The Best Saturday Morning TV Shows From the 1970s

4. Josie and the Pussycats

Josie and the Pussycats is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that’s based on a band of girls living in Riverdale, the same neck of the woods as Archie, Jughead and that lot. Lots of members of Archie and the gang got their own cartoon shows throughout the seventies, but Josie and the Pussycats was far and away the most endearing and the most enduring. Have you seen Archie and the gang get their own live-action theatrical release? Sure, the movie version of Josie and the Pussycats may have stunk, but you can’t deny it exists.

5. Sealab 2020

On the level, there are only 15 episodes of the original Sealab 2020, because it kinda sucked. The reason it’s here is a story that takes place 23 years after the show was cancelled, when Archer creators Adam Reed and Matt Thompson were lowly production assistants working at Cartoon Network. They stumbled upon the cartoon, dubbed in new, racier dialogue and pitched the concept of Sealab 2021, one of the more bizarre (and hilarious) offerings in cartoon history.

6. The Shazam!/Isis Hour

Beginning in 1974, the folks at CBS gave kids an hour long doubling helping of superheroes teaching heavy-handed lessons. The first half, Shazam!, belonged to DC comics superstar Captain Marvel, a teenager powered by some of histories wisest and most powerful figures. The second half featured The Secrets of Isis, about a schoolteacher who went around saving high school kids from bad decisions. It was also TV’s first female-anchored superhero show.