I am so, so sorry..."Diabeetus"

But I can't stop playing this
Enjoy

Sunday morning on WGN in the 80s Pt1

WGN, Chicago's Superstation and America's UHF station. I think anyone who had cable tv in the 80s had WGN. It was as familiar as your own local tv channels.

Personally, I watched a metric shit-ton of WGN as a kid. They carried alot of the same shows as the local stations, offering a chance to double-up on a favorite show. (99 percent of the time they were the same exact episodes as the ones shown locally. But every once in a while, a different episode would air. It was like winning the lottery.) You also had shows that didn't air locally. Reruns that no longer aired were you lived or new shows never got picked up.

And to get to the point of all this, Sunday mornings on WGN. In the days before 24 hour a day Cartoon Networks, Toon Disneys and Nickelodeons, cartoons were a precious commodity. Saturday morning and weekday shows were a given, but Sundays, that was a different critter. My choices were usually limited to A) USA Cartoon Express (coming in a later post) and B) WGN.

So, thanks to the magic of Youtube, here is a recreation of the WGN Sunday morning experience (to the best of my ability).

WGN 1986 to 1987 Sunday Mornings

7:30 a.m. Porkey Pig

8:00 a.m. Bugs Bunny

8:30 a.m. Jem

9:00 a.m. Cisco Kid

9:30 a.m. Lone Ranger

Time for some words from our sponsors!

Sunday morning on WGN in the 80s part 2

WGN 1987 to 1988 Sunday Mornings

8:30 a.m. Popeye

9:00 a.m. Visionaries

9:30 a.m. Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

10:00 a.m. Superman

An Easter Tune (as in Looney)

A classic Bugs Bunny short "Easter Yeggs", to put Easter Sunday to bed.

Thanks Easter Bunny! Bawk! Bawk!

It's that magical day. You know, the one where a guy died and a couple of days later rose from the grave. They wrote a little book about it. Maybe you heard of it, it was called "Dawn of the Dead: The Official Novelization of the Feature Film"

Kidding aside, Happy Easter!

To celebrate. here's a post on my all time favorite Easter tradition, the Easter Basket.

I have always had a fascination with Easter basket; most of which stems from the big prefab ones that stores sell each year. You know deep down that they're are just filled with cheap toys and trinkets that will be broken by Sunday evening, but I'll be damned if they don't look like the Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

My parents never went in for those kind baskets. They would put together their own for us. But the results have left a lasting memory.

They always involved these components:

1) A reasonably priced toy (or 2-3 lower priced toys)

2) Jelly Beans in plastic eggs

3) Cadbury Creme Eggs

4) Chocolate Bunny

5) Two Popcorn Bunnies

(They were like a tall, bunny shaped popcorn figure with a candy eye,

tasted like a popcorn ball. Haven't seen these in a couple

of years and can not find any photos or references to them online)

Of the many Easters past, the three most memorable were

1) Getting the Baroness, Airborne and Scrap Iron;

2) Dinobot Snarl; and

3) the M.A.S.K. Hurricane with Hondo McLean.

Receiving each of those toys blew my mind at the time. I remember the GI Joes were really the first time my parents had got us "TOY" toys and not wind-up chicks or rubber bendy rabbits for Easter. And those 3 Joes set the trend for years to come. It was like a capsulized version of Christmas.

Vintage Toys R Us ads: Part 1

Revenge of the Ads PREVIEW

I've worked up the next round of old ads that will be accompanying various posts on some dead retailers like TG&Y, VENTURE and GIBSON'S; vintage toy ads, and other pointless nostalgia.

I've also wrangled up some mid-80s local Oklahoma City TV listings, so expect a follow up to the UHF memories post.

And, now... a sneak peak at some sexy old ads.

Kiddie City, 1972

Star Wars at Target, 1978

TG&Y, Christmas 1981 (I think)

Coleco Vision at Sound Warehouse, late 70s

ECKERD Drugs Christmas ad, mid 80s