Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
What's up Doc, it's super cheese.
Remember the days when Saturday mornings meant pajamas, bowls of sugary cereal, and an endless lineup of cartoons? Join us as we transport you back to those magical mornings and explore how these animated shows shaped our childhoods.
We then flip through the colorful pages of Saturday morning cartoons, tracing their evolution from the post-World War II television boom through to the streaming age. Discover how shows like Mighty Mouse, The Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo became cultural phenomena, capturing the hearts of generations and leading to creative marketing strategies that had us begging our parents for the latest cereal or toy. We fondly share our personal connections to these animated series while also delving into the concerns of the era, like children's screen time and the subliminal messages in advertising.
As we wrap up this nostalgic journey, we spotlight some of the most beloved characters and shows that broke barriers and set records. From the pioneering "family" of The Flintstones and their boundary-pushing antics to Bugs Bunny's clever quips and the mystery-solving prowess of Scooby-Doo and his gang, we celebrate the timeless allure and impact of these icons. Join us for a playful yet insightful exploration of how these animated classics not only entertained us but also left an indelible mark on television history.
Two best friends. We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast. Teenage dreams, neon screens, it was all rad and no one knew me Like you know. It's like whatever. Together forever, we're never done as ever, laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Like Whatever Podcast. For, by and about Gen X, I'm Nicole and this is my BFFF, heather. What up, doc?
Speaker 3:How was your trip to Florida? You went to Florida this week I did.
Speaker 2:I took a long weekend to Florida to go see my parents. It was lovely, awesome. I was devastated when I had to leave, of course, but yeah, I pretty much ate my way through the weekend. Nice, a lot of eating, a lot of seafood blue, blue crabs nice, not to rub it in, but yeah, um, and the coolest thing was I'm fascinated with bodies of water, like I'm such a dork like when I went to california I had to go to the pacific ocean. When I was in chicago, I had to see lake michigan, so I got to go see the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 3:Have you not seen that?
Speaker 2:before no, and walk down the beach and put my feet in the water and it was so warm. Yes, but yeah. The Gulf is nice it is. It's beautiful. The water's clear, like we don't have clear water here. We do not. It's too cold, yeah, and the sand was white and powdery.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, they have nice. They have a lot of shells, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did get some shells as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I went to Sanibel, which is off of whatever fort that is Myers. Yes, fort Myers.
Speaker 2:That's where I was, Fort Myers, oh really Uh-huh.
Speaker 3:So you know where Santa did? You see Santa Bella? Mm-hmm, I don't know. They call it Shell Beach.
Speaker 2:No, oh, no, no, no. My stepmom actually told me that there was a place called Shell Beach. Yeah, but that's not where we were. We were just in like Fort Myers Beach, right, like I Like, I guess, the main one, which used to be kind of touristy, but half the buildings are gone now. Really, there's sand everywhere. I wonder why there's boats still up on land.
Speaker 3:Oh, because they had a hurricane. Oh, because they had hurricanes recently. Yes, yes, I remember things.
Speaker 2:They're still cleaning up from Ian. And then these past two came through, which luckily didn't hit them directly, but still has an effect on everything.
Speaker 3:I forgot about hurricanes. Yeah, that's a thing there, yeah.
Speaker 2:And now I totally get the flooding because you're just literally surrounded by water everywhere you go. Yeah, it's like driving the strip from like Dewey, no, yeah.
Speaker 3:Bethany to Dewey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but everywhere. Yeah, it's just water everywhere they have a lot of water yeah, but it did rain a few times while I was there, so that was nice. I went out and stood in it. Since we haven't seen any in like two months here, I don't think it's ever going to rain here again.
Speaker 3:I hope that's not true. It's also 800 degrees. Yeah, today was god awful it really was.
Speaker 2:It was really really hot it is.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I had to get dressed up for a meeting. Boo to that.
Speaker 3:I know right. I have never had a job where I could not wear my pajamas to work. I cannot complain too much. I don't have to get dressed up, it was alright.
Speaker 2:I felt fancy.
Speaker 3:I did wear a dress on Halloween. I went as Sally, so I wore my Sally dress. It had pockets what else? Oh, this week. So this week we're probably not going to talk about this week, but it's been a rough week for us. We lost another friend this week, but it's been a rough week for us. We lost another friend this week so he was the ex-husband of our friend that we lost last year. So now their daughter is 23 years old and is basically an orphan. So it's been a rough week and she's the sweetest child in the world. She really is.
Speaker 2:It's just so heartbreaking for and she's the sweetest child in the world. She really is.
Speaker 3:It's just so heartbreaking for her. It's very heartbreaking. So we decided we're just going to cut the jibber jabber, because no one gives a shit about us anyway. So we're just going to cut to the jibber jabber and get right to it.
Speaker 2:All right. So now let's fuck around and find out about Saturday morning cartoons Yay, cartoons, all right. So now let's fuck around and find out about Saturday morning cartoons Yay cartoons, all right. So Saturday morning cartoons was a genre that was between the 1960s and the 2010s. Some of the popular ones back in my day that I enjoyed were Mighty Mouse, tom and Jerry, bugs, bunny, the Flintstones, scooby-doo, ruh-roh, and Saturday morning cartoons came on from 8 to noon on Saturdays, obviously, Obviously, but they weren't created just to entertain kids.
Speaker 2:Of course, everything's about the money, yep. So they wanted to generate revenue for TV networks and toy companies. It's all about the toys. Enthusiasm for squeezing profits out of the captive audience of children accelerated the creation of many fondly remembered shows. Ironically, it's also hastened the downfall of the Saturday morning tradition. After World War II. The sale of TV sets boomed in America. There were around 40 million radios in the US in 1947, and the sale of television sets would rise dramatically in the 50s and 60s due to the first complete electric color TV system in 1953, developed by RCA.
Speaker 3:Yes, I remember my mom talking about, I don't know her aunt or her uncle or her mafia grandparents or somebody had a color TV and they would watch the Wonderful World of Disney on Sundays. Oh yeah, yeah. The mafia side of the family had the color TV.
Speaker 2:Is RCA still around? I do not know I don't either. Okay, okay, okay. So the first Saturday morning cartoon was a show called Crusader Rabbit that I have to say I don't remember.
Speaker 3:I do not remember Crusader.
