No alarm was ever needed for waking us on Saturday mornings. We woke up before our parents, the paper-boy, and sometimes even the TV stations; we sat cross-legged on the living-room floor in our pajamas while staring at a test-pattern waiting for what would be the best four hours of the week to start.
If you grew up in the 1950s or ’60s, you know exactly the morning we mean. And if anyone ever asks you why a grown adult still feels a little thrill on Saturday mornings, show them this article.
Before the cartoons: the test pattern years
I know it’s hard for kids today to believe, but TV actually ended each night — sign-off at midnight with the National Anthem, then silence until morning. An early riser on Saturday would get rewarded with the well known Indian Head Test Pattern (that mysterious bullseye with the chief in the corner) along with a constant steady hum.
We watched it anyway. We watched a test pattern, friends, because what came after it was worth the wait. First the anthem, maybe a sermonette or a farm report, and then — finally — that glorious blast of brass and the cartoons began.
The ritual, perfected
Every kid in America ran the same routine: tip-toe past mom and dad’s bedroom (they’d earned their sleep, and you did NOT wake them) pour yourself a large bowl of cereal with enough milk to float a small boat, and stake out your spot on the floor right next to the television – as close as possible without being “too close” for safety, which was exactly how your mother said you could ruin your eyes.
Saturday mornings had no second helping restrictions, either. The prize inside the cereal box was a big deal too; Saturday was the day you could dig into the cereal box and find that treasure at the end with both hands. The cereal itself played a large role as well. It was an era of sweet breakfast cereals: Tony the Tiger’s “grrreat” Sugar Frosted Flakes arrived in 1952, Trix came out in 1954, Cocoa Puffs arrived in 1958.
Did you know?
The Flintstones wasn’t a Saturday morning show at all. When it debuted on September 30, 1960, it aired in prime time on ABC — at 8:30 on Friday nights — and it was the first animated series ever to do so. It was sponsored by Winston cigarettes, and early episodes even showed Fred and Barney lighting up. Try explaining that one to the grandkids.
The lineup we lived for
The roster changed as the years went by, but the devotion never did. Depending on when you grew up, your Saturday headliners might have been:
If you were a ’50s kid…
- Mighty Mouse Playhouse (from 1955) — “Here I come to save the day!” The very first hit made-for-Saturday-morning cartoon show
- Winky Dink and You — the one with the magic plastic screen you drew on. Half of us drew on the bare TV screen instead. Sorry, Mom
- Heckle and Jeckle, Tom Terrific, Crusader Rabbit — and Westerns like the Lone Ranger reruns squeezed between them
If you were a ’60s kid…
- Looney Tunes — Bugs, Daffy, Wile E. Coyote and that infernal Road Runner. The Warner Brothers gang simply never missed
- Jonny Quest — the coolest kid on television, with a jetpack and a bulldog named Bandit
- The Jetsons, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla, Underdog — “There’s no need to fear!”
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! — which premiered September 13, 1969, and it was ALWAYS old man Withers in a mask. Always
And whatever the year, the commercials were part of the show: Nestlé Quik, Slinky (“everyone knows it’s Slinky”), and toy ads timed precisely to the Christmas list-making season. We could sing every jingle then, and let’s be honest — we still can.
One TV, three channels, zero remotes
There was only one TV in the house – a piece of furniture, basically a part of the family — and it picked up three stations, four when it was really clear outside. The remote control was whoever was the youngest kid: “Get up and turn it to channel 7. Stand right there. Hold the rabbit ears now. Slightly to your left… don’t budge.”
If the picture rolled, you fiddled with the vertical hold knob, and if that did not work then you gently (or firmly) thumped the side of the TV cabinet — a repair technique passed down from father to son. And when a tube finally gave out, you pulled the suspects and headed off to the local drug store tube tester – another one of those weekly Saturday errands!
Price check: the family television
In 1955, a 21-inch RCA console television ran about $250 — the equivalent of nearly $3,000 today, or several weeks of the average family’s wages. No wonder Dad guarded that dial. And no wonder that in 1950 only about 9 percent of American homes had a set — but by 1960, nearly 9 out of 10 did. Fastest furniture takeover in history.
By noon, it was all over
The cartoons gave way to bowling, then to golf or a lawn-care show — the universal signal that television was finished with children for the day. You had a whole week to wait, and somehow that wait was part of the magic. Nothing you can stream at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday will ever taste like something you waited six days for.
We didn’t have five hundred channels. We had one morning a week — and we wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
Your turn: What cartoon did you refuse to miss? What cereal was in the bowl? And who in your house had to hold the rabbit ears? The comments are open — pull up a spot on the floor.
More trips down memory lane: revisit a night at the drive-in, or turn the dial to the transistor radio under your pillow.
Family around the TV, 1958. Photo: Evert F. Baumgardner, National Archives — public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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