ABC Saturday Morning Preveiw (1970)

lame. this is what you call saturday morning?

Gosh - I *wish* I remembered the Funshine Saturday creepy clown!

I do remember these lame cartoons, or better yet, remember not watching them (ABC Saturday morning programming was really only about Bugs Bunny/Road Runner in this specific era, IMO).

Anyway, I like creepy clowns. If only there was something online that could jog my memory (the link to the audio didn't work out for me).

What Lame Shows!!! : (

I wouldn't watch that stuff if I was a child...

That would be torture... : (

My show was on ABC!

You mean to tell me someone actually took the trouble of posting the audio of those dreaded bumpers for download? URRGH!!! Well, for those of you who are brave enough (or perhaps naive enough) to take an earful of saccharine-sweet fluff, let me just say that neither myself nor hatz will be held responsible for any incident of recurring childhood trauma resulting from playback of said posted audio file. CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED!

Btw, I believe that Conservative crone Peggy Charren (now dead and gone, thankfully), then the head of Action for Children's Television, was partly to blame for putting fluff like that on the air. A shame that her "legacy" is being carried on in the Internet Age even more heavy-handedly than ever.

I'm glad somebody else remembers the Funshine Saturday clown as I did growing up. That thing used to creep the HELL outta me!

The psychedelically-animated wraparound bumpers were VERY creepy to me also (Especially the one where the clown disappears into the white screen riding a rocket while the munchkin-like voice screams "Funshine Saturday; WHEEEEEEE!"

I think Fyne T(oo)ning's description of the clown as "soulless" is very accurate. The sacchariness mixed with the soullessness gave me the heebie jeebies BIGTIME! I think the "Acid Animation" (which was nearing the end of it's widespread popularity by 1974) made these bumpers even creepier.

That thing gave me nightmares until I was ten. Oh, I wasn't a little pansy child, either. Nothing really scared me, except for ((SHUDDER)) THAT CLOWN!!

P.S. If you wanna hear it, the 57 second theme song is at:

http://dt.prohosting.com/70s/childtv/funshine.ram

Oh, one other thing I remember about ABC's "Funshine Saturdays" programming: the wraparounds for the commercial breaks...how can I possibly describe them? "ECCHH!!" would probably be the only way. Each one features a saccharine-sweet animated drawing of a *frighteningly jolly*, yet apparently soulless, clown (((SHUDDER))) while the voice of some waifish female v/o actress sings the Funshine Saturday theme in a very peculiar manner, as if her vocal chords had been crushed in a truck accident or something. If anyone has evidence of this eyesore, do the world favor and just dump it into the nearest incinerator. I'm sure most of the posters here are in concensus, more or less, about their sentiments towards...clowns. (((SHUDDER AGAIN)))

I can tell you right now that this promo was for the 1973-74 season. This is how I know: It was the season before "The Tom & Jerry / Grape Ape Show" arrived to the network in 1974. I actually remember watching " The Days" coming home from Sunday School in the morning.

Hong Kong Phooey was cool along with Korag

Hong kong phooey looks hilarious.

Aside from hong kong phooey... their cartoon lineup stunk