Speaker 2:Rabbit, but it was four minute long cliffhangers and it was the first animated series on television in the 50s. It was followed by Rocky and Bullwinkle. I remember Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Flintstones really accelerated the love of cartoons. Yabba-dabba-doo, created by Hanna-Barbera, the Flintstones became the first primetime cartoon series of its kind and it aired on September 30th in 1960 on ABC. When the Flintstones ended its primetime run in 1966, hanna-barbera began focusing its attention on the already popular Saturday Morning Timeslot. To grow its market and manipulate children, of course. To grow its market and manipulate children, of course. A number of other animation studios followed suit, including Filmation, which is responsible for Fat Albert, hey, hey, hey, the Cosby Kids.
Speaker 3:I vaguely remember the Cosby Kids.
Speaker 2:And the Archies.
Speaker 3:I have no comment on the Archies oh, not a fan. Oh, okay, I know I already got shit for not liking the Peanuts last week, so yeah, and also Pink Panther this week.
Speaker 2:You don't like either. I can't stand the Pink Panther.
Speaker 3:I cannot stand it. Anyway, panthers are not pink number one, it's a cartoon, okay, but still, I'm just saying, and he doesn't, does he talk? No, no. Yeah, they just play the music the whole time.
Speaker 2:Well, there's French people and people with French accents that talk.
Speaker 3:I'm sure it's problematic, no doubt.
Speaker 2:We're going to get to the Karen parents here in a bit Good.
Speaker 3:We always do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Hanna-Barbera reigned supreme on Saturday mornings throughout the 70s with Super Friends.
Speaker 3:I love the Super Friends. Yeah, was that Power Twins? Oh, the Wonder Twins Activate, wonder Twins, wonder Twins, power Activate. Activate in the form of one was water, okay, and the other one was animals, okay, and they had a little monkey named Glick. I don't remember much else about the Supermen, although I think that's Wonder Woman had the invisible jet. I think Superman was on it, but I don't remember. I just remember the wonder twin power activate in the form of a glacier, oh my, in the form of a polar bear but besides super friends there was also scooby-doo scooby-dooby-Doo.
Speaker 3:Scooby-Dooby-Doo.
Speaker 2:Captain Caveman.
Speaker 3:Now I like Captain. Captain Caveman was fun Captain.
Speaker 2:Caveman, and then he would what? Slam this thing down and everything would shake. Tv networks were finding that animation was not only cheaper to produce than live action shows, but it was also more profitable. They could hire fewer voice actors, since many of them played multiple roles, and the reruns allowed the cost of the initial investment to be spread out over longer periods of time. Plus, the networks could rerun toy and cereal commercials during the shows, which would entice young viewers into begging their parents to buy these products for them. I have no doubt that I begged my parents for something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, buy these products for them.
Speaker 2:I have no doubt that I begged my parents for something, sure, yeah, do you remember a cereal called, I think, monsters, or monsters? I was real little, I don't and I still can remember what it tasted like.
Speaker 3:Do you know what cereal I miss horribly and I I can remember what it tasted. Do you remember when mr t had a cereal and it was a little tease and I want to say it tasted like Captain Crunch? But probably I couldn't. I could be wrong on that, but I used to love the Mr. I don't even know what. They were called teas or I don't know.
Speaker 2:Mr T made it yeah, I like, I like old school Captain Crunch.
Speaker 3:It's not good now, it's not good, but back then it was we did have some the other day, but yes, yeah, it tears the shit out of your mouth yeah, I got, uh, my husband blueberry the other day and he ate one bowl and he's a big cereal eater. So you can't get that stuff except for this time of year. Right count chocula, blueberry and whatever the other one was, uh, frankenberry frankenberry.
Speaker 2:um, let's see here. So parents and educators, however, parent Karens, karen parents, whatever you want to call them were worried about how much time their children were spending in front of the TV. Parents lobbied in groups like Action for Children's Television, which started up in the late 1960s, and they had concerns over cartoon violence, stereotypes and the commercialism and antisocial behaviors associated with hours of sitting in front of the TV.
Speaker 3:I mean, I sat in front of the TV like a lot and I'm perfectly normal.
Speaker 2:And they just didn't want us watching TV because they didn't want us in the house.
Speaker 3:No, they wanted your ass outside, exactly.
Speaker 2:Researchers began to study the long-term effects of Saturday morning cartoons and the direct marketing associated with them. They found that kids had a difficult time differentiating between the shows themselves and the ads that ran with them. Kids were also unable to understand how manipulative these commercials could be. Well sure, like I said earlier, in 1978, the Federal Trade Commission attempted to ban all direct advertising to any children under the age of six, but lobbying groups representing toy companies and the advertising and cereal industry struck a deal that encouraged children's programming to be balanced out with educational and informational content. Boo yeah.
Speaker 3:Nobody wants education, boo yeah, nobody wants education.
Speaker 2:No, though Schoolhouse Rock had been on the air since 1973, other networks began creating short public service announcements of their own, most notably the Bod Squad. Do you? I do not, I don't remember the Bod Squad. That doesn't sound familiar at all, and NBC's One to Grow On. That one, I do not. I don't remember the Bob's Pants. That doesn't sound familiar at all, and NBC's One to Grow On.
Speaker 3:That one I do remember. Now, I do remember that one I feel like I remember that. Yeah, it would like be something Like a little moral lesson, yeah, and then it would be like One to Grow On or something like that. Yeah, I vaguely remember that. Yeah, I vaguely remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, A new era of cartoons was emerging, and child advocacy groups and caring parents were growing increasingly worried about what these shows were becoming Shows like GI Joe, A Real American Hero, my Little Pony and Friends, the Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra, Princess of Power and the Care Bears were all created to sell toys.
Speaker 3:The Transformers were my jam and I would like to just say that all I wanted was the Optimus Prime that held all the other ones, and I did not get that. But my cousin did have the Optimus Prime with the trailer on it that held Wow, yes.
Speaker 2:I was very jealous.
Speaker 3:I'll bet I should have taken it from him.
Speaker 2:You should have Beat him over the head. Maybe he still has it. You can go get it.
Speaker 3:I would lay everything I have that he still has that.
Speaker 2:No doubt let's see. And then so those were created to sell toys Shows like Pac-Man. I don't know if I remember a Pac-Man cartoon.
Speaker 3:I did. You know what I have. I did have, though I don't know about the cartoon, but I did have the record that played Pac-Man Fever. There was a Donkey Kong song. There was a Frogger song, I remember I got.
