This past Friday we reported on Warner Home Video's
announcement that
May 19th will see a pair of DVD releases titled
Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1960's Volume 1 and
Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1970's Volume 1. Each 2-disc set will have over 5 hours of animated classics from Warner's library, themed to the decade mentioned in the title (see our previous story for the list of cartoons the studio's announce info said was included on each release).
Late in the day on Friday the studio followed up by e-mailing out an "e-announcement" to studios and media, and you can see that at the bottom. It included package art, which we have a closer look at below, and a description of the Bonus Material. That tells us the Featurettes included on both releases are "
Don't Touch That Dial - Loaded with New Bonus Content, Including: Saturday Morning Previews on Each Collection Highlighting Fan Favorites Such as The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles and Much More!" Look for these featurettes to include interviews with experts such as Animation Historian Jerry Beck.
The original announce info mentions a running time of 308 minutes on the '60s set, and 314 minutes on the '70s set. However, the e-announcement shows that the '60s set is 310 minutes, and the '70s set is 308 minutes. It's all in the same neighborhood, so no worries, but since there are differences we thought we should mention them (before we get reader e-mails about it). Also, Warner has provided
an online trailer for these two titles, but the package art shown in the video for the '70s set is a little bit different than what you see below. Keep in mind that all package art is subject to change, and may not be final.
The running time is not the only sort of thing that fans may notice about Warner's announce info. The package art clearly says "12 Shows on 2-Discs" for each title, but the announce info says there are 15 shows on the '60s release and 11 shows on the '70s release. Perhaps those aren't the finalized lists? We may have to wait for the official press release to find out. Also, a number of readers have commented about how not all of the cartoons included on those lists are originally from "Saturday Morning":
Looney Tunes installments such as "Robin Hood Daffy" (found on the Errol Flynn
Robin Hood DVD and Blu-ray, as well as the
Golden Collection Volume 3 set) originally showed as a theatrical short, while TV shows such as
The Flintstones and
The Jetsons were originally seen in prime time, like
The Simpsons are seen in the modern era.
And don't be certain that the cartoon titles mentioned in the announce info were necessarily shown with the TV series named in the studio listing. My own son, Stephen Lambert (who turns 11 today...Happy Birthday, son!) pointed out to me that "The Nemo's A No No Affair " cartoon for
Josie & the Pussycats is NOT part of the "
...in Outer Space" second series (or second season, depending on your point of view) but is instead part of the original
Josie & the Pussycats show, and is in fact the first episode on that program's DVD. Good catch, m'boy! Also, the trailer mentioned above shows programs like
Speed Buggy, among others, not mentioned in the announce info. And both the trailer and the '70s box art show
Hong Kong Phooey, but he's not listed in the episodes included! Again, hopefully the studio's formal press release will straighten all this info out. Our thanks to all the readers who e-mailed in with their insights about this.
