Aired: 1955-58
Budget: $10,000 per episode
“The Little Rascals” was a series that blossomed from the series of short films from the 1920s, “Our Gang.” The show featured a group of children growing up in a poor neighborhood in the early twentieth century.
TLR aired thirty years after the first show aired, and MGM signed on as distribution of the show’s episodes. The second the show hit the TV screen, its popularity came rushing back. In 1994 Universal Pictures release a family comedy by the same name.
The Mickey Mouse Club
Aired: 1955 – 1996
Budget: $50,000 per episode
"The Mickey Mouse Club" was a variety of television show that aired for more than 40 years. The show aired intermittently and did not have a set schedule, with a total of fourteen seasons and 620 episodes.
The show was created by none other than Walt Disney and featured teenage performers who hadn't had prior acting experience. As you have probably imagined, the cast was always changing. Some of the biggest names that started on the show are Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, and Brintey Spears.
Josie and the Pussycats
Aired: 1970 – 1972
Budget: $250,000 per episode
"Josie and the Pussycats" was a spinoff of the girls' group that was formed in the "Archie Comics" books. The show featured a girl band that was trying to play music while solving any mystery that came their way!
Josie was known for the music, the in-your-face leopard-print costumes, and for being the first show to feature a Black character regularly on a Saturday morning cartoon. The show ran for one season and had sixteen episodes, and got a live-action movie in 2001!
The Gumby Show
Aired: 1955-68
Budget: $2.8 million in total
Art Clokey created the "Gumby Show," and after he showed the pilot of the kids' show to an executive at NBC, he was asked to make a second pilot. That's when "Gumby on the Moon" was created.
The segment was a significant success on the "Howdy Doody Show," and that's when Clokey was given a single season. The show featured claymation and ran from 1955 to 1968, though it is still well-known today. To this day, Gumby is one of the most famous examples of stop-motion claymation.
The Jackson 5ive
Aired: 1971-73
Budget: $6.6 million in total
As you may have already guessed by the name, the show followed the lives of Jermaine, Marlon, Tito, Michael, and Jackie Jackson - The Jackson Five. The show was animated and was created for ABC by Jules Bass.
The band got their start in 1965, so they had been around for a few years before they got their own animated series. The famous five brothers were voiced by actors, though Diana Ross voiced herself, and like most 1970s Saturday morning series, "The Jackson 5ive" had an adult laugh track.