Speaker 2:Pac-Man Fever.
Speaker 3:I had that, but I don't remember the cartoon.
Speaker 2:Right, so Pac-Man, dungeons and Dragons and Rubik's Cube, yeah.
Speaker 3:Dungeons and Dragons also, I remember, because the girl had a cape that she could cover her head and she would become invisible and I really wanted a cape that made me invisible. You still really want. I would give anything to have a cape that made me invisible um, yeah, so those were all to expose children to games.
Speaker 2:And then the real Ghostbusters Rambo, the Force of Freedom, because you know they were trying to take violence out of the cartoon, so let's make one about Rambo, that had like the most kills in any movie for a long time. And Chuck Norris Again. Karate Commandos, among other shows, went even further by completing the trifecta of movie, cartoon, toy marketing. Hey, it's smart business yeah.
Speaker 2:At the expense of kids. Well, who cares about kids? Exactly, while kids loved these shows, karen, parents didn't. They continued to make their voices heard regarding the abundance of animated violence and commercials directed specifically towards kids, by appealing to the fcc because they were sick of buying crap for their kids. Yeah, I mean. What happened to the good old days of wooden dolls and sticks?
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't know, we used to we used to play restaurant in the backyard with mud. Yeah, a real original. I know that's where we lived most of the time. I was the cook and my sister was the waitress and she was very upset about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you were older so she had to. She did not make a very good waitress, no.
Speaker 3:To this day no.
Speaker 2:So the federal government stepped in to intervene and we all know how good that always goes Setting stricter regulations about what networks could and couldn't show on Saturday mornings. They did some more studies on kids between the ages of 2 and 17 who were watching up to three hours of TV a day and were being influenced by what they saw, and even kids admitted that programming should teach them right from wrong.
Speaker 3:I cannot imagine a single child was like hey, kids admitted that programming should teach them right from wrong. I cannot imagine a single child was like hey, you know what we should do. We should probably learn something while we're no.
Speaker 2:Exactly, that didn't happen. And right from wrong, specifically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't give a shit about right from wrong, no.
Speaker 2:The networks, however, found a way around these restrictions. Where there's a will, there's a way. Oh yeah, these restrictions um, where there's a will, there's a way. Oh yeah, by syndicating saturday morning cartoons to show them again on weekday afternoons, since the time slot didn't have the same set of restricted advertising rules, so they could manipulate the kids better um on weekdays when they got home from school that's when I remember watching cartoons really yeah, I don't remember watching them after school, but after actually this because I know what cartoons you're going to talk about today.
Speaker 3:I those cartoons specifically. I do not remember them being saturday morning cartoons, but I remember them being after school, but probably because they're a little older.
Speaker 2:So well, I think I remember he-man after school because that was a little after my time and my sister was really into he-man I remember he-man as being saturday morning, hmm. I don't know, I don't know. She's six years younger than me. I mean, she had all the castles, all the cats, all the figurines, I mean, and we lived in a bi-level house, so it had the steps that went halfway down, then around the corner and go down, and she would set that whole thing up with, like her setup.
Speaker 3:See, my sister was into Barbie, so we had like Barbie condos and shoes and stuff.
Speaker 2:See, that was me.
Speaker 3:I did not.
Speaker 2:I had all the Barbies.
Speaker 3:I cut all of her Barbie's hair and took their hands and heads and I was not nice to her Barbies.
Speaker 2:I would have been devastated.
Speaker 3:I'm glad I was the older sister, you want to talk about how weird I am. I'm pretty sure I would burn. I used to like burn stuff into the room. Weird I am, I'm pretty sure I would burn. I I used to like burn stuff into.
Speaker 2:I don't think you should admit that. Admit that, okay, I'll cut that part out. Um, children's the children's television act which was enacted in 1990 by the fcc to increase the quality of educational and broadcast tv programming for children, said the government doubled down on what they had become known as KidVid rules by implementing the Children's Programming Report Lame Mm-hmm, as the 1990s set in the era of Saturday morning cartoons was beginning to wane. And he said in the era of Saturday morning cartoons was beginning to wane Thanks to personal computers, vcrs, dvd players and home video consoles. Atari will still be the greatest thing to me.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I don't play video games as an adult. I have all the consoles, but I barely play them, but I do have them all. But Atari was awesome.
Speaker 3:Atari was awesome Space Inv, awesome space invaders. Come on, can't be that berserk.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I did love pac-man, sure so those shows like teenage mutant ninja turtles, animaniacs, bobby's world and pinky in the brain garnered a loyal following. Cable networks such as nickelodeon cartoon network and and Disney Channel provided other ways for audiences to watch cartoons. The Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons were largely discontinued in Canada by 2002.
Speaker 3:That's so crazy that there are no more Saturday morning cartoons. I mean, I don't have kids, so I obviously have no idea what happens in TV or that cartoon. I mean, I still watch the Cartoon Network every now and then, but that's just because they always play old stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, I watch me TV, so I can watch my old cartoons. Let's see. And in the United States, the CW station was the last one to air a cartoon in late 2014, and the big three traditional major networks had their final cartoon air in 2006, which was Kim Possible.
Speaker 3:I don't know Kim Possible. I'm too old for that shit yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2:I mean and I don't even think my daughters watched that show.
Speaker 3:Um your daughters made me watch blues clues.
Speaker 2:Blues clues is this shit we love steve, I do love steve I stopped watching when steve went to college yeah, yeah, all right. So kids today can watch cartoons in all sorts of ways. Like I said, said Nickelodeon, the Cartoon Network, disney.
Speaker 3:These kids have no idea how easy they can get. Well, probably not.
Speaker 2:DVDs anymore. Blu-ray.
Speaker 3:Is that a thing, or is it just?
Speaker 2:streaming now yeah, I think it's just streaming. But they'll never have the experience of waking up on a Saturday morning sitting in front of the TV in their pajamas with a bowl of cereal watching Saturday morning cartoons.
Speaker 3:While you fought with your sibling over what you were going to watch.
Speaker 2:You were the oldest. You shouldn't have had to fight about anything.
Speaker 3:You know she got everything she wanted.
Speaker 2:She is a little princess. She is a princess, but she's a cute little princess.
