Saturday Mornings

I recently acquired one of those compilation DVDs of cartoons from the 1970s, and Marty and Casey have been watching them. This morning, it was hard not to be a little confused as "Funky Phantom" was on our television... I was simultaneously having flashbacks to being a 4-year-old and having to fight the urge to put on polyester clothing and light a Kool while enjoying a glass of Tang. I suppose the urges were just a byproduct of the memories. As I closed my eyes, I could very nearly smell the mix of menthol smoke and orange powder.

Its nice to have kids that are willing to watch older cartoons. Thanks to Boomerang, I realize that a lot of kids have continued to be exposed to everything from The Flintstones to Yogi Bear to Jabberjaw. My kids, particularly Marty, don't have a problem taking it a step further. He'll watch animation from the '30s and '40s... which, thanks to me, he has access to. They will also go on YouTube and watch obscure stuff.

So, its funny when they start talking about stuff that I would've talked about when I was 10, like figuring out the relationships between the different Hanna-Barbera characters on "Laff-Olympics."

See, it turns out -- and I was reminded of this earlier in the week with the passing of The Monkees' Davy Jones -- I watched a lot of television when I was a kid. I remember doing a lot of other stuff, but I don't know where I found the time considering the amount of things that I remember from TV shows from the 1960s and '70s. Last week, I was watching an ESPN Classic replay of a "Battle of the Network Stars" from somewhere in the neighborhood of 1980. Amy found it troubling that I was able to match-up the actors with their respective shows before either Howard Cosell or the chyron display did. I found it disturbing that there was a show that I didn't remember. (It was a NBC show called "Games People Play"...which was the launching pad for Mr. T, a story that I remember but the show itself escapes me.)

Back when I was a kid, all three networks (that's right... three) used to run a prime time special to introduce that season's Saturday morning cartoon lineup. I was the target audience for those shows and watched them religiously. I would probably be better off if I could forget some of that useless knowledge -- it's probably not critical that I be able to identify all of the characters on "Yogi's Gang" by sight for my sons -- but so far, I'm stuck with it.

I'm the annoying person that corrects someone with a "No, that wasn't 'Bewitched,' that was 'I Dream of Jeanie'" during conversations that I'm not even involved in. Or, calls up radio stations to point out that it was Stephen Stills that was originally considered for "The Monkees," not David Crosby.

It makes me wonder what I'm imparting to the kids... what kind of obscure references they'll confuse people with in 20 years. Some fathers pass along a trade to their children...I offer them knowledge that will be helpful with the retro release of Trivial Pursuit's 50th anniversary.

Hey, at least it's something.