It's Saturday Morning! by Joe Garner; Michael Ashley was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and a skim read most of it. I do want to this this another try when I'm not in a reading slump though, as it seemed really cute.

This book is just a heaping helping of Saturday morning nostalgia. I was very much a kid who spent my Saturday mornings watching all the cartoons, and I also miss those days y'all. This book walks through the cartoons decade by decade. If you're like me, you'll resonate with the decade(s) of your youth. For me, that, was both the 80s and 90s. The book has a spotlight on specific shows from each decade, and that includes origins, episodes, and how the show has carried on beyond Saturday morning. Some of this was stuff I knew, but lots more was stuff I didn't. I'm always up for a good throwback read, and this was overflowing with that!

Whilst interesting, honestly this one was more niche than I expected it to be. I feel like a big part of this was the exclusion of Disney cartoons, which I was not expecting. Still, it has the nostalgia factor which is sure to appeal to many fans.

Thank you so much to Quarto Books and Netgalley for a copy of It’s Saturday Morning for review! What a walk down memory lane!
The pictures in this book are stunning. My husband and I sat and flipped through the book with our son and he loved seeing what we used to watch. The book ranges from The Flintstones to The Animaniacs with a lot of information and fun facts about each show along the way.

Such a cute little nostalgic book, a great coffee table one to flick through or a gift for someone that really loves animation / cartoons.

I love this book. A wonderful book full of nostalgia for multiple generations. This is something that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

This is a good overview of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Many of the most popular cartoons are included and they give their reasons for including them. Many of your favorites however will be missing. Each cartoon has a few pages of text and lots of illustrations. I really enjoyed reading about the actors behind the voices. I also enjoyed the vintage commercial breaks. Anyone who enjoyed Saturday Morning Television Cartoons will enjoy this book buy you maybe wishing for more.

If you just look at the show list, it seems like a weird selection. Not always the most well known shows of an era. Once you get a little deeper, you realize there was a lot of thought in the choice. Each show was very meaningful, either to the era or to the genre. THese are shows that resonated or introduced new ideas or had lasting impact on culture. A bit much to slam through in a sitting but interesting to pick up here and there.

A fun trip down Nostalgia Lane. As a child of the 70s, I watched almost every one of these cartoons, first run and in syndication. While this is by no means a complete list, it covers a big portion of my Saturday morning line-up. Each cartoon covered includes basic information, such as number of seasons and episodes, years aired, networks aired on, but also gives fun, interesting behind the scenes information. Particularly interesting to me was the excerpt about Battle of the Planets, one of my favorites. Because of Broadcast Standards and Practices at the time, much of the original Japanese storyline got cut to pieces and cobbled back together. Ever wonder why Super Friends was so lame? Because Broadcast Standards and Practices was extremely strict when it came to violence- that's why the bad guys got a stern talking-to instead of a butt kicking! Sprinkled throughout the book are spotlights on the toys and breakfast cereals featured in the commercials shown during the programs; we all know the real reason these cartoons existed was to sell stuff, and these little sidebars sparked lots of nostalgia too. A great coffee table book, perfect for picking up, thumbing through, and reliving your childhood.

Thank netgally, the author for an Advanced Copy of this book. I really enjoyed this book. It's well worth reading

This book does a fantastic job of following cartoons from the 1960's - 1990's and sharing interesting facts about the shows. There is a vast amount of information, pictures, and fast facts about each cartoon. This was a walk down memory lane and middle/high school students would have a fun time reading this to see what cartoons were like years ago. This book also provides a great opportunity to compare/contrast the changes within cartoons over time. Although I would not use this book with my elementary students, I would keep it in a classroom library to read or recommend it for older students.

It's Saturday Morning! by Joe Garner & Michael Ashley was a walk down memory lane for me. Born at the tail-end of the 70s, most of these shows were staples in my life. Watching Scooby-Doo reruns in the afternoons spent at my grandmother's, and Smurfs on Saturday. Smurfs were my favourite, and still are! I was positively ecstatic when the live-action movies came out. He-Man, too! I remember being very obsessed with that cartoon. When the live-action movie came out, my parents took my neighbor and I to see it opening night.

This book looks at the golden age of animation between the 1960s- 1990s. During much of this time, viewing blocks were common on Saturday morning, lasting from 6 or 7am til noon. Smaller blocks populated weekday afternoons. Each decade has its own chapter, focusing on some of the most popular and influential cartoons of the time. Interspersed throughout are After These Messages… segments that take a look at advertised products during these decades, from Slinky to Mentos. To cover all of the cartoons during these decades would have been both a daunting write and read. I do wish cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Inspector Gadget, Mighty Mouse, Silverhawks, and Snagglepuss had been included.

It's Saturday Morning! is packed with all kinds of info and trivia, such as:

*Bugs Bunny got his name from Joseph Benson 'Bugsy’ Hardaway, a storyboard artist, when a fellow employee notated an early sketch as Bugs's Bunny.