Speaker 3:She, my father I don't know if I have mentioned this before always said that they only had me so that they had a babysitter for the child they really wanted. And now that she is a breeder- and they have grandchildren now. My only purpose is spare parts. Oh, for her. That is what he said. We only had you for spare parts for her. That is what he said. We only had you for spare parts for the daughter. We really like so she like needs a kidney or something.
Speaker 2:I have to give one up. Yes, If she needs a heart you have to give that up.
Speaker 3:I have to give it up An eyeball, get all of it Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope it doesn't come to that.
Speaker 3:I don't think she's going to want my heart? Yeah, probably not. It's all black. It doesn't work real well. The kidneys, though, she'll probably going to take. I'm actually surprised she hasn't taken one yet. Just in the night Cut one out.
Speaker 2:Nobody's going to defend you. No All right, so let's get into a couple cartoons here. Predating the Simpsons by almost 30 years, the Flintstones was the first primetime animated show on TV, and until 1997, when the Simpsons stole the crown, the Flintstones had aired the most episodes of any animated show in primetime, with 166 between 1960 and 1966.
Speaker 3:The Simpsons is just never going to get beat. I mean they have, like they've been on forever, yeah, 462 years.
Speaker 2:No one's ever going to. I was in middle school when that show started.
Speaker 3:Nobody's ever going to beat the Simpsons. It's still on.
Speaker 2:I was in like seventh, eighth grade. Yeah, they still make new episodes.
Speaker 3:I can't imagine they can't make new ones. They have to and like the old ones are new again. I don't think so Been on forever.
Speaker 2:They have to run out of things. The show ended up being Hanna-Barbera's largest producer of animated films and really put them on the map. Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble live in Bedrock during 10,000 BC. Fred and Barney work in a quarry and Betty and Wilma are homemakers who are constantly at odds with their husbands. In the third and fourth seasons respectively, kids Pebbles and Bam Bam joined the cast.
Speaker 3:Enter the cereal Pebbles, which I do not like because it turns your milk weird. I don't like that, yeah, which I do not like because it turns your milk weird. I don't like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's gross. Um, the the Flintstones uh appeared in other series and specials throughout the decades. Uh, they were on. There were 20 episodes of a spinoff called the pebbles and bam bam show, which I remember cause I was a really big Flintstones fan but I didn't realize it was that short lived.
Speaker 3:I vaguely remember that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it showed them as teenagers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yep. Um then, nearly a dozen TV specials such as the Flintstone kids. Just say no special.
Speaker 3:Just say no to drugs kids.
Speaker 2:Uh, and a couple of Flintintstones holiday specials. Joe barbara thought about calling the show the gladstones, then decided on the flagstones, until he realized there was a comic strip with the same name. In 1959 they filmed a 90 second pilot. Dos butler provided fred's gruff voice and June Foray played Betty. Unfortunately for her, the part eventually went to Bea Banadere. But June Foray I looked up, she was the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Natasha on the same show, cindy Lou who and Jokey Smurf.
Speaker 3:Wait, cindy Lou, who in the Grinch that comes on every year?
Speaker 2:Just that one.
Speaker 3:Yep. Big fan of the Grinch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so anyway, she had originally played Betty but, like I said, the part was given to someone else and she said I was terribly disappointed. And when my agent talked to Joe Barbera he said they wouldn't even let me come in and retest for the part or any others. I do declare, and I'm pretty sure that's the voice she did it in Probably not at all like Natasha.
Speaker 3:Probably not at all like Natasha.
Speaker 2:No. So that 90-second pilot never aired and they ended up changing the name to the Flintstones. And in 1993, the Cartoon Network unearthed the pilot. They found it in a New York storage warehouse oh Said of Mike Lazo, the Cartoon Network's head of programming. It was this mythological sort of thing. Animators had heard of it but nobody had actually seen it. So we sent out teams of researchers to look for it all over. It was like the search for the Holy Grail, and then, when they found it, they did air it on TV in May of 1994. Oh, I don't remember that at all. I'm going to look it up though. Yeah, Ed Benedict was one of the Flintstones' designers. He said he sketched the characters to look like cave people wearing long beards with scraggly, unkept and slightly distorted, hunched-over shapes. Barbera didn't like that design, so Benedict straightened them up and made them more clean-cut. Barney was originally designed with one strap over his shoulder and when he turned he had a bare shoulder. It just didn't look right, so they had to correct that. How scandalous, I know.
Speaker 3:A shoulder.
Speaker 2:Sexy Barney. I was told they had a pet. This was Benedict, I was told they had a pet, so a dinosaur seemed appropriate, and that's all. Dino is A small dinosaur. He originally put six spots on Fred's loincloth and they reduced it to four. He added the necktie on Fred and the stone necklace on Wilma, so there was a progression of the what you see now.
Speaker 2:All right. So a lot of people thought that the Flintstones were a copy of the honeymooners. And it is true that Fred was based on Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners character To the moon, alice Ralph Crampton. But Joe Barbera made him different. He said so many people say, did you copy the Honeymooners? And he said well, if you compare the Flintstones to the Honeymooners, that's the biggest compliment you can give me to the Honeymooners, that's the biggest compliment you can give me. But the Honeymooners didn't have all the gags that they had in the Flintstones, including the stoneway piano and the polar rock camera.
Speaker 3:Well, no, because they were real people and not a cartoon.
Speaker 2:And not cavemen and not cavemen. And it's probably the Flintstonesstones fault that a lot of people think that cavemen and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's not get me started I know, I just had to get it in there. So um barbara ended up hiring a guy who had written for the honeymooners and he said that he paid him three thousand,000 and he was terrible and the reason was that he just wrote words. It was all dialogue and he had no visual gags, no, nothing. Yack, yack, yack, yack. The Honeymooners had a lot of dialogue, but it was their expressions and Art Carney's attitude that made it work. So in the 1960s Winston Cigarette sponsored the Flintstones and I do remember cigarette commercials on TV and I feel like I remember when they took them off TV, because I remember the adults like buzzing about it.
Speaker 3:I do, I also remember like the.
Speaker 2:It was a big deal. Like the adults were like panties in a bunch.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But at the end of the show Fred and Barney would be animated to smoke cigarettes. And in one of their black and white shows Barney and Fred were doing yard work and they said let's take a Winston break. And Barney says, as he and Fred light up, wilma and Betty catch them in the act and throw yard equipment at them. And Fred says the tagline Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. That's crazy, fred. The smoking was short-lived and acted in 1970. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act required stricter health warnings on cigarette packs and it also banned cigarette ads on tv and radio. So later the flintstones started selling uh, the healthier welch's grape jack, oh yeah oh, because you know welch's grape juices it's not just pure sugar causes a different kind of cancer.
