Quick, run to your TVs...

...and program them to record five hours of Chuck Jones awesomeness!

Turner Classic Movies is having a mini Chuck Jones-athon tonight beginning at 8pm. Here is the full schedule, which includes a new documentary on one of the SMCS's favorite cartoon creators and - perhaps of more interest to those who follow the blog - two airings of his beloved adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth in between a whole mess o' Loony Tunes. Since so many of our listeners dig this movie and it's so hard to find through legitimate means, it seemed like the kind of thing you'd want to be advised of. Of course, if it hadn't been for the diligent and cartoon/civic minded Mark Evanier I wouldn't have known about this at all. Do check out his blog. Comics, cartoons, and soup: go, you'll like.

I also wanted to pass along a link to a Beany & Cecil segment that amused me to know, if for no other reason that it's one more tie that B&C have to The Muppet Show and Lionel Hampton. Two very cool people/things in my book. It's called "DJ the DJ," and once you've seen it you can imagine why I enjoyed it so throughly. There are a ton of good B&C 'toons on YouTube, so have some fun exploring. I certainly did.

If you look to your left, you'll see we have a new poll up. Please, please, please vote! We can only air two episodes on any given show and since several requests have come in, I think we ought to be democratic about it. Vote on! And we'll take whatever's in the lead come showtime. ;) For a summary of what is in each episode, get your Wikipedia on.

Enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

...have we got a Saturday Morning Cartoon Show for you!

Welcome to another day of singin', dancin', and tom foolery based on the exploits of animated do-gooders. Today, my friends, is VeggieTales day and we've got vikings!

Born in 1993, the brainchild of Big Idea Productions founders Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer, VeggieTales has become a driving force in both Christian and mainstream cartoon production. Why? Because it's filled from stem to stern with well-rounded characters, hysterical writing, and musical numbers that would amuse The Marx Brothers. :) Whatever your religious convictions (or non-religious, for that matter), this show is smart, this show is funny, and this show understands my needs for parody of culturally significant arts and literature...and cowboys. If you've never been willing to give VeggieTales a chance, doing so today may just change your mind. If nothing else, you'll be able to say you've heard vegetables doing Shakespeare and that'll impress all the right people. It's hard to imagine that a direct to video cartoon could produce almost forty episodes, two feature length films, over two dozen CDs, and a live stage show if it sucked, you know?

Podcast for 03/21/09 - VeggieTales

For those of you show are unfamiliar with the treasure trove that is the VeggieTales silly song library, here's a sampling of their brilliance. One of our listeners requested it, but since we try not to play additional material from whatever we're highlighting, I promised to post it here instead. Bear in mind that pretty much everything from VeggieTales and the rest of the Big Idea universe are available on CD, video, and through digital sources, so piracy is not encouraged.

The Hairbrush Song

If you're looking for even more VeggieTales action, check out the Big Idea Fun site. It's kid friendly and, let me be totally honest here, there's plenty of stuff for the grown-up casual gamer. I've spent many a happy hour on The Eggsperts, Jerry's Cheeseburger Madness, and especially Lyle's Breakout. I once had a record on that bad boy. :) The coloring pages are pretty sweet too, though I babysit a lot and that may bias me.

I'd also like to take a moment to welcome our new UK podcast listeners. There are a whole mess of you. :) Hopefully you enjoyed last week's Bananaman outing. If there are any British, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh cartoons that you'd like the SMCS to know about, please don't be shy. Link us, baby!  

Next week we'll be stepping into our red long johns, moussing our hair with lightning bolts, and running around, arms in the air, going "Whssssshhhhhh!" If you guessed that our next cartoon was Freakazoid, give yourself a cookie! You're smart and you've earned it. ;) Now, every episode of Freakazoid is a good one, but if there's a specific episode you'd like to hear, please let us know - either in the comment here or via e-mail - by Thursday night so we can play the ones that will tickle you the most.

Have a great weekend and enjoy!

 - DJ Muppet

P.S. To our beloved listener who adopted us, I e-mailed you, but now I think it may have gone awry. Alas! Drop me a line here or through the SMCS e-mail addy and we'll get things sussed. :)

When Eric eats a banana, he becomes The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show!

Happy Sunday, SMCS listeners! I don't know how things are on your end, but here in Kalamazoo it's blue skies, bright sun, and the promise of temperatures approaching 60, so I'm a very happy camper. Hopefully none of you are being subjected to anything too intense that would spoil the fun of a very lively show chock full of evil machinations and daring-do.

Today's show was supposed to be VeggieTales, but the files were corrupt when I went to burn the show CD and we were unable to bring them to you this week. While the vegetables have been relegated a show to one week hence, Beta and I are always prepared - I was a Girl Scout for thirteen years after all - and we had another wonderful cartoon ready to go. Today, we are proud to present the UK darling Bananaman. Those of you who are fans of other classic Brit toons like Danger Mouse and Count Duckula will no doubt enjoy this simple, but very funny when-they-aired-in-America contemporary. The episodes are extremely short, but the pacing and cleverness of the characters make the length an asset. Cartoon nuggets that don't suck? How can it be? It just can. ;)

Podcast for 03/14/09 - Bananaman

There isn't much to say about today's episode, as the cartoon speaks for itself, but I do want to thank everyone who called in requests. There were a ton of you and we love playing stuff we know you want to hear, so keep 'em coming. :) Also a huge thank you to one of our biggest fans (I haven't asked if I can use his name, so I won't) who upgraded his initial WIDR Week pledge to Adopt-A-DJ status! Woohoo! This means that sometime in the near future, you'll all be hearing him on the air with us while playing the the cartoons and music he likes best. There's just so much to look forward too!

