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Growing up in the 1960s, I first heard “Shazam” from the lips of Gomer Pyle, Usmc and only later learned it had something to do with a defunct character, Captain Marvel. When I then saw ads in the comics for a Saturday morning series called Shazzan, I was confused, thinking it was somehow connected. Nope, the CBS series created by the great Alex Toth and produced by Hanna-Barbera and had the following narration:

“Inside a cave off the coast of Maine, Chuck (Jerry Dexter) and Nancy (Janet Waldo) find a mysterious chest containing the halves of a strange ring. When joined, the ring forms the word “Shazzan!” and with this magical command, they are transported back to the fabled land of the Arabian Nights. Here they meet their Genie, Shazzan (Barney Phillips). Shazzan presents them with Kaboobie (Don Messick), a magical flying camel. Shazzan will serve them whenever they call,...

You may not know her name but you certainly know her voice. Janet Waldo has been acting professionally for more than 70 years. Discovered by Bing Crosby, she worked on many radio shows and starred for eight years as teenager Corliss Archer on Meet Corliss Archer. She went on to become a staple of many classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons as the voice of Judy Jetson (The Jetsons), Nancy (Shazzan), Granny Sweet (The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show), Josie McCoy (Josie and the Pussycats, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space), Penelope Pitstop (Wacky Races, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop), and Morticia Addams (The Addams Family).

At age 87, Waldo is just as energetic as ever and her voices sounds virtually the same. I spoke to her about The Jetsons and the release of the 1988 TV movie called Rockin with Judy Jetson. But first, I had to ask Waldo about...

The 1970s remained a good time to be a kid, as the three networks continued to program Saturday mornings with hours and hours of programming aimed right at them. On the other hand, it was clear that finding new series to click with the evolving kiddie set was harder and harder so series seemed to come and go at a faster clip with shows from earlier years revived to fill gaps or revamped to bring the familiar to new audiences.

While super-heroes were largely done, magic, fantasy, and real adventure found their niches with series starting to be aimed at the younger set earlier and slightly more mature offerings as the hour grew later. All told, the dozen shows represented in Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s , out tomorrow from Warner Home Video, are snapshot into the decade.

For that younger set, there is Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch, which...