Pick the cartoons I’ll show at the next TV on Film Party

If you grew up watching Saturday Morning cartoons on television in the ’60s and ’70s — or wish you did — have I got a show for you.

I have a hard time rememberng what I had for lunch yesterday but I can still sing the theme songs from The Bugs Bunny-Rod Runner Hour, The Mighty Hercules or Roger Ramjet. I put in the tine in front of the set and the works of Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward, Max Fleischer and Rankin-Bass are all still firmly imprinted in my noggin’.

For close to 50 years, I’ve been collecting early TV and even earlier theatrical animation on 16mm film. On Saturday, Nov. 23 starting at 1 p.m., I’ll be projecting many of these rare gems on the giant screen at The Westdale Theatre in Hamilton.

This will be a family friendly presentation, meaning that parents (or grandparents who watched these shows on television) can please bring their youngsters. Come for the fun and humour, and kids, find out why your parents turned out the way they did.

Fifty years ago, you could not watch cartoons on demand, on YouTube, on TikTok and Instagram or even on video or DVD. You had to get up early on a Saturday morning, turn the channel knob on your TV and watch cartoons the way God intended them to be seen. If you slept in and missed them, you missed them!

This latest TV on Film Party presentation will recreate, on a big theatre screen, the experience of watching cartoons many of us saw originally on our parents’ tiny, black and white TV sets. Come and join the party and be prepared to answer a round of TV trivia questions. You could win some great prizes courtesy the folks at RetroFestive.ca

First, though, you can help me curate this November 23 screening. Please look at the list below. Pick your three favourite shows, and message me your choices at the end of this post. I’ll tally up the choices and make sure they are included in the afternoon presentation.

And, no, sadly, I don’t have Clutch Cargo, Gumby, or Thunderbirds on 16mm film. Not yet anyway. If you have them on 16mm, bring them with you to the screening!

Please choose from among the following, listed in no particular order:

• The Dudley Do-Right Show (1969-70). The adventures of Canada’s dumbest member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. From Jay Ward and Bill Scott.
• Abbott & Costello (1966). Hanna-Barbera made 156 of these five-minute shorts, which helped Bud Abbott play off some tax debts. Stan Irwin impersonated Lou Costello, who died in 1959.
• The Flintstones (1960-66). The first primetime network animated half-hour sitcom featured, Fred, Wilma and the rest of the modern stone-age family.
• The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958). The adventures of a blue dog with a southern accent. Voiced by Hanna-Barbera aces Daws Butler and Don Messick.
• Roger Ramjet (1965). Gary Owens from Laugh-In voiced this jet-age hero with the strength of 20 atom bombs for a period of 20 seconds.
• Jonny Quest (1964). Comic book artist Doug Wildey pushed Hanna Barbera to new heights with this well animated adventure series. That’s a young Tim Matheson as the voice of Jonny Quest.
• The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1961). Canada’s Video Crafts, later Rankin-Bass, made 135 of these five-minutes ‘toons which featured puppet animation and a stellar voice cast.

• Tales from the Wizard of Oz (1961). Limited animation but some surprisingly clever scripts elevated this Video Craft Canadian effort. The voice cast was superb, including Carl Banas, Larry Mann, Alfie Scopp, Corrine Conley and Peggy Loder.
• Diver Dan (1961). These five minute, non-animated shorts featured actors playing Diver Dan and Minerva the mermaid, plus marrionette fish such as Baron Barracuda. Shot through a fish tank!
• Rocky & Bullwinkle (1959). Revered more for its wit than animation, boasting an outstanding voice cast, the adventures of moose and squirrel spun off Boris & Natasha, Fractured Fairytales and more.
• Casper the Friendly Ghost (1963). Based on the Harvey Comics hero, the theme for this series was “Come along now and join the party…”
• Woody Woodpecker (1957). Walter Lantz copied Walt Disney’s approach, hosting and talking to the main star (voiced by his wife Grace Stafford). Don’t miss “Woody’s newsreel.”
• Popeye the Sailor (1933-’60s). The spinach-eating sailor appeared on several kiddie shows when I was growing up and still beats up Blutto Saturday mornings on TCM.
• Superman (1941-44). The crowning achievement of the Fleischer Studios, these theatrical shorts show the Man of Steel fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
• Rocket Robin Hood (1967). The great Shamus Culhane was among the early animators of this space race era adventure series.
• The Mighty Hercules (1962). From Trans-Lux and featuring the voice of Johnny Horton singing the theme song, which every boomer should still be able to sing.
• Top Cat (1961-62). Hanna-Barbera borrowed heavily from The Phil Silvers Show for this animated series about wise-guy cat and his stooges from the alley.
• Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974-75). Jackie Earl Haley voiced the youngest member of the Buter family, who somehow wandered into a valley full of dinosaurs in this mid-70s Hanna-Barbera effort.
• The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour (1968-78). Bugs and Daffy sing “This is It” at the beginning of this ‘toon-packed series featuring the best theatrical cartoons from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.