Look, I’m admittedly out of my depth here: A Gen-Xer speaking about the cultural impact that a Saturday morning television cartoon segment had on a bunch of Gen-Z kids.
There are decades of disparity there.
While I, and many my age during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, were sleeping off a late night at the downtown alt-music clubs and left-of-the-dial music concerts, many kids were waking up to their all-time favourite cartoon programming.
Still, Saturday mornings are special. On that I think we can all agree.
Whether you were watching Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, Dungeons & Dragons, The Super Friends, Muppet Babies, The Real Ghostbusters or Animaniacs cartoons, Saturday mornings as a kid, regardless of generation, was a special time in front of the TV set, best paired with a mouth full of Count Chocula or Honeycomb cereal “yeah, yeah, yeah!”
Nostalgia and good times front and center, today sees the ultimate homage to the Gen-Z Saturday morning cartoon experience with the release of the Disney One Saturday Morning Adventures H/C.
Before streaming and apps and all the specialty channels we have vying for our attention today, at the turn of the millennium, Disney and ABC Kids partnered up on a broad-based, cross-continent, cartoon segment on Saturday mornings.
Billed as Disney’s One Saturday Morning from 1997-2002, the kids segment hosted a variety of animated and live action programming including 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Pepper Ann, Hercules: The Animated Series, The Weekenders, Teacher’s Pet, House of Mouse, Lloyd In Space and a bunch of memorable others. Now, publisher Fantagraphics Books releases a 188-page hardcover special edition that celebrates the Gen-Z youth experience for those who saw Disney’s One Saturday Morning programs when they first appeared or those that are finding out about it for the first time…in comic book form!
Written by a number of creatives including Laura McCreary (American Dad, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Scott Gimple (The Walking Dead) and illustrated by Dutch cartoonist and film animator, Daan Jippes (Donald Duck, The Complete Carl Carks Disney Library, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Rescuers Down Under), the Disney One Saturday Morning Adventures H/C contains stories featuring a plethora of characters from the cartoon segment including Disney’s Doug, Pepper Ann, Recess, Teacher’s Pet (all elementary school-based travails), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, and the famous stars of Mickey Mouse Works along with others!
The Disney One Saturday Morning Adventures H/C is a fun and wonderful return (or discovery) of the most special of days. Make the run to your local comic bookstore or book shop today and kindle (or rekindle) some of your youthful joy!
You can watch (or re-watch) the opening theme of Disney One Saturday Morning Adventures directly below.
