SatAM

Ah Saturday morning cartoons.
Who doesn't love them? Especially memories of shows from bygone years.
Nostalgia is a magical place memories of childhood exist forever encased in the cocoon of perpetual coolness.

But nostalgia is a cruel, conniving mistress.
Case in point - "Sonic the Hedgehog." Many permutations of the blue hog with super speed have come and gone, but the best was by far the version dubbed SatAM (for Saturday morning). I often wondered what happened to the show that I got up at 6:30 in the morning to see every freakin' week.

Then bam! I find it in the DVD section of Target. The COMPLETE 26 episode series! Seasons 1 & 2! Visions of Saturday mornings and Lucky Charms flash before my eyes!

But oh man, is this show bad! To my horror I watched as one of the most exciting shows ever slowly reduced itself to a steaming pile of poo. I remember it being AWESOME. I remember the story lines being sublime! I don't remember the story lines sucking, or the animation being choppy and often inconsistent, (look, Snively has a headset! Look, it's gone. Look, it's mysteriously back!) Just bad bad bad.

Yet I continued watching, hoping that it would improve. And while Season 2 definitely ups the ante in production values, the show is no "Animaniacs" which is indeed as fabulous as I remember.

Sad awhile.

Makes me wonder what "Transformers" will be like.