Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known as the creator of the Pee-wee Herman character,
around which he built Pee-wee’s Playhouse and portrayed him on three
episodes of Sesame Street. He also played Mr. Herodotus in Hercules:
The Animated Series, Dennis in the Teacher’s Pet film, Sir Malachi
in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), and Couch Dracula in Pickle
and Peanut.
WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN (Nicktoons, January
23-November 29, 2009) Noxxon Entertainment
Inc., Toonz Entertainment, First Serve International, Liberation Entertainment,
EVA Finance GmbH, Marvel Entertainment
Wolverine
and the X-Men was the third animated series based on the X-Men
family of comics by Marvel Comics. It was
the first and only production by Toonz
First Serve, a partnership between Toonz
Animation and First Serve International to secure enough funding to
approach Marvel about doing the series. Developed by Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson, the series
focused on the X-Men disbanding after an explosion at the X-Mansion
seemingly killed Professor Xavier (Jim Ward) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale).
However, within a year, Wolverine (Steve Blum) decides the team needs to reform
in order to deal with government-sponsored mutant cops called the Mutant
Response Division, the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels (Ward), Senator Rober
Kelly’s (Richard Doyle) Mutant
Registration Act, Magneto (Tom Kane) trying to incite a race war from his
new island kingdom of Genosha,
the Brotherhood
of Mutants causing chaos, and prevent a dystopian future (based on Days of
Future Past) that Xavier found himself in from occurring. With Xavier
found to be in a coma, Cyclops (Nolan North) despondent over Jean’s death, and
Storm (Susan Dalian) in Africa, Wolverine takes the uncomfortably unfamiliar
role of leader as he recruits his X-Men.
Wolverine leads Nightcrawler, Iceman, Storm, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Angel and Shadowcat.
The show
began life as a Wolverine
solo series until it evolved into its final form. The stories and character
designs took greater inspiration from the comics of the past decade, as well as
cues from the 20th
Century Fox live-action film series
about to release its 4th entry, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
While Wolverine and his team—comprised of Cyclops, Storm, Beast (Fred
Tatasciore), Iceman (Yuri Lowenthal), Shadowcat (Danielle Judovits), Forge
(Roger Craig Smith), Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren) Angel (Liam O’Brien) and
eventually Nightcrawler (also O’Brien) and Rogue (Kieren van den Blink)—dealt
with troubles in the present, Xavier was trying to survive the future with his
allies—Bishop
(Kevin Michael Richardson),
Berzerker (Blum), Domino (Gwendoline Yeo), Hellion, Kamal
(both Smith), Marrow (Tara Strong), Polaris (Liza del Mundo), Vanisher
(Blum), and a reprogrammed Sentinel named Rover (Ward)—while searching for clues
to send back to his past to try and prevent it from occurring.
Magneto always ready to make trouble with the likes of Domino, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Blob, Mystique, Toad and Avalanche.
Wolverine
and the X-Men debuted on Nicktoons
on January 23, 2009, airing its first two episodes back-to-back before
rerunning on Nickelodeon two days later.
Before it even aired, development
had begun on the second season, with associate producer and writer Joshua Fine stepping into the
supervising producer role exited by Kyle when went to go work on the first Thor
film. Plans were in place to continue on from the new terrible future the series
ended on based on the Age
of Apocalypse storyline, as well as lead into potential crossovers with
The Avengers: Earth’s
Mightiest Heroes (which Fine was also heading up) and The
Spectacular Spider-Man. New character
designs were shown off at Comic Con
2009 and things reportedly got as deep as a full season bible and the first
eight episodes being written. Unfortunately, work came to a grinding halt when
Toonz First was unable to secure the full funding they would need. The idea of
Marvel funding it themselves was floated, but as new
owner Disney sought to starve Fox of any new adaptable content over their
refusal to give up the licenses they acquired during Marvel’s more precarious
financial situation, it was promptly nixed and the show was allowed to just
end. A decade later, that situation would resolve itself as Disney
acquired Fox, allowing Wolverine and the X-Men to be featured on the
streaming service Disney+. Could it
lead to a revival like X-Men:
The Animated Series’ with X-Men
’97? Time will tell.
Howdy, folks! Just thought I'd update you all on why updates seem sparse this month. Unfortunately, life has happened between work, health and family issues. Work is progressing--slowly. I don't have a timetable on when we'll get back on track, but do continue to follow our socials on Twitter, Facebook and Spoutible for new Saturday morning-based comics, new episodes on Saturday morning, various Saturday morning related news, and--hopefully sooner than later--updates to the site.
Earth's Mightiest Heroes (top) vs. Avengers Assemble.
After two
seasons, Marvel decided to cancel EMH in favor of a retooled show that
would bring things closer to the MCU’s depiction in The Avengers film. Avengers
Assemble was developed by Man of
Action, who were given control over the final 12 episodes of EMH,
and featured the film-inspired line-up of Captain America (Roger Craig Smith),
Iron Man (Adrian Pasdar & Mick Wingert), Thor (Travis Willingham), Black
Widow (Laura Bailey), Hawkeye (Troy Baker) and Hulk (Tatasciore), with newcomer
Falcon (Bumper Robinson) serving as the entry point for the audience.
Thunderbolts? Assemble did it first.
Avengers
Assemble debuted on Disney XD on May 26, 2013, airing as part of the Marvel
Universe block. It was joined by and shared a continuity with Ultimate
Spider-Man (as well as its replacement, Marvel’s Spider-Man, when
the former was cancelled), Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
andGuardians of the
Galaxy. It ran for 5 seasons, with seasons 3-5 receiving the subtitles Ultron
Revolution, Secret Wars and Black Panther’s Quest, respectively (a
trend all of Marvel Animation’s shows would follow after reaching a 3rd
season). Assemble would feature crossovers with its fellow shows, as
well as a variety of characters from across the Marvel universe (excluding the X-Men, although some
of their villains did appear). While starting out from the MCU, the quicker
production schedule of an animated series vs. a feature film slate meant that Assemble
often introduced characters before the MCU did; such as Falcon, who wouldn’t
debut until Captain
America: The Winter Soldier the next year, and characters the MCU yet couldn’t,
such as the Fantastic
Four (whose rights were tied up over at 20th Century Fox until
Disney bought
them in 2019).
Bring on the bad guys! Two established MCU villains, two future ones, and one not yet seen.
All of the Marvel
Universe programs were cancelled in 2019 due to internal restructuring at
Marvel. Marvel
Television, under which Marvel Animation
operated, was a separate division from Marvel Studios, which
handled the films. It was decided to fold
Television into Studios under the stewardship of studio head Kevin Feige,
who became the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel as a whole. Television’s output
was either outright cancelled or allowed to wrap-up as Marvel Studios began
looking into developing MCU-connected content for Disney’s new streaming
platform, Disney+, and the Animation
division was extremely pared down in favor of the all-new Marvel Studios
Animation. Assemble would continue to be rerun on Disney XD and was
made available to stream on Disney+ alongside EMH.
The
Twilight Zone was an anthology series created, produced and written by Rod
Serling that delivered morality lessons and delved into modern day issues with
often fantastical and science-fiction elements to make the messages more
palatable to the average viewer. Serling had gained prominence in American television
during the 1950s, but dealt with the constant aggravation of his stories being
altered on the whims of the networks and their sponsors. He figured that
robots, aliens and the supernatural might significantly remove things from
reality and give him more leeway to present thought-provoking controversial
ideas. In 1957, he wrote the pitch pilot “The Time Element”,
depicting a man sent back to 1941 Honolulu who
tried to warn everyone about the eminent attack on Pearl Harbor unsuccessfully, but
it was ultimately rejected and shelved. Bert Granet rediscovered it a
year later and produced it as an episode of Westinghouse
Desilu Playhouse, and its success allowed Serling an opportunity to do
his series.
The
Twilight Zone debuted on CBS on October
2, 1959, running for 5 seasons. While reviewers praised the series, it
initially struggled in the ratings with audiences until close to the end of the
first season. Serling wrote or co-wrote 92 of the show’s 156 episodes and served
as the narrator, delivering monologues that set up the moment when the story’s
characters “entered the Twilight Zone” and the story’s moral at the end. While he
appeared in promos for the series, it wouldn’t be until the second season that
he would appear on screen to deliver those monologues. Additional writers
included Charles Beaumont
(until complications from a developing brain disease reduced his involvement), Richard Matheson,
George Clayton
Johnson, Montgomery
Pittman, Earl
Hamner Jr., Reginald
Rose, Jerry
Sohl, John
Tomerlin (both of whom ghostwrote for Beaumont), and Richard De Roy.
Bernard
Hermann composed the series’ theme for the first season, but was replaced
from the second season on by Marius Constant’s
more-familiar composition. As it was an anthology series, it had no permanent
characters and a rotating roster of actors; some well-known at the time, and
others just beginning their careers. Several actors would make return
appearances in various episodes as other characters, including William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, William Windom, Jack Klugman and Martin Landau, with Robert McCord having appeared
in the most.
Difficulties in finding a sponsor
for the 4th season resulted in the show being replaced by Fair Exchange,
although it was ultimately renewed as a mid-season replacement for the
replacement. To fill that timeslot, CBS demanded the series be expanded to an
hour-long format, which didn’t sit well with Serling and the production crew.
Serling’s involvement as an executive producer was reduced this season, and his
monologues were filmed against a gray background back-to-back during his
infrequent trips to Los Angeles. “The” was also dropped from the title. The 5th
season returned to the half-hour format, but was plagued by a number of unpopular
decisions by new producer William
Froug; such as shelving a script for “The Doll” which was later made an
episode of Amazing
Stories (and won a Writer’s Guild
Award nomination) and alienating Johnson by having De Roy rewrite and
dilute his screenplay for what would become “Ninety
Years Without Slumbering”. CBS head Jim Aubrey ultimately
decided to cancel the series, having disliked it since his instatement during
the 2nd season as it was an expensive series to produce and using the
season’s middling ratings as further justification. Serling, severely burnt out
by this time, sold CBS his 40% share of the series and left it behind until
returning in 1969 with the similar series Night Gallery on NBC.
The Twilight Zone was nominated
for 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 2,
and continued to be broadcast in syndicated reruns, initially less the episodes
“Sounds and Silences”,
“Miniature”
and “A
Short Drink From a Certain Fountain” due to copyright lawsuits, “An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” which was a French short film whose airing
as part of the series as a limited-time agreement, and “The
Encounter” due to racial overtones. Notably, the series airs on Syfy regularly in late-night slots and as part
of marathons for New Year’s and the 4th of July, although they’re
usually altered to allow for more commercials. Three revivals have been attempted—one
in 1985 lasting two
seasons, one in 2002
lasting one, and one in 2019
which concluded after two—as well as an infamous film version in 1983
that resulted
in the deaths of actor Vic
Morrow and two children, and a 1994 made-for-television film
comprised of two stories found by Serling’s widow, Carol.
