The Star Wars Cash Magnet

Ah, the good ole days. When Saturday morning television was wall-to-wall toy commercials. Even the actual cartoons were sometimes toy commercials, though those kinds of shows tended to come on during the work week. Saturday mornings were usually reserved for sugar-frenzied fantasies like Scooby Doo, The Smurphs, The Snorks and that bizarre Happy Days cartoon where Ritchie and the Fonz traveled around in a spaceship or something. What was that all about?

But I digress.

While my memory is fuzzy about many of the actual cartoons I watched as a kid, I have distinct memories of certain ads for Star Wars toys. The video above is a compilation of the ads which successfully helped part my parents from lots and lots of cash between 1977 and 1983. Enjoy!

Saturday Mornings Defined

If there was anything that came close to matching the hysteria caused by the Sears Christmas Wishbook when I was a kid, it was the advertisements for the new cartoon season that appeared in comics in the months leading in. I lived overseas for a few years as a child and, while I was still able to get a few American comics here and there, I missed most of the shows aired between 1979 and 1983. Panadamonium? Meatballs and Spaghetti? These shows are complete mysteries to me. I did have the misfortune of seeing Pryor's Place, though.

Below are a handful of these ads from the golden age of American cartoons I collected from various sources around the net. (Maybe I should refer to it as the "First Golden Age," given the great work regularly done by Adult Swim.)

Fred and Barney Meet The Thing

Here, for no reason, is some fairly bad video from Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, and honest-to-god Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s. This is one of the most bizarre productions from a decade that specialized in bizarre productions (Lidsville, anyone?)