Category Archives: classic tv

Previously on a Saturday morning…

With the previous post announcing my sad attempt to recapture my youth on a Saturday morning I thought why not see if others are interested in doing the same.

Plus to follow along I thought I better share where I am after the first Saturday morning watching the shows. Jut in case folks need or wants to play catch up.

Thundercats

  • S1E1 – Exodus
  • S1E2 – The Unholy Alliance
  • S1E3 – Berbils

Batman the Animated Series

  • S1E1 – On Leather Wings
  • S1E2 – Christmas with the Joker
  • S1E3 -Nothing to Fear

Dungeon & Dragons the cartoon

  • S1E1 – The Night of No Tomorrow
  • S1E2 – The Eye of the Beholder
  • S1E3 – The Hall of Bones
  • S1E4 – Valley of the Unicorns

As I briefly review what I have written (and yes mistakes still get through) I realised that I had not said why I chose these three cartoons to start with. So that’s rectify this right now.

I chose Batman the Animated Series not because I watched it during the seventies growing up, or even the home computer boom years of the early to mid eighties. The series didn’t actually come out until what ‘89 or their abouts after the Tim Burton movies. The cartoon captures the aesthetics, and tone of the the Burton movies perfectly. It had edge. I do have a special relationship with Batman that I explain away in a very long post due to be seen by the world in the later half of October. So because of a reason that will eventually become clear I added it. Plus I have fond memories of catching episodes at the time.

Thundercats and the Dungeon and Dragons cartoon are two shows that I have very fond memories of watching as a I went from a kid to a teenager in the early eighties. Often these shows were an escape from the world, moving up from a primary school to a secondary school, bullying, etc. I can’t say I saw every episode. Don’t forget tv viewing was vastly different to now. Often you would miss an episode for some reason such as tea, on holiday, etc. There were rarely repeats of kids cartoons.

Another factor that also influenced the choice was the affordability and availability of the series as well. For instance my holy grail of the complete Battle of the Planets is not easily available and those copies that are for sale are very very expensive. Too expensive for me to justify the purchase.

I’ve also added a couple more shows to the Saturday morning schedule. See the photo below to see what they are. As I write this the New Adventures of Batman is on its way.

Two new shows arrived to add to the Saturday morning viewing. I’ll talk more about them in a future post and their significance to me once I start watching them.

But for those wishing to join me in this walk down memory lane I’ll put a post up with that Saturdays planned viewing. Which we can then discuss in the posts comments after we’ve watched them.

A third retro tv project idea

Having Blake’s 7 and MASH dvd boxsets sitting on my shelves waiting to be shown some love by being watched. I thought these would be a great start to a retro midweek tv project.

Shows I’d like to add to this new project include Sapphire and Steel (ordered second hand from Oxfam, so awaiting delivery), Wonder Woman (surprisingly affordable), The Six Billion Dollar Man (you would not believe how expensive this is), The Man from Atlantis (nor this), and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (budget friendly). Shows I have fond memories of watching as a kid and teenager.

I have the germs of a fourth retro tv project as well that revolves around the tv I used to watch as a kid on the holidays. Such as the 1930s (I think that’s when they came out, although could be the 40s) serials for Flash Gordon (already own), Buck Rogers, and King of the Rocket Men (already own). I’m going to add Thunderbirds (yep have these too), Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Space 1999 and UFO to this list.