Saturday Morning Cartoons
Saturday mornings brought many smiles from 70’s cartoons like Go Speed Racer, Scooby-Doo and Speed Buggy. Sometimes I woke while the white, yellow, green, red, and blue vertical lines were boldly lighting up the screen and the buzz was blaring in the air. I would pour myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes; Saturdays were the only day we were allowed such junk, as my mom appointed herself the junk-food police. One by one my sisters would pour their bowls and join me. We had the occasional tiff concerning whether we would watch Johnny Quest, Lynn and Gail’s favorite, or Super Friends that Julie and I preferred. Mom usually pipped in and reminded us to take turns.
After having only channel 3, 9, and 12 for much of our childhood, WTBS came into town bringing Saturdays filled with the wonderful world of old TV westerns! However, the old west was not new to us; Granddaddy had introduced us to Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty in Dodge City at a very young age.
My western crush: Lee Majors
The men of the old west were probably our first crushes. The Big Valley gave us Jared (Lynn’s love), Nick (Gail’s love), and Heath (Julie’s and mine). Not that we talked about our TV crushes very often until we were adults, but I know Bobby Sherman in Here Comes the Brides, was a favorite of ours. It is certain that we had several of his 8-tracks, and we used to aggravate the stew out of Julie singing his lyrics, “Julie, Julie, Julie, do you love me?” I believe Gail and I loved Silver and Scout the horses as much as we did the Lone Ranger and Tonto. We also enjoyed The High Chaparral. Now, I am not sure I remember who loved whom in that one, but it is easy enough to guess that Lynn would have been attracted to the oldest man in the show! And oh my, Robert Conrad in Wild, Wild West, Robert Fuller in Laramie, and James Gardner in Maverick. (Though I did not know it at the time because Donna and I did not get to see each other on a weekly basis. I know she had to have liked Bonanza, where her love for Michael Landon began.)
Gunsmoke and a bowl of cereal
Sometimes in today’s Hollywood world, we find that some stars began their careers in the soap world. I think then, many actors began their road to stardom on the dusty westerns during the late sixties. I know that Lynn still enjoyed Robert Conrad in Ba Ba Black Sheep filmed in the late 70’s. Burt Reynolds and Dennis Weaver were both in Gun Smoke, and I so liked watching them in things later in life, especially Dennis Weaver, when he played in Gentle Ben and later in the detective series McCloud. Although sadly to my dismay, mom rarely allowed me to stay up late enough for that one. My, I always thought he was handsome in his rugged, tan, sheep’s wool coat. Not only did we watch Robert Fuller in Laramie, but later I totally adored watching him at Nana and Granddaddy’s in Emergency as the striking Dr. Kelley Brackett who saved lives. But, I think my favorite might have been when Granddaddy felt good enough to stay up and watch James Gardener in his later role in The Rockford Files. Of course, I was really too young to understand all the adult humor or flirting that occurred, but I have such memories of those days of eating our nightly bowl of cereal watching him solve cases.
Healing with the Rifleman
Several weeks ago, I had a stomach virus and was home on the couch for a couple of days. I was flipping through the channels and found another wonder that we watched in our young years. The Rifleman opened the show shooting his gun repeatedly to warn the villains. I enjoyed episode after episode, and I realized why we loved these westerns so much as kids. They were so simple and yet intriguing. The bad guy was easy to spot. I watched as the suspense built with music, not with crazy scenes of blood or explosions. If there was sadness, it was to teach a lesson. And the good guy always prevailed!
I like a world where the good guys always win! And I am in luck.
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.”
-1 John 5:4