Since some of you requested that the songs is offered last week be made available individually rather than in a single zip file, I set up a folder with the soundtrack for The Phantom Tollbooth that allows single song downloads. Bear in mind, this isn't something that's commercially available. If you were able to buy this soundtrack I wouldn't have uploaded it (or had to put it together for that matter), but it's not, so have at it! I'm not sure if MediaFire has any policies about files that go a certain length of time without being downloaded, but just in case, if you want these, you should get them quickly.

The Phantom Tollbooth soundtrack

So, next week will be filled with animated scallions and silly songs, but for now, have fun with fruit based super heroing and the loving parody of a pantheon of both heroes and villains. Keep those requests coming via e-mails and comments in the blog too. Enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

By the power of Grayskull, I have The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show!

Happy WIDR Week, loyal listeners! Today is a celebration of all the things that make WIDR and The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show awesome. Even our most long-standing audience members will be shocked and giddy with delight at the amount of fan service we managed to cram into a single show. ;) Seriously, it's pretty impressive. There are also a number of theme songs making their debut on the show today, so if you don't usually download the podcasts, this is the day to change that.

As you're no doubt already aware, this week's cartoon is none other than the equally loved and mocked He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, featuring everyone's favorite whiny, scheming, bone based villain, Skeletor. Beta does a pretty good impression too, which makes today's show a lot of fun, even though much - okay, all - of our talk time is spent asking for your help in keeping WIDR running. If you've yet to make a donation and would like to, you can call the station at (269)387-6303 until Sunday at midnight to make a pledge or use this direct link to the WIDR page on the WMU donation system to give via credit card. Every single dollar helps keep the shows you love on the air and is niftily tax deductible. If you make a donation of $10 or more, you'll get your very own copy of the 2009 WIDR Week SMCS Mix CD, lovingly put together by yours truly. If you donate online or through another show, let me know via e-mail with your contact info (and screenshot/receipt for online payments) and I'll make sure you get your CD. And of course a huge thank you to the people who have donated already! You are the only reason we get to do what we do and we're so very grateful.

Since we didn't provide our usual infotainment fodder of history and cultural significance for He-Man, I figured those of you who were interested in deeply detailed information about the Masters of The Universe universe would do well with one of the most comprehensive fan sites in existence, He-Man.org. Not only do they have in-depth analysis of each series, movie, and comic book run, they also have the most up-to-date information about existing and upcoming toy lines. What? So I want Teela and Evil-Lyn dolls to pose in battle on my desk. Is that so wrong? I already have a Teela from the original run you know. ;)

Podcast for 02/28/09 - He-Man & The Masters of The Universe

I also though the more hardcore leaning He-Man afficionados - and, heck, just the people who like pointing and laughing - would dig this recent post in the Live Journal community Scans Daily featuring He-Man and Superman in what could easily be termed a Battle Royale. I saved it all week for you and was so geeked to share! Unfortunately, Scans Daily was just suspended. I have no doubt that it'll be back up sooner rather than later, as it has a very active and vocal population, but still, harumph. It seemed like a sensible thing to give you the link and hope for the best, so that's just what I did. If someone had the wild hare to make this sucker, the people should not be deprived of it.

Tune in next week for another journey back to the surprisingly warped world of the 1960's when we whisk you away to a land populated by ineffectual witches, talking crockery, and music that can't help but inspire illicit behavior. What strange land is this, you may well be asking? In the galaxy populated by the minds of Sid and Marty Krofft, the first show they produced, H.R. Pufstuf, stands the test of time as a deliciously out there romp through the transition between the 60's and the 70's, which for those of us who watched a lot of Laugh-In is an impressive feat. This is a week you'll want to listen with friends, if for no other reason than to have someone with which to share that feeling of "What?!?" Your brain will thank me. 

The sun is out and spring is coming, so after you've had your fill of cartoonery, go outside and enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

P.S. Check back in a couple of days or subscribe to our feed, because I'm going to be posting some bonus material music that fans of Chuck Jones will not want to be without. Ain't I a stinker? :p

You will find the kingdom of The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show.

Hey guys. I'm so sorry this is late. I had it all written and ready to post once the file uploaded, but my friend Steve passed away on Saturday and after finding out I forgot all about updating until just now. Understandable, sure, but I really dislike leaving you guys hanging. It wasn't intentional. Next week's will be prompt and full of Eternia's Most Wanted. Here's the entry for this past Saturday.

- Muppet

**
Good morning, all! Hopefully the majority of you are safe and snuggly indoors, as Michigan is giving us what for and dropping a whole mess of snow on most of the state. What better time to sit back with friends, family, or anything cuddly in reach and enjoy the simple, but still adventure filled world of David The Gnome. And maybe some hot cocoa.

Tiny, old, and voiced by Tom Bosley, David The Gnome is an easy character to write off as too gentle for adults to enjoy, but this is show that seems to pride itself in moral lessons taught through events of genuine consequence to those in the story. That's not something that happens all the time in a great deal of television (*coughHeroescough*), let alone in cartoons.

Podcast for 02/21/09 - David The Gnome

Don't you just want to rub noses? Yeah, me too. :)

Next week, which incidentally is the SMCS time for pledge begging, we're diving head first into a world of unitards, manimals, and half baked morals. If you guessed He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, you're right! Mua ha ha ha ha! What? I like the vaguely homoerotic exploits of Skeletor. Don't forget, we need money to keep doing what we do, so please give us a call between 9am and 11am this Saturday morning. We've even got some hardcore SMCS fan service coming up, so you definitely don't want to miss this installment. ;)

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

I was a man. I was The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show!

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Who's in the mood for something slimy? Okay, I didn't mean for those two things to sound tied together, even though the shoe fits more than a little bit. I'm not knocking the day, single though I may be, today's cartoon just happens to be Swamp Thing! "Intruders! Tasty intruders!" Slimy and romantic, no?

Unlike many of the other comic book based cartoons we've featured here on the SMCS, the Swamp Thing cartoon was both short lived and poorly received, which of course stopped no one from heavily merchandising the thing before it had even aired. It worked. A lot. As someone with at least five actions figures from the series, I can say his with no hyperbole whatsoever. For those of you not planning on listening during the daylight hours, this particular cartoon is a lot of fun if you listen with friends who have plenty of MST3k skills, because this show is soooo much fun to mock. :) It's even better with puppets.

On the upside, parents will no doubt appreciate the socially conscious environmental messages that are (slightly) less heavy handed than those found in Swamp Thing's contemporary Captain Planet & The Planeteers. But if they've had to buy eight different versions of the same character and a swamp buggy to put them in, they may not care that their kid now wants to recycle. What will stick with them is that little Stu and Sue are suddenly talking like Cajun ne'er do wells because they think Bayou Jack is just too cool for words (and little Sue has a crush on Gambit to boot). Okay, enough yammering. On to the podcast!

Podcast for 02/14/09 - Swamp Thing

WIDR Week begins next week, but we've changed formats a little bit, so you'll get way more music as we beg for money to run the station. If you're not a Kalamazoo resident and want to know a little more about the station, the Wikipedia article is good, but a more in depth history can be found in the site's About WIDR section. If you'd like to make a donation/pledge and won't be awake/in town next weekend for the pledge drive, you can e-mail us at Gmail using the WIDRSMCS screen name to give us your contact info and the amount you're pledging, then we can get a form filled out for you when we have them in the studio.

Don't forget that in the 166 hours a week we're not on the air, you can still give us your requests for music and suggestions for future shows right here in the comments or via e-mail. In addition to be totally convenient, a head start on your desires makes it easier for us to procure and play them. No need to be shy. ;)

Next week we're taking a gentler approach and it will no doubt greatly appeal to those of you who, like me, dig fairy tales and folklore storytelling. Created in Spain and based on Dutch books, David The Gnome is a unconventional cartoon to be sure, but one that is smarter than most modern audiences give it credit for and augments the moral lessons with information instead of generalized platitudes. That alone makes it better than any number of cartoons-with-messages from that era. Even without being able to see the lush animation that stayed true to the book's illustrations, this is a thoroughly enjoyable show that listeners of all ages will enjoy. So, you know, come back and get it!

Have a happy Valentine's Day and good rest of your weekend, guys, and I'll see you back here next week. :) Enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

Help! I need The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show!

Yeah, we went there. Sure, we've taken you back to the sixties many times before, but never in a fashion so blatantly commercial and delightfully absurd , but in that wait-a-second-why-did-this-last-three-seasons kind of way. :) It's a fun jaunt into the world of The Beatles cartoon, but fun though it may be, it does sort of make one grateful for the animated versions of MC Hammer and The Police Academy.

I've a terribly long day today, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Obviously there's a ton of information out there if you want to know more about The Beatles, so I won't bog you down. Just sit back and enjoy. Keep an ear out for another awesome track from Mosh Pit On Disney by Japanese fave Asparagus.

Podcast for 02/07/08 - The Beatles animated series

Next week, please join us for a day filled with ridiculous villains, eco-consciousness, and early entries onto the "List Of Things That Make Alan Moore Violently Angry." If you said Swamp Thing, you're absolutely right! This promises to be a good time, whether you love or hate the twisted hulk Alec Holland has become. :)

Spring is on its way, my friends. Go outside and enjoy!

- DJ Muppet

ETA: Thank you for the heads up, Dani. The podcast link is all fixed and should take you to the right place. Sorry about that. Did I mention I have a very long weekend? Yeah, seven hours of over time in three days. I'm a little punchy.