Talking in Circles

Talking In Circles – Episode 42 – The Ultimate Saturday Morning

TinC-ipod

Long live Saturday morning cartoons! Get ready for a large dose of nostalgia as we remember Saturday morning cartoons the best way we know how. We attempt to create the ultimate Saturday morning lineup and give you the power to vote for the best one. So pour you favorite brand of sugar filled cereal, put on your best pair of footy pajamas, and get prepared to relive the glory days of your television childhood.

Who Created The Best Lineup?
Chuck
Dan
Greg

Poll Maker

Chuck’s Lineup

Dan’s Lineup

Greg’s Lineup

 

Geeks:

Dan “Movierevolt” Clark

Greg Beppler

Chuck Davis

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Download TIC_EP042.mp3

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Dan Clark

A fan of all things comics, movies, books, and whatever else I can find that pass the time. Twitter: @DXO_Dan Instagram: Comic_concierge

29 Comments

  1. I really wish this could be done. I’d love to have control over creating a cartoon lineup. I’d have to include Batman, G.I. Joe, Beast Wars, Eeek the Cat, Freakazoid, and Doug. I ended up voting for Dan’s lineup mainly for Muppet Babies and Garfield. Two of my personal favorites that I would also include.

    1. Well thanks for the vote! Freakazoid was a fun cartoon. Kids WB did have some crazy cool stuff in its day. Earth Worm Jim was another one I enjoyed.

    1. I like that lineup except for The Mask. I could never get into that one. Everything else is really good.

      1. Somehow I completely missed that there was a Mask cartoon show. When did that happen?

        1. It was mid 90’s around the same time as the Ace Ventura cartoon which was crap, it would have been better if Rob Paulsen did it like the Mask. This cartoon was 2 seasons but great.

  2. Once Greg picked Real Ghostbusters it was a checkmate for me. Add Ren and Stimpy and you have two of my all time favorites

  3. So this is the way I look at it. For the first hour I would go to Chuck’s channel. Ducktales and Chip N’ Dale Rescue Rangers, I mean come on. No question there. Second hour is really difficult. I give a slight edge to Dan’s channel cause of Muppet Babies. I miss that cartoon so much and would love the chance to see it again. Third hour is easily Chuck. Turtles and Batman. That’s one awesome hour of cartoons. Last hour giving it to Greg. I am actually a Pokémon fan. What is weird is I only watch the cartoon and never played the game. And Ren and Stimpy is genius. That cartoon only grew on me as I grew older. So since I’d be watching Chuck’s channel for two hours I voted for him.

    1. Yea Chuck’s third hour was a genius move. Thought I could pick up one of those but he he got them both.

  4. My lineup would be:

    7AM-Recees

    7:30-Kim Possible

    8:00-Yugio

    8:30-Dragonball

    9:00-Doug

    9:30-Spongebob

    10AM-Fairly Odd Parents

    10:30-Phineas and Ferb

    11AM-Transformers the Animated Series

    11:30AM-Wolverine and the X-Men

    1. Great choices there. My would be similar. I had quite a thing for Kim Possible as a kid. The cartoon was great and she looked amazing. My first cartoon crush.

    2. looking at that list makes me feel really old. I didn’t watch any of those for the most part.

  5. Great choices from all, some glaring omissions but I’ll let that slide. I would have to give this one to Dan though as far as top to bottom goodness!

  6. Chuck had the most surprising choices with Johnny Bravo and Ghost Writer. I did not expect to hear either of those. My favorite choice was Muppet Babies. Like many that too help shaped my love for things like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. I ended up voting for Dan’s lineup cause it was the only one that didn’t have a cartoon I didn’t care for. Not a fan of the Beetlejuice cartoon or Bobby’s World. I could never get into either of those shows.

    1. Really Bobby’s World? Don’t think I met someone who did not care for that show. Interesting.

  7. I actually do like Batman Beyond more than Batman the Animated Series. Both a great mind you. Just the universe of Batman Beyond is more intriguing to me and it was something we never saw before.

    1. Lol, that was more spin on my part. I do like Batman Beyond but I wouldn’t say I enjoy it more than BTAS. The only thing from Beyond that gets to BTAS level is the Return of the Joker movie.

  8. For me: 7AM-Fat Albert, 7:30-Scooby Doo, 8AM-Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters, 8:30-Smurfs, 9AM-Pee Wee’s Playhouse, 9:30-The Jetsons, 10AM-Thudercats, 10:30- GJ Joe, 11AM Transformers 11:30 Beast Wars

    1. Fat Albert! Respect with that choice. If you are going to go educational that’s a great place to start.

  9. Now that I have had a chance to listen to the episode and fully digest everything and to do my best impersonation of one of you previous listeners…

    “When it comes down to judging the competitors vying for a shot at having their lineup crowned ‘The Ultimate Saturday Morning’ many different angles could be considered. Is it, who had the best cartoons from top to bottom? Is it who had the best cartoons present regardless of the rest of their list? How about every half hour if these shows were competing on air against each other who would have the largest viewership? Can one bad choice knock the whole lineup down a notch? What about who had the most diverse lineup OR who had the best flow from beginning to end. No one wants to be jolted around going from action to comedy, back to action etc etc. Also, should we consider who placed their programs in the most appropriate time slot rather than grab a popular show early that in reality doesn’t fit that early time slot in the end?