*In the original run, Pink Panther never spoke.

*There's a city in California called Tarzana.

*Smurfberry Crunch contained an edible blue dye that turned people's poo blue. Needless to say, it was a short-lived affair.

*Many '80s cartoons- Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe- were toys before cartoons.

*There were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle condoms. (You're welcome…)

If you're an animation buff, or grew up during these decades and want a bit of nostalgia, this is the perfect book!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A good book for those wishing to relive their childhood Saturday mornings sat in front of the tv. Mainly aimed at the US adults, but I do recall seeing many of these in England during my childhood. It covers from the 60s through to the 90s.

Its great to read, lots of facts on the programmes and includes those hits such as Scooby-doo, bugs bunny and the Smurfs along with lots of animations and retro adverts of kids toys.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

This was a fun, blast to the past!

I thoroughly enjoyed the 1960s and reminiscing about my growing up years and then fast forwarding to the 1980s and visiting the programs my kids loved. The book was set up easily to navigate the different decades and the pictures were a great plus.
I received an advance reader copy via Netgalley

I was not able to download this book. XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This is a fine book about some of the Saturday morning cartoons (cartoons that did not necessarily air on Saturday mornings in some cities are included here as well) starting in the 1960s and continuing until the year 2000. As someone who has read a lot of books about television, I really didn't learn much new, but still enjoyed the book nonetheless. The pictures really make this book as does the articles contained within concerning the commercials that aired during these Saturday morning cartoons. I noticed a few mistakes here and there but definitely nothing that would ruin the book. I would recommend this to anyone who remembers watching 5 hours of cartoons every Saturday morning when they were a kid.

Memories and Browseable Tidbits

Bugs Bunny got his name because he was first drawn by an illustrator whose nickname was Bugsy; when anyone referred to the unnamed character they called it "Bug's Bunny". If you think that's interesting or amusing, then this is the book for you.

It's organized by decade. Each major cartoon show opens with a details factoid box, (date of airing, number of episodes, and so on), and then there are two to five pages of narrative text giving you the history of the show's development and run and syndication fate. I say this is browseable because the tidbits can vary in appeal. I was actually a living kid when "The Flintstones" first came out, so I don't need a detailed explanation about how it was modeled on the TV show "The Honeymooners". Everyone knew that. But then, again, it never occurred to me that "The Jetsons" was a variation on the TV sitcom "Blondie", and was even voiced by some of the actors from that show. So, depending on how old you are, what you knew, what you now remember, and what you care about, there are all sorts of odds and ends that will entertain and amuse.

The book runs from "the 60's" through "the 90's", which makes it a sort of multi-generational journey. I'm all 60's, with a thorough knowledge of Bugs Bunny, Flintstones, Jetsons, Johnny Quest, and Underdog. The 70's, featuring Scooby-Doo, Josie, Tarzan, and Fat Albert, is a dark glass. By the 80's my kids started coming on-line, and so I'm back up to speed with Smurfs, Alvin, Transformers, Care Bears and He-Man. Then we go vague again and Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Bobby's World are all strangers. The grandkids are now all Paw Patrol, the second life of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and P.J. Masks, but their shows are beyond the reach of this book. (The author argues that the great Saturday morning blocks ended at the end of the 90's when the networks moved away from that model, but cable and Nickelodeon would probably beg to differ on that score.)

The narrative style suits the material. It's chatty without being corny and informative without being academic. There are lots of stills from the shows and even more behind the scenes photos of the actors and illustrators. A nice touch is that each decade has a few ads for contemporary toys, (Slinky, Battleship, Transformers), that create some childhood context and prompt a few fond memories.

So, either as a trip down memory lane, or as a surprising bit of cultural history, this was an entertaining, and surprisingly informative find. And I liked the illustrations.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I loved the nostalgia aspect of this. I loved cartoons as a child, a teen and beyond.
This brings back many memories in a colorful and informative way.
Great for the nostalgia lover and cartoon buff.

Remember when you’d wake up excited that it was Saturday morning because that meant hours of cartoons and that’s really the only time you got to enjoy cartoons? There was no station or stations dedicated to cartoons then. Maybe you’d be lucky enough for a cartoon or two to be on after school, but nothing like today with cartoons showing all the time. I enjoyed learning more details (or being reminded) about favorite cartoons and even shows I didn’t watch. Information such as what channel and years on the air — some were even on a variety of channels was mentioned. Included are the voice actors’ names, words to songs and catchphrases. Pictures and details of commercials such as candy, cereals and toys (Cabbage Patch Kids, Lite Bright and Teddy Ruxpin — to name a few).

A great nostalgic look back at tv programmes of my youth. A happy few hours reminiscing with people of a similar age. Ideal book present for that hard to buy person in your life.