D.K. Upshaw
Bio
I call myself the baby boomer with the heart of a millennial. As an animator/cartoonist/ caricaturist, I'm inspired by the SatAM cartoons of the 60s, 70s and 80s--a wonderful time to watch TV!
Stories (21/0)
My Top 7 "Other" Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Families
Arguably two of the most famous Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon shows are "The Flintstones"and "The Jetsons". The former is known as TV's first primetime cartoon show aimed at adults, premiering in 1960 and running through 1966, with countless Saturday Morning spinoffs and specials. The latter, debuting in 1962, only lasted a season in primetime before being rerun in kidvid hours for decades and, in the Eighties, having new episodes added for a proper syndication package and inspiring a movie with pop star Tiffany replacing Janet Waldo as the voice of Judy Jetson.
By D.K. Upshaw4 years ago in Geeks
Let's Go Extreme
My last two writings were about my two favorite animated versions of the Ghostbusters: 1986's "Filmation's Ghostbusters" and 1997's "Extreme Ghostbusters." They couldn't be any more different from each other yet they have so much in common. Here's how:
By D.K. Upshaw4 years ago in Geeks
My Favorite 'Toons: Extreme Ghostbusters
As a former 70s and 80s baby, Filmation's "The Ghost Busters" and its animated spinoff will always hold a special place in my heart. But my heart has room for 1997's "Extreme Ghostbusters," a spinoff of the 80s animated series "The Real Ghostbusters", as well. This cartoon had original Real Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (once again voiced by Maurice LaMarche but this time sporting a Betty Cooper-style ponytail) recruiting the four students from his paranormal studies class at New York Community College to fight a new crop of spooks and spectres--and a world that no longer believed in ghosts, so no marching in a parade for them during the closing credits!
By D.K. Upshaw4 years ago in Geeks
My Favorite 'Toons: Filmation's Ghostbusters
Once upon a time in the Seventies, Filmation, the Number Two SatAm producer, created a live-action comedy called "The Ghost Busters". Starring Larry Storch, Bob Burns and Forest Tucker as "Spenser, Tracy & Kong" (Tracy was the gorilla), the wacky trio hunted down a new ghost every week for one season, then disappeared. Ten years later, the movie "Ghostbusters" was filming, and, learning of the TV series, bought the rights to the name from Filmation. Long story short, two animated series came out in 1986: "The Real Ghostbusters," based on the movie; and "Ghostbusters" by Filmation, based on the live-action series I believed only I remembered. Guess which one was my favorite?
By D.K. Upshaw4 years ago in Geeks
My All-Time Favorite Animated Kidvid Shows
I was a child in the Sixties, a teenager in the Seventies, a twentysomething in the Eighties and a thirtysomething in the Nineties. And all that time I watched animated cartoons on TV, whether on a network on Saturday morning or in syndication five days a week. I had a wonderful time doing so--let's be honest, cartoons are cool!
By D.K. Upshaw4 years ago in Geeks
My Favorite Rankin-Bass SatAM Cartoons
We all know Rankin-Bass as the animation company resposnible for the holiday specials RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, FROSTY THE SNOWMAN and SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, among others. But they also produced some of the most fun Satuday morning cartoons on ABC. Here are my two favorites:
By D.K. Upshaw5 years ago in Geeks
My Top 4 "Say No to Drugs" Cartoon Show Episodes
The "War on Drugs" was such a big thing in the 1980s, as it should have been. Warning young kids against the evils of illegal substances and the people who sell them was and is important. Kidvid, in the 80s, was a huge part of this, as just about every kids' show, animated or live action, had a "just say no" episode. Here I give you my personal favorites from the era. The criteria: It has to be a show's regular episode—no specials. Here it goes.
By D.K. Upshaw5 years ago in Geeks
My Top 4 Favorite Kidvid Cartoon Companies (In No Particular Order)
I was born in 1959, so I grew up with the Saturday Morning Kidvid Phenomenon. It was a time when there were only three major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC, if you must know), and while there were shows in syndication back when I was a kid, the good ones were on during the weekends. There were several kidvid companies competing for our shortening attention spans, but for me, four of them stood out. Here they are.
By D.K. Upshaw5 years ago in Geeks