    All these questions and more must be considered when trying to decide such an important honor as that which lies before us. Perhaps the easiest thing to do is break each lineup down one by one and try to make our way to a final grade.

    Let’s start with Channel Greg:

    One has to question the motives behind Greg’s first choice. Was he simply playing a game of ‘I’m going to pick this show first, so no one else can and I can’t risk waiting till a more appropriate time slot’ OR was Greg’s argument about choosing a show to wake up the kiddies really worth it’s weight in fruit loops. One can’t argue against including Animaniacs in their lineup though regardless or the means or method behind it. Although one can’t argue with the mass appeal of the Power Ranger fandom and perhaps the play to appeal to those voters, Greg’s list takes a big step backward from this viewer for even considering including the MMPR gang. I give Greg credit with including one of the Disney classics but Darkwing pales in comparison to his fellow contestant Chuck’s Disney selections. At this point Greg’s list takes a dramatic turn with the back to back inclusion of The Real Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice. Perhaps if this was competing with a Saturday Night SNICK block with the likes of Are You Afraid of the Dark Greg would have something…but Saturday Morning? Greg made another appeal to the masses with his Pokemon selection and although you can’t question the quality of Ren & Stimpy or the X-Men series you can question the fluidity of this channel’s lineup overall. It seems to be a bit all over the place and I’m not sure if any one person would sit down from beginning to end without flipping the channel. With his appeals to the masses side by side with his niche picks it feels like Greg might have been throwing darts at a childhood photo album and not trying to come up with the Ultimate Saturday Morning.

    Great shows selected but that’s not all it takes to make a great lineup
    Overall Grade: C-

    Next up was Chuck who caused headaches for the other contestants with every other pick. Chuck started off super strong with a pairing of perhaps two of the greatest Disney Afternoon toons in Ducktales and Rescue Rangers. This also gave the first hour a nice theme for the children to understand and digest. It may have been a better idea to place Tom and Jerry in one of the earlier slots but I can’t fault someone who respects the classics. The 10 o-clock hour also was a high point for Chuck with the pairing of TMNT and Batman TAS. Perhaps the biggest missteps in this lineup were the inclusion of Johnny Bravo and Ghost Writer. Nothing against these show….well at least nothing against Ghost Writer, but to list these show in an Ultimate Saturday Morning is questionable at best and may have been two instances where the viewers would be flipping to his competitors.

    Outstanding shows and a better flow with only a few minor flaws
    Overall Grade: B+

    Finally we have Channel Dan. Dan may not have had the best shows 1-8 but he easily had the most logical flow to his morning. Dan started off with the early morning appropriate shows and paired up both a legendary classic along with a more modern gem by pairing Looney Tunes and Smurfs. The judges are going to love that. He then gradually transitions the mood with Garfield and Muppet Babies…which unlike some of the other choices today were actual Saturday morning staples. One can’t argue his choice to go into superheroes/action shows later in the morning even if he missed out on Batman TAS and had to resort to Batman Beyond and Spider-Man. A well timed play towards the voting audience with Transformers. However, there was a misstep at the end as he passed up on so many classic in favor of the Tick.

    Best flow by far even if there were some shows in the other lineups that may have been superior
    Overall Grade: A-

    Looking through the lineups a few things are obvious. We were definitely dealing with a 90s generation here. And although many of them say they can’t get into the earlier shows, 80s specifically, one has to point out that the generations before and after them feel the exact same way about the 90s ;) – If you break it down by time-slot the viewership may have gone like this:

    8:00 – Split 3 ways – Such great choices
    8:30 – Chuck with Rescue Rangers
    9:00 – Dan with Garfield and Friends
    9:30 – Dan with Muppet Babies in a runaway
    10:00 – Chuck with TMNT another runaway
    10:30 – Chuck with Batman TAS
    11:00 – Dan with Transformers
    11:30 – Greg with Ren & Stimpy

    So, there you have it, for the first time, Dan comes away a winner!

    1. Quite the breakdown there. Thanks it was a great read. I would say I do consider Tick a classic. It has quite the strong following especially with the Comic Book crowd, and was just a genius level cartoon at times. There are probably more classic cartoons like Thundercats, GI Joe, or others that may appeal to larger audiences but I felt Tick gives the lineup more personality as there is nothing else quite like it.

    1. Interesting choices. I debated about Spongebob but I never really watched it, and figured I go more old school for some of my earlier choices. Scooby Do is a great pick up. One we should have mentioned. My favorite choice is probably Gummi Bears, least favorite probably Alvin and the Chipmunks. Those voices were like nails on a chalkboard to me.

      1. Yea I never watched spongebob either. My biggest debates were between tiny toons and pinky and the brain, between Alvin and inspector gadget, between Heman and gi Joe and between gummi bears and talespin. I will say that I would have probably fought for animaniacs, Garfield, Muppet babies, transformers and tmnt though if I had had the chance! You gotta let me guest on one of these types of shows in the future! I’m definitely jealous of all the fun stuff you guys do!

  10. The only issue I see with these lists is that most Cartoon lineups started at 7 AM and this list starts at 8 AM. I am liking this run down nostalgia lane though as it’s been interesting with the reasons on the shows showing up.

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