Reader here, and today, I’m talking cartoons. Specifically those that I used to watch as a kid.
As a grown-up, I love having the chance to sleep in on a Saturday morning, but when I was a kid, I loved getting up early on a Saturday morning, crushing a bowl of sugary cereal, and plunking myself down on the couch (or floor) with a blanket, and watching all of my favourite cartoons.
Growing up on the farm at Conquest, we never had cable. For most of my formative years, we had three channels: Channel 8, which was CTV (CFQC in Saskatoon), Channel 11 (CBC Saskatoon), and Channel 13, which was the CBC French channel.
That meant our viewing options were pretty limited. However, for my brothers, there were a few staples for our Saturday morning viewing taste, and all three were classics from the 1960s, that were still popular back in my day! (Man, I’m sounding old!)
One was “The Mighty Hercules,” which told the tale of the Greek God, as he battled the likes of the evil wizard Daedalus, Wilhemine the Witch, and the Mask of Vulcan, who always had a shelf full of identical masks, that made him invulnerable as long as he wore them.
Of course, Herc was always accompanies by his faithful centaur pal Newton (“That’s me, Herc! That’s me!), their satyr buddy Toot, with the flute, and his winged steed Pegasus.
That theme song will always be a banger.
Another one we used to watch was Rocket Robin Hood.
This was a bit of a different one. Basically, it took the classic Robin Hood story, and moved it to outer space!
Robin Hood and his Merry Men lived on New Sherwood Forest Asteroid, battling the schemes of Prince John and the evil Sheriff of NOTT (National Outer-space Terrestrial Territories).
The show was made in Canada, and in some cases, used the exact same animation cels as the classic 1967 “Spider-Man” series, with a couple episodes being direct remakes, replacing Spidey with Rocket Robin Hood.
And speaking of the ol’ Webhead…
If you’re a child of a certain vintage, before the lyrics kick in, when you heard those first few notes, you knew what show was on!
That was always the main event for me, and kickstarted why Spider-Man remains to me, the greatest superhero of them all, as my love for Spidey began with this 1967 classic.
Years later, we began to get a few more shows to watch, when Channel 4 – STV – hit the air in 1987 (becoming Global Saskatoon years later).
By then, we got to watch other shows like “The Real Ghostbusters,” “Inspector Gadget,” and “The Smoggie.”
But in my most formative years, Spidey, Hercules and Rocket Robin Hood were my staples.
Kids nowadays might see those old classics, and think “what the heck are those?” Cartoons in 2025 are much different nowadays.
But when they grow up, you can guarantee that the sights and sounds of the shows they watched as kids will fill them with the same jolt of adrenaline that my old faves still do for me.
In fact, I think I might make myself a big bowl of Froot Loops right now, fire up YouTube, and jump in the time machine, spending the evening watching a few episodes of my faves!
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