The loss of the that special time on Saturday mornings in the 70's really to my mind shows just one way in which we no longer share a culture which defines us. Not to make too much of it, but Saturday was the day of the kid, the time when thanks to the invention of the weekend because of the rise and power of the labor unions America was granted an opportunity to meet, even if that meeting was not actual but merely virtual through the shiny surface of a television screen. TV us often (and often properly) derided but it did bring the sprawling culture of the United States into sync. Radio had done this before but TV was even more potent.
The cartoons from Hanna-Barbera and the few other up and running studios in the waning days of classic animation were cultural icons which kids imprinted on across the country. Even relatively obscure ones like Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey, and Speed Buggy were shared by millions. Nothing has that hold today over kids of that age to that degree. I well know that we kids were then and are now more a demographic, a slice of the population to sell things to, but that doesn't mean that the shared identity doesn't rise above that mean intention. At least it does for this kid.
Here are the covers for the issues in this slim trade volume.
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