The Best Saturdays of Our Lives

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie was the first ever animated movie of the week for Saturday morning television. The 60 minute Superstar Movie featured the animated versions of Lost In Space, Nanny and The Professor, Gidget, The Brady Bunch, Oliver Twist, The Say Hey Kid, (the autobiography of Willie Mays), plus a new production of Looney Tunes featuring Daffy Duck & Porky Pig.

Not to be outdone, CBS created The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Scooby's program was expanded to an hour format and would compete with The Saturday Superstar Movie by providing well known celebrity voices as featured guest stars which included, Sonny and Cher, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Don Knotts, the Addams Family and The Three Stooges. During the second season, the battle of the animated movies heated up with both [Superstar] and [Scooby] being renewed with new movies.

I believe the purpose of these movies was to provide a variety of animated entertainment for the viewing audience, (children didn't want to watch the live-action, critically acclaimed, CBS Children's Film Festival), and these new animated movies helped fill the void. The Scooby-Doo Movies spun-off a few television series, but none for CBS. Batman and Robin who made two guest appearances on The Scooby-Doo Movies were spun-off into a program titled The Super Friends for ABC. The Harlem Globetrotters who made the most guest appearances with Scooby was sent to NBC, as was The Addams Family. ABC had better luck with some of their Saturday Superstar Movies. Yogi's Ark Lark which featured every talking animal and insect to ever be featured in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon was successfully spun-off into a weekly Saturday morning series for the network titled, Yogi's Gang. Lassie and The Secret of Thunder Mountain was a Saturday Superstar Movie that dealt with crooked developers trying to destroy native American burial grounds. The following season, ABC re¬packaged Lassie, (literally not figuratively) into a program titled, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers.

I'm not really sure who won this battle of the animated movie because both programs premiered in September of 1972 and both were canceled in September of 1974. The old version of Scooby-Doo did return for two seasons from [1974-1976] until jumping ship to ABC to star in a new vehicle titled, The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. Yikes! When your favorite prime-time program is canceled, the networks state, "low ratings," but for Saturday morning television, the same rules do not apply. For example, when NBC canceled the animated version of Star Trek, (according to a network spokesman), Star Trek came in third place against, The Super Friends, (ABC), and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show (CBS). For the record, the other two series were canceled also. The Super Friends did return during mid¬season and was later repackaged into The New Super Friends Hour.
And speaking of spin-offs, the classic All in The Family must hold the record for successful television spin-offs. Norman Lear's [Family] produced for CBS, showcased the acting talents of Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers. The first program that was spun-off was Maude starring Bea Arthur, [Maude was Edith’s (Jean Stapleton’s) cousin. Maude spun-off Good Times starring Esther Rolle. [Ms. Rolle worked for Maude as her housekeeper]. George Jefferson, [Sherman Hemsley) who was Archie Bunker's antagonist/neighbor for years was spun-off into a successful series titled, The Jeffersons which ran 11 years on CBS. Archie Bunker’s Pace which showcased Archie managing a successful bar came next. Sally Struthers’ Gloria character was spun-off into a short lived program in which she is divorced from meat head (Rob Reiner), who left her to join a nudist camp. Finally, the last program All in The Family spun-off was a Saturday morning version called The Barkleys which featured The All in The Family cast members as talking animated dogs!