Ten Saturday Morning Cartoon Mashup’s

Wanted to discuss a particular part of Saturday Morning Cartoon’s which has always fascinated me. When a show is mashed up with another show to form a full “hour”. Usually this is a transparent attempt to bolster one not so popular show with another. Or to make re-runs look like new material. One that really worked was “Garfield & Friends” which featured U.S. Acres segments in between Garfield cartoons. I was annoyed at this when the show premiered but I came to be fond of U.S.Acres, which was another Jim Davis strip.

But for every “Garfield and Friends” you get odd blending like “Pinky and the Brain and Elmira”. I mean what the heck was that about? Here are ten classic examples of two (or more) shows being packaged together to form one.




The Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour
Why has no ever done a comprehensive look at this craziness? Ok, first we had Fonz an the Happy Days Gang, where the Happy Days gang go time traveling (I am serious!). So that prompted another show, Laverne & Shirley Go to the Army. At least this one was a little grounded in reality. Fonzie was later added to L&S, and that show was blended with the new Mork & Mindy cartoon to make a full hour. Got that? There will be a quiz at end.

Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters
This makes NO SENSE. AT ALL. And from what I gather true fans of the classic cartoon were downright offended by this idiotic mess. The Real Ghostbusters was simply great, probably one of the best cartoons based on a movie ever. The cartoon gave us Slimer, who was poplar. So popular that the great minds who created the show decided to expand Slimer. So we had a full hour, one half being Real Ghostbusters and the second half being Slimer shorts. Makes sense since Slimer is such a rich, well developed character. Sigh. Nothing like becoming supporting characters in your own show. It’d be like if Happy Days was changed to Fonzie’s Happy Days. Stupid, and yes that almost happened.

The Tarzan, Lone Rangers, Zorro Adventure Hour

Ah Filmation, you wacky guys. There seemed to be a real attempt to get Tarzan into a pipular Saturday Morning series in the late 70’s. We had this, along with Batman/Tarzan and Tarzan/Super 7 (whatever that was). It was re-runs of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle paired with new shows The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Zorro. What do these three have in common? Got me.

Richie Rich, Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show
Because there’s a lot that Richie Rich has in common with Scooby and Scrappy Doo! Like….Nothing. This was a blending of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and Richie Rich. And there isn’t much else to say about it. It's also one of the worst blended openings it's clear these two do not belong anywhere near each other.

well at least that’s the craziest mashup involving Ricgie Rich there ever was…

Huh? Man I have no idea!!







And another Scooby one where it doesn't even feel like they were trying!

Hanna–Barbera’s World of Super Adventure
Here’s one I didn’t mention in my Hanna Barbera article. And the fact they would do this make sense considering their vast collection of shows. So let’s say you have a bunch of classic cartoons and want to repackage them in a way that makes the younger generation want to see them. Bur of course, you don’t want to announce these are basically re-runs. So you gather them up and sell them as their own show. We had Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Fantastic Four, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles, The Herculoids, Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor, Shazzan, and Space Ghost and Dino Boy.

And in case you’re wondering if this is the only Hanna-Barbera mashup…..

Fred Flintstone and Friends
Yeah we all know The Flintstones was popular. In fact not only do we get these other shows but Fred Flintstone introduced them himself. We had re-runs of Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Jeannie (1973–1975), Partridge Family 2200 A.D., The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Yogi’s Gang (1973), and Wacky Races (1968)

Muppet Babies & Monsters
I think I mentioned this one in discussing horrible ideas Jim Henson had in the days. While Muppet Babies was riding high they decided to make it an hour with a show called Little Muppet Monsters. It involved Muppet monsters living in the basement of, somewhere, and creating their own TV station. They had shows both animated and live action. The show was a mess, even the creators admit it wasn’t well put together, and only aired three episodes before Muppet Babies was its own show again (though the theme to Muppet Monsters remained as the closing theme to Muppet Babies). I do love the mashup of the two theme song’s..it almost worked!!

One Saturday Morning
Oh hell yeah, now this is how you do a mash up! You knew we had to have one Disney on here. I talked before about how even I got drawn into this, being way to old for Saturday cartoons by then. This wasn't just an hour but an entire block featuring new shows like Recess and Pepper Ann along with re-runs of stuff like The New Adventuress of Winnie the Pooh.

And yes I know the Disney Afternoon was around too. Do I really need to list these shows?

And finally….

Yeah there were a lot of Looney Tunes mashups but the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner one seems to be the one everyone remembers. They simply combined the two shows to make one.







Did I miss one? Comment and let me know.