Speaker 2:No, it's just purple sugar water so Pebbles was supposed to be a boy. They originally wanted to make her a boy, but they had an idea for a toy, of course, but it had to be a girl, sure. And so they went ahead and made her a girl. And then they sold three million Pebbles dolls within the first couple of months.
Speaker 3:That's a lot. I have never seen a Pebbles doll, I don't think.
Speaker 2:Me neither. I bet those dolls are worth a lot, though I'm sure they are. And then Mel Blanc. You remember Mel Blanc. Of course His name is pretty much on the credits of any cartoon ever. He was the voice of Barney and he continued to be the voice of Barney even after he got in a horrible car accident. So he was in a devastating head-on car collision in 1961. He had a 70-day hospital stay and when he returned home the cast and crew came to his home to record episodes. They brought all the equipment.
Speaker 3:That was nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, blanc said that there were wires and microphones and stuff all over the place, all around his hospital bed in his house.
Speaker 3:I'm sure the nurses just loved the hell out of that, oh yeah definitely.
Speaker 2:I thought this was kind of funny. This lady seems a little too connected to her character, but a lady named Jean Vander Pyle. She was the voice of Wilma and she voiced Wilma for the entire show and though Wilma and Fred argued a lot, they did have a rock solid relationship and Pyle said I love the bum. She said, sure, fred was a yahoo and I got mad at him all the time, but we really loved each other. Our romance was one of the things that made us so popular. We were real. No, pyle, you're not real.
Speaker 2:You are real. Wilma however, is not yeah, and Fred is also not no. Pyle was also the voice of Rosie the Robot and Mrs Spacely on the Jetsons.
Speaker 3:You know, my friend has a Roomba that she named Rosie. I love it. Mine is named Alice.
Speaker 2:From.
Speaker 3:Brady.
Speaker 2:Bunch, nice. And then she said I know I'm going to get killed for saying this, but Wilma had a great housewife whine to her voice. She commanded enough authority to run the house but kept an equal amount of warmth. Wilma is a communicator and a lot of women relate to that. She saw a lot of herself in. Wilma is a communicator and a lot of women relate to that. She saw a lot of herself in Wilma and even though she's just a cartoon, I think my voice is one of the things that made her so human.
Speaker 3:I just feel like it wasn't a very fleshed out character in Wilma and Betty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, they were just the Nike housewives. This lady never got over it, though, no. So a man named Harvey Korman was the voice of the great gazoo.
Speaker 3:The great gazoo. You know he was green, he was, and a smart ass. I do believe he was and a smartass I do believe. And well, when we were talking about this before this, I thought he was the alien that was in Happy Days. But no, he was not, because one is animated and one is not, even though I mean it was actually Mork that was on Happy Days. However, that was after Happy Days had jumped the shark, I feel certain. So who knows what they put on there? But I think the great gazoo proves that possibly there were aliens on earth to build the pyramids. Yes, I mean exactly. Cartoons, right, are real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, according to Wilma, Aliens, but anyway he says that. So listen up, kids. If you have a great gazoo, any memorabilia. So he provided the voice of the superior and arrogant and elite great gazoo, a green alien, as Heather said, for 13 episodes from 1964 to 1966. He said he didn't realize how popular and lucrative the character was until he attended conventions, said of Corman. Some years back I traveled for Hanna-Barbera. They had these huge conventions and seminars where collectors collect cells and the cells with the Great Gazoo on it are worth lots of money. Collectors on eBay and stuff want my autograph. Huh, all right. So my last little fun fact about the Flintstones is that Fred and Wilma were the first television couple to sleep in the same bed.
Speaker 3:Aw.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. So it's weird to think about it now, but if you watch some of the old shows and I am a huge I Love Lucy fan so I was going to say they definitely slept in separate beds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just watched that documentary that's on whatever it is on Netflix, or something like that about the I Love Lucy show. And she was really pushing hard for them to sleep in the same bed. Oh, yeah because they tried, they wanted to hide her pregnancy. Yeah, and they couldn't because she refused. And so she said, put us both in the same bed and they, they just wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2:She was so cool um, but anyway, they weren't actually they weren't allowed to sleep in the same bed on television for a while, but there was another couple on a show called Mary Kay and Johnny, which was a sitcom that ran from 47 to 50, which is way before our time, so we don't remember that, but they were still one of the first and they were definitely the first animated couple to do so. So, yeah, so that's the Flintstones.
Speaker 2:I still love watching the Flintstones too. I'll watch the Flintstones. It still cracks me up when Fred runs to make the cargo and the vacuum cleaner and the garbage disposal with the.
Speaker 3:I guess a woolly mammoth supposedly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just some of the stuff Fred says, like it's just so like outdated but it's innocent, I guess. Problematic, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm sure they all are.
Speaker 3:I mean, it is what it is. But yeah, I'll watch the Flintstones every now and then if I see it. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the older cartoons like that but, I do like the Flintstones yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. So next, one of my very, very favorite cartoons is Tom and Jerry.
Speaker 3:This is where we're going to part ways.
Speaker 2:You get on there so fast sometimes.
Speaker 3:I know is where we're gonna part ways anyway um, jerry's a jackass. Okay, it's, it's it's. What would you do if somebody was trying to eat you? First of all, the cat is just trying to do his job of eating the mouse. The mouse is just trying to live. Fuck that mouse. That's all I have to say. Anyway, geez.
Speaker 2:So Hanna-Barbera let's see. They started the American animated cartoon of a hapless cat's never-ending pursuit of a clever mouse.
Speaker 3:See you make it sound so nice when really it was just not.
Speaker 2:Jerry was a jackass well, tom kept sticking his head down in the in the mouse hole trying to get dinner did you ever see anybody feed the poor owners?
Speaker 3:they never fed the poor cat. He had one job.
Speaker 2:So the show wasn't yet named in their first theatrical short, which was called Puss Gets the Boot, and it came out in 1940. Tom and Jerry were hit with audiences, and Hanna-Barbera produced more than 100 episodes for Metro, goldwyn, mayer or MGM, mgm, mm-hmm, let's see. Several of these won Academy Awards, and in most episodes Jerry foiled Tom's effort to catch him and lived to annoy him another day. Yeah, though occasionally Tom got the upper hand.
Speaker 3:Never.
Speaker 2:Never, anyway, though occasionally Tom got the upper hand. Never, never, anyway, or the two would join forces against a common enemy. Yeah, the dog who's just trying to do his job. The series was driven entirely by action and visual humor, and the characters almost never spoke, except for one time saying and the characters almost never spoke Except for one time, saying Is you is or is you ain't my baby, while he played the what was it a bass?
Speaker 3:I don't remember that Dun dun dun, dun dun dun. He sang it to the white cat. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. After Hannah and Barbara left MGM, the series was revived several times and in the mid-1960s, under the direction of Chuck Jones, who we also see his name a lot. Maybe just what other cartoons did he did, did, he did? I don't know what he did.
Speaker 3:There's probably not a whole lot of cartoon makers at the time, so they probably had to, and they worked for the same company, true?
Speaker 2:the later versions changed certain elements of the series and softened the violence. Hannah Barbera, his own company, acquired the rights to create new Tom and Jerry episodes specifically for the small screen, producing 48 stories between 1975 and 1977. It remained on TV for decades, although racist and other offensive elements from the early features were usually edited. It's problematic, yeah, and I was actually surprised reading through um all this cartoon stuff, that it took me that long to get to them.
Speaker 2:mentioning the problematic racism, the racism um, yeah, because sometimes, like I like to watch, like I said, bugs bunny on on saturday mornings, but I remember some really racist stuff in Bugs Bunny and really sexist, yeah, stuff, and every time I'm watching I'm like God, I can't believe they play these cartoons. But I guess they don't play those ones anymore. I doubt it. So yeah, so, yeah. So that's that's my story on Tom and Jerry Excellent. Next we're going to move on to Mighty Mouse.
Speaker 3:Here I come to save the day Woo.
Speaker 2:All right. So yes, it was one of the longest running Saturday morning cartoons. Cbs carried it and it was called Mighty Mouse Playhouse. It ended in 1966 when it was faced with tougher competition.
Speaker 3:That mouse wasn't so mighty, I feel like he was super popular for a really long time and then I feel like he probably went up against a different mouse and lost the mouse battle. I feel like another mouse kind of steamboated his way in.
Speaker 2:That was a good one, thanks. Anyway. The show's success is generally credited with beginning the Saturday morning cartoon genre. It premiered on December 10th 1955. He appeared on countless toys, games, books, records and promoted Colgate toothpaste and his own health food, cereal and vitamins.
Speaker 3:I don't remember the food cereal. And how come they didn't talk about the Flintstones vitamins? I know I was surprised about that too. Or Flintstones chalk really.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I love Flintstones vitamins.
Speaker 3:Do they still even make them Like can you just get them? They do, I bought them for my God. I love Flintstones.
Speaker 2:Do they still even make them? They do. I bought them for my kids. You know what?
Speaker 3:They should put them Hannah Barbera, call me, because you should totally make antacids in the form. I know why did you just say that? For the world to hear, because I don't have to copy. None of your ideas ever work out because you tell everybody has a copy right on the blendstones, oh yeah, yeah. So they have to make it. But I mean, I mean, come on, I would buy antacids with that's so good, with the ones. I know. You're so smart, I know, uh, in the early 1940s, the popularity of Superman.
Speaker 2:He had debuted in 1938, so two years prior, and he was very, very popular. So at Terrytoons, animator I Klein came up with the idea for a cartoon to spoof the whole concept of a super-powered savior. Klein conceived the idea of a super-powered housefly.
Speaker 3:That's gross.
Speaker 2:I mean just a fly swatter, and it's gone, it's gone, so like it just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 3:I think all them weird eyes For real?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, they're not cute close up, not even a little bit. He thought it would be funny to have the smallest creature he could imagine imitate the fabled man of tomorrow. And that was another thing that caught my eye. That was the smallest thing he could imagine. And there's fleas. Yeah, yeah, mites.
Speaker 3:Lots of things are small Lice. There are a lot of bugs smaller than a fly, cooties, absolutely cooties. I mean you can barely see a cootie.
Speaker 2:He should have made Mighty Cootie. That would have been a good one. Yeah, so anyway. Paul Terry of Terry Toons was interested in the idea, but he thought a fly would be too small, and so a mouse was chosen instead of a fly. Much better decision, yes.
Speaker 3:Mice seem to be very popular at this time.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a big time for the mouse, although a lot of them got chased around with brooms on TV.
Speaker 3:Well, one of them is making a lot of money currently.
Speaker 2:Late in 1942, terry Toons released the Mouse of Tomorrow. Cruel cats were attacking innocent mice. One of these poor little mice dashed into a supermarket. The mouse bathed in super soap, munched on super celery, swallowed super soup and plunged headfirst into my dream super cheese, super cheese.
Speaker 3:That's. Everybody's dream is to plunge headfirst into super cheese.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh. And if it gives you magic powers too.
Speaker 3:There's nothing better than super cheese that gives you magic powers.
Speaker 2:So when the mouse reappeared from the grocery store, he was now a super mouse. Well, that's a lot of super stuff.
Speaker 3:That's all the super stuff, right? Did he go to Super Fresh? Is that where all this is?
Speaker 2:It's not around anymore so there's no Super G's, damn it. So when he emerged then he had blue tights, red shorts and a red cape. He was a mouse of steel, of course, and he was able to beat up all the cats and send them to the moon, alice. In 1943, the cartoon Pandora's Box revealed that this super mouse became super by swallowing vitamins A through Z. Oh, super vitamins. Can't say I've ever had vitamin Z. It's not a vitamin Z.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I don say I've ever had vitamin Z, zink, isn't that a vitamin Z?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I don't think they call it vitamin Z. Oh, in 1946, the cartoon the Johnstown Flood suggested that a little mouse ranger had to drink from a jug labeled Atomic Energy. Okay, can we just?
Speaker 3:hold up.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:So a mouse in Johnstown with air quotes made people drink out of a jug of atomic energy Kool-Aid To transform they did Okay.
Speaker 2:Alright.
