From "Hong Kong Phooey" to "Jonny Quest", from Sid and Marty Krofft to Hanna-Barbera, brothers Kevin and Timothy Burke, who as kids watched plenty of television, celebrate all that made Saturday morning TV great. 158 photos, 8 in color.

On televison and censorship

Mark McCray wasn’t the only boy who loved Saturday morning cartoons, but he may have been the only one to call the networks and tell them what he liked and disliked about them. For instance, he was blown away by the direction Hanna-Barbera took with Josie and the Pussycats, the kids in the wrong place at the wrong time who rose to the occasion and saved the day. It wasn’t long before he was writing his own newsletter, titled The Best Saturdays of Our Lives, which he circulated to animation and television executives, networks, studios, and comic book publishers. The newsletters chronicle the origins of competitive Saturday morning programming—from the 1966–67 season straight through to the 1990s—and they’re compiled in one place for easy reference in this book. You’ll get an insider’s look at the inner workings of the cartoon and television industries, competition between broadcast networks, and how the industry has changed over the years. Mark’s curiosity, probing insights and love of television, come together to create The Best Saturdays of Our Lives.

H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost: For a generation of children growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, these were some of the most memorable shows on Saturday morning television. At a time when television cartoons had lost some of their luster, two puppeteers named Sid and Marty Krofft put together a series of shows that captivated children. Using colorful sets and mysterious lands full of characters that had boundless energy, the Kroffts created a new form of children's television, rooted in the medium's earliest shows but nevertheless original in its concept. This work first provides a history of the Kroffts' pretelevision career, then offers discussions of their 11 Saturday morning shows. Complete cast and credit information is enhanced by interviews with many of the actors and actresses, behind-the-scenes information, print reviews of the series, and plot listings of the individual episodes. The H.R. Pufnstuf feature film, the brothers' other television work, and their short-lived indoor theme park are also detailed.

Japanese Influence on American Children’s Television examines the gradual, yet dramatic, transformation of Saturday morning children’s programming from being rooted in American traditions and popular culture to reflecting Japanese popular culture. In this modern era of globalization and global media/cultural convergence, the book brings to light an often overlooked phenomenon of the gradual integration of narrative and character conventions borrowed from Japanese storytelling into American children’s media. The book begins with a brief history of Saturday morning in the United States from its earliest years, and the interaction between American and Japanese popular media during this time period. It then moves onto reviewing the dramatic shift that occurred within the Saturday morning block through both an overview of the transitional decades as well as an in-depth analysis of the transformative ascent of the shows Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Dragons are trained to fight to the death, and two determined teens help free them in this spellbinding saga. Training a dragon to be a fighting champion is the only way to freedom for fifteen-year-old Jakkin.