Back When Your Entire Weekend Started With Cartoons And Cereal
There was a time when Saturday mornings felt magical. You woke up way too early, grabbed the biggest bowl of cereal your parents would allow, planted yourself inches from the TV, and disappeared into a world of talking animals, superheroes, ghosts, and disco bands solving crimes for some reason. These cartoons were once absolute staples of childhood, but many of them have faded so far into obscurity that younger generations barely know they existed at all.
Screenshot from Josie and the Pussycats, CBS (1970)
Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey was technically a superhero, but honestly, he spent most of his time accidentally wrecking things. Voiced by Scatman Crothers, the kung fu crime-fighting dog became unforgettable thanks to his funky theme song and total lack of competence. Kids absolutely loved him anyway because sometimes chaos is more fun than actual heroics.
Screenshot from Hong Kong Phooey, Warner Bros. Entertainment (1974)
Josie And The Pussycats
This show combined pop music, fashion, mystery-solving, and random spy adventures into one gloriously chaotic package. The songs were genuinely catchy, and the colorful animation screamed early 70s cool. Long before cartoon soundtracks became common, Josie and the gang were basically touring rock stars.
Screenshot from Josie And The Pussycats, Warner Bros. Entertainment (1970-1971)
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Before Scooby became a giant franchise machine, the original show had this weirdly cozy spooky vibe that kids adored. Every episode featured abandoned mansions, creepy carnivals, suspicious janitors, and psychedelic chase scenes set to groovy music. It somehow made being terrified of ghosts feel extremely fun.
Screenshot from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1969-1978)
Super Friends
For a lot of 70s kids, this cartoon was superheroes. Seeing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman teaming up every weekend felt massive at the time. The dialogue was cheesy, the morals were obvious, and nobody cared because watching giant villains attack Earth before breakfast ruled.
Screenshot from Super Friends, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1973-1985)
The Funky Phantom
This was basically Scooby-Doo with a Revolutionary War ghost, and somehow that was enough to get kids fully invested. The ghost constantly made corny jokes while teenagers solved mysteries around him. It only lasted briefly, but the bizarre concept burned itself into plenty of Saturday morning memories.
Screenshot from The Funky Phantom, ABC (1971-1972)
The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show
Some executive looked at The Flintstones and apparently thought, “What if they were teenagers with a band?” Suddenly Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were dealing with music gigs, crushes, and teen drama in prehistoric suburbia. It was weirdly adorable and extremely 1970s.
Screenshot from The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show, Claster Television Productions (1971-1972)
The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop
Every episode involved Penelope almost dying in the most cartoonishly elaborate traps imaginable while villains twirled metaphorical mustaches nearby. The whole thing felt like a parody of old silent movie serials, except way louder and much more ridiculous. Kids loved the nonstop chaos.
Screenshot from The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop,Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1969-1970)
Groovie Goolies
This cartoon asked an important question: what if Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman started a rock band? Somehow the answer worked. The monsters cracked jokes, performed bubblegum pop songs, and lived together like spooky roommates. It felt like Halloween mixed with a Saturday morning dance party.
Screenshot from Groovie Goolies, CBS (1970-1972)
Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids
At its peak, this show felt different from almost every cartoon around it. It mixed humor with lessons about friendship, honesty, and growing up without sounding preachy. The junkyard band and neighborhood stories made it feel grounded in a way most fantasy cartoons were not.
Screenshot from Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids,CBS (1972-1985)
Star Trek: The Animated Series
This cartoon somehow managed to take Star Trek and make it even stranger. Alien creatures got weirder, planets got more bizarre, and the stories often felt surprisingly ambitious for a Saturday morning cartoon. Many fans completely forget it exists until somebody reminds them Captain Kirk once fought giant space nonsense in animation form.
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Animated Series, Paramount Television (1973-1974)
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie
This felt huge as a kid. Instead of regular short episodes, you got full animated TV movies starring familiar cartoon characters. Watching one felt like an event, even if half the plots involved Hanna-Barbera characters getting lost somewhere and yelling at each other for an hour.
Screenshot from The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, ABC(1972-1973)
Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
Dynomutt was basically a robotic superhero dog held together by bad wiring and blind confidence. He constantly malfunctioned while trying to help Blue Falcon save the day. The destruction level in every episode was honestly impressive, especially considering he was technically one of the heroes.