Speaker 3:Interesting way to go there. I guess we know where he got the idea Looks that way Big Mighty Mouse man, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:Then later, in 1951, the story was again revised in the Cat's Tale so that a mouse couple raises an orphan baby mouse left on their doorstep, which sounds adorable and also very superman yes, um soon they discover that he has powers and ability far beyond mortal mice.
Speaker 2:Well, so did jerry, but and, as you said, this was very similar to superman's origin story, um, and it was the official origin of his comic book adventures, um. So now he has. Since he became mighty mouse, he now has a yellow no, a golden red outfit, and he started to gain some weight and muscle Because of all the super cheese, That'll do it.
Speaker 3:I too have gained weight from super cheese. Yes, Same.
Speaker 2:His powers seem limited to flying super strength and speed, with just a degree of invulnerability, which I don't really know what that means like if you get hit by a car you're okay, but if you get dropped out of an airplane you die. Well, you can fly. I don't know what that means whatever. On at least one occasion he had mystical powers and he could mentally command water. I don't really associate mice with water.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Many of the early Mighty Mouse cartoons followed a format where the champion of justice appeared only within the final moments to save the day. The final moments to save the day. Terry of Terry Toons explained that it was a pattern-made thing based on the assumption that, throughout history, people without hope yearn for a magical solution to an insurmountable problem. There you go. That's lovely. That's all I'm going to say about that Moving on, moving on. For many cartoon fans, the last official Mighty Mouse cartoon was the Reformed Wolf in 1954. I wonder if he was an alcoholic or?
Speaker 3:Mighty Mouse, no, the Reformed Wolf, oh the Reformed Wolf, born again Christian maybe.
Speaker 2:But it was the last one that was made by Terry of Terry tunes um in 1954. So that's why people consider that like the last real mighty mouse Right Um. But beginning um in September of 79, cbs revived um mighty mouse and now with a filmation and it was an hour long show and it was called the new adventures mighty mouse and heckle and Jekyll, the filmation and it was an hour long show and it was called the new adventures mighty mouse and heckle and Jekyll.
Speaker 3:Yes, heckle and Jekyll. I remember heckle and Jekyll. I went to look them up and apparently they were problematic, so I guess I did not remember them as well as I thought. I did, but I think they have. They are no longer allowed on TV. Yes, heckle and Jekyll, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah For racist reasons I think so.
Speaker 3:I think so too. It didn't really go into it, but it just said they do not play Heckle and Jekyll anymore.
Speaker 2:No, okay. So that series disappeared after only 16 episodes. Then, in September of 1987 1987, so eight years later um mighty mouse was once again returned to cbs sunday mornings. And now it was mighty mouse, the new adventures, minus the heckle and jekyll. Right mighty mouse without the racism, right um, he outlasted every other animal superhero parody, proving that he was the mightiest mouse of all.
Speaker 3:I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:You would beg to differ.
Speaker 3:I think there is a plot of land in Florida that would disagree.
Speaker 2:All right, so next is next to Tom and Jerry, or maybe this is my favorite, but Bugs Bunny.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And for the same reason as Tom and Jerry Heather doesn't like Bugs Bunny, because he bullies everybody.
Speaker 3:Look, Elmer Fudd is just trying to do his job Get food why?
Speaker 2:are you always on the killer side?
Speaker 3:I'm always on the I don't know. And what does that say about?
Speaker 2:me, they're all just trying to live.
Speaker 3:They're all trying to live, though. That's the thing.
Speaker 2:True, that is true, all right, anyway. So some of the famous characters from Bugs Bunny are Sylvester, tasmanian Devil, bugs Bunny, foghorn, leghorn, daffy, duck and Tweety, and I always loved Sylvester.
Speaker 3:I cannot express my hatred of Tweety Bird enough.
Speaker 2:I don't like Tweety Bird because he became like such a thing, yes, like too much of a thing.
Speaker 3:It was too much. Him and the Tasmanian Devil Like too much, Same with the.
Speaker 2:Tasmanian pajamas, him and the Tasmanian devil Like, yeah, too much Same with the Tasmanian. And I actually didn't care much for the Tasmanian devil as a kid because he stressed me out. He was very stressful. He was so fast and loud and everywhere, and he was breaking everything. Yes, ugh, he was so frustrating. I love Foghorn Leghorn. I do like Foghorn Leghorn. He is hilarious. I love Daffy Duck. Is he the one no?
Speaker 3:Foghorn Lake. He's the rooster. But okay, what I was thinking of something else. I said, I said, I said yeah that's it. That's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yay me, yay. Bugs Bunny was a cartoon rabbit. In case you didn't figure that out by the name that was created by Warner Brothers during, I shouldn't figure that out by the name that was created by Warner Brothers during the so-called golden age of American animation, from 1928 to 1960. That was the golden age of American animation, not when Bugs Bunny ran. It was one of the most popular cartoons of all time. He was conceived at I'm going to mess this guy's name up Leon Schlesingers. Schlesingers Sounds good, okay. Animation unit at Warner Brothers Studios. It was nicknamed Termite Terrace because of its Spartan accommodations on the Warner lot, and the unit boasted some of the top names in animation, including Chuck Jones, which I know very well. Bob Clampett, I feel like I remember that name too.
Speaker 3:I think you're just remembering Clampett from the Beverly hillbillies.
Speaker 2:I know, I thought about that too, and it's Freeling, who we know from the credits, as well as the renowned voice artist Mel Blanc and musician Carl Stallings, who did a lot of the music for cartoons back then. Sure, so animator Ben Hardaway, whose nickname was Bugs, was the one who created Bugs Bunny, and he had done some casual sketches of the rabbit character and it was labeled Bugs Bunny because that was his name. Cluster Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of sad that that's where the name came from, but one of his fellow employees named him that, so McKinson. Robert McKinson was responsible for drawing the model sheet of the character. Free Lang developed Bugs' personality, avery, and Jones made more refinements on the end product. Blanc infused him with his familiar wisecracking Brooklynese delivery sure, and what's up? Monk infused him with his familiar wisecracking Brooklynese delivery Sure, and what's up? Doc? Yeah.
Speaker 3:So those? I just wanted to hit him in the head with that carrot.
Speaker 2:So an embryonic version of this character appeared in Warner Brothers cartoons as early as 1938. Oh, wow, yeah, and a wild hair. In 1940 was bugs His first appearance as him, actually at his actual self. So yeah, he's been around since 1940. Wow, that's a really long time. Uh, only Walt Disney's. I said it. Yeah, mighty mouse rivals bugs. Bunny is the most popular cartoon character of all times. Mickey Mouse, you said Mighty Mouse, oh, I did.
