the mighty heroes

Road Runner, that Coyote's after you. Road Runner, if he catches you your through. -- Theme to The Road Runner Show, which premiered in the fall of 1966.

Showtime! After years of playing around on Saturday mornings to find the right mixture to bring in the young viewers, the networks took the bull by the horns in the fall of 1966 and ushered in the Golden Age of Saturday morning cartoons. No less than 11 new cartoon series appeared during the 1966-67 season. Many of them were action and superhero-oriented thanks to the popularity of ABC's live-action Batman series.

The 1966 season also began the domination of Saturday mornings by two animation studios -- Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. For Hanna-Barbera this would be the second year of original Saturday morning programming. For Filmation this would be the first of many years producing fairly entertaining and slightly better animated fare that featured more action and adventure and less in the way of talking animals.

So, if you have your bowl of Cocoa Puffs in front of you, let's see what you were watching back in 1966.

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I've got plenty to be thankful for in my life, but -- pffft! -- y'all don't care to hear about that! This is TV Squad after all, so let's get down to what I'm thankful for when it comes to all-things television:

Damages getting uber-renewed
As the first season of Damages ticked down toward its finale, I wasn't the only one afraid that F/X was being quiet about the show's renewal status. It wasn't until recently that we were blessed with the news of not only one new season, but two! Many of us fans have already gone into speculating what the major plot will be for the second season, but to now wrap our minds around a third ... wow.

The Shield having all remaining episodes in the can
The WGA strike is obviously going to be a huge downer for TV watchers everywhere, if it hasn't been already. Some shows will take months to reappear, possibly if at all! Thankfully one of my beloved shows, The Shield, apparently won't be affected by the strike, as it has its final season all wrapped up for us like a fat present under the tree (even if it does air in the spring).