wait remember the secret saturdays it was a short-lived animated series on cartoon
network about a family of scientists chasing mystical relics and mythological creatures and
cryptids all across the world all while playing homage to classic hanna-barbera
animated adventure cartoons like johnny quest and shazam no that's shazam i said shazam
no that's kazam that movie doesn't even exist but seriously the secret saturdays
may just be an underrated gem on the good old cn it may not have had longevity but it did
have its own unique vibe blending the older style of storytelling and episode structure
with newer animation techniques allowing for something totally different having
fresh takes on classic situations so on a classic jordan fringe way we're going on
our own adventure to take a look at the secret saturdays i'm sorry i i just i get in the zone
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still got it you know aside from the name of the secret saturdays it's no secret that saturday
mornings were legendary when i was a kid they were the most important days that you'd wake up
early get your favorite cereal and watch your favorite cartoons it was literally unbeatable
the first thing that captured my attention with the show was that exact saturday morning vibe
i mean it wears its influences on its sleeves it's clear as day there's the classic sometimes
campy sometimes wholesome dynamic to the show that from the jump makes it feel welcoming this
family of scientists connection is very well done and a nice change of pace from many other
drama-filled action cartoons around the same time it came out on the surface it's a cartoon
but it's a cartoon that doesn't talk down to its audience it never really straddles a line of too
harmless or too dark it knows exactly the tone it wanted to go for and it stuck with it but just
who is the saturday scientist family made up of first there's zach voiced by sam lerner who is the
son of the family as well as our main character he loves the thrill of adventure and can affect
cryptids with his initially mysterious powers those powers turn out to have come from him being
the reincarnation of sumerian cryptid and deity named kerr doc saturday voiced by phil morris
is a super genius scientist that specializes in gadgets and is easily one of the coolest fictional
scientist dads if that's even a category as well as the de facto leader of the team drew saturday
voiced by nicole sullivan is the linguistic culturally informed and combat eager mother she's
got a hot blooded personality to contrast her husband's cool demeanor and she's a fan favorite
she's my favorite she's been tennyson's favorite wait wait we'll get on to that later on just relax
with the relationship dynamic doc and drew have it would have been cool to see a show
or something based on their adventures alone and sorry zack it's really nothing personal
zach does have an adopted brother except he's a cryptid who is based on the real fiskerton phantom
oh he just wanted to say hello described as a gorilla cat he simply goes by fiskerton oh yeah he
has another adopted brother while technically not a cryptid his name is komodo he's a komodo dragon
but he's genetically altered then there's zahn the adopted sister to zack in a fairly accurate
ornothakirus which is a pterosaur and as a big dinosaur fan zan's the coolest and i don't care
what you gotta say about it the formula the show mixes together creates a show that follows this
family who are the members of the secret scientists yes they're not so secretive i
know about them they are a global organization who study and keep safe the deemed dangerous sciences
out there not known by the general masses the saturdays specifically are tasked with protecting
and learning all about the cryptids that hide amongst us as they travel the world in their
flying airbase but what's a saturday morning cartoon without its campy fun villain right
vv argus voiced by cory burton this fella exudes theatrics and elevates his intelligence with style
and finesse looking at him yeah my first thoughts were totally who is this tales from the [ __ ]
looking dude funny enough he is a tv host so that checks out this in show show is vivi argos's weird
world outside of that he's initially after the pieces of the curse stone a sumerian artifact that
can lead to a very dangerous and powerful cryptid hmm i wonder who that could be overall he's a fun
antagonist with a great character design there's also this other bounty hunter doyle blackwell who
is working as the apprentice for another villain leonidas van rock and in which we find out doyle
is the long-lost brother of drew voiced by will friedl we start off knowing him as this villain
character originally but hey family is a powerful thing and he ends up working with the saturdays
and the team dynamic becomes even tighter plus his riffs with doc are pretty entertaining when they
happen but as a show it has this incredibly fun extra level of style and with all these designs
and looks it feels bold and ripped right out of the pages of a comic book and i'm a sucker for
unique thickly coated styles this show is drenched in it i also really love that the show is based
off a lot of items and relics on real mythologies the episode black monday leans entirely on aztec
mythology the smoke mirror of task hit lapoca brings evil doppelgangers of the saturday family
who come from a literal dark world well it's anti-matter but we'll save that for later or
even take a look at drew's tibetan fire sword this level of thought made the show not only a fun ride
but can be a jumping pad into learning about some awesome real world lore and or mythology something
that fascinates me greatly personally with egyptian mythology which surprisingly plays a big
role in the creation process of this show based on the creator's previous works so i think this
is the perfect segue to discuss how the secret saturdays came to be we'll talk about it later
the show was created by canadian cartoonist jay stevens you may have seen his other work before
with tuttenstein something i would love to look at covering in the future and you may recognize
his other animated shorts for jet cat during the show kablam on nickelodeon he's also known
for his work on many comic book projects jet cat clubhouse sin and atomic city tales also working
on licensed properties like alien teen titans and star wars just to name a few and currently jay is
working on his new project dwellings and has a whole youtube channel that digs into what it is
his inspirations for it and more it's legit some very well edited and put together content
so if you're a big fan of the secret saturdays i suggest looking into jay's other and newer work as
well stevens pitched the idea of this show which originally was going by the name cryptids which
sure it's fitting but the concept as well was different from the final product following some
experienced and knowledgeable cryptozoologists that were once cryptids themselves the three
cryptids used to be megamouth occupy and komodo they also had a human with them on
these adventures around the world named francis with the goal of preserving the secrets and
mysteries of these interesting creatures before they would either be attacked or revealed to the
world by humans and or the big baddie monsoor dodo unfortunately this idea wasn't landing well with
the different networks it was being presented to but being persistent and believing in the
vision as well as willing to morph these ideas a bit into what would become the secret saturdays
cartoon network picked up the show and at the time they wanted more action cartoons thanks to
the success of the ben 10 property on the network one of those picked up was generator rex which
would come in 2010 from the actual ben 10 creators but the secret saturdays would be set to release
in 2008. originally the name went from cryptids to the secret adventures of zach saturday which
clearly was changed one more time into what we know it has now specifically influenced by hannah
barbera and their line of action cartoons the way the show looks comes from the inspiration of alex
toth an american cartoonist whose work spans from the 1940s to the 80s with such work as fantastic 4
c-lab 2020 space ghost and more with many of them becoming more adult-themed spin-offs that
you've definitely seen in the middle of the night on adult swim along with this idea they
need the right sound to create the perfect vibe of the show leading them to bringing in michael
tavera someone we've mentioned here many times on the channel as his work has touched so many
classic cartoons we know and love today before the show would premiere cartoon network wanted
to properly roll out an ad campaign to capture people's attention in july 2008 commercials
would cryptically advertise cryptids or real.com with each commercial featuring zan fiskerton or
komodo the mystery would continue with the website itself hiding documents that would slowly reveal
parts that were blacked out discussing different cryptids as well as our main cast of characters
a very fun way to promote the show and to farm genuine engagement so that the user feels a
connection in working to uncover all the secrets blueprints anagrams and other mysteries made this
website a fun game of figuring out just what this show was a preview of what's to come and to get
the audience interested in cryptids taking it a step further during san diego comic con in 2008
booklets that were titled weird world were handed out and like i mentioned earlier that's the fake
show that argos hosts within the secret saturdays with the booklet posting on the back the cryptids
are real website full-on weird world commercials were aired which felt like the mystery was moving
forward and giving out new clues in turn building more and more hype and the secret saturdays would
officially premiere on cartoon network october 3rd 2008 for a total of two seasons ending on january
30th 2010 with a total of 36 episodes also it was the first cartoon network original series
to be broadcast in high definition season 1 is pretty focused on the curse stone and the powers
of the kur with a race between the saturdays and argos to reach antarctica first which is said to
be the final resting place of kerr of course along this journey in season one we deal with a bunch of
cryptid adventures with a major point that will be brought back for in the second season dealing with
an ancient mirror that holds in it the dimension purely made of antimatter this leads to learning
of the evil versions of the saturdays in which they are called the mondays and would you assume
that the opposite of monday is saturday i mean saturdays are pretty great don't get
me wrong and mondays well they do suck but i've always viewed friday as more as the opposite of
monday anyway i'm getting sidetracked moving on i quickly want to bring up another character though
abby gray she shows up to help out on a mission but then turns around and betrays them in the
next episode but what's more interesting about her character is her relationship to the family
essentially she was zack's babysitter in the comics so there was a little extra layer of
trust that they had with this character abby is just an interesting small side character that
pops in here and there but the end of season 1 leads to the revelations that the whole time
zack is actually kerr kind of back when the curse stone was originally broken apart the soul of kerr
attached itself to the unborn zag this is why zach can do the whole cryptid controlling thing which i
must interject real quick here that this sound that emits when he uses the claw
may be in the top 10 of worst sound effects ever this is not an attack on the show let's all be
clear about that but oh my who approved this sound oh my goodness squidward season two gets
pretty interesting with zach as argos pleads a case to help him teach zack how to use his
powers but of course not for the right reasons also he's revealed as a cryptid himself being the
yeti who was overall responsible for the death of drew and doyle's parents long ago and that mirror
from the first season is back to bring forth zach monday again so he can absorb his powers to