Speaker 3:Oh sorry, they're different.
Speaker 2:I just did that to annoy you.
Speaker 3:I don't think Mickey Mouse had super cheese.
Speaker 2:So Bugs is shrewd, he's irreverent, he's quick-witted, outspoken, and he has a strong predisposition for Carrot's practical jokes and catchphrases such as what's up, doc? Of course you know this means war and what a maroon.
Speaker 3:I do like what a maroon. I do use what a maroon a lot. My sister and I use that a lot.
Speaker 2:Let's see. He appeared occasionally with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and his most frequent nemesis was Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam and I loved Yosemite Sam too. I'll say, oh, he said that I say I think so, I'll say it.
Speaker 2:No, that is Falkorn and Ligorn. Okay, anyway, I'll give you all something to think about. So, anyway, what's up? Oh, so, one of my favorite episodes, um episodes. I was so excited when I saw this when I was doing my research, cause it reminded me, um, in 1957, the what's opera doc came out, good God, and it was an animated masterpiece, I'm talking. It rivals Fantasia, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, uh. But it um had bugs and elmer fudd, uh, in the roles of brunhild and sigfried, and it was a adaptation of richard wagner's. Here's another word I'm going to mess up the Ring of the Nibelung. Nibelung was the first cartoon short to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1992. You have to admit, that's a little bit impressive, that wascally wabbit, alright, so we're down to our last cartoon for the show.
Speaker 2:Impressive. That wascally wabbit. All right, so we're down to our last cartoon for the show, and we're going to talk about Scooby-Doo.
Speaker 3:Scooby-Dooby-Doo.
Speaker 2:Because that's one we can agree on. Sure, who don't you like in Scooby-Doo? I didn't hate Scooby-Doo. Are they bullying the monsters? Monsters have rights too. Oh geez, all right, they're just doing their job.
Speaker 3:I think we all learned from Scooby-Doo that the monster is actually us, of course, usually a man, Sorry men. Very ahead of their time.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right. So in the fall of 1969, cbs and Hanna-Barbera Productions launched an animated half-hour comedy starring a cowardly but lovable Great Dane who traveled the world with his four human friends, stoners, to solve spooky mysteries.
Speaker 3:They're all a bunch of stoners.
Speaker 2:Everyone involved was banking on the show's success, but nobody could have predicted that Scooby-Doo would become one of the most durable and popular characters of all time. That is true, he is. So. His gang was Fred, daphne, velma and Shaggy, shaggy being his best friend.
Speaker 3:And the stoner Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I think that Velma was the first openly lesbian character on TV.
Speaker 3:She was there was debate about that. We're going to declare that right now. There was debate. I did read a debate about that, but I don't remember how it came out. But it's widely speculated yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it so anyway. So with help of two creative forces behind Scooby-Doo, so with help of two creative forces behind Scooby-Doo who spanned the character's entire career, were Iweo Takamoto, the vice president of creative design for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which is now owned by Warner Brothers, and Eric Radomski, supervising producer of the most recent series Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue, which was on the CW. I remember that being out, but I never watched that I didn't watch it no, the first series, Scooby-Doo when Are you?
Speaker 2:went through a lot of developmental changes. Yeah, it sure did so. Anyway, the first pastor didn't even have a dog in it. Wow, Well, it didn't star a dog. Who was Scooby-Doo then? I know, I thought of that too Weird, yeah. So Scooby-Doo came from Fred Silverman and he was the head of children's programming for CBS and he was looking for a different kind of animated show For stoners. So they made him a half-hour, full half-hour episodes so you could smoke your joint and then veg out for half an hour and watch Scooby-Doo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, watch psychedelic Scooby-Doo and eat your Scooby snacks.
Speaker 2:I bet it was popular for psychedelics too, I have no doubt. So, let's see, they were part of the Saturday morning cartoons. And oh, he wanted to be a part of the Saturday morning cartoons, Silverman. So he contacted none other than Hanna-Barbera to try to get them on board. Let's see, they ended up going with Hanna-Barbera. And then two young writers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, got the assignment of developing the show, which they initially conceived as a straightforward mystery adventure centered on five teenagers. Eventually, a dog character was added, but only on a comic relief sidekick. Eventually, the show shifted away from serious thrills towards comedy, and the dog began to play a larger role, eventually becoming the star of Scooby-Doo. Where Are you? Earlier working titles included Mysteries 5 and who's Scared. So I guess it was Mysteries 5 and who's Scared before they developed Scooby-Doo Before Scooby came along.
Speaker 3:Right Got it.
Speaker 2:And the original Scooby-Doo premiered September 1969, which is the year my mom graduated high school.
Speaker 3:My parents too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think that's everything I have today on cartoons.
Speaker 3:That was really good. That was a really good job. Oh, thank you, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun researching it. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. So, but real quick, if I could. We don't want to use this platform to be political or anything, and I think we've made it pretty evident of which way we lean. But that aside, that doesn't even really have anything to do with the fact that I just want to give a little shout out to my little state, delaware. We did really good yesterday. We elected our first black female to represent Delaware in the Senate Right Maryland also did the same, and then we also elected the first openly transgender member of congress. Yes, um, and I'm just I. It gives me a lot of hope and, uh, I I would like to think that gen x at our generation is kind of what uh started out, this open-mindedness, and maybe have gotten, we've kind of helped get to where we are. But, yeah, I'm just really proud of Delaware for doing that. Yeah, it makes me happy to live here. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3:And then we'll just. That's all we'll have to say about that. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. Anyway, you can follow us on Facebook and all the other socials at LikeWhateverPod. You can send us an email at LikeWhateverPod, at Gmail and what else.
Speaker 2:Listen to us wherever you find podcasts.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, but if you're listening to it, then you know you already found it, yep. Congratulations but if this is your first episode, you know you already found it, Yep Congratulations. But if this is your first episode, you can take a look back at the other. This is our fourth episode I'm so proud of us.
Speaker 2:I know when we hit five.
Speaker 3:We hit a new milestone on our app. I know. Exciting. So yeah, again, follow us on the socials. Like whatever pod. Send us an email like whatever pod. Send us an email like whatever pod at gmail. Or don't like whatever whatever. Bye.
