I realize this is less Hollywood big screen and more towards the small screen, but it’s nostalgic nonetheless. Not to mention, this particular block of Saturday morning cartoons launched three feature-length theatrical films. As a kid, this was the one thing that got you up way early in the morning on Saturday – cartoons that were funny, action-packed and even had a message or two to pass on.
Disney’s Doug
This series was after the Nickelodeon run of the Jim Jenkins series had ended and Disney had bought the rights to the characters. In return for starting up “Doug” on a new network (ABC), Jenkins was given the chance to do a whole other TV series on Playhouse Disney called “PB&J Otter”. Many “Doug” fans despise this iteration of the show for aging the characters slightly, forcing Billy West (the original voice of Doug Funnie and Roger Klotz) to leave the series due to payment issues and changing the style of the music (which was a staple of the original series). In my own opinion, I didn’t notice much different; what kids like varies and variety is indeed the spice of life. This show proved to be successful enough to launch its own feature film, Doug’s 1st Movie. Giving a show like “Doug” a movie is a plausible idea but the story they came up with was pretty ridiculous (Doug and his pal Skeeter sets out to find the monster of Lucky Duck Lake) and the box office reflected it with a total of $19 million. If you want the best “Doug”, stick with Nickelodeon.
Pepper Ann
This show was about a young 7th grade girl who is a perpetual daydreamer and lives with her strong willed mother and her sister of questionable gender. Like Doug, the show would often delve into the lead character’s fantasies which were quite odd to say the least. Even weirder was that it had the same composer as “Rocko’s Modern Life”, Pat Irwin. As far as the characters go, Pepper Ann was kinda weak-willed, her friend Nicky was even worse and Milo had no personality. All of the side characters were essentially forgettable. But hey, I’m a guy, so maybe it connected more with girls than it did me. The show lasted for four years, so it did end up proving its longevity.
Recess
Man, was this show a lot of fun! The opening sequence was just plain cool, introducing each of the main characters without saying a word. You had T.J. (the man with the plan), Vince (the star athlete), Spinelli (the tough tomboy), Gretchen (the pig-tailed genius), Mikey (the “gentle giant”) and Gus (the nerdy new kid). In Third Street School, recess is not just a time for fun and hanging out with friends; it has its own governments and cliques. What set apart this show was its series of interesting side characters who would make minor appearances in most episodes and rarely got episodes where the side characters had a main role. The show got its own theatrical film, Recess: School’s Out sending the characters into summer vacation. The story involved a secret government agency taking over Third Street with a plan to use a weapon to move the Moon into position to freeze the entire planet. Sound way too over-the-top for a show like “Recess”? Agreed. They even tried to pull in some ‘60s “peace, love and understanding” for today’s youth, which is completely out of sync with the times. I would say it’s still watchable, but “Recess saves the world” is a bit of overstatement. Even so, “Recess” was the best show I remember from One Saturday Morning.
Mickey Mouse Works/House of Mouse
This was Disney’s way of ensuring Mickey Mouse and his friends stayed culturally relevant by having their in-house television animation division come up with animated short films featuring the characters. Some would focus solely on Pluto getting the paper for Mickey, Minnie Mouse as a conductor in an orchestra and updated segments of Mickey, Donald and Goofy in various odd jobs. Some of my favorites were “Mickey To The Rescue” – Minnie has somehow been captured by Pete and it’s up to Mickey to save her by traversing through traps that Pete has set up. “Mickey Mouse Works” eventually became “House of Mouse” – essentially the same show but with new bookends featuring all of Disney’s animated characters under one nightclub roof. I remember these fondly, but I would rather see more original animated shorts put in front of theatrical films (ex. Goofy’s “How to Install a Home Theater System” in front of National Treasure: Book of Secrets).
The Weekenders
Gosh, was this show BORING! Granted, I was approximately 8 at the time, so the characters in the show didn’t really connect to me. I saw it as a Disney-styled rip-off of Nickelodeon’s “Rocket Power”: both shows involved a group of kids with their own sense of style who stray from the normal crowds. “TV Guide” erroneously claimed that “this show killed ‘Pokémon’”; although the series still has spinoffs currently on air, the main series that everyone remembers simply moved on. I think the idea of teenagers celebrating the weekend is a great idea, but it would probably work better in this case in live-action.
Teacher’s Pet
This show was pretty strange by Disney standards. A dog (with the voice of Nathan Lane) decides he wants more out of life and disguises himself as a schoolboy in class with his owner as a classmate. Original concept, to be sure, but I remember the show was trying to be too smart for its own good. It never really clung itself to me, aside from the basic concept and the dual character of Spot/Scott. Even this show got its own theatrical spinoff, but here’s where things get interesting – this was the film based on a Disney’s One Saturday Morning cartoon that got the best critical reviews, but it also received the worst box office reception. How that happened, I’ll never know.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Pixar making a TV show sounding like a “too good to be true” scenario? Indeed it was as the greatest animation studio on the planet only contributed 30 seconds worth of CG animation to the show for its opening. The show was supposed to be the Toy Story universe’s inspiration for the character of Buzz Lightyear. There was a direct-to-video film with Tim Allen reprising his role of Buzz, but he was replaced by Joe Somebody co-star Patrick Warburton for the series. The show set up Buzz as a member of Star Command with his own team, the mystifying Mira Nova, the bumbling Booster and the hyperactive robot XR. Their adventures were widespread with reoccurring villains (of course, featuring the Evil Emperor Zurg, sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance) and strange landscapes. Sadly, the show never really captured the fun of the actual Toy Story films and was canceled soon after. Still, if Pixar ever wanted to do a full-on CG-animated show (like DreamWorks Animation’s “The Penguins of Madagascar”), they are more than welcome in my book (and no, I don’t count “Mater’s Tall Tales” but “Toy Story Toons” is a step in the right direction).
Fillmore!
This was a show that nearly captured “Recess”-level of success, in my opinion. Cornelius Fillmore was once a kid on the wrong side of the middle-school law who was inducted into his school’s safety patrol and now fights for good. It’s a parody of shows like “Starsky & Hutch”, two good cops on the beat with over-the-top chase scenes. At times, I think it took itself a little too seriously; more to the point, the kids took their positions on safety patrol too seriously (they talk like they’re 40-years-old). I don’t know, my school never had a safety patrol (granted, it was a private school). Even so, I think “Fillmore!” is a pretty neat show with a great premise. A lot of the episodes are broken up into increments on YouTube, if you have time check ‘em out.
And that’s really all the shows I cared about on Disney’s One Saturday Morning. After 4 years, the block eventually became “ABC Kids” and aired more live-action programming until finally that block was canceled and was replaced with “Litton’s Weekend Adventure” with no cartoons and more of a politically-correct standpoint of “We need to teach your children about how to protect the wildlife and how to eat healthy foods.” To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “I weep for the future.” For a time, there was good cartoon programming on Disney’s One Saturday Morning – “five hours of summer once a week”.