match what zack saturday has that was a tougher sentence to say than i thought it would be also
the secret scientists turn on the whole saturday family themselves and want to capture zack so he
doesn't become a threat to the whole planet and van rock is also no longer a bad dude and
works alongside doyle but for how long but the whole planet becomes the battleground
for a global war with zach taking on argos in a showdown using their individual cur abilities
zack is too much for argos to handle though and he is now forced to retreat from that battle oh
after this remember i just said not for long for good old van rock here well
big sad argos then captures zach in an attempt to drain his powers to have an
unmatched curve power mixed with both sac mondays and zach saturdays but i guess
argos here really isn't a scientist as combining matter and anti-matter together
results in him exploding and destroying the kur's powers once and for all so i guess zack
is no longer a threat then that the secret scientists need to worry about huh wait what
the show itself is really good from the throwback vibe to the characters journeys it really is quite
a fun ride but there is a clear issue that is present in the second season compared to the
first season with that being how season two felt very rushed to get to the finish line season 1 had
26 of the 36 episodes to develop this story of learning that zack is cura reincarnated we get
time to learn about all the characters and see how the story develops and season 2 however was less
than half of the run time with only 10 episodes that start off with a 6 month time gap allowing
so much stuff to happen off screen rather than on i guess the easiest way to put it is that season
2 expands so much with little being fleshed out the building mysteries in the first season bring a
nice pace of being a part of the grander narrative but season two feels more spoon-fed leaving out
the room for you to go along with the journey and rather just run through it but can the show itself
be blamed for doing this well not really the story isn't bad it just felt rushed which is due to
how cartoon network handled the show mixed with the lower ratings it was having it was moved in
schedule put on hiatus as it was trying to build its audience which resulted in less viewership and
people not being able to catch the show when new episodes would premiere at the same time the toy
line the real money maker was starting to pop out and make a presence but if there was no show for
people to connect to or even know about why would someone buy the toys so whatever fact or above
led to the 10 episode season 2 at least we got a wrapped up narrative that gave some closure to the
show a rarity in cases like this speaking of the extras outside of the show mattel was making the
toy line of action figures playsets and more for the secret saturdays now the sales of these like
we mentioned weren't super great especially not for the hopes that cartoon network had but there
was even a little bit of controversy with the toys well one in particular remember that fire sword i
mentioned way earlier in this video well they made a toy of it that came with lights and sounds but
the toy was deemed too loud reaching a decibel level of 121. well at least they didn't make the
claw with that awful sound oh my god no probably the coolest thing they released based on the show
was the secret saturday's official cryptid field guide encyclopedia which will give you information
on all the cryptids in the show what they can do where they would live and more oh sick free poster
there of course were other books released along with every other cartoon network property the
secret saturdays was featured in the dc comics published cartoon network action-packed comic
book regularly as far as video games the standard fare of cartoon network flash games were around
like code of the cryptids cryptid lab and hunt for the curse stone we also saw secret saturday
representation in tko with battler skins as well as a character in cartoon network's fusion fault
also developed by high voltage software in first playable productions the secret saturday's beast
of the fifth sun a full-fledged video game would release on the nintendo ds and wii as well as the
playstation 2 and psp on october 20th 2009. as far as any other media appearances of the
secret saturday we of course saw them in the ok ko let's be heroes crossover nexus event briefly but
more significantly on october 5th 2013 we got a special episode of ben 10 omniverse titled tgis
or thank god it's saturdays where in which we get to see the saturday's return albeit with a lot of
changes from their complete designs being redone as well as none of the voice actors returned
except for argos while it was great to see these characters again it certainly had a different feel
but ben does have a crush on drew saturday and i completely understand the show also
only ever received two dvd releases containing five episodes each and some cool bonus features
that would show the animatics behind the scenes with both dvds releasing in 2009
at least you can purchase each episode of the show on amazon in standard definition though for some
reason amazon splits it into three seasons weird come on hbo max do something at the end of the
day the secret saturdays was a fun show with a unique throwback vibe that unfortunately didn't
get to reach its potential the second season was a cool direction to take the show having season
one be about finding and then understanding the curve and its power and then in season two
ultimately leading to its destruction there's a nice bit of duality there but with how short
this show ran and the longer time moves away from it i just hope that the secret saturdays
doesn't become a secret in itself but let me know your thoughts on the secret saturdays do you have
fond memories of the show or was it something you never checked out tell me in the comments thanks
so much for watching make sure to hit the like button and subscribe for more content like this
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you