Date check time... how many of you out there remember "Kaptain Kool and the Kongs?"

Oh God, c'mon, more than that. Geeze. It's sad when a 35 year old gets nostalgia.

At any rate, while I was doing a google search for them just so I could show all you youngins just how weeeiiirrddd Saturday morning TV was in the 70s, I found a real jem: TVParty.com, which seems to make a living selling all these old programs.

Of much more interest to me, and therefore of course I assume you (since we all know the world revolves around this website, right?), was their summary of Saturday morning cartoons. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have created a summary page for them, so I'll just hit the highlights:

• The coverage starts in 1966, when apparently all three networks decided to run Saturday morning kid's programming. Even though this was two years before I was born, I do remember some of these programs, the Beatles, Underdog, and Atom Ant in particular. I can only suppose these ended up on my local TV much later as afternoon reruns. My memory isn't that good.
• 1973 is the earliest year I can clearly remember. I was apparently an NBC fan at that time... I can recall watching all of those programs quite clearly, especially Star Trek and Sigmund and the Seamonsters.
• I can remember actually losing sleep the night before the 1975 cartoon season premiered. At this point Saturday morning was a big enough deal they'd broadcast "sneak preview" shows in primetime the preceding Friday. I had apparently by now switched from NBC to ABC and CBS. I distinctly remember "The Lost Saucer", thinking it very funny that Gomer Pyle (who was on at 6:30 in reruns... this was a full decade before "Wheel of Fortune" took the half hour before primetime, and old 60s sitcoms were used to fill the gap between local news and network programming) was a space alien.
• 1976 was the premiere of the above mentioned "Kaptain Kool", and yes, they really did look like that. I swear it was an attempt to cash in on KISS's makeup gimmick, but who knows. Strangely, I remember all of these shows. I can only suppose that I would slowly work through the dial as each show went into reruns. I well remember my dad's shock when he saw the latest blonde hottie on Days of our Lives (Deidre Hall) playing "Electrowoman" opposite "Dynagirl". Suddenly dad got a lot more interested in our Saturday morning programming. Took me many years before I figured out why.
• 1978 is the last year TVParty covers, and at 10 I apparently was too busy actually going outside and playing to watch all the Saturday morning TV shows. "Space Academy" and "The Fat Albert Show" were fixtures on my schedule, and I swear I never noticed there was any difference in the target audiences between them.

Well, there you have it. Some of you probably said, "oh my god! I remember that!" just like I did, others will shake their head and wonder, "what the hell?!?"

I'll just go on record saying Captain Marvel could kick a smurff to the moon and back. 80s cartoons just weren't the same.