Eclectic Mayhem Special: The Big Saturday Morning Post!

So I don't talk about it a TON here on the blog, but I have mentioned before that I am a part of the Eclectic Mayhem Podcast along with my friends Brian, Jason, and Miss M... and we recently did an episode where we talked about our ULTIMATE Saturday Morning television lineups. 

One of the tasks that our host, Brian (of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame) gave us during the episode, was to try and actually watch some of our lineups, and then blog about that experience. So I'm just NOW getting around to that. (It's late I know, but I can't be ridiculously early like my cohort Jason of Nerdy Life of Mine was... or just generally on time like Miss M of Diary of a Dorkette was... Imma be me.)

I found the lion's share of my episodes on Youtube, and sat down to watch some of them with my two sons, who are currently 4 and 6 years old. Before I did into the meat of our viewing, I thought I'd post the listings here (The League of Extraordinary Bloggers did a challenge relating to this topic a while back, when there was still a League, and my post for that challenge was very similar, but in some important ways, also pretty different. You can read that here.)

7:00 – Teen Wolf 

7:30 – Real Ghostbusters 

8:00 – TMNT

8:30 – Thundercats

9:00 – Dungeons & Dragons

9:30 – Galaxy High

10:00 – Captain N

10:30 – Kid Video

11:00 – Muppet Babies

11:30 – Punky Brewster

So as you can see, my lineup kicks things off with Teen-Wolf, the animated series. This was a short-lived show from my youth that lasted only two original seasons. But what seasons they were! I was in LOVE with werewolves as a kid, thanks MOSTLY to this cartoon. 

Hearing the classic "Beware Scott! When the moon is full..." sent a shiver of pure joy down my spine. My kids seemed to really enjoy this too! The episode I wanted to watch was the one where a magical spell allows Scott's younger sister, Lupe, into a werewolf. She is too young to know yet if she can turn into one yet, and she desperately wants to be one. This episode was not to be found on youtube however, so I settled for the episode where she brings home a Moon Rock for her science project and we learn that having a chunk of the moon so close to a family of werewolves is never a good idea. 

The kids really dug the show, as I had hoped they would, and I found it held up pretty well, all things considered. These are all broken up into three parts on youtube, so I'm posting the first third here for your enjoyment. 

Next, The Real Ghostbusters!

Truth be told, I cheated a bit on this one. I watched this one on my own, and kind of skipped through the slow parts because my boys and I have been watching The Real Ghostbusters on DVD in the past 6 months or so, and I suspected they might not sit through it again. I picked "The Boogeyman Cometh" because it is one of my absolute FAVORITE episodes of this show from my childhood. The Boogeyman is INSANELY scary, and is a perfect example of how creative this show could get. 

There is a part of me that kind of enjoys the Real Ghostbusters cartoon just a little bit more than the movies, if I'm being 100% honest. I know the entire internet just collectively gasped and made some sort of evil-warding symbol in my direction... but let me explain. When I was a kid I had waaay more of a connection to the cartoon and the action figure line than I did to the movies, which ind of terrified me, to make another embarrassing confession. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE the Ghostbusters films. But back then, the Real Ghostbusters were... well... the REAL Ghostbusters to me. And so they still feel a little bit like that to me now as an adult. 

Up next: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

My kids are definitely not loving the classic TMNT as much as they like the Nicktoons version of the show. And while this brought me back to some extremely cool memories... I kind of have to agree with them. This episode features one of my favorite TMNT villains of all time though: Baxter Stockman! This goofy homage to Vincent Price's "The Fly" is also one of my favorite action figures of all time! 

I always used to LOVE using my Krang action figure and doing his voice as a kid. He had such a distinctive way of talking and I was convinced that my impression of his was DEAD on. Watching this episode brought me right back to those days, playing with my action figures. 

Next Up: Thundercats! 

I have talked on here about how awesome the Thundercats opening sequence is, and believe it or not, this was the FIRST TIME I had ever introduced this to my kids! And just as I had hoped... it LITERALLY melted their faces off. This episode features "Mandora the Evil Chaser" which was a ridiculously unwieldy name for a space cop. But Mandora was cool and she schools Lion-O more than once throughout the episode. 

Next up: A huge leap forward to Muppet Babies! 

So the kids were getting a little restless at this point, and we hadn't yet gotten to the show I REALLY wanted them to see at this point: The episode of Muppet Babies where the kids are given a video recorder to play with and they do what any nursery full of children would normally do: They make Star Wars! 

My kids are going through a massive Star Wars phase right now, and just like when I was a kid, I thought they would get a huge kick out of seeing the Muppet Babies do their own version of the story. And they did! This episode also brought me back to my childhood with the atomic blast of a nostalgia bomb. It was incredible! They totally did not understand why the Death Star was a tomato, even after I explained the whole bit involving Fozzie being terrified of tomatoes because of the throwing-tomatoes-at-bad-comedians thing. But that was about it. Otherwise the only other comment (from my 6 year old) was "There's no way they had all that stuff in their play room. It looks too good." My son understands production values and the struggles of the independent film maker. 

At some point I really want to get them back into this and show them the magic of Captain N: The Game Master, if nothing else. But I honestly feel like they would like just about ALL of the shows in my line-up. 

So what about you? What cartoons would you want to watch from 7 in the morning until GOLF comes on at 12? Let me know in the comments below, or HECK, write a blog post about it! If you end up doing that, toss a link in the comments below, or tweet your link to @EclecticMayhem4 on Twitter, or post it to our page for Eclectic Mayhem on Facebook! Or do all three! I'm all about the elf-promotion! (Hey... also follow us on those things, plus subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, and leave us a review!!! M'kay?)

So that's it for tonight kiddos! I'll be back sooner than soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or other nonsense). Only 83 days left until Halloween! Until then, Happy Hunting!