Detective work in the cartoon world is a dog-eat-dog racket. Ace Hart, Private Eye, he'd know. This animated German Shepherd deals with every case thrown at him by his animator Eliot Shag, and even has the nerve to talk back if it's not going so great. Yup, it's a fusion of animation and puppetry courtesy of Nelvana and the Jim Henson Company with some of the cleverest film noir parody ever on Saturday mornings. With special guest, artist Will Carroll!

After post-apocalyptic beasts, a cosmic trilogy and a successful feature film, the Transformers return to animation like never before! Quite literally as Transformers Animated has as much in common with shows like Ben 10 and Teen Titans as it does past iterations of the franchise. And yet it worked so very well, becoming one of the more loved iterations of the robots in disguise to this day!

It's the only animated appearance by Judy Garland! It's the movie that got Chuck Jones fired from Warner Bros! It's... a box office flop. Gay Purr-ee is a fascinating movie both by its circumstances and the fantastic artwork that went into it, and Krissi helps James on a journey to 1890s Paris through the eyes of a starstruck Mewsette. Best enjoyed with a champagne or at least a soda with lots of Bubbles! Bubbles!

The filthiest language ever on Saturday mornings! Q*Bert hopped out of the arcades and into a pastiche of Happy Days courtesy of Ruby Spears, for a cartoon that was... just kind of mostly there. Atari Archives creator and frequent Retronauts host Kevin Bunch joins Pemmy, Krissi and James to talk about the game, the show, and the circumstances surrounding the video game industry around this time. Hop on in and join us!

Is this trip really necessary? Or rather, is this podcast a little too of the moment?? Well, half of it, anyway. The animation industry became pitchmen for rationing, selling war bonds and other ways to help our men and women overseas during World War 2, while also taking every pot shot the Hayes Code would allow them to at the fascist powers we were opposed to. Can we bring that energy back? Please? Anyhow, we've got Donald Duck, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker and a batch of oddly familiar gremlins.

Would you believe that in 1973, Evel Knievel wasn't done in by a motorcycle accident but a bunch of bumbling roller skaters? Bailey's Comets, another DePatie-Freleng production conceived by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, attempted to out-do Wacky Races in every regard. More characters! More teams for these characters! More outlandish situations! More memorable protag... no, we can't say that with a straight face. Dastardly and Muttly these bozos AIN'T!!

Rally Ho and away we go! As Hanna Barbera entered their first, brief action/adventure phase, their old comedic roots would still be showing with this particular series at the same time. Thus you had the boisterous Ted Cassidy-voiced Frankenstein Jr bellowing his way through madcap monster battles while the Impossibles took on various eccentric criminals between jamming out. Hard to believe today this show was considered too violent for TV, when it was kind of mild even back then!

In-between Garfield's own segments was US Acres, a short subject series based on Jim Davis' other, less widespread comic series. The tales of Orson, Roy, Wade, Bo, Lanolin, Booker and Sheldon got pretty popular as part of the show, outlasting the comic they were based on by a good few years, and giving the show's team vehicles for more gags that wouldn't work with Garfield himself. So come down to the farm, y'all!

Arguably the magnum opus of both Jim Davis and Mark Evanier, Garfield and Friends entertained audiences and pushed cartoon writing into some genuinely funny places it hadn't really gone since the heyday of Jay Ward. It's held up remarkably well, and our hosts look at four of their favorite short segments that star the fat cat himself. Tune in for US Acres coverage in two weeks, too!

Tis the season for hot chocolate, presents under the tree, goodwill to all men and women, and... colorful ghost monsters?? It's the timelessness of A Charlie Brown Christmas, contrasted with the VERY "of its time" Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. One of these aired for years upon years on network TV until just very recently. One of these was reran at 3 in the morning on Cartoon Network. I don't think I need to tell you which is which. Merry Christmas, and enjoy the podcast!