Shaturday Morning Cartoons

In a tradition as old as Saturday morning cartoons themselves, we premiere the third season of SMC with a preview of the 1985 CBS cartoon lineup. This one is a who's who of random 80s celebrities, including Rowdy Roddy Piper, Patti LaBelle, Pee-Wee Herman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hervé Villechaize, New Edition and more. Stay tuned for the most convoluted game show in Shaturday history, Impression Your Luck!

The Shaturday crew pours themselves a disgustingly large bowl of cereal and braces themselves for an episode featuring ONLY the catchy theme songs to the weirdest Saturday morning cartoons.

Are you ready for some football? Some Mutant League football? Josh Schafer from Lunchmeat VHS lends us his VHS copy of the 1994 syndicated cartoon featuring skeletons, lizard men, and trolls tossing around the ol' pigskin. Plus, we show off more rare cartoons on VHS, take a guided tour through the history of toy footballs, and give ourselves Mutant League names. Hut, hut, hike!

Special guest star Laura Wimbels of Lenora’s Midnight Rental and The Big Bad B-Movie Show joins the Shaturday Boys to make incisive observations about the 1991 Swamp Thing cartoon. If you thought you’d seen it all, well, you’re going to see it again as the world’s best plant guy battles evil to save the environment. Or his friends. Or both. See astonishing asses, squirting projectiles, and vintage commercials for the weirdest toys. Spoiler Alert: Swamp Thing…he is AMAZING.

This week, Nick, Joe, George and guest Roy Miles blast off with Rickety Rocket and the gang! Four mystery-solving in teens in outer space, along with their cowardly sentient rocket, try to get the bottom of a monster who turns people into zombies. Plus, we take a deep dive into the career of actor Jack Bailey, who voices Sunstroke in Rickety Rocket, Roy shows off his vintage Hallowen mask collection, and George kicks off this year's edition of Mask Me Another!

The Shaturday crew collectively dip their toes into Camp Candy, a cartoon that John Candy produced, voiced and even sang in! Oh and he's gonna teach you about fish too! Plus round 2 of George's mask-based game show, Mask Me Another!

Just in time for Halloween, the Shaturday Boys invite video editor and FFF collaborator Mark Breese to watch the goofy and spooky 1986 Teen Wolf cartoon. This hair-raising episode features the most confused yet compassionate spin on punk culture in cartoon history, including, naturally, the Punk Wolf Rap. Then find out just how many wolfmen are hiding in vintage commercials. Finally, we say a somber goodbye to 2022’s hottest game show, Mask Me Another. As Lizard the Rap Wizard astutely observes, “You can’t party forever!”

This week, bonafide Al-heads Nick, Joe, George and Gabe Gronli of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert watch a couple episodes of the Fatman cartoons from 1997's The Weird Al Show. Plus, commercial parodies from the Al-iverse, stories about meeting Al, and the "Wierd Al Yankovich Limewire" game.

As a band, The Beatles did a lot of things right, but cartoon-wise, the jury is still out. Lennonology author and Beatles expert, Scott Raile join the Shat Boys to discuss the Beatles cartoon and to listen to some of the Fab Four's greatest and most undetectable midi song hits.

This week, the Shaturday Mysteries Gang meets an evil wizard, an exploding space pyramid, three talking pandas, and teenage siblings with a credit card. They must be watching the 1982 cartoon Pandamonium, guest starring a panda Voltron, hot human/cryptid action, and a narrator/laugh track battle that nobody wins. Plus: discontinued junk foods, panda excretion facts, and words that end in "-ium". Bring a shovel. It’s nonstop shat!

This week, we put the shat in Shaturday as Skip Elsheimer from A/V Geeks to take us on a guided tour through the weird history of Mr. Whipple commercials for Charmin toilet paper. Plus, we've got your cartoon content covered with commercials for animated holiday specials, including the He-Man/She-Ra Christmas Special and The Glo Friends Save Christmas. And Marvin Zindler, the "gotcha" news man from Houston, does an expose about a woman with frogs in her toilet.

This week, the Shaturday crew is joined by one of their favorite cartoonists, Johnny Ryan, to watch two disturbing Tom and Jerry cartoons. Plus, commercials featuring cat-and-mouse teams, and the Blecky Yuckerella Punchline Game. Play along at home with us! This episode is not safe for kids,, even thought Johnny's daughter Vivian is on his lap the whole time.

Sure, any comic strip can be turned into a cartoon, but can it be turned into a good cartoon? Join the Shaturday Morning Mysteries Gang as they learn the horrifying truth of 1971’s “Archie’s TV Funnies”. See once-renowned, now-obscure stars of early 20th century newspapers brought to life, and immediately wonder who thought this would be a good idea. So wake up, hop on the couch, and help yourself to a steaming bowl of shat that’ll help you fall right back asleep.

This week, Joe, Nick, and George are joined by Scott Miller of Strange Tapes to watch a VHS-only cartoon about pogs called The Legend of the Hawaiian Slammers. Plus, a short history of pogs, a heated debate about a coffee mug's gender, and a really dumb game show called Pog or Nogt!

It’s almost Boxing Day and you know what that means: hanging out with the Shaturday Gang to watch 1982’s “A Smurf Christmas Special”. All of your most embarrassing yuletide questions will be answered! What’s the deal with Gargamel? What does Satan have against the Smurfs? Can Belgium’s most famous non-waffle export restore your faith in humanity? Is Grandpa dead? You’ll smurf yourself right in the smurfing head, just in time for the holidays!

In the season finale, the Shaturday crew sits down with SNL-veteran, Kyle Mooney to watch a very special episode of the short-lived, Bravestarr. George curates some commercials that he thinks Kyle will like and Nick learns a valuable lesson that hard drugs and sugary cereals don't mix.

Wake up, kids! The rumors are true: The Shaturday Gang is finally back! They’re tanned, rested, and ready for more good, bad, and downright terrible cartoons. And this week they’ve got a doozy: a 1990 episode of Little Rosey. Yes, a controversial comedian tried to make a kid’s show, and wow do the Shatty Kids suffer for it. If that’s not enough, you’ll see the Japanese Prime Minister, the Micro Machines guy, and Dan Aykroyd singing 'We Are the World'. Finally, the S-Gang competes on a game show that makes them regress even further. It’s sure to shatten up even the crappiest day!

This morning on Shaturday Morning Cartoons, Nick's sister Jessica Rausch joins the crew to watch a cartoon designed to sell little monkey toys from Japan. But first, it's an old fashioned "gleek" competition between Jess and Joe. George serves up commercials that incorrectly use the word monkey for apes. Then, Joe asks Jessica to remember past childhood traumas caused by Nick!

While waiting until the blockbuster movie The Flash arrives in theaters (or at least until Ezra Miller’s antics derail its release), the Shaturday Gang watches Filmation’s obscure Flash and Green Lantern cartoons from 1967. But that’s not all! You’ll get problematic sidekicks, mad scientists, beautiful aliens, killer robots, space owls, janky animation, and our longest mug conversation yet! Still not satisfied? You’ll see outrageous superhero PSAs! You’ll hear an alarmingly superficial history of DC Comics! You’ll try to spot fake comic book characters in 2023’s hottest new game show, Challenge of the Superfrauds! So when life hands you lemons, make it a Shaturday.

Buckle up for a clowny good time as Joe, Nick and George welcomes actor and animation all-star Jason Griffith (Sonic the Hedgehog) to watch the universally disliked, The Little Clowns of Happytown! Will these lovable clowns bring joy and laughter to the jaded Shaturday crew? Tune in and find out, then stay tuned as Jason competes in the Clown Voice Challenge. There's even a cameo by Skip from A/V Geeks!

Nick and Joe are away, but the shat must go on! George and Caitlin, along with FFF’s favorite horror host, Laura “Lenora” Wimbels, welcome legendary comic book artist Stephen R. Bissette to the Shaturday Shack. They rescue a spine-chilling episode of 1994’s Monster Force from obscurity… and then put it right back! They also shoot the shat about the Universal Monsters, hot Lugosi gossip, horrific pinball machines, scary video games, terrifying Pepsi tie-ins, freaky toy recycling, and, of course, Steve’s unparalleled run on Saga of the Swamp Thing. All this plus goofy monster commercials and a zany, mixed-up monster game? It'll be a scream!* *Scream not guaranteed for all viewers of Shaturday Morning Cartoons.

Nick and Joe are still on tour, so George and Caitlin welcome back Lenora herself, Laura Wimbels, and producer/director/reformed meathead Steve Lawrence into the Spiral Zone, 1987’s most ambitious animated mind control parable. Will the Zone Riders destroy the Zone Generators and defeat Overlord and the Black Widows in the future year of 2007? Find out as the Shaturday Kidz discuss cartoon dance parties, Steve’s secret professional life, porn star names, and, of course, Savage Mondo Blitzers. Then bet it all on a high stakes game of Animation or Fabrication. And that’s one to shat on.

Nick, Joe and George welcome Hoodlan creator Roy Miles back on the show to watch 1984's Pink Panther & Sons, featuring the panther's offspring, Pinky and Panky. Plus, we dive into nearly 50 years of brand confusion about the Pink Panther, including everything from cartoons to insulation to liver salts. And stick around for a new game about animated title sequences to live action movies.

This week, comedy writer and former Nintendo employee Mike Drucker joins us to watch 1989's The Legend of Zelda cartoon, featuring a particularly jerky Link. Plus, commercials for obscure NES games, a contentious game show called Legends of the Titles of the Legends, and Nick's refusal to admit that Nintendo won the NES-Sega console war. Not a Zelda fan? Well, excuuuuse us, Princess!

Caitlin’s rolodex does it again! Joining the Shaturday Gang to watch 1967’s Justice League of America & Teen Titans is famed animator, illustrator, designer, and director J. J. Sedelmaier, best known for co-creating The Ambiguously Gay Duo and SNL’s TV Funhouse, as well as for his pivotal work on Beavis & Butthead, Harvey Birdman, and roughly one zillion other incredible projects. The gang goes deep and dirty, talking about comic books, comic strips, animation, commercials, Saturday Night Live, Wisconsin, Columbus, Cleveland, Metropolis, and way, way too much more. Oh, and just wait until you hear about his dad!

Comic strip royalty, Brian Walker, joins the Shaturday shquad to watch Beetle Bailey, a short-lived series from the 60s, and then play a game that will leave you plewding! (it'll make sense later)

This week, we kick off Pride Month with Keith Garcia and two classic cartoons about a pink mountain lion. Plus, a history of queer cartoon characters, a game about cartoon sexuality called "OK, But Are They?," and the origin of the phrase, "heavens to murgatroyd!"

Time to burn your D.A.R.E. t-shirts and roll up a tea cigarette because the Shaturday crew is watching a 1988 "Just Say No" special by The Flintstone Kids! Plus, anti-drug PSAs, a performance by Michael Jackstone, a game called "Who's Who in Hollyrock?," and a lot of references to Harmony Korine.

Spend your Saturday morning with the Shaturday Shquad and the Sky Dancers (1997)! If you enjoy complicated plots with way too many characters who are all seemingly named Skylar, then Sky Dancers is for you! Stick around after the cartoon to play Joe's awful game about injuries!

They said it couldn't be done, but we did it anyway: It's the 100th episode of Shaturday Morning Cartoons! Join our self-congratulatory retrospective as we stare down the good, the bad, and the absolutely unforgivable animated series we've watched in a cutthroat trivia game. Cartoon nipples? Check! Welker voices? Check! Patti LaBelle? Check! Our game show has it all! We revisit the zaniest commercials we've ever shown, hear Joe tell us what he's learned, and attend the star-studded first annual Shatty Awards! But mainly, we just shoot the shat like we've done since September 2020. It's a hearty shat you'll be recovering from all summer long!