toons debuts. It may not show up on your cable system right away---you may need to contact your local provider---but this is what Cartoon Network used to be, 30 years ago. Ever since they got away from their mission statement, fans have wanted an all-toon channel everyone can appreciate. Scope:
Stay tooned.
When CBS brought back The Charlie Brown & Snoopy Show in 1985, the cast was overhauled, and a new, peppier theme song, co-written & sung by Desiree Goyette (ex-You Asked For It) was added. This episode is headlined by a visit from Snoopy's brother, Spike.
Blondie & Dagwood (Loni Anderson & Frank Welker) return in another animated special.
This time, the Bumsteads, anticipating a bonus from Mr. Dithers (Alan Oppenheimer), start spending the extra money waaaaaaaaaay too early, and that usually means disaster.
Hearst Entertainment took over production on this project from Marvel.
We had this one up before, then it was taken down by YouTube due to copyrights. So, we'll see how long this lasts.
Anyway, Fonzie (Henry Winkler) encounters a mystery girl named Kat Mandu (Deborah Pratt), who ends up helping Da Fonz against an old rival......
This montage sees Kat doing a "demonstration" with Ralph (Donny Most), and it ends with Kat clearing the decks for Fonzie vs. Rico.....
Attack of The Killer Tomatoes, spun from the namesake movie and its initial sequel, spent two seasons on Fox (1990-2).
In the opener, Dr. Gangreen (John Astin) uses a whistle to initiate an attack that could imperil his failed experiments, FT (S. Scott Bullock) and Tara (Kath Soucie, Captain Planet, Real Ghostbusters), a tomato who has morphed into a human teen.
From Disney's Wonderful World of Color:
"Nature's Charter Tours", narrated by George Walsh, and starring J. Audubon Woodlore (Bill Thompson), explains how nature supposedly invented the concept of the charter tour.
From season 3 of Love, American Style:
Len Weinrib and Max Baer (a year removed from Beverly Hillbillies) are football players, and Max's character just got married, which is a big no-no with their coach (Ray Walston, ex-My Favorite Martian). Here's "Love & The Fullback":
The Three Stooges are janitors cleaning up a PI's office. Shemp, however, begins daydreaming, repositing the boys as detectives helping a damsel in distress (Christine McIntyre), and chaos follows. Here's "Dopey Dicks":
One of the oldest tropes in fiction is employed in this episode of Mission: Magic. Rick Springfield is being impersonated by a villain, and the kids & Ms. Tickle have a hard time figuring out this puzzle.
Wal, the Three Stooges were mighty comfortable with the way of the Western.
1950's "Punchy Cowpunchers" has them in the military, sent undercover to cut down an outlaw gang, in the process helping a singing cowboy (Jock Mahoney, billed as Jock O'Mahoney), and his girlfriend, who owns a saloon, clean up the town.
We've previously seen Fernando Escalone (El Dorado from Super Friends) in a Tostitos ad with future primetimer Rene Enriquez. Here, in this 1982 ad, there's no mistaking his co-star. Didi Conn (Benson, Fonz & The Happy Days Gang) is serving the tortilla chips, having gotten a taste of the product.
Our Gang, aka The Little Rascals, gained an enemy is school bully Butch (Tommy Bond) in 1937's "Glove Taps".
Butch claims he beats up the other boys just to prove he's in charge. Since it seems he's playing hooky, along with his sidekick, Woim, it's curious the truant officer never comes after him. Anyway, Alfalfa gets pulled into a fight with Butch.....
Here's a rare episode of the original Winky Dink & You with Jack Barry.
Winky (Mae Questel) and Jack have to deal with the prankster, Mr. Bungle (Dayton Allen, Howdy Doody) in this one.
From season 2 of He-Man & The Masters of The Universe (1983):
Man-at-Arms explains how Cringer first became Battlecat after Orko's attempt at an experiment backfires.
In the early years of television, NBC had one of the era's biggest children's series in Howdy Doody, which was an after-school treat weekday afternoons. Once upon a time, they experimented with entertainment on Sunday mornings, before Sundays became over-run with news programming.
The Magic Clown was a 15 minute series that ran for 5 seasons (1949-54), and went through three magicians in the title role. NBC eventually dropped the show, and it became a regional entry, airing on a DuMont affiliate before hitting regional syndication.
Following is a sample episode.
Levi's commissioned animator-director Peter Chung to create this 1990 spot. Chung, of course, would later go on to create Aeon Flux for MTV, and Phantom 2040 for King Features in syndication.
"Mask Task" is the 2nd season opener for Peter Potamus, who uses the time travel component of his balloon to travel to the American West of the 19th century in a parody of Zorro, although Peter (Daws Butler) is outfitted similarly to Quick Draw McGraw's alter-ego of El Kabong.
Johnny Jupiter lasted one calendar year, split between two networks, DuMont & ABC, failing to gain enough of an audience to merit an extended run.
When Jupiter debuted on DuMont in the spring of 1953, his human mentor, Ernest, was a janitor and a tinkerer. When the series moved to ABC, Ernest was de-aged to about college age, and now had a different job. Wright King took over the role of Ernest, with Gilbert Mack voicing the puppets.
The shift in networks also led to a sponsorship deal with M & M's candies. Check out Mack singing the jingle in character early in the show.
Check out this sampler.
Popeye (Jack Mercer) is on a movie set with Olive as Marc Antony & Cleopatra, respectively. Brutus (Jackson Beck) is trying to pass himself off as a French director, but William Snyder & Gene Deitch's crew couldn't be bothered to outfit him in something more befitting the part.
And you wonder why I thumbed my nose at the Snyder-Deitch era of Popeye shorts. Here's "Matinee Idol Popeye".
The world's greatest cover band, Sha Na Na, appeared on The Midnight Special to perform covers of "Get a Job" (The Silhouettes), which later became their TV theme song, and "Sh-Boom" (The Crewcuts). Denny Greene sings lead on both, aided by Johnny Contardo & Lennie Baker ("Get a Job") and Jon "Bowzer" Bauman ("Sh-Boom").
From season 2 of He-Man & The Masters of The Universe (1983 series):
Teela is asked to, ah, housesit Castle Grayskull when the Sorceress is sent to another world by Skeletor. Her own self-doubts stand in the way. Or do they?
Here's "Teela's Triumph", which was later remade in the 2002 series.
Spurred on by the success of their weekday Toon in to Me block and their Saturday morning package, which currently is headlined by Woody Woodpecker, Me-TV , through its parent company, Weigel Broadcasting, is launching an all-cartoon channel next month.
Think of what Cartoon Network looked like when it launched more than 30 years ago.
And to think this begins just after the kiddo's go on summer vacation. The timing is perfect for them, and older fans, too.
Stay tooned.
Update, 5/29/24: A trailer has been added and MeTV Toons now has its own YouTube channel.
Sylvester tries out a new partner, a bulldog named Mike, in Friz Freleng's 1950 farce, "Stooge For a Mouse".
Today, you'd be hard pressed to find Sunbeam bread in your local stores, but for years, it was readily available, and, locally, it was marketed alongside Freihofer's line of breads.
Sunbeam was introduced in 1942. In 1984, its mascot, Little Miss Sunbeam, made rare appearance in this ad.