Screenshot from Dynomutt, Dog Wonder,Warner Bros. Television (1976-1977)
Laff-A-Lympics
This show threw every Hanna-Barbera character into Olympic-style competitions and somehow created total cartoon madness. Scooby-Doo racing against Yogi Bear while villains cheated in absurd ways felt like the animated version of a playground argument about who would win in a fight.
Screenshot from Laff-A-Lympics, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1977-1978)
Challenge Of The Superfriends
This version finally gave the heroes actual supervillains instead of random natural disasters and aliens. The Legion of Doom headquarters alone was enough to blow kids’ minds back then. Watching all those DC heroes battle giant teams of villains every week felt unbelievably cool.
Screenshot from Challenge Of The Superfriends, Warner Bros. Entertainment (1978)
Battle Of The Planets
A lot of American kids watched this without realizing they were basically watching anime. Compared to other cartoons of the time, it felt faster, darker, and way more intense. The spaceships looked cooler, the action felt bigger, and suddenly every kid wanted to save the galaxy before lunch.
Screenshot from Battle Of The Planets, Sandy Frank Entertainment (1978-1985)
The New Adventures Of Flash Gordon
Once Star Wars exploded, everybody wanted space adventures, and this cartoon leaned all the way in. Flash Gordon battled aliens, tyrants, and giant monsters across the universe while looking incredibly dramatic doing it. It had that perfect mix of cheap animation and giant imagination.
Screenshot from The New Adventures Of Flash Gordon, King Features Syndicate (1979-1982)
The Pink Panther Show
The Pink Panther barely talked, yet somehow had more personality than most cartoon casts combined. The smooth jazz music and visual comedy gave the show a cooler, calmer vibe than the louder cartoons around it. It felt classy even when complete nonsense was happening.
Screenshot from The Pink Panther Show, ABC (1969-1978)
The Addams Family
Turning the Addams Family into a cartoon somehow made them even stranger. Gomez bounced around with endless enthusiasm, Wednesday stayed delightfully creepy, and the whole thing leaned heavily into goofy supernatural chaos. It was creepy enough for kids to feel rebellious without actually scaring anybody.
Screenshot from The Addams Family, ABC (1973-1975)
Inch High, Private Eye
The entire concept here was “tiny detective solves crimes,” and honestly, that was enough. Inch High used gadgets, disguises, and sheer luck to crack cases while being only a few inches tall. It was bizarre even by Hanna-Barbera standards, which is really saying something.
Screenshot from Inch High, Private Eye, Warner Bros. Discovery (1973)
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour
For many kids, this was the gateway to classic Looney Tunes insanity. Watching Wile E. Coyote destroy himself for the hundredth time somehow never got old. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Road Runner felt faster, funnier, and slightly more unhinged than newer cartoon characters.
Screenshot from The Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1960-2000)
The New Adventures Of Gilligan
Somebody actually looked at Gilligan’s Island and decided it needed to become animated. Oddly enough, it worked. The cartoon let the castaways deal with aliens, monsters, and sci-fi disasters the original series never could afford, making the island somehow even weirder.
Screenshot from The New Adventures Of Gilligan, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1974-1975)
Harlem Globetrotters
This cartoon turned the real Harlem Globetrotters into mystery-solving adventurers because apparently that made perfect sense in the 1970s. Basketball was almost secondary to the bizarre adventures. The entire thing had that wonderful old-cartoon energy where nobody questioned anything.
Screenshot from Harlem Globetrotters, CBS (1970-1971)
The All-New Popeye Hour
By the 70s, Popeye was already ancient as a character, but kids still loved watching him punch people into orbit after eating spinach. The cartoon kept the slapstick chaos alive while introducing a new generation to one of animation’s weirdest enduring heroes.
Screenshot from The All-New Popeye Hour, King Features Syndicate (1978-1983)
Goober And The Ghost Chasers
Another Scooby-style mystery show, except this one featured a ghost dog who could turn invisible. The plots barely mattered because the fun came from watching the characters panic constantly while goofy supernatural nonsense unfolded around them.
Screenshot from Goober And The Ghost Chasers, Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1973)
Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Long before darker reboots and teen drama versions, Sabrina was starring in bright, goofy cartoon adventures filled with harmless magic and talking animals. It was sweet, weird, and exactly the kind of thing kids loved watching while inhaling sugary cereal at 8 am.
Screenshot from Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (1970-1974)
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