Corky Bloom Studio

Crushing a bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning hasn’t been the same for awhile.  With the lack of cartoons on television on the weekends, it makes a Saturday morning kind of a bummer. Okay, I’ll be honest, there are some cartoons on a Saturday morning, but not the ones I really want to watch. I want to watch the ones that I grew up watching in the 80’s like G. I. Joe or Transformers. Then there are the ones that have disappeared from the minds of the kids of the 80’s. Now that I’m older, I want to experience some of those cartoons that were forgotten.  I did take the time to watch three cartoons that happen to pop into my head. I have to admit that it was like visiting some old friends.

I had an argument with someone that there was a Karate Kid cartoon back in the day. Of course I won this argument, but for some reason the cartoon was a lot better in my head. This series took place after the Karate Kid part 2 as Daniel, Mr Miyagi and Taki went around the globe to find a miniature shrine that was taken from Okinawa. Every time they seem to get the shrine they ended up losing it. This was what went on for 13 episodes. One good thing that came from this show was the kick ass theme song, but everything else was so lame. I wonder how I got sucked into this world and then I realize I watched all 13 episodes in a couple of hours. The show got me again.

Another Saturday morning cartoon that I tried to watch again is Saturday Supercade. Back in the day, arcades were the cool thing to do. Arcade machines would gobble up quarters like a reverse ATM. The kids had a strong attachment to these characters of the arcade machine, which lead to some smart people to come up with a cartoon featuring these characters to make more money. This was how Saturday Supercade was born. The show would feature short episodes with popular characters like Frogger, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Q*bert, Pitfall Harry, Space Ace and Kangaroo. Some of the characters would rotate weekly. I loved this show as a kid. My favourite was Space Ace and to think I only finished the game last year. Unfortunately, you can only watch this on YouTube and the quality is horrible. If anything, you show watch it for the theme song.

You can’t have a Saturday morning cartoon lineup without robots. Hell, I don’t think you can have any cartoon lineup without robots. Mighty Orbots was that fill for robots on a Saturday morning. The cartoon lasted for one season before it went into obscurity. With a catchy theme song, this cartoon was about six robots that protected the galaxy from the evil organization SHADOW. The cartoon had it all. There was space, robots and aliens. I remembered being glued to the television for this series. I would still watch this show, but it’s hard to find high quality episodes. There are some episodes on YouTube, but it’s just hard to watch because of the quality.

To be honest, these cartoons don’t hold up to today cartoons. You can see the mistakes in some of the design and there were some bad voice overs. Still, this was my childhood and it was like stepping into a time machine. Also, I’m a sucker for cheesy cartoon theme songs. I just find it helps set the tone of these shows. I want to explore more 80’s cartoons, but my time is preoccupied. Now I eat my cereal while watching an anime called Hunter X Hunter. One thing for sure, it’s nothing like my old Saturday morning cartoons.

Here are Karate Kid, Saturday Supercade and Mighty Orbots theme songs.

Karate Kid

Saturday Supercade

Mighty